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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 69 of 412
Words from 18308 to 18589
of 111511
