falls, the lower being the most lofty ; and it is possible, by
a long circuit, to descend into the valley and see them
from below. Were the best points of view searched for
and rendered accessible, these falls would probably be
found to be the finest in the Archipelago. The chasm
seems to be of great depth, probably 500 or 600 feet.
Unfortunately I had no time to explore this valley, as I
was anxious to devote every fine day to increasing my
hitherto scanty collections.
Just opposite my abode in Burtikan was the school-
house. The schoolmaster was a native, educated by the
Missionary at Tomohon. Sehool was held every morning
for about three hours, and twice a week in the evening
there was catechising and preaching. There was also a
service on Sunday morning. The children were all taught
in Malay, and I often heard them repeating the multiplication
table up to twenty times twenty very glibly.
They always wound up with singing, and it was very
pleasing to hear many of our old psalm-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 catechising evenings the schoolmaster was a great
man, preaching and teaching for three hours at a stretch
much in the style of an English ranter. This was pretty
cold work for his auditors, however warming to himself;
and I am inclined to think that these native teachers,
having acquired facility of speaking and an endless supply
of religious platitudes to talk about, ride their hobby
rather hard, without much consideration for their flock.
The Missionaries, however, have much to be proud of in
this country. They . have assisted the Government in
changing a savage into a civilized community in a wonderfully
short space of time. Forty years ago the country
was a wilderness, the people naked savages, garnishing
their rude houses with human heads. Now it is a garden,
worthy of its sweet native name of “ Minahasa.” Good
roads and paths traverse it in every direction; some of the
finest coffee plantations in the world surround the villages,
interspersed with extensive rice-fields more than sufficient
for the support of the population.
The people are now the most industrious, peaceable,
and civilized in the whole Archipelago. They are the
best clothed, the best housed, the best fed, and the best
educated; and they have made some progress towards a
higher social state. I believe there is no example elsewhere
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
possessions. The system is one which may be called a
“ paternal despotism.” Now we Englishmen do not like