the schools were re-established; the Dutch ministers resumed the charge of their congregations; several new preachers were educated in the island; and others still better qualified were brought over from the coast of Coromandel. A very flourishing academy was also established at Colombo, consisting of three different classes of young men, Cingalese, Malabar, and European. They were all taught the English as well as the native languages. The Cingalese scholars were the sons of the Modelears, and the people of the first rank in the island, and made no inconsiderable progress in learning.* In 1801, the number of native Protestant Christians in the island of Ceylon, according to the general returns in the ecclesiastical department, was upwards of 342,000.† In the province of Jaffanapatnam, the number of the Protestants was 138,896; while the Pagans were only 11,362, and the Roman Catholics 9,632; making in all a population of 159,890.‡ From this statement, it appears, that while the inhabitants had diminished nearly one half, within little more than a century, the proportion of Protestants was materially augmented, though the actual number, indeed, had considerably decreased. By the same returns, it appears that the number of native schools in the British territories amounted nearly to a hundred and seventy. The country was divided into parishes, in each of which there was a school where the native youth were instructed in reading and writing their own language, and in the principles of the Christian religion; and a similar system of superintendence was exercised over them as under the Dutch government.¶ But early in 1803, instructions, in his Majesty's name, were received at Colombo, directing that the annual expense of all the schools on the island should be limited to the sum of 1500/ sterling; and as this was not more than sufficient Cordiner, vol. i. p. 161. + Christian Observer, vol. i. p. 329. † Cordiner, vol. i. p. 163. to Africa and the East vol. i. to support the academy for instructing the natives in the English language, and the different asylums for the orphans of Europeans, the salaries of all the country schoolmasters and catechists were once more withdrawn, while the whole saving to the revenue scarcely amounted to the sum of 1800/ a year.* We are happy, however, to understand that the schools have, to a certain extent, been again established, chiefly through the instrumentality of Sir Alexander Johnston, chief-justice of Ceylon, whose benevolent exertions promise to be of essential service to the cause of religion in that island.† On the whole, however, the state of religion in Ceylon is at present very low. The Dutch ministers who remained on the island, after it was taken by the British, have almost all either died or left the country; and thus the people are now in a great measure destitute of religious instruction. A vast proportion of those who are called Protestant Christians have no occasion to return to heathenism; for though they have been baptized in the name of Christ, they never were any thing else but Pagans, worshippers of the idol Boddhu.‡ Dr. Buchanan, indeed, states it as a well known fact, that, within these few years, upwards of 50,000 of them have joined the church of Rome, owing to the want of ministers of their own communion; and the old Protestant churches, some of which were spacious buildings, are now occupied at pleasure by the Catholic priests from Goa, who have assumed almost undisturbed possession of the island.§ Cordiner, vol. i. p. 165. Report of the Missionary Society, 1813, p. 15. #Missionary Transactions, vol. ii. p. 265. vol. iii. p. 344. § Buchanan's Memoir respecting an Ecclesiastical Establishment for India, 2d edit. Dedication. SECTION II. JAVA. . HAVING become masters of a great part of Java, the Dutch, in 1621, opened a church in Batavia,* the capital of the island; but of the progress which they made in converting the natives to Christianity, our accounts are extremely meagre. In 1721, we are informed, that the number of Christians on this island was upwards of 100,000; that, in Batavia, there were two churches, in which public worship was performed in the Dutch language; two in which the Portuguese was employed: and either one or two in which the Malay was used.† The number of ministers at Batavia, when the list was full, amounted to twelve; but it appears, that of late years at least, they were men nowise distinguished either by their learning or their piety.