Probably one of the most hilarious stories I have read in the Sarawak Museum Journal, if that publication can ever be called hilarious, is an article by Barbra Harrison entitled “Near to Ngadju”.
Here she relates the tales from the Rhinish Mission of Barmen Germany. The Rhinish missionaries were in search of new lands to conquor as their efforts in South Africa were “saturated” meaning there were too many missionaries. They wanted to expand to Southeast Asia and especially to tame the wild men of Borneo.
In 1833, two missionaries sailed around the Cape and arrived in Batavia (Jakarta) after a five month voyage. The Dutch government, every leery about foreigners, forced them to spend nine months in Java learning Chinese and Malay. One of them had to be sent home for medical reasons while the other went to Banjarmasin via Arab sailing boat to see about setting up a mission. Upon his return, he found four new missionaries had arrived to join him in his endeavors.
On 2 December 1836, the four missionaries sailed up the Barito River singing hymns and accompanied by a violin and accordian. What a sight they must have been to the locals who had to have been astounded four white men singing and playing the accordian and violin as they sailed up the river.
A small European community of about sixty individuals had already been established down river from Banjarmasin with a priest called “Missionary Barnstein”. Across the river was a Chinese community with a Capitan China. Here, the missionaries settled in. Things did not go so well for the dedicated gentlemen as it took six years to build their first church.
The schools were more successful as they had upwards of seventy students who attended but these numbers were vastly reduced to 27 when the Chinese schools opened across the river. Undaunted, the missionaries established five more missions up stream, two on the lower Kapuas and three on the Murong which connected the lower Kapuas and Barito rivers.
Whether the reports sent back to Germany were intended to elict more funds, they reported that the people had deteriored into drunkeness and were fornicators. They also said that their priestess was the major source of their debauchery. Even after two years on untiring devotion to stop these heathen, no relation was ever established between them and their non believer subjects.
Finally, they asked the Dutch goverenment to intercede. They issued a decree to the natives to dwell near the river when not working, not to hide in the jungle so the missionaries could contact them and to stop drinking bouts on Sundays. Some natives, who had received medicines from the church attended Sunday services, but even they dwindled.
In October 1842, the mission received 16 converts including a Chief Ambo and his children. They had reports of a huge 4,000 man force coming down from upriver to attack. Not waiting for the Dutch army to save them, they organized the converts into groups with three rules: They would not take their priestess along,(she or they must have been a real temptress) no drinking and to join in the divine services.
The government finally came and stopped the raids. The “converts” quietly slipped back into the jungle at the encouragement of their pagen bretheren, except for Chief Ambo and their children. Things had quieted down
At about that time the missionaries turned their attention to the slaves. They had the right to purchase them from their masters for the the debt the slaves owed to their keeper. They purchased the slaves from their masters, not to set them free mind you, but to submit them to the Christian values such as join the divine services on Sunday and to go to school. They also could not work on Sundays and not participate in heathen ceremonies.
This strange slave colony whose individuals were owned by the missionaries, gradually grew to over a thousand members. The scheme was financed by voluntary contributions from the Germans from Germany who donated about nine million US dollars at todays rate over a 15 year period. I can just see any slaveholder making a fortune off his slaves.
From: Near to Ngadju by Barbra Harrison in the Sarawak Museum Journal July-December 1959 as told by Tom McLaughlin
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