Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/128

 —that Hieronymus becomes Jerome, viâ Geronimo, that we make Guano out of Huano, and that we say in Dutch for Guild Heaume—Huillem or Willem (William). This is rather too much to expect of a person who made his fortune in the indigo trade.

Yet such a European cannot converse with such a ‘liplap.’

I understand how Willem (William) is derived from Guillaume, and must confess, that I have made acquaintance with many ‘liplaps,’ especially in the Moluccas or Spice Islands, who surprised me with the extent of their knowledge, and who gave me the idea that we Europeans, whatever advantages we possess, are often, and not comparatively speaking merely, much behind these poor pariahs, who have to struggle from their cradle upwards with an artificial, studied inferiority, and the prejudice against their colour.

But Madam Slotering was once for all guaranteed against faults in the Dutch language, because she spoke Malay. We shall see more of her afterwards when we are drinking tea with Havelaar, Tine, and little Max in the fore-gallery of the Assistant Resident’s mansion at Rankas-Betong, where our travelling company arrived at last safe and sound after having had to endure much jolting and bruising.

The Resident, who had only come along with us to install the new Assistant Resident in his office, intimated