OF THE 
 
 mmmif a? mm 
 
 MALAYSIA 
 
 - By 
 
 John Russell Denyes 
 
 Board of Foreign Missions 
 Methodist Episcopal Church 
 
 1919 
 
1 I 
 
OF m 
 
 iSIYERSlTT OF ILUHOIS 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/malaysiaOOcleny 
 
MALAYSIA 
 
 Where is Malaysia is off the southeast corner 
 this of Asia, 1500 miles south of China and 
 
 Malaysia? 1500 miles east of India. It includes 
 the Malay Peninsula and the islands 
 of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Timor, The 
 Moluccas, New Guinea, and a thousand smaller 
 islands. The country gets its name from the 
 Malay people who live there. 
 
 Well, Malaysia Are you sure ? When you 
 means nothing washed your face this morning 
 to me! the soap was probably made from 
 
 cocoanut oil from Malaysia. Ma- 
 laysia probably furnished the rattan for the cane- 
 bottomed chair in which you sat and the tinware 
 in the kitchen where your breakfast was cooked. 
 You put Java sugar in your Java coffee, .or your 
 Java tea, or your Java cocoa. You put Borneo 
 pepper on your eggs. Your coffee cake was sea- 
 soned with Malaysia spices, and your pudding 
 was made of Malaysia tapioca and seasoned with 
 Malaysia nutmeg. Your peanut butter was made 
 of Malaysia peanuts. Your laundryman uses 
 Malaysia bluing, and the tires on your car are 
 from Malaysia rubber. You wear a Java straw 
 hat in your garden, and your neighbor smokes a 
 Sumatra cigar. Your dentist uses Malaysia co- 
 caine, and your doctor gives you Malaysia quinine 
 for your malaria and Malaysia capsicum for your 
 indigestion. 
 
 1 
 
No man lives unto himself. Every man, no 
 matter how isolated, is related by the ties of 
 giving and receiving with every other man. 
 
 What is this The Malay Archipelago lies 
 Malaysia like? wholly within the tropics. The 
 equator runs seventy miles south 
 of Singapore and through the middle of Sumatra, 
 Borneo, and Celebes. Java and New Guinea lie 
 to the south of the equator. 
 
 On the plains the thermometer stands at about 
 ninety degrees in the shade the year round. But 
 the nights are always cool enough to be comfort- 
 able. In the mountains the temperature is more 
 moderate. The average rainfall is about one 
 hundred and fifty inches a year. This makes the 
 climate very humid and less tolerable than a dry 
 climate with the same degree of heat. Shoes put 
 away in a closet for two days are covered with 
 green mould. 
 
 Size If the map of Malaysia were placed upon 
 that of the United States it would form a 
 great crescent reaching from Minneapolis in the 
 north to New Orleans in the south, and from 
 Seattle clear across the continent and a thousand 
 miles out into the Atlantic ocean. 
 
 The islands are all that is left of a' great con- 
 tinent which once included the Philippines and 
 Australia. At some prehistoric day this continent 
 sank beneath the ocean, leaving only the high 
 plateaus and mountain peaks. All over these 
 islands are mountains, more than a hundred of 
 them being still active volcanoes. Earthquakes 
 are frequent. In 1883 the eruption of Mount 
 Karakatoa threw our four cubic miles of rocks 
 and lava forming a column of smoke and ashes 
 twenty-one miles high. Thirty thousand people 
 lost their lives. The highest mountain peaks are 
 
 2 
 
Kina Balu in Borneo, 13,698 feet, and Snowy 
 Mountain, 14,635 feet, and Mount Wilhelmina in 
 New Guinea, 15,580 feet. 
 
 The Malay Peninsula is about a thousand miles 
 long and has an area of 90,000 square miles. Java 
 is slightly larger than New York, 50,557 square 
 miles, including the small island of Madura. 
 Sumatra has 159,741 square miles, or as many as 
 New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and two-thirds of 
 Indiana. Borneo has 289,843 square miles. If 
 England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales with the 
 Irish Sea were put down in Borneo there would be 
 a strip of jungle a hundred miles deep all around 
 them. Celebes has 72,000 square miles and New 
 Guinea 309,710. 
 
 Population It is impossible to give the exact 
 population of Malaysia, for there 
 still remain large sections of the various islands 
 which cannot be said to have been really explored. 
 No census has been taken, but the people are 
 roughly estimated at about fifty million. Of 
 these there are in the Malay Peninsula about 
 three million; in Sumatra, five million; in Java, 
 thirty-six million ; in Borneo, two and a half mil- 
 lion; in Celebes, two and a half million; New 
 Guinea, one million. 
 
 Java is the most densely populated place in the 
 world, but there are considerable sections of Java 
 which are sparcely occupied. Java can support a 
 population of forty-five millions. Sumatra could 
 take care of a hundred millions, the Malay Penin- 
 sula of fifty millions, Borneo one hundred and 
 twenty-five millions, Celebes forty millions. New 
 Guinea and the other islands one hundred and 
 fifty millions. In other words Malaysia could pro- 
 vide a home and food for one-third of the whole 
 human race. 
 
 3 
 
A Jungle With the exception of Java the whole 
 Country of Malaysia is one vast jungle with only 
 here and there small sections where the 
 forest has been cleared away to make room for 
 cultivation. Giant trees a hundred and fifty feet 
 tall crowd upon one another. Smaller trees are 
 massed in between, struggling up towards the 
 sunlight far above them. Great palms, like forest 
 trees but covered with long, sharp, spiny thorns, 
 block the traveler's way ; and monster ferns wave 
 their fifteen-foot, feathery leaves. Long, rope- 
 like roots creep downward from the dripping 
 branches a hundred feet above ; and to the trunks 
 of the trees cling multitudes of priceless orchids. 
 And everywhere the various creepers with their 
 hook-shaped claws spread themselves out like a 
 great lace curtain over the tree-tops, binding all 
 nature together and shutting out the sunlight. 
 
 The hunter's Through these tropical jungles 
 paradise roam great herds of wild elephants. 
 
 In the shallow waters plays the 
 rhinosceros. Here is the home of the tapir and 
 the ant-eater. Here also are found tigers, leo- 
 pards, panthers, wild cats, and bears. Various 
 varieties of deer are found in the forests, includ- 
 ing the tiny mouse deer, scarcely larger than a 
 jack-rabbit. Wild cattle, more dangerous than 
 the tigers, charge the unwary hunter; and wild 
 pigs root up the farmer's rice fields. Crocodiles 
 swarm in the rivers; countless apes, monkeys, 
 baboons, and orang-outangs make their home in 
 the trees ; horn-bills, parrots, pheasants, and birds 
 of paradise live among the branches ; while snakes, 
 lizards, centipedes, and scorpions infest the 
 ground. 
 
 Scientists in Java have classified one hundred 
 and thirteen varieties of land snakes and twenty 
 varieties of water snakes. Of these, twenty va- 
 
 4 
 
rieties of land snakes and all the water snakes 
 are poisonous. 
 
 Java But Java is different. Java is one long 
 chain of living or extinct volcanoes. To 
 the south the country drops off with a steep slope 
 to the Indian Ocean. To the north the country 
 slopes gently down to the shallow Java sea. From 
 the sea shores to five thousand feet up on the 
 mountain sides the whole land is laid off in ter- 
 races ranging from fifty square feet to two or 
 three acres in extent. Here no droughts ever 
 come, but always and everywhere marvelous ver- 
 dure in every shade of green upon these giant 
 stairways which lead up to the smoking craters 
 above. 
 
 Products About seventy per cent of all the tin 
 in the world comes from Malaysia. In 
 Java, Sumatra, and Borneo have been found great 
 quantities of petroleum. Borneo and Sumatra 
 have considerable deposits of coal, though lack of 
 transportation has limited the output. The Fed- 
 erated Malay States, Borneo, Sumatra, New 
 Guinea, and Celebes produce gold and silver in 
 paying quantities. About 25,000 ounces a year 
 are exported. Borneo produces some diamonds, 
 Java ranks next to Cuba in the production of cane 
 sugar. And Malaysia is rapidly becoming the 
 foremost rubber producing country of the world. 
 Java straw hats are shipped to America by the 
 hundred thousand. America also buys from 
 Malaysia vast quantities of pepper, tea, peanuts, 
 cocoanuts, rattan, tobacco, and quinine. 
 
 5 
 
POLITICAL DIVISIONS 
 
 British In the territory known as Malaysia, 
 
 Malaysia Great Britain controls the Malay Pe- 
 ninsula from the elbow downward. 
 This territory is divided into the Straits Settle- 
 ments, the Federated Malay States, and other 
 states under British protection. The Straits Set- 
 tlements get their name from the fact that they 
 are located on the Straits of Malacca. They are 
 Singapore Island, Malacca, The Bindings, Province 
 Wellesley, and Penang Island. These are gov- 
 erned as a Crown Colony with a Governor ap- 
 pointed by the King. To these settlements have 
 been added as parts of the colony Christmas 
 Islands, the Cocos Islands, and the colony of La- 
 buan, the last being off the west coast of Borneo. 
 
 The Federated Malay States are the native 
 states of Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and 
 Pahang. These have their native Sultans, but 
 they are controlled by the Residents acting under 
 the Governor of the Straits Settlements, who is 
 also High Commissioner for the Federated Malay 
 States. 
 
 In addition to these there are on the peninsula 
 the states of Johore, Kedah, Perils, Kelantan, and 
 Trengannu. These are also governed by Residents 
 acting under the Governor of the Straits Settle- 
 ments. 
 
 British Great Britain also controls British 
 Borneo North Borneo. This territory comprises 
 thirty-one thousand square miles on the 
 north side of Borneo. The territory is under the 
 jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Com- 
 pany, being held under grants from the Sultans of 
 Brunei and Sulu. The territory is administered 
 
 G 
 
by a Governor in Borneo and a Court of Directors 
 in London. 
 
 In January, 1906, the native Sultan of Brunei 
 handed over his country of about 4,000 square 
 miles on the northwest side of Borneo to Great 
 Britain. 
 
