CHAPTER III.

PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY BY THE DUTCH.

ces.

SECTION I.

CEYLON.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the inhabitants of the United Provinces, after having thrown off the yoke of Spain, carried their victorious arms into the East, and wrested from the crown of Portugal some of her most valuable possessions in that quarter of the world. Among these was the island of Ceylon, the whole coast of which, after some time, fell into their hands, while the interior of the country remained under the dominion of the native prinAs the Portuguese, while it was in their possession, had endeavoured to convert the inhabitants to the church of Rome, so the Dutch now attempted to convert them to the Protestant faith; but, unfortunately, the measures they employed for this purpose were not, in every respect, so judicious as the end was laudable. Besides settling ministers and erecting schools in the island, they issued a proclamation, ordaining, that no native should be raised to the rank of a modelear, or admitted to any employment under the government, unless he subscribed the Helvetic Confession of Faith, and professed himself a member of the Reformed church. This absurd and impolitic order, so well calculated to make the people hypocrites, not Christians, was attended with complete success. The higher ranks of the na

tives, and all who aspired after either dignity or office, immediately professed to abandon the religion of their forefathers, and to embrace the faith of their conquerors.* Even those who under the Portuguese government had become members of the church of Rome, now forsook her communion, and joined the Reformed church.† But while the Dutch endeavoured to bring the Cingalese to the profession of Christianity, the qualifications they required in the catechumens were so very slender, that the most of them, it is probable, were little superior, either in knowledge or practice, to the Popish converts in Pagan countries. Nothing more was demanded of them, than that they should learn to repeat the Lord's prayer, the ten commandments, a morning and evening prayer, and a grace before and after meat.When the ministers in the course of their visitations, were certified by the schoolmaster, that the poor Pagans had committed these things to memory, (for they themselves were ignorant of their language,) they proceeded to baptize them without further ceremony!‡ It is not wonderful, therefore, though the Dutch converts should resemble the Roman Catholic in number as well as in character. In 1663, according to the church registers, there were in the district of Jaffanapatnam alone, 62,558 men and women who professed the Christian faith, exclusive of the slaves, of whom there were 2,587; the number of children who had been baptized, within a few years, amounted to 12,387.§ But these numbers, large as they are, were greatly augmented in a short time. In 1688, the inhabitants of this district amounted to 278,759, of whom there were no fewer than 180,364 who made a profession of Christianity; and of these, it is said, about 40,000 had been converted within the last four years.

Cordiner's Description of Ceylon, vol. i. p. 155.

Conference of the Danish Missionaries, p. 347.

Mather's Ecclesiastical History of New-England, book iii. p. 195.

Baldæus' Description of the Coasts of Malabar, Coromandel, and Ceylon, in Churchhill's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. iii. p, 572.

Toward the close of the seventeenth century, the celebrated Dr. Leusden, informs us, that the Dutch Ministers in Ceylon had baptized about 300,000 of the natives; and in 1720, Vischer, one of the ministers at Batavia, says that in that island the number of Protestants was daily increasing, and that without doubt there were some hundred thousands of the natives who had embraced the Christian faith.*

In the education of the Cingalese youth, the Dutch appear to have employed wiser and more beneficial measures. The whole of their possessions on the island were divided into two hundred and forty churchships or parishes, in each of which one Protestant school was erected. A seminary was likewise established for the instruction of native youths of promising talents, in the Dutch language, in order that, by obtaining through the medium of it more extensive knowledge, they might be better qualified to labour as schoolmasters, catechists, and preachers, among their countrymen. Some were even sent to Europe, where they received a more complete education, and returned to the island ordained to the ministry. In each school, there were from three to four teachers, according to the number of the scholars; and over every ten schools, there was a catechist, whose office it was to visit them once a month, to inquire into the conduct of the teachers, to examine the progress of the scholars, and to exhort them both to diligence. But, in order still further to ensure due attention to the education of the youth, a great number of the schools was placed under the superintendence of the Dutch minister of the district, who was appointed to visit them once a year. There were generally from twelve to fifteen clergymen on the island; and there were nine of these who were intrusted with this important office. Amidst all the care of the Dutch for the education of the youth, it is a singular circumstance, that the girls were totally neglected; it was judged enough for them, if they were able to repeat a

