CllAl', XVII.] 



FEMJLB lAMOVR. 



257 



feudalism or servitude, or a despotic paternal goveniinent ; 

 and we have every reason to believe that it is not piissiblf, 

 lor humanity to leap over this trausitioo epoch, and pass 

 at once from pure savagery to free civilization. The Dutch 

 system attempts to supply this missing link, and to bring 

 the people on by gradual steps to that higher civihzatlon, 

 wliich we (the English) try to force upon them at once. 

 Our system has always failed. We demoralize and we 

 extirpate, but we never really civilize. Whether the Dutch 

 system can pennanently succeed is but doubtful, since it 

 may not be possible to compress the work of ten centuries 

 into one ; but at all events it takes nature as a guide, and 

 is therefore more deserving of success, and more likely to 

 succeed, than ours. 



There is one point connected with this question which I 

 think the Missionaries ndglit take up with grtiat physicid 

 and moral results. In tins beantiful and healthy country, 

 and with abundance of food and necessaries, the population 

 does not increase as it ought to do. I can only impute 

 this to one cause, Infant mortality, produced by neglect 

 whUe the mothers are working in the plantations, and by 

 general ignorance of the conditions of health in infants. 

 Women all work, as they have always been accustonred to 

 do. It is no hardship to them, but I believe is often a 

 pleasure and relaxation. They either take their infants 

 with them, in wluch case they leave them in some shady 

 spot on the ground, going at intervals to give them 

 nourishment, or they leu\'e them at home in the care of 

 other children too young to work. Under neither of these 

 circumstances can infants be properly attended to, and 

 givat mortality is the result, keeping down tlie increase of 

 ptipulation far below the rate which the general prosperity 

 uf the country and the universality of marriage would lead 

 us t^i expect. This is a matter in which tlie Government 

 is directly interested, since it is by the increase of the 

 population alone that tliere can be any large and per- 

 manent increase in the proiluce of coilee. The Missionaries 

 should take up the question, because, by inducing married 

 vN omen to confine themselves to domestic duties, they will 

 decidedly promote a higher civilization, and directly in- 

 crease the health and happiness of the whole community. 



