Page:Narrativeavoyag01wilsgoog.djvu/95

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MISSIONARIES.
67

original trade, preferring to wander about the country as chapmen, bartering various articles for honey and bees'-wax. The town is consequently very badly supplied with artificers, so much so, that Mr. Bechade was obliged to send a coffee-mill to Baffles' Bay, to be repaired.

Excepting the Chinese, all the inhabitants are, or profess to be. Christians, having been converted through the instrumentality of the Missionaries, who are sent here, and to the neighbouring islands, by the Dutch Government, from which they receive a very slender salary; the Missionaries, in general, are much respected by the natives, and as they commonly contrive to get married to Rajahs' daughters, they are enabled to live very comfortably.—Such intermarriages with the natives may be considered more advantageous, both in a religious and political point of view, than providing a missionary, on the eve of his departure from his native land, with a helpmate whom he may never have previously seen, and who may not be at all calculated to add, either to his happiness or usefulness.

The Amity, which was laden with buffaloes, sheep, and maize, for the use of the settlement at Raffles' Bay, was repaired, and in a fit state for sea on Saturday, the 7th of June; and on Sunday morning, at daylight, we sailed from Coupang. Captain Young, his officers, and several of the crew, were to leave on the following Tuesday, in the Dutch brig Merkus, belonging to