Life in the forests of the Far East (vol. 2 of 2)St. John, Spenser, Sir
History
Life in the forests of the Far East (vol. 2 of 2)
St. John, Spenser, Sir
Borneo -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Borneo; St. John, Spenser, Sir, 1825-1910 -- Travel -- Borneo
I would earnestly draw attention to the fact that there is unoccupied
room for missionaries in nearly all the rivers. Mr. Gomez does his duty
well at Lundu, but there are not perhaps more than a thousand Dayaks
there. Mr. Chambers at Lingga has probably seven thousand around him,
and requires assistance to enable him to influence the whole tribe.
There remain, therefore, nearly two hundred thousand Dayaks without
a teacher among them, and there would be work there for a hundred
missionaries. I am, however, convinced that spreading your strength
is comparative weakness. The ground should be gradually occupied; and
when one tribe had its teacher, it should not be considered enough to
influence all the surrounding ones; but as the missionaries arrived,
they should be sent to the very next tribe, and not away a hundred
miles. The teaching would then act and react: the Dayaks would take an
interest in comparing the ways and methods of their different pastors;
and once awaken an interest, half the work is done.
One missionary left among a large population is lost. I have heard it
said that occasional preaching in a tribe would do great good. I think
not. Influence in the East depends on the personal character; but even
defects may, and would be overlooked if the missionary showed a real
interest in the affairs of his people, and this can only be displayed
by one who has acquired his knowledge by continued and familiar
intercourse with the tribe.
I think those who have read my chapters on the Dayaks will not fail to
observe that they are an improvable race; that they do not possess any
superstitions or beliefs likely to offer great obstacles to Christian
teaching. If I have not created an interest in them, the fault is mine,
not theirs.
Another point is worthy of attention. In the districts lately ceded
to Sarawak, there is a curious population of Milanaus, half of them
Mahomedans, the other half Pagans. They live together in the same
villages, and probably their conversion is but skin-deep. At all
events, the rest have refused to join the Islamites, as pork would then
be forbidden. It is a great satisfaction to all the Dayaks, Kayans,
and unconverted Milanaus, that the English, the superior and governing
race, indulge in the flesh of the prohibited animal: they often talk of
it with pleasure.
Within the territory of Sarawak there are, as I have said, many
districts totally unoccupied--as Samarahan and Sadong, with its
population of Land Dayaks. And the branches of the great river Batang
Lupar, occupied by Sea Dayaks, are all free to new-comers, except
Lingga. The Seribas, the Kalaka, the Rejang, and the rivers flowing out
of the hundred and thirty miles of coast between the last and Bintulu,
are totally untouched by the missionaries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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