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+Project Gutenberg Etext The Malay Archipelago by Alfred R. Wallace
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+Volume 2
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+Title:  The Malay Archipelago
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+Author:  by Alfred Russell Wallace
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+February, 2001  [Etext #2539]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext The Malay Archipelago by Alfred R. Wallace
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+The Malay Archipelago by Alfred R. Wallace
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME II
+
+By
+
+ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE MOLUCCAS--TERNATE.
+
+ON the morning of the 8th of January, 1858, I arrived at Ternate,
+the fourth of a row of fine conical volcanic islands which shirt
+the west coast of the large and almost unknown n island of
+Gilolo. The largest and most perfectly conical mountain is
+Tidore, which is over four thousand Feet high--Ternate being very
+nearly the same height, but with a more rounded and irregular
+summit. The town of Ternate is concealed from view till we enter
+between the two islands, when it is discovered stretching along
+the shore at the very base of the mountain. Its situation is
+fine, and there are grand views on every side. Close opposite is
+the rugged promontory and beautiful volcanic cone of Tidore; to
+the east is the long mountainous coast of Gilolo, terminated
+towards the north by a group of three lofty volcanic peaks, while
+immediately behind the town rises the huge mountain, sloping
+easily at first and covered with thick groves of fruit trees, but
+soon becoming steeper, and furrowed with deep gullies. Almost to
+the summit, whence issue perpetually faint wreaths of smoke, it
+is clothed with vegetation, and looks calm and beautiful,
+although beneath are hidden fires which occasionally burst forth
+in lava-streams, but more frequently make their existence known
+by the earthquakes which have many times devastated the town.
+
+I brought letters of introduction to Mr. Duivenboden, a native of
+Ternate, of an ancient Dutch family, but who was educated in
+England, and speaks our language perfectly. He was a very rich
+man, owned half the town, possessed many ships, and above a
+hundred slaves. He was moreover, well educated, and fond of
+literature and science--a phenomenon in these regions. He was
+generally known as the king of Ternate, from his large property
+and great influence with the native Rajahs and their subjects.
+Through his assistance I obtained a house; rather ruinous, but
+well adapted to my purpose, being close to the town, yet with a
+free outlet to the country and the mountain. A few needful
+repairs were soon made, some bamboo furniture and other
+necessaries obtained, and after a visit to the Resident and
+Police Magistrate I found myself an inhabitant of the earthquake-
+tortured island of Ternate, and able to look about me and lay
+down the plan of my campaign for the ensuing year. I retained
+this house for three years, as I found it very convenient to have
+a place to return to after my voyages to the various islands of
+the Moluccas and New Guinea, where I could pack my collections,
+recruit my health, and make preparations for future journeys. To
+avoid repetitions, I will in this chapter combine what notes I
+have about Ternate.
+
+A description of my house (the plan of which is here shown) will
+enable the reader to understand a very common mode of building in
+these islands. There is of course only one floor. The walls are
+of stone up to three feet high; on this are strong squared posts
+supporting the roof, everywhere except in the verandah filled in
+with the leaf-stems of the sago-palm, fitted neatly in wooden
+owing. The floor is of stucco, and the ceilings are like the
+walls. The house is forty feet square, consists of four rooms, a
+hall, and two verandahs, and is surrounded by a wilderness of
+fruit trees. A deep well supplied me with pure cold water, a
+great luxury in this climate. Five minutes' walk down the road
+brought me to the market and the beach, while in the opposite
+direction there were no more European houses between me and the
+mountain. In this house I spent many happy days. Returning to it
+after a three or four months' absence in some uncivilized region,
+I enjoyed the unwonted luxuries of milk and fresh bread, and
+regular supplies of fish and eggs, meat and vegetables, which
+were often sorely needed to restore my health and energy. I had
+ample space and convenience or unpacking, sorting, and arranging
+my treasures, and I had delightful walks in the suburbs of the
+town, or up the lower slopes of the mountain, when I desired a
+little exercise, or had time for collecting.
+
+The lower part of the mountain, behind the town of Ternate, is
+almost entirely covered with a forest of fruit trees, and during
+the season hundreds of men and women, boys and girls, go up every
+day to bring down the ripe fruit. Durians and Mangoes, two of the
+very finest tropical fruits, are in greater abundance at Ternate
+than I have ever seen them, and some of the latter are of a
+quality not inferior to any in the world. Lansats and Mangustans
+are also abundant, but these do not ripen till a little later.
+Above the fruit trees there is a belt of clearings and cultivated
+grounds, which creep up the mountain to a height of between two
+and three thousand feet, above which is virgin forest, reaching
+nearly to the summit, which on the side next the town is covered
+with a high reedy grass. On the further side it is more elevated,
+of a bare and desolate aspect, with a slight depression marking
+the position of the crater. From this part descends a black
+scoriaceous tract; very rugged, and covered with a scanty
+vegetation of scattered bushes as far down as the sea. This is
+the lava of the great eruption near a century ago, and is called
+by the natives "batu-angas"(burnt rock).
+
+Just below my house is the fort, built by the Portuguese, below
+which is an open space to the peach, and beyond this the native
+town extends for about a mile to the north-east. About the centre
+of it is the palace of the Sultan, now a large untidy, half-
+ruinous building of stone. This chief is pensioned by the Dutch
+Government, but retains the sovereignty over the native
+population of the island, and of the northern part of Gilolo. The
+sultans of Ternate and Tidore were once celebrated through the
+East for their power and regal magnificence. When Drake visited
+Ternate in 1579, the Portuguese had been driven out of the
+island, although they still had a settlement at Tidore. He gives
+a glowing account of the Sultan: "The King had a very rich canopy
+with embossings of gold borne over him, and was guarded with
+twelve lances. From the waist to the ground was all cloth of
+gold, and that very rich; in the attire of his head were finely
+wreathed in, diverse rings of plaited gold, of an inch or more in
+breadth, which made a fair and princely show, somewhat resembling
+a crown in form; about his neck he had a chain of perfect gold,
+the links very great and one fold double; on his left hand was a
+diamond, an emerald, a ruby, and a turky; on his right hand in
+one ring a big and perfect turky, and in another ring many
+diamonds of a smaller size."
+
+All this glitter of barbaric gold was the produce of the spice
+trade, of which the Sultans kept the monopoly, and by which they
+became wealthy. Ternate, with the small islands in a line south
+of it, as far as Batchian, constitute the ancient Moluccas, the
+native country of the clove, as well as the only part in which it
+was cultivated. Nutmegs and mace were procured from the natives
+of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, where they grew wild; and
+the profits on spice cargoes were so enormous, that the European
+traders were glad to give gold and jewels, and the finest
+manufactures of Europe or of India, in exchange. When the Dutch
+established their influence in these seas, and relieved the
+native princes from their Portuguese oppressors, they saw that
+the easiest way to repay themselves would be to get this spice
+trade into their own hands. For this purpose they adopted the
+wise principle of concentrating the culture of these valuable
+products in those spots only of which they could have complete
+control. To do this effectually it was necessary to abolish the
+culture and trade in all other places, which they succeeded in
+doing by treaty with the native rulers. These agreed to have all
+the spice trees in their possessions destroyed. They gave up
+large though fluctuating revenues, but they gained in return a
+fixed subsidy, freedom from the constant attacks and harsh
+oppressions of the Portuguese, and a continuance of their regal
+power and exclusive authority over their own subjects, which is
+maintained in all the islands except Ternate to this day.
+
+It is no doubt supposed by most Englishmen, who have been
+accustomed to look upon this act of the Dutch with vague horror,
+as something utterly unprincipled and barbarous, that the native
+population suffered grievously by this destruction of such
+valuable property. But it is certain that this was not the case.
+The Sultans kept this lucrative trade entirely in their own hands
+as a rigid monopoly, and they would take care not to give, their
+subjects more than would amount to their usual wages, while: they
+would surely exact as large a quantity of spice as they could
+possibly obtain. Drake and other early voyagers always seem to
+have purchased their spice-cargoes from the Sultans and Rajahs,
+and not from the cultivators. Now the absorption of so much
+labour in the cultivation of this one product must necessarily
+have raised the price of food and other necessaries; and when it
+was abolished, more rice would be grown, more sago made, more
+fish caught, and more tortoise-shell, rattan, gum-dammer, and
+other valuable products of the seas and the forests would be
+obtained. I believe, therefore, that this abolition of the spice
+trade in the Moluccas was actually beneficial to the inhabitants,
+and that it was an act both wise in itself and morally and
+politically justifiable.
+
+In the selection of the places in which to carry on the
+cultivation, the Dutch were not altogether fortunate or wise.
+Banda was chosen for nutmegs, and was eminently successful, since
+ü; continues to this day to produce a large supply of this spice,
+and to yield a considerable revenue. Amboyna was fixed upon for
+establishing the clove cultivation; but the soil and climate,
+although apparently very similar to that of its native islands,
+is not favourable, and for some years the Government have
+actually been paying to the cultivators a higher rate than they
+could purchase cloves elsewhere, owing to a great fall in the
+price since the rate of payment was fixed for a term of years by
+the Dutch Government, and which rate is still most honourably
+paid.
+
+In walking about the suburbs of Ternate, we find everywhere the
+ruins of massive stone and brick buildings, gateways and arches,
+showing at once the superior wealth of the ancient town and the
+destructive effects of earthquakes. It was during my second stay
+in the town, after my return from New Guinea, that I first felt
+an earthquake. It was a very slight one, scarcely more than has
+been felt in this country, but occurring in a place that lad been
+many times destroyed by them it was rather more exciting. I had
+just awoke at gun-fire (5 A.M.), when suddenly the thatch began
+to rustle and shake as if an army of cats were galloping over it,
+and immediately afterwards my bed shook too, so that for an
+instant I imagined myself back in New Guinea, in my fragile
+house, which shook when an old cock went to roost on the ridge;
+but remembering that I was now on a solid earthen floor, I said
+to myself, "Why, it's an earthquake," and lay still in the
+pleasing expectation of another shock; but none came, and this
+was the only earthquake I ever felt in Ternate.
+
+The last great one was in February 1840, when almost every house
+in the place was destroyed. It began about midnight on the
+Chinese New Year's festival, at which time every one stays up
+nearly all night feasting at the Chinamen's houses and seeing the
+processions. This prevented any lives being lost, as every one
+ran out of doors at the first shock, which was not very severe.
+The second, a few minutes afterwards, threw down a great many
+houses, and others, which continued all night and part of the
+next day, completed the devastation. The line of disturbance was
+very narrow, so that the native town a mile to the east scarcely
+suffered at all. The wave passed from north to south, through the
+islands of Tidore and Makian, and terminated in Batchian, where
+it was not felt till four the following afternoon, thus taking no
+less than sixteen hours to travel a hundred miles, or about six
+miles an hour. It is singular that on this occasion there was no
+rushing up of the tide, or other commotion of the sea, as is
+usually the case during great earthquakes.
+
+The people of Ternate are of three well-marked races the Ternate
+Malays, the Orang Sirani, and the Dutch. The first are an
+intrusive Malay race somewhat allied to the Macassar people, who
+settled in the country at a very early epoch, drove out the
+indigenes, who were no doubt the same as those of the adjacent
+mainland of Gilolo, and established a monarchy. They perhaps
+obtained many of their wives from the natives, which will account
+for the extraordinary language they speak--in some respects
+closely  allied to that of the natives of Gilolo, while it
+contains much that points to a Malayan origin. To most of these
+people the Malay language is quite unintelligible, although such
+as are engaged in trade are obliged to acquire it. "Orang
+Sirani," or Nazarenes, is the name given by the Malays to the
+Christian descendants of the Portuguese, who resemble those of
+Amboyna, and, like them, speak only Malay. There are also a
+number of Chinese merchants, many of them natives of the place, a
+few Arabs, and a number of half-breeds between all these races
+and native women. Besides these there are some Papuan slaves, and
+a few natives of other islands settled here, making up a motley
+and very puzzling population, till inquiry and observation have
+shown the distinct origin of its component parts.
+
+Soon after my first arrival in Ternate I went to the island of
+Gilolo, accompanied by two sons of Mr. Duivenboden, and by a
+young Chinaman, a brother of my landlord, who lent us the boat
+and crew. These latter were all slaves, mostly Papuans, and at
+starting I saw something of the relation of master and slave in
+this part of the world. The crew had been ordered to be ready at
+three in the morning, instead of which none appeared till five,
+we having all been kept waiting in the dark and cold for two
+hours. When at length they came they were scolded by their
+master, but only in a bantering manner, and laughed and joked
+with him in reply. Then, just as we were starting, one of the
+strongest men refused to go at all, and his master had to beg and
+persuade him to go, and only succeeded by assuring him that I
+would give him something; so with this promise, and knowing that
+there would be plenty to eat and drink and little to do, the
+black gentleman was induced to favour us with his company and
+assistance. In three hours' rowing and sailing we reached our
+destination, Sedingole, where there is a house belonging to the
+Sultan of Tidore, who sometimes goes there hunting. It was a
+dirty ruinous shed, with no furniture but a few bamboo bedsteads.
+On taking a walk into the country, I saw at once that it was no
+place for me. For many miles extends a plain covered with coarse
+high grass, thickly dotted here and there with trees, the forest
+country only commencing at the hills a good way in the interior.
+Such a place would produce few birds and no insects, and we
+therefore arranged to stay only two days, and then go on to
+Dodinga, at the narrow central isthmus of Gilolo, whence my
+friends would return to Ternate. We amused ourselves shooting
+parrots, lories, and pigeons, and trying to shoot deer, of which
+we saw plenty, but could not get one; and our crew went out
+fishing with a net, so we did not want for provisions. When the
+time came for us to continue our journey, a fresh difficulty
+presented itself, for our gentlemen slaves refused in a body to
+go with us; saying very determinedly that they would return to
+Ternate. So their masters were obliged to submit, and I was left
+behind to get to Dodinga as I could. Luckily I succeeded in
+hiring a small boat, which took me there the same night, with my
+two men and my baggage.
+
+Two or three years after this, and about the same length of time
+before I left the East, the Dutch emancipated all their slaves,
+paying their owners a small compensation. No ill results
+followed. Owing to the amicable relations which had always
+existed between them and their masters, due no doubt in part to
+the Government having long accorded them legal rights and
+protection against cruelty and ill-usage, many continued in the
+same service, and after a little temporary difficulty in some
+cases, almost all returned to work either for their old or for
+new, masters. The Government took the very proper step of placing
+every emancipated slave under the surveillance of the police-
+magistrate. They were obliged to show that they were working for
+a living, and had some honestly-acquired means of existence. All
+who could not do so were placed upon public works at low wages,
+and thus were kept from the temptation to peculation or other
+crimes, which the excitement of newly-acquired freedom, and
+disinclination to labour, might have led them into.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+GILOLO.
+
+(MARCH AND SEPTEMBER 1858.)
+
+I MADE but few and comparatively short visits to this large and
+little known island, but obtained a considerable knowledge of its
+natural history by sending first my boy Ali, and then my
+assistant, Charles Allen, who stayed two or three months each in
+the northern peninsula, and brought me back large collections of
+birds and insects. In this chapter I propose to give a sketch of
+the parts which I myself visited. My first stay was at Dodinga,
+situated at the head of a deep-bay exactly opposite Ternate, and
+a short distance up a little stream which penetrates a few miles
+inland. The village is a small one, and is completely shut in by
+low hills.
+
+As soon as I arrived, I applied to the head man of the village
+for a house to live in, but all were occupied, and there was much
+difficulty in finding one. In the meantime I unloaded my baggage
+on the beach and made some tea, and afterwards discovered a small
+but which the owner was willing to vacate if I would pay him five
+guilders for a month's rent. As this was something less than the
+fee-simple value of the dwelling, I agreed to give it him for the
+privilege of immediate occupation, only stipulating that he was
+to make the roof water-tight. This he agreed to do, and came
+every day to tally and look at me; and when I each time insisted
+upon his immediately mending the roof according to contract, all
+the answer I could get was, "Ea nanti," (Yes, wait a little.)
+However, when I threatened to deduct a quarter guilder from the
+rent for every day it was not done, and a guilder extra if any of
+my things were wetted, he condescended to work for half an hour,
+which did all that was absolutely necessary.
+
+On the top of a bank, of about a hundred feet ascent from the
+water, stands the very small but substantial fort erected by the
+Portuguese. Its battlements and turrets have long since been
+overthrown by earthquakes, by which its massive structure has
+also been rent; but it cannot well be thrown down, being a solid
+mass of stonework, forming a platform about ten feet high, and
+perhaps forty feet square. It is approached by narrow steps under
+an archway, and is now surmounted by a row of thatched hovels, in
+which live the small garrison, consisting of, a Dutch corporal
+and four Javanese soldiers, the sole representatives of the
+Netherlands Government in the island. The village is occupied
+entirely by Ternate men. The true indigenes of Gilolo, "Alfuros"
+as they are here called, live on the eastern coast, or in the
+interior of the northern peninsula. The distance across the
+isthmus at this place is only two miles, and there, is a good
+path, along which rice and sago are brought from the eastern
+villages. The whole isthmus is very rugged, though not high,
+being a succession of little abrupt hills anal valleys, with
+angular masses of limestone rock everywhere projecting, and often
+almost blocking up the pathway. Most of it is virgin forest, very
+luxuriant and picturesque, and at this time having abundance of
+large scarlet Ixoras in flower, which made it exceptionally gay.
+I got some very nice insects here, though, owing to illness most
+of the time, my collection was a small one, and my boy Ali shot
+me a pair of one of the most beautiful birds of the East, Pitta
+gigas, a lame ground-thrush, whose plumage of velvety black above
+is relieved by a breast of pure white, shoulders of azure blue,
+and belly of vivid crimson. It has very long and strong legs, and
+hops about with such activity in the dense tangled forest,
+bristling with rocks, as to make it very difficult to shoot.
+
+In September 1858, after my return from New Guinea, I went to
+stay some time at the village of Djilolo, situated in a bay on
+the northern peninsula. Here I obtained a house through the
+kindness of the Resident of Ternate, who sent orders to prepare
+one for me. The first walk into the unexplored forests of a new
+locality is a moment of intense interest to the naturalist, as it
+is almost sure to furnish him with something curious or hitherto
+unknown. The first thing I saw here was a flock of small
+parroquets, of which I shot a pair, and was pleased to find a
+most beautiful little long-tailed bird, ornamented with green,
+red, and blue colours, and quite new to me. It was a variety of
+the Charmosyna placentis, one of the smallest and most elegant of
+the brush-tongued lories. My hunters soon shot me several other
+fine birds, and I myself found a specimen of the rare and
+beautiful day-flying moth, Cocytia d'Urvillei.
+
+The village of Djilolo was formerly the chief residence of the
+Sultans of Ternate, till about eighty years ago, when at the
+request of the Dutch they removed to their present abode. The
+place was then no doubt much more populous, as is indicated by
+the wide extent of cleared land in the neighbourhood, now covered
+with coarse high grass, very disagreeable to walk through, and
+utterly barren to the naturalist. A few days' exploring showed me
+that only some small patches of forest remained for miles wound,
+and the result was a scarcity of insects and a very limited
+variety of birds, which obliged me to change my locality. There
+was another village called Sahoe, to which there was a road of
+about twelve miles overland, and this had been recommended to me
+as a good place for birds, and as possessing a large population
+both of Mahomotans and Alfuros, which latter race I much wished
+to see. I set off one morning to examine this place myself,
+expecting to pass through some extent of forest on my way. In
+this however I was much disappointed, as the whole road lies
+through grass and scrubby thickets, and it was only after
+reaching the village of Sahoe that some high forest land was
+perceived stretching towards the mountains to the north of it.
+About half-way we dad to pass a deep river on a bamboo raft,
+which almost sunk beneath us. This stream was said to rise a long
+way off to the northward.
+
+Although Sahoe did not at all appear what I expected, I
+determined to give it a trial, and a few days afterwards obtained
+a boat to carry my things by sea while I walked overland. A large
+house on the beach belonging to the Sultan was given me. It stood
+alone, and was quite open on every side, so that little privacy
+could be had, but as I only intended to stay a short time I made
+it do. Avery, few days dispelled all hopes I might have
+entertained of making good collections in this place. Nothing was
+to be found in every direction but interminable tracts of reedy
+grass, eight or ten feet high, traversed by narrow baths, often
+almost impassable. Here and there were clumps of fruit trees,
+patches of low wood, and abundance of plantations and rice
+grounds, all of which are, in tropical regions, a very desert for
+the entomologist. The virgin forest that I was in search of,
+existed only on the summits and on the steep rocky sides of the
+mountains a long way off, and in inaccessible situations. In the
+suburbs of the village I found a fair number of bees and wasps,
+and some small but interesting beetles. Two or three new birds
+were obtained by my hunters, and by incessant inquiries and
+promises Í succeeded in getting the natives to bring me some land
+shells, among which was a very fine and handsome one, Helix
+pyrostoma. I was, however, completely wasting my time here
+compared with what I might be doing in a good locality, and after
+a week returned to Ternate, quite disappointed with my first
+attempts at collecting in Gilolo.
+
+In the country round about Sahoe, and in the interior, there is a
+large population of indigenes, numbers of whom came daily into
+the village, bringing their produce for sale, while others were
+engaged as labourers by the Chinese and Ternate traders. A
+careful examination convinced me that these people are radically
+distinct from all the Malay races. Their stature and their
+features, as well as their disposition and habits, are almost the
+same as those of the Papuans; their hair is semi-Papuan-neither
+straight, smooth, and glossy, like all true Malays', nor so
+frizzly and woolly as the perfect Papuan type, but always crisp,
+waved, and rough, such as often occurs among the true Papuans,
+but never among the Malays. Their colour alone is often exactly
+that of the Malay, or even lighter. Of course there has been
+intermixture, and there occur occasionally individuals which it
+is difficult to classify; but in most cases the large, somewhat
+aquiline nose, with elongated apex, the tall stature, the waved
+hair, the bearded face, and hairy body, as well as the less
+reserved manner and louder voice, unmistakeably proclaim the
+Papuan type. Here then I had discovered the exact boundary lice
+between the Malay and Papuan races, and at a spot where no other
+writer had expected it. I was very much pleased at this
+determination, as it gave me a clue to one of the most difficult
+problems in Ethnology, and enabled me in many other places to
+separate the two races, and to unravel their intermixtures.
+
+On my return from Waigiou in 1860, I stayed some days on the
+southern extremity of Gilolo; but, beyond seeing something more
+of its structure and general character, obtained very little
+additional information. It is only in the northern peninsula that
+there are any indígenes, the whole of the rest of the island,
+with Batchian and the other islands westward, being exclusively
+inhabited by Malay tribes, allied to those of Ternate and Tidore.
+This would seem to indicate that the Alfuros were a comparatively
+recent immigration, and that they lead come from the north or
+east, perhaps from some of the islands of the Pacific. It is
+otherwise difficult to understand how so many fertile districts
+should possess no true indigenes.
+
+Gilolo, or Halmaheira as it is called by the Malays and Dutch,
+seems to have been recently modified by upheaval and subsidence.
+In 1673, a mountain is said to stave been upheaved at Gamokonora
+on the northern peninsula. All the parts that I have seen have
+either been volcanic or coralline, and along the coast there are
+fringing coral reefs very dangerous to navigation. At the same
+time, the character of its natural history proves it to be a
+rather ancient land, since it possesses a number of animals
+peculiar to itself or common to the small islands around it, but
+almost always distinct from those of New Guinea on the east, of
+Ceram on the south, and of Celebes and the Sula islands on the
+west.
+
+The island of Morty, close to the north-eastern extremity of
+Gilolo, was visited by my assistant Charles Allen, as well as by
+Dr. Bernstein; and the collections obtained there present some
+curious differences from those of the main island. About fifty-
+six species of land-birds are known to inhabit this island, and
+of these, a kingfisher (Tanysiptera Boris), a honey-sucker
+(Tropidorhynchus fuscicapillus), and a large crow-like starling
+(Lycocorax morotensis), are quite distinct from allied species
+found in Gilolo. The island is coralline and sandy, and we must
+therefore believe it to have been separated from Gilolo at a
+somewhat remote epoch; while we learn from its natural history
+that an arm of the sea twenty-five miles wide serves to limit the
+range even of birds of considerable powers of flight.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+TERNATE TO THE KAIOA ISLANDS AND BATCHIAN.
+
+(OCTOBER 1858.)
+
+ON returning to Ternate from Sahoe, I at once began  making
+preparations for a journey to Batchian, an island which I had
+been constantly recommended to visit since I had arrived in this
+part of the Moluccas. After all was ready I found that I should
+have to hire a boat, as no opportunity of obtaining a passage
+presented itself. I accordingly went into the native town, and
+could only find two boats for hire, one much larger than I
+required, and the other far smaller than I wished. I chose the
+smaller one, chiefly because it would not cost me one-third as
+much as the larger one, and also because in a coasting voyage a
+small vessel can be more easily managed, and more readily got
+into a place of safety during violent gales, than a large one. I
+took with me my Bornean lad Ali, who was now very useful to me;
+Lahagi, a native of Ternate, a very good steady man, and a fair
+shooter, who had been with me to New Guinea; Lahi, a native of
+Gilolo, who could speak Malay, as woodcutter and general
+assistant; and Garo, a boy who was to act as cook. As the boat
+was so small that we had hardly room to stow ourselves away when
+all my stores were on board, I only took one other man named
+Latchi, as pilot. He was a Papuan slave, a tall, strong black
+fellow, but very civil and careful. The boat I had hired from a
+Chinaman named Lau Keng Tong, for five guilders a month.
+
+We started on the morning of October 9th, but had not got a
+hundred yards from land, when a strong head wind sprung up,
+against which we could not row, so we crept along shore to below
+the town, and waited till the turn of the tide should enable us
+to cross over to the coast of Tidore. About three in the
+afternoon we got off, and found that our boat sailed well, and
+would keep pretty close to the wind. We got on a good way before
+the wind fell and we had to take to our oars again. We landed on
+a nice sandy beach to cook our suppers, just as the sun set
+behind the rugged volcanic hills, to the south of the great cone
+of Tidore, and soon after beheld the planet Venus shining in the
+twilight with the brilliancy of a new moon, and casting a very
+distinct shadow. We left again a little before seven, and as we
+got out from the shadow of the mountain I observed a bright light
+over one part of the edge, and soon after, what seemed a fire of
+remarkable whiteness on the very summit of the hill. I called the
+attention of my men to it, and they too thought it merely a fire;
+but a few minutes afterwards, as we got farther off shore, the
+light rose clear up above the ridge of the hill, and some faint
+clouds clearing away from it, discovered the magnificent comet
+which was at the same time, astonishing all Europe. The nucleus
+presented to the naked eye a distinct disc of brilliant white
+light, from which the tail rose at an angle of about 30° or 35°
+with the horizon, curving slightly downwards, and terminating in
+a broad brush of faint light, the curvature of which diminished
+till it was nearly straight at the end. The portion of the tail
+next the comet appeared three or four tunes as bright as the most
+luminous portion of the milky way, and what struck me as a
+singular feature was that its upper margin, from the nucleus to
+very near the extremity, was clearly and almost sharply defined,
+while the lower side gradually shaded off into obscurity.
+Directly it rose above the ridge of the hill, I said to my men,
+"See, it's not a fire, it's a bintang ber-ekor" ("tailed-star,"
+the Malay idiom for a comet). "So it is," said they; and all
+declared that they had often heard tell of such, but had never
+seen one till now. I had no telescope with me, nor any instrument
+at hand, but I estimated the length of the tail at about 20°, and
+the width, towards the extremity, about 4° or 5°.
+
+The whole of the next day we were obliged to stop near the
+village of Tidore, owing to a strong wind right in our teeth. The
+country was all cultivated, and I in vain searched for any
+insects worth capturing. One of my men went out to shoot, but
+returned home without a single bird. At sunset, the wind having
+dropped, we quitted Tidore, and reached the next island, March,
+where we stayed till morning. The comet was again visible, but
+not nearly so brilliant, being partly obscured by clouds; and
+dimmed by the light of the new moon. We then rowed across to the
+island of Motir, which is so surrounded with coral-reefs that it
+is dangerous to approach. These are perfectly flat, and are only
+covered at high water, ending in craggy vertical walls of coral
+in very deep water. When there is a little wind, it is dangerous
+to come near these rocks; but luckily it was quite smooth, so we
+moored to their edge, while the men crawled over the reef to the
+land, to make; a fire and cook our dinner-the boat having no
+accommodation for more than heating water for my morning and
+evening coffee. We then rowed along the edge of the reef to the
+end of the island, and were glad to get a nice westerly breeze,
+which carried us over the strait to the island of Makian, where
+we arrived about 8 P.M, The sky was quite clear, and though the
+moon shone brightly, the comet appeared with quite as much
+splendour as when we first saw it.
+
+The coasts of these small islands are very different according to
+their geological formation. The volcanoes, active or extinct,
+have steep black beaches of volcanic sand, or are fringed with
+rugged masses of lava and basalt. Coral is generally absent,
+occurring only in small patches in quiet bays, and rarely or
+never forming reefs. Ternate, Tidore, and Makian belong to this
+class. Islands of volcanic origin, not themselves volcanoes, but
+which have been probably recently upraised, are generally more or
+less completely surrounded by fringing reefs of coral, and have
+beaches of shining white coral sand. Their coasts present
+volcanic conglomerates, basalt, and in some places a foundation
+of stratified rocks, with patches of upraised coral. Mareh and
+Motir are of this character, the outline of the latter giving it
+the appearance of having been a true volcano, and it is said by
+Forrest to have thrown out stones in l778. The next day (Oct.
+12th), we coasted along the island of Makian, which consists of a
+single grand volcano. It was now quiescent, but about two
+centuries ago (in 1646) there was a terrible eruption, which blew
+up the whole top of the mountain, leaving the truncated jagged
+summit and vast gloomy crater valley which at this time
+distinguished it. It was said to have been as lofty as Tidore
+before this catastrophe. [Soon after I' left the Archipelago, on
+the 29th of December, 1862, another eruption of this mountain
+suddenly took place, which caused great devastation in the
+island. All the villages and crops were destroyed, and numbers of
+the inhabitants killed. The sand and ashes fell so thick that the
+crops were partially destroyed fifty miles off, at Ternate, where
+it was so dark the following day that lamps had to be lighted at
+noon. For the position of this and the adjacent islands, see the
+map in Chapter XXXVII.]
+
+I stayed some time at a place where I saw a new clearing on a
+very steep part of the mountain, and obtained a few interesting
+insects. In the evening we went on to the extreme southern point,
+to be ready to pass across the fifteen-mile strait to the island
+of Kaióa. At five the next morning we started, but the wind,
+which had hitherto been westerly, now got to the south and
+southwest, and we had to row almost all the way with a burning
+sun overhead. As we approached land a fine breeze sprang up, and
+we went along at a great pace; yet after an hour we were no
+nearer, and found we were in a violent current carrying us out to
+sea. At length we overcame it, and got on shore just as the sun
+set, having been exactly thirteen hours coming fifteen miles. We
+landed on a beach of hard coralline rock, with rugged cliffs of
+the same, resembling those of the Ke Islands (Chap. XXIX.) It was
+accompanied by a brilliancy and luxuriance of the vegetation,
+very like what I had observed at those islands, which so much
+pleased me that I resolved to stay a few days at the chief
+village, and see if their animal productions were correspondingly
+interesting. While searching for a secure anchorage for the night
+we again saw the comet, still apparently as brilliant as at
+first, but the tail had now risen to a higher angle.
+
+October 14th.--All this day we coasted along the Kaióa Islands,
+which have much the appearance and outline of Ke on a small
+scale, with the addition of flat swampy tracts along shore, and
+outlying coral reefs. Contrary winds and currents had prevented
+our taking the proper course to the west of them, and we had to
+go by a circuitous route round the southern extremity of one
+island, often having to go far out to sea on account of coral
+reefs. On trying to pass a channel through one of these reefs we
+were grounded, and all had to get out into the water, which in
+this shallow strait had been so heated by the sun as to be
+disagreeably warm, and drag our vessel a considerable distance
+among weeds and sponges, corals and prickly corallines. It was
+late at night when we reached the little village harbour, and we
+were all pretty well knocked up by hard work, and having had
+nothing but very brackish water to drink all day-the best we
+could find at our last stopping-place. There was a house close to
+the shore, built for the use of the Resident of Ternate when he
+made his official visits, but now occupied by several native
+travelling merchants, among whom I found a place to sleep.
+
+The next morning early I went to the village to find the
+"Kapala," or head man. I informed him that I wanted to stay a few
+days in the house at the landing, and begged him to have it made
+ready for me. He was very civil, and came down at once to get it
+cleared, when we found that the traders had already left, on
+hearing that I required it. There were no doors to it, so I
+obtained the loan of a couple of hurdles to keep out dogs and
+other animals. The land here was evidently sinking rapidly, as
+shown by the number of trees standing in salt water dead and
+dying. After breakfast I started for a walk to the forest-covered
+hill above the village, with a couple of boys as guides. It was
+exceedingly hot and dry, no rain having fallen for two months.
+When we reached an elevation of about two hundred feet, the
+coralline rock which fringes the shore was succeeded by a hard
+crystalline rock, a kind of metamorphic sandstone. This would
+indicate flat there had been a recent elevation of more than two
+hundred feet, which had still more recently clanged into a
+movement of subsidence. The hill was very rugged, but among dry
+sticks and fallen trees I found some good insects, mostly of
+forms and species I was already acquainted with from Ternate and
+Gilolo. Finding no good paths I returned, and explored the lower
+ground eastward of the village, passing through a long range of
+plantain and tobacco grounds, encumbered with felled and burnt
+logs, on which I found quantities of beetles of the family
+Buprestidae of six different species, one of which was new to me.
+I then reached a path in the swampy forest where I hoped to find
+some butterflies, but was disappointed. Being now pretty well
+exhausted by the intense heat, I thought it wise to return and
+reserve further exploration for the next day.
+
+When I sat down in the afternoon to arrange my insects, the louse
+was surrounded by men, women, and children, lost in amazement at
+my unaccountable proceedings; and when, after pinning out the
+specimens, I proceeded to write the name of the place on small
+circular tickets, and attach one to each, even the old Kapala,
+the Mahometan priest, and some Malay traders could not repress
+signs of astonishment. If they had known a little more about the
+ways and opinions of white men, they would probably have looked
+upon me as a fool or a madman, but in their ignorance they
+accepted my operations as worthy of all respect, although utterly
+beyond their comprehension.
+
+The next day (October 16th) I went beyond the swamp, and found a
+place where a new clearing was being made in the virgin forest.
+It was a long and hot walk, and the search among the fallen
+trunks and branches was very fatiguing, but I was rewarded by
+obtaining about seventy distinct species of beetles, of which at
+least a dozen were new to me, and many others rare and
+interesting. I have never in my life seen beetles so abundant as
+they were on this spot. Some dozen species of good-sized golden
+Buprestidae, green rose-chafers (Lomaptera), and long-horned
+weevils (Anthribidae), were so abundant that they rose up in
+swarms as I walked along, filling the air with a loud buzzing
+hum. Along with these, several fine Longicorns were almost
+equally common, forming such au assemblage as for once to realize
+that idea of tropical luxuriance which one obtains by looking
+over the drawers of a well-filled cabinet. On the under sides of
+the trunks clung numbers of smaller or more sluggish Longicorns,
+while on the branches at the edge of the clearing others could be
+detected sitting with outstretched antenna ready to take flight
+at the least alarm. It was a glorious spot, and one which will
+always live in my memory as exhibiting the insect-life of the
+tropics in unexampled luxuriance. For the three following days I
+continued to visit this locality, adding each time many new
+species to my collection-the following notes of which may be
+interesting to entomologists. October l5th, 33 species of
+beetles; 16th, 70 species; 17th, 47 species; 18th, 40 species;
+19th, 56 species--in all about a hundred species, of which forty
+were new to me. There were forty-four species of Longicorns among
+them, and on the last day I took twenty-eight species of
+Longicorns, of which five were new to me.