‡ In propagating Christianity in Java and the neighbouring countries, there is nothing for which the Dutch have been more distinguished, than by their zeal to furnish the inhabitants with the Holy Scriptures. Not many years after the commencement of their labours in this island, the Gospels and other parts of the sacred writing were published in the Malay language, which is spoken not only in Malacca, but through all the adjacent islands. In 1668, the New Testainent was printed in that language at Amsterdam, at the expense of the East India Company; and, in 1733, a translation of the whole Bible was published in that city, in Roman char. acters. This version was afterwards printed in 1758, at Batavia, in five volumes, in the Arabic alphabet, with the addition of the letters peculiar to the Malay, under the direction of the governor-general of the Dutch possessions in the East. As this translation of the Bible is in the idiom of Batavia and Sermons at the Formation of the Missionary Society, Introduction, p. 16. Stavorinus' Voyages to the East Indies, vol. i. p. 305, 306. Malacca, some have objected to it, that it is not very intelligible in Sumatra, and other Malay countries; but the late Dr. Leyden, whose reputation as an Oriental scholar was so deservedly high, considered it as absolutely impossible to form a version, the style of which would be approved of in every country where Malay was spoken; for so great is the difference of the idiom between the Javanese and the Arabic Malay, that even in the same country, those who are proficients in the one, are often scarcely able to understand the other.* The Dutch have also printed editions of the sacred writings in the Portuguese language, a corrupt dialect of which is spoken by many of the inhabitants of Java, and of the neighbouring islands, in consequence of their having once been subject to the crown of Portugal.† SECTION III. ΑΜΒΟΥΝΑ. AFTER the Dutch began to introduce Christianity into Java, they sent ministers from Batavia to Amboyna, for the purpose of planting it in that island. The inhabitants, both Pagans and Mahomedans, submitted to baptism in great numbers; and, in 1686, we are informed, that in the capital city, one of the ministers had no fewer than 30,000 of the natives under his pastoral care, who had been converted by him to the Christian faith. Few Catholic missionaries, we suppose, could boast of a more splendid triumph. Besides the clergy, the number of whom in the province of Amboyna has since been fixed at three, there were what they called visitors of the sick, and schoolmasters, both sta * Le Long Bibliotheca Sacra, tom. i. p. 144.-Bib. Dict. vol. i. 283.—Asiatic Researches, vol. x. p. 188. † Propagation of the Gospel in the East, part ii. p. 15.—Fabricii Lux Salutaris, p. 591. -Niecampi Historia Missionis Evangelicæ, p. 275. Sermons at the Formation of the Missionary Society, Introduction p. 16. § Millar, vol. ti. p. 475. tionary and itinerant, who were all supported by the East India Company, and instructed the children of the natives in reading, writing, and psalmody, for which purpose a school was established in every negree. In 1775, when Stavorinus was at Amboyna, there was only one minister on the island, the others being absent on a church visitation to Banda, and the south-western isles belonging to this government. Public worship in the Malay church was now confined to the reading of a sermon in that language by one of the visitors of the sick, for the minister did not understand it, and had little inclination to learn it. It had lately been ascertained by a church visitation, that the number of Christians in a part of the places under this government, amounted to 21,124; but of these only 843 were members of the church. Indeed the superstitious respect which they paid to the ministers, together with a few external forms of religion, were the chief circumstances which distinguished them from the rest of their countrymen. Few of them had a tolerable knowledge of the doctrines of Christianity, or even of the common duties of morality. Unchastity was universal among the women as well as the men; theft was extremely common, and was generally managed with great dexterity; and, like all the Malay tribes, the inhabitants of Amboyna were distinguished by a certain malignity of character. The superstitions of Paganism, indeed, appeared still to maintain their original sway over their benighted minds. When they sailed past a certain hill on the coast of Ceram, they used to propitiate the evil spirit, who, they believed, had his residence in that quarter, by setting afloat a few flowers, and a small piece of money in cocoa-nut shells; and if it was the evening, they also put oil into them with little wicks, and set them to burn on the water. After presenting this offering to the demon of the hill, they proceeded on their voyage, satisfied that he would do no harm to them or their vessels.* * Stavornus, vol. ii. p. 65, 388. |