The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

378 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.quire. A few months later, in the wet season, when food isscarce, they come to buy it back again, and give in exchangetortoiseshell, tripang, wild nutmegs, or other produce. Of coursethe rice is sold at a much higher rate than it was bought, as isperfectly fair and just ; and the operation is on the wholethoroughly beneficial to the natives, wlio would otlierwise consumeand waste their food when it was abundant, and thenstarve. Yet I cannot imagine that the natives see it in thislight. They must look upon the trading missionaries withsome suspicion, and cannot feel so sure of their teachings beingdisinterested, as would be the case if they acted like the Jesuitsin Singapore. The first thing to be done by the missionary inattempting to improve savages, is to convince them by his actionsthat he comes among them for their benefit onlj^, and not forany private ends of his own. To do tliis he must act in adifferent way from other men, not trading and taking advantageof the necessities of those who want to sell, but rathergiving to those who are in distress. It would be well if he conformedhimself in some degree to native customs, and then endeavouredto show how these customs might be graduallymodified, so as to be more healthful and more agreeable. A fewenergetic and devoted men acting in this way might probablyeft'ect a decided moral improvement on the lowest savage tribes,whereas trading missionaries, teaching what Jesus said, but notdoing as He did, can scarcely be expected to do more than givethem a very little of the superficial varnish of I'eligion.Dorey harbour is in a fine bay, at one extremity of which anelevated point juts out, and, with two or three small islands,forms a sheltered anchorage. The only vessel it contained whenwe arrived was a Dutch brig, laden with coals for the use of awar-steamer, which was expected daily, on an exploring exl^editionalong the coasts of New Guinea, for the purpose offixing on a locality for a colony. In the evening we paid it avisit, and landed at the village of Dorey, to look oiit for a placewhere I could build my house. Mr. Otto also made arrangementsfor me with some of the native chiefs, to send men to cutwood, rattans, and bamboo the next day.The villages of Mansinam and Dorey presented some featuresquite new to me. The houses all stand completely in the water,and are reached by long rude bridges. They ai'e very low, withthe roof shaped like a large boat, bottom upwards. The postswhich support the houses, bridges, and platforms, are smallcrooked sticks, placed without any regularitj'', and looking as ifthey wei'e tumbling down. The floors are also formed of sticks,equally irregular, and so loose and far apart that I found it alm.ostimpossible to walk on them. The walls consist of bits of boai'ds,old boats, rotten mats, attaps, and palm-leaves, stuck in anj-howhere and there, and having altogether the most wretched anddilapidated appearance it is i^ossible to conceive. Under theeaves of many of the houses hang human skulls, the trophies of