+
+My boys were less fortunate in shooting. The only birds at all
+common were the great red parrot (Eclectus grandis), found in
+most of the Moluccas, a crow, and a Megapodius, or mound-maker. A
+few of the pretty racquet-tailed kingfishers were also obtained,
+but in very poor plumage. They proved, however, to be of a
+different species from those found in the other islands, and come
+nearest to the bird originally described by Linnaeus under the
+name of Alcedo dea, and which came from Ternate. This would
+indicate that the small chain of islands parallel to Gilolo have
+a few peculiar species in common, a fact which certainly occurs
+in insects.
+
+The people of Kaioa interested me much. They are evidently a
+mixed race, having Malay and Papuan affinities, and are allied to
+the peoples of Ternate and of Gilolo. They possess a peculiar
+language, somewhat resembling those of the surrounding islands,
+but quite distinct. They are now Mahometans, and are subject to
+Ternate, The only fruits seen here were papaws and pine-apples,
+the rocky soil and dry climate being unfavourable. Rice, maize,
+and plantains flourish well, except that they suffer from
+occasional dry seasons like the present one. There is a little
+cotton grown, from which the women weave sarongs (Malay
+petticoats). There is only one well of good water on the islands,
+situated close to the landing-place, to which all the inhabitants
+come for drinking water. The men are good boat-builders, and they
+make a regular trade of it and seem to be very well off.
+
+After five days at Kaióa we continued our journey, and soon got
+among the narrow straits and islands which lead down to the town
+of Batchian. In the evening we stayed at a settlement of Galela
+men. These are natives of a district in the extreme north of
+Gilolo, and are great wanderers over this part of the
+Archipelago. They build large and roomy praus with outriggers,
+and settle on any coast or island they take a fancy for. They
+hunt deer and wild pig, drying the meat; they catch turtle and
+tripang; they cut down the forest and plant rice or maize, and
+are altogether remarkably energetic and industrious. They are
+very line people, of light complexion, tall, and with Papuan
+features, coming nearer to the drawings and descriptions of the
+true Polynesians of Tahiti and Owyhee than any I have seen.
+
+During this voyage I had several times had an opportunity of
+seeing my men get fire by friction. A sharp-edged piece of bamboo
+is rubbed across the convex surface of another piece, on which a
+small notch is first cut. The rubbing is slow at first and
+gradually quicker, till it becomes very rapid, and the fine
+powder rubbed off ignites and falls through the hole which the
+rubbing has cut in the bamboo. This is done with great quickness
+and certainty. The Ternate, people use bamboo in another way.
+They strike its flinty surface with a bit of broken china, and
+produce a spark, which they catch in some kind of tinder.
+
+On the evening of October 21st we reached our destination, having
+been twelve days on the voyage. It had been tine weather all the
+time, and, although very hot, I had enjoyed myself exceedingly,
+and had besides obtained some experience in boat work among
+islands and coral reefs, which enabled me afterwards to undertake
+much longer voyages of the same kind. The village or town of
+Batchian is situated at the head of a wide and deep bay, where a
+low isthmus connects the northern and southern mountainous parts
+of the island. To the south is a fine. range of mountains, and I
+had noticed at several of our landing-places that the geological
+formation of the island was very different from those around it.
+Whenever rock was visible it was either sandstone in thin layers,
+dipping south, or a pebbly conglomerate. Sometimes there was a
+little coralline limestone, but no volcanic rocks. The forest had
+a dense luxuriance and loftiness seldom found on the dry and
+porous lavas and raised coral reefs of Ternate and Gilolo; and
+hoping for a corresponding richness in the birds and insects, it
+was with much satisfaction and with considerable expectation that
+I began my explorations in the hitherto unknown island of
+Batchian.
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+BATCHIAN.
+
+(OCTOBER 1858 To APRIL 1859.)
+
+I LANDED opposite the house kept for the use of the Resident of
+Ternate, and was met by a respectable middle-aged Malay, who told
+me he was Secretary to the Sultan, and would receive the official
+letter with which I had been provided. On giving it him, he at
+once informed me I might have the use of the official residence
+which was empty. I soon got my things on shore, but on looking
+about me found that the house would never do to stay long in.
+There was no water except at a considerable distance, and one of
+my men would be almost entirely occupied getting water and
+firewood, and I should myself have to walk all through the
+village every day to the forest, and live almost in public, a
+thing I much dislike. The rooms were all boarded, and had
+ceilings, which are a great nuisance, as there are no means of
+hanging anything up except by driving nails, and not half the
+conveniences of a native bamboo and thatch cottage. I accordingly
+inquired for a house outside of the village on the road to the
+coal mines, and was informed by the Secretary that there was a
+small one belonging to the Sultan, and that he would go with me
+early next morning to see it.
+
+We had to pass one large river, by a rude but substantial bridge,
+and to wade through another fine pebbly stream of clear water,
+just beyond which the little but was situated. It was very small,
+not raised on posts, but with the earth for a floor, and was
+built almost entirely of the leaf-stems of the sago-palm, called
+here "gaba-gaba." Across the river behind rose a forest-clad
+bank, and a good road close in front of the horse led through
+cultivated grounds to the forest about half a mile on, and thence
+to the coal mines tour miles further. These advantages at once
+decided me, and I told the Secretary I would be very glad to
+occupy the house. I therefore sent my two men immediately to buy
+"ataps" (palm-leaf thatch) to repair the roof, and the next day,
+with the assistance of eight of the Sultan's men, got all my
+stores and furniture carried up and pretty comfortably arranged.
+A rough bamboo bedstead was soon constructed, and a table made of
+boards which I had brought with me, fixed under the window. Two
+bamboo chairs, an easy cane chair, and hanging shelves suspended
+with insulating oil cups, so as to be safe from ants, completed
+my furnishing arrangements.
+
+In the afternoon succeeding my arrival, the Secretary accompanied
+me to visit the Sultan. We were kept waiting a few minutes in an
+outer gate-house, and then ushered to the door of a rude, half-
+fortified whitewashed house. A small table and three chairs were
+placed in a large outer corridor, and an old dirty-faced man with
+grey hair and a grimy beard, dressed in a speckled blue cotton
+jacket and loose red trousers, came forward, shook hands, and
+asked me to be coated. After a quarter of an hour's conversation
+on my pursuits, in which his Majesty seemed to take great
+interest, tea and cakes-of rather better quality than usual on
+such occasions-were brought in. I thanked him for the house, and
+offered to show him my collections, which he promised to come and
+look at. He then asked me to teach him to take views-to make
+maps-to get him a small gun from England, and a milch-goat from
+Bengal; all of which requests I evaded as skilfully as I was
+able, and we parted very good friends. He seemed a sensible old
+man, and lamented the small population of the island, which he
+assured me was rich in many valuable minerals, including gold;
+but there were not people enough to look after them and work
+them. I described to him the great rush of population on the
+discovery of the Australian gold mines, and the huge nuggets
+found there, with which he was much interested, and exclaimed,
+"Oh? if we had but people like that, my country would be quite as
+rich "
+
+The morning after I had got into my new house, I sent my boys out
+to shoot, and went myself to explore the road to the coal mines.
+In less than half a mile it entered the virgin forest, at a place
+where some magnificent trees formed a kind of natural avenue. The
+first part was flat and swampy, but it soon rose a little, and
+ran alongside the fine stream which passed behind my house, and
+which here rushed and gurgled over a rocky or pebbly bed,
+sometimes leaving wide sandbanks on its margins, and at other
+places flowing between high banks crowned with a varied and
+magnificent forest vegetation. After about two miles, the valley
+narrowed, and the road was carried along the steep hill-side
+which rose abruptly from the water's edge. In some places the
+rock had been cut away, but its surface was already covered with
+elegant ferns and creepers. Gigantic tree-ferns were abundant,
+and the whole forest had an air of luxuriance and rich variety
+which it never attains in the dry volcanic soil to which I had
+been lately accustomed. A little further the road passed to the
+other side of the valley by a bridge across the stream at a place
+where a great mass of rock in the middle offered an excellent
+support for it, and two miles more of most picturesque and
+interesting road brought me to the mining establishment.
+
+This is situated in a large open space, at a spot where two
+tributaries fall into the main stream. Several forest-paths and
+new clearings offered fine collecting grounds, and I captured
+some new and interesting insects; but as it was getting late I
+had to reserve a more thorough exploration for future occasions.
+Coal had been discovered here some years before, and the road was
+made in order to bring down a sufficient quantity for a fair
+trial on the Dutch steamers. The quality, however, was not
+thought sufficiently good, and the mines were abandoned. Quite
+recently, works had been commenced in another spot, in Hopes of
+finding a better vein. There ware about eighty men employed,
+chiefly convicts; but this was far too small a number for mining
+operations in such a country, where the mere keeping a few miles
+of road in repair requires the constant work of several men. If
+coal of sufficiently good quality should be found, a tramroad
+would be made, and would be very easily worked, owing to the
+regular descent of the valley.
+
+Just as I got home I overtook Ali returning from shooting with
+some birch hanging from his belt. He seemed much pleased, and
+said, "Look here, sir, what a curious bird," holding out what at
+first completely puzzled me. I saw a bird with a mass of splendid
+green feathers on its breast, elongated into two glittering
+tufts; but, what I could not understand was a pair of long white
+feathers, which stuck straight out from each shoulder. Ali
+assured me that the bird stuck them out this way itself, when
+fluttering its wings, and that they had remained so without his
+touching them. I now saw that I had got a great prize, no less
+than a completely new form of the Bird of Paradise, differing
+most remarkably from every other known bird. The general plumage
+is very sober, being a pure ashy olive, with a purplish tinge on
+the back; the crown of the head is beautifully glossed with pale
+metallic violet, and the feathers of the front extend as much
+over the beak as inmost of the family. The neck and breast are
+scaled with fine metallic green, and the feathers on the lower
+part are elongated on each side, so as to form a two-pointed
+gorget, which can be folded beneath the wings, or partially
+erected and spread out in the same way as the side plumes of most
+of the birds of paradise. The four long white plumes which give
+the bird its altogether unique character, spring from little
+tubercles close to the upper edge of the shoulder or bend of the
+wing; they are narrow, gentle curved, and equally webbed on both
+sides, of a pure creamy white colour. They arc about six inches
+long, equalling the wing, and can be raised at right angles to
+it, or laid along the body at the pleasure of the bird. The bill
+is horn colour, the legs yellow, and the iris pale olive. This
+striking novelty has been named by Mr. G. R. Gray of the British
+Museum, Semioptera Wallacei, or "Wallace's Standard wing."
+
+A few days later I obtained an exceedingly beautiful new
+butterfly, allied to the fine blue Papilio Ulysses, but differing
+from it in the colour being of a more intense tint, and in having
+a row of blue stripes around the margin of the lower wings. This
+good beginning was, however, rather deceptive, and I soon found
+that insects, and especially butterflies, were somewhat scarce,
+and birds in tar less variety than I had anticipated. Several of
+the fine Moluccan species were however obtained. The handsome red
+lory with green wings and a yellow spot in the back (Lorius
+garrulus), was not uncommon. When the Jambu, or rose apple
+(Eugenic sp.), was in flower in the village, flocks of the little
+lorikeet (Charmosyna placentis), already met with in Gilolo, came
+to feed upon the nectar, and I obtained as many specimens as I
+desired. Another beautiful bird of the parrot tribe was the
+Geoffroyus cyanicollis, a green parrot with a red bill and head,
+which colour shaded on the crown into azure blue, and thence into
+verditer blue and the green of the back. Two large and handsome
+fruit pigeons, with metallic green, ashy, and rufous plumage,
+were not uncommon; and I was rewarded by finding a splendid deep
+blue roller (Eurystomus azureus); a lovely golden-capped sunbird
+(Nectarinea auriceps), and a fine racquet-tailed kingfisher
+(Tanysiptera isis), all of which were entirely new to
+ornithologists. Of insects I obtained a considerable number of
+interesting beetles, including many fine longicorns, among which
+was the largest and handsomest species of the genus Glenea yet
+discovered. Among butterflies the beautiful little Danis sebae
+was abundant, making the forests gay with its delicate wings of
+white and the richest metallic blue; while showy Papilios, and
+pretty Pieridae, and dark, rich Euphaeas, many of them new,
+furnished a constant source of interest and pleasing occupation.
+
+The island of Batchian possesses no really indigenous
+inhabitants, the interior being altogether uninhabited; and there
+are only a few small villages on various parts of the coast; yet
+I found here four distinct races, which would wofully mislead an
+ethnological traveller unable to obtain information as to their
+origin, first there are the Batchian Malays, probably the
+earliest colonists, differing very little from those of Ternate.
+Their language, however, seems to have more of the Papuan
+element, with a mixture of pure Malay, showing that the
+settlement is one of stragglers of various races, although now
+sufficiently homogeneous. Then there are the "Orang Sirani," as
+at Ternate and Amboyna. Many of these have the Portuguese
+physiognomy strikingly preserved, but combined with a skin
+generally darker than the Malays. Some national customs are
+retained, and the Malay, which is their only language, contains a
+large number of Portuguese words and idioms. The third race
+consists of the Galela men from the north of Gilolo, a singular
+people, whom I have already described; and the fourth is a colony
+from Tomóre, in the eastern peninsula of Celebes. These people
+were brought here at their own request a few years ago, to avoid
+extermination by another tribe. They have a very light
+complexion, open Tartar physiognomy, low stature, and a language
+of the Bugis type. They are an industrious agricultural people,
+and supply the town with vegetables. They make a good deal of
+bark cloth, similar to the tapa of the Polynesians, by cutting
+down the proper trees and taping off large cylinders of bark,
+which is beaten with mallets till it separates from the wood. It
+is then soaked, and so continuously and regularly beaten out that
+it becomes as thin and as tough as parchment. In this foam it is
+much used for wrappers for clothes; and they also make jackets of
+it, sewn neatly together and stained with the juice of another
+kind of bark, which gives it a dark red colour and renders it
+nearly waterproof.
+
+Here are four very distinct kinds of people who may all be seen
+any day in and about the town of Batchian. Now if we suppose a
+traveller ignorant of Malay, picking up a word or two here and
+there of the "Batchian language," and noting down the "physical
+and moral peculiarities, manners, and customs of the Batchian
+people"--(for there are travellers who do all this in four-and-
+twenty hours)--what an accurate and instructive chapter we should
+have' what transitions would be pointed out, what theories of the
+origin of races would be developed while the next traveller might
+flatly contradict every statement and arrive at exactly opposite
+conclusions.
+
+Soon after I arrived here the Dutch Government introduced a new
+copper coinage of cents instead of doits (the 100th instead of
+the 120th part of a guilder), and all the old coins were ordered
+to be sent to Ternate to be changed. I sent a bag containing
+6,000 doits, and duly received the new money by return of the
+boat. Then Ali went to bring it, however, the captain required a
+written order; so I waited to send again the next day, and it was
+lucky I did so, for that night my house was entered, all my boxes
+carried out and ransacked, and the various articles left on the
+road about twenty yards off, where we found them at five in the
+morning, when, on getting up and finding the house empty, we
+rushed out to discover tracks of the thieves. Not being able to
+find the copper money which they thought I had just received,
+they decamped, taking nothing but a few yards of cotton cloth and
+a black coat and trousers, which latter were picked up a few days
+afterwards hidden in the grass. There was no doubt whatever who
+were the thieves. Convicts are employed to guard the Government
+stores when the boat arrives from Ternate. Two of them watch all
+night, and often take the opportunity to roam about and commit
+robberies.
+
+The next day I received my money, and secured it well in a strong
+box fastened under my bed. I took out five or six hundred cents
+for daily expenses, and put them in a small japanned box, which
+always stood upon my table. In the afternoon I went for a short
+walk, and on my return this box and my keys, which I had
+carelessly left on the table, were gone. Two of my boys were in
+the house, but had heard nothing. I immediately gave information
+of the two robberies to the Director at the mines and to the
+Commandant at the fort, and got for answer, that if I caught the
+thief in the act I might shoot him. By inquiry in the village, we
+afterwards found that one of the convicts who was on duty at the
+Government rice-store in the village had quitted his guard, was
+seen to pass over the bridge towards my house, was seen again
+within two hundred yards of my house, and on returning over the
+bridge into the village carried something under his arm,
+carefully covered with his sarong. My box was stolen between the
+hours he was seen going and returning, and it was so small as to
+be easily carried in the way described. This seemed pretty clear
+circumstantial evidence. I accused the man and brought the
+witnesses to the Commandant. The man was examined, and confessed
+having gone to the river close to my house to bathe; but said he
+had gone no farther, having climbed up a cocoa-nut tree and
+brought home two nuts, which he had covered over, _because he was
+ashamed to be seen carrying them!_ This explanation was thought
+satisfactory, and he was acquitted. I lost my cash and my box, a
+seal I much valued, with other small articles, and all my keys-
+the severest loss by far. Luckily my large cash-box was left
+locked, but so were others which I required to open immediately.
+There was, however, a very clever blacksmith employed to do
+ironwork for the mines, and he picked my locks for me when I
+required them, and in a few days made me new keys, which I used
+all the time I was abroad.
+
+Towards the end of November the wet season set in, and we had
+daily and almost incessant rains, with only about one or two
+hours' sunshine in the morning. The flat parts of the forest
+became flooded, the roads filled with mud, and insects and birds
+were scarcer than ever. On December Lath, in the afternoon, we
+had a sharp earthquake shock, which made the house and furniture
+shale and rattle for five minutes, and the trees and shrubs wave
+as if a gust of wind had passed over them. About the middle of
+December I removed to the village, in order more easily to
+explore the district to the west of it, and to be near the sea
+when I wished to return to Ternate. I obtained the use of a good-
+sized house in the Campong Sirani (or Christian village), and at
+Christmas and the New Year had to endure the incessant gun-
+firing, drum-beating, and fiddling of the inhabitants.
+
+These people are very fond of music and dancing, and it would
+astonish a European to visit one of their assemblies. We enter a
+gloomy palm-leaf hut, in which two or three very dim lamps barely
+render darkness visible. The floor is of black sandy earth, the
+roof hid in a smoky impenetrable blackness; two or three benches
+stand against the walls, and the orchestra consists of a fiddle,
+a fife, a drum, and a triangle. There is plenty of company,
+consisting of young men and women, all very neatly dressed in
+white and black--a true Portuguese habit. Quadrilles, waltzes,
+polkas, and mazurkas are danced with great vigour and much skill.
+The refreshments are muddy coffee and a few sweetmeats. Dancing
+is kept up for hours, and all is conducted with much decorum and
+propriety. A party of this kind meets about once a week, the
+principal inhabitants taking it by turns, and all who please come
+in without much ceremony.
+
+It is astonishing how little these people have altered in three
+hundred years, although in that time they have changed their
+language and lost all knowledge of their own nationality. They
+are still in manners and appearance almost pure Portuguese, very
+similar to those with whom I had become acquainted on the banks
+of the Amazon. They live very poorly as regards their house and
+furniture, but preserve a semi-European dress, and have almost
+all full suits of black for Sundays. They are nominally
+Protestants, but Sunday evening is their grand day for music and
+dancing. The men are often good hunters; and two or three times a
+week, deer or wild pigs are brought to the village, which, with
+fish and fowls, enables them to live well. They are almost the
+only people in the Archipelago who eat the great fruit-eating
+bats called by us "flying foxes." These ugly creatures are
+considered a great delicacy, and are much sought after. At about
+the beginning of the year they come in large flocks to eat fruit,
+and congregate during the day on some small islands in the bay,
+hanging by thousands on the trees, especially on dead ones. They
+can then be easily caught or knocked down with sticks, and are
+brought home by basketsfull. They require to be carefully
+prepared, as the skin and fur has a rank end powerful foxy odour;
+but they are generally cooked with abundance of spices and
+condiments, and are really very good eating, something like hare.
+The Orang Sirani are good cooks, having a much greater variety of
+savoury dishes than the Malays. Here, they live chiefly on sago
+as bread, with a little rice occasionally, and abundance of
+vegetables and fruit.
+
+It is a curious fact that everywhere in the Past where the
+Portuguese have mixed with the native races they leave become
+darker in colour than either of the parent stocks. This is the
+case almost always with these "Orang Sirani" in the Moluccas, and
+with the Portuguese of Malacca. The reverse is the case in South
+America, where the mixture of the Portuguese or Brazilian with
+the Indian produces the "Mameluco," who is not unfrequently
+lighter than either parent, and always lighter than the Indian.
+The women at Batchian, although generally fairer than the men,
+are coarse in features, and very far inferior in beauty to the
+mixed Dutch-Malay girls, or even to many pure Malays.
+
+The part of the village in which I resided was a grove of cocoa-
+nut trees, and at night, when the dead leaves were sometimes
+collected together and burnt, the effect was most magnificent--
+the tall stems, the fine crowns of foliage, and the immense
+fruit-clusters, being brilliantly illuminated against a dark sky,
+and appearing like a fairy palace supported on a hundred columns,
+and groined over with leafy arches. The cocoa-nut tree, when well
+grown, is certainly the prince of palms both for beauty and
+utility.
+
+During my very first walk into the forest at Batchian, I had seen
+sitting on a leaf out of reach, an immense butterfly of a dark
+colour marked with white and yellow spots. I could not capture it
+as it flew away high up into the forest, but I at once saw that
+it was a female of a new species of Ornithoptera or "bird-winged
+butterfly," the pride of the Eastern tropics. I was very anxious
+to get it and to find the male, which in this genus is always of
+extreme beauty. During the two succeeding months I only saw it
+once again, and shortly afterwards I saw the male flying high in
+the air at the mining village. I had begun to despair of ever
+getting a specimen, as it seemed so rare and wild; till one day,
+about the beginning of January, I found a beautiful shrub with
+large white leafy bracts and yellow flowers, a species of
+Mussaenda, and saw one of these noble insects hovering over it,
+but it was too quick for me, and flew away. The next clay I went
+again to the same shrub and succeeded in catching a female, and
+the day after a fine male. I found it to be as I had expected, a
+perfectly new and most magnificent species, and one of the most
+gorgeously coloured butterflies in the world. Fine specimens of
+the male are more than seven inches across the wings, which are
+velvety black and fiery orange, the latter colour replacing the
+green of the allied species. The beauty and brilliancy of this
+insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can
+understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length
+captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious
+wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my
+head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in
+apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the
+day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to
+most people a very inadequate cause.
+
+I had decided to return to Ternate in a week or two more, but
+this grand capture determined me to stay on till I obtained a
+good series of the new butterfly, which I have since named
+Ornithoptera croesus. The Mussaenda bush was an admirable place,
+which I could visit every day on my way to the forest; and as it
+was situated in a dense thicket of shrubs and creepers, I set my
+man Lahi to clear a space all round it, so that I could easily
+get at any insect that might visit it. Afterwards, finding that
+it was often necessary to wait some time there, I had a little
+seat put up under a tree by the side of it, where I came every
+day to eat my lunch, and thus had half an hour's watching about
+noon, besides a chance as I passed it in the morning. In this way
+I obtained on an average one specimen a day for a long time, but
+more than half of these were females, and more than half the
+remainder worn or broken specimens, so that I should not have
+obtained many perfect males had I not found another station for
+them.
+
+As soon as I had seen them come to flowers, I sent my man Lahi
+with a net on purpose to search for them, as they had also been
+seen at some flowering trees on the beach, and I promised him
+half a day's wages extra for every good specimen he could catch.
+After a day or two he brought me two very fair specimens, and
+told me he had caught them in the bed of a large rocky stream
+that descends from the mountains to the sea abort a mile below
+the village. They flew down this river, settling occasionally on
+stones and rocks in the water, and he was obliged to wade up it
+or jump from rock to rock to get at them. I went with him one
+day, but found that the stream was far too rapid and the stones
+too slippery for me to do anything, so I left it entirely to him,
+and all the rest of the time we stayed in Batchian he used to be
+out all day, generally bringing me one, and on good days two or
+three specimens. I was thus able to bring away with me more than
+a hundred of both sexes, including perhaps twenty very fine
+males, though not more than five or six that were absolutely
+perfect.
+
+My daily walk now led me, first about half a mile along the sandy
+beach, then through a sago swamp over a causeway of very shaky
+poles to the village of the Tomore people. Beyond this was the
+forest with patches of new clearing, shady paths, and a
+considerable quantity of felled timber. I found this a very fair
+collecting ground, especially for beetles. The fallen trunks in
+the clearings abounded with golden Buprestidae and curious
+Brenthidae, and longicorns, while in the forest I found abundance
+of the smaller Curculionidae, many longicorns, and some fine
+green Carabidae.
+
+Butterflies were not abundant, but I obtained a few more of the
+fine blue Papilio, and a number of beautiful little Lycaenidae,
+as well as a single specimen of the very rare Papilio Wallacei,
+of which I had taken the hitherto unique specimen in the Aru
+Islands.
+
+The most interesting birds I obtained here, were the beautiful
+blue kingfisher, Todiramphus diops; the fine green and purple
+doves, Ptilonopus superbus and P. iogaster, and several new birds
+of small size. My shooters still brought me in specimens of the
+Semioptera Wallacei, and I was greatly excited by the positive
+statements of several of the native hunters that another species
+of this bird existed, much handsomer and more remarkable. They
+declared that the plumage was glossy black, with metallic green
+breast as in my species, but that the white shoulder plumes were
+twice as long, and hung down far below the body of the bird. They
+declared that when hunting pigs or deer far in the forest they
+occasionally saw this bird, but that it was rare. I immediately
+offered twelve guilders (a pound) for a specimen; but all in
+vain, and I am to this day uncertain whether such a bird exists.
+Since I left, the German naturalist, Dr. Bernstein, stayed many
+months in the island with a large staff of hunters collecting for
+the Leyden Museum; and as he was not more successful than myself,
+we must consider either that the bird is very rare, or is
+altogether a myth.
+
+Batchian is remarkable as being the most eastern point on the
+globe inhabited by any of the Quadrumana. A large black baboon-
+monkey (Cynopithecus nigrescens) is abundant in some parts of the
+forest. This animal has bare red callosities, and a rudimentary
+tail about an inch long--a mere fleshy tubercle, which may be
+very easily overlooked. It is the same species that is found all
+over the forests of Celebes, and as none of the other Mammalia of
+that island extend into Batchian I am inclined to suppose that
+this species has been accidentally introduced by the roaming
+Malays, who often carry about with them tame monkeys and other
+animals. This is rendered more probable by the fact that the
+animal is not found in Gilolo, which is only separated from
+Batchian by a very narrow strait. The introduction may have been
+very recent, as in a fertile and unoccupied island such an animal
+would multiply rapidly. The only other mammals obtained were an
+Eastern opossum, which Dr. Gray has described as Cuscus ornatus;
+the little flying opossum, Belideus ariel; a Civet cat, Viverra
+zebetha; and nice species of bats, most of the smaller ones being
+caught in the dusk with my butterfly net as they flew about
+before the house.
+
+After much delay, owing to bad weather and the illness of one of
+my men, I determined to visit Kasserota (formerly the chief
+village), situated up a small stream, on an island close to the
+north coast of Batchian; where I was told that many rare birds
+were found. After my boat was loaded and everything ready, three
+days of heavy squalls prevented our starting, and it was not till
+the 21st of March that we got away. Early next morning we entered
+the little river, and in about an hour we reached the Sultan's
+house, which I had obtained permission to use. It was situated on
+the bank of the river, and surrounded by a forest of fruit trees,
+among which were some of the very loftiest and most graceful
+cocoa-nut palms I have ever seen. It rained nearly all that day,
+and I could do little but unload and unpack. Towards the
+afternoon it cleared up, and I attempted to explore in various
+directions, but found to my disgust that the only path was a
+perfect mud swamp, along which it was almost impossible to walk,
+and the surrounding forest so damp and dark as to promise little
+in the way of insects. I found too on inquiry that the people
+here made no clearings, living entirely on sago, fruit, fish, and
+game; and the path only led to- a steep rocky mountain equally
+impracticable and unproductive. The next day I sent my men to
+this hill, hoping it might produce some good birds; but they
+returned with only two common species, and I myself had been able
+to get nothing; every little track I had attempted to follow
+leading to a dense sago swamp. I saw that I should waste time by
+staying here, and determined to leave the following day.
+
+This is one of those spots so hard for the European naturalist to
+conceive, where with all the riches of a tropical vegetation, and
+partly perhaps from the very luxuriance of that vegetation,
+insects are as scarce as in the most barren parts of Europe, and
+hardly more conspicuous. In temperate climates there is a
+tolerable uniformity in the distribution of insects over those
+parts of a country in which there is a similarity in the
+vegetation, any deficiency being easily accounted for by the
+absence of wood or uniformity of surface. The traveller hastily
+passing through such a country can at once pick out a collecting
+ground which will afford him a fair notion of its entomology.
+Here the case is different. There are certain requisites of a
+good collecting ground which can only be ascertained to exist by
+some days' search in the vicinity of each village. In some places
+there is no virgin forest, as at Djilolo and Sahoe; in others
+there are no open pathways or clearings, as here. At Batchian
+there are only two tolerable collecting places,--the road to the
+coal mines, and the new clearings made by the Tomóre people, the
+latter being by far the most productive. I believe the fact to be
+that insects are pretty uniformly distributed over these
+countries (where the forests have not been cleared away), and are
+so scarce in any one spot that searching for them is almost
+useless. If the forest is all cleared away, almost all the
+insects disappear with it; but when small clearings and paths are
+made, the fallen trees in various stages of drying and decay, the
+rotting leaves, the loosening bark and the fungoid growths upon
+it, together with the flowers that appear in much greater
+abundance where the light is admitted, are so many attractions to
+the insects for miles around, and cause a wonderful accumulation
+of species and individuals. When the entomologist can discover
+such a spot, he does more in a mouth than he could possibly do by
+a year's search in the depths of the undisturbed forest.
+
+The next morning we left early, and reached the mouth of the
+little river in about au hour. It flows through a perfectly flat
+alluvial plain, but there are hills which approach it near the
+mouth. Towards the lower part, in a swamp where the salt-water
+must enter at high tides, were a number of elegant tree-ferns
+from eight to fifteen feet high. These are generally considered
+to be mountain plants, and rarely to occur on the equator at an
+elevation of less than one or two thousand feet. In Borneo, in
+the Aru Islands, and on the banks of the Amazon, I have observed
+them at the level of the sea, and think it probable that the
+altitude supposed to be requisite for them may have been deduced
+from facts observed in countries where the plains and lowlands
+are largely cultivated, and most of the indigenous vegetation
+destroyed. Such is the case in most parts of Java, India,
+Jamaica, and Brazil, where the vegetation of the tropics has been
+most fully explored.
+
+Coming out to sea we turned northwards, and in about two hours'
+sail reached a few huts, called Langundi, where some Galela men
+had established themselves as collectors of gum-dammar, with
+which they made torches for the supply of the Ternate market.
+About a hundred yards back rises a rather steep hill, and a short
+walk having shown me that there was a tolerable path up it, I
+determined to stay here for a few days. Opposite us, and all
+along this coast of Batchian, stretches a row of fine islands
+completely uninhabited. Whenever I asked the reason why no one
+goes to live in them, the answer always was, "For fear of the
+Magindano pirates." Every year these scourges of the Archipelago
+wander in one direction or another, making their rendezvous on
+some uninhabited island, and carrying devastation to all the
+small settlements around; robbing, destroying, killing, or taking
+captive all they nee with. Their long well-manned praus escape
+from the pursuit of any sailing vessel by pulling away right in
+the wind's eye, and the warning smoke of a steamer generally
+enables them to hide in some shallow bay, or narrow river, or
+forest-covered inlet, till the danger is passed. The only
+effectual way to put a stop to their depredations would be to
+attack them in their strongholds and villages, and compel them to
+give up piracy, and submit to strict surveillance. Sir James
+Brooke did this with the pirates of the north-west coast of
+Borneo, and deserves the thanks of the whole population of the
+Archipelago for having rid them of half their enemies.
+
+All along the beach here, and in the adjacent strip of sandy
+lowland, is a remarkable display of Pandanaceae or Screw-pines.
+Some are like huge branching candelabra, forty or fifty feet
+high, and bearing at the end of each branch a tuft of immense
+sword-shaped leaves, six or eight inches wide, and as many feet
+long. Others have a single unbranched stem, six or seven feet
+high, the upper part clothed with the spirally arranged leaves,
+and bearing a single terminal fruit ac large as a swan's egg.
+Others of intermediate size have irregular clusters of rough red
+fruits, and all have more or less spiny-edged leaves and ringed
+stems. The young plants of the larger species have smooth glossy
+thick leaves, sometimes ten feet long and eight inches wide,
+which are used all over the Moluccas and New Guinea, to make
+"cocoyas" or sleeping mats, which are often very prettily
+ornamented with coloured patterns. Higher up on the bill is a
+forest of immense trees, among which those producing the resin
+called dammar (Dammara sp.) are abundant. The inhabitants of
+several small villages in Batchian are entirely engaged in
+searching for this product, and making it into torches by
+pounding it and filling it into tubes of palm leaves about a yard
+long, which are the only lights used by many of the natives.
+Sometimes the dammar accumulates in large masses of ten or twenty
+pounds weight, either attached to the trunk, or found buried in
+the ground at the foot of the trees. The most extraordinary trees
+of the forest are, however, a kind of fig, the aerial roots of
+which form a pyramid near a hundred feet high, terminating just
+where the tree branches out above, so that there is no real
+trunk. This pyramid or cone is formed of roots of every size,
+mostly descending in straight lines, but more or less obliquely-
+and so crossing each other, and connected by cross branches,
+which grow from one to another; as to form a dense and
+complicated network, to which nothing but a photograph could do
+justice (see illustration at Vol. I. page 130). The Kanary is
+also abundant in this forest, the nut of which has a very
+agreeable flavour, and produces an excellent oil. The fleshy
+outer covering of the nut is the favourite food of the great
+green pigeons of these islands (Carpophaga, perspicillata), and
+their hoarse copings and heavy flutterings among the branches can
+be almost continually heard.
+
+After ten days at Langundi, finding it impossible to get the bird
+I was particularly in search of (the Nicobar pigeon, or a new
+species allied to it), and finding no new birds, and very few
+insects, I left early on the morning of April 1st, and in the
+evening entered a river on the main island of Batchian (Langundi,
+like Kasserota, being on a distinct island), where some Malays
+and Galela men have a small village, and have made extensive
+rice-fields and plantain grounds. Here we found a good house near
+the river bank, where the water was fresh and clear, and the
+owner, a respectable Batchian Malay, offered me sleeping room and
+the use of the verandah if I liked to stay. Seeing forest all
+round within a short distance, I accepted his offer, and the next
+morning before breakfast walked out to explore, and on the skirts
+of the forest captured a few interesting insects.
+
+Afterwards, I found a path which led for a mile or more through a
+very fine forest, richer in palms than any I had seen in the
+Moluccas. One of these especially attracted my attention from its
+elegance. The stein was not thicker than my wrist, yet it was
+very lofty, and bore clusters of bright red fruit. It was
+apparently a species of Areca. Another of immense height closely
+resembled in appearance the Euterpes of South America. Here also
+grew the fan-leafed palm, whose small, nearly entire leaves are
+used to make the dammar torches, and to form the water-buckets in
+universal use. During this walk I saw near a dozen species of
+palms, as well as two or three Pandani different from those of
+Langundi. There were also some very fine climbing ferns and true
+wild Plantains (Musa), bearing an edible fruit not so large as
+one's thumb, and consisting of a mass of seeds just covered with
+pulp and skin. The people assured me they had tried the
+experiment of sowing and cultivating this species, but could not
+improve it. They probably did not grow it in sufficient quantity,
+and did not persevere sufficiently long.