 In 1842 the Sultan of Brunei gave to Sir James 
 Brooks a grant of land on the west side of Borneo. 
 Various other concessions were made from time 
 to time until this country has grown to be an in- 
 dependent kingdom known as Sarawak, with 42,- 
 000 square miles of land and a population of 500,- 
 000 people. The ruler is His Highness Charles 
 Vyner Brooks, The Radja. This country is under 
 the protection of Great Britain. 
 
 British Until September 12th, 1914, the 
 
 New Guinea island of New Guinea was divided 
 or Papua into three parts; one belonging to 
 Holland, one to Germany and one 
 belonging to Great Britain. But in 1914 the Aus- 
 tralian troops captured the territory belonging to 
 Germany and known as Kaiser Wilhelm Land, and 
 since that time it has been administered as was 
 the other part of British New Guinea, from Aus- 
 tralia, through a Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 Netherlands Holland controls all of Sumatra, 
 Indies Java, two-thirds of Borneo, half of 
 
 Timor, Celebes, one-third of New 
 Guinea, and nearly all of the smaller islands of 
 the Archipelago. 
 
 The colonies are governed through a Governor 
 General residing in Java. Batavia is the capital. 
 The islands are divided into residencies, with a 
 Resident and an Assistant Resident in charge. 
 Holland utilizes in a large measure the native gov- 
 ernmental machinery, under the direction of the 
 
 7 
 
Residents. There is a standing army of about 50,- 
 000 soldiers, probably one-fifth of whom are Euro- 
 peans. The colonial navy consists of fifty men- 
 of-war and smaller ships. 
 
 Portugese Timor is one of the largest of the 
 Timor smaller islands, having 12,593 square 
 miles, and a population of 600,000. 
 By the treaty of 1859 the island was divided be- 
 tween Portugal and Holland. The Portugese part 
 was formerly governed from the Portugese colony 
 of Macao in China, but since 1896 it has been an 
 independent colony. 
 
 8 
 
A Malay Mosque 
 
PRINCIPAL CITIES 
 
 The following are the principal cities of Malay- 
 sia. Where the figures are given in round num- 
 bers they are estimates : 
 
 
 
 Europeans Asiatics 
 
 Totals 
 
 City 
 
 Country 
 
 & Eurasians 
 
 
 Singapore Isl. 
 
 Straits Settlements 
 
 8,000 
 
 292,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 Penang : si. 
 
 << «< 
 
 2,500 
 
 147,500 
 
 150,000 
 
 Malacca 
 
 
 500 
 
 24,500 
 
 25,000 
 
 Kuala T^umpor Federated Malay States 400 
 
 39,000 
 
 39,400 
 
 Palembang 
 
 Sumatra 
 
 300 
 
 69,700 
 
 70,000 
 
 Me dan 
 
 
 600 
 
 39,400 
 
 40,000 
 
 Batavia 
 
 Java 
 
 18,000 
 
 120,551 
 
 138,551 
 
 Semarang 
 
 
 5,126 
 
 91,544 
 
 96,660 
 
 Soerabaya 
 
 
 15,000 
 
 141,752 
 
 156,752 
 
 Soerakarta 
 
 
 1,572 
 
 116,806 
 
 118,378 
 
 Kuching 
 
 Sarawak 
 
 lOO 
 
 10,000 
 
 10,100 
 
 Pontianak 
 
 Dutch Borneo 
 
 20O 
 
 14,000 
 
 14,200 
 
 Macassar 
 
 Celebes 
 
 200 
 
 26,200 
 
 26,400 
 
 9 
 
STATE OF CIVILIZATION 
 
 The Malay At the southern tip of the Malay 
 Peninsula Peninsula lies the city of Singapore, 
 a town of three hundred thousand 
 people speaking a hundred different languages. 
 This is one of the great cross-roads of the world. 
 Here you find the thatched cabin of the native 
 Malay and the palaces of the wealthy Chinese. 
 Two-wheeled, man-pulled go-carts, called rick- 
 shaws, compete with the electric tram and the 
 motor taxi-cab. 
 
 This is the tenth largest shipping port of the 
 world. Every ship which sails between Asiatic 
 ports and Europe must pass through the harbor 
 of Singapore. To this port come thousands of 
 small steamers and sailing ships from all the 
 islands clear down to Australia, v/ith their car- 
 goes of tropical produce to be forwarded to Europe 
 and America. In turn they carry back to the 
 islands cheap cotton cloth, hardv/are, machinery, 
 canned goods, and automobiles. 
 
 Stretching out behind Singapore, like the tail 
 of a comet, is the Malay Peninsula. The eastern 
 side of this territory has neither good harbors nor 
 railroads. Therefore the country has been back- 
 ward in development. Here and there are the be- 
 ginnings of settlements where plantations are 
 growing and where mines have been opened. But 
 for the most part the land is covered with jungle. 
 
 Some twenty-five years ago the British began 
 to build a railroad system on the western side of 
 the peninsula. Just as the transcontinental rail- 
 roads of America half a century ago opened our 
 great western prairies to civilization, so this rail- 
 way in Malaysia opened to cultivation the hinter- 
 land of Singapore. Within the memory of Euro- 
 
 10 
 
peans now living* in Malaysia this western shore 
 of the peninsula was infested with fierce Malay 
 pirates who did not hesitate to attack Chinese and 
 European ships along the coast. There were no 
 means of transportation into the interior except 
 by canoes along the shallow rivers. Today one 
 can take the railway at Singapore and travel all 
 the way up the peninsula and across to Bangkok 
 in Siam, a journey of three days. 
 
 All along the railway tens of thousands of acres 
 of jungle have been cleared to make room for 
 plantations of cocoanuts and rubber. Great areas 
 have been dug over and vast fortunes have been 
 gained from the wonderful beds of tin ore found 
 in this section. A whole net-work of beautiful 
 carriage roads spreads itself over this territory, 
 and cities are springing up everywhere. Through 
 the government and the mission schools tens of 
 thousands of boys and girls are being taught to 
 write and speak the English language, and these 
 in turn are Ibuilding up a new civilization of Euro- 
 pean type and Asiatic flavor. 
 
 Sumatra Sumatra has a high mountain range 
 running the full length of the island, 
 with a short, steep slope to the west and a long, 
 gentle slope towards the east to the Straits of 
 Malacca. There is one good harbor at Padang on 
 the west, one on the north end at Acheen, and two 
 on the east side. Palembang, in the south center 
 on the east, is the principal port for the southern 
 half of the island, and Medan for the northern 
 half. 
 
 Two thousand miles of railways have been sur- 
 veyed following the east side of the mountain 
 range throughout the whole length, with the pur- 
 pose of opening that great fertile plain in the in- 
 terior, running side lines to the east coast at 
 
 11 
 
Palembang and Medan and half a dozen other 
 lesser ports. Work is already progressing and 
 several hundred miles are completed. Palembang 
 is not only on the railway, but it is located on a 
 great river which has numerous branches navi- 
 gable for small ships and flat-bottomed boats for 
 fifteen hundred miles. Trade is not extensive as 
 yet, but within a few years this city will probably 
 have a hundred and fifty thousand people. The 
 country behind is marvelously fertile, as well as 
 having large deposits of minerals and oils. 
 
 Medan in the north, on the east side, is a town 
 of about 40,000. It is a port of call for the ships 
 plying between the Dutch islands and Holland. 
 Four lines of railway run out into the interior. 
 Just to the north lie the great oil fields. In the 
 mountains behind are the coal deposits. And for 
 a hundred miles to the south the whole country 
 is planted with tobacco, sugar, and rubber. Within 
 the past ten years land values in the city have 
 increased four fold. Many millions of dollars of 
 Dutch, German, British, and American capital 
 have been invested in this section within the last 
 few years. 
 
 Java Java has had a native but real civiliza- 
 tion for two thousand years. The Java- 
 nese have had their written language and litera- 
 ture for many centuries. The kingdoms of olden 
 time had their standing armies and their fleets 
 which took tribute from the surrounding islands. 
 More than three hundred years ago the Portu- 
 gese began coming to Java for spices. Then came 
 the Dutch, and then the EngHsh. For four years, 
 during the later Napoleonic wars, from 1811 to 
 1816, the English held possession of Java, but 
 when the final treaty was signed England re- 
 turned the island to Holland. 
 
 12 
 
For more than a hundred years the Dutch have 
 reckoned the whole of Java as their possession 
 and have governed accordingly. Great changes 
 have taken place. During the past century the 
 population has increased from six millions to 
 thirty-six millions. A large part of the island has 
 been brought under cultivation. Thousands of 
 roads have been made, and two thousand miles of 
 railways have been laid. Nearly every village is 
 connected up with the cities by telephone. There 
 is a very complete postal system, and daily news- 
 papers in Dutch, Malay, and Chinese are published 
 in all the large cities. Three hundred thousand 
 native children are being taught in the vernacular 
 schools, and in the Dutch language there is a com- 
 plete grammar and high school system. There 
 are also several advanced schools teaching medi- 
 cine, engineering, and military sciences. 
 
 Borneo, In Borneo, Celebes, and New 
 
 Celebes, Guinea western civilization has 
 
 New Guinea made but little progress. In Sara- 
 wak, Rajah Brook has established 
 a model little city of Kuching, and up the Kuching 
 River are several companies opening the country. 
 Also on the Rejang River the Chinese are plant- 
 ing pepper and rubber. So also in British North 
 Borneo there are the beginnings of settlements. 
 In the eastern part of Borneo great oil fields are 
 being worked. The north of Celebes has been 
 largely Christianized by the Dutch missionaries, 
 and there are plantations and mines. New Guinea 
 has a few open spots, but is mostly jungle. In all 
 these islands there are no railways and few 
 wagon roads. 
 
 13 
 
THE PEOPLE OF MALAYSIA 
 
 An understanding of the peoples of Malaysia 
 calls for the classifying of them under the two 
 heads of indigenous and immigrants. The im- 
 migrants come from all parts of the world, but 
 especially from India and China. The indigenous 
 peoples are all of the general Malayan stock. All 
 are small people, averaging somewhere about four 
 feet ten to five feet three inches tall, with black 
 hair running from woolly to straight, and with a 
 coffee-brown complexion. Their civilization varies 
 from the barbarism of the tree-dwellers to that of 
 the advanced Javanese. 
 
