In The Larger Villages There Are
European Missionaries; But There Is Little Or No External
Difference Between The Christian And Alfuro Villages, Nor, As Far
As I Have Seen, In Their Inhabitants.
The people seem more
decidedly Papuan than those of Gilolo.
They are darker in colour,
and a number of them have the frizzly Papuan hair; their features
also are harsh and prominent, and the women in particular are far
less engaging than those of the Malay race. Captain Van der Beck
was never tired of abusing the inhabitants of these Christian
villages as thieves, liars, and drunkards, besides being
incorrigibly lazy. In the city of Amboyna my friends Doctors
Mohnike and Doleschall, as well as most of the European residents
and traders, made exactly the same complaint, and would rather
have Mahometans for servants, even if convicts, than any of the
native Christians. One great cause of this is the fact, that with
the Mahometans temperance is a part of their religion, and has
become so much a habit that practically the rule is never
transgressed. One fertile source of want, arid one great
incentive to idleness and crime, is thus present with the one
class, but absent in the other; but besides this the Christians
look upon themselves as nearly the equals of the Europeans, who
profess the same religion, and as far superior to the followers
of Islam, and are therefore prone to despise work, and to
endeavour to live by trade, or by cultivating their own land. It
need hardly be said that with people in this low state of
civilization religion is almost wholly ceremonial, and that
neither are the doctrines of Christianity comprehended, nor its
moral precepts obeyed. At the same time, as far as my own
experience goes, I have found the better class of "Orang Sirani"
as civil, obliging, and industrious as the Malays, and only
inferior to them from their tendency to get intoxicated.
Having written to the Assistant Resident of Saparua (who has
jurisdiction over the opposite part of the coast of Ceram) for a
boat to pursue my journey, I received one rather larger than
necessary with a crew of twenty men. I therefore bade adieu to my
kind friend Captain Van der Beck, and left on the evening after
its arrival for the village of Elpiputi, which we reached in two
days. I had intended to stay here, but not liking the appearance
of the place, which seemed to have no virgin forest near it, I
determined to proceed about twelve miles further up the bay of
Amahay, to a village recently formed, and inhabited by indigenes
from the interior, and where some extensive cacao plantations
were being made by some gentlemen of Amboyna. I reached the place
(called Awaiya) the same afternoon, and with the assistance of
Mr. Peters (the manager of the plantations) and the native chief,
obtained a small house, got all my things on shore, and paid and
discharged my twenty boatmen, two of whom had almost driven me to
distraction by beating tom-toms the whole voyage.
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