Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
are obliged to carry out the trade principle of buying cheap and selling dear, in order to
make a profit. Like all savages the natives are quite careless of the future, and when their
small rice crops are gathered they bring a large portion of it to the missionaries, and sell it
for knives, beads, axes, tobacco, or any other articles they may require. A few months later,
in the wet season, when food is scarce, they come to buy it back again, and give in exchange
tortoiseshell, tripang, wild nutmegs, or other produce. Of course the rice is sold at a much
higher rate than it was bought, as is perfectly fair and just—and the operation is on the
whole thoroughly beneficial to the natives, who would otherwise consume and waste their
food when it was abundant, and then starve—yet I cannot imagine that the natives see it in
this light. They must look upon the trading missionaries with some suspicion, and cannot
feel so sure of their teachings being disinterested, as would be the case if they acted like the
Jesuits in Singapore. The first thing to be done by the missionary in attempting to improve
savages, is to convince them by his actions that he comes among them for their benefit only,
and not for any private ends of his own. To do this he must act in a different way from other
men, not trading and taking advantage of the necessities of those who want to sell, but rather
giving to those who are in distress. It would be well if he conformed himself in some degree
to native customs, and then endeavoured to show how these customs might be gradually
modified, so as to be more healthful and more agreeable. A few energetic and devoted men
acting in this way might probably effect a decided moral improvement on the lowest savage
tribes, whereas trading missionaries, teaching what Jesus said, but not doing as He did, can
scarcely be expected to do more than give them a very little of the superficial varnish of reli-
gion.
Dorey harbour is in a fine bay, at one extremity of which an elevated point juts out, and,
with two or three small islands, forms a sheltered anchorage. The only vessel it contained
when we arrived was a Dutch brig, laden with coals for the use of a war-steamer, which was
expected daily, on an exploring expedition along the coasts of New Guinea, for the purpose
of fixing on a locality for a colony. In the evening we paid it a visit, and landed at the village
of Dorey, to look out for a place where I could build my house. Mr. Otto also made arrange-
ments for me with some of the native chiefs, to send men to cut wood, rattans, and bamboo
the next day.
The villages of Mansinam and Dorey presented some features quite new to me. The
houses all stand completely in the water, and are reached by long rude bridges. They are
very low, with the roof shaped like a large boat, bottom upwards. The posts which support
the houses, bridges, and platforms are small crooked sticks, placed without any regularity,
and looking as if they were tumbling down. The floors are also formed of sticks, equally ir-