 Tree On the Malay Peninsula, living most- 
 
 Dwellers ly far up in the mountain fastnesses, 
 are some twenty-five thousand or so of 
 a pygmy race of people who make their homes in 
 the tops of trees or in rude shelters under over- 
 hanging rocks. Ethnologists have grouped these 
 people into three families, the Semang, the Sakais 
 and the Jakuns. These three groups resemble 
 each other in that they are about four feet ten 
 inches tall, and are of the same brown color, but 
 the hair reveals radically different origin. The 
 Semang have the distinctly negroid cast of fea- 
 tures and the kinky hair. The Sakais have wavy 
 hair and their features resemble the Veddas of 
 Ceylon. The Jakuns have straight hair, but 
 otherwise seem to be rather closely allied to the 
 negroid stock. 
 
 The pygmys make for themselves rude shelters 
 of grass or palm leaves in the branches of large 
 trees, they can hardly be said to be homes. They 
 have traditions which prevent them from living 
 more than five days in one place. They live in 
 
 14 
 
small detached groups, seldom attempting to plant 
 anything, but finding their food from the rivers 
 and the forests. They are very skillful hunters, 
 using as weapons the spear and the blow-pipe. 
 The blow-pipe is a glorified pea-shooter through 
 which they blow a small poisoned arrow. They 
 will kill a bird or animal at a distance of seventy- 
 five yards. Even big game is hunted with the 
 blow-pipe. These folks are exceedingly shy, and 
 are rarely seen by white people, or even by the 
 other natives. Civilization has naturally made 
 little progress among them, and their social life is 
 of the most primitive sort. 
 
 The Malays The Malay peoples have given 
 their name to the whole archipelago, 
 and yet whence they came is a question which has 
 never been satisfactorily answered. It seems 
 probable that the Malay comes from continental 
 Asia, but that he has developed certain differences 
 of character through different environment and 
 intermarriage with native peoples. There is a 
 pretty well authenticated tradition that the Ma- 
 lays were originally a part of a great Mongolian 
 or Chinese army that became separated froni the 
 rest of their people on an expedition against 
 northeastern India. Not being able to get back 
 home and not strong enough to settle down in the 
 country, they followed the line of mountain and 
 forest to the southeast, plundering and carrying 
 off women folks, until they reached the lower end 
 of the peninsula and the middle of Sumatra. From 
 there they gradually spread over the whole of the 
 archipelago. It is supposed that they reached 
 Malaysia somewhere between 1000 and 2000 years 
 before the Christian era, though some place their 
 coming at a little before the time of Christ. 
 
 "Their character has generally been rated 
 rather low by occidental observers, but the deceit, 
 
 16 
 
untrustworthiness, uneveness, treachery, and 
 other bad quahties attributed to them have been 
 much exaggerated, and the depth of feeling, honor 
 and moral and intellectual possibilities corre- 
 spondingly underestimated." 
 
 "The Malay is a cheery but irresolute man, ex- 
 ceedingly polite, with a certain reserve, and proud 
 silence. He will not suffer his dignity to be af- 
 fronted, and is quick to resent insult. He is quick 
 to acknowledge kindness, and is by no means the 
 worst man in the world. His worst characteristics 
 are a certain inexplicable moodiness and an indis- 
 position for laborious toil." 
 
 The Malays would be classified as semi-civilized. 
 They have had their written language, their lit- 
 erature, and their fixed forms of government for 
 many centuries. They have, however, shown little 
 desire for progress. They still live largely by 
 hunting and fishing and primitive agriculture. 
 Their homes are mostly built close to or over the 
 water, high up on piles, where the canoe can be 
 anchored under the house. 
 
 While the peoples of all the islands are of Ma- 
 layan stock, yet there are some four or five mil- 
 lions who are classified as Malay proper. These 
 live all through the Malay Peninsula, and in the 
 southern half of the eastern part of Sumatra, and 
 all about the coasts of all the other islands. 
 
 Battaksof The Battak stock includes a large 
 Sumatra part of the population of the interior 
 of Sumatra, though the Battaks 
 proper live on the high lands of the interior of 
 northern Sumatra. These people are somewhat 
 darker, taller, and stronger than the coast Malays. 
 They are a bright, cheery, fun-loving, singing 
 people, more ambitious, more eager for learning, 
 and quicker at catching an idea or of expressing 
 
 16 
 
&F THE 
 
themselves clearly than probably any other of the 
 native people of Malaysia. 
 
 But the Battaks present a strange contrast. 
 On the one hand they can be classified as semi- 
 civilized. They cultivate the soil with plows, they 
 breed large herds of cattle and horses, they are 
 skillful in metal working, and they have a written 
 language. On the other hand there exists debt 
 slavery, permissive polygamy, and cannibalism. 
 Their religion is animism, or spirit worship, with 
 traces of early influence of Hinduism. 
 
 Their type of house differs materially from that 
 of the Malays, though they build on piles. Many 
 of these people have become Christians, but where 
 Christianity has not yet gone their little villages 
 are surrounded by mud walls ten feet thick and 
 fifteen feet high. They build out on the open 
 places where they can watch for their enemies 
 from behind a screen of bamboo planted on the 
 top of the walls. 
 
 DyaJks of Dyaks is a general name given to the 
 Borneo original inhabitants of Borneo. They 
 might be further classified as Sea- 
 Dyaks and Land-Dyaks, the latter living well up 
 in the interior. "Physically and linguistically 
 they belong to the Malayan race, but there are 
 numerous variations from the characteristic 
 type." 
 
 *'Dyak culture runs all the way from the sav- 
 agery of the mountainous interior to the civiliza- 
 tion of the coast, where under Javanese, Bugi, and 
 Chinese influence, the artistic and industrial abili- 
 ties possessed more or less by all the tribes are 
 seen to better advantage, and many states and 
 sultanates have from time to time flourished. The 
 Dyaks have taken to Islam less kindly than their 
 kindred, the Malays proper, and some of the un- 
 civilized tribes of the interior probably preserve 
 
 17 
 
traits of original Malayan heathenism elsewhere 
 lost. Intellectually, morally, and socially the 
 Dyak is perhaps superior to the typical Malay, as 
 he also exceeds him in stature and often in good 
 looks/' 
 
 *'The Dyaks are also less restrained and given 
 to more physical exercise than the Malay proper. 
 The paddle, the blow-gun, the spear, bamboo 
 bridges, cloth weaving, and metal work represent 
 some of the out-crops of Dyak genius. The Dyaks 
 plant some rice, but support themselves largely 
 by hunting, fishing, and gathering jungle fruits. 
 Headhunting and cannibalism, for which the 
 Dyaks were once so famous, are rapidly disap- 
 pearing." 
 
 The People Three races of people live in Java, 
 of Java though they are all of Malayan stock. 
 
 The Sundanese live in the western 
 part and number about twelve millions, the Java- 
 nese occupy the central part and number about 
 twenty-one millions, and the Madurese have the 
 extreme eastern end and the island of Madura 
 and number about two millions. There is little 
 difference in the appearance of these peoples. The 
 Javanese are slightly taller than the other two 
 and their features are finer and show more rela- 
 tion to the British India influences of early days. 
 
 Early missionaries of the Buddhist and Brahm- 
 in faiths coming from India had a profound in- 
 fluence upon the civilization of the Javanese, 
 molding in a good measure their religious life, 
 their political development, their language, and 
 their literature. Buddhism was probably intro- 
 duced before the Christian era, but by 414 A. D., 
 when Fa Hien, the Chinese Buddhist, visited Java, 
 he wrote that little Buddhism could be found. 
 During the Buddhist period were built many beau- 
 tiful temples, the one remaining practically intact 
 
 18 
 
as it was found buried under a great mound of 
 earth being one of the most beautiful pieces of 
 Buddhist art in the world. Wallace, the natural- 
 ist, says that the work on the great pyramid of 
 Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared 
 with the work on this temple of Boro Budur in 
 middle Java, 
 
 Buddhism in Java was succeeded by Brahmin- 
 ism, which continued until the Mohammedan conr 
 quest in 1475-79. Nominally the Javanese are all 
 Mohammedans, but their religion is not of the 
 fanatical type of Mohammedanism found in 
 Arabia. Ten thousand pilgrims go from Java 
 every year to Mecca, and these are tightening the 
 hold of Mohammedanism upon the rest of the 
 people. 
 
 The Javanese written language dates very far 
 back. Their old literature is in the Kawi language. 
 It is not known when it was introduced into Java, 
 Their modem language "is very profuse in words 
 expressing the most profound, delicate, and com- 
 plicated shades of meaning." In general the 
 Javanese are a very proud yet gentle people, show- 
 ing great respect for authority. Until very re- 
 cently there has been little desire for progress, in 
 fact civilization seems to have been at a dead 
 stand-still since the Mohammedan conquest, ex- 
 cept where there was forced labor under the old 
 Dutch "Culture System." Eecently, however, 
 there has been evidence of a real desire to get into 
 line with the general drift of progress which has 
 marked all the peoples of Asia. 
 
 The People "All the natives of Celebes speak 
 of Celebes languages of the Malay stock. The 
 language of the Minnehassans 
 shows considerable proximity to the Philippine 
 dialects. Culturally the northeast is likewise 
 separated from the rest of the island taken as a 
 
 19 
 
unit. The Minnehassans appear to be related to 
 the Tagalog and the other Philippine tribes, and 
 even sugg-est Japanese features. At all events 
 they may safely be regarded as alien immigrants 
 from the north. So far as the remainder of the 
 population is concerned, it may be i)ositively 
 stated that nowadays there are no traces of 
 negroid or Papuan race. The Toradja are very 
 closely related to the Dyaks of Borneo, the Bat- 
 taks of Sumatra, and the Philippine Igorotes. 
 They are very short in stature, about five feet for 
 men and four feet nine inches for women, have 
 wavy hair, and present other traits showing kin- 
 ship with the Vaddahs of Ceylon and the Senoi of 
 Malacca. They have very primitive homes and 
 are also cave dwellers.'' 
 
 "The Macassars practice Islam, but much de- 
 graded by local superstitions and beast worship, 
 and the abject fear of local deities. They have a 
 literature, chiefly romance and drama, besides 
 works of religion and law translated from the 
 Arabic and originally brought to them by the 
 missionaries of Islam." 
 