Millar's History of the Propagation of Christianity, vol. ü. pp. 474, 478.

certain number of prayers, and to explain the catechism and creed, before they were allowed to be married.*

Besides some other works translated for the use of the natives, the Dutch have published a considerable part of the sacred writings in the Tamul or Malabar language, which is spoken in the north of Ceylon; and also in the Cingalese, which is the common language of the island.† In 1743, the

Buchanan's Christian Researches, 3 Edit. p. 83. Cordiner, vol. i. p. 155.

Fabricii Lux Salutaris. p. 591.

Baldæus, one of the Dutch ministers, who was a number of years in Ceylon soon after it fell into the possession of the states, informs us, in his "Description of the coasts of Malabar, Coromandel and Ceylon," a work published in Amsterdam in 1672, that in the province of Jaffanapatnam, there were thirty-four native churches, besides those of the Dutch and the Portuguese. Of most of these, indeed, he has given an engraving in that splendid work: and as they served alternately, as a place of worship on the Sabbath, and a schoolhouse through the week, he has given as the following statement of the number of the hearers and scholars who attended them:

This table we have drawn from Baldæus; and where he has stated different numbers, we have taken the medium between them; but we acknowledge the estimates are in general so high, as to appear to us scarcely credible. There were at that time only two or three ministers to all these churches; so that they were obliged to travel from place to place, and to preach three sermons every Sabbath, and once on a week day, besides constantly visiting the congregations in the country. Most of the churches being by this means without a minister on the Sabbath, the schoolmaster, to supply this want, used to read a sermon to the people in their own language, for which purpose a certain number of discourses were allotted to each of the churches. With regard to the schools, Baldæus informs us that in 1663, there were in the province of Jaffanapatnam alone, 15,012 Cingalese children who attended them, exclusive of those in Manaar and the country of the Waniar, where, in 1665, there were 1,315. At the time of his departure from the island the children in the schools had increased to 18,000. Baldæus. in Churchhill, vol. iii. p. 713, 719.

† Baldus in Churchhill, vol. iii. p. 719.-Transactions of the Missionary Society, vol. ii. p. 434-See also Hodgson's Life of Bishop Porteus, p. 250.-Christian Observer, vol. i. p. 329.

New Testament in Tamul was printed at Colombo, under the auspices of the Dutch governor.* Previous to this, the four gospels were translated into Cingalese; and in 1783, the whole of the New Testament, with the books of Genesis, Exodus, and part of Leviticus, were published in that language at Colombo.† These, with a version of the Psalms of David, are the whole of the sacred writings which have as yet been printed in Cingalesc; but from the exertions that are now making for translating the Holy Scriptures in the East, it is probable, that the whole Bible will soon be printed in that language, especially as a Bible Society has lately been instituted at Colombo, the capital of the island, with a particular view to this object.

In 1796 the Dutch possessions on the island of Ceylon surrendered to the arms of the British; and for a considerable time the religious instruction of the natives occupied no part of the attention of their new masters. The European clergymen became prisoners of war; the native catechists and schoolmasters no longer received their salaries; the duties of public worship, and the education of the youth, were either feebly discharged, or entirely neglected; and the memorials presented by the inhabitants on these subjects, were considered by a military commander, either as matters in which he had no concern, or which he had not power to redress.¶ Many of the churches now fell to ruins; thousands of the natives, who had once called themselves Christians, relapsed into heathenism; and the prohibition of the Dutch against erecting any new Pagan temples being no longer in force, the number of these was doubled in a short time.**

After a lapse of near three years, the Honourable Frederick North, the first civil governor who was appointed by his Majesty, arrived at Colombo. Under his administration,

• Bibliographical Dictionary, vol. vi. p. 215.

† Report British and Foreign Bible Society, 1810, App. p. 86.

Bib. Diet. vol. i. p. 287.

§ Report British and Foreign Bible Society, 1813, App. p. 62.

¶ Cordiner, vol. i. p. 159.

** Proceedings of the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, vol. i.