+
+Batchian is an island that would perhaps repay the researches of
+a botanist better than any other in the whole Archipelago. It
+contains a great variety of surface and of soil, abundance of
+large and small streams, many of which are navigable for some
+distance, and there being no savage inhabitants, every part of it
+can be visited with perfect safety. It possesses gold, copper,
+and coal, hot springs and geysers, sedimentary and volcanic rocks
+and coralline limestone, alluvial plains, abrupt hills and lofty
+mountains, a moist climate, and a grand and luxuriant forest
+vegetation.
+
+The few days I stayed here produced me several new insects, but
+scarcely any birds. Butterflies and birds are in fact remarkably
+scarce in these forests. One may walk a whole day and not see
+more than two or three species of either. In everything but
+beetles, these eastern islands are very deficient compared with
+the western (Java, Borneo, &c.), and much more so if compared
+with the forests of South America, where twenty or thirty species
+of butterflies may be caught every day, and on very good days a
+hundred, a number we can hardly reach here in months of
+unremitting search. In birds there is the same difference. In
+most parts of tropical America we may always find some species of
+woodpecker tanager, bush shrike, chatterer, trogon, toucan,
+cuckoo, and tyrant-flycatcher; and a few days' active search will
+produce more variety than can be here met with in as many months.
+Yet, along with this poverty of individuals and of species, there
+are in almost every class and order, some one, or two species of
+such extreme beauty or singularity, as to vie with, or even
+surpass, anything that even South America can produce.
+
+One afternoon when I was arranging my insects, and surrounded by
+a crowd of wondering spectators, I showed one of them how to look
+at a small insect with a hand-lens, which caused such evident
+wonder that all the rest wanted to see it too. I therefore fixed
+the glass firmly to a piece of soft wood at the proper focus, and
+put under it a little spiny beetle of the genus Hispa, and then
+passed it round for examination. The excitement was immense. Some
+declared it was a yard long; others were frightened, and
+instantly dropped it, and all were as much astonished, and made
+as much shouting and gesticulation, as children at a pantomime,
+or at a Christmas exhibition of the oxyhydrogen microscope. And
+all this excitement was produced by a little pocket lens, an inch
+and a half focus, and therefore magnifying only four or five
+times, but which to their unaccustomed eyes appeared to enlarge a
+hundred fold.
+
+On the last day of my stay here, one of my hunters succeeded in
+finding and shooting the beautiful Nicobar pigeon, of which I had
+been so long in search. None of the residents had ever seen it,
+which shows that it is rare and slay. My specimen was a female in
+beautiful condition, and the glassy coppery and green of its
+plumage, the snow-white tail and beautiful pendent feathers of
+the neck, were greatly admired. I subsequently obtained a
+specimen in New Guinea; and once saw it in the Kaióa islands. It
+is found also in some small islands near Macassar, in others near
+Borneo; and in the Nicobar islands, whence it receives its name.
+It is a ground feeder, only going upon trees to roost, and is a
+very heavy fleshy bird. This may account far the fact of its
+being found chiefly on very small islands, while in the western
+half of the Archipelago, it seems entirely absent from the larger
+ones. Being a ground feeder it is subject to the attacks of
+carnivorous quadrupeds, which are not found in the very small
+islands. Its wide distribution over the whole length of the
+Archipelago; from extreme west to east, is however very
+extraordinary, since, with the exception of a few of the birds of
+prey, not a single land bird has so wide a range. Ground-feeding
+birds are generally deficient in power of extended flight, and
+this species is so bulky and heavy that it appears at first sight
+quite unable to fly a mile. A closer examination shows, however,
+that its wings are remarkably large, perhaps in proportion to its
+size larger than those of any other pigeon, and its pectoral
+muscles are immense. A fact communicated to me by the son of my
+friend Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate, would show that, in accordance
+with these peculiarities of structure, it possesses the power of
+flying long distances. Mr. D. established an oil factory on a
+small coral island, a hundred miles north of New Guinea, with no
+intervening land. After the island had been settled a year, and
+traversed in every direction, his son paid it a visit; and just
+as the schooner was coming to an anchor, a bird was seen flying
+from seaward which fell into the water exhausted before it could
+reach the shore. A boat was sent to pick it up, and it was found
+to be a Nicobar pigeon, which must have come from New Guinea, and
+flown a hundred miles, since no such bird previously inhabited
+the island.
+
+This is certainly a very curious case of adaptation to an unusual
+and exceptional necessity. The bird does not ordinarily require
+great powers of flight, since it lives in the forest, feeds on
+fallen fruits, and roosts in low trees like other ground pigeons.
+The majority of the individuals, therefore, can never make full
+use of their enormously powerful wings, till the exceptional case
+occurs of an individual being blown out to sea, or driven to
+emigrate by the incursion of some carnivorous animal, or the
+pressure of scarcity of food. A modification exactly opposite to
+that which produced the wingless birds (the Apteryx, Cassowary,
+and Dodo), appears to have here taken place; and it is curious
+that in both cases an insular habitat should have been the moving
+cause. The explanation is probably the same as that applied by
+Mr. Darwin to the case of the Madeira beetles, many of which are
+wingless, while some of the winged ones have the wings better
+developed than the same species on the continent. It was
+advantageous to these insects either never to fly at all, and
+thus not run the risk of being blown out to sea, or to fly so
+well as to he able either to return to land, or to migrate safely
+to the continent. Pad flying was worse than not flying at all.
+So, while in such islands as New Zealand and Mauritius far from
+all land, it vas safer for a ground-feeding bird not to fly at
+all, and the short-winged individuals continually surviving,
+prepared the way for a wingless group of birds; in a vast
+Archipelago thickly strewn with islands and islets it was
+advantageous to be able occasionally to migrate, arid thus the
+long and strong-winged varieties maintained their existence
+longest, and ultimately supplanted all others, and spread the
+race over the whole Archipelago.
+
+Besides this pigeon, the only new bird I obtained during the trip
+was a rare goat-sucker (Batrachostomus crinifrons), the only
+species of the genus yet found in the Moluccas. Among my insects
+the best were the rare Pieris arum, of a rich chrome yellow
+colour, with a black border and remarkable white antenna--perhaps
+the very finest butterfly of the genus; and a large black wasp-
+like insect, with immense jaws like a stag-beetle, which has been
+named Megachile Pluto by Mr. B. Smith. I collected about a
+hundred species of beetles quite new to me, but mostly very
+minute, and also many rare and handsome ones which I had already
+found in Batchian. On the whole I was tolerably satisfied with my
+seventeen days' excursion, which was a very agreeable one, and
+enabled me to sea a good deal of the island. I had hired a roomy
+boat, and brought with me a small table and my rattan chair.
+These were great comforts, as, wherever there was a roof, I could
+immediately instal myself, and work and eat at ease. When I could
+not find accommodation on shore I slept in the boat, which was
+always drawn up on the beach if we stayed for a few days at one
+spot.
+
+On my return to Batchian I packed up my collections, and prepared
+for my return to Ternate. When I first came I had sent back my
+boat by the pilot, with two or three other men who had been glad
+of the opportunity. I now took advantage of a Government boat
+which had just arrived with rice for the troops, and obtained
+permission to return in her, and accordingly started on the 13th
+of April, having resided only a week short of six months on the
+island of Batchian. The boat was one of the kind called "Kora-
+kora," quite open, very low, and about four tons burthen. It had
+outriggers of bamboo about five feet off each side, which
+supported a bamboo platform extending the whole length of the
+vessel. On the extreme outside of this sit the twenty rowers,
+while within was a convenient passage fore and aft. The middle
+portion of the boat was covered with a thatch-house, in which
+baggage and passengers are stowed; the gunwale was not more than
+a foot above water, and from the great top and side weight, and
+general clumsiness, these boats are dangerous in heavy weather,
+and are not unfrequently lost. A triangle mast and mat sail
+carried us on when the wind was favourable,--which (as usual) it
+never was, although, according to the monsoon, it ought to have
+been. Our water, carried in bamboos, would only last two days,
+and as the voyage occupied seven, we had to touch at a great many
+places. The captain was not very energetic, and the men rowed as
+little as they pleased, or we might have reached Ternate in three
+days, having had fine weather and little wind all the way.
+
+There were several passengers besides myself: three or four
+Javanese soldiers, two convicts whose time had expired (one,
+curiously enough, being the man who had stolen my cash-box and
+keys), the schoolmaster's wife and a servant going on a visit to
+Ternate, and a Chinese trader going to buy goods. We had to sleep
+all together in the cabin, packed pretty close; but they very
+civilly allowed me plenty of room for my mattrass, and we got on
+very well together. There was a little cookhouse in the bows,
+where we could boil our rice and make our coffee, every one of
+course bringing his own provisions, and arranging his meal-times
+as he found most convenient. The passage would have been
+agreeable enough but for the dreadful "tom-toms," or wooden
+drums, which are beaten incessantly while the men are rowing. Two
+men were engaged constantly at them, making a fearful din the
+whole voyage. The rowers are men sent by the Sultan of Ternate.
+They get about threepence a day, and find their own provisions.
+Each man had a strong wooden "betel" box, on which he generally
+sat, a sleeping-mat, and a change of clothes--rowing naked, with
+only a sarong or a waistcloth. They sleep in their places,
+covered with their mat, which keeps out the rain pretty well.
+They chew betel or smoke cigarettes incessantly; eat dry sago and
+a little salt fish; seldom sing while rowing, except when excited
+and wanting to reach a stopping-place, and do not talk a great
+deal. They are mostly Malays, with a sprinkling of Alfuros from
+Gilolo, and Papuans from Guebe or Waigiou.
+
+One afternoon we stayed at Makian; many of the men went on shore,
+and a great deal of plantains, bananas, and other fruits were
+brought on board. We then went on a little way, and in the
+evening anchored again. When going to bed for the night, I put
+out my candle, there being still a glimmering lamp burning, and,
+missing my handkerchief, thought I saw it on a box which formed
+one side of my bed, and put out my hand to take it. I quickly
+drew back on feeling something cool and very smooth, which moved
+as I touched it. "Bring the light, quick," I cried; "here's a
+snake." And there he was, sure enough, nicely coiled up, with his
+head just raised to inquire who had disturbed him. It was mow
+necessary to catch or kill him neatly, or he would escape among
+the piles of miscellaneous luggage, and we should hardly sleep
+comfortably. One of the ex-convicts volunteered to catch him with
+his hand wrapped up in a cloth, but from the way he went about it
+I saw he was nervous and would let the thing go, so I would mot
+allow him to make the attempt. I them got a chopping-knife, and
+carefully moving my insect nets, which hung just over the snake
+and prevented me getting a free blow, I cut him quietly across
+the back, holding him down while my boy with another knife
+crushed his head. On examination, I found he had large poison
+fangs, and it is a wonder he did not bite me when I first touched
+him.
+
+Thinking it very unlikely that two snakes had got on board at the
+same time, I turned in and went to sleep; but having all the time
+a vague dreamy idea that I might put my hand on another one, I
+lay wonderfully still, not turning over once all night, quite the
+reverse of my usual habits. The next day we reached Ternate, and
+I ensconced myself in my comfortable house, to examine all my
+treasures, and pack them securely for the voyage home.
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS.
+
+(OCTOBER 1859 To JUNE 1860.)
+
+I LEFT Amboyna for my first visit to Ceram at three o'clock in
+the morning of October 29th, after having been delayed several
+days by the boat's crew, who could not be got together. Captain
+Van der Beck, who gave me a passage in his boat, had been running
+after them all day, and at midnight we had to search for two of
+my men who had disappeared at the last moment. One we found at
+supper in his own house, and rather tipsy with his parting
+libations of arrack, but the other was gone across the bay, and
+we were obliged to leave without him. We stayed some hours at two
+villages near the east end of Amboyna, at one of which we had to
+discharge some wood for the missionaries' house, and on the third
+afternoon reached Captain Van der Beck's plantation, situated at
+Hatosua, in that part of Ceram opposite to the island of Amboyna.
+This was a clearing in flat and rather swampy forest, about
+twenty acres in extent, and mostly planted with cacao and
+tobacco. Besides a small cottage occupied by the workmen, there
+was a large shed for tobacco drying, a corner of which was
+offered me; and thinking from the look of the place that I should
+find- good collecting ground here, I fitted up temporary tables,
+benches, and beds, and made all preparations for some weeks'
+stay. A few days, however, served to show that I should be
+disappointed. Beetles were tolerably abundant, and I obtained
+plenty of fine long-horned Anthribidae and pretty Longicorns, but
+they were mostly the same species as I had found during my first
+short visit to Amboyna. There were very few paths in the forest;
+which seemed poor in birds and butterflies, and day after day my
+men brought me nothing worth notice. I was therefore soon obliged
+to think about changing my locality, as I could evidently obtain
+no proper notion of the productions of the almost entirely
+unexplored island of Ceram by staying in this place.
+
+I rather regretted leaving, because my host was one of the most
+remarkable men and most entertaining companions I had ever met
+with. He was a Fleeting by birth, and, like so many of his
+countrymen, had a wonderful talent for languages. When quite a
+youth he had accompanied a Government official who was sent to
+report on the trade and commerce of the Mediterranean, and had
+acquired the colloquial language of every place they stayed a few
+weeks at. He had afterwards made voyages to St. Petersburg, and
+to other parts of Europe, including a few weeks in London, and
+had then come out to the past, where he had been for some years
+trading and speculating in the various islands. He now spoke
+Dutch, French, Malay, and Javanese, all equally well; English
+with a very slight accent, but with perfect fluency, axed a most
+complete knowledge of idiom, in which I often tried to puzzle him
+in vain. German and Italian were also quite familiar to him, and
+his acquaintance with European languages included Modern Greek,
+Turkish, Russian, and colloquial Hebrew and Latin. As a test of
+his power, I may mention that he had made a voyage to the out-of-
+the-way island of Salibaboo, and had stayed there trading a few
+weeks. As I was collecting vocabularies, he told me he thought he
+could remember some words, and dictated considerable number. Some
+time after I met with a short list of words taken down in those
+islands, and in every case they agreed with those he had given
+me. He used to sing a Hebrew drinking-song, which he had learned
+from some Jews with whom he had once travelled, and astonished by
+joining in their conversation, and had a never-ending fund of
+tale and anecdote about the people he had met and the places he
+had visited.
+
+In most of the villages of this part of Ceram are schools and
+native schoolmasters, and the inhabitants have been long
+converted to Christianity. In the larger villages there are
+European missionaries; but there is little or no external
+difference between the Christian and Alfuro villages, nor, as far
+as I have seen, in their inhabitants. The people seem more
+decidedly Papuan than those of Gilolo. They are darker in colour,
+and a number of them have the frizzly Papuan hair; their features
+also are harsh and prominent, and the women in particular are far
+less engaging than those of the Malay race. Captain Van der Beck
+was never tired of abusing the inhabitants of these Christian
+villages as thieves, liars, and drunkards, besides being
+incorrigibly lazy. In the city of Amboyna my friends Doctors
+Mohnike and Doleschall, as well as most of the European residents
+and traders, made exactly the same complaint, and would rather
+have Mahometans for servants, even if convicts, than any of the
+native Christians. One great cause of this is the fact, that with
+the Mahometans temperance is a part of their religion, and has
+become so much a habit that practically the rule is never
+transgressed. One fertile source of want, arid one great
+incentive to idleness and crime, is thus present with the one
+class, but absent in the other; but besides this the Christians
+look upon themselves as nearly the equals of the Europeans, who
+profess the same religion, and as far superior to the followers
+of Islam, and are therefore prone to despise work, and to
+endeavour to live by trade, or by cultivating their own land. It
+need hardly be said that with people in this low state of
+civilization religion is almost wholly ceremonial, and that
+neither are the doctrines of Christianity comprehended, nor its
+moral precepts obeyed. At the same time, as far as my own
+experience goes, I have found the better class of "Orang Sirani"
+as civil, obliging, and industrious as the Malays, and only
+inferior to them from their tendency to get intoxicated.
+
+Having written to the Assistant Resident of Saparua (who has
+jurisdiction over the opposite part of the coast of Ceram) for a
+boat to pursue my journey, I received one rather larger than
+necessary with a crew of twenty men. I therefore bade adieu to my
+kind friend Captain Van der Beck, and left on the evening after
+its arrival for the village of Elpiputi, which we reached in two
+days. I had intended to stay here, but not liking the appearance
+of the place, which seemed to have no virgin forest near it, I
+determined to proceed about twelve miles further up the bay of
+Amahay, to a village recently formed, and inhabited by indigenes
+from the interior, and where some extensive cacao plantations
+were being made by some gentlemen of Amboyna. I reached the place
+(called Awaiya) the same afternoon, and with the assistance of
+Mr. Peters (the manager of the plantations) and the native chief,
+obtained a small house, got all my things on shore, and paid and
+discharged my twenty boatmen, two of whom had almost driven me to
+distraction by beating tom-toms the whole voyage.
+
+I found the people here very nearly in a state of nature, and
+going almost naked. The men wear their frizzly hair gathered into
+a flat circular knot over the left temple, which has a very
+knowing look, and in their ears cylinders of wood as thick as
+one's finger, and coloured red at the ends. Armlets and anklets
+of woven grass or of silver, with necklaces of beads or of small
+fruits, complete their attire. The women wear similar ornaments,
+but have their hair loose. All are tall, with a dark brown skin,
+and well marked Papuan physiognomy. There is an Amboyna
+schoolmaster in the village, and a good number of children attend
+school every morning. Such of the inhabitants as have become
+Christians may be known by their wearing their hair loose, and
+adopting to some extent the native Christian dress-trousers and a
+loose shirt. 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. They also
+encourage the settlement of Europeans, and the formation of new
+plantations of cacao and coffee, one of the best means of raising
+the condition of the natives, who thus obtain work at fair wages,
+and have the opportunity of acquiring something of European
+tastes and habits.
+
+My collections here did not progress much better than at my
+former station, except that butterflies were a little more
+plentiful, and some very fine species were to be found in the
+morning on the sea-beach, sitting so quietly on the wet sand that
+they could be caught with the fingers. In this way I had many
+fine specimens of Papilios brought me by the children. Beetles,
+however, were scarce, and birds still more so, and I began to
+think that the handsome species which I had so often heard were
+found in Ceram must be entirely confined to the eastern extremity
+of the island.
+
+A few miles further worth, at the head of the Bay of Amahay, is
+situated the village of Makariki, from whence there is a native
+path quite across the island to the north coast. My friend Mr.
+Rosenberg, whose acquaintance I had made at New Guinea, and who
+was now the Government superintendent of all this part of Ceram,
+returned from Wahai, on the north coast, after I had been three
+weeks at Awaiya, and showed me some fine butterflies he had
+obtained on the mountain streams in the interior. He indicated a
+spot about the centre of the island where he thought I might
+advantageously stay a few days. I accordingly visited Makariki
+with him the next day, and he instructed the chief of the village
+to furnish me with men to carry my baggage, and accompany me on
+my excursion. As the people of the village wanted to be at home
+on Christmas-day, it was necessary to start as soon as possible;
+so we agreed that the men should be ready in two days, and I
+returned to make my arrangements.
+
+I put up the smallest quantity of baggage possible for a six
+days' trip, and on the morning of December 18th we left Makariki,
+with six men carrying my baggage and their own provisions, and a
+lad from Awaiya, who was accustomed to catch butterflies for me.
+My two Amboyna hunters I left behind to shoot and skin what birds
+they could while I was away. Quitting the village, we first
+walked briskly for an hour through a dense tangled undergrowth,
+dripping wet from a storm of the previous night, and full of mud
+holes. After crossing several small streams we reached one of the
+largest rivers in Ceram, called Ruatan, which it was necessary to
+cross. It was both deep and rapid. The baggage was first taken
+over, parcel by parcel, on the men's heads, the water reaching
+nearly up to their armpits, and then two men returned to assist
+me. The water was above my waist, and so strong that I should
+certainly have been carried off my feet had I attempted to cross
+alone; and it was a matter of astonishment to me how the men
+could give me any assistance, since I found the greatest
+difficulty in getting my foot down again when I had once moved it
+off the bottom. The greater strength and grasping power of their
+feet, from going always barefoot, no doubt gave them a surer
+footing in the rapid water.
+
+After well wringing out our wet clothes and putting them on, we
+again proceeded along a similar narrow forest track as before,
+choked with rotten leaves and dead trees, and in the more open
+parts overgrown with tangled vegetation. Another hour brought us
+to a smaller stream flowing in a wide gravelly bed, up which our
+road lay. Here w e stayed half an hour to breakfast, and then
+went on, continually crossing the stream, or walking on its stony
+and gravelly banks, till about noon, when it became rocky and
+enclosed by low hills. A little further we entered a regular
+mountain-gorge, and had to clamber over rocks, and every moment
+cross and recross the water, or take short cuts through the
+forest. This was fatiguing work; and about three in the
+afternoon, the sky being overcast, and thunder in the mountains
+indicating an approaching storm, we had to loon out for a camping
+place, and soon after reached one of Mr. Rosenberg's old ones.
+The skeleton of his little sleeping-hut remained, and my men cut
+leaves and made a hasty roof just as the rain commenced. The
+baggage was covered over with leaves, and the men sheltered
+themselves as they could till the storm was over, by which time a
+flood came down the river, which effectually stopped our further
+march, even had we wished to proceed. We then lighted fires; I
+made some coffee, and my men roasted their fish and plantains,
+and as soon as it was dark, we made ourselves comfortable for the
+night.
+
+Starting at six the next morning, we had three hours of the same
+kind of walking, during which we crossed the river at least
+thirty or forty times, the water being generally knee-deep. This
+brought us to a place where the road left the stream, and here we
+stopped to breakfast. We then had a long walk over the mountain,
+by a tolerable path, which reached an elevation of about fifteen
+hundred feet above the sea. Here I noticed one of the smallest
+and most elegant tree ferns I had ever seen, the stem being
+scarcely thicker than my thumb, yet reaching a height of fifteen
+or twenty feet. I also caught a new butterfly of the genus
+Pieris, and a magnificent female specimen of Papilio gambrisius,
+of which I had hitherto only found the males, which are smaller
+and very different in colour. Descending the other side of the
+ridge, by a very steep path, we reached another river at a spot
+which is about the centre of the island, and which was to be our
+resting place for two or three days. In a couple of hour my men
+had built a little sleeping-shed for me, about eight feet by
+four, with a bench of split poles, they themselves occupying two
+or three smaller ones, which had been put up by former
+passengers.
+
+The river here was about twenty yards wide, running over a pebbly
+and sometimes a rocky bed, and bordered by steep hills with
+occasionally flat swampy spots between their base and the stream.
+The whole country was one dense, Unbroken, and very damp and
+gloomy virgin forest. Just at our resting-place there was a
+little bush-covered island in the middle of the channel, so that
+the opening in the forest made by the river was wider than usual,
+and allowed a few gleams of sunshine to penetrate. Here there
+were several handsome butterflies flying about, the finest of
+which, however, escaped me, and I never saw it again during my
+stay. In the two days and a half which we remained here, I
+wandered almost all day up and down the stream, searching after
+butterflies, of which I got, in all, fifty or sixty specimens,
+with several species quite new to me. There were many others
+which I saw only once, and did not capture, causing me to regret
+that there was no village in these interior valleys where I could
+stay a month. In the early part of each morning I went out with
+my gun in search of birds, and two of my men were out almost all
+day after deer; but we were all equally unsuccessful, getting
+absolutely nothing the whole time we were in the forest. The only
+good bird seen was the fine Amboyna lory, but these were always
+too high to shoot; besides this, the great Moluccan hornbill,
+which I did not want, was almost the only bird met with. I saw
+not a single ground-thrush, or kingfisher, or pigeon; and, in
+fact, have never been in a forest so utterly desert of animal
+life as this appeared to be. Even in all other groups of insects,
+except butterflies, there was the same poverty. I bad hoped to
+find some rare tiger beetles, as I had done in similar situations
+in Celebes; but, though I searched closely in forest, river-bed,
+and mountain-brook, I could find nothing but the two common
+Amboyna species. Other beetles there were absolutely none.
+
+The constant walking in water, and over rocks and pebbles, quite
+destroyed the two pair of shoes I brought with me, so that, on my
+return, they actually fell to pieces, and the last day I had to
+walk in my stockings very painfully, and reached home quite lame.
+On our way back from Makariki, as on our way there, we had storm
+and rain at sea, and we arrived at Awaiya late in the evening,
+with all our baggage drenched, and ourselves thoroughly
+uncomfortable. All the time I had been in Ceram I had suffered
+much from the irritating bites of an invisible acarus, which is
+worse than mosquitoes, ants, and every other pest, because it is
+impossible to guard against them. This last journey in the forest
+left me covered from head to foot with inflamed lumps, which,
+after my return to Amboyna, produced a serious disease, confining
+me to the house for nearly two months, a not very pleasant
+memento of my first visit to Ceram, which terminated with the
+year 1859.
+
+It was not till the 24th of February, 1860, that I started again,
+intending to pass from village to village along the coast,
+staying where I found a suitable locality. I had a letter from
+the Governor of the Moluccas, requesting all the chiefs to supply
+me with boats and men to carry me on my journey. The first boat
+took me in two days to Amahay, on the opposite side of the bay to
+Awaiya. The chief here, wonderful to relate, did not make any
+excuses for delay, but immediately ordered out the boat which was
+to carry me on, put my baggage on hoard, set up mast and sails
+after dark, and had the men ready that nigh; so that we were
+actually on our way at five the next morning,--a display of
+energy and activity I scarcely ever saw before in a native chief
+on such an occasion. We touched at Cepa, and stayed for the night
+at Tamilan, the first two Mahometan villages on the south coast
+of Ceram. The next day, about noon, we reached Hoya, which was as
+Far as my present boat and crew were going to take me. The
+anchorage is about a mile east of the village, which is faced by
+coral reefs, and we had to wait for the evening tide to move up
+and unload the boat into the strange rotten wooden pavilion kept
+for visitors.
+
+There was no boat here large enough to take my baggage; and
+although two would have done very well, the Rajah insisted upon
+sending four. The reason of this I found was, that there were
+four small villages under his rule, and by sending a boat from
+each he would avoid the difficult task of choosing two and
+letting off the others. I was told that at the next village of
+Teluti there were plenty of Alfuros, and that I could get
+abundance of Tories and other birds. The Rajah declared that
+black and yellow Tories and black cockatoos were found there; but
+I am inclined to think he knew very well he was telling me lies,
+and that it was only a scheme to satisfy me with his plan of
+taking me to that village, instead of a day's journey further on,
+as I desired. Here, as at most of the villages, I was asked for
+spirits, the people being mere nominal Mahometans, who confine
+their religion almost entirely to a disgust at pork, and a few
+other forbidden articles of food. The next morning, after much
+trouble, we got our cargoes loaded, and had a delightful row
+across the deep bay of Teluti, with a view of the grand central
+mountain-range of Ceram. Our four boats were rowed by sixty men,
+with flags flying and tom-toms beating, as well as very vigorous
+shouting and singing to keep up their spirits. The sea way
+smooth, the morning bright, and the whole scene very
+exhilarating. On landing, the Orang-kaya and several of the chief
+men, in gorgeous silk jackets, were waiting to receive us, and
+conducted me to a house prepared for my reception, where I
+determined to stay a few days, and see if the country round
+produced anything new.
+
+My first inquiries were about the lories, but I could get very
+little satisfactory information. The only kinds known were the
+ring-necked lory and the common red and green lorikeet, both
+common at Amboyna. Black Tories and cockatoos were quite unknown.
+The Alfuros resided in the mountains five or six days' journey
+away, and there were only one or two live birds to be found in
+the village, and these were worthless. My hunters could get
+nothing but a few common birds; and notwithstanding fine
+mountains, luxuriant forests, and a locality a hundred miles
+eastward, I could find no new insects, and extremely few even of
+the common species of Amboyna and West Ceram. It was evidently no
+use stopping at such a place, and I was determined to move on as
+soon as possible.
+
+The village of Teluti is populous, but straggling and very dirty.
+Sago trees here cover the mountain side, instead of growing as
+usual in low swamps; but a closer examination shows that they
+grow in swampy patches, which have formed among the loose rocks
+that cover the ground, and which are kept constantly full of
+moisture by the rains, and by the abundance of rills which
+trickle down among them. This sago forms almost the whole
+subsistence of the inhabitants, who appear to cultivate nothing
+but a few small patches of maize and sweet potatoes. Hence, as
+before explained, the scarcity of insects. The Orang-kaya has
+fine clothes, handsome lamps, and other expensive European goods,
+yet lives every day on sago and fish as miserably as the rest.
+
+After three days in this barren place I left on the morning of
+March 6th, in two boats of the same size as those which had
+brought me to Teluti. With some difficulty I had obtained
+permission to take these boats on to Tobo, where I intended to
+stay a while, and therefore got on pretty quickly, changing men
+at the village of Laiemu, and arriving in a heavy rain at
+Ahtiago. As there was a good deal of surf here, and likely to be
+more if the wind blew hard during the night, our boats were
+pulled up on the beach; and after supping at the Orang-kaya's
+house, and writing down a vocabulary of the language of the
+Alfuros, who live in the mountains inland, I returned to sleep in
+the boat. Next morning we proceeded, changing men at Warenama,
+and again at Hatometen, at both of which places there was much
+surf and no harbour, so that the men had to go on shore and come
+on board by swimming. Arriving in the evening of March 7th at
+Batuassa, the first village belonging to the Rajah of Tobo, and
+under the government of Banda, the surf was very heavy, owing to
+a strong westward swell. We therefore rounded the rocky point on
+which the village was situated, but found it very little better
+on the other side. We were obliged, however, to go on shore here;
+and waiting till the people on the beach had made preparations,
+by placing a row of logs from the water's edge on which to pull
+up our boats, we rowed as quickly as we could straight on to
+them, after watching till the heaviest surfs had passed. The
+moment we touched ground our men all jumped out, and, assisted by
+those on shore, attempted to haul up the boat high and dry, but
+not having sufficient hands, the surf repeatedly broke into the
+stern. The steepness of the beach, however, prevented any damage
+being done, and the other boat having both crews to haul at it,
+was got up without difficulty.
+
+The next morning, the water being low, the breakers were at some
+distance from shore, and we had to watch for a smooth moment
+after bringing the boats to the water's edge, and so got safely
+out to sea. At the two next villages, Tobo and Ossong, we also
+took in fresh men, who came swimming through the surf; and at the
+latter place the Rajah came on board and accompanied me to
+Kissalaut, where he has a house which he lent me during my stay.
+Here again was a heavy surf, and it was with great difficulty we
+got the boats safely hauled up. At Amboyna I had been promised at
+this season a calm sea and the wind off shore, but in this case,
+as in every other, I had been unable to obtain any reliable
+information as to the winds and seasons of places distant two or
+three days' journey. It appears, however, that owing to the
+general direction of the island of Ceram (E.S.E. and W.N.W.),
+there is a heavy surf and scarcely any shelter on the south coast
+during the west monsoon, when alone a journey to the eastward can
+be safely made; while during the east monsoon, when I proposed to
+return along the north coast to Wahai, I should probably find
+that equally exposed and dangerous. But although the general
+direction of the west monsoon in the Banda sea causes a heavy
+swell, with bad surf on the coast, yet we had little advantage of
+the wind; for, owing I suppose to the numerous bays and
+headlands, we had contrary south-east or even due east winds all
+the way, and had to make almost the whole distance from Amboyna
+by force of rowing. We had therefore all the disadvantages, and
+none of the advantages, of this west monsoon, which I was told
+would insure me a quick and pleasant journey.
+
+I was delayed at Kissa-laut just four weeks, although after the
+first three days I saw that it would be quite useless for me to
+stay, and begged the Rajah to give me a prau and men to carry me
+on to Goram. But instead of getting one close at hand, he
+insisted on sending several miles off; and when after many delays
+it at length arrived, it was altogether unsuitable and too small
+to carry my baggage. Another was then ordered to be brought
+immediately, and was promised in three days, but doable that time
+elapsed and none appeared, and we were obliged at length to get
+one at the adjoining village, where it might have been so much
+more easily obtained at first. Then came caulking and covering
+over, and quarrels between the owner and the Rajah's men, which
+occupied more than another ten days, during all which time I was
+getting absolutely nothing, finding this part of Ceram a perfect
+desert in zoology. although a most beautiful country, and with a
+very luxuriant vegetation. It was a complete puzzle, which to
+this day I have not been able to understand; the only thing I
+obtained worth notice during my month's stay here being a few
+good land shells.
+
+At length, on April 4th, we succeeded in getting away in our
+little boat of about four tons burthen, in which my numerous
+boxes were with difficulty packed so as to leave sleeping and
+cooling room. The craft could not boast an ounce of iron or a
+foot of rope in any part of its construction, nor a morsel of
+pitch or paint in its decoration. The planks were fastened
+together in the usual  ingenious way with pegs and rattans. The
+mast was a bamboo triangle, requiring no shrouds, and carrying a
+long mat sail; two rudders were hung on the quarters by rattans,
+the anchor was of wood, and a long and thick rattan; served as a
+cable. Our crew consisted of four men, whose pole accommodation
+was about three feet by four in the bows and stern, with the
+sloping thatch roof to stretch themselves upon for a change. We
+had nearly a hundred miles to go, fully exposed to the swell of
+the Banda sea, which is sometimes very considerable; but we
+luckily had it calm and smooth, so that we made the voyage in
+comparative comfort.
+
+On the second day we passed the eastern extremity of Ceram,
+formed of a group of hummocky limestone hills; and, sailing by
+the islands of Kwammer and Keffing, both thickly inhabited, came
+in sight of the little town of Kilwaru, which appears to rise out
+of the sea like a rustic Venice. This place has really a most
+extraordinary appearance, as not a particle of land or vegetation
+can be seen, but a long way out at sea a large village seems to
+float upon the water. There is of course a small island of
+several acres in extent; but the houses are built so closely all
+round it upon piles in the water, that it is completely hidden.
+It is a place of great traffic, being the emporium for much of
+the produce of these Eastern seas, and is the residence of many
+Bugis and Ceramese traders, and appears to have been chosen on
+account of its being close to the only deep channel between the
+extensive shoals of Ceram-laut and those bordering the east end
+of Ceram. We now had contrary east winds, and were obliged to
+pole over the shallow coral reefs of Ceram-laut for nearly thirty
+miles. The only danger of our voyage was just at its termination,
+for as we were rowing towards Manowolko, the largest of the Goram
+group, we were carried out so rapidly by a strong westerly
+current, that I was almost certain at one time we should pass
+clear of the island; in which case our situation would have been
+both disagreeable and dangerous, as, with the east wind which had
+just set in, we might have been unable to return for many days,
+and we had not a day's water on board. At the critical moment I
+served out some strong spirits to my men, which put fresh vigour
+into their arms, and carried us out of the influence of the
+current before it was too late.
+
+MANOWOLKO, GORAM GROUP.
+
+On arriving at Manowolko, we found the Rajah was at the opposite
+island of Goram; but he was immediately sent for, and in the
+meantime a large shed was given for our accommodation. At night
+the Rajah came, and the next day I had a visit from him, and
+found, as I expected, that I had already made his acquaintance
+three years before at Aru. He was very friendly, and we had a
+long talk; but when I begged for a boat and men to take me on to
+Ke, he made a host of difficulties. There were no praus, as all
+had gone to Ke or Aim; and even if one were found, there were no
+men, as it was the season when all were away trading. But he
+promised to see about it, and I was obliged to wait. For the next
+two or three days there was more talking and more difficulties
+were raised, and I had time to make an examination of the island
+and the people.
+
+Manowolko is about fifteen miles long, and is a mere; upraised
+coral-reef. Two or three hundred yards inland rise cliffs of
+coral rock, in many parts perpendicular, and one or two hundred
+feet high; and this, I was informed, is characteristic of the
+whole island, in which there is no other kind of rock, and no
+stream of water. A few cracks and chasms furnish paths to the top
+of these cliffs, where there is an open undulating country, in
+which the chief vegetable grounds of the inhabitants are
+situated.
