Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/319

 IN THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. %*J^ tercqurse, the people of the Archipelago had re- ceived a new religion, more popular, because in- troduced with more skill, and under circumstances more agreeable to the genius of their charactex% their state of society, and their temporal prosperity. Had not, however, the violence, injustice, and ra- pacity of the first Europeans estranged the natives from their worship, they were still in time enough, for scarcely was the Mahomedan religion any where fully established. The greater number of the people of the Moluccas and neighbouring isles were Pagans, so were many of the Javanese, and even many of the inhabitants of Malacca were so. The success of the Mahomedan missionaries, contrasted with the failure of the Christian^ it is not difficult to trace to the true cause. The Arabs and the other Mahomedan missionaries conciliated the natives of the country, — ^acquired their language, — followed their manners, — intermarried with them, — and, melting into the mass of the people, did not, on the one hand, give rise to a privileged race, nor on the other, to a degraded cast. Their superiority of intelligence and civilisation was employed only for the instruction and conversion of a people, the current of whose religious opinions was ready to be directed into any channel into which it was skil- fully diverted. They were merchants as well as the Europeans, but never dreamt of having re- course to the iniquitous measure of plundering the