is an Amboyna
schoolmaster in the village, and a good number of children attend school
every morning. Such of the inhabitants as have become Christians may be
known by their wearing their hair loose, and adopting to some extent the
native Christian dress-trousers and a loose shirt. Very few speak Malay,
all these coast villages having been recently formed by inducing natives
to leave the inaccessible interior. In all the central part of Ceram
there new remains only one populous village in the mountains. Towards
the east and the extreme west are a few others, with which exceptions
all the inhabitants of Ceram are collected on the coast. In the northern
and eastern districts they are mostly Mahometans, while on the southwest
coast, nearest Amboyna, they are nominal Christians. In all this part of
the Archipelago the Dutch make very praiseworthy efforts to improve
the condition of the aborigines by establishing schoolmasters in every
village (who are mostly natives of Amboyna or Saparua, who have; been
instructed by the resident missionaries), and by employing native
vaccinators to prevent the ravages of smallpox. They also encourage the
settlement of Europeans, and the formation of new plantations of cacao
and coffee, one of the best means of raising the condition of the
natives, who thus obtain work at fair wages, and have the opportunity of
acquiring something of European tastes and habits.

My collections here did not progress much better than at my former
station, except that butterflies were a little more plentiful, and some
very fine species were to be found in the morning on the sea-beach,
sitting so quietly on the wet sand that they could be caught with the
fingers. In this way I had many fine specimens of Papilios brought me
by the children. Beetles, however, were scarce, and birds still more
so, and I began to think that the handsome species which I had so often
heard were found in Ceram must be entirely confined to the eastern
extremity of the island.

A few miles further worth, at the head of the Bay of Amahay, is situated
the village of Makariki, from whence there is a native path quite
across the island to the north coast. My friend Mr. Rosenberg, whose
acquaintance I had made at New Guinea, and who was now the Government
superintendent of all this part of Ceram, returned from Wahai, on the
north coast, after I had been three weeks at Awaiya, and showed me
some fine butterflies he had obtained on the mount