POPULATION OF THE MINAHASSA. 880 



into burgers or fi^e citkens," and inlanders or " na^ 

 tives " who are oHiged to work a certain niunber of 

 days in the coffee-gardens belonging to the govern- 

 ment. The total poptilation of the Minahassa in 

 this year (1866), as fiimished me by the Resident 

 from the official documents, is 104,418^* and the 

 marked degree of vaiiation in the population of this 

 oountiy, where the natives have never been a mari- 

 time people, is worth more than a passing notice, 

 because it shows in some degree the beneficial effect 

 of a stable government, and how the natives are 

 sometimes swept away by disease. In 1800, accord- 

 ing to Valentyn, the population was 24,000, though 

 he gives the numl>er of able men at only 3,990. 

 In 1825 it was 73,000 ; in 1842, 93,332 ; in 1853, 

 99,688, In 1854 a great mortality appeared, and 

 the population wa3 diminished to 92,546, no less 

 than 12,821 persons, or about one-seventh of the 

 population, having died in a single year. In the 

 district of Amurang the loss was as high as 22i 

 per cent. The pnneipiil diseases are fevers and dys- 

 entery. The population of the Minahassa, as com- 

 pared to its area, 14,000 English square miles, is by 

 no means large. The island of Madura, which is of 

 about the same extent, has more than five times as 

 lai'ge a population ; and the residency of Surabaya, 

 also of about the same extent, contains more than 

 ten times as many people. The natives directed me 

 to the major's residence, which I found to be a small 

 but neat and well-painted house, built in European 



* This number is divided acooi-dlngto nationalities as follows : Euro 

 pennfl, 550; nativca, 102,423; Chinese, 1,434; Arabs, 11. 



