CH. xm EI8T0BT OF MINAHASSA 325 



Soon after the Dutchmen had established themselves 

 in Celebes they commenced to spread amongst the natives 

 the doctrines of the Eeformed Church. For a long time 

 Christianity seems to have made but little progress, and it 

 was not until Dominie Kam arrived in 1817 and was 

 followed by Lenting, Lammers, and MuUer, that any very 

 great impression was made upon those natives who had not 

 previously accepted the Eomanism of the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese. Nine or ten years later came Hollendoorn, 

 who set to work to learn the languages and preach the gospel 

 in the dialects that were in actual familiar use amongst 

 the natives, instead of using the conventional form of 

 Malay. Hollendoorn may fairly be considered the first of 

 that race of distinguished missionaries of which Eiedel, 

 Wilken, Schwartz, and Graafian d were such brilliant ex- 

 amples. It may truly be said that they have achieved 

 greater success in their mission than any missionaries at 

 any time in any part of the world. 



In Minahassa alone there are at the present time about 

 114,000 Christians out of a population of 135,000. 



There hare been one or two attempts to re-establish 

 Eoman Catholicism in Minahassa. We have in the writ- 

 ings of Wiersma (87A) very bitter comments on the doings 

 of the Catholics. 



During my visit to Celebes a Eoman Catholic priest 

 arrived, and terrible were the scandals that arose as to 

 his objects and peregrinations. It certainly seems a pity 

 that the odium theologicum should be allowed to intrude 

 itself upon such an obviously good piece of work, and, 

 although I am inclined to believe that Eoman Catholicism 

 would have been a more suitable form of Christianity 

 for the natives than the reformed rehgion, it would be 

 the greatest mistake in the world to allow the present 

 system to be disturbed until the Celebeans are better 