 The People "In New Guinea are many tribes 
 
 of New Guinea differing in appearance and lan- 
 guage, but as a whole they con- 
 stitute the Papuan race, which has been classified 
 as a branch of the Negro race. With the Papuans, 
 however, the nose is usually prominent and the 
 hair frizzly rather than woolly. The color varies 
 from sooty brown to black. In general the Pap- 
 uans are impulsive, demonstrative, and less ill- 
 natured than popular accounts imply. Some prac- 
 tice fishing, and others a primitive agriculture, 
 and many excel in decorative arts. There is prac- 
 tically no native political organization, chieftain- 
 ship is unknown, or at most uncommon." 
 
 "Racially the natives belong to at least two in- 
 
 20 
 
digenous types, the Pygmy and the Papuan. In 
 addition we have to deal with relatively recent 
 Melanesian immigrants who have, generally 
 speaking, ousted the Papuans from the islands 
 and coastal districts. Both the Papuans and the 
 Melanesians are essentially frizzly-haired, but 
 among the Melanesians curly and even wavy hair 
 is not uncommon. The stature of the Papuans 
 varies considerably in different regions. The 
 average is about five feet six inches." 
 
 '*Two entirely distinct groups of languages exist 
 in Papua, the Melanesian and the Papuan. The 
 Melanesian group are related to one another and 
 to those spoken in Melanesia. Those designated 
 as Papuan differ so widely as to be not merely 
 mutually unintelligible, but to present radically 
 distinct morphological traits." 
 
 "Culturally the natives of Papua differ almost 
 as much as in point of speech. Until the coming 
 of the whites all lived in the stone age, but were 
 able to execute extraordinary carvings with the 
 aid of their crude implements. They are pri- 
 marily agriculturists. Hunting is relatively un- 
 important. The form of dwelling varies, but pile 
 dwellings are exceedingly common. Their wea- 
 pons are the spear, bow and arrows, and club." 
 
 The India and China are overcrowded 
 
 Immigrants and the people live on a very low 
 economic plane. But they are be- 
 ginning to realize that distant only a few days' 
 journey by ship lies a land of boundless resources 
 where they are welcome and where they can earn 
 wages greatly in excess of those in their home 
 land. Already upwards of a hundred thousand 
 Indians and three hundred thousand Chinese are 
 pouring into Malaysia every year. Many of these 
 return to their old homes after laying by sufficient 
 
 21 
 
to raise their economic and social standing in their 
 native village. But these returning immigrants 
 spread the story of the opportunities in Malaysia 
 and the stream is ever increasing in volume. It is 
 estimated that within another decade there v^ill 
 be nearly a million a year seeking homes in 
 Malaysia. 
 
 Many of the immigrants returning to their 
 homes find themselves cramped by the social and 
 religious traditions of their native lands, and they 
 go again to remain permanently, v^here there is 
 no political oppression, where the coolie can rise 
 to the limit of his capacity, and where the dead 
 hand of a religious tyranny fixes no social bar- 
 riers. Thus the proportion of the immigrants 
 who become permanent settlers is steadily in- 
 creasing. 
 
 These islands are practically the only place left 
 in the world where the overflow from India and 
 China is welcomed. More and more the people of 
 these lands are awakening to the possibilities of 
 freedom and comfort in these great natural store- 
 houses. The fear of the unknown is disappearing, 
 and within a relatively few years these great jun- 
 gle wildernesses will be the homes of populations 
 rivaling those of many of the smaller countries 
 of Europe. 
 
 From The Indians who come to Malaysia 
 India are mostly Tamils from the Madras Presi- 
 dency and Ceylon. Bishop Oldham de- 
 scribes them as "noisy, exceedingly talkative, 
 faithful, devout, obedient to orders, capable of 
 patiently bearing much hardship." They are of 
 the clinging rather than of the venturesome type. 
 They prefer to accept a fixed scale of wages lead- 
 ing to a pension, rather than to risk the uncer- 
 tainties of a personal business venture. The im- 
 
 22 
 
migrants are mostly Tamils, because the Govern- 
 ment of British India permits recruiting agents 
 seeking labor for the estates in Malaysia to pay 
 the passages of Tamils, but of no other class. The 
 children of the Indian laborer find their way into 
 the English schools and from there into clerical 
 work for mercantile firms and into government 
 service in connection with the courts, the rail- 
 ways, post-ofl5ces, telegraphs, and telephones. 
 
 From The Chinese, on the other hand, prefer 
 China to go into business on their own account. 
 
 It is the Chinese who gather up all the 
 produce of the native peoples and prepare it for 
 the European markets. In turn the Chinese are 
 the shopkeepers and distributing agents for Eu- 
 ropean goods into the villages everywhere. The 
 European has little commercial intercourse with 
 the native peoples and little retail trade. All this 
 is done by the enterprising Chinese. The Chinese 
 laborer commands wages from fifty to a hundred 
 percent higher than any other class of laborers. 
 But the Chinese do not long remain laborers. Their 
 natural capacity for business soon places them in 
 the merchant class. Many of them have accumu- 
 lated great fortunes, and many of their homes are 
 palatial. 
 
RELIGIONS 
 
 Apart from Christianity there are four relig- 
 ious systems in Malaysia : Animisn, or spirit wor- 
 ship, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, and Buddho- 
 Confucianism. The pagan races are all followers 
 of Animism of some sort. The Malays, Javanese, 
 and most of the peoples living about the coast 
 regions of all the islands are Mohammedans. The 
 immigrants from India bring their Hinduism with 
 them, and the Chinese practise the mixed Buddho- 
 Confucian-Taoism of China. 
 
 Animism Animism is a vague term applied to 
 all the unorganized forms of belief and 
 worship among the primitive peoples. It cannot 
 be accurately defined, for it varies with every 
 tribe and land. In a general way it includes cer- 
 tain religious ideas which are common to a greater 
 or less degree to practically all tribes. 
 
 To the animist there are three worlds. In the 
 upper world dwell the gods. Here they live just 
 as men live, with their wives and children. They 
 are interested in the same things as interest mor- 
 tals. They play and gamble, wage wars, have 
 slaves and cattle, love and hate, and enjoy them- 
 selves in very human ways. In the middle world 
 is the home of men, who have been sent to earth 
 from a sort of pre-existence. In the lower world 
 are the spirits and demons. 
 
 Among all the peoples there is the belief in a 
 supreme creator. This being is seldom referred to 
 except in prayers and incantations. There is no 
 definite concept as to the nature of this supreme 
 being or his immediate family or associates. 
 These superior beings are mere spectators of the 
 
 24 
 
world of human affairs. They neither help nor 
 hinder, and therefore are but little considered. 
 They are neither worshiped nor propitiated. "Be- 
 lief in God has been reduced by nature worship, 
 fear of spirits, and moral coarseness, to a state 
 in which it is no longer recognizable. The host of 
 spirits born of fear thrust themselves between 
 God and man, and left behind that faded image of 
 God, which still throws a faint shadow on the 
 feelings of the people, but not on its thought, 
 which is therefore so full of contradictions. . . . 
 We meet with the idea of God as of a dimly-felt 
 highest court of appeal, enthroned above all the 
 gods that are known or named.'' 
 
 It is not the supreme god who is considered, but 
 the mysterious forces of nature, for they are more 
 feared. The greater danger calls for the more 
 careful service and propitiation. There are spirits 
 which watch over the oceans, the rivers, the rocks, 
 the harvests, the forests, the beasts of the field, 
 and the fowls of the air. Food, comfort, health, 
 children, and life itself are in the hands of these 
 lower deities. At any time one of these may be- 
 come offended by lack of cosideration and then 
 there is trouble ahead. Hence the poor animist 
 is in a constant state of fear and anxiety. 
 
 ''From a universal soul, an indestructible store 
 of life, living souls flow to men, animals, plants, 
 metals, instruments, houses, etc.'' Hence the all 
 important question for the animist is to protect 
 and enrich his own soul. The accumulation of 
 goods means the increase of soul-stuff. This soul- 
 stuff is especially rich and plentiful about human 
 beings, and doubly so about the human head. 
 Hence the taker of a human head adds materially 
 to his own soul-stuff, and thereby adds to his 
 prospects in the world to come as well as to his 
 prestige here on earth." 
 
 25 
 
Mohammedanism There are nearly forty million 
 Mohammedans in Malaysia. 
 Their faith, however, is greatly influenced by their 
 history. In the beginning they were animists. 
 Then they became Buddhists. This was super- 
 ceded by centuries of Hinduism. And lastly they 
 were won over to Mohammedanism, not through 
 conviction, but through conquest. The govern- 
 ment requires all to register under some religious 
 classification, and naturally the vast majority 
 register as Mohammedans. Most of them keep 
 up some of the forms of Islam, but in reality they 
 have only increased the number of super-sensual 
 beings to whom they pray. Trees, rocks, fields, 
 villages, all have their patron spirits. Diseases 
 are attributed to spirits, which must be propi- 
 tiated. Offerings are made to scripture charac- 
 ters. Joseph rewards his worshippers with chil- 
 dren, Solomon with rank and fame, Moses with 
 bravery, and Jesus with wisdom. Worship is 
 offered at graves. Childless women bring flowers 
 and fruit and money as offerings to the old cannon 
 lying outside the gate of Batavia. In other words, 
 the outer form of religion is Mohammedanism, 
 but the heart beliefs are animistic. Fortune tel- 
 lers and workers of divination abound every- 
 where. 
 
 Mohammedan teaching regarding the place of 
 womanhood and on the marriage relation has 
 borne its natural fruit and the moral condition is 
 lower than that of the pagan races. To become 
 a Mohammedan calls for merely the outward ac- 
 ceptance of the theories and practices of Islam, 
 and has no reference to any celaning up of the 
 inner life. 
 
 Hinduism The Hinduism which the immigrants 
 bring from India is of a very atten- 
 uated form. Large numbers of Indians frankly 
 
 26 
 
break away from all profession of religion for th.e 
 period of their stay in Malaysia unless overtaken 
 by some misfortune, or in case of a wedding or a 
 birth. Then the priest is called in for the emer- 
 gency. In Malaysia caste is largely a dead letter. 
 The Brahmim and the low-caste man rub elbows 
 on the street, ride in the same trolley cars, and 
 sit together in the same offices, as often as not the 
 Brahmim taking orders from the low-caste chief 
 clerk. 
 
