Very few speak Malay, all these coast villages having been recently formed by inducing natives to leave the inaccessible interior.

In all the central part of Ceram there new remains only one populous village in the mountains.

Towards the east and the extreme west are a few others, with which exceptions all the inhabitants of Ceram are collected on the coast.

In the northern and eastern districts they are mostly Mahometans, while on the southwest coast, nearest Amboyna, they are nominal Christians.

In all this part of the Archipelago the Dutch make very praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of the aborigines by establishing schoolmasters in every village (who are mostly natives of Amboyna or Saparua, who have; been instructed by the resident missionaries), and by employing native vaccinators to prevent the ravages of smallpox.