+
+The people here--at least the chief men--were of a much purer
+Malay race than the Mahometans of the mainland of Ceram, which is
+perhaps due to there having been no indigenes on these small
+islands when the first settlers arrived. In Ceram, the Alfuros of
+Papuan race are the predominant type, the Malay physiognomy being
+seldom well marked; whereas here the reverse is the case, and a
+slight infusion of Papuan on a mixture of Malay and Bugis has
+produced a very good-looking set of people. The lower class of
+the population consist almost entirely of the indigenes of the
+adjacent island. They are a fine race, with strongly-marked
+Papuan features, frizzly hair, and brown complexions. The Goram
+language is spoken also at the east end of Ceram, and in the
+adjacent islands. It has a general resemblance to the languages
+of Ceram, but possesses a peculiar element which I have not met
+with in other languages of the Archipelago.
+
+After great delay, considering the importance of every day at
+this time of year, a miserable boat and five men were found, and
+with some difficulty I stowed away in it such baggage as it was
+absolutely necessary for me to take, leaving scarcely sitting or
+sleeping room. The sailing qualities of the boat were highly
+vaunted, and I was assured that at this season a small one was
+much more likely to succeed in making the journey. We first
+coasted along the island, reaching its eastern extremity the
+following morning (April 11th), and found a strong W. S.W. wind
+blowing, which just allowed us to lay across to the Matabello
+Islands, a distance little short of twenty miles. I did not much
+like the look of the heavy sky and rather rough sea, and my men
+were very unwilling to make the attempt; but as we could scarcely
+hope for a better chance, I insisted upon trying. The pitching
+and jerking of our little boat, soon reduced me to a state of
+miserable helplessness, and I lay down, resigned to whatever
+might happen. After three or four hours, I was told we were
+nearly over; but when I got up, two hours later, just as the sun
+was setting, I found we were still a good distance from the
+point, owing to a strong current which had been for some time
+against us. Night closed in, and the wind drew more ahead, so we
+had to take in sail. Then came a calm, and we rowed and sailed as
+occasion offered; and it was four in the morning when we reached
+the village of Kisslwoi, not having made more than three miles in
+the last twelve hours.
+
+MATABELLO ISLANDS.
+
+At daylight I found we were; in a beautiful little harbour,
+formed by a coral reef about two hundred yards from shore, and
+perfectly secure in every wind. Having eaten nothing since the
+previous morning, we cooked our breakfast comfortably on shore,
+and left about noon, coasting along the two islands of this
+group, which lie in the same line, and are separated by a narrow
+channel. Both seem entirely formed of raised coral rock; but them
+has been a subsequent subsidence, as shaven by the barrier reef
+which extends all along them at varying distances from the shore,
+This reef is sometimes only marked by a. line of breakers when
+there is a little swell on the sea; in other places there is a
+ridge of dead coral above the water, which is here and there high
+enough to support a few low bushes. This was the first example I
+had met with of a true barrier reef due to subsidence, as has
+been so clearly shown by Mr. Darwin. In a sheltered archipelago
+they will seldom be distinguishable, from the absence of those
+huge rolling waves and breakers which in the wide ocean throw up
+a barrier of broken coral far above the usual high-water mark,
+while here they rarely rise to the surface.
+
+On reaching the end of the southern island, called Uta, we were
+kept waiting two days for a wind that would enable us to pass
+over to the next island, Teor, and I began to despair of ever
+reaching Ke, and determined on returning. We left with a south
+wind, which suddenly changed to north-east, and induced me to
+turn again southward in the hopes that this was the commencement
+of a few days' favourable weather. We sailed on very well in the
+direction of Teor for about an hour, after which the wind shifted
+to WSW., and we were driven much out of our course, and at
+nightfall found ourselves in the open sea, and full ten miles to
+leeward of our destination. My men were now all very much
+frightened, for if we went on we might be a. week at sea in our
+little open boat, laden almost to the water's edge; or we might
+drift on to the coast of New Guinea, in which case we should most
+likely all be murdered. I could not deny these probabilities, and
+although I showed them that we could not get back to our
+starting-point with the wind as it was, they insisted upon
+returning. We accordingly put about, and found that we could lay
+no nearer to Uta than to Teor; however, by great good luck, about
+ten o'clock we hit upon a little coral island, and lay under its
+lee till morning, when a favourable change of wind brought us
+back to Uta, and by evening (April 18th w e reached our first
+anchorage in Matabello, where I resolved to stay a few days, and
+then return to Goram. It way with much regret that I gave up my
+trip to Ke and the intervening islands, which I had looked
+forward to as likely to make up for my disappointment in Ceram,
+since my short visit on my voyage to Aru had produced me so many
+rare and beautiful insects.
+
+The natives of Matabello are almost entirely occupied in making
+cocoanut oil, which they sell to the Bugis and Goram traders, who
+carry it to Banda and Amboyna. The rugged coral rock seems very
+favourable to the growth of the cocoa-nut palm, which abounds
+over the whole island to the very highest points, and produces
+fruit all the year round. Along with it are great numbers of the
+areca or betel-nut palm, the nuts of which are sliced, dried, and
+ground into a paste, which is much used by the betel-chewing
+Malays and Papuans. A11 the little children here even such as can
+just run alone, carried between their lips a mass of the nasty-
+looking red paste, which is even more disgusting than to see them
+at the same age smoking cigars, which is very common even before
+they are weaned. Cocoa-nuts, sweet potatoes, an occasional sago
+cake, and the refuse nut after the oil has been extracted by
+boiling, form the chief sustenance of these people; and the
+effect of this poor and unwholesome diet is seen in the frequency
+of eruptions and scurfy skin diseases, and the numerous sores
+that disfigure the faces of the children.
+
+The villages are situated on high and rugged coral peaks, only
+accessible by steep narrow paths, with ladders and bridges over
+yawning chasms. They are filthy with rotten husks and oil refuse,
+and the huts are dark, greasy, and dirty in the extreme. The
+people are wretched ugly dirty savages, clothed in unchanged
+rags, and living in the most miserable manner, and as every drop
+of fresh water has to be brought up from the beach, washing is
+never thought of; yet they are actually wealthy, and have the
+means of purchasing all the necessaries and luxuries of life.
+Fowls are abundant, and eggs were given me whenever I visited the
+villages, but these are never eaten, being looked upon as pets or
+as merchandise. Almost all of the women wear massive gold
+earrings, and in every village there are dozens of small bronze
+cannon lying about on the ground, although they have cost on the
+average perhaps Ł10 a piece. The chief men of each village came
+to visit me, clothed in robes of silk and flowered satin, though
+their houses and their daily fare are no better than those of the
+ether inhabitants. What a contrast between these people and such
+savages as the best tribes of bill. Dyaks in Borneo, or the
+Indians of the Uaupes in South America, living on the banks of
+clear streams, clean in their persons and their houses, with
+abundance of wholesome food, and exhibiting its effect in healthy
+shins and beauty of form and feature! There is in fact almost as
+much difference: between the various races of savage as of
+civilized peoples, and we may safely affirm that the better
+specimens of the former are much superior to the lower examples
+of the latter class.
+
+One of the few luxuries of Matabello is the palm wine; which is
+the fermented sap from the flower stains of the cocoa-net. It is
+really a very mice drink, more like cyder than beer, though quite
+as intoxicating as the latter. Young cocoa-nuts are also very
+abundant, so that anywhere in the island it is only necessary to
+go a few yards to find a delicious beverage by climbing up a tree
+for it. It is the water of the young fruit that is drunk, before
+the pulp has hardened; it is then more abundant, clear, and
+refreshing, and the thin coating of gelatinous pulp is thought a
+treat luxury. The water of full-brown cocoa-nuts is always thrown
+away as undrinkable, although it is delicious in comparison with
+that of the old dry nuts which alone we obtain in this country.
+The cocoa-nut pulp I did not like at first; but fruits are so
+scarce, except at particular seasons, that one soon learns to
+appreciate anything of a fruity nature.
+
+Many persons in Europe are under the impression that 	fruits of
+delicious flavour abound in the tropical forests, and they will
+no doubt be surprised to learn that the truly wild fruits of this
+brand and luxuriant archipelago, the vegetation of which will vie
+with that of any part of the world, are in almost every island
+inferior in abundance and duality to those of Britain. Wild
+strawberries and raspberries are found in some places, but they
+arc such poor tasteless things as to be hardly worth eating, and
+there is nothing to compare with our blackberries and
+whortleberries. The kanary-nut may be considered equal to a
+hazel-nut, but I have met with nothing else superior to our
+crabs, oar haws, beech-nuts, wild plums, and  acorns; fruits
+which would be highly esteemed by the natives of these islands,
+and would form an important part of their sustenance. All the
+fine tropical fruits are as much cultivated productions as our
+apples, peaches, and plums, and their wild prototypes, when
+found, are generally either tasteless or uneatable.
+
+The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan
+villages of East Ceram and Goram, amused me much by their strange
+ideas concerning the Russian war. They believe that the Russians
+were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were
+absolutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism! And they can
+hardly be convinced that such is not the case, and that had it
+not been for the assistance of France and England, the poor
+Sultan world have fared ill. Another of their motions is, that
+the Turks are the largest and strongest people in the world--in
+fact a race of giants; that they eat enormous quantities of meat,
+and are a most ferocious and irresistible nation. Whence such
+strangely incorrect opinions could have arisen it is difficult to
+understand, unless they are derived from Arab priests, or hadjis
+returned from Mecca, who may have heard of the ancient prowess of
+the Turkish armies when they made all Europe tremble, and suppose
+that their character and warlike capacity must be the same at the
+present time.
+
+GORAM
+
+A steady south-east wind having set in, we returned to Manowolko
+on the 25th of April, and the day after crossed over to Ondor,
+the chief village of Goram.
+
+Around this island extends, with few interruptions, an encircling
+coral reef about a quarter of a mile from the shore, visible as a
+stripe of pale green water, but only at very lowest ebb-tides
+showing any rock above the surface. There are several deep
+entrances through this reef, and inside it there is hood
+anchorage in all weathers. The land rises gradually to a moderate
+height, and numerous small streams descend on all sides. The mere
+existence of these streams would prove that the island was not
+entirely coralline, as in that case all the water would sink
+through the porous rock as it does at Manowolko and Matabello;
+but we have more positive proof in the pebbles and stones of
+their beds, which exhibit a variety of stratified crystalline
+rocks. About a hundred yards from the beach rises a wall of coral
+rock, ten or twenty feet high, above which is an undulating
+surface of rugged coral, which slopes downward towards the
+interior, and then after a slight ascent is bounded by a second
+wall of coral. Similar walls occur higher up, and coral is found
+on the highest part of the island.
+
+This peculiar structure teaches us that before the coral was
+formed land existed in this spot; that this land sunk gradually
+beneath the waters, but with intervals of rest, during which
+encircling reef's were formed around it at different elevations;
+that it then rose to above its present elevation, and is now
+again sinking. We infer this, because encircling reefs are a
+proof of subsidence; and if the island were again elevated about
+a hundred feet, what is now the reef and the shallow sea within
+it would form a wall of coral rock, and an undulating coralline
+plain, exactly similar to those that still exist at various
+altitudes up to the summit of the island. We learn also that
+these changes have taken place at a comparatively recent epoch,
+for the surface of the coral has scarcely suffered from the
+action of the weather, and hundreds of sea-shells, exactly
+resembling those still found upon the beach, and many of them
+retaining their gloss and even their colour, are scattered over
+the surface of the island to near its summit.
+
+Whether the Goram group formed originally part of New Guinea or
+of Ceram it is scarcely possible to determine, and its
+productions will throw little light upon the question, if, as I
+suppose, the islands have been entirely submerged within the
+epoch of existing species of animals, as in that case it must owe
+its present fauna and flora to recent immigration from
+surrounding lands; and with this view its poverty in species very
+well agrees. It possesses much in common with East Ceram, but at
+the same time has a good deal of resemblance to the Ke Islands
+and Banda. The fine pigeon, Carpophaga concinna, inhabits Ke,
+Banda, 11-Iatabello, and Goram, and is replaced by a distinct
+species, C. neglecta, in Ceram. The insects of these four islands
+have also a common facies--facts which seem to indicate that some
+more extensive land has recently disappeared from the area they
+now occupy, and has supplied them with a few of its peculiar
+productions.
+
+The Goram people (among whom I stayed a month) are a race of
+traders. Every year they visit the Tenimber, Ke, and Aru Islands,
+the whole north-west coast of New Guinea from Oetanata to
+Salwatty, and the island of Waigiou and Mysol. They also extend
+their voyages to Tidore and Ternate, as well as to Banda and
+Amboyna, Their praus are all made by that wonderful race of
+boatbuilders, the Ke. islanders, who annually turn out some
+hundreds of boats, large and small, which can hardly be surpassed
+for beauty of form and goodness of workmanship, They trade
+chiefly in tripang, the medicinal mussoi bark, wild nutmegs, and
+tortoiseshell, which they sell to the Bugis traders at Ceram-laut
+or Aru, few of them caring to take their products to any other
+market. In other respects they are a lazy race, living very
+poorly, and much given to opium smoking. The only native
+manufactures are sail-matting, coarse cotton cloth, and pandanus-
+leaf boxes, prettily stained and ornamented with shell-work.
+
+In the island of Goram, only eight or ten miles long, there are
+about a dozen Rajahs, scarcely better off than the rest of the
+inhabitants, and exercising a mere nominal sway, except when any
+order is received from the Dutch Government, when, being backed
+by a higher power, they show a little more strict authority. My
+friend the Rajah of Ammer (commonly called Rajah of Goram) told
+me that a few years ago, before the Dutch had interfered in the
+affairs of the island, the trade was not carried on so peaceably
+as at present, rival praus often fighting when on the way to the
+same locality, or trafficking in the same village. Now such a
+thing is never thought of-one of the good effects of the
+superintendence of a civilized government. Disputes between
+villages are still, however, sometimes settled by fighting, and I
+one day saw about fifty men, carrying long guns and heavy
+cartridge-belts, march through the village. They had come from
+the other side of the island on some question of trespass or
+boundary, and were prepared for war if peaceable negotiations
+should fail.
+
+While at Manowolko I had purchased for 100 florins Ł9.) a small
+prau, which was brought over the next day, as I was informed it
+was more easy to have the necessary alterations made in Goram,
+where several Ke workmen were settled.
+
+As soon as we began getting my prau ready I was obliged to give
+up collecting, as I found that unless I was constantly on the
+spot myself very little work would be clone. As I proposed making
+some long voyages in this boat, I determined to fit it up
+conveniently, and was obliged to do all the inside work myself,
+assisted by my two Amboynese boys. I had plenty of visitors,
+surprised to see a white man at work, and much astonished at the
+novel arrangements I was making in one of their native vessels.
+Luckily I had a few tools of my own, including a small saw and
+some chisels, and these were now severely tried, cutting and
+fitting heavy iron-wood planks for the flooring and the posts
+that support the triangular mast. Being of the best London make,
+they stood the work well, and without them it would have been
+impossible for me to have finished my boat with half the
+neatness, or in double the time. I had a Ke workman to put in new
+ribs, for which I bought nails of a Bugis trader, at 8d. a pound.
+My gimlets were, however, too small; and having no augers we were
+obliged to bore all the holes with hot irons, a most tedious and
+unsatisfactory operation.
+
+Five men had engaged to work at the prau till finished, and then
+go with me to Mysol, Waigiou, and Ternate. Their ideas of work
+were, however, very different from mine, and I had immense
+difficulty with them; seldom more than two or three coming
+together, and a hundred excuses being given for working only half
+a day when they did come. Yet they were constantly begging
+advances of money, saying they had nothing to eat. When I gave it
+them they were sure to stay away the next day, and when I refused
+any further advances some of them declined working any more. As
+the boat approached completion my difficulties with the men
+increased. The uncle of one had commenced a war, or sort of
+faction fight, and wanted his assistance; another's wife was ill,
+and would not let him come; a third had fever and ague, and pains
+in his head and back; and a fourth had an inexorable creditor who
+would not let him go out of his sight. They had all received a
+month's wages in advance; and though the amount was not large, it
+was necessary to make them pay it back, or I should get ago men
+at a11. I therefore sent the village constable after two, and
+kept them in custody a day, when they returned about three-
+fourths of what they owed me. The sick man also paid, and the
+steersman found a substitute who was willing to take his debt,
+and receive only the balance of his wages.
+
+About this time we had a striking proof of the dangers of New
+Guinea trading. Six men arrived at the village in a small boat
+almost starved, having escaped out of two praus, the remainder of
+whose crews (fourteen in number) had been murdered by the natives
+of New Guinea. The praus had left this village a few months
+before, and among the murdered men were the Rajah's son, and the
+relation or slaves of many of the inhabitants. The cry of
+lamentation that arose when the news arrived was most
+distressing. A score of women, who had lost husbands, brothers,
+sons, or more distant relatives, set up at once the most dismal
+shrieks and groans and wailings, which continued at intervals
+till late at night; and as the chief houses in the village were
+crowded together round that which I occupied, our situation was
+anything but agreeable.
+
+It seems that the village where the attack took place (nearly
+opposite the small island of Lakahia) is known to be dangerous,
+and the vessels had only gone there a few days before to buy some
+tripang. The crew were living on shore, the praus being in a
+small river close by, and they were attacked and murdered in the
+day-time while bargaining with the Papuans. The six men who
+survived were on board the praus, and escaped by at once setting
+into the small boat and rowing out to sea.
+
+This south-west part of New Guinea, known to the native traders
+as "Papua Kowiyee" and "Papua Onen," is inhabited by the most
+treacherous and bloodthirsty tribes. It is in these districts
+that the commanders and portions of the crews of many of the
+early discovery ships were murdered, and scarcely a year now
+passes but some lives are lost. The Goram and Ceram traders are
+themselves generally inoffensive; they are well acquainted with
+the character of these natives, and are not likely to provoke an
+attack by any insults or open attempt at robbery or imposition.
+They are accustomed to visit the same places every year, and the
+natives can have no fear of them, as may be alleged in excuse for
+their attacks on Europeans. In other extensive districts
+inhabited by the same Papuan races, such as Mysol, Salwatty,
+Waigiou, and some parts of the adjacent coast, the people have
+taken the first step in civilization, owing probably to the
+settlement of traders of mixed breed among them, and for many
+years no such attacks have taken place. On the south-west coast,
+and in the large island of Jobie, however, the natives are in a
+very barbarous condition, and tale every opportunity of robbery
+and murder,--a habit which is confirmed by the impunity they
+experience, owing to the vast extent of wild mountain and forest
+country forbidding all pursuit or attempt at punishment. In the
+very same village, four years before, more than fifty Goram men
+were murdered; and as these savages obtain an immense booty in
+the praus and all their appurtenances, it is to be feared that
+such attacks will continue to be made at intervals as long as
+traders visit the same spots and attempt no retaliation.
+Punishment could only be inflicted on these people by very
+arbitrary measures, such as by obtaining possession of some of
+the chiefs by stratagem, and rendering them responsible for the
+capture of the murderers at the peril of their own heads. But
+anything of this kind would be done contrary to the system
+adopted by the Dutch Government in its dealings with natives.
+
+GORAM TO WAHAI IN CERAM.
+
+When my boat was at length launched and loaded, I got my men
+together, and actually set sail the next day (May 27th), much to
+the astonishment of the Goram people, to whom such punctuality
+was a novelty. I had a crew of three men and a boy, besides my
+two Amboyna lads; which was sufficient for sailing, though rather
+too few if obliged to row much. The next day was very wet, with
+squalls, calms, and contrary winds, and with some difficulty we
+reached Kilwaru, the metropolis of the Bugis traders in the far
+East. As I wanted to make some purchases, I stayed here two days,
+and sent two of my boxes of specimens by a Macassar prau to be
+forwarded to Ternate, thus relieving myself of a considerable
+incumbrance. I bought knives, basins, and handkerchiefs for
+barter, which with the choppers, cloth, and beads I had brought
+with me, made a pretty good assortment. I also bought two tower
+muskets to satisfy my crew, who insisted on the necessity of
+being armed against attacks of pirates; and with spices and a few
+articles of food for the voyage nearly my last doit was expended.
+
+The little island of Kilwaru is a mere sandbank, just large
+enough to contain a small village, and situated between the
+islands of Ceram-laut, and Kissa--straits about a third of a mile
+wide separating it from each of them. It is surrounded by coral
+reefs, and offers good anchorage in both monsoons. Though not
+more than fifty yards across, and not elevated more than three or
+four feet above the highest tides, it has wells of excellent
+drinking water--a singular phenomenon, which would seem to imply
+deep-seated subterranean channels connecting it with other
+islands. These advantages, with its situation in the centre of
+the Papuan trading district, lead to its being so much frequented
+by the Bugis traders. Here the Goram men bring the produce of
+their little voyages, which they exchange for cloth, sago cakes,
+and opium; and the inhabitants of all the surrounding islands
+visit it with the game object. It is the rendezvous of the praus
+trading to various parts of New Guinea, which here assort and dry
+their cargoes, and refit for the voyage home. Tripang and mussoi
+bark are the most bulky articles of produce brought here, with
+wild nutmegs, tortoiseshell, pearls, and birds of Paradise; in
+smaller quantities. The villagers of the mainland of Ceram bring
+their sago, which is thus distributed to the islands farther
+east, while rice from Bali and Macassar can also be purchased at
+a moderate price. The Goram men come here for their supplies of
+opium, both for their own consumption and for barter in Mysol and
+Waigiou, where they have introduced it, and where the chiefs and
+wealthy men are passionately fond of it. Schooners from Bali come
+to buy Papuan slaves, while the sea-wandering Bugis arrive from
+distant Singapore in their lumbering praus, bringing thence the
+produce of the Chinamen's workshops and Kling's bazaar, as well
+as of the looms of Lancashire and Massachusetts.
+
+One of the Bugis traders who had arrived a few days before from
+Mysol, brought me news of my assistant Charles Allen, with whom
+he was well acquainted, and who, he assured me; was making large
+collections of birds and insects, although he had not obtained
+any birds of Paradise; Silinta, where he was staying, not being a
+good place for them. This was on the whole satisfactory, and I
+was anxious to reach him as soon as possible.
+
+Leaving Kilwaru early in the morning of June 1st, with a strong
+east wind we doubled the point of Ceram about noon, the heavy sea
+causing my prau to roll abort a good deal, to the damage of our
+crockery. As bad weather seemed coming on, we got inside the
+reefs and anchored opposite the village of Warns-warns to wait
+for a change.
+
+The night was very squally, and though in a good harbour we
+rolled and jerked uneasily; but in the morning I had greater
+cause for uneasiness in the discovery that our entire Goram crew
+had decamped, taking with them all they possessed and a little
+more, and leaving us without any small boat in which to land. I
+immediately told my Amboyna men to load and fire the muskets as a
+signal of distress, which was soon answered by the village chief
+sending off a boat, which took me on shore. I requested that
+messengers should be immediately sent to the neighbouring
+villages in quest of the fugitives, which was promptly done. My
+prau was brought into a small creek, where it could securely rest
+in the mud at low water, and part of a house was given me in
+which T could stay for a while. I now found my progress again
+suddenly checked, just when I thought I had overcome my chief
+difficulties. As I had treated my men with the greatest kindness,
+and had given them almost everything they had asked for, I can
+impute their running away only to their being totally
+unaccustomed to the restraint of a European master, and to some
+undefined dread of my ultimate intentions regarding them. The
+oldest man was an opium smoker, and a reputed thief, but I had
+been obliged to take him at the last moment as a substitute for
+another. I feel sure it was he who induced the others to run
+away, and as they knew the country well, and had several hours'
+start of us, there was little chance of catching them.
+
+We were here in the great sago district of East Ceram which
+supplies most of the surrounding islands with their daily bread,
+and during our week's delay I had an opportunity of seeing the
+whole process of making it, and obtaining some interesting
+statistics. The sago tree is a palm, thicker and larger than the
+cocoa-nut tree, although rarely so tall, and having immense
+pinnate spiny leaves, which completely cover the trunk till it is
+many years old. It has a creeping root-stem like the Nipa palm,
+and when about ten or fifteen years of age sends up an immense
+terminal spike of flowers, after which the tree dies. It grows in
+swamps, or in swampy hollows on the rocky slopes of hills, where
+it seems to thrive equally well as when exposed to the influx of
+salt or brackish water. The midribs of the immense leaves form
+one of the most useful articles in these lands, supplying the
+place of bamboo, to which for many purposes they are superior.
+They are twelve or fifteen feet long, and, when very fine, as
+thick in the lower part as a man's leg. They are very light,
+consisting entirely of a firm pith covered with a hard thin rind
+or bark. Entire houses are built of these; they form admirable
+roofing-poles for thatch; split and well-supported, they do for
+flooring; and when chosen of equal size, and pegged together side
+by side to fill up the panels of framed wooden horses, they have
+a very neat appearance, and make better walls and partitions than
+boards, as they do not shrink, require no paint or varnish, and
+are not a quarter the expense. When carefully split and shaved
+smooth they are formed into light boards with pegs of the bark
+itself, and are the foundation of the leaf-covered boxes of
+Goram. All the insect-boxes I used in the Moluccas were thus made
+at Amboyna, and when covered with stout paper inside and out, are
+strong, light, and secure the insect-pins remarkably well. The
+leaflet of the sago folded and tied side by side on the smaller
+midribs form the "atap "or thatch in universal use, while the
+product of the trunk is the staple food of some= hundred
+thousands of men.
+
+When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just
+before it is going to flower. It is cut down close to the ground,
+the leaves and leafstalks cleared away, and a broad strip of the
+bark taken off the upper side of the trunk. This exposes the
+pithy matter, which is of a rusty colour near the bottom of the
+tree, but higher up pure white, about as hard as a dry apple, but
+with woody fibre running through it about a quarter of an inch
+apart. This pith is cut or broken down into a coarse powder by
+means of a tool constructed for the purpose--a club of hard and
+heavy wood, having a piece of sharp quartz rock firmly  imbedded
+into its blunt end, and projecting about half an inch. By
+successive blows of this, narrow strips of the pith are cut away,
+and fall down into the cylinder formed by the bark. Proceeding
+steadily on, the whole trunk is cleared out, leaving a skin not
+more than half an inch in thickness. This material is carried
+away (in baskets made of the sheathing bases of the leaves) to
+the nearest water, where a washing-machine is put up, which is
+composed almost entirely of the saga tree itself. The large
+sheathing bases of the leaves form the troughs, and the fibrous
+covering from the leaf-stalks of the young cocoa-nut the
+strainer. Water is poured on the mass of pith, which is kneaded
+and pressed against the strainer till the starch is all dissolved
+and has passed through, when the fibrous refuse is thrown away,
+and a fresh basketful put in its place. The water charged with
+sago starch passes on to a trough, with a depression in the
+centre, where the sediment is deposited, the surplus water
+trickling off by a shallow outlet. When the trough is nearly
+full, the mass of starch, which has a slight reddish tinge, is
+made into cylinders of about thirty pounds' weight, and neatly
+covered with sago leaves, and in this state is sold as raw sago.
+
+Boiled with water this forms a thick glutinous mass, with a
+rather astringent taste, and is eaten with salt, limes, and
+chilies. Sago-bread is made in large quantities, by baking it
+into cakes in a small clay oven containing six or eight slits
+side by side, each about three-quarters of an inch wide, and six
+or eight inches square. The raw sago is broken up, dried in the
+sun, powdered, and finely sifted. The oven is heated over a clear
+fire of embers, and is lightly filled with the sago-powder. The
+openings are then covered with a flat piece of sago bark, and in
+about five minutes the cakes are turned out sufficiently baked.
+The hot cakes are very nice with butter, and when made with the
+addition of a little sugar and grated cocoa-nut are quite a
+delicacy. They are soft, and something like corn-flour cakes, but
+leave a slight characteristic flavour which is lost in the
+refined sago we use in this country. When not wanted for
+immediate use, they are dried for several days in the sun, and
+tied up in bundles of twenty. They will then keep for years; they
+are very hard, and very rough and dry, but the people are used to
+them from infancy, and little children may be seen gnawing at
+them as contentedly as ours with their bread-and-butter. If
+dipped in water and then toasted, they become almost as good as
+when fresh baked; and thus treated they were my daily substitute
+for bread with my coffee. Soaked and boiled they make a very good
+pudding or vegetable, and served well to economize our rice,
+which is sometimes difficult to get so far east.
+
+It is truly an extraordinary sight to witness a whole tree-trunk,
+perhaps twenty feet long and four or five in circumference,
+converted into food with so little labour and preparation. A
+good-sized tree will produce thirty tomans or bundles of thirty
+pounds each, and each toman will make sixty cakes of three to the
+pound. Two of these cakes are as much as a man can eat at one
+meal, and five are considered a full day's allowance; so that,
+reckoning a tree to produce 1,800 cakes, weighing 600 pounds, it
+will supply a man with food for a whole year. The labour to
+produce this is very moderate. Two men will finish a tree in five
+days, and two women will bake the whole into cakes in five days
+more; but the raw sago will keep very well, and can be baked as
+wanted, so that we may estimate that in ten days a man may
+produce food for the whole year. This is on the supposition that
+he possesses sago trees of his own, for they are now all private
+property. If he does not, he has to pay about seven and sixpence
+for one; and as labour here is five pence a day, the total cost
+of a year's food for one man is about twelve shillings. The
+effect of this cheapness of food is decidedly prejudicial, for
+the inhabitants of the sago countries are never so well off as
+those where rice is cultivated. Many of the people here have
+neither vegetables nor fruit, but live almost entirely on sago
+and a little fish. Having few occupations at home, they wander
+about on petty trading or fishing expeditions to the neighbouring
+islands; and as far as the comforts of life are concerned, are
+much inferior to the wild hill-Dyaks of Borneo, or to many of the
+more barbarous tribes of the Archipelago.
+
+The country round Warus-warus is low and swampy, and owing to the
+absence of cultivation there were scarcely any paths leading into
+the forest. I was therefore unable to collect much during my
+enforced stay, and found no rare birds or insects to improve my
+opinion of Ceram as a collecting ground. Finding it quite
+impossible to get men here to accompany me on the whole voyage, I
+was obliged to be content with a crew to take me as far as Wahai,
+on the middle of the north coast of Ceram, and the chief Dutch
+station in the island. The journey took us five days, owing to
+calms and light winds, and no incident of any interest occurred
+on it, nor did I obtain at our stopping places a single addition
+to my collections worth naming. At Wahai, which I reached on the
+15th of June, I was hospitably received by the Commandant and my
+old friend Herr Rosenberg, who was now on an official visit here.
+He lent me some money to pay my men, and I was lucky enough to
+obtain three others willing to make the voyage with me to
+Ternate, and one more who was to return from Mysol. One of my
+Amboyna lads, however, left me, so that I was still rather short
+of hands.
+
+I found here a letter from Charles Allen, who was at Silinta in
+Mysol, anxiously expecting me, as he was out of rice and other
+necessaries, and was short of insect-pins. He was also ill, and
+if I did not soon come would return to Wahai.
+
+As my voyage from this place to Waigiou was among islands
+inhabited by the Papuan race, and was an eventful and disastrous
+one, I will narrate its chief incidents in a separate chapter in
+that division of my work devoted to the Papuan Islands. I now
+have to pass over a year spent in Waigiou and Timor, in order to
+describe my visit to the island of Bouru, which concluded my
+explorations of the Moluccas.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+BOURU.
+
+MAY AND JUNE 1861.
+
+I HAD long wished to visit the large island of Bouru, which lies
+due west of Ceram, and of which scarcely anything appeared to be
+known to naturalists, except that it contained a babirusa very
+like that of Celebes. I therefore made arrangements for staying
+there two months after leaving Timor Delli in 1861. This I could
+conveniently do by means of the Dutch mail-steamers, which make a
+monthly round of the Moluccas.
+
+We arrived at the harbour of Cajeli on the 4th of May; a gun was
+fired, the Commandant of the fort came alongside in a native boat
+to receive the post-packet, and took me and my baggage on shore,
+the steamer going off again without coming to an anchor. We went
+to the horse of the Opzeiner, or overseer, a native of Amboyna--
+Bouru being too poor a place to deserve even an Assistant
+Resident; yet the appearance of the village was very far superior
+to that of Delli, which possesses "His Excellency the Governor,"
+and the little fort, in perfect order, surrounded by neat brass-
+plots and straight walks, although manned by only a dozen
+Javanese soldiers with an Adjutant for commander, was a very
+Sebastopol in comparison with the miserable mud enclosure at
+Delli, with its numerous staff of Lieutenants, Captain, and
+Major. Yet this, as well as most of the forts in the Moluccas,
+was originally built by the Portuguese themselves. Oh! Lusitania,
+how art thou fallen!
+
+While the Opzeiner was reading his letters, I took a walk round
+the village with a guide in search of a horse. The whole place
+was dreadfully damp and muddy, being built in a swamp with not a
+spot of ground raised a foot above it, and surrounded by swamps
+on every side. The houses were mostly well built, of wooden
+framework filled in with gaba-gaba (leaf-stems of the sago-palm),
+but as they had no whitewash, and the floors were of bare black
+earth like the roads, and generally on the same level, they were
+extremely damp and gloomy. At length I found one with the floor
+raised about a foot, and succeeded in making a bargain with the
+owner to turn out immediately, so that by night I had installed
+myself comfortably. The chairs and tables were left for me; and
+as the whole of the remaining furniture in the house consisted of
+a little crockery and a few clothes-boxes, it was not much
+trouble for the owners to move into the house of some relatives,
+and thus obtain a few silver rupees very easily. Every foot of
+ground between the homes throughout the village is crammed with
+fruit trees, so that the sun and air have no chance of
+penetrating. This must be very cool and pleasant in the dry
+season, but makes it damp and unhealthy at other times of the
+year. Unfortunately I had come two months too soon, for the rains
+were not yet over, and mud and water were the prominent features
+of the country.
+
+About a mile behind and to the east of the village the hills
+commence, but they are very barren, being covered with scanty
+coarse grass and scattered trees of the Melaleuca cajuputi, from
+the leaves of which the celebrated cajeput oil is made. Such
+districts are absolutely destitute of interest for the zoologist.
+A few miles further on rose higher mountains, apparently well
+covered with forest, but they were entirely uninhabited and
+trackless, and practically inaccessible to a traveller with
+limited time and means. It became evident, therefore, that I must
+leave Cajeli for some better collecting ground, and finding a man
+who was going a few miles eastward to a village on the coast
+where he said there were hills and forest, I sent my boy Ali with
+him to explore and report on the capabilities of the district. At
+the same time I arranged to go myself on a little excursion up a
+river which flows into the bay about five miles north of the
+town, to a village of the Alfuros, or indigenes, where I thought
+I might perhaps find a good collecting ground.
+
+The Rajah of Cajeli, a good-tempered old man, offered to
+accompany me, as the village was under his government; and we
+started one morning early, in a long narrow boat with eight
+rowers. In about two hours we entered the river, and commenced
+our inland journey against a very powerful current. The stream
+was about a hundred yards wide, and was generally bordered with
+high grass, and occasionally bushes and palm-trees. The country
+round was flat and more or less swampy, with scattered trees and
+shrubs. At every bend we crossed the river to avoid the strength
+of the current, and arrived at our landing-place about four
+o'clock in a torrent of rain. Here we waited for an hour,
+crouching under a leaky mat till the Alfuros arrived who had been
+sent for from the village to carry my baggage, when we set off
+along a path of whose extreme muddiness I had been warned before
+starting.