 Vigorous efforts are being made in the larger 
 cities to hold the educated young men to their 
 Indian faith, but Hinduism cannot endure the 
 democracy of the public schools. The low-caste 
 man who dared not allow his shadow to fall upon 
 the pathway of a high-caste man in India walks 
 the streets of Malaysia with his head erect. His 
 sons have an equal chance to "make good" in com- 
 mercial life and his daughters have no zenana to 
 dread. It is therefore not to be wondered at that 
 the religious bondage of Hinduism loses much of 
 its hold upon the people. 
 
 Buddho- Like the Indians the Chinese 
 
 Confucianism leave much of their religious" 
 theory and practice behind them 
 when they come to Malaysia. Ancestral worship 
 is practiced almost universally in the homes, and 
 offerings are made in the temples on the occasion 
 of special needs; but the Chinese religion cannot 
 be said to flourish among these peoples away from 
 home. There are no schools to teach the youth 
 the doctrines of their faith. Practically all that 
 the people know religiously is "custom.'' And 
 even the religious customs brought from China 
 are being steadily modified by contact with the 
 customs of the other peoples of Malaysia, 
 
 27 
 
28 
 
29 
 
GENERAL MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 Mission work has been carried on among the 
 peoples of Malaysia since 1603. In many sections 
 the results have not been very gratifying, owing 
 partly to the methods adopted and partly to the 
 opposition of the government to the use of ag- 
 gressive measures in evangelization. Neverthe- 
 less these islands have seen some of the greatest 
 religious mass movements of modern times. More 
 than six hundred thousand of the native races 
 have become Christians. Of these about three 
 hundred thousand have been turned over to the 
 care of the government, which provides regular 
 pastors for them, and hence they do 
 Religious not appear in the statistical tables 
 Movements, of the various missionary societies. 
 
 The whole of northern Celebes is re- 
 garded as entirely Christianized. In the north of 
 Sumatra the German mission has a hundred thou- 
 sand converts. And in Java there are twenty- 
 eight thousand Mohammedans who have turned 
 away from the false prophet. This is the largest 
 body of converts from Mohammedanism to be 
 found anywhere in the world. 
 
 Twenty-five American, British, and European 
 missionary societies are working throughout the 
 Malay Archipeligo. This includes the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society. The Young Womens' 
 and Young Men's Christian Associations, and the 
 Salvation Army. 
 
 It was at Malacca on the west coast of the 
 Malay Peninsula that Francis Xavier laid down 
 his life during his wonderful missionary journey. 
 It was also at Malacca that Milne, Medhurst, and 
 Legge founded schools and did evangelistic work 
 while they were learning the Chinese language 
 and waiting for the doors of the Middle Kingdom 
 
 30 
 
to be opened. When these missionaries could 
 enter the Chinese Empire the work on the Penin- 
 sula was abandoned and they withdrew to begin 
 work in China. 
 
 In 1834 the American Board sent out two mis- 
 sionaries, Lyman and Munson, to open work 
 among the cannibal Battak tribes in North Suma- 
 tra, but they were murdered and eaten by the 
 natives before they had had time to establish 
 their station. "When the story was related to the 
 mother of one of them in her little New England 
 home, she is said to have turned to the next boy 
 of the family and said, *0, my son, somebody 
 should go to try to reach these poor, misguided 
 people.' " Over the grave of the bones of these 
 two martyrs has been placed a granite slab on 
 which is written. "The blood of the martyrs shall 
 become the seed of the church.'' This prophecy 
 has been amply fulfilled in this case. 
 
 Twenty-five years after the death of Lyman 
 and Munson, a German missionary, named Nom- 
 monsen went into the same section of the Battak- 
 land and began work. Very slowly he and his as- 
 sociates gathered about them a small company of 
 converts. Then came an epidemic and following 
 that an awakening of spiritual interest. Now in 
 that region and in the island of Nias there are 
 more than a hundred thousand Christians. 
 
 A Java Some fifty years ago a prominent 
 Romance Dutch official in Java was converted 
 and decided to devote the remainder oi 
 his life to mission work. He gathered about him 
 a few young Javanese and Malays and taught 
 them the Christian faith. As the converts began 
 to come in he sent them out two by two to preach. 
 
 They went through the villages. Wherever 
 they had a hearing, they stopped for a few days ; 
 
 31 
 
if men believed, they reported back to their lead- 
 er, Mr. Anting, who sent out a man to serve as a 
 pastor and teacher. In a few years Mr. Anting 
 had gathered around himself nearly five thousand 
 converts from Mohammedanism. What was the 
 secret of his success? Just an overwhelming 
 love for folks. He was rich and he became poor 
 for their sakes. He gave everything which he 
 possessed, and when there was no more to give he 
 wept with the people in their distresses. When he 
 died he had to be buried at public expense. But 
 after fifty years the old men and women will weep 
 as they tell of their father in the gospel. 
 
 82 
 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSION 
 
 In February, 1885, a new factor appeared in the 
 relig-ious life of Malaysia — the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church opened a mission in Singapore. The 
 founding of this station is one of the romances of 
 modern mission history. For several years Dr. 
 James M. Thobum, then, presiding elder of the 
 Calcutta District, South India Conference, had felt 
 a growing interest in the spiritual welfare of the 
 forty million people whose commercial interests 
 center about the city of Singapore, the '^Gateway 
 of the farther East." In writing of this period 
 Bishop Thobum says: "At length I became so 
 impressed with the importance of the project that, 
 early in the year 1884, I published a letter in the 
 Western Christian Advocate calling for two young 
 men to come out as volunteers and occupy the 
 distant outpost of Singapore. I had nothing to 
 offer the volunteers except a great opportunity to 
 do and dare for their master. We had not a dol- 
 lar of financial resources, and our plan was to do 
 as we had done in so many cities of India — preach 
 to the Europeans and Eurasians, organize a self- 
 supporting church among them, and then from 
 this base work outward among the non-Christian 
 people. The utmost that I could promise was that 
 I would accompany the two young men and help 
 them make a start by preaching for a season and 
 organizing the work for them." 
 
 Twenty young men volunteered, but after 
 lengthy correspondence it was felt that no two of 
 these were fitted for this particular work. The 
 outcome of this effort might have postponed for 
 
 years the establishment of the mis- 
 Providential sion had not Providence been put- 
 Forces, ting into operation other forces. 
 
 Bishop Hurst, who had been hold- 
 
 33 
 
ing the conference in Europe, had had his atten- 
 tion called to the strategic value of Singapore, and 
 when he arrived in Haidarabad, where he was to 
 preside over the South India Conference, he was 
 enthusiastic over the idea of founding a new mis- 
 sion in Malaysia. Under the inspiration of two 
 such leaders it is not surprising that the Con- 
 ference was ready to undertake great things. A 
 foreign mission determined to establish a foreign 
 mission, and the name of William F. Oldham was 
 read out in the list of appointments as missionary 
 to Singapore. 
 
 Mr. Oldham, Indian born of English parents, 
 was in many ways admirably adapted to accom- 
 plish the difficult task mapped out for him. He 
 had served under the Indian government as a civil 
 engineer, but after his conversion felt the call to 
 service in the Church. Realizing the need of fur- 
 ther education, he, with his wife, came to Amer- 
 ica, where he remained several years in attend- 
 ance at one of our colleges. At the time of his 
 appointment to Singapore he was on the ocean on 
 his way to take up the work there under the 
 Methodist Church. 
 
 With scarcely enough money to pay for their 
 passage Dr. Thoburn, Mr. Oldham, Mrs. Thoburn, 
 and Miss Battle started for Singapore. Mrs. Old- 
 ham remained for a time with her mother in India, 
 but her later presence and work were of much 
 value in the early period of the new mission. 
 
 When the little company reached Singapore 
 they were met at the wharf by Mr. Charles Phil- 
 lips, an earnest Christian who had been so ini- 
 pressed by a dream in which he had seen a ship 
 coming in with a party of missionaries on board 
 that he had gone to meet the ship, and there 
 recognized the faces seen in his dream. Mr. Phil- 
 lips took them to his home and entertained them 
 during their stay. 
 
 34 
 
The Town Hall was rented and nightly preach- 
 ing services were begun. On the fourth evening 
 the first break came, and several were converted. 
 The meetings continued for three weeks, and at 
 the end of that time seventeen had decided to 
 unite with the Methodist Church. Two of these, 
 John Polglase and F. J. Ben j afield, had been mem- 
 bers of the English Methodist 
 First Fruits Church, and they were taken into 
 full membership. The other fifteen 
 were received on probation. It was with this little 
 church, and with the promise of only such support 
 as they could give him that Mr. Oldham was left, 
 while Dr. and Mrs. Thoburn and Miss Battie re- 
 turned to India. 
 
 From 1885 to 1887 Dr. and Mrs. Oldham carried 
 on the work alone, but during the next three years 
 there followed in rapid sucession the arrival of 
 the Rev. George A. Bond and wife. Miss Sophia A. 
 Blackmore, Rev. Ralph W. Munson and wife, the 
 Rev. Benjamin F. West, M. D., and wife, the Revs. 
 William T. Kensett, William N. Brewster, W. G. 
 Shellabear, and Charles A. Gray, and Dr. Henry 
 L. E. Luering. Since that time more than a hun- 
 dred and fifty other names have appeared in the 
 lists of appointments. In 1918 the Foreign Staff 
 numbered 94. Of the others, some have gone to 
 their reward, but most of them, broken in health, 
 have returned to the homeland to stay. 
 
 Seeing the need of work among the women of 
 Malaysia Mrs. Oldham sent an appeal to Mrs. 
 Mary Hind, then secretary of the MinneapoHs 
 
 Branch of the Woman's Foreign 
 Woman's Missionary Society. There was 
 Work Begun no money in the treasury to open 
 
 new work, but Mrs. Nind said: 
 ''Frozen Minnesota will yet, God helping her, 
 plant a mission at the equator;'' and personally 
 
 35 
 
pledged $3,000 for this purpose. Miss Sophia A. 
 Blackmore of Australia was appointed, and began 
 her work August 15, 1887. A day school for Tamil 
 girls was opened in Singapore, and the women 
 were visited in their homes. In 1888 Miss Black- 
 more opened a school for Chinese girls in Teluk 
 Ayer. The field constantly widened, and in 1892 
 other helpers were sent. 
 
