CTIAP. XVtl.] 



MmioyjRiEs. 



253 



Jmt opposite my abode in Ronikan was tlie school- 

 house. The school niawtei' was a native, educated by the 

 Missionary at Toraoh(in, School was behl every inorning 

 for about three hours, and twice a week in the evening 

 there was catechising and preaclii ng. There was also a 

 service on Sunday raorniug. The children were all taught 

 in Malay, and I often heard them repeating the multi- 

 plication-taljle up to twenty times twenty \ery glibly. 

 They always wound up with singing, and ii was very 

 pleasing to hear many of our old psalra- tunes in these 

 remote mountains, sung with Malay words. Singing is 

 one of the real blessings which Missionaries introduce 

 among savage nations, whose native chants are almost 

 always monotonous and melancholy. 



On catecliising evenings tlie schoolmaster was a great 

 man, preaching and teaching for three houi-s at a stretch 

 much in the style of an English ranter. This was pretty 

 cold work for bis auditors, however warming to himself ; 

 and I am inclined to think that these native teachers, 

 having acquii'ed facility of speaking and an endless supply 

 of religious platitudes to talk about, ride their hobby 

 rather hard, without much consideration for their Hock* 

 The Missionaries, however, have niucli to be pnuid of in 

 this country. They have as.-5isted the Government in 

 changing a savage into a civilized community in a wonder- 

 fuUy short apace of time. Forty years ago the country 

 was a wilderness, the people naked savages, gandshing 

 their rude bouses with human heads. Now it is a garden, 

 worthy of its sweet native name of "Minahasa," Good 

 roads and paths traverse it in ever}" direction ; some of the 

 finest coffee plantations in the world surround the villages, 

 interspersed with extensive riee-Hclds moi-e than sullieient 

 for the support of the pop\datioa 



The people are now the most industrious, peaceable^ 

 and civilized in the whole Archipelago. They arc the 

 best clothed, the best boused, the best fed, and the beat 

 educated ; and they have made some progress towards a 

 higher sociid state. I lielieve there is no e.xample else- 

 where of such striking results being produced in so short 

 a time— results which are entirely. due to the system of 

 government now adopted by the Dutch in their Eastern 



