Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
channel is not more than ten feet wide, and here a few planks are thrown across, whence,
half hid by luxuriant vegetation, the mad waters may be seen rushing beneath, and a few
feet farther plunge into the abyss. Both sight and sound are grand and impressive. It was
here that, four years before my visit, the Governor-General of the Netherland Indies com-
mitted suicide, by leaping into the torrent. This at least is the general opinion, as he suffered
from a painful disease which was supposed to have made him weary of his life. His body
was found next day in the stream below.
Unfortunately, no good view of the fall could now be obtained, owing to the quantity of
wood and high grass that lined the margins of the precipices. There are two 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 Rurúkan was the school-house. The schoolmaster was a native,
educated by the Missionary at Tomohón. School 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 re-
mote mountains, sung with Malay words. Singing is one of the real blessings which Mis-
sionaries introduce among savage nations, whose native chants are almost always monoton-
ous 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 teach-
ers, 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 Mission-
aries, however, have much to be proud of in this country. They have assisted the Govern-
ment 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 'Mi-
nahasa.' Good roads and paths traverse it in every direction; some of the finest coffee plant-
ations in the world surround the villages, interspersed with extensive rice-fields more than
sufficient for the support of the population.
