If We Are Satisfied That We Are Right In Assuming The Government
Over A Savage Race, And Occupying Their Country,
And if we
further consider it our duty to do what we can to improve our
rude subjects and raise
Them up towards our own level, we must
not be too much afraid of the cry of "despotism" and "slavery,"
but must use the authority we possess to induce them to do work
which they may not altogether like, but which we know to be an
indispensable step in their moral and physical advancement. The
Dutch have shown much good policy in the means by which they have
done this. They have in most cases upheld and strengthened the
authority of the native chiefs, to whom the people have been
accustomed to render a voluntary obedience; and by acting on the
intelligence and self-interest of these chiefs, have brought
about changes in the manners and customs of the people, which
would have excited ill-feeling and perhaps revolt, had they been
directly enforced by foreigners.
In carrying out such a system, much depends upon the character
of the people; and the system which succeeds admirably in one
place could only be very partially worked out in another. In
Minahasa the natural docility and intelligence of the race have
made their progress rapid; and how important this is, is well
illustrated by the fact, that in the immediate vicinity of the
town of Menado are a tribe called Banteks, of a much less
tractable disposition, who have hitherto resisted all efforts of
the Dutch Government to induce them to adopt any systematic
cultivation. These remain in a ruder condition, but engage
themselves willingly as occasional porters and labourers, for
which their greater strength and activity well adapt them.
No doubt the system here sketched seems open to serious
objection. It is to a certain extent despotic, and interferes
with free trade, free labour, and free communication. A native
cannot leave his village without a pass, and cannot engage
himself to any merchant or captain without a Government permit.
The coffee has all to be sold to Government, at less than half
the price that the local merchant would give for it, and he
consequently cries out loudly against "monopoly" and "oppression."
He forgets, how ever, that the coffee plantations were established
by the Government at great outlay of capital and skill; that it
gives free education to the people, and that the monopoly is in lieu
of taxation. He forgets that the product he wants to purchase and
make a profit by, is the creation of the Government, without whom
the people would still be savages. He knows very well that free
trade would, as its first result, lead to the importation of whole
cargoes of arrack, which would be carried over the country and
exchanged for coffee. That drunkenness and poverty would spread over
the land; that the public coffee plantations would not be kept up;
that the quality and quantity of the coffee would soon deteriorate;
that traders and merchants would get rich, but that the people would
relapse into poverty and barbarism. That such is invariably is the
result of free trade with any savage tribes who possess a valuable
product, native or cultivated, is well known to those who have
visited such people; but we might even anticipate from general
principles that evil results would happen.
If there is one thing rather than another to which the grand law
of continuity or development will apply, it is to human progress.
There are certain stages through which society must pass in its
onward march from barbarism to civilization. Now one of these stages
has always been some form or other of despotism, such as feudalism
or servitude, or a despotic paternal government; and we have every
reason to believe that it is not possible for humanity to leap
over this transition epoch, and pass at once from pure savagery
to free civilization. The Dutch system attempts to supply this
missing link, and to bring the people on by gradual steps to that
higher civilization, which we (the English) try to force upon
them at once. Our system has always failed. We demoralize and we
extirpate, but we never really civilize. Whether the Dutch system
can permanently succeed is but doubtful, since it may not be
possible to compress the work of ten centuries into one; but at
all events it takes nature as a guide, and is therefore, more
deserving of success, and more likely to succeed, than ours.
There is one point connected with this question which I think the
Missionaries might take up with great physical and moral results.
In this beautiful and healthy country, and with abundance of food
and necessaries, the population does not increase as it ought to
do. I can only impute this to one cause. Infant mortality,
produced by neglect while the mothers are working in the
plantations, and by general ignorance of the conditions of health
in infants. Women all work, as they have always been accustomed
to do. It is no hardship to them, but I believe is often a
pleasure and relaxation. They either take their infants with
them, in which case they leave them in some shady spot on the
ground, going at intervals to give them nourishment, or they
leave them at home in the care of other children too young to
work. Under neither of these circumstances can infants be
properly attended to, and great mortality is the result, keeping
the increase of population far below the rate which the
general prosperity of the country and the universality of
marriage would lead us to expect. This is a matter in which the
Government is directly interested, since it is by the increase of
the population alone that there can be any large and permanent
increase in the production of coffee. The Missionaries should take
up the question because, by inducing married women to confine
themselves to domestic duties, they will decidedly promote a
higher civilization, and directly increase the health and
happiness of the whole community.
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