+
+I turned up my trousers as high as possible, grasped a stoat
+stick to prevent awkward falls, and then boldly plunged into the
+first mud-hole, which was immediately succeeded by another and
+another. The marl or mud and water was knee-deep with little
+intervals of firmer ground between, making progression
+exceedingly difficult. The path was bordered with high rigid
+grass, brewing in dense clumps separated by water, so that
+nothing was to be gained by leaving the beaten track, and we were
+obliged to go floundering on, never knowing where our feet would
+rest, as the mud was now a few inches, now two feet deep, and the
+bottom very uneven, so that the foot slid down to the lowest
+part, and made it difficult to keep one's balance. One step would
+be upon a concealed stick or log, almost dislocating the ankle,
+while the next would plunge into soft mud above the knee. It
+rained all the way, and the long grass, six feet high, met over
+the path; so that we could not see a step of the way ahead, and
+received a double drenching. Before we got to the village it was
+dark, and we had to cross over a small but deep and swollen
+stream by a narrow log of wood, which was more than a foot under
+water. There was a slender shaking stick for a handrail, and it
+was nervous work feeling in the dark in the rushing water for a
+safe place on which to place the advanced foot. After au hour of
+this most disagreeable and fatiguing walk we reached the village,
+followed by the men with our guns, ammunition, boxes, and bedding
+all more or less soaked. We consoled ourselves with some hot tea
+and cold fowl, and went early to bed.
+
+The next morning was clear and fine, and I set out soon after
+sunrise to explore the neighbourhood. The village had evidently
+been newly formed, and consisted of a single straight street of
+very miserable huts totally deficient in every comfort, and as
+bare and cheerless inside as out. It was situated on a little
+elevated patch of coarse gravelly soil, covered with the usual
+high rigid grass, which came up close to the backs of the houses.
+At a short distance in several directions were patches of forest,
+but all on low and swampy ground. I made one attempt along the
+only path I could find, but soon came upon a deep mud-hole, and
+found that I must walk barefoot if at all; so I returned and
+deferred further exploration till after breakfast. I then went on
+into the jungle and found patches of sago-palms and a low forest
+vegetation, but the paths were everywhere full of mud-holes, and
+intersected by muddy streams and tracts of swamp, so that walking
+was not pleasurable, and too much attention to one's steps was
+not favourable to insect catching, which requires above
+everything freedom of motion. I shot a few birds, and caught a
+few butterflies, but all were the same as I had already obtained
+about Cajeli.
+
+On my return to the village I was told that the same kind of
+ground extended for many miles in every direction, and I at once
+decided that Wayapo was not a suitable place to stay at. The next
+morning early we waded back again through the mud and long wet
+grass to our boat, and by mid-day reached Cajeli, where I waited
+Ali's return to decide on my future movements. He came the
+following day, and gave a very bad account of Pelah, where he had
+been. There was a little brush and trees along the beach, and
+hills inland covered with high grass and cajuputi trees--my dread
+and abhorrence. On inquiring who could give me trustworthy
+information, I was referred to the Lieutenant of the Burghers,
+who had travelled all round the island, and was a very
+intelligent fellow. I asked him to tell me if he knew of any part
+of Bouru where there was no "kusu-kusu," as the coarse grass of
+the country is called. He assured me that a good deal of the
+south coast was forest land, while along the north was almost
+entirely swamp and grassy hills. After minute inquiries, I found
+that the forest country commenced at a place called Waypoti, only
+a few miles beyond Pelah, but that, as the coast beyond that
+place was exposed to the east monsoon and dangerous for praus, it
+was necessary to walk. I immediately went to the Opzeiner, and he
+called the Rajah. We had a consultation, and arranged for a boat
+to take me the next evening but one, to Pelah, whence I was to
+proceed on foot, the Orang-kaya going the day before to call the
+Alfuros to carry my baggage.
+
+The journey was made as arranged, and on May 19th we arrived at
+Waypoti, having walked about ten miles along the beach, and
+through stony forest bordering the sea, with occasional plunges
+of a mile or two into the interior. We found no village, but
+scattered houses and plantations, with hilly country pretty well
+covered with forest, and looking rather promising. A low hut with
+a very rotten roof, showing the sky through in several places,
+was the only one I could obtain. Luckily it did not rain that
+night, and the next day we pulled down some of the walls to
+repair the roof, which was of immediate importance, especially
+over our beds and table.
+
+About half a mile from the house was a fine mountain stream,
+running swiftly over a bed of rocks and pebbles, and beyond this
+was a hill covered with fine forest. By carefully picking my way
+I could wade across this river without getting much above my
+knees, although I would sometimes slip off a rock and go into a
+hole up to my waist, and about twice a week I went across it in
+order to explore the forest. Unfortunately there were no paths
+here of any extent, and it did not prove very productive either
+in insects or birds. To add to my difficulties I had stupidly
+left my only pair of strong hoots on board the steamer, and my
+others were by this time all dropping to pieces, so that I was
+obliged to walk about barefooted, and in constant fear of hurting
+my feet, and causing a wound which might lay me up for weeks, as
+had happened in Borneo, Are, and Dorey. Although there were
+numerous plantations of maize and plantains, there were no new
+clearings; and as without these it is almost impossible to find
+many of the best kinds of insects, I determined to make one
+myself, and with much difficulty engaged two men to clear a patch
+of forest, from which I hoped to obtain many fine beetles before
+I left.
+
+During the whole of my stay, however, insects never became
+plentiful. My clearing produced me a few fine, longicorns and
+Buprestidae, different from any I had before seen, together with
+several of the Amboyna species, but by no means so numerous or,
+so beautiful as I had found in that small island. For example, I
+collected only 210 different kinds of beetles during my two
+months' stay at Bourn, while in three weeks at Amboyna, in 1857,
+I found more than 300 species: One of the finest insects found at
+Bouru was a large Cerambyx, of a deep shining chestnut colour,
+and with very long antennae. It varied greatly in size, the
+largest specimens being three inches long, while the smallest
+were only an inch, the antenna varying from one and a half to
+five inches.
+
+One day my boy Ali came home with a story of a big snake. He was
+walking through some high grass, and stepped on something which
+he took for a small fallen tree, but it felt cold and yielding to
+his feet, and far to the right and left there was a waving and
+rustling of the herbage. He jumped back in affright and prepared
+to shoot, but could not get a good vies of the creature, and it
+passed away, he said, like a tree being dragged along through the
+grass. As he lead several times already shot large snakes, which
+he declared were all as nothing compared with this, I am inclined
+to believe it must really have been a monster. Such creatures are
+rather plentiful here, for a man living close by showed me on his
+thigh the marks where he bad been seized by one close to his
+house. It was big enough to take the man's thigh in its mouth,
+and he would probably have been killed and devoured by it had not
+his cries brought out his neighbours, who destroyed it with their
+choppers. As far as I could make out it was about twenty feet
+long, but Ali's was probably much larger.
+
+It sometimes amuses me to observe how, a few days after I have
+taken possession of it, a native hut seems quite a comfortable
+home. My house at Waypoti was a bare shed, with a large bamboo
+platform at one side. At one end of this platform, which was
+elevated about three feet, I fixed up my mosquito curtain, and
+partly enclosed it with a large Scotch plaid, making a
+comfortable little sleeping apartment. I put up a rude table on
+legs buried in the earthen floor, and had my comfortable rattan-
+chair for a seat. A line across one corner carried my daily-
+washed cotton clothing, and on a bamboo shelf was arranged my
+small stock of crockery and hardware: Boxes were ranged against
+the thatch walls, and hanging shelves, to preserve my collections
+from ants while drying, were suspended both without and within
+the house. On my table lay books, penknives, scissors, pliers,
+and pins, with insect and bird labels, all of which were unsolved
+mysteries to the native mind.
+
+Most of the people here had never seen a pin, and the better
+informed took a pride in teaching their more ignorant companions
+the peculiarities and uses of that strange European production--a
+needle with a head, but no eye! Even paper, which we throw away
+hourly as rubbish, was to them a curiosity; and I often saw them
+picking up little scraps which had been swept out of the house,
+and carefully putting them away in their betel-pouch. Then when I
+took my morning coffee and evening tea, how many were the strange
+things displayed to them! Teapot, teacups, teaspoons, were all
+more or less curious in their eyes; tea, sugar, biscuit, and
+butter, were articles of human consumption seen by many of them
+for the first time. One asks if that whitish powder is "gula
+passir" (sand-sugar), so called to distinguish it from the coarse
+lump palm-sugar or molasses of native manufacture; and the
+biscuit is considered a sort of European sago-cake, which the
+inhabitants of those remote regions are obliged to use in the
+absence of the genuine article. My pursuit, were of course
+utterly beyond their comprehension. They continually asked me
+what white people did with the birds and insects I tools so much
+care to preserve. If I only kept what was beautiful, they might
+perhaps comprehend it; but to see ants and files and small ugly
+insects put away so carefully was a great puzzle to them, and
+they were convinced that there must be some medical or magical
+use for them which I kept a profound secret. These people were in
+fact as completely unacquainted with civilized life as the
+Indians of the Rocky Mountains, or the savages of Central Africa-
+-yet a steamship, that highest triumph of human ingenuity, with
+its little floating epitome of European civilization, touches
+monthly at Cajeli, twenty miles off; while at Amboyna, only sixty
+miles distant, a European population and government have been
+established for more than three hundred years.
+
+Having seen a good many of the natives of Bouru from different
+villages, and from distant parts of the island, I feel convinced
+that they consist of two distinct races now partially
+amalgamated. The larger portion are Malays of the Celebes type,
+often exactly similar to the Tomóre people of East Celebes, whom
+I found settled in Batchian; while others altogether resemble the
+Alfuros of Ceram.
+
+The influx of two races can easily be accounted for. The Sula
+Islands, which are closely connected with East Celebes, approach
+to within forty miles of the north coast of Bouru, while the
+island of Manipa offers an easy point of departure for the people
+of Ceram. I was confirmed in this view by finding that the
+languages of Bouru possessed distinct resemblances to that of
+Sula, as well as to those of Ceram.
+
+Soon after we had arrived at Waypoti, Ali had seen a beautiful
+little bird of the genus Pitta, which I was very anxious to
+obtain, as in almost every island the species are different, and
+none were yet known from Bourn. He and my other hunter continued
+to see it two or three times a week, and to hear its peculiar
+note much oftener, but could never get a specimen, owing to its
+always frequenting the most dense thorny thickets, where only
+hasty glimpses of it could be obtained, and at so short a
+distance that it would be difficult to avoid blowing the bird to
+pieces. Ali was very much annoyed that he could not get a
+specimen of this bird, in going after which he had already
+severely, wounded his feet with thorns; and when we had only two
+days more to stay, he went of his own accord one evening to sleep
+at a little but in the forest some miles off, in order to have a
+last try for it at daybreak, when many birds come out to feed,
+and are very intent on their morning meal. The next evening he
+brought me home two specimens, one with the head blown completely
+off, and otherwise too much injured to preserve, the other in
+very good order, and which I at once saw to be a new species,
+very like the Pitta celebensis, but ornamented with a square
+patch of bright red on the nape of the neck.
+
+The next day after securing this prize we returned to Cajeli, and
+packing up my collections left Bouru by the steamer. During our
+two days' stay at Ternate, I took on board what baggage I had
+left there, and bade adieu to all my friends. We then crossed
+over to Menado, on our way to Macassar and Java, and I finally
+quitted the Moluccas, among whose luxuriant and beautiful islands
+I had wandered for more than three years.
+
+My collections in Bouru, though not extensive, were of
+considerable interest; for out of sixty-six species of birds
+which I collected there, no less than seventeen were new, or had
+not been previously found in any island of the Moluccas. Among
+these were two kingfishers, Tanysiptera acis and Ceyx Cajeli; a
+beautiful sunbird, Nectarines proserpina; a handsome little black
+and white flycatcher, Monarcha loricata, whose swelling throat
+was beautifully scaled with metallic blue; and several of less
+interest. I also obtained a skull of the babirusa, one specimen
+of which was killed by native hunters during my residence at
+Cajeli.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MOLUCCAS.
+
+THE Moluccas consist of three large islands, Gilolo, Ceram, and
+Bouru, the two former being each about two hundred miles long;
+and a great number of smaller isles and islets, the most
+important of which are Batchian, Morty, Obi, Ke, Timor-Laut, and
+Amboyna; and among the smaller ones, Ternate, Tidore, Kaióa, and
+Banda. They occupy a space of ten degrees of latitude by eight of
+longitude, and they are connected by groups of small islets to
+New Guinea on the east, the Philippines on the north, Celebes on
+the west, and Timor on the south. It will be as well to bear in
+mind these main features of extent and geographical position,
+while we survey their animal productions and discuss their
+relations to the countries which surround them on every side in
+almost equal proximity.
+
+We will first consider the Mammalia or warm-blooded quadrupeds,
+which present us with some singular anomalies. The land mammals
+are exceedingly few in number, only ten being yet known from the
+entire group. The bats or aerial mammals, on the other hand, are
+numerous--not less than twenty-five species being already known.
+But even this exceeding poverty of terrestrial mammals does not
+at all represent the real poverty of the Moluccas in this class
+of animals; for, as we shall soon see, there is good reason to
+believe that several of the species have been introduced by man,
+either purposely or by accident.
+
+The only quadrumanous animal in the group is the curious baboon-
+monkey, Cynopithecus nigrescens, already described as being one
+of the characteristic animals of Celebes. This is found only in
+the island of Batchian; and it seems so much out of place there
+as it is difficult to imagine how it could have reached the
+island by any natural means of dispersal, and yet not have passed
+by the same means over the narrow strait to Gilolo--that it seems
+more likely to have originated from some individuals which had
+escaped from confinement, these and similar animals being often
+kept as pets by the Malays, and carried about in their praus.
+
+Of all the carnivorous animals of the Archipelago the only one
+found in the Moluccas is the Viverra tangalunga, which inhabits
+both Batchian and Bouru, and probably come of the other islands.
+I am inclined to think that this also may have been introduced
+accidentally, for it is often made captive by the Malays, who
+procure civet from it, and it is an animal very restless and
+untameable, and therefore likely to escape. This view is rendered
+still more probable by what Antonio de Morga tells us was the
+custom in the Philippines in 1602. He says that "the natives of
+Mindanao carry about civet-cats in cages, and sell them in the
+islands; and they take the civet from them, and let them go
+again." The same species is common in the Philippines and in all
+the large islands of the Indo-Malay region.
+
+The only Moluccan ruminant is a deer, which was once supposed to
+be a distinct species, but is now generally considered to be a
+slight variety of the Rusa hippelaphus of Java. Deer are often
+tamed and petted, and their flesh is so much esteemed by all
+Malays, that it is very natural they should endeavour to
+introduce them into the remote islands in which they settled, and
+whose luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for their
+subsistence.
+
+The strange babirusa of Celebes is also found in Bouru; but in no
+other Moluccan island, and it is somewhat difficult to imagine
+how it got there. It is true that there is some approximation
+between the birds of the Sula Islands (where the babirusa is also
+found) and those of Bouru, which seems to indicate that these
+islands have recently been closer together, or that some
+intervening land has disappeared. At this time the babirusa may
+have entered Bouru, since it probably swims as well as its allies
+the pigs. These are spread all over the Archipelago, even to
+several of the smaller islands, and in many cases the species are
+peculiar. It is evident, therefore, that they have some natural
+means of dispersal. There is a popular idea that pigs cannot
+swim, but Sir Charles Lyell has shown that this is a mistake. In
+his "Principles of Geology" (10th Edit. vol. ii p. 355) he adduces
+evidence to show that pigs have swum many miles at sea, and are
+able to swim with great ease and swiftness. I have myself seen a
+wild pig swimming across the arm of the sea that separates
+Singapore from the Peninsula of Malacca, and we thus have
+explained the curious fact, that of all the large mammals of the
+Indian region, pigs alone extend beyond the Moluccas and as far
+as New Guinea, although it is somewhat curious that they have not
+found their way to Australia.
+
+The little shrew, Sorex myosurus, which is common in Sumatra,
+Borneo, and Java, is also found in the larger islands of the
+Moluccas, to which it may have been accidentally conveyed in
+native praus.
+
+This completes the list of the placental mammals which are so
+characteristic of the Indian region; and we see that, with the
+single exception of the pig, all may very probably have been
+introduced by man, since all except the pig are of species
+identical with those now abounding in the great Malay islands, or
+in Celebes.
+
+The four remaining mammals are Marsupials, an order of the class
+Mammalia, which is very characteristic of the Australian fauna;
+and these are probably true natives of the Moluccas, since they
+are either of peculiar species, or if found elsewhere are natives
+only of New Guinea or North Australia. The first is the small
+flying opossum, Belideus ariel, a beautiful little animal,
+exactly line a small flying squirrel in appearance, but belonging
+to the marsupial order. The other three are species of the
+curious genus Cuscus, which is peculiar to the Austro-Malayan
+region. These are opossum-like animals, with a long prehensile
+tail, of which the terminal half is generally bare. They have
+small heads, large eyes, and a dense covering of woolly fur,
+which is often pure white with irregular black spots or blotches,
+or sometimes ashy brown with or without white spots. They live in
+trees, feeding upon the leaves, of which they devour large
+quantities, they move about slowly, and are difficult to kill,
+owing to the thickness of their fur, and their tenacity of life.
+A heavy charge of shot will often lodge in the slain and do them
+no harm, and even breaking the spine or piercing the brain will
+not kill them for some hours. The natives everywhere eat their
+flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by
+climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been
+exterminated. It may be, however, that their dense woolly fur
+protects them from birds of prey, and the islands they live in
+are too thinly inhabited for man to be able to exterminate them.
+The figure represents Cuscus ornatus, a new species discovered by
+me in Batchian, and which also inhabits Ternate. It is peculiar
+to the Moluccas, while the two other species which inhabit Ceram
+are found also in New Guinea and Waigiou.
+
+In place of the excessive poverty of mammals which characterises
+the Moluccas, we have a very rich display of the feathered
+tribes. The number of species of birds at present known from the
+various islands of the Molluccan group is 265, but of these only
+70 belong to the usually abundant tribes of the waders and
+swimmers, indicating that these are very imperfectly known. As
+they are also pre-eminently wanderers, and are thus little fitted
+for illustrating the geographical distribution of life in a
+limited area, we will here leave them out of consideration and
+confine our attention only to the 195 land birds.
+
+When we consider that all Europe, with its varied climate and
+vegetation, with every mile of its surface explored, and with the
+immense extent of temperate Asia and Africa, which serve as
+storehouses, from which it is continually recruited, only
+supports 25l species of land birds as residents or regular
+immigrants, we must look upon the numbers already procured in the
+small and comparatively unknown islands of the Moluccas as
+indicating a fauna of fully average richness in this department.
+But when we come to examine the family groups which go to make up
+this number, we find the most curious deficiencies in some,
+balanced by equally striking redundancy in other. Thus if we
+compare the birds of the Moluccas with those of India, as given
+in Mr. Jerdon's work, we find that the three groups of the
+parrots, kingfishers, and pigeons, form nearly _one-third_ of the
+whole land-birds in the former, while they amount to only _one-
+twentieth_ in the latter country. On the other hand, such wide-
+spread groups as the thrushes, warblers, and finches, which in
+India form nearly _one-third_ of all the land-birds, dwindle down
+in the Moluccas to _one-fourteenth._
+
+The reason of these peculiarities appears to be, that the
+Moluccan fauna has been almost entirely derived from that of New
+Guinea, in which country the same deficiency and the same
+luxuriance is to be observed. Out of the seventy-eight genera in
+which the Moluccan land-birds may be classed, no less than
+seventy are characteristic of Yew Guinea, while only six belong
+specially to the Indo-Malay islands. But this close resemblance
+to New Guinea genera does not extend to the species, for no less
+than 140 out of the 195 land-birds are peculiar to the Moluccan
+islands, while 32 are found also in New Guinea, and 15 in the
+Indo-Malay islands. These facts teach us, that though the birds
+of this group have evidently been derived mainly from New Guinea,
+yet the immigration has not been a recent one, since there has
+been time for the greater portion of the species to have become
+changed. We find, also, that many very characteristic New Guinea
+forms lave not entered the Moluccas at all, while others found in
+Ceram and Gilolo do not extend so far west as Bouru. Considering,
+further, the absence of most of the New Guinea mammals from the
+Moluccas, we are led to the conclusion that these islands are not
+fragments which have been separated from New Guinea, but form a
+distinct insular region, which has been upheaved independently at
+a rather remote epoch, and during all the mutations it has
+undergone has been constantly receiving immigrants from that
+great and productive island. The considerable length of time the
+Moluccas have remained isolated is further indicated by the
+occurrence of two peculiar genera of birds, Semioptera and
+Lycocorax, which are found nowhere else.
+
+We are able to divide this small archipelago into two well marked
+groups--that of Ceram, including also Bouru. Amboyna, Banda, and
+Ke; and that of Gilolo, including Morty, Batchian, Obi, Ternate,
+and other small islands. These divisions have each a considerable
+number of peculiar species, no less than fifty-five being found
+in the Ceram group only; and besides this, most of the separate
+islands have some species peculiar to themselves. Thus Morty
+island has a peculiar kingfisher, honeysucker, and starling;
+Ternate has a ground-thrush (Pitta) and a flycatcher; Banda has a
+pigeon, a shrike, and a Pitta; Ke has two flycatchers, a
+Zosterops, a shrike, a king-crow and a cuckoo; and the remote
+Timor-Laut, which should probably come into the Moluccan group,
+has a cockatoo and lory as its only known birds, and both are of
+peculiar species.
+
+The Moluccas are especially rich in the parrot tribe, no less
+than twenty-two species, belonging to ten genera, inhabiting
+them. Among these is the large red-crested cockatoo, so commonly
+seen alive in Europe, two handsome red parrots of the genus
+Eclectus, and five of the beautiful crimson lories, which are
+almost exclusively confined to these islands and the New Guinea
+group. The pigeons are hardly less abundant or beautiful, twenty-
+one species being known, including twelve of the beautiful green
+fruit pigeons, the smaller kinds of which are ornamented with the
+most brilliant patches of colour on the head and the under-
+surface. Next to these come the kingfishers, including sixteen
+species, almost all of which are beautiful, end many are among
+the most brilliantly-coloured birds that exist.
+
+One of the most curious groups of birds, the Megapodii, or mound-
+makers, is very abundant in the Moluccas. They are gallinaceous
+birds, about the size of a small fowl, and generally of a dark
+ashy or sooty colour, and they have remarkably large and strong
+feet and long claws. They are allied to the "Maleo" of Celebes,
+of which an account has already been given, but they differ in
+habits, most of these birds frequenting the scrubby jungles along
+the sea-shore, where the soil is sandy, and there is a
+considerable quantity of debris, consisting of sticks, shells,
+seaweed, leaves, &c. Of this rubbish the Megapodius forms immense
+mounds, often six or eight feet high and twenty or thirty feet in
+diameter, which they are enabled to do with comparative ease, by
+means of their large feet, with which they can grasp and throw
+backwards a quantity of material. In the centre of this mound, at
+a depth of two or three feet, the eggs are deposited, and are
+hatched by the gentle heat produced by the fermentation of the
+vegetable matter of the mound. When I first saw these mounds in
+the island of Lombock, I could hardly believe that they were made
+by such small birds, but I afterwards met with them frequently,
+and have once or twice come upon the birds engaged in making
+them. They run a few steps backwards, grasping a quantity of
+loose material in one foot, and throw it a long way behind them.
+When once properly buried the eggs seem to be no more cared for,
+the young birds working their way up through the heap of rubbish,
+and running off at once into the forest. They come out of the egg
+covered with thick downy feathers, and have no tail, although the
+wings are full developed.
+
+I was so fortunate as to discover a new species (Megapodius
+wallacei), which inhibits Gilolo, Ternate, and Bouru. It is the
+handsomest bird of the genus, being richly banded with reddish
+brown on the back and wings; and it differs from the other
+species in its habits. It frequents the forests of the interior,
+and comes down to the sea-beach to deposit its eggs, but instead
+of making a mound, or scratching a hole to receive them, it
+burrows into the sand to the depth of about three feet obliquely
+downwards, and deposits its eggs at the bottom. It then loosely
+covers up the mouth of the hole, and is said by the natives to
+obliterate and disguise its own footmarks leading to and from the
+hole, by making many other tracks and scratches in the
+neighbourhood. It lays its eggs only at night, and at Bouru a
+bird was caught early one morning as it was coming out of its
+hole, in which several eggs were found. All these birds seem to
+be semi-nocturnal, for their loud wailing cries may be constantly
+heard late into the night and long before daybreak in the
+morning. The eggs are all of a rusty red colour, and very large
+for the size of the bird, being generally three or three and a
+quarter inches long, by two or two and a quarter wide. They are
+very good eating, and are much sought after by the natives.
+
+Another large and extraordinary bird is the Cassowary, which
+inhabits the island of Ceram only. It is a stout and strong bird,
+standing five or six feet high, and covered with long coarse
+black hair-like feathers. The head is ornamented with a large
+horny calque or helmet, and the bare skin of the neck is
+conspicuous with bright blue and red colours. The wings are quite
+absent, and are replaced by a group of horny black spines like
+blunt porcupine quills.
+
+These birds wander about the vast mountainous forests that cover
+the island of Ceram, feeding chiefly on fallen fruits, and on
+insects or crustacea. The female lays from three to five large
+and beautifully shagreened green eggs upon a bed of leaves, the
+male and female sitting upon them alternately for about a month.
+This bird is the helmeted cassowary (Casuarius galeatus) of
+naturalists, and was for a long time the only species known.
+Others have since been discovered in New Guinea, New Britain, and
+North Australia.
+
+It was in the Moluccas that I first discovered undoubted cases of
+"mimicry" among birds, and these are so curious that I must
+briefly describe them. It will be as well, however, first to
+explain what is meant by mimicry in natural history. At page 205
+of the first volume of this work, I have described a butterfly
+which, when at rest, so closely resembles a dead leaf, that it
+thereby escape the attacks of its enemies. This is termed a
+"protective resemblance." If however the butterfly, being itself
+savoury morsel to birds, had closely resembled another butterfly
+which was disagreeable to birds, and therefore never eaten by
+them, it would be as well protected as if it resembled a leaf;
+and this is what has been happily termed "mimicry" by Mr. Bates,
+who first discovered the object of these curious external
+imitations of one insect by another belonging to a distinct genus
+or family, and sometimes even to a distinct order. The clear-
+winged moth which resemble wasps and hornets are the best
+examples of "mimicry" in our own country.
+
+For a long time all the known cases of exact resemblance of one
+creature to quite a different one were confined to insects, and
+it was therefore with great pleasure that I discovered in the
+island of Bouru two birds which I constantly mistook for each
+other, and which yet belonged to two distinct and somewhat
+distant families. One of these is a honeysucker named
+Tropidorhynchus bouruensis, and the other a kind of oriole, which
+has been called Mimeta bouruensis. The oriole resembles the
+honeysucker in the following particulars: the upper and under
+surfaces of the two birds are exactly of the same tints of dark
+and light brown; the Tropidorhynchus has a large bare black patch
+round the eyes; this is copied in the Mimeta by a patch of black
+feathers. The top of the head of the Tropidorhynchus has a scaly
+appearance from the narrow scale-formed feathers, which are
+imitated by the broader feathers of the Mimeta having a dusky
+line down each. The Tropidorhynchus has a pale ruff formed of
+curious recurved feathers on the nape (which has given the whole
+genus the name of Friar birds); this is represented in the Mimeta
+by a pale band in the same position. Lastly, the bill of the
+Tropidorhynchus is raised into a protuberant keel at the base,
+and the Mimeta has the same character, although it is not a
+common one in the genus. The result is, that on a superficial
+examination the birds are identical, although they leave
+important structural differences, and cannot be placed near each
+other in any natural arrangement.
+
+In the adjacent island of Ceram we find very distinct species of
+both these genera, and, strange to say, these resemble each other
+quite as closely as do those of Bouru The Tropidorhynchus
+subcornutus is of an earthy brown colour, washed with ochreish
+yellow, with bare orbits, dusky: cheeks, and the usual recurved
+nape-ruff: The Mimeta forsteni which accompanies it, is
+absolutely identical in the tints of every part of the body, and
+the details are copied just as minutely as in the former species.
+
+We have two kinds of evidence to tell us which bird in this case
+is the model, and which the copy. The honeysuckers are coloured
+in a manner which is very general in the whole family to which
+they belong, while the orioles seem to have departed from the gay
+yellow tints so common among their allies. We should therefore
+conclude that it is the latter who mimic the former. If so,
+however, they must derive some advantage from the imitation, and
+as they are certainly weak birds, with small feet and claws, they
+may require it. Now the Tropidorhynchi are very strong and active
+birds, having powerful grasping claws, and long, curved, sharp
+beaks. They assemble together in groups and small flocks, and
+they haw a very loud bawling note which can be heard at a great
+distance, and serves to collect a number together in time of
+danger. They are very plentiful and very pugnacious, frequently
+driving away crows and even hawks, which perch on a tree where a
+few of them are assembled. It is very probable, therefore, that
+the smaller birds of prey have learnt to respect these birds and
+leave them alone, and it may thus be a great advantage for the
+weaker and less courageous Mimetas to be mistaken for them. This
+being case, the laws of Variation and Survival of the Fittest,
+will suffice to explain how the resemblance has been brought
+about, without supposing any voluntary action on the part of the
+birds themselves; and those who have read Mr. Darwin's "Origin of
+Species" will have no difficulty in comprehending the whole
+process.
+
+The insects of the Moluccas are pre-eminently beautiful, even
+when compared with the varied and beautiful productions of other
+parts of the Archipelago. The grand bird-winged butterflies
+(Ornithoptera) here reach their maximum of size and beauty, and
+many of the Papilios, Pieridae Danaidae, and Nymphalidae are
+equally preeminent. There is, perhaps, no island in the world so
+small as Amboyna where so many grand insects are to be found.
+Here are three of the very finest Ornithopterae--priamus, helena,
+and remiss; three of the handsomest and largest Papilios--
+ulysses, deiphobus, and gambrisius; one of the handsomest
+Pieridae, Iphias leucippe; the largest of the Danaidae, Hestia
+idea; and two unusually large and handsome Nymphalidae--Diadema
+pandarus, and Charaxes euryalus. Among its beetles are the
+extraordinary Euchirus longimanus, whose enormous legs spread
+over a space of eight inches, and an unusual number of large and
+handsome Longicorns, Anthribidae, and Buprestidae.
+
+The beetles figured on the plate as characteristic of the
+Moluccas are: 1. A small specimen of the Euchirus longimanus, or
+Long-armed Chafer, which has been already mentioned in the
+account of my residence at Amboyna (Chapter XX.). The female has
+the fore legs of moderate length. 2. A fine weevil, (an
+undescribed species of Eupholus,) of rich blue and emerald green
+colours, banded with black. It is a native of Ceram and Goram,
+and is found on foliage. 3. A female of Xenocerus semiluctuosus,
+one of the Anthribidae of delicate silky white and black colours.
+It is abundant on fallen trunks and stumps in Ceram and Amboyna.
+4. An undescribed species of Xenocerus; a male, with very long
+and curious antenna, and elegant black and white markings. It is
+found on fallen trunks in Batchian. 5. An undescribed species of
+Arachnobas, a curious genus of weevils peculiar to the Moluccas
+and New Guinea, and remarkable for their long legs, and their
+habit of often sitting on leaves, and turning rapidly round the
+edge to the under-surface when disturbed. It was found in Gilolo.
+All these insects are represented of the natural size.
+
+Like the birds, the insects of the Moluccas show a decided
+affinity with those of New Guinea rather than with the
+productions of the great western islands of the Archipelago, but
+the difference in form and structure between the productions of
+the east and west is not nearly so marked here as in birds. This
+is probably due to the more immediate dependence of insects on
+climate and vegetation, and the greater facilities for their
+distribution in the varied stages of egg, pupa, and perfect
+insect. This has led to a general uniformity in the insect-life
+of the whole Archipelago, in accordance with the general
+uniformity of its climate and vegetation; while on the other hand
+the great susceptibility of the insect organization to the action
+of external conditions has led to infinite detailed modifications
+of form and colour, which have in many cases given a considerable
+diversity to the productions of adjacent islands.
+
+Owing to the great preponderance among the birds, of parrots,
+pigeons, kingfishers, and sunbirds, almost all of gay or delicate
+colours, and many adorned with the most gorgeous plumage, and to
+the numbers of very large and showy butterflies which are almost
+everywhere to be met with, the forests of the Moluccas offer to
+the naturalist a very striking example of the luxuriance and
+beauty of animal life in the tropics. Yet the almost entire
+absence of Mammalia, and of such wide-spread groups of birds as
+woodpeckers, thrushes, jays, tits, and pheasants, must convince
+him that he is in a part of the world which has, in reality but
+little in common with the great Asiatic continent, although an
+unbroken chain of islands seems to link them to it.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS IN A NATIVE PRAU.
+
+(DECEMBER, 1856.)
+
+IT was the beginning of December, and the rainy season at
+Macassar had just set in. For nearly three months had beheld the
+sun rise daily above the palm-groves, mount to the zenith, and
+descend like a globe of fire into the ocean, unobscured for a
+single moment of his course. Now dark leaden clouds had gathered
+over the whole heavens, and seemed to have rendered him
+permanently invisible. The strong east winds, warm and dry and
+dust-laden, which had hitherto blown as certainly as the sun had
+risen, were now replaced by variable gusty breezes and heavy
+rains, often continuous for three days and nights together; and
+the parched and fissured rice stubbles which during the dry
+weather had extended in every direction for miles around the
+town, were already so flooded as to be only passable by boats, or
+by means of a labyrinth of paths on the top of the narrow banks
+which divided the separate properties.
+
+Five months of this kind of weather might be expected in Southern
+Celebes, and I therefore determined to seek some more favourable
+climate for collecting in during that period, and to return in
+the next dry season to complete my exploration of the district.
+Fortunately for me I was in one of the treat emporiums of the
+native trade of the archipelago. Rattans from Borneo, sandal-wood
+and bees'-was from Flores and Timor, tripang from the Gulf of
+Carpentaria, cajputi-oil from Bouru, wild nutmegs and mussoi-bark
+from New Guinea, are all to be found in the stores of the Chinese
+and Bugis merchants of Macassar, along with the rice and coffee
+which are the chief products of the surrounding country. More
+important than all these however is the trade to Aru, a group of
+islands situated on the south-west coast of New Guinea, and of
+which almost the whole produce comes to Macassar in native
+vessels. These islands are quite out of the track of all European
+trade, and are inhabited only by black mop-headed savages, who
+yet contribute to the luxurious tastes of the most civilized
+races. Pearls, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell find their way
+to Europe, while edible birds' nests and "tripang" or sea-slug
+are obtained by shiploads for the gastronomic enjoyment of the
+Chinese.
+
+The trade to these islands has existed from very early times, and
+it is from them that Birds of Paradise, of the two kinds known to
+Linnaeus were first brought The native vessels can only make the
+voyage once a year, owing to the monsoons. They leave Macassar in
+December or January at the beginning of the west monsoon, and
+return in July or August with the full strength of the east
+monsoon. Even by the Macassar people themselves, the voyage to
+the Aru Islands is looked upon as a rather wild and romantic
+expedition, fall of novel sights and strange adventures. He who
+has made it is looked up to as an authority, and it remains with
+many the unachieved ambition of their lives. I myself had hoped
+rather than expected ever to reach this "Ultima Thule" of the
+East: and when I found that I really could do so now, had I but
+courage to trust myself for a thousand miles' voyage in a  Bugis
+prau, and for six or seven months among lawless traders and
+ferocious savages, I felt somewhat as I did when, a schoolboy, I
+was for the first time allowed to travel outside the stage-coach,
+to visit that scene of all that is strange and new and wonderful
+to young imaginations-London!
+
+By the help of some kind friends I was introduced to the owner of
+one of the large praus which was to sail in a few days. He was a
+Javanese half-caste, intelligent, mild, and gentlemanly in his
+manners, and had a young and pretty Dutch wife, whom he was going
+to leave behind during his absence. When we talked about passage
+money he would fix no sum, but insisted on leaving it entirely to
+me to pay on my return exactly what I liked. "And then," said he,
+"whether you give me one dollar or a hundred, I shall he
+satisfied, and shall ask no more."
+
+The remainder of my stay was fully occupied in laying in stores,
+engaging servants, and making every other preparation for an
+absence of seven months from even the outskirts of civilization.