 In 1899 Bishop Foss wrote: "The Malaysia 
 Mission Conference has the genius of expansion. 
 I could select from the number of its present mis- 
 sionaries a first-rate man to be the founder of 
 missions in Bangkok or Manila or Borneo or 
 Sumatra, and could find men who are anxious to 
 go and open the work in those places." From the 
 first the missionaries to Malaysia have been pos- 
 sessed by the ambition to take possession of every 
 strategic position, to spread the kingdom to every 
 corner of this vast region. The mis- 
 Spirit of sion was scarcely five years old when 
 Conquest the spirit of conquest led to an ex- 
 ploring expedition to Borneo. In 
 January, 1890, Dr. West and Dr. Luering crossed 
 over to Pontianak, on the southwest coast, and 
 explored the Kapuas River for about two hundred 
 and fifty miles into the interior. This they found 
 to be a magnificent stream, navigable for ocean 
 steamers for more than two hundred miles; and 
 lined on either bank with Dyak villages. 
 
 Borneo Shortly after the Annual Meeting, 
 Explored in February, 1891, Dr. John C. Floyd, 
 then superintendent of the mission 
 and Dr. Luering made another tour of British 
 North Borneo, on the north end of the island. 
 On this trip it was decided that Dr. Luering 
 should remain and open work at the mouth of the 
 Kimanis River among the Dyaks. Dr. Luering 
 
 36 
 
remained there the greater part of that year, but 
 before the next annual meeting of circumstances 
 compelled him to return to Singapore, and the 
 mission to Borneo was abandoned. 
 
 The records of the same year begin the story of 
 another mission that has proved more successful. 
 At the Annual Meeting it was decided to open 
 work in Penang, on the west coast of the Penin- 
 sula. Penang is the second city in the Straits 
 Settlements, and has a population of about one 
 hundred and twenty-five thousand people, most 
 of them being Chinese or Tamils. The island of 
 Penang was acquired by the English Government 
 by cession from a native prince in 1785 for the 
 small annual payment of $6,000. 
 
 Extension It is two miles from the mainland, 
 to Penang and is twelve miles long and nine 
 wide. Later a small strip was taken 
 possession of on the opposite coast to arrest the 
 Malay piracy of that part of the high seas. This 
 strip is known as Province Wellesley, and was 
 purchased for an annuity of $2,000. 
 
 In the spring of 1891 the Rev. Daniel D. Moore 
 and the Rev. Benjamin H. Balderston were chosen 
 to begin this new mission. In 
 Rapid Growth July Mr. Balderston opened a 
 school on the plan of the Anglo- 
 Chinese school at Singapore, and a few weeks 
 later he was joined by Mr. Moore, who began 
 English preaching services. Rev. G. F. Pykett 
 succeeded Mr. Balderson and under his principal- 
 ship during twenty years the enrollment has 
 reached 1500 boys. The Penang Mission grew 
 until, in 1895, it was made a separate district, with 
 Dr. West as presiding elder. Under his able and 
 energetic management Penang became the center 
 of a large and flourishing group of out-stations. 
 
 37 
 
The next outpost to be occupied was Ipoh, the 
 capital of the native state of Perak, on the Penin- 
 sula. In November of 1894 the Rev. Tinsley W. 
 Stagg was sent to open an Anglo-Chinese school. 
 
 Ipoh a On account of his wife's illness 
 
 New Center Mr. Stagg remained only part of 
 a year and then was succeeded by 
 the Rev. William E. Horley. The mission at Ipoh 
 grew until it soon appeared in the list of appoint- 
 ments as the Perak District. 
 
 In 1896 Mr. Munson was appointed to open a 
 mission at Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the 
 Federated Malay States. A prelimniary trip 
 was made, but the health of 
 Kuala Lumpur Mrs. Munson failed, and Mr. 
 
 and Mrs. Munson returned to 
 America. It was not till March, 1897, that the 
 work at Kuala Lumpur was really begun by Dr. 
 W. T. Kensett and his wife. The same year saw 
 a native Chinese preacher placed at historic 
 Malacca. 
 
 In the appointments of the Malaysia Con- 
 ference of 1900 we find what probably has no 
 parallel in the history of Methodism. We read: 
 "Philippine Islands District, Presiding Elder, to 
 be supplied; Manila, English Church, to be sup- 
 plied; Spanish work, to be supplied; Eduational 
 work, to be supplied; Soldiers' and Seamens' In- 
 stitute, Mrs. A. E. Prautch ; Iloilo, to be supplied.'' 
 
 Philippine Islands. The marvelous story of the 
 development of this pre- 
 siding elder's district, which had no presiding 
 elder, no preachers, and no Church organization, 
 does not belong to this little book. 
 
 One of the striking events in the development 
 of the Malaysia Mission was the founding of the 
 Chinese Christian Colony on the Redjang River 
 in Sarawak. Both Sir James Brooke and his 
 
 38 
 
nephew, who died two years ago, as well as the 
 present rajah, have had keen appreciation of the 
 value of missionary work, and have consistently 
 encouraged all efforts made for the regeneration 
 of the people. 
 
 It was with the belief that Christian colonists 
 were of more value in developing the country than 
 Non-Christians that the Radja loaned a large sum 
 
 of money to a company to 
 Chinese Methodist use in bringing down from 
 Cblonists China a colony of Chinese 
 
 Christians. Of these Chi- 
 nese about six hundred were Methodists. As 
 they were within the bounds of the Malaysia 
 Conference they must be cared for by that body. 
 It was in March, 1901, that Bishop Warne sailed 
 with the first shipload of the colonists to their 
 new home. There was no money to send a mis- 
 sionary over to care for them, so the work drag- 
 ged along until March, 1902, when Dr. West, as 
 presiding elder of the Singapore District, of 
 which Borneo was made a part, went to Sarawak 
 and organized the work, appointing a Chinese 
 member of Conference in Charge. But the need 
 of more definite supervision was felt to be so 
 great that in February, 1903, the Rev. James M. 
 Hoover, who had been a teacher in the Anglo- 
 Chinese school at Penang, was sent there to take 
 charge of the mission. This colony has developed 
 until it occupies a score of miles along the river 
 front. Thousands of acres of jungle have been 
 cleared and planted to rice, and pepper, and rub- 
 ber. In the midst of the colony is the boys In- 
 dustrial school and the Mission Rice Mill. In 
 1919 Sarawak became a separate district with Mr. 
 Hoover as its superintendent. 
 
 A similar colony for Christians from China 
 was established some fourteen years ago at Sitia- 
 wan, on the west side of the Malay Peninsula. 
 
 39 
 
This colony has also prospered and is becoming 
 the nucleus of a great evangelistic centre. 
 
 In 1885 the Malaysia Mission was only an ap- 
 pointment under the presiding elder of the Burma 
 District of the South India Conference. On April 
 18, 1889, the mission became a separate and in- 
 dependent organization under a 
 Organic Superintendent. In 1893 another 
 
 Development step in advance was taken, and 
 Malaysia became a Mission Con- 
 ference, with a presiding elder of its own. Then 
 followed in order the Penang District, the Philip- 
 pine Islands District, and the Perak District. But 
 it was on February 25, 1902, that the Malaysia 
 Mission took its place in the sisterhood of An- 
 nual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. One year later the Conference formu- 
 lated a memorial asking the General Conference 
 to set apart one of her children, the Philippine 
 Islands District, as a separate mission. 
 
 Java A most romantic episode in Malaysia's 
 religious history was the opening of work 
 in the Island of Java. Before going to Amer- 
 ica on furlough in 1903 J. R. Denyes became 
 greatly burdened for the salvation of the Mo- 
 hammedans of Java. He was told that if the 
 money could be found he could be sent to Java to 
 begin the work. While in America he was 
 brought into contact with the young people of 
 the Epworth Leagues of the Pittsburgh Con- 
 ference. These young people under the leader- 
 ship of Miss Bessie Brooks, Miss Elizabeth Hun- 
 ter, Rev. W. W. Youngson, and others had agreed 
 to raise $4,000 a year with the purpose of send- 
 ing out four single young men to the foreign 
 field. When they heard from Mr. Denyes of the 
 needs in Java they decided to place their money 
 there. Complications arose over the money 
 
 40 
 
Of IHt 
 
raised and there was not sufficient to meet the ex- 
 penses of opening the new mission, but at the 
 critical moment the students of Northwestern 
 University offered to pay $1,000 a year for two 
 years. 
 
 It was in March, 1905, that the preliminary sur- 
 vey was made and work was begun. In 1906 
 work was begun at Pontianak in West Borneo by 
 Rev. C. M. Worthington and in Medan, Sumatra, 
 by Solomon Pakianathan, a Tamil local preacher. 
 In 1907 the work in West Borneo and in Sumatra 
 was united with that in Java and the Netherlands 
 Indies District was formed with J. R. Denyes as 
 Superintendent. 
 
 Less than thirteen years had passed when in 
 February, 1918, The Netherlands Indies Mission 
 Conference was formed with thirty missionaries 
 and twenty-five native preachers and teachers on 
 the roll and nearly a thousand members of the 
 church. Rev. H. B. Mansell is in charge of this 
 new mission. 
 
 From the beginning of mission work in Malay- 
 sia the workers have lived with their eyes upon 
 the horizon. They dream of new fields to con- 
 quer. But it is not the spirit of mere 
 Paulinie adventure or the desire for *'some new 
 Ambition thing'' that prompts this reaching out 
 after new territory. Rather it is the 
 ambition of Paul, who said : '^I have fully preach- 
 ed the Gospel of Christ; yea, being ambitious to 
 preach the Gospel, not where Christ was already 
 named, that I might build on another man's 
 foundation; but as it is written. They shall see, 
 to whom no tidings of him came and who have 
 not heard shall understand." 
 
