Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/118

 growth you all know how the large tree supplants the small one and kills it. Therefore I shall watch those among you who excel in virtue so that I may seek to become better than I am.

“I greet you all sincerely.

“When the Governor-General instructed me to go to you as the Assistant-Resident of this division, my heart was rejoiced. It may be known to you that I had never set foot in Bantan Kedool. I therefore asked to be given reports dealing with your division, and I have seen that there is much in Bantan Kedool that is good. Your people have rice-fields in the valleys, and there are also rice-fields on the mountains. And you wish to live in peace, and you do not desire to dwell in the lands that are inhabited by others. Yes, I know that there is much that is good in Bantan Kedool.

“But not only for this reason was my heart rejoiced. For in other districts also I should doubtless have found much that was good.

“But I discovered that your people are poor, and about this I was glad in my inmost soul.

“For I know that Allah loves the poor, and that He gives riches to those whom He wishes to test. But to the poor He sends the one who speaks His word, that they may arise from their misery.

“Does He not give rain where the ears are wilting, and a dewdrop in the cup of the thirsty flower?

“And is it not glorious to be sent in search of the weary, who fell behind after the day’s labour, and sank down by the wayside, as their knees were no longer strong enough to bear them in going up to the place where the wages are paid? Should I not rejoice in being able to hold out a helping hand to him who fell into the furrow, and to give a staff to him who has to climb the mountains? Should not my heart leap up within me to see itself chosen among many, that it may turn lamentations into prayer and weeping into thanksgiving?

“Yes, I am greatly rejoiced at being called to Bantan Kedool!

“I have said to the woman who shares my troubles and makes my happiness greater: ‘Rejoice, for I see that Allah gives blessing