+On the morning of December 13th, when we went on board at
+daybreak, it was raining hard. We set sail and it came on to
+blow. Our boat was lost astern, our sails damaged, and the
+evening found us hack again in Macassar harbour. We remained
+there four days longer, owing to its raining all the time, thus
+rendering it impossible to dry and repair the huge mat sails. All
+these dreary days I remained on board, and during the rare
+intervals when it didn't rain, made myself acquainted with our
+outlandish craft, some of the peculiarities of which I will now
+endeavour to describe.
+
+It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped
+something like a Chinese junk. The deck sloped considerably
+downward to the bows, which are thus the lowest part of the ship.
+There were two large rudders, but instead of being planed astern
+they were hung on the quarters from strong cross beams, which
+projected out two or three feet on each side, and to which extent
+the deck overhung the sides of the vessel amidships. The rudders
+were not hinged but hung with slings of rattan, the friction of
+which keeps them in any position in which they are placed, and
+thus perhaps facilitates steering. The tillers were not on deck,
+but entered the vessel through two square openings into a lower
+or half deck about three feet high, in which sit the two
+steersmen. In the after part of the vessel was a low poop, about
+three and a half feet high, which forms the captain's cabin, its
+furniture consisting of boxes, mats, and pillows. In front of the
+poop and mainmast was a little thatched house on deck, about four
+feet high to the ridge; and one compartment of this, forming a
+cabin six and a half feet long by five and a half wide, I had all
+to myself, and it was the snuggest and most comfortable little
+place I ever enjoyed at sea. It was entered by a low sliding door
+of thatch on one side, and had a very small window on the other.
+The floor was of split bamboo, pleasantly elastic, raised six
+inches above the deck, so as to be quite dry. It was covered with
+fine cane mats, for the manufacture of which Macassar is
+celebrated; against the further wall were arranged my guncase,
+insect-boxes, clothes, and books; my mattress occupied the
+middle, and next the door were my canteen, lamp, and little store
+of luxuries for the voyage; while guns, revolver, and hunting
+knife hung conveniently from the roof. During these four
+miserable days I was quite jolly in this little snuggery more so
+than I should have been if confined the same time to the gilded
+and uncomfortable saloon of a first-class steamer. Then, how
+comparatively sweet was everything on board--no paint, no tar, no
+new rope, (vilest of smells to the qualmish!) no grease, or oil,
+or varnish; but instead of these, bamboo and rattan, and coir
+rope and palm thatch; pure vegetable fibres, which smell
+pleasantly if they smell at all, and recall quiet scenes in the
+green and shady forest.
+
+Our ship had two masts, if masts they can be called c which were
+great moveable triangles. If in an ordinary ship you replace the
+shrouds and backstay by strong timbers, and take away the mast
+altogether, you have the arrangement adopted on board a prau.
+Above my cabin, and resting on cross-beams attached to the masts,
+was a wilderness of yards and spars, mostly formed of bamboo. The
+mainyard, an immense affair nearly a hundred feet long, was
+formed of many pieces of wood and bamboo bound together with
+rattans in an ingenious manner. The sail carried by this was of
+an oblong shape, and was hung out of the centre, so that when the
+short end was hauled down on deck the long end mounted high in
+the air, making up for the lowness of the mast itself. The
+foresail was of the same shape, but smaller. Both these were of
+matting, and, with two jibs and a fore and aft sail astern of
+cotton canvas, completed our rig.
+
+The crew consisted of about thirty men, natives of Macassar and
+the adjacent coasts and islands. They were  mostly young, and
+were short, broad-faced, good-humoured looking fellows. Their
+dress consisted generally of a pair of trousers only, when at
+work, and a handkerchief twisted round the head, to which in the
+evening they would add a thin cotton jacket. Four of the elder
+men were "jurumudis," or steersmen, who had to squat (two at a
+time) in the little steerage before described, changing every six
+hours. Then there was an old man, the "juragan," or captain, but
+who was really what we should call the first mate; he occupied
+the other half of the little house on deck. There were about ten
+respectable men, Chinese or Bugis, whom our owner used to call
+"his own people." He treated them very well, shared his meals
+with them, and spoke to them always with perfect politeness; yet
+they were most of them a kind of slave debtors, bound over by the
+police magistrate to work for him at mere nominal wages for a
+term of years till their debts were liquidated. This is a Dutch
+institution in this part of the world, and seems to work well. It
+is a great boon to traders, who can do nothing in these thinly-
+populated regions without trusting goods to agents and petty
+dealers, who frequently squander them away in gambling and
+debauchery. The lower classes are almost all in a chronic state
+of debt. The merchant trusts them again and again, till the
+amount is something serious, when he brings them to court and has
+their services allotted to him for its liquidation. The debtors
+seem to think this no disgrace, but rather enjoy their freedom
+from responsibility, and the dignity of their position under a
+wealthy and well-known merchant. They trade a little on their own
+account, and both parties seem to get on very well together. The
+plan seems a more sensible one than that which we adopt, of
+effectually preventing a man from earning anything towards paying
+his debts by shutting him up in a jail.
+
+My own servants were three in number. Ali, the Malay boy whom I
+had picked up in Borneo, was my head man. He had already been
+with me a year, could turn his hand to anything, and was quite
+attentive and trustworthy. He was a good shot, and fond of
+shooting, and I had taught him to skin birds very well. The
+second, named Baderoon, was a Macassar lad; also a pretty good
+boy, but a desperate gambler. Under pretence of buying a house
+for his mother, and clothes, for himself, he had received four
+months' wages about a week before we sailed, and in a day or two
+gambled away every dollar of it. He had come on board with no
+clothes, no betel, or tobacco, or salt fish, all which necessary
+articles I was obliged to send Ali to buy for him. These two lads
+were about sixteen, I should suppose; the third was younger, a
+sharp little rascal named Baso, who had been with me a month or
+two, and had learnt to cook tolerably. He was to fulfil the
+important office of cook and housekeeper, for I could not get any
+regular servants to go to such a terribly remote country; one
+might as well ask a chef de cuisine to go to Patagonia.
+
+On the fifth day that I had spent on board (Dec. 15th) the rain
+ceased, and final preparations were made for starting. Sails were
+dried and furled, boats were constantly coming and going, and
+stores for the voyage, fruit, vegetables, fish, and palm sugar,
+were taken on board. In the afternoon two women arrived with a
+large party of friends and relations, and at parting there was a
+general noserubbing (the Malay kiss), and some tears shed. These
+were promising symptoms for our getting off the next day; and
+accordingly, at three in the morning, the owner came on board,
+the anchor was immediately weighed, and by four we set sail. Just
+as we were fairly off and clear of the other praus, the old
+juragan repeated some prayers, all around responding with "Allah
+il Allah," and a few strokes on a gong as an accompaniment,
+concluding with all wishing each other "Salaamat jalan," a safe
+and happy journey. We had a light breeze, a calm sea, and a fine
+morning, a prosperous commencement of our voyage of about a
+thousand miles to the far-famed Aru Islands.
+
+The wind continued light and variable all day, with a calm in the
+evening before the land breeze sprang up, were then passing the
+island of "Tanakaki "(foot of the land), at the extreme south of
+this part of Celebes. There are some dangerous rocks here, and as
+I was standing by the bulwarks, I happened to spit over the side;
+one of the men begged I would not do so just now, but spit on
+deck, as they were much afraid of this place. Not quite
+comprehending, I made him repeat his request, when, seeing he was
+in earnest, I said, "Very well, I suppose there are 'hantus'
+(spirits) here." "Yes," said he, "and they don't like anything to
+be thrown overboard; many a prau has been lost by doing it." Upon
+which I promised to be very careful. At sunset the good
+Mahometans on board all repeated a few words of prayer with a
+general chorus, reminding me of the pleasing and impressive "Ave.
+Maria" of Catholic countries.
+
+Dec. 20th.-At sunrise we were opposite the Bontyne mountain, said
+to be one of the highest in Celebes. In the afternoon we passed
+the Salayer Straits and had a little squall, which obliged us to
+lower our huge mast, sails, and heavy yards. The rest of the
+evening we had a fine west wind, which carried us on at near five
+knots an hour, as much as our lumbering old tub can possibly go.
+
+Dec. 21st.-A heavy swell from the south-west rolling us about
+most uncomfortably. A steady wind was blowing however, and we got
+on very well.
+
+Dec. 22d.-The swell had gone down. We passed Boutong, a large
+island, high, woody, and populous, the native place of some of
+our crew. A small prau returning from Bali to the, island of
+Goram overtook us. The nakoda (captain) was known to our owner.
+They had been two years away, but were full of people, with
+several black Papuans on board. At 6 P.M. we passed Wangiwangi,
+low but not flat, inhabited and subject to Boutong. We had now
+fairly entered the Molucca Sea. After dark it was a beautiful
+sight to look down on our rudders, from which rushed eddying
+streams of phosphoric light gemmed with whirling sparks of fire.
+It resembled (more nearly than anything else to which I can
+compare it) one of the large irregular nebulous star-clusters
+seen through a good telescope, with the additional attraction of
+ever-changing form and dancing motion.
+
+Dec. 23d.-Fine red sunrise; the island we left last evening
+barely visible behind us. The Goram prau about a mile south of
+us. They have no compass, yet they have kept a very true course
+during the night. Our owner tells me they do it by the swell of
+the sea, the direction of which they notice at sunset, and sail
+by it during the night. In these seas they are never (in fine
+weather) more than two days without seeing land. Of course
+adverse winds or currents sometimes carry them away, but they
+soon fall in with some island, and there are always some old
+sailors on board who know it, and thence take a new course. Last
+night a shark about five feet long was caught, and this morning
+it was cut up and cooked. In the afternoon they got another, and
+I had a little fried, and found it firm and dry, but very
+palatable. In the evening the sun set in a heavy bank of clouds,
+which, as darkness came on, assumed a fearfully black appearance.
+According to custom, when strong wind or rain is expected, our
+large sails -were furled, and with their yards let down on deck,
+and a small square foresail alone kept up. The great mat sails
+are most awkward things to manage in rough weather. The yards
+which support them are seventy feet long, and of course very
+heavy, and the only way to furl them being to roll up the sail on
+the boom, it is a very dangerous thing to have them standing when
+overtaken by a squall. Our crew; though numerous enough for a
+vessel of 700 instead of one of 70 tons, have it very much their
+own way, and there seems to be seldom more than a dozen at work
+at a time. When anything important is to be done, however, all
+start up willingly enough, but then all think themselves at
+liberty to give their opinion, and half a dozen voices are heard
+giving orders, and there is such a shrieking and confusion that
+it seems wonderful anything gets done at all.
+
+Considering we have fifty men of several tribes and tongues
+onboard, wild, half-savage looking fellows, and few of them
+feeling any of the restraints of morality or education, we get on
+wonderfully well. There is no fighting or quarrelling, as there
+would certainly be among the same number of Europeans with as
+little restraint upon their actions, and there is scarcely any of
+that noise and excitement which might be expected. In fine
+weather the greater part of them are quietly enjoying themselves-
+-some are sleeping under the shadow of the sails; others, in
+little groups of three or four, are talking or chewing betel; one
+is making a new handle to his chopping-knife, another is
+stitching away at a new pair of trousers or a shirt, and all are
+as quiet and well-conducted as on board the best-ordered English
+merchantman. Two or three take it by turns to watch in the bows
+and see after the braces and halyards of the great sails; the two
+steersmen are below in the steerage; our captain, or the juragan,
+gives the course, guided partly by the compass and partly by the
+direction of the wind, and a watch of two or three on the poop
+look after the trimming of the sails and call out the hours by
+the water-clock. This is a very ingenious contrivance, which
+measures time well in both rough weather and fine. It is simply a
+bucket half filled with water, in which floats the half of a
+well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. In the bottom of this shell is a
+very small hole, so that when placed to float in the bucket a
+fine thread of water squirts up into it. This gradually fills the
+shell, and the size of the hole is so adjusted to the capacity of
+the vessel that, exactly at the end of an hour, plump it goes to
+the bottom. The watch then cries out the number of hours from
+sunrise and sets the shell afloat again empty. This is a very
+good measurer of time. I tested it with my watch and found that
+it hardly varied a minute from one hour to another, nor did the
+motion of the vessel have any effect upon it, as the water in the
+bucket of course kept level. It has a great advantage for a rude
+people in being easily understood, in being rather bulky and easy
+to see, and in the final submergence being accompanied with a
+little bubbling and commotion of the water, which calls the
+attention to it. It is also quickly replaced if lost while in
+harbour.
+
+Our captain and owner I find to be a quiet, good-tempered man,
+who seems to get on very well with all about him. When at sea he
+drinks no wine or spirits, but indulges only in coffee and cakes,
+morning and afternoon, in company with his supercargo and
+assistants. He is a man of some little education, can read and
+write well both Dutch and Malay, uses a compass, and has a chart.
+He has been a trader to Aru for many years, and is well known to
+both Europeans and natives in this part of the world.
+
+Dec. 24th.-Fine, and little wind. No land in sight for the first
+time since we left Macassar. At noon calm, with heavy showers, in
+which our crew wash their clothes, anti in the afternoon the prau
+is covered with shirts, trousers, and sarongs of various gay
+colours. I made a discovery to-day which at first rather alarmed
+me. The two ports, or openings, through which the tillers enter
+from the lateral rudders are not more than three or four feet
+above the surface of the water, which thus has a free entrance
+into the vessel. I of course had imagined that this open space
+from one side to the other was separated from the hold by a
+water-tight bulkhead, so that a sea entering might wash out at
+the further side, and do no more harm than give the steersmen a
+drenching. To my surprise end dismay, however, I find that it is
+completely open to the hold, so that half-a-dozen seas rolling in
+on a stormy night would nearly, or quite, swamp us. Think of a
+vessel going to sea for a month with two holes, each a yard
+square, into the hold, at three feet above the water-line,-holes,
+too, which cannot possibly be closed! But our captain says all
+praus are so; and though he acknowledges the danger, "he does not
+know how to alter it--the people are used to it; he does not
+understand praus so well as they do, and if such a great
+alteration were made, he should be sure to have difficulty in
+getting a crew!" This proves at all events that praus must be
+good sea-boats, for the captain has been continually making
+voyages in them for the last ten years, and says he has never
+known water enough enter to do any harm.
+
+Dec.25th.-Christmas-day dawned upon us with gusts of wind,
+driving rain, thunder and lightning, added to which a short
+confused sea made our queer vessel pitch and roll very
+uncomfortably. About nine o'clock, however, it cleared up, and we
+then saw ahead of us the fine island of Bouru, perhaps forty or
+fifty miles distant, its mountains wreathed with clouds, while
+its lower lands were still invisible. The afternoon was fine, and
+the wind got round again to the west; but although this is really
+the west monsoon, there is no regularity or steadiness about it,
+calms and breezes from every point of the compass continually
+occurring. The captain, though nominally a Protestant, seemed to
+have no idea of Christmas-day as a festival. Our dinner was of
+rice and curry as usual, and an extra glass of wine was all I
+could do to celebrate it.
+
+Dec. 26th.--Fine view of the mountains of Bouru, which we have
+now approached considerably. Our crew seem rather a clumsy lot.
+They do not walk the deck with the easy swing of English sailors,
+but hesitate and stagger like landsmen. In the night the lower
+boom of our mainsail broke, and they were all the morning
+repairing it. It consisted of two bamboos lashed together, thick
+end to thin, and was about seventy feet long. The rigging and
+arrangement of these praus contrasts strangely with that of
+European vessels, in which the various ropes and spars, though
+much more numerous, are placed so as not to interfere with each
+other's action. Here the case is quite different; for though
+there are no shrouds or stays to complicate the matter, yet
+scarcely anything can be done without first clearing something
+else out of the way. The large sails cannot be shifted round to
+go on the other tack without first hauling down the jibs, and the
+booms of the fore and aft sails have to be lowered and completely
+detached to perform the same operation. Then there are always a
+lot of ropes foul of each other, and all the sails can never be
+set (though they are so few) without a good part of their surface
+having the wind kept out of them by others. Yet praus are much
+liked even by those who have had European vessels, because of
+their cheapness both in first cost and in keeping up; almost all
+repairs can be done by the crew, and very few European stores are
+required.
+
+Dec. 28th.--This day we saw the Banda group, the volcano first
+appearing,--a perfect cone, having very much the outline of the
+Egyptian pyramids, and looking almost as regular. In the evening
+the smoke rested over its summit like a small stationary cloud.
+This was my first view of an active volcano, but pictures and
+panoramas have so impressed such things on one's mind, that when
+we at length behold them they seem nothing extraordinary.
+
+Dec. 30th.--Passed the island of Teor, and a group near it, which
+are very incorrectly marked on the charts. Flying-fish were
+numerous to-day. It is a smaller species than that of the
+Atlantic, and more active and elegant in its motions. As they
+skim along the surface they turn on their sides, so as fully to
+display their beautiful fins, taking a flight of about a hundred
+yards, rising and falling in n most graceful manner. At a little
+distance they exactly resemble swallows, and no one who sees them
+can doubt that they really do fly, not merely descend in an
+oblique direction from the height they gain by their first
+spring. In the evening an aquatic bird, a species of booby (Sula
+fiber.) rested on our hen-coop, and was caught by the neck by one
+of my boys.
+
+Dec. 31st,.--At daybreak the Ke Islands (pronounced Kay) were in
+sight, where we are to stay a few days. About noon we rounded the
+northern point, and endeavoured to coast along to the anchorage;
+but being now on the leeward side of the island, the wind came in
+violent irregular gusts, and then leaving us altogether, we were
+carried back by a strong current. Just then two boats-load of
+natives appeared, and our owner having agreed with them to tow us
+into harbour, they tried to do so, assisted by our own boat, but
+could make no way. We were therefore obliged to anchor in a very
+dangerous place on a rocky bottom, and we were engaged till
+nearly dark getting hawsers secured to some rocks under water.
+The coast of Ke along which we had passed was very picturesque.
+Light coloured limestone rocks rose abruptly from the water to
+the height of several hundred feet, everywhere broken into
+jutting peaks and pinnacles, weather-worn into sharp points and
+honeycombed surfaces, and clothed throughout with a most varied
+and luxuriant vegetation. The cliffs above the sea offered to our
+view screw-pines and arborescent Liliaceae of strange forms,
+mingled with shrubs and creepers; while the higher slopes
+supported a dense growth of forest trees. Here and there little
+bays and inlets presented beaches of dazzling whiteness. The
+water was transparent as crystal, and tinged the rock-strewn
+slope which plunged steeply into its unfathomable depths with
+colours varying from emerald to lapis-lazuli. The sea was calm as
+a lake, and the glorious sun of the tropics threw a flood of
+golden light over all. The scene was to me inexpressibly
+delightful. I was in a new world, and could dream of the
+wonderful productions hid in those rocky forests, and in those
+azure abysses. But few European feet had ever trodden the shores
+I gazed upon its plants, and animals, and men were alike almost
+unknown, and I could not help speculating on what my wanderings
+there for a few days might bring to light.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE KE ISLANDS.
+
+(JANUARY 1857)
+
+THE native boats that had come to meet us were three or four in
+number, containing in all about fifty men.
+
+They were long canoes, with the bow and stern rising up into a
+beak six or night feet high, decorated with shells and waving
+plumes of cassowaries hair. I now had my first view of Papuans in
+their own country, and in less than five minutes was convinced
+that the opinion already arrived at by the examination of a few
+Timor and New Guinea slaves was substantially correct, and that
+the people I now had an opportunity of comparing side by side
+belonged to two of the most  distinct and strongly marked races
+that the earth contains. Had I been blind, I could have been
+certain that these islanders were not Malays. The loud, rapid,
+eager tones, the incessant motion, the intense vital activity
+manifested in speech and action, are the very antipodes of the
+quiet, unimpulsive, unanimated Malay These Ke men came up singing
+and shouting, dipping their paddles deep in the water and
+throwing up clouds of spray; as they approached nearer they stood
+up in their canoes and increased their noise and gesticulations;
+and on coming alongside, without asking leave, and without a
+moment's hesitation, the greater part of them scrambled up on our
+deck just as if they were come to take possession of a captured
+vessel. Then commenced a scene of indescribable confusion. These
+forty black, naked, mop-headed savages seemed intoxicated with
+joy and excitement. Not one of them could remain still for a
+moment. Every individual of our crew was in turn surrounded and
+examined, asked for tobacco or arrack, grinned at and deserted
+for another. All talked at once, and our captain was regularly
+mobbed by the chief men, who wanted to be employed to tow us in,
+and who begged vociferously to be paid in advance. A few presents
+of tobacco made their eyes glisten; they would express their
+satisfaction by grins and shouts, by rolling on deck, or by a
+headlong leap overboard. Schoolboys on an unexpected holiday,
+Irishmen at a fair, or mid-shipmen on shore, would give but a
+faint idea of the exuberant animal enjoyment of these people.
+
+Under similar circumstances Malays could not behave as these
+Papuans did. If they came on board a vessel (after asking
+permission), not a word would be at first spoken, except a few
+compliments, and only after some time, and very cautiously, world
+any approach be made to business. One would speak at a time, with
+a low voice and great deliberation, and the mode of making a
+bargain would be by quietly refusing all your offers, or even
+going away without saying another word about the matter, unless
+advanced your price to what they were willing to accept. Our
+crew, many of whom had not made the voyage before, seemed quite
+scandalized at such unprecedented bad manners, and only very
+gradually made any approach to fraternization with the black
+fellows. They reminded me of a party of demure and well-behaved
+children suddenly broken in upon by a lot of wild romping,
+riotous boys, whose conduct seems most extraordinary and very
+naughty. These moral features are more striking and more
+conclusive of absolute diversity than oven the physical contrast
+presented by the two races, though that is sufficiently
+remarkable. The sooty blackness of the skin, the mop-like head of
+frizzly hair, and, most important of all, the marked form of
+countenance of quite a different type from that of the Malay, are
+what we cannot believe to result from mere climatal or other
+modifying influences on one and the same race. The Malay face is
+of the Mongolian type, broad and somewhat flat. The brows are
+depressed, the mouth wide, but not projecting, and the nose small
+and well formed but for the great dilatation of the nostrils. The
+face is smooth, and rarely develops the trace of a beard; the
+hair black, coarse, and perfectly straight. The Papuan, on the
+other hand, has a face which we may say is compressed and
+projecting. The brows are protuberant and overhanging, the mouth
+large and prominent, while the nose is very large, the apex
+elongated downwards, the ridge thick, and the nostrils large. It
+is an obtrusive and remarkable feature in the countenance, the
+very reverse of what obtains in the Malay face. The twisted beard
+and frizzly hair complete this remarkable contrast. Hero then I
+had reached a new world, inhabited by a strange people. Between
+the Malayan tribes, among whom I had for some years been living,
+and the Papuan races, whose country I had now entered, we may
+fairly say that there is as much difference, both moral and
+physical, as between the red Indians of South America and the
+negroes of Guinea on the opposite side of the Atlantic.
+
+Jan. 1st, 1857.-This has been a day of thorough enjoyment. I have
+wandered in the forests of an island rarely seen by Europeans.
+Before daybreak we left our anchorage, and in an hour reached the
+village of Har, where we were to stay three or four days. The
+range of hills here receded so as to form a small bay, and they
+were broken up into peaks and hummocks with intervening flats and
+hollows. A broad beach of the whitest sand lined the inner part
+of the bay, backed by a mass of cocoa-nut palms, among which the
+huts were concealed, and surmounted by a dense and varied growth
+of timber. Canoes and boats of various sizes were drawn up on the
+beach and one or two idlers, with a few children and a dog, gazed
+at our prau as we came to an anchor.
+
+When we went on shore the first thing that attracted us was a
+large and well-constructed shed, under which a long boat was
+being built, while others in various stages of completion were
+placed at intervals along the beach.  Our captain, who wanted two
+of moderate size for the trade among the islands at Aru,
+immediately began bargaining for them, and in a short tine had
+arranged the nuns number of brass guns, gongs, sarongs,
+handkerchiefs, axes, white plates, tobacco, and arrack, which he
+was to give for a hair which could be got ready in four days. We
+then went to the village, which consisted only of three or four
+huts, situated immediately above the beach on an irregular rocky
+piece of ground overshadowed with cocoa-nuts, palms, bananas, and
+other fruit trees. The houses were very rude, black, and half
+rotten, raised a few feet on posts with low sides of bamboo or
+planks, and high thatched roofs. They had small doors and no
+windows, an opening under the projecting gables letting the smoke
+out and a little light in. The floors were of strips of bamboo,
+thin, slippery, and elastic, and so weak that my feet were in
+danger of plunging through at every step. Native boxes of
+pandanus-leaves and slabs of palm pith, very neatly constructed,
+mats of the same, jars and cooking pots of native pottery, and a
+few European plates and basins, were the whole furniture, and the
+interior was throughout dark and smoke-blackened, and dismal in
+the extreme.
+
+Accompanied by Ali and Baderoon, I now attempted to make some
+explorations, and we were followed by a train of boys eager to
+see what we were going to do. The most trodden path from the
+beach led us into a shady hollow, where the trees were of immense
+height and the undergrowth scanty. From the summits of these
+trees came at intervals a deep booming sound, which at first
+puzzled us, but which we soon found to proceed from some large
+pigeons. My boys shot at them, and after one or two misses,
+brought one down. It was a magnificent bird twenty inches long,
+of a bluish white colour, with the back wings and tail intense
+metallic green, with golden, blue, and violet reflexions, the
+feet coral red, and the eyes golden yellow. It is a rare species,
+which I have named Carpophaga concinna, and is found only in a
+few small islands, where, however, it abounds. It is the same
+species which in the island of Banda is called the nutmeg-pigeon,
+from its habit of devouring the fruits, the seed or nutmeg being
+thrown up entire and uninjured. Though these pigeons have a
+narrow beak, yet their jaws and throat are so extensible that
+they can swallow fruits of very large size. I had before shot a
+species much smaller than this one, which had a number of hard
+globular palm-fruits in its crop, each more than an inch in
+diameter.
+
+A little further the path divided into two, one leading along the
+beach, and across mangrove and sago swamps the other rising to
+cultivated grounds. We therefore returned, and taking a fresh
+departure from the village, endeavoured to ascend the hills and
+penetrate into the interior. The path, however, was a most trying
+one. Where there was earth, it was a deposit of reddish clay
+overlying the rock, and was worn so smooth by the attrition of
+naked feet that my shoes could obtain no hold on the sloping
+surface. A little farther we came to the bare rock, and this was
+worse, for it was so rugged and broken, and so honeycombed and
+weatherworn into sharp points and angles, that my boys, who had
+gone barefooted all their lives, could not stand it. Their feet
+began to bleed, and I saw that if I did not want them completely
+lamed it would be wise to turn lack. My own shoes, which were
+rather thin, were but a poor protection, and would soon have been
+cut to pieces; yet our little naked guides tripped along with the
+greatest ease and unconcern, and seemed much astonished at our
+effeminacy in not being able to take a walk which to them was a
+perfectly agreeable one. During the rest of our stay in the
+island we were obliged to confine ourselves to the vicinity of
+the shore and the cultivated grounds, and those more level
+portions of the forest where a little soil had accumulated and
+the rock had been less exposed to atmospheric action.
+
+The island of Ke (pronounced exactly as the letter K, but
+erroneously spelt in our maps Key or Ki) is long and narrow,
+running in a north and south direction, and consists almost
+entirely of rock and mountain. It is everywhere covered with
+luxuriant forests, and in its bays and inlets the sand is of
+dazzling whiteness, resulting from the decomposition of the
+coralline limestone of which it is entirely composed. In all the
+little swampy inlets and valleys sago trees abound, and these
+supply the main subsistence of the natives, who grow no rice, and
+have scarcely any other cultivated products but cocoa-nuts,
+plantains, and yams. From the cocoa-nuts, which surround every
+hut, and which thrive exceedingly on the porous limestone soil
+and under the influence of salt breezes, oil is made which is
+sold at a good price to the Aru traders, who all touch here to
+lay in their stuck of this article, as well as to purchase boats
+and native crockery. Wooden bowls, pans, and trays are also
+largely made here, hewn out of solid blocks of wood with knife
+and adze; and these are carried to all parts of the Moluccas. But
+the art in which the natives of Ke pre-eminently excel is that of
+boat building. Their forests supply abundance of fine timber,
+though, probably not more so than many other islands, and from
+some unknown causes these remote savages have come to excel in
+what seems a very difficult art. Their small canoes are
+beautifully formed, broad and low in the centre, but rising at
+each end, where they terminate in high-pointed beaks more or less
+carved, and ornamented with a plume of feathers. They are not
+hollowed out of a tree, but are regularly built of planks running
+from ego to end, and so accurately fitted that it is often
+difficult to find a place where a knife-blade can be inserted
+between the joints. The larger ones are from 20 to 30 tons
+burthen, and are finished ready for sea without a nail or
+particle of iron being used, and with no other tools than axe,
+adze, and auger. These vessels are handsome to look at, good
+sailers, and admirable sea-boats, and will make long voyages with
+perfect safety, traversing the whole Archipelago from New Guinea
+to Singapore in seas which, as every one who has sailed much in
+them can testify, are not so smooth and tempest-free as word-
+painting travellers love to represent them.
+
+The forests of Ke produce magnificent timber, tall, straight, and
+durable, of various qualities, some of which are said to be
+superior to the best Indian teak. To make each pair of planks
+used in the construction of the larger boats an entire tree is
+consumed. It is felled, often miles away from the shore, cut
+across to the proper length, and then hewn longitudinally into
+two equal portions. Each of these forms a plank by cutting down
+with the axe to a uniform thickness of three or four inches,
+leaving at first a solid block at each end to prevent splitting.
+Along the centre of each plank a series of projecting pieces are
+left, standing up three or four inches, about the same width, and
+a foot long; these are of great importance in the construction of
+the vessel. When a sufficient number of planks have been made,
+they are laboriously dragged through the forest by three or four
+men each to the beach, where the boat is to be built. A
+foundation piece, broad in the middle and rising considerably at
+each end, is first laid on blocks and properly shored up. The
+edges of this are worked true and smooth with the adze, and a
+plank, properly curved and tapering at each end, is held firmly
+up against it, while a line is struck along it which allows it to
+be cut so as to fit exactly. A series of auger holes, about as
+large as one's finger, are then bored along the opposite edges,
+and pins of very hard wood are fitted to these, so that the two
+planks are held firmly, and can be driven into the closest
+contact; and difficult as this seems to do without any other aid
+than rude practical skill in forming each edge to the true
+corresponding curves, and in poring the holes so as exactly to
+match both in position and direction, yet so well is it done that
+the best European shipwright cannot produce sounder or closer-
+fitting joints. The boat is built up in this way by fitting plank
+to plank till the proper height and width are obtained. We have
+now a skin held together entirely by the hardwood pins connecting
+the edges of the planks, very strong and elastic, but having
+nothing but the adhesion of these pins to prevent the planks
+gaping. In the smaller boats seats, in the larger ones cross-
+beams, are now fixed. They are sprung into slight notches cut to
+receive them, and are further secured to the projecting pieces of
+the plank below by a strong lashing of rattan. Ribs are now
+formed of single pieces of tough wood chosen and trimmed so as
+exactly to fit on to the projections from each plank, being
+slightly notched to receive them, and securely bound to them by
+rattans passed through a hole in each projecting piece close to
+the surface of the plank. The ends are closed against the
+vertical prow and stern posts, and further secured with pegs and
+rattans, and then the boat is complete; and when fitted with
+rudders, masts, and thatched covering, is ready to do battle
+with, the waves. A careful consideration of the principle of this
+mode of construction, and allowing for the strength and binding
+qualities of rattan (which resembles in these respects wire
+rather than cordage), makes me believe that a vessel carefully
+built in this manner is actually stronger and safer than one
+fastened in the ordinary way with nails.
+
+During our stay here we were all very busy. Our captain was daily
+superintending the completion of his two small praus. All day
+long native boats were coming with fish, cocoa-nuts, parrots and
+lories, earthen pans, sirip leaf, wooden bowls, and trays, &c.
+&e., which every one of the fifty inhabitants of our prau seemed
+to be buying on his own account, till all available and most
+unavailable space of our vessel was occupied with these
+miscellaneous articles: for every man on board a prau considers
+himself at liberty to trade, and to carry with him whatever he
+can afford to buy.
+
+Money is unknown and valueless here--knives, cloth, and arrack
+forming the only medium of exchange, with tobacco for small coin.
+Every transaction is the subject of a special bargain, and the
+cause of much talking. It is absolutely necessary to offer very
+little, as the natives are never satisfied till you add a little
+more. They are then far better pleased than if you had given them
+twice the amount at first and refused to increase it.
+
+I, too, was doing a little business, having persuaded some of the
+natives to collect insects for me; and when they really found
+that I gave them most fragrant tobacco for worthless black and
+green beetles, I soon had scores of visitors, men, women, and
+children, bringing bamboos full of creeping things, which, alas!
+too frequently had eaten each other into fragments during the
+tedium of a day's confinement. Of one grand new beetle,
+glittering with ruby and emerald tints, I got a large quantity,
+having first detected one of its wing-cases ornamenting the
+outside of a native's tobacco pouch. It was quite a new species,
+and had not been found elsewhere than on this little island. It
+is one of the Buprestidae, and has been named Cyphogastra
+calepyga.
+
+Each morning after an early breakfast I wandered by myself into
+the forest, where I found delightful occupation in capturing the
+large and handsome butterflies, which were tolerably abundant,
+and most of them new to me; for I was now upon the confines of
+the Moluccas and New Guinea,--a region the productions of which
+were then among the most precious and rare in the cabinets of
+Europe. Here my eyes were feasted for the first time with
+splendid scarlet lories on the wing, as well as by the sight of
+that most imperial butterfly, the "Priamus "of collectors, or a
+closely allied species, but flying so high that I did not succeed
+in capturing a specimen. One of them was brought me in a bamboo,
+bored up with a lot of beetles, and of course torn to pieces. The
+principal drawback of the place for a collector is the want of
+good paths, and the dreadfully rugged character of the surface,
+requiring the attention to be so continually directed to securing
+a footing, as to make it very difficult to capture active winged
+things, who pass out of reach while one is glancing to see that
+the next step may not plunge one into a chasm or over a
+precipice. Another inconvenience is that there are no running
+streams, the rock being of so porous a nature that the surface-
+water everywhere penetrates its fissures; at least such is the
+character of the neighbourhood we visited, the only water being
+small springs trickling out close to the sea-beach.
+
+In the forests of Ke, arboreal Liliaceae and Pandanaceae abound,
+and give a character to the vegetation in the more exposed rocky
+places. Flowers were scarce, and there were not many orchids, but
+I noticed the fine white butterfly-orchis, Phalaenopsis
+grandiflora, or a species closely allied to it. The freshness and
+vigour of the vegetation was very pleasing, and on such an arid
+rocky surface was a sure indication of a perpetually humid
+climate. Tall clean trunks, many of them buttressed, and immense
+trees of the fig family, with aerial roots stretching out and
+interlacing and matted together for fifty or a hundred feet above
+the ground, were the characteristic features; and there was an
+absence of thorny shrubs and prickly rattans, which would have
+made these wilds very pleasant to roam in, had it not been for
+the sharp honeycombed rocks already alluded to. In damp places a
+fine undergrowth of broadleaved herbaceous plants was found,
+about which swarmed little green lizards, with tails of the most
+"heavenly blue," twisting in and out among the stalks and foliage
+so actively that I often caught glimpses of their tails only,
+when they startled me by their resemblance to small snakes.
+Almost the only sounds in these primeval woods proceeded from two
+birds, the red lories, who utter shrill screams like most of the
+parrot tribe, and the large green nutmeg-pigeon, whose voice is
+either a loud and deep boom, like two notes struck upon a very
+large gong, or sometimes a harsh toad-like croak, altogether
+peculiar and remarkable. Only two quadrupeds are said by the
+natives to inhabit the island--a wild pig and a Cuscus, or
+Eastern opossum, of neither of which could I obtain specimens.
