Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/444

416 tablished their factories and their forts in those lands. The Dutch finally prevailed, and have for many years enjoyed the monopoly of their spices. Those different sovereigns have produced such a change in the manners of the natives of Amboyna, that it is now difficult to discover any traces of their original character. The Porteguese introduced among those people the catholic religion. The Dutch have used their utmost efforts to render them Protestants, thinking that one of the most likely means to subjugate them. Hence they have a great number of schools, where the children of the natives are instructed in that religion, and in reading and writing Malayan. Service is performed in that language, in a church appropriated to the use of the natives; and in Dutch in another church, attended by the Europeans. There are two ministers belonging to each.

The Chinese, as may well be supposed, have a pagoda in this place.

Some natives, who still adhere to the religion introduced by the Arabs and the Moors, are provided with a mosque. The greatest number of true believers are settled on the other side of the road, to the northward of the town. The Dutch have succeeded much better in making proselytes to their religion, in the vicinity of their principal settlement.