 41 
 
PROBLEM AND DIFFICULTIES 
 
 The problem in Malaysia is the regeneration of 
 at least fifty million people, ranging in civiliza- 
 tion all the way from the barbarous head hunters 
 of the jungles to the cultured but godless Europ- 
 ean merchant. Upon us as Christians is the re- 
 sponsibility of implanting within 
 Vast Range every heart that will receive it 
 of Work. that new life which comes from 
 God alone and which is the basis of 
 all true spiritual and social reformation. 
 
 The first difficulty to be met in solving the 
 problem is that of language. Malaysia is the 
 meeting place of all languages and dialects. More 
 than fifty languages, to say nothing 
 Multiform of the minor dialects, are spoken on 
 Speech the streets of Singapore. The Su- 
 
 perintendent of the Singapore Dis- 
 trict holds Quarterly Conference in seven distinct 
 languages. When the various native workers are 
 gathered together in District or Annual Confer- 
 ence the question of secretaries and interpreters 
 becomes a serious one. The language of com- 
 merce is Malay, but although the people of every 
 land soon pick up enough of this language to 
 transact ordinary business, very few of them ever 
 learn enough of it to receive religious instruction 
 in it. There is no other way but to seek each 
 group in its own language. This means that 
 every missionary who survives long enough must 
 learn from one to five languages. The multitude 
 of languages complicates the question of provid- 
 ing literature. Dictionaries must be compiled, 
 Bibles and other books must be translated, and 
 hynms must be written. There are no tools ready 
 
 42 
 
at hand, but everything must be made new, not 
 in one tongue only, but in many. 
 
 The second great obstacle to the evangilization 
 of Malaysia is the trying climate. The monotony 
 of intense, moist heat every day in the year so 
 wears upon the nervous system that five years is 
 the limit of time that a missionary can remain in 
 Malaysia without serious risk of permanently 
 injuring his health. Comparatively few of them 
 are able to return to the field after their first 
 term. This leaves the work to a large extent in 
 new hands. 
 
 If a third obstacle should be mentioned, it 
 would be that of the migratory character of the 
 
 population. Just as a few years 
 Changing ago the people of the Eastern 
 Population. States poured out over the Western 
 
 territories of America in search of 
 wealth, moving here and there as the hope of 
 greater profits beckoned them on, so the people 
 of China and India are pouring into Malaysia in 
 search of gain. The whole personnel of a con- 
 gregation may change in a single year. It often 
 seems like sowing seed by the wayside to be lost 
 forever, but it is not entirely so; for as our 
 evangelists push out into new towns and villages 
 they find here, there, and everywhere those who 
 have at some time been in the mission in some 
 other place. This meeting with one known in 
 s^me other city often serves as an opening wedge 
 for the Gospel in a village where it would other- 
 wise be hard to get a hearing. As year ^fter year 
 we enlarge our borders it becomes more and more 
 easy to follow up those in whose hearts some seed 
 has been sown.- 
 
 43 
 
SAVING FORCES. 
 
 The regenerating forces which the Methodist 
 Church is putting into operation in Malaysia may 
 be classified under five heads — evangelistic work, 
 school work, medical work, industrial work, and 
 the spread of Christian literature. 
 
 While the mission of the Church in Malaysia 
 is primarily meant to reach Asiatics, it has not 
 
 overlooked its responsibility to- 
 Evangelizing ward the Europeans settled in the 
 Europeans port cities. The work in Malaysia 
 
 was begun by evangelistic ser- 
 vices among the English speaking people of Sing- 
 apore, and from the first there has been a prac- 
 tically self-supporting church in that place. There 
 are also English-speaking congregations at Pe- 
 nang, Ipoh, and Kuala Lumpur. While these 
 three congregations are not entirely self-support- 
 ing, they contribute largely to the support of the 
 native work in the surrounding villages, and they 
 serve as object lessons in organized church life to 
 the native people. 
 
 In native work, as in English work, the whole 
 machinery of the home church is put into opera- 
 tion as rapidly as the development of the organi- 
 zation will permit. The opening of a new station 
 
 in a village or a neighborhood is 
 Reaching usually preceded by street preach- 
 the Natives, ing. A missionary, with a native 
 
 helper or two, finds his way into a 
 village, selects a convenient street corner, and be- 
 gins to sing. The unusual noise attracts a crowd. 
 The missionary mounts a doorstep or box, and ex- 
 plains the nature of his message and calls upon 
 his helpers to testify to the power of the Gospel. 
 Portions of the Bible, tracts and Christian calen- 
 
 44 
 
dars are offered for sale. Sometimes these visits 
 are made at night, and magic-lantern pictures are 
 thrown upon a screen while the missionary tells 
 the stories of the Bible. Sooner or later some 
 man will be found who is ready to offer the use 
 of a room in his home for a small rental or free 
 for the services. As soon as the prejudice has 
 disappeared sufficiently for the people to sit 
 quietly and listen the crowd is divided into small- 
 er groups, where more direct and personal work 
 can be done. This is the beginning of the Sunday 
 school. 
 
 As converts begin to come in, a rudimentary 
 church organization is formed, which gradually 
 develops into a regular church, with its officers 
 and its sacraments. The converts are taught to 
 give first toward the rent and incidentals and 
 then toward the pastor's salary. A preacher is 
 appointed to look after the congregation, and the 
 missionary moves on to another place, leaving 
 behind him a church self-supporting both finan- 
 cially and spiritually. 
 
 The Methodist Church in Malaysia is now do- 
 ing evangelistic work in thirteen languages — 
 English, Tamil, Malay, Hokkien, Foochow, Hak- 
 ka, Cantonese, Hinghua, Tiu Chieu, Javanese, 
 Sundanese, Battak, and Dutch, — and will soon 
 begin services in the Dyak language. 
 In Many But it has not been according to any 
 Tongues. plan of the missionaries to enter 
 upon so many different fields. They 
 have merely followed the leadings of Pl-ovidence 
 into the open doors. A Foochow man, who also 
 understands the Amoy language, finds his way 
 into an Amoy service, and becomes interested, is 
 converted, and carries the news back to his own 
 family and neighborhood. He gathers about him 
 friends and neighbors who do not understand the 
 Amoy. Their spiritual needs must be met; so 
 
 45 
 
services are begun in Foochow. Thus from step 
 to step the mission has been led to take up new 
 responsibilities until it has reached its present 
 polygot condition. 
 
 The objective point of all mission work is to 
 lead souls to God, and evangelistic work is the 
 most direct method of accomplishing this end. 
 
 But the evangelist does not 
 The Educational always find a welcome. It fre- 
 Door. quently happens that there 
 
 can be found no point of com- 
 mon interest between the missionary and the 
 people. The people are content with their own 
 way of living, and resent any interference on the 
 part of a foreigner. But let a boy or girl become 
 a pupil in one of these mission schools, and the 
 whole situation is at once altered. Interest in a 
 child gives free access to the home and frequently 
 to the hearts of the parents. 
 
 School work may be divided into five classes — 
 day schools for boys and girls, boarding schools 
 for boys and girls, home schools, vernacular 
 schools, and Bible-training schools for men and 
 for women. 
 
 In Singapore, Penang, Taipeng, Ipoh, and Kuala 
 Lumpur there are large Anglo-Chinese schools 
 for boys and for girls, with branches in many 
 smaller towns. The largest of these schools is 
 the Anglo-Chinese Boys' School of Singapore, 
 that being the largest mission school of its kind 
 in the world. 
 
 Boys' and The enrollment for 1918 was 
 
 Girls' Schools. 2,000. The course of study in 
 these institutions range all the 
 way from kindergarten to entrance to Oxford 
 and Cambridge. The teaching is almost entirely 
 in English. The Boys' schools are maintained 
 
 46 
 
without aid from the missionary treasury, de- 
 riving their revenue from three sources — school 
 fees, government grants, and special gifts. 
 
 The objects of these schools are to educate the 
 children of native Christians, to open the homes 
 of the people to the missionaries, to remove the 
 
 prejudices of the people against 
 Their Aims. Christianity, and to open the eyes 
 
 of the younger generation to the 
 moral and spiritual possibilities to be found no- 
 where but in the Gospel. To this end chapel ser- 
 vices are held daily. The children are taught to 
 sing Christian songs, and are instructed in the 
 fundamental truths of religion. Voluntary Bible 
 classes are conducted, at which a good percentage 
 of the students are in attendance. Lessons are 
 explained from the Christian viewpoint, and five 
 days every week the pupils are under the in- 
 fluence of earnest Christian teachers. 
 
 Connected with many of the day schools are 
 boarding schools. The inmates of the boys' 
 
 boarding schools are for the 
 Boarding Schools, most part sons of wealthy 
 
 parents, and these pay for 
 their board. The boarding schools for girls par- 
 take more of the nature of orphanages, and de- 
 pend upon scholarships from America. 
 
 The seclusion of the Chinese girls in the home 
 after they reach the age of twelve or thirteen 
 
 years has compelled the missionaries 
 Home to organize what are called home 
 
 Schools. schools. Bible women go from home 
 
 to home, stopping for an hour or so 
 at each place, teaching the older girls and moth- 
 ers to read and sing. But this social distinction 
 is rapidly disappearing. The girls' schools are 
 overcrowded. Nearly a thousand girls are en- 
 rolled in the two girls schools in Singapore. 
 
 47 
 
Every village church is also a school. The native 
 preacher is expected to see that his church mem- 
 bers and their children are taught to read their 
 Bibles. This work is done in the vernacular of 
 
 the people. The inevitable out- 
 Marked Effect come of this policy is that while 
 in Villages. many of the converts come from 
 
 the poor and illiterate classes, in 
 a comparatively short time the whole social order 
 is overturned, and the Christians become the edu- 
 cated and well-to-do people of the community. 
 
 The most important branch of school work is 
 that of training the native preachers and Bible 
 women. Until the last few years the mission has 
 
 been compelled to depend for 
 Training School the most part upon the illiter- 
 for Men. ate and untrained converts 
 
 that could be picked up or 
 upon other denominations. The untrained con- 
 verts were generally unsatisfactory in places 
 where there was much responsibility, and those 
 brought from China or taken from other de- 
 nominations were unable to fit in readily with the 
 conditions of life as found in the Straits Settle- 
 ments and with the Methodist method of work. 
 The need of more efficient helpers led Dr. West, 
 then presiding elder of the Penang District, to 
 open in 1897 a Bible Training School for young 
 men. For twenty years the school was con- 
 ducted wholly in the vernacular, but in 1917 it 
 was felt that changed conditions had made it es- 
 sential that the native preachers should also have 
 a training in English, in order to provide for the 
 evangelization of the English-speaking natives 
 and in order that the preachers even in the verna- 
 cular churches could fit themselves for leadership 
 in the awakened thinking of the times. 
 