+
+The insects were more abundant, and very interesting. Of
+butterflies I caught thirty-five species, most of them new to me,
+and many quite unknown in European collections. Among them was
+the fine yellow and black Papilio euchenor, of which but few
+specimens had been previously captured, and several other
+handsome butterflies of large size, as well as some beautiful
+little "blues," and some brilliant dayflying moths. The beetle
+tribe were less abundant, yet I obtained some very fine and rare
+species. On the leaves of a slender shrub in an old clearing I
+found several fine blue and black beetles of the genus Eupholus,
+which almost rival in beauty- the diamond beetles of South
+America. Some cocoa-nut palms in blossom on the beach were
+frequented by a fine green floral beetle (Lomaptera which, when
+the flowers were shaken, flew off like a small swarm of bees. I
+got one of our crew to climb up the tree, and he brought me a
+good number in his hand; and seeing they were valuable, I sent
+him up again with my net to shake the flowers into, and thus
+secured a large quantity. My best capture, however, was the
+superb insect of the Buprestis family, already mentioned as
+having been obtained from the natives, who told me they found it
+in rotten trees in the mountains.
+
+In the forest itself the only common and conspicuous coleoptera
+were two tiger beetles. One, Therates labiata, was much larger
+than our green tiger beetle, of a purple black colour, with green
+metallic glosses, and the broad upper lip of a bright yellow. It
+was always found upon foliage, generally of broad-leaned
+herbaceous plants, and in damp and gloomy situations, taking
+frequent short flights from leaf to leaf, and preserving an alert
+attitude, as if always looking out for its prey. Its vicinity
+could be immediately ascertained, often before it was seen, by a
+very pleasant odour, like otto of roses, which it seems to emit
+continually, and which may probably be attractive to the small
+insects on which it feeds. The other, Tricondyla aptera, is one
+of the most curious forms in the family of the Cicindelidae, and
+is almost exclusively confined to the Malay islands. In shape it
+resembles a very large ant, more than an inch long, and of a
+purple black colour. Like an ant also it is wingless, and is
+generally found ascending trees, passing around the trunks in a
+spiral direction when approached, to avoid capture, so that it
+requires a sudden run and active fingers to secure a specimen.
+This species emits the usual fetid odour of the ground beetles.
+My collections during our four days' stay at Ke were as follow:--
+Birds, 13 species; insects, 194 species; and 3 kinds of land-
+shells.
+
+There are two kinds of people inhabiting these islands--the
+indigenes, who have the Papuan characters strongly marked, and
+who are pagans; and a mixed race, who are nominally Mahometans,
+and wear cotton clothing, while the former use only a waist cloth
+of cotton or bark. These Mahometans are said to have been driven
+out of Banda by the early European settlers. They were probably a
+brown race, more allied to the Malays, and their mixed
+descendants here exhibit great variations of colour, hair, and
+features, graduating between the Malay and Papuan types. It is
+interesting to observe the influence of the early Portuguese
+trade with these countries in the words of their language, which
+still remain in use even among these remote and savage islanders.
+"Lenco" for handkerchief, and "faca" for knife, are here used to
+the exclusion of the proper Malay terms. The Portuguese and
+Spaniards were truly wonderful conquerors and colonizers. They
+effected more rapid changes in the countries they conquered than
+any other nations of modern times, resembling the Romans in their
+power of impressing their own language, religion, and manners on
+rode and barbarous tribes.
+
+The striking contrast of character between these people and the
+Malays is exemplified in many little traits. One day when I was
+rambling in the forest, an old man stopped to look at me catching
+an insect. He stood very quiet till I had pinned and put it away
+in my collecting box, when he could contain himself no longer,
+but bent almost double, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter.
+Every one will recognise this as a true negro trait. A Malay
+would have stared, and asked with a tone of bewilderment what I
+was doing, for it is but little in his nature to laugh, never
+heartily, and still less at or in the presence of a stranger, to
+whom, however, his disdainful glances or whispered remarks are
+less agreeable than the most boisterous open expression of
+merriment. The women here were not so much frightened at
+strangers, or made to keep themselves so much secluded as among
+the Malay races; the children were more merry and had the "nigger
+grin," while the noisy confusion of tongues among the men, and
+their excitement on very ordinary occasions, are altogether
+removed from the general taciturnity and reserve of the Malay.
+
+The language of the Ke people consists of words of one, two, or
+three syllables in about equal proportions, and has many
+aspirated and a few guttural sounds. The different villages have
+slight differences of dialect, but they are mutually
+intelligible, and, except in words that have evidently been
+introduced during a long-continued commercial intercourse, seem
+to have no affinity whatever with the Malay languages.
+
+Jan. 6th.-The small boats being finished, we sailed for Aru at 4
+P.M., and as we left the shores of Ke had a line view of its
+rugged and mountainous character; ranges of hills, three or four
+thousand feet high, stretching southwards as far as the eye could
+reach, everywhere covered with a lofty, dense, and unbroken
+forest. We had very light winds, and it therefore took us thirty
+hours to make the passage of sixty miles to the low, or flat, but
+equally forest-covered Aru Islands, where we anchored in the
+harbour of Dobbo at nine in the evening of the next day.
+
+My first voyage in a prau being thus satisfactorily terminated, I
+must, before taking leave of it for some months, bear testimony
+to the merits of the queer old-world vessel. Setting aside all
+ideas of danger, which is probably, after all, not more than in
+any other craft, I must declare that I have never, either before
+or since, made a twenty days' voyage so pleasantly, or perhaps,
+more correctly speaking, with so little discomfort. This I
+attribute chiefly to having my small cabin on deck, and entirely
+to myself, to having my own servants to wait upon me, and to the
+absence of all those marine-store smells of paint, pitch, tallow,
+and new cordage, which are to me insupportable. Something is also
+to be put down to freedom from all restraint of dress, hours of
+meals, &c., and to the civility and obliging disposition of the
+captain. I had agreed to have my meals with him, but whenever I
+wished it I had them in my own berth, and at what hours I felt
+inclined. The crew were all civil and good-tempered, and with
+very little discipline everything went on smoothly, and the
+vessel was kept very clean and in pretty good order, so that on
+the whole I was much delighted with the trip, and was inclined to
+rate the luxuries of the semi-barbarous prau as surpassing those
+of the most magnificent screw-steamer, that highest result of our
+civilisation.
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE ARU ISLANDS--RESIDENCE IN DOBBO
+
+(JANUARY TO MARCH  1857.)
+
+On the 8th of January, 1857, I landed at Dobbo, the trading
+settlement of the Bugis and Chinese, who annually visit the Aru
+Islands. It is situated on the small island of Wamma, upon a spit
+of sand which projects out to the north, and is just wide enough
+to contain three rows of houses. Though at first sight a most
+strange and desolate-looking place to build a village on, it has
+many advantages. There is a clear entrance from the west among
+the coral reefs that border the land, and there is good anchorage
+for vessels, on one side of the village or the other, in both the
+east and west monsoons. Being fully exposed to the sea-breezes in
+three directions it is healthy, and the soft sandy heath offers
+great facilities for hauling up the praus, in order to secure
+them from sea-worms and prepare them for the homeward voyage. At
+its southern extremity the sand-bank merges in the beach of the
+island, and is backed by a luxuriant growth of lofty forest. The
+houses are of various sizes, but are all built after one pattern,
+being merely large thatched sheds, a small portion of which, next
+the entrance, is used as a dwelling, while the rest is parted
+oft; and often divided by one or two floors, in order better to
+stow away merchandise and native produce.
+
+As we had arrived early in the season, most of the houses were
+empty, and the place looked desolate in the extreme--the whole of
+the inhabitants who received us on our landing amounting to about
+half-a-dozen Bugis and Chinese. Our captain, Herr Warzbergen, had
+promised to obtain a house for me, but unforeseen difficulties
+presented themselves. One which was to let had no roof; and the
+owner, who was building it on speculation, could not promise to
+finish it in less than a month. Another, of which the owner was
+dead, and which I might therefore take undisputed possession of
+as the first comer, wanted considerable repairs, and no one could
+be found to do the work, although about four times its value was
+offered. The captain, therefore, recommended me to take
+possession of a pretty good house near his own, whose owner was
+not expected for some weeks; and as I was anxious to be on shore,
+I immediately had it cleared out, and by evening had all my
+things housed, and was regularly installed as an inhabitant of
+Dobbo. I had brought with me a cane chair, and a few light
+boards, which were soon rigged up into a table and shelves. A
+broad bamboo bench served as sofa and bedstead, my boxes were
+conveniently arranged, my mats spread on the floor, a window cut
+in the palm-leaf wall to light my table, and though the place was
+as miserable and gloomy a shed as could be imagined, I felt as
+contented as if I had obtained a well-furnished mansion, and
+looked forward to a month's residence in it with unmixed
+satisfaction.
+
+The next morning, after an early breakfast, I set off to explore
+the virgin forests of Aru, anxious to set my mind at rest as to
+the treasures they were likely to yield, and the probable success
+of my long-meditated expedition. A little native imp was our
+guide, seduced by the gift of a German knife, value three-
+halfpence, and my Macassar boy Baderoon brought his chopper to
+clear the path if necessary.
+
+We had to walk about half a mile along the beach, the ground
+behind the village being mostly swampy, and then turned into the
+forest along a path which leads to the native village of Wamma,
+about three miles off on the other side of the island. The path
+was a narrow one, and very little used, often swampy and
+obstructed by fallen trees, so that after about a mile we lost it
+altogether, our guide having turned back, and we were obliged to
+follow his example. In the meantime, however, I had not been
+idle, and my day's captures determined the success of my journey
+in an entomological point of view. I had taken about thirty
+species of butterflies, more than I had ever captured in a day
+since leaving the prolific banks of the Amazon, and among them
+were many most rare and beautiful insects, hitherto only known by
+a few specimens from New Guinea. The large and handsome spectre
+butterfly, Hestia durvillei; the pale-winged peacock butterfly,
+Drusilla catops; and the most brilliant and wonderful of the
+clear-winged moths, Cocytia durvillei, were especially
+interesting, as well, as several little "blues," equalling in
+brilliancy and beauty anything the butterfly world can produce.
+In the other groups of insects I was not so successful, but this
+was not to be wondered at in a mere exploring ramble, when only
+what is most conspicuous and novel attracts the attention.
+Several pretty beetles, a superb "bug," and a few nice land-
+shells were obtained, and I returned in the afternoon well
+satisfied with my first trial of the promised land.
+
+The next two days were so wet and windy that there was no going
+out; but on the succeeding one the sun shone brightly, and I had
+the good fortune to capture one of the most magnificent insects
+the world contains, the great bird-winged butterfly, Ornithoptera
+Poseidon. I trembled with excitement as I saw it coming
+majestically towards me, and could hardly believe I had really
+succeeded in my stroke till I had taken it out of the net and was
+gazing, lost in admiration, at the velvet black and brilliant
+green of its wings, seven inches across, its bolder body, and
+crimson breast. It is true I had seen similar insects in cabinets
+at home, but it is quite another thing to capture such oneself-to
+feel it struggling between one's fingers, and to gaze upon its
+fresh and living beauty, a bright gem shirring out amid the
+silent gloom of a dark and tangled forest. The village of Dobbo
+held that evening at least one contented man.
+
+Jan. 26th.--Having now been here a fortnight, I began to
+understand a little of the place and its peculiarities. Praus
+continually arrived, and the merchant population increased almost
+daily. Every two or three days a fresh house was opened, and the
+necessary repairs made. In every direction men were bringing in
+poles, bamboos, rattans, and the leaves of the nipa palm to
+construct or repair the walls, thatch, doors, and shutters of
+their houses, which they do with great celerity. Some of the
+arrivals were Macassar men or Bugis, but more from the small
+island of Goram, at the east end of Ceram, whose inhabitants are
+the petty traders of the far East. Then the natives of Aru come
+in from the other side of the islands (called here "blakang
+tana," or "back of the country") with the produce they have
+collected during the preceding six months, and which they now
+sell to the traders, to some of whom they are most likely in
+debt.
+
+Almost all, or I may safely say all, the new arrivals pay me a
+visit, to see with their own eyes the unheard-of phenomenon of a
+person come to stay at Dobbo who does not trade! They have their
+own ideas of the uses that may possibly be made of stuffed birds,
+beetles, and shells which are not the right shells--that is,
+"mother-of-pearl." They every day bring me dead and broken
+shells, such as l can pick up by hundreds on the beach, and seem
+quite puzzled and distressed when I decline them. If, however,
+there are any snail shells among a lot, I take them, and ask for
+more--a principle of selection so utterly unintelligible to them,
+that they give it up in despair, or solve the problem by imputing
+hidden medical virtue to those which they see me preserve so
+carefully.
+
+These traders are all of the Malay race, or a mixture of which
+Malay is the chef ingredient, with the exception of a few
+Chinese. The natives of Aru, on the other hand, are, Papuans,
+with black or sooty brown skims, woolly or frizzly hair, thick-
+ridged prominent noses, and rather slender limbs. Most of them
+wear nothing but a waist-cloth, and a few of them may be seen all
+day long wandering about the half-deserted streets of Dobbo
+offering their little bit of merchandise for sale.
+
+Living in a trader's house everything is brought to me as well as
+to the rest,--bundles of smoked tripang, or "beche de mer,"
+looking like sausages which have been rolled in mud and then
+thrown up the chimney; dried sharks' fins, mother-of-pearl
+shells, as well as birds of Paradise, which, however, are so
+dirty and so badly preserved that I have as yet found no
+specimens worth purchasing. When I hardly look at the articles,
+and make no offer for them, they seem incredulous, and, as if
+fearing they have misunderstood me, again offer them, and declare
+what they want in return--knives, or tobacco, or sago, or
+handkerchiefs. I then have to endeavour to explain, through any
+interpreter who may be at hand, that neither tripang nor pearl
+oyster shells have any charms for me, and that I even decline to
+speculate in tortoiseshell, but that anything eatable I will buy-
+-fish, or turtle, or vegetables of any sort. Almost the only
+food, however, that we can obtain with any regularity, are fish
+and cockles of very good quality, and to supply our daily wants
+it is absolutely necessary to be always provided with four
+articles--tobacco, knives, sago-cakes, and Dutch copper doits--
+because when the particular thing asked for is not forthcoming,
+the fish pass on to the next house, and we may go that day
+without a dinner. It is curious to see the baskets and buckets
+used here. The cockles are brought in large volute shells,
+probably the Cymbium ducale, while gigantic helmet-shells, a
+species of Cassis, suspended by a rattan handle, form the vessels
+in which fresh water is daily carried past my door. It is painful
+to a naturalist to see these splendid shells with their inner
+whorls ruthlessly broken away to fit them for their ignoble use.
+
+My collections, however, got on but slowly, owing to the
+unexpectedly bad weather, violent winds with heavy showers having
+been so continuous as only to give me four good collecting days
+out of the first sixteen I spent here. Yet enough had been
+collected to show me that with time and fine weather I might
+expect to do something good. From the natives I obtained some
+very fine insects and a few pretty land-shells; and of the small
+number of birds yet shot more than half were known New Guinea
+species, and therefore certainly rare in European collections,
+while the remainder were probably new. In one respect my hopes
+seemed doomed to be disappointed. I had anticipated the pleasure
+of myself preparing fine specimens of the Birds of Paradise, but
+I now learnt that they are all at this season out of plumage, and
+that it is in September and October that they have the long
+plumes of yellow silky feathers in full perfection. As all the
+praus return in July, I should not be able to spend that season
+in Aru without remaining another whole year, which was out of the
+question. I was informed, however, that the small red species,
+the "King Bird of Paradise," retains its plumage at all seasons,
+and this I might therefore hope to get.
+
+As I became familiar with the forest scenery of the island,
+(perceived it to possess some characteristic features that
+distinguished it from that of Borneo and Malacca, while, what is
+very singular and interesting, it recalled to my mind the half-
+forgotten impressions of the forests of Equatorial America. For
+example, the palms were much more abundant than I had generally
+found them in the East, more generally mingled with the other
+vegetation, more varied in form and aspect, and presenting some
+of those lofty and majestic smooth-stemmed, pinnate-leaved
+species which recall the Uauassu (Attalea speciosa) of the
+Amazon, but which I had hitherto rarely met with in the Malayan
+islands.
+
+In animal life the immense number and variety of spiders and of
+lizards were circumstances that recalled the prolific regions of
+south America, more especially the abundance and varied colours
+of the little jumping spiders which abound on flowers and
+foliage, and are often perfect gems of beauty. The web-spinning
+species were also more numerous than I had ever seen them, and
+were a great annoyance, stretching their nets across the
+footpaths just about the height of my face; and the threads
+composing these are so strong and glutinous as to require much
+trouble to free oneself from them. Then their inhabitants, great
+yellow-spotted monsters with bodies two inches long, and legs in
+proportion, are not pleasant to o run one's nose against while
+pursuing some gorgeous butterfly, or gazing aloft in search of
+some strange-voiced bird. I soon found it necessary not only to
+brush away the web, but also to destroy the spinner; for at
+first, having cleared the path one day, I found the next morning
+that the industrious insects had spread their nets again in the
+very same places.
+
+The lizards were equally striking by their numbers, variety, and
+the situations in which they were found. The beautiful blue-
+tailed species so abundant in Ke was not seen here. The Aru
+lizards are more varied but more sombre in their colours--shades
+of green, grey, brown, and even black, being very frequently
+seen. Every shrub and herbaceous plant was alive with them, every
+rotten trunk or dead branch served as a station for some of these
+active little insect-hunters, who, I fear, to satisfy their gross
+appetites, destroy many gems of the insect world, which would
+feast the eyes and delight the heart of our more discriminating
+entomologists. Another curious feature of the jungle here was the
+multitude of sea-shells everywhere met with on the ground and
+high up on the branches and foliage, all inhabited by hermit-
+crabs, who forsake the beach to wander in the forest. I lave
+actually seen a spider carrying away a good-sized shell and
+devouring its (probably juvenile) tenant. On the beach, which I
+had to walls along every morning to reach the forest, these
+creatures swarmed by thousands. Every dead shell, from the
+largest to the most minute, was appropriated by them. They formed
+small social parties of ten or twenty around bits of stick or
+seaweed, but dispersed hurriedly at the sound of approaching
+footsteps. After a windy night, that nasty-looking Chinese
+delicacy the sea-slug was sometimes thrown up on the beach, which
+was at such times thickly strewn with some of the most beautiful
+shells that adorn our cabinets, along with fragments and masses
+of coral and strange sponges, of which I picked up more than
+twenty different sorts. In many cases sponge and coral are so
+much alike that it is only on touching them that they can be
+distinguished. Quantities of seaweed, too, are thrown up; but
+strange as it may seem, these are far less beautiful and less
+varied than may be found on any favourable part of our own
+coasts.
+
+The natives here, even those who seem to be of pare Papuan race,
+were much more reserved and taciturn than those of Ke. This is
+probably because I only saw them as yet among strangers and in
+small parties, One must see the savage at home to know what he
+really is. Even here, however, the Papuan character sometimes
+breaks out. Little boys sing cheerfully as they walk along, or
+talk aloud to themselves (quite a negro characteristic); and try
+all they can, the men cannot conceal their emotions in the true
+Malay fashion. A number of them were one day in my house, and
+having a fancy to try what sort of eating tripang would be, I
+bought a couple, paying for them with such an extravagant
+quantity of tobacco that the seller saw I was a green customer.
+He could not, however, conceal his delight, but as he smelt the
+fragrant weed, and exhibited the large handful to his companions,
+he grinned and twisted and gave silent chuckles in a most
+expressive pantomime. I had often before made the same mistake in
+paying a Malay for some trifle. In no case, however, was his
+pleasure visible on his countenance--a dull and stupid hesitation
+only showing his surprise, which would be exhibited exactly in
+the same way whether he was over or under paid. These little
+moral traits are of the greatest interest when taken in connexion
+with physical features. They do not admit of the same ready
+explanation by external causes which is so frequently applied to
+the latter. Writers on the races of mankind have too often to
+trust to the information of travellers who pass rapidly from
+country to country, and thus have few opportunities of becoming
+acquainted with peculiarities of national character, or even of
+ascertaining what is really the average physical conformation of
+the people. Such are exceedingly apt to be deceived in places
+where two races have long, intermingled, by looking on
+intermediate forms and mixed habits as evidences of a natural
+transition from one race to the other, instead of an artificial
+mixture of two distinct peoples; and they will be the more
+readily led into this error if, as in the present case, writers
+on the subject should have been in the habit of classing these
+races as mere varieties of one stock, as closely related in
+physical conformation as from their geographical proximity one
+might suppose they ought to be. So far as I have yet seen, the
+Malay and Papuan appear to be as widely separated as any two
+human races that exist, being distinguished by physical, mental,
+and moral characteristics, all of the most marked and striking
+kind.
+
+Feb 5th.--I took advantage of a very fine calm day to pay a visit
+to the island of Wokan, which is about a mile from us, and forms
+part of the "canna busar," or mainland of Aru. This is a large
+island, extending from north to south about a hundred miles, but
+so low in many parts as to be intersected by several creeks,
+which run completely through it, offering a passage for good-
+sized vessels. On the west side, where we are, there are only a
+few outlying islands, of which ours (Wamma) is the principal; but
+on the east coast are a great number of islands, extending some
+miles beyond the mainland, and forming the "blakang tang," or
+"back country," of the traders, being the principal seat of the
+pearl, tripang, and tortoiseshell fisheries. To the mainland many
+of the birds and animals of the country are altogether confined;
+the Birds of paradise, the black cockatoo, the great brush-
+turkey, and the cassowary, are none of them found on Wamma or any
+of the detached islands. I did not, however, expect in this
+excursion to see any decided difference in the forest or its
+productions, and was therefore agreeably surprised. The beach was
+overhung with the drooping branches of lame trees, loaded with
+Orchideae, ferns, and other epiphytal plants. In the forest there
+was more variety, some parts being dry, and with trees of a lower
+growth, while in others there were some of the most beautiful
+palms I have ever seen, with a perfectly straight, smooth,
+slender stem, a hundred feet high, and a crown of handsome
+drooping leaves. But the greatest novelty and most striking
+feature to my eyes were the tree-ferns, which, after seven years
+spent in the tropics, I now saw in perfection for the first time.
+All I had hitherto met with were slender species, not more than
+twelve feet high, and they gave not the least idea of the supreme
+beauty of trees bearing their elegant heads of fronds more than
+thirty feet in the air, like those which were plentifully
+scattered about this forest. There is nothing in tropical
+vegetation so perfectly beautiful.
+
+My boys shot five sorts of birds, none of which we had obtained
+during a month's shooting in Wamma. Two were very pretty
+flycatchers, already known from New Guinea; one of them (Monarcha
+chrysomela), of brilliant black and bright orange colours, is by
+some authors considered to be the most beautiful of all
+flycatchers; the other is pure white and velvety black, with a
+broad fleshy ring round the eye of are azure blue colour; it is
+named the "spectacled flycatcher" (Monarcha telescopthalma), and
+was first found in New Guinea, along with the other, by the
+French naturalists during the voyage of the discovery-ship
+Coquille.
+
+Feb. 18th.--Before leaving Macassar, I had written to the
+Governor of Amboyna requesting him to assist me with the native
+chiefs of Aru. I now received by a
+vessel which had arrived from Amboyna a very polite answer
+informing me that orders had been sent to give me every
+assistance that I might require; and I was just congratulating
+myself on being at length able to get a boat and men to go to the
+mainland and explore the interior, when a sudden check carne in
+the form of a piratical incursion. A small prau arrived which had
+been attacked by pirates and had a man wounded. They were said to
+have five boats, but more were expected to be behind and the
+traders were all in consternation, fearing that their small
+vessels sent trading to the "blakang tana" would be plundered.
+The Aru natives were of course  dreadfully alarmed, as these
+marauders attack their villages, burn and murder, and carry away
+women and children for slaves. Not a man will stir from his
+village for some time, and I must remain still a prisoner in
+Dobbo. The Governor of Amboyna, out of pure kindness, has told
+the chiefs that they are to be responsible for my safety, so that
+they have au excellent excuse for refusing to stir.
+
+Several praus went out in search of the pirates, sentinels were
+appointed, and watch-fires lighted on the beach to guard against
+the possibility of a night attack, though it was hardly thought
+they would be bold enough to attempt to plunder Dobbo. The next
+day the praus returned, and we had positive information that
+these scourges of the Eastern seas were really among us. One of
+Herr Warzbergen's small praus also arrived in a sad plight. It
+had been attacked six days before, just as it was returning, from
+the "blakang tana." The crew escaped in their small boat and hid
+in the jungle, while the pirates came up and plundered the
+vessel. They took away everything but the cargo of mother-of-
+pearl shell, which was too bulky for them. All the clothes and
+boxes of the men, and the sails and cordage of the prau, were
+cleared off. They had four large war boats, and fired a volley of
+musketry as they came up, and sent off their small boats to the
+attack. After they had left, our men observed from their
+concealment that three had stayed behind with a small boat; and
+being driven to desperation by the sight of the plundering, one
+brave fellow swam off armed only with his parang, or chopping-
+knife, and coming on them unawares made a desperate attack,
+killing one and wounding the other two, receiving himself numbers
+of slight wounds, and then swimming off again when almost
+exhausted. Two other prams were also plundered, and the crew of
+one of them murdered to a man. They are said to be Sooloo
+pirates, but have Bugis among them. On their way here they have
+devastated one of the small islands east of Ceram. It is now
+eleven years since they have visited Aru, and by thus making
+their attacks at long and uncertain intervals the alarm dies
+away, and they find a population for the most part unarmed and
+unsuspicious of danger. None of the small trading vessels now
+carry arms, though they did so for a year or two after the last
+attack, which was just the time when there was the least occasion
+for it. A week later one of the smaller pirate boats was captured
+in the "blakang tana." Seven men were killed and three taken
+prisoners. The larger vessels have been often seen but cannot be
+caught, as they have very strong crews, and can always escape by
+rowing out to sea in the eye of the wind, returning at night.
+They will thus remain among the innumerable islands and channels,
+till the change of the monsoon enables them to sail westward.
+
+March 9th.-For four or five days we have had a continual gale of
+wind, with occasional gusts of great fury, which seem as if they
+would send Dobbo into the sea. Rain accompanies it almost every
+alternate hour, so that it is not a pleasant time. During such
+weather I can do little, but am busy getting ready a boat I have
+purchased, for an excursion into the interior. There is immense
+difficulty about men, but I believe the "Orang-kaya," or head man
+of Wamma,  will accompany me to see that I don't run into danger.
+
+Having become quite an old inhabitant of Dobbo, I will endeavour
+to sketch the sights and sounds that pervade it, and the manners
+and customs of its inhabitants. The place is now pretty full, and
+the streets present a far more cheerful aspect than when we first
+arrived. Every house is a store, where the natives barter their
+produce for what they are most in need of. Knives, choppers,
+swords, guns, tobacco, gambier, plates, basins, handkerchiefs,
+sarongs, calicoes, and arrack, are the principal articles wanted
+by the natives; but some of the stores contain also tea, coffee,
+sugar, wine, biscuits, &c., for the supply of the traders; and
+others are full of fancy goods, china ornaments, looking-glasses,
+razors, umbrellas, pipes, and purses, which take the fancy of the
+wealthier natives. Every fine day mats are spread before the
+doors and the tripang is put out to dry, as well as sugar, salt,
+biscuit, tea, cloths, and other things that get injured by an
+excessively moist atmosphere. In the morning and evening, spruce
+Chinamen stroll about or chat at each other's doors, in blue
+trousers, white jacket, and a queue into which red silk is
+plaited till it reaches almost to their heels. An old Bugis hadji
+regularly takes an evening stroll in all the dignity of flowing
+green silk robe and gay turban, followed by two small boys
+carrying his sirih and betel boxes.
+
+In every vacant space new houses are being built, and all sorts
+of odd little cooking-sheds are erected against the old ones,
+while in some out-of-the-way corners, massive log pigsties are
+tenanted by growing porkers; for how can the Chinamen exist six
+months without one feast of pig?
+
+Here and there are stalls where bananas are sold, and every
+morning two little boys go about with trays of sweet rice and
+crated cocoa-nut, fried fish, or fried plantains; and whichever
+it may be, they have but one cry, and that is
+"Chocolat-t--t!" This must be a Spanish or Portuguese cry, handed
+down for centuries, while its meaning has been lost. The Bugis
+sailors, while hoisting the main sail, cry out, "Vela a vela,--
+vela, vela, vela!" repeated in an everlasting chorus. As "vela"
+is Portuguese a sail, I supposed I had discovered the origin of
+this, but I found afterwards they used the same cry when heaving
+anchor, and often chanted it to "hela," which is so much an
+universal expression of exertion and hard breathing that it is
+most probably a mere interjectional cry.
+
+I daresay there are now near five hundred people in Dobbo of
+various races, all met in this remote corner of the East, as they
+express it, "to look for their fortune;" to get money any way
+they can. They are most of them people who have the very worst
+reputation for honesty as well as every other form of morality,--
+Chinese, Bugis, Ceramese, and half-caste Javanese, with a
+sprinkling of half-wild Papuans from Timor, Babber, and other
+islands, yet all goes on as yet very quietly. This motley,
+ignorant, bloodthirsty, thievish population live here without the
+shadow of a government, with no police, no courts, and no
+lawyers; yet they do not cut each other's throats, do not plunder
+each other day and night, do not fall into the anarchy such a
+state of things might be supposed to lead to. It is very
+extraordinary! It puts strange thoughts into one's head about the
+mountain-load of government under which people exist in Europe,
+and suggests the idea that we may be over-governed. Think of the
+hundred Acts of Parliament annually enacted to prevent us, the
+people of England, from cutting each other's throats, or from
+doing to our neighbour as we would not be done by. Think of the
+thousands of lawyers and barristers whose whole lives are spent
+in telling us what the hundred Acts of Parliament mean, and one
+would be led to infer that if Dobbo has too little law England
+has too much.
+
+Here we may behold in its simplest form the genius of Commerce at
+the work of Civilization. Trade is the magic that keeps all at
+peace, and unites these discordant elements into a well-behaved
+community. All are traders, and know that peace and order are
+essential to successful trade, and thus a public opinion is
+created which puts down all lawlessness. Often in former year,
+when strolling along the Campong Glam in Singapore, I have
+thought how wild and ferocious the Bugis sailors looked, and how
+little should like to trust myself among them. But now I find
+them to be very decent, well-behaved fellows; I walk daily
+unarmed in the jungle, where I meet them continually; I sleep in
+a palm-leaf hut, which any one may enter, with as little fear and
+as little danger of thieves or murder as if I were under the
+protection of the Metropolitan police. It is true the Dutch
+influence is felt here. The islands are nominally under the
+government of the Moluccas, which the native chiefs acknowledge;
+and in most years a commissioner arrives from Amboyna, who makes
+the tour of the islands, hears complaints, settle disputes, and
+carries away prisoner any heinous offender. This year he is not
+expected to come, as no orders have yet been received to prepare
+for him; so the people of Dobbo will probably be left to their
+own devices. One day a man was caught in the act of stealing a
+piece of iron from Herr Warzbergen's house, which he had entered
+by making a hole through the thatch wall. In the evening the
+chief traders of the place, Bugis and Chinese, assembled, the
+offender was tried and found guilty, and sentenced
+to receive twenty lashes on the spot. They were given with a
+small rattan in the middle of the street, not very severely, the
+executioner appeared to sympathise a little with the culprit. The
+disgrace seemed to be thought as much of as the pain; for though
+any amount of clever cheating is thought rather meritorious than
+otherwise, open robbery and housebreaking meet with universal
+reprobation.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE ARU ISLANDS.--JOURNEY AND RESIDENCE IN THE INTERIOR.
+
+(MARCH TO MAY 1857.)
+
+MY boat was at length ready, and having obtained two men besides
+my own servants, after an enormous amount of talk and trouble, we
+left Dobbo on the morning of March 13th, for the mainland of Aru.
+By noon we reached the mouth of a small river or creek, which we
+ascended, winding among mangrove, swamps, with here and there a
+glimpse of dry land. In two hours we reached a house, or rather
+small shed, of the most miserable description, which our
+steersman, the "Orang-kaya" of Wamma, said was the place we were
+to stay at, and where he had assured me we could get every kind
+of bird and beast to be found in Aru. The shed was occupied by
+about a dozen men, women, and children; two cooking fires were
+burning in it, and there seemed little prospect of my obtaining
+any accommodation. I however deferred inquiry till I had seen the
+neighbouring forest, and immediately started off with two men,
+net, and guns, along a path at the back of the house. In an
+hour's walk I saw enough to make me determine to give the place a
+trial, and on my return, finding the "Orang-kaya" was in a strong
+fever-fit and unable to do anything, I entered into negotiations
+with the owner of the house for the use of a slip at one end of
+it about five feet wide, for a week, and agreed to pay as rent
+one "parang," or chopping-knife. I then immediately got my boxes
+and bedding out of the boat, hung up a shelf for my bird-skins
+and insects, and got all ready for work next morning. My own boys
+slept in the boat to guard the remainder of my property; a
+cooking place sheltered by a few mats was arranged under a tree
+close by, and I felt that degree of satisfaction and enjoyment
+which I always experience when, after much trouble and delay, I
+am on the point of beginning work in a new locality.
+
+One of my first objects was to inquire for the people who are
+accustomed to shoot the Paradise birds. They lived at some
+distance in the jungle, and a man was sent to call them. When
+they arrived, we had a talk by means of the "Orang-kaya "as
+interpreter, and they said they thought they could get some. They
+explained that they shoot the birds with a bow and arrow, the
+arrow having a conical wooden cap fitted to the end as large as a
+teacup, so as to kill the bird by the violence of the blow
+without making any wound or shedding any blood. The trees
+frequented by the birds are very lofty; it is therefore necessary
+to erect a small leafy covering or hut among the branches, to
+which the hunter mounts before daylight in the morning and
+remains the whole day, and whenever a bird alights they are
+almost sure of securing it. (See Frontispiece.) They returned to
+their homes the same evening, and I never saw anything more of
+them, owing, as I afterwards found, to its being too early to
+obtain birds in good plumage.
+
+The first two or three days of our stay here were very wet, and I
+obtained but few insects or birds, but at length, when I was
+beginning to despair, my boy Baderoon returned one day with a
+specimen which repaid me for months of delay and expectation. It
+was a small bird a little less than a thrush. The greater part of
+its plumage was of an intense cinnabar red, with a gloss as of
+spun glass. On the head the feathers became short and velvety,
+and shaded into rich orange. Beneath, from the breast downwards,
+was pure white, with the softness and gloss of silk, and across
+the breast a band of deep metallic green separated this colour
+from the red of the throat. Above each eye was a round spot of
+the same metallic green; the bill was yellow, and the feet and
+legs were of a fine cobalt ó111e, strikingly contrasting with all
+the other parts of the body. Merely in arrangement of colours and
+texture of plumage this little bird was a gem of the first water,
+yet there comprised only half its strange beauty.  Springing from
+each side of the breast, and ordinarily lying concealed under the
+wings, were little tufts of greyish feathers about two inches
+long, and each terminated by a broad band of intense emerald
+green. These plumes can be raised at the will of the bird, and
+spread out into a pair of elegant fans when the wings are
+elevated. But this is not the only ornament. The two middle
+feathers of the tail are in the form of slender wires about five
+inches long, and which diverge in a beautiful double curve. About
+half an inch of the end of this wire is webbed on the outer side
+only, awe coloured of a fine metallic green, and being curled
+spirally inwards form a pair of elegant glittering buttons,
+hanging five inches below the body, and the same distance apart.
+These two ornaments, the breast fans and the spiral tipped tail
+wires, are altogether unique, not occurring on any other species
+of the eight thousand different birds that are known to exist
+upon the earth; and, combined with the most exquisite beauty of
+plumage, render this one of the most perfectly lovely of the many
+lovely productions of nature. My transports of admiration and
+delight quite amused my Aru hosts, who saw nothing more in the
+"Burong raja" than we do in the robin of the goldfinch.
