This thesis is an attempt to analyze and describe the Malay language used in Tjahaja Sijang, the first newspaper in Minahasa in the 19th century. Minahasa, the far end of the Northeastern peninsula of Celebes (Sulawesi) possessed eight indigenous languages, but for particular reasons Malay was used in church and school. At that time people knew two varieties of Malay. The literary variety was used in school and in church by the Protestant missionaries in the interior mountainous areas, where-as the colloquial one was used as contact language at the coastal areas. With the growing traffic between the two language societies, mutual interference was likely to happen, creating a third variety. As the contributing writers represented all levels of the Minahasaa society and language groups, the language of this newspaper is assumed to reflect the Malay varieties used during its thirty one years-of publication-(1$69-1900). The entire discussion is divided in seven chapters. Chapter I gives the rationale, objectives and significance of the project; the research methodology; the data; some information about Minahasa: its land,- its people and their language, religion and government. A brief historical account of the socio cultural and political background is given in Chapter II, to explain the historical influences and foreign cultures that had contact with the Minahasans. Chapter III attempts to trace the development of Malay and its varieties and to describe the literary and colloquial varieties' in Tjahaja Sijang. The third variety is separately discussed in Chapter IV. Chapter V focuses on the foreign lexical influence, and Chapter VI tries to explain the spelling system. Findings and conclusions are stated in Chapter VII. Lists of loanwords and samples of translated texts in Malay are in the Appendices.