 A similar school for training workers among 
 
 48 
 
Christian Chinese Girl, 
 Medan, Sumatra 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 Of mt 
 
the Mohammedans of Java has been established 
 in Batavia. 
 
 Woman's In 1902 the beginning was 
 
 Training School. made of a Bible Training 
 School for women. For 
 years this school also was conducted wholly in 
 the vernacular, but during the past few years 
 an English Department has been developed for 
 young women who have completed at least the 
 seventh grade in an English school. The experi- 
 ment is still too new to speak with certainty as to 
 practical value of the English training, but there 
 is a conviction among the missionaries that the 
 results will fully justify the work. There can be 
 no question as to the outcome of the lives of the 
 older women who have been trained to carry the 
 gospel story to their fellow countrymen. 
 
 The first Methodist institution started in the 
 Netherlands Indies was a Bible Women's Train- 
 ing School. Within three months after the mis- 
 sion was begun two native women were converted 
 and enrolled as probationers. With these two 
 women Mrs. Denyes began her school. This in- 
 stitution has also grown until it has twenty-five 
 women and girls on the roll. 
 
 Christian In 1890 the Rev. W. G. Shellabear, 
 Literature who as a voluntary worker had been 
 helping in the Mission by preaching 
 to the Malays for two years previously, while he 
 was a Captain in the Royal Engineers, was ap- 
 pointed as a missionary for Malay work, and came 
 out from England with a few hundred dollars 
 which had been raised in England and America by 
 himself and Dr. Oldham to establish a Methodist 
 Mission Press at Singapore. Prom the small begin- 
 ning made in 1890 the printing press grew rapidly 
 until, after ten years, it had become a large concern 
 employing 50 or 60 native printers. As Mr. Shella- 
 
 49 
 
bear's services were required by the Bible Society 
 for the translation of the entire Bible into the 
 Malay language, the management of the Press, 
 now known as the Methodist Publishing House, 
 was handed over to the present agent, Rev. W. T. 
 Cherry, who has brought the enterprise up to its 
 present efficiency and commercial prosperity. The 
 plant is now housed in a beautiful three story brick 
 building of its own, and is valued at more than a 
 hundred thousand dollars. From its presses have 
 come thousands of Bibles, tracts, leaflets, periodi- 
 cals, hymnals, catechisms, dictionaries, and school 
 textbooks, — ^the working tools of the Church. The 
 literature is scattered broadcast by the mission- 
 ary on his rounds, and it not only serves the pur- 
 pose of teaching the truth to those who have al- 
 ready entered the church, but it sows the seed of 
 future harvests. 
 
 50 
 
RESULTS AND OUTLOOKS. 
 
 The first g'eneration in the life of a Christian 
 mission must of necessity be a time of small be- 
 ginning's. The heathen mind cannot 
 Statistics, readily comprehend that spiritual 
 life is a possibility. It takes years 
 for an Asiatic people to realize that Christianity 
 is not a system of forms and ceremonies, purer, 
 perhaps, but not essentially different from their 
 own forms of worship. And yet the church in 
 Malaysia does not come with empty hands as the 
 result of her short life of thirty-four years. At 
 the close of 1917 there were in the Methodist 
 Church of Malaysia 2 Bible Training Schools for 
 men and 2 for women ; 12 Epworth Leagues with 
 769 members ; 74 Sunday Schools with 375 teach- 
 ers and 5188 scholars. There are 15 boarding 
 schools enrolling 449 boarders, and 75 day schools 
 with 392 teachers, 1511 girls and 6839 boys. The 
 foreign staff numbered 36 men and 58 women 
 missionaries, and there were 108 local preachers 
 and 4754 members and probationers. 
 
 But these figures do not tell the whole story 
 of missionary effort. Thousands of Bibles, tracts, 
 Scripture-text pictures, and religious periodicals 
 have been placed in non-Christian homes. Thou- 
 sands of young men and young women have come 
 under the influence of our mission schools, and 
 while they are not as yet Christians, they have lost 
 faith in idolatry. A Christian sentiment has be- 
 gun to pervade public thought, and on every hand 
 are indications that the field is white already to 
 the harvest. 
 
 Policy for It is but natural that mission 
 Pagan Races, work should deal first with the 
 problems nearest at hand. Hence 
 
 51 
 
it has been that Methodism has done but little for 
 the evang'elizing of the pagan races. These folks 
 are nomadic in their habits, moving from place 
 to place at short intervals. There are, however, 
 some tribes which have settled homes. These the 
 mission has in the last few years been attempting 
 to reach. In Sarawak a few of the Dyak boys 
 have been gathered into the industrial school. 
 But in West Borneo the attempt has been more 
 successful. Half a dozen vernacular schools have 
 been started and a hundred and fifty boys and 
 girls are regularly enrolled. The first of the 
 teachers sent into this region was a descendant 
 of the cannibal chief who massacred the mission- 
 aries Lyman and Munson in Sumatra. The gen- 
 eral method adopted for reaching the pagan tribes 
 is that of reaching the children through verna- 
 cular schools and following them into their homes 
 through native evangelists. 
 
 Policy for The problem of dealing with 
 
 Mohammedans. Mohammedans is to get a sym- 
 pathetic hearing. The evange- 
 list finds the people either hostile or indiflferent. 
 Moreover the missionary is finding it increasing- 
 ly difficult to reach the people on account of the 
 rapidly increasing number of Hadjis, or religious 
 teachers. Ten thousand pilgrims from Malaysia 
 find their way annually to the sacred shrine at 
 Mecca. These return to Malaysia with greatly 
 increased social prestige which they use to tight- 
 en the grip of I^lam upon their fellows. Wher- 
 ever there is a Hadji there is a home or perhaps 
 a whole village closed to all mission work. The 
 increase in the number of Hadjis and the rapid, 
 natural increase of the population, which amounts 
 to nearly five hundred thousand a year, makes 
 the outlook rather hopeless, unless we can create 
 
 53 
 
a mass movement at some centre and make it 
 spread to the surrounding districts. 
 
 The first systematic effort of the Methodist 
 Church to reach the Mohammedans is in opera- 
 tion at Tjisaroea, Java. Here a modem, well- 
 equipped hospital with a hundred beds has re- 
 cently been made possible through the generosity 
 of the Dutch Government, the young people of 
 Ohio, and Mr. Bruno Bik who gave a beautiful site 
 of twelve acres of land. Thousands of cases are 
 already being cared for by the doctor. With the 
 doctor is a missionary evangelist who follows up 
 the cases to their homes. In the whole region 
 about the hospital are being established verna- 
 cular schools for the boys and girls. Through 
 the medical work and the schools the whole fam- 
 ily is reached. By massing the schools a public 
 sentiment is created and an impression is left 
 that Christianity is a going concern. Prejudice 
 is dissipated, and it becomes easier not only for 
 the missionary to get a hearing but also for the 
 people to break away from the chains of custom 
 and belief. 
 
 Policy for the No body of missionaries can hope 
 Immigrants* to evangelize the five hundred 
 thousand Indians and Chinese 
 who are pouring into Malaysia every year. More 
 and more the overcrowded provinces of India and 
 China are sending their surplus population into 
 this tropical region. Here free from the petty 
 oppression and squeezing of a corrupt govern- 
 ment, free to develop to its fullest extent a natur- 
 al field capable of wonderful expanison, the 
 Chinese and the Indians are laying the founda- 
 tions of the great republics which are about to 
 be born. 
 
 What shall be the ideals, the morals, the re- 
 ligion of these new nations? This is a question 
 
 53 
 
which the Church must answer. The people for 
 the most part come to Malaysia both poor and 
 ignorant. They will follow the leaders whom they 
 find there. Whoever then makes the leaders of 
 Malaysia will fix the type of the coming civiliza- 
 tion. It has been with this thought in mind that 
 the Methodist Church in Malaysia has developed 
 its Einglish school system. Already eight thou- 
 sand boys and girls are being taught the best of 
 western culture. Not all will become Christians, 
 but all will become better men and women for 
 their contact with the consecrated men and wo- 
 men who have sought to transplant into their 
 hearts the noblest and best in their own. 
 
 Briefly then the policy for the immigrants is to 
 Christianize the future leaders through the 
 schools and through the Christianized leaders set 
 the moral, and social, and religious standards for 
 the coming day. The climax of the school policy 
 is in the Christian University at Singapore of 
 which the foundations, through the generosity of 
 the wealthy Chinese there, are already being laid. 
 
 It is given to the Church of today to do a work 
 which the Church of the next generation cannot 
 do. This generation is re- 
 Preparing sponsible for setting its stamp 
 Native Leaders, upon a civilization in its forma- 
 tive period, at a time when old 
 traditions and superstitutions are losing their 
 hold, when new conditions are forcing upon a peo- 
 ple new habits of life and thought. If the Church 
 is to mold public sentiment in this new era, she 
 must send forth not a few but many trained men 
 and women capable of taking their places as lead- 
 ers among the people. For at least another gen- 
 eration there must be a few well-qualified Ameri- 
 to teach organization, but the great work of 
 transformation must fall upon trained native 
 workers. Funds invested in the work of raising 
 
 54 
 
up an army of consecrated, educated, native 
 Christian leaders will yield an increase of a hun- 
 dredfold. This is the great need of Malaysia. Its 
 beautiful island domain forms the connecting 
 link between our work in southern and eastern 
 Asia, having close commercial and ethnic re- 
 lations on the one side with India and on the other 
 with China. Some of the most devoted repre- 
 sentatives of the Church have offered themselves 
 willingly as a sacrifice for its uplifting. Others 
 are needed, who will follow in the paths which 
 have been opened, and extend the saving influence 
 of the cross, of the schools, and of Christian 
 literature to these millions of people? 
 
 55