+
+Thus one of my objects in coming to the far fast was
+accomplished. I had obtained a specimen of the King Bird of
+Paradise (Paradisea regia), which had been described by Linnaeus
+from skins preserved in a mutilated state by the natives. I knew
+how few Europeans had ever beheld the perfect little organism I
+now gazed upon, and how very imperfectly it was still known in
+Europe. The emotions excited in the minds of a naturalist, who
+has long desired to see the actual thing which he has hitherto
+known only by description, drawing, or badly-preserved external
+covering--especially when that thing is of surpassing rarity and
+beauty, require the poetic faculty fully to express them. The
+remote island in which I found myself situated, in an almost
+unvisited sea, far from the tracks of merchant fleets and navies;
+the wild luxuriant tropical forest, which stretched far away on
+every side; the rude uncultured savages who gathered round me,--
+all had their influence in determining the emotions with which I
+gazed upon this "thing of beauty." I thought of the long ages of
+the past, during which the successive generations of this little
+creature had run their course--year by year being born, and
+living and dying amid these dark and gloomy woods, with no
+intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness; to all appearance
+such a wanton waste of beauty. Such ideas excite a feeling of
+melancholy. It seems sad, that on the one hand such exquisite
+creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms
+only in these wild inhospitable regions, doomed for ages yet to
+come to hopeless barbarism; while on the other hand, should
+civilized man ever reach these distant lands, and bring moral,
+intellectual, and physical light into the recesses of these
+virgin forests, we may be sure that he will so disturb the
+nicely-balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature as to
+cause the disappearance, and finally the extinction, of these
+very beings whose wonderful structure and beauty he alone is
+fitted to appreciate and enjoy. This consideration must surely
+tell us that all living things were _not_ made for man. Many of
+them have no relation to him. The cycle of their existence has
+gone on independently of his, and is disturbed or broken by every
+advance in man's intellectual development; and their happiness
+and enjoyment, their loves and hates, their struggles for
+existence, their vigorous life and early death, would seem to be
+immediately related to their own well-being and perpetuation
+alone, limited only by the equal well-being and perpetuation of
+the numberless other organisms with which each is more or less
+intimately connected.
+
+After the first king-bird was obtained, I went with my men into
+the forest, and we were not only rewarded with another in equally
+perfect plumage, but I was enabled to see a little of the habits
+of both it and the larger species. It frequents the lower trees
+of the less dense forests: and is very active, flying strongly
+with a whirring sound, and continually hopping or flying from
+branch to branch. It eats hard stone-bearing fruits as large as a
+gooseberry, and often flutters its wings after the manner of the
+South American manakins, at which time it elevates and expands
+the beautiful fans with which its breast is adorned. The natives
+of Aru call it "Goby-goby."
+
+One day I get under a tree where a number of the Great Paradise
+birds were assembled, but they were high up in the thickest of
+the foliage, and flying and jumping about so continually that I
+could get no good view of them. At length I shot one, but it was
+a young specimen, and was entirely of a rich chocolate-brown
+colour, without either the metallic green throat or yellow plumes
+of the full-grown bird. All that I had yet seen resembled this,
+and the natives told me that it would be about two months before
+any would be found in full plumage. I still hoped, therefore, to
+get some. Their voice is most extraordinary. At early morn,
+before the sun has risen, we hear a loud cry of "Wawk-wawk-wawk,
+wók-wók-wók," which resounds through the forest, changing its
+direction continually. This is the Great Bird of Paradise going
+to seek his breakfast. Others soon follow his example; lories and
+parroquets cry shrilly, cockatoos scream, king-hunters croak and
+bark, and the various smaller birds chirp and whistle their
+morning song. As I lie listening to these interesting sounds, I
+realize my position as the first European who has ever lived for
+months together in the Aru islands, a place which I had hoped
+rather than expected ever to visit. I think how many besides my
+self have longed to reach these almost fairy realms, and to see
+with their own eyes the many wonderful and beautiful things which
+I am daily encountering. But now Ali and Baderoon are up and
+getting ready their guns and ammunition, and little Brio has his
+fire lighted and is boiling my coffee, and I remember that I had
+a black cockatoo brought in late last night, which I must skin
+immediately, and so I jump up and begin my day's work very
+happily.
+
+This cockatoo is the first I have seen, and is a great prize. It
+has a rather small and weak body, long weak legs, large wings,
+and an enormously developed head, ornamented with a magnificent
+crest, and armed with a sharp-pointed hoofed bill of immense size
+and strength. The plumage is entirely black, but has all over it
+the curious powdery white secretion characteristic of cockatoo.
+The cheeks are bare, and of an intense blood-red colour. Instead
+of the harsh scream of the white cockatoos, its voice is a
+somewhat plaintive whistle. The tongue is a curious organ, being
+a slender fleshy cylinder of a deep red colour, terminated by a
+horny black plate, furrowed across and somewhat prehensile. The
+whole tongue has a considerable extensile power. I will here
+relate something of the habits of this bird, with which I have
+since become acquainted. It frequents the lower parts of the
+forest, and is seen singly, or at most two or three together. It
+flies slowly and noiselessly, and may be killed by a
+comparatively slight wound. It eats various fruits arid seeds,
+but seems more particularly attached to the kernel of the kanary-
+nut, which grows on a lofty forest tree (Canarium commune),
+abundant in the islands where this bird is found; and the manner
+in which it gets at these seeds shows a correlation of structure
+and habits, which would point out the "kanary" as its special
+food. The shell of this nut is so excessively hard that only a
+heavy hammer will crack it; it is somewhat triangular, and the
+outside is quite smooth. The manner in which the bird opens these
+nuts is very curious. Taking one endways in its bill and keeping
+it firm by a pressure of the tongue, it cuts a transverse notch
+by a lateral sawing motion of the sharp-edged lower mandible.
+This done, it takes hold of the nut with its foot, and biting off
+a piece of leaf retains it in the deep notch of the upper
+mandible, and again seizing the nut, which is prevented from
+slipping by the elastic tissue of the leaf, fixes the edge of the
+lower mandible in the notch, and by a powerful nip breaks of a
+piece of the shell. again taking the nut in its claws, it inserts
+the very long and sharp point of the bill and picks out the
+kernel, which is seized hold of, morsel by morsel, by the
+extensible tongue. Thus every detail of form. and structure in
+the extraordinary bill of this bird seems to have its use, and we
+may easily conceive that the black cockatoos have maintained
+themselves in competition with their more active and more
+numerous white allies, by their power of existing on a kind of
+food which no other bird is able to extract from its stony shell.
+The species is the Microglossum aterrimum of naturalists.
+
+During the two weeks which I spent in this little settlement, I
+had good opportunities of observing the natives at their own
+home, and living in their usual manner. There is a great monotony
+and uniformity in everyday savage life, and it seemed to me a
+more miserable existence than when it had the charm of novelty.
+To begin with the most important fact in the existence of
+uncivilized peoples--their food--the Aru men have no regular
+supply, no staff of life, such as bread, rice, mandiocca, maize,
+or sago, which are the daily food of a large proportion of
+mankind. They have, however, many sorts of vegetables, plantains,
+yams, sweet potatoes, and raw sago; and they chew up vast
+quantities of sugar-cane, as well as betel-nuts, gambir, and
+tobacco. Those who live on the coast have plenty of fish; but
+when inland, as we are here, they only go to the sea
+occasionally, and then bring home cockles and other shell-fish by
+the boatload. Now and then they get wild pig or kangaroo, but too
+rarely to form anything like a regular part of their diet, which
+is essentially vegetable; and what is of more importance, as
+affecting their health, green, watery vegetables, imperfectly
+cooked, and even these in varying and often in sufficient
+quantities. To this diet may be attributed the prevalence of skin
+diseases, and ulcers on the legs and joints. The scurfy skin
+disease so common among savages has a close connexion with the
+poorness and irregularity of their living. The Malays, who are
+never without their daily rice, are generally free from it; the
+hill-Dyaks of Borneo, who grow rice and live well, are clean
+skinned while the less industrious and less cleanly tribes, who
+live for a portion of the year on fruits and vegetables only, are
+very subject to this malady. It seems clear that in this, as in
+other respects, man is not able to make a beast of himself with
+impunity, feeding like the cattle on the herbs and fruits of the
+earth, and taking no thought of the morrow. To maintain his
+health and beauty he must labour to prepare some farinaceous
+product capable of being stored and accumulated, so as to give
+him a regular supply of wholesome food. When this is obtained, he
+may add vegetables, fruits, and meat with advantage.
+
+The chief luxury of the Aru people, besides betel and tobacco, is
+arrack (Java rum), which the traders bring in great quantities
+and sell very cheap. A day's fishing or rattan cutting will
+purchase at least a half-gallon bottle; and when the tripang or
+birds' nests collected during a season are sold, they get whole
+boxes, each containing fifteen such bottles, which the inmates of
+a house will sit round day and night till they have finished.
+They themselves tell me that at such bouts they often tear to
+pieces the house they are in, break and destroy everything they
+can lay their hands on, and make such an infernal riot as is
+alarming to behold.
+
+The houses and furniture are on a par with the food. A rude shed,
+supported on rough and slender sticks rather than posts, no
+walls, but the floor raised to within a foot of the eaves, is the
+style of architecture they usually adopt. Inside there are
+partition walls of thatch, forming little boxes or sleeping
+places, to accommodate the two or three separate families that
+usually live together. A few mats, baskets, and cooking vessels,
+with plates and basins purchased from the Macassar traders,
+constitute their whole furniture; spears and bows are their
+weapons; a sarong or mat forms the clothing of the women, a
+waistcloth of the men. For hours or even for days they sit idle
+in their houses, the women bringing in the vegetables or sago
+which form their food. Sometimes they hunt or fish a little, or
+work at their houses or canoes, but they seem to enjoy pure
+idleness, and work as little as they can. They have little to
+vary the monotony of life, little that can be called pleasure,
+except idleness and conversation. And they certainly do talk!
+Every evening there is a little Babel around me: but as I
+understand not a word of it, I go on with my book or work
+undisturbed. Now and then they scream and shout, or laugh
+frantically for variety; and this goes on alternately with
+vociferous talking of men, women, and children, till long after I
+am in my mosquito curtain and sound asleep.
+
+At this place I obtained some light on the complicated mixture of
+races in Aru, which would utterly confound an ethnologist. Many
+of the, natives, though equally dark with the others, have little
+of the Papuan physiognomy, but have more delicate features of the
+European type, with more glossy, curling hair: These at first
+quite puzzled me, for they have no more resemblance to Malay than
+to Papuan, and the darkness of skin and hair would forbid the
+idea of Dutch intermixture. Listening to their conversation,
+however, I detected some words that were familiar to me. "Accabó"
+was one; and to be sure that it was not an accidental
+resemblance, I asked the speaker in Malay what "accabó" meant,
+and was told it meant "done or finished," a true Portuguese word,
+with its meaning retained. Again, I heard the word "jafui" often
+repeated, and could see, without inquiry, that its meaning was
+"he's gone," as in Portuguese. "Porco," too, seems a common name,
+though the people have no idea of its European meaning. This
+cleared up the difficulty. I at once understood that some early
+Portuguese traders had penetrated to these islands, and mixed
+with the natives, influencing their language, and leaving in
+their descendants for many generations the visible
+characteristics of their race. If to this we add the occasional
+mixture of Malay, Dutch, and Chinese with the indigenous Papuans,
+we have no reason to wonder at the curious varieties of form and
+feature occasionally to be met with in Aru. In this very house
+there was a Macassar man, with an Aru wife and a family of mixed
+children. In Dobbo I saw a Javanese and an Amboyna man, each with
+an Aru wife and family; and as this kind of mixture has been
+going on for at least three hundred years, and probably much
+longer, it has produced a decided effect on the physical
+characteristics of a considerable portion of the population of
+the islands, more especially in Dobbo and the parts nearest to
+it.
+
+March 28th.--The "Orang-kaya" being very ill with fever had
+begged to go home, and had arranged with one of the men of the
+house to go on with me as his substitute. Now that I wanted to
+move, the bugbear of the pirates was brought up, and it was
+pronounced unsafe to go further than the next small river. This
+world not suit me, as I had determined to traverse the channel
+called Watelai to the "blakang-tana;" but my guide was firm in
+his dread of pirates, of which I knew there was now no danger, as
+several vessels had gone in search of them, as well as a Dutch
+gunboat which had arrived since I left Dobbo. I had, fortunately,
+by this time heard that the Dutch "Commissie" had really arrived,
+and therefore threatened that if my guide did not go with me
+immediately, I would appeal to the authorities, and he would
+certainly be obliged to gig a back the cloth which the "Orang-
+kaya" had transferred to him in prepayment. This had the desired
+effect; matters were soon arranged, and we started the next
+morning. The wind, however, was dead against us, and after rowing
+hard till midday we put in to a small river where there were few
+huts, to cook our dinners. The place did not look very promising,
+but as we could not reach our destination, the Watelai river,
+owing to the contrary wind, I thought we might as well wait here
+a day or two. I therefore paid a chopper for the use of a small
+shed, and got my bed and some boxes on shore. In the evening,
+after dark, we were suddenly alarmed by the cry of "Bajak!
+bajak!" (Pirates!) The men all seized their bows and spears, and
+rushed down to the beach; we got hold of our guns and prepared
+for action, but in a few minutes all came back laughing and
+chattering, for it had proved to be only a small boat and some of
+their own comrades returned from fishing. When all was quiet
+again, one of the men, who could speak a little Malay, came to me
+and begged me not to sleep too hard. "Why?" said I. "Perhaps the
+pirates may really come," said he very seriously, which made me
+laugh and assure him I should sleep as hard as I could.
+
+Two days were spent here, but the place was unproductive of
+insects or birds of interest, so we made another attempt to get
+on. As soon as we got a little away from the land we had a fair
+wind, and in six hours' sailing reached the entrance of the
+Watelai channel, which divides the most northerly from the middle
+portion of Aru. At its mouth this was about half a mile wide, but
+soon narrowed, and a mile or two on it assumed entirely the
+aspect of a river about the width of the Thames at London,
+winding among low but undulating and often hilly country. The
+scene was exactly such as might be expected in the interior of a
+continent. The channel continued of a uniform average width, with
+reaches and sinuous bends, one bank being often precipitous, or
+even forming vertical cliffs, while the other was flat and
+apparently alluvial; and it was only the pure salt-water, and the
+absence of any stream but the slight flux and reflux of the tide,
+that would enable a person to tell that he was navigating a
+strait and not a river. The wind was fair, and carried us along,
+with occasional assistance from our oars, till about three in the
+afternoon, when we landed where a little brook formed two or
+three basins in the coral rock, and then fell in a miniature
+cascade into the salt water river. Here we bathed and cooked our
+dinner, and enjoyed ourselves lazily till sunset, when we pursued
+our way for two hours snore, and then moored our little vessel to
+an overhanging tree for the night.
+
+At five the next morning we started again, and in an hour
+overtook four large praus containing the "Commissie," who had
+come from Dobbo to make their official tour round the islands,
+and had passed us in the eight. I paid a visit to the Dutchmen,
+one of whom spoke a little English, but we found that we could
+get on much better with Malay. They told me that they had been
+delayed going after the pirates to one of the northern islands,
+and had seen three of their vessels but could not catch them,
+because on being pursued they rowed out in the wind's eye, which
+they are enabled to do by having about fifty oars to each boat.
+Having had some tea with thorn, I bade them adieu, and turned up
+a narrow channel which our pilot said would take us to the
+village of Watelai, on the west side- of Are. After going some
+miles we found the channel nearly blocked up with coral, so that
+our boat grated along the bottom, crunching what may truly be
+called the living rock. Sometimes all hands had to get out and
+wade, to lighten the vessel and lift it over the shallowest
+places; but at length we overcame all obstacles and reached a
+wide bay or estuary studded with little rocks and islets, and
+opening to the western sea and the numerous islands of the
+"blakang-tuna." I now found that the village we were going to was
+miles away; that we should have to go out to sea, and round a
+rocky point. A squall seemed coming on, and as I have a horror of
+small boats at sea, and from all I could learn Watelai village
+was not a place to stop at (no birds of Paradise being found
+there), I determined to return and go to a village I had heard of
+up a tributary of the Watelai river, and situated nearly in the
+centre of the mainland of Aru. The people there were said to be
+good, and to be accustomed to hunting and bird-catching, being
+too far inland to get any part of their food from the sea. While
+I was deciding this point the squall burst upon us, and soon
+raised a rolling sea in the shallow water, which upset an oil
+bottle and a lamp, broke some of my crockery, and threw us all
+into confusion. Rowing hard we managed to get back into the main
+river by dusk, and looked out for a place to cook our suppers. It
+happened to be high water, and a very high tide, so that every
+piece of sand or beach was covered, and it was with the greatest
+difficulty, and after much groping in the dark, that we
+discovered a little sloping piece of rock about two feet square
+on which to make a fire and cook some rice. The next day we
+continued our way back, and on the following day entered a stream
+on the south side of the Watelai river, and ascending to where
+navigation ceased found the little village of Wanumbai,
+consisting of two large houses surrounded by plantations, amid
+the virgin forests of Aru.
+
+As I liked the look of the place, and was desirous of staying
+some time, I sent my pilot to try and make a bargain for house
+accommodation. The owner and chief man of the place made many
+excuses. First, be was afraid I would not like his house, and
+then was doubtful whether his son, who was away, would like his
+admitting me. I had a long talk with him myself, and tried to
+explain what I was doing, and how many things I would buy of
+them, and showed him my stock of heads, and knives, and cloth,
+and tobacco, all of which I would spend with his family and
+friends if he would give me house-room. He seemed a little
+staggered at this, and said he, would talk to his wife, and in
+the meantime I went for a little walk to see the neighbourhood.
+When I carne back, I again sent my pilot, saying that I would go
+away if he would not dive me part of his house. In about half an
+hour he returned with a demand for about half the cost of
+building a house, for the rent of a small portion of it for a few
+weeks. As the only difficulty now was a pecuniary one, I got out
+about ten yards of cloth, an axe, with a few beads and some
+tobacco, and sent them as my final offer for the part of the
+house which I had before pointed out. This was accepted after a
+little more talk, and I immediately proceeded to take possession.
+
+The house was a good large one, raised as usual about seven feet
+on posts, the walls about three or four feet more, with a high-
+pitched roof. The floor was of bamboo laths, and in the sloping
+roof way an immense shutter, which could be lifted and propped up
+to admit light and air. At the end where this was situated the
+floor was raised about a foot, and this piece, about ten feet
+wide by twenty long, quite open to the rest of the house, was the
+portion I was to occupy. At one end of this piece, separated by a
+thatch partition, was a cooking place, with a clay floor and
+shelves for crockery. At the opposite end I had my mosquito
+curtain hung, and round the walls we arranged my boxes and other
+stores, fated up a table and seat, and with a little cleaning and
+dusting made the place look quite comfortable. My boat was then
+hauled up on shore, and covered with palm-leaves, the sails and
+oars brought indoors, a hanging-stage for drying my specimens
+erected outside the house and another inside, and my boys were
+set to clean their gnus and get ail ready for beginning work.
+
+The next day I occupied myself in exploring the paths in the
+immediate neighbourhood. The small river up which we had ascended
+ceases to be navigable at this point, above which it is a little
+rocky brook, which quite dries up in the hot season. There was
+now, however, a fair stream of water in it; and a path which was
+partly in and partly by the side of the water, promised well for
+insects, as I here saw the magnificent blue butterfly, Papilio
+ulysses, as well as several other fine species, flopping lazily
+along, sometimes resting high up on the foliage which drooped
+over the water, at others settling down on the damp rock or on
+the edges of muddy pools. A little way on several paths branched
+off through patches of second-growth forest to cane-fields,
+gardens, and scattered houses, beyond which again the dark wall
+of verdure striped with tree-trunks, marked out the limits of the
+primeval forests. The voices of many birds promised good
+shooting, and on my return I found that my boy s had already
+obtained two or three kinds I had not seen before; and in the
+evening a native brought me a rare and beautiful species of
+ground-thrush (Pitta novaeguinaeae) hitherto only known from New
+Guinea.
+
+As I improved my acquaintance with them I became much interested
+in these people, who are a fair sample of the true savage
+inhabitants of the Aru Islands, tolerably free from foreign
+admixture. The house I lived in contained four or five families,
+and there were generally from six to a dozen visitors besides.
+They kept up a continual row from morning till night--talking,
+laughing, shouting, without intermission--not very pleasant, but
+interesting as a study of national character. My boy Ali said to
+me, "Banyak quot bitchara Orang Aru "(The Aru people are very
+strong talkers), never having been accustomed to such eloquence
+either in his own or any other country he had hitherto visited.
+Of an evening the men, having got over their first shyness, began
+to talk to me a little, asking about my country, &c., and in
+return I questioned them about any traditions they had of their
+own origin. I had, however, very little success, for I could not
+possibly make them understand the simple question of where the
+Aru people first came from. I put it in every possible way to
+them, but it was a subject quite beyond their speculations; they
+had evidently never thought of anything of the kind, and were
+unable to conceive a thing so remote and so unnecessary to be
+thought about, as their own origin. Finding this hopeless, I
+asked if they knew when the trade with Aru first began, when the
+Bugis and Chinese and Macassar men first came in their praus to
+buy tripang and tortoise-shell, and birds' nests, arid Paradise
+birds?
+
+This they comprehended, but replied that there had always been
+the same trade as long as they or their fathers recollected, but
+that this was the first time a real white man had come among
+them, and, said they, "You see how the people come every day from
+all the villages round to look at you." This was very flattering,
+and accounted for the great concourse of visitors which I had at
+first imagined was accidental. A few years before I had been one
+of the gazers at the Zoolus, and the Aztecs in London. Now the
+tables were turned upon me, for I was to these people a new and
+strange variety of man, and had the honour of affording to them,
+in my own person, an attractive exhibition, gratis.
+
+All the men and boys of Aru are expert archers, never stirring
+without their bows and arrows. They shoot all sorts of birds, as
+well as pigs and kangaroos occasionally, and thus have a
+tolerably good supply of meat to eat with their vegetables. The
+result of this better living is superior healthiness, well-made
+bodies, and generally clear skins. They brought me numbers of
+small birds in exchange for beads or tobacco, but mauled them
+terribly, notwithstanding my repeated instructions. When they got
+a bird alive they would often tie a string to its leg, and keep
+it a day or two, till its plumage was so draggled and dirtied as
+to be almost worthless. One of the first things I got from there
+was a living specimen of the curious and beautiful racquet-tailed
+kingfisher. Seeing how much I admired it, they afterwards brought
+me several more, which wore all caught before daybreak, sleeping
+in cavities of the rocky banks of the stream. My hunters also
+shot a few specimens, and almost all of them had the red bill
+more or less clogged with mud and earth. This indicates the
+habits of the bird, which, though popularly a king-fisher, never
+catches fish, but lives on insects and minute shells, which it
+picks up in the forest, darting down upon them from its perch on
+some low branch. The genus Tanysiptera, to which this bird
+belongs, is remarkable for the enormously lengthened tail, which
+in all other kingfishers is small and short. Linnaeus named the
+species known to him "the goddess kingfisher" (Alcedo dea), from
+its extreme grace and beauty, the plumage being brilliant blue
+and white, with the bill red, like coral. Several species of
+these interesting birds are now known, all confined within the
+very limited area which comprises the Moluccas, New Guinea, and
+the extreme North of Australia. They resemble each other so
+closely that several of them can only be distinguished by careful
+comparison. One of the rarest, however, which inhabits New
+Guinea, is very distinct from the rest, being bright red beneath
+instead of white. That which I now obtained was a new one, and
+has been named Tanysiptera hydrocharis, but in general form and
+coloration it is exactly similar to the larger species found in
+Amboyna, and figured at page 468 of my first volume.
+
+New and interesting birds were continually brought in, either by
+my own boys or by the natives, and at the end of a week Ali
+arrived triumphant one afternoon with a fine specimen of the
+Great Bird of Paradise. The ornamental plumes had not yet
+attained their full growth, but the richness of their glossy
+orange colouring, and the exquisite delicacy of the loosely
+waving feathers, were unsurpassable. At the same time a great
+black cockatoo was brought in, as well as a fine fruit-pigeon and
+several small birds, so that we were all kept hard at work
+skinning till sunset. Just as we had cleared away and packed up
+for the night, a strange beast was brought, which had been shot
+by the natives. It resembled in size, and in its white woolly
+covering, a small fat lamb, but had short legs, hand-like feet
+with large claws, and a long prehensile tail. It was a Cuscus (C.
+maculatus), one of the curious marsupial animals of the Papuan
+region, and I was very desirous to obtain the skin. The owners,
+however, said they wanted to eat it; and though I offered them a
+good price, and promised to give them all the meat, there was
+grout hesitation. Suspecting the reason, I offered, though it was
+night, to set to work immediately and get out the body for them,
+to which they agreed. The creature was much hacked about, and the
+two hind feet almost cut off; but it was the largest and finest
+specimen of the kind I had seen; and after an hour's hard work I
+handed over the body to the owners, who immediately cut it up and
+roasted it for supper.
+
+As this was a very good place for birds, I determined to remain a
+month longer, and took the opportunity of a native boat going to
+Dobbo, to send Ali for a fresh supply of ammunition and
+provisions. They started on the 10th of April, and the house was
+crowded with about a hundred men, boys, women, and girls,
+bringing their loads of sugar-cane, plantains, sirih-leaf, yams,
+&c.; one lad going from each house to sell the produce and make
+purchases. The noise was indescribable. At least fifty of the
+hundred were always talking at once, and that not in the low
+measured tones of the apathetically polite Malay, but with loud
+voices, shouts, and screaming laughter, in which the women and
+children were even more conspicuous than the men. It was only
+while gazing at me that their tongues were moderately quiet,
+because their eyes were fully occupied. The black vegetable soil
+here overlying the coral rock is very rich, and the sugar-cane
+was finer than any I had ever seen. The canes brought to the boat
+were often ten and even twelve feet long, and thick in
+proportion, with short joints throughout, swelling between the
+knots with the, abundance of the rich juice. At Dobbo they get a
+high price for it, 1d. to 3d. a stick, and there is an insatiable
+demand among the crews of the praus and the Baba fishermen. Here
+they eat it continually. They half live on it, and sometimes feed
+their pigs with it. Near every house are great heaps of the
+refuse cane; and large wicker-baskets to contain this refuse as
+it is produced form a regular part of the furniture of a house.
+Whatever time of the day you enter, you are sure to find three or
+four people with a yard of cane in one hand, a knife in the
+other, and a basket between their legs, hacking, paring, chewing,
+and basket-filling, with a persevering assiduity which reminds
+one of a hungry cow grazing, or of a caterpillar eating up a
+leaf.
+
+After five days' absence the boats returned from Dobbo, bringing
+Ali and all the things I had sent for quite safe. A large party
+had assembled to be ready to carry home the goods brought, among
+which were a good many cocoa-nut, which are a great luxury here.
+It seems strange that they should never plant them; but the
+reason simply is, that they cannot bring their hearts to bury a
+good nut for the prospective advantage of a crop twelve years
+hence. There is also the chance of the fruits being dug up and
+eaten unless watched night and day. Among the things I had sent
+for was a box of arrack, and I was now of course besieged with
+requests for a little drop. I gave them a flask (about two
+bottles, which was very soon finished, and I was assured that
+there were many present who had not had a taste. As I feared my
+box would very soon be emptied if I supplied all their demands, I
+told them I had given them one, but the second they must pay for,
+and that afterwards I must have a Paradise bird for each flask.
+They immediately sent round to all the neighbouring houses, and
+mustered up a rupee in Dutch copper money, got their second
+flask, and drunk it as quickly as the first, and were then very
+talkative, but less noisy and importunate than I had expected.
+Two or three of them got round me and begged me for the twentieth
+time to tell them the name of my country. Then, as they could not
+pronounce it satisfactorily, they insisted that I was deceiving
+them, and that it was a name of my own invention. One funny old
+man, who bore a ludicrous resemblance, to a friend of mine at
+home, was almost indignant. "Ung-lung! "said he, "who ever heard
+of such a name?--ang lang--anger-lung--that can't be the name of
+your country; you are playing with us." Then he tried to give a
+convincing illustration. "My country is Wanumbai--anybody can say
+Wanumbai. I'm an ` orang-Wanumbai; but, N-glung! who ever heard
+of such a name? Do tell us the real name of your country, and
+then when you are gone we shall know how to talk about you." To
+this luminous argument and remonstrance I could oppose nothing
+but assertion, and the whole party remained firmly convinced that
+I was for some reason or other deceiving them. They then attacked
+me on another point--what all the animals and birds and insects
+and shells were preserved so carefully for. They had often asked
+me this before, and I had tried to explain to them that they
+would be stuffed, and made to look as if alive, and people in my
+country would go to look at them. But this was not satisfying; in
+my country there must be many better things to look at, and they
+could not believe I would take so much trouble with their birds
+and beasts just for people to look at. They did not want to look
+at them; and we, who made calico and glass and knives, and all
+sorts of wonderful things, could not want things from Aru to look
+at. They had evidently been thinking about it, and had at length
+got what seemed a very satisfactory theory; for the same old man
+said to me, in a low, mysterious voice, "What becomes of them
+when you go on to the sea?" "Why, they are all packed up in
+boxes," said I "What did you think became of them?" "They all
+come to life again, don't they?" said he; and though I tried to
+joke it off, and said if they did we should have plenty to eat at
+sea, he stuck to his opinion, and kept repeating, with an air of
+deep conviction, "Yes, they all come to life again, that's what
+they do--they all come to life again."
+
+After a little while, and a good deal of talking among
+themselves, he began again--"I know all about it--oh yes! Before
+you came we had rain every day--very wet indeed; now, ever since
+you have been here, it is fine hot weather. Oh, yes! I know all
+about it; you can't deceive me." And so I was set down as a
+conjurer, and was unable to repel the charge. But the conjurer
+was completely puzzled by the next question: "What," said the old
+man, "is the great ship, where the Bugis and Chinamen go to sell
+their things? It is always in the great sea--its name is Jong;
+tell us all about it." In vain I inquired what they knew about
+it; they knew nothing but that it was called "Jong," and was
+always in the sea, and was a very great ship, and concluded with,
+"Perhaps that is your country?" Finding that I could not or would
+not tell them anything about "Jong," there came more regrets that
+I would not tell them the real name of my country; and then a
+long string of compliments, to the effect that I was a much
+better sort of a person than the Bugis and Chinese, who sometimes
+came to trade with them, for I gave them things for nothing, and
+did not try to cheat them. How long would I stop? was the next
+earnest inquiry. Would I stay two or three months? They would get
+me plenty of birds and animals, and I might soon finish all the
+goods I had brought, and then, said the old spokesman, "Don't go
+away, but send for more things from Dobbo, and stay here a year
+or two." And then again the old story, "Do tell us the name of
+your country. We know the Bugis men, and the Macassar men, and
+the Java men, and the China men; only you, we don't know from
+what country you come. Ung-lung! it can't be; I know that is not
+the name of your country." Seeing no end to this long talk, I
+said I was tired, and wanted to go to sleep; so after begging--
+one a little bit of dry fish for his supper, and another a little
+salt to eat with his sago--they went off very quietly, and I went
+outside and took a stroll round the house by moonlight, thinking
+of the simple people and the strange productions of Aru, and then
+turned in under my mosquito curtain; to sleep with a sense of
+perfect security in the midst of these good-natured savages.
+
+We now had seven or eight days of hot and dry weather, which
+reduced the little river to a succession of shallow pools
+connected by the smallest possible thread of trickling water. If
+there were a dry season like that of Macassar, the Aru Islands
+would be uninhabitable, as there is no part of them much above a
+hundred feet high; and the whole being a mass of porous coralline
+rock, allows the surface water rapidly to escape. The only dry
+season they have is for a month or two about September or
+October, and there is then an excessive scarcity of water, so
+that sometimes hundreds of birds and other animals die of
+drought. The natives then remove to houses near the sources of
+the small streams, where, in the shady depths of the forest, a
+small quantity of water still remains. Even then many of them
+have to go miles for their water, which they keep in large
+bamboos and use very sparingly. They assure me that they catch
+and kill game of all kinds, by watching at the water holes or
+setting snares around them. That would be the time for me to make
+my collections; but the want of water would be a terrible
+annoyance, and the impossibility of getting away before another
+whole year had passed made it out of the question.
+
+Ever since leaving Dobbo I had suffered terribly from insects,
+who seemed here bent upon revenging my long-continued persecution
+of their race. At our first stopping-place sand-flies were very
+abundant at night, penetrating to every part of the body, and
+producing a more lasting irritation than mosquitoes. My feet and
+ankles especially suffered, and were completely covered with
+little red swollen specks, which tormented me horribly. On
+arriving here we were delighted to find the house free from sand-
+flies or mosquitoes, but in the plantations where my daily walks
+led me, the day-biting mosquitoes swarmed, and seemed especially
+to delight in attaching my poor feet. After a month's incessant
+punishment, those useful members rebelled against such treatment
+and broke into open insurrection, throwing out numerous inflamed
+ulcers, which were very painful, and stopped me from walking. So
+I found myself confined to the house, and with no immediate
+prospect of leaving it. Wounds or sores in the feet are
+especially difficult to heal in hot climates, and I therefore
+dreaded them more than any other illness. The confinement was
+very annoying, as the fine hot weather was excellent for insects,
+of which I had every promise of obtaining a fine collection; and
+it is only by daily and unremitting search that the smaller
+kinds, and the rarer and more interesting specimens, can be
+obtained. When I crawled down to the river-side to bathe, I often
+saw the blue-winged Papilio ulysses, or some other equally rare
+and beautiful insect; but there was nothing for it but patience,
+and to return quietly to my bird-skinning, or whatever other work
+I had indoors. The stings and bites and ceaseless irritation
+caused by these pests of the tropical forests, would be borne
+uncomplainingly; but to be kept prisoner by them in so rich and
+unexplored a country where rare and beautiful creatures are to be
+met with in every forest ramble--a country reached by such a long
+and tedious voyage, and which might not in the present century be
+again visited for the same purpose--is a punishment too severe
+for a naturalist to pass over in silence.
+
+I had, however, some consolation in the birds my boys brought
+home daily, more especially the Paradiseas, which they at length
+obtained in full plumage. It was quite a relief to my mind to get
+these, for I could hardly have torn myself away from Aru had I
+not obtained specimens.
+
+But what I valued almost as much as the birds themselves was the
+knowledge of their habits, which I was daily obtaining both from
+the accounts of my hunters, and from the conversation of the
+natives. The birds had now commenced what the people here call
+their "sacaleli," or dancing-parties, in certain trees in the
+forest, which are not fruit trees as I at first imagined, but
+which have an immense tread of spreading branches and large but
+scattered leaves, giving a clear space for the birds to play and
+exhibit their plumes. On one of these trees a dozen or twenty
+full-plumaged male birds assemble together, raise up their wings,
+stretch out their necks, and elevate their exquisite plumes,
+keeping them in a continual vibration. Between whiles they fly
+across from branch to branch in great excitement, so that the
+whole tree is filled with waving plumes in every variety of
+attitude and motion. (See Frontispiece.) The bird itself is
+nearly as large as a crow, and is of a rich coffee brown colour.
+The head and neck is of a pure straw yellow above and rich
+metallic green beneath. The long plumy tufts of golden orange
+feathers spring from the sides beneath each wing, and when the
+bird is in repose are partly concealed by them. At the time of
+its excitement, however, the wings are raised vertically over
+tile back, the head is bent down and stretched out, and the long
+plumes are raised up and expanded till they form two magnificent
+golden fans, striped with deep red at the base, and fading off
+into the pale brown tint of the finely divided and softly waving
+points. The whole bird is then overshadowed by them, the
+crouching body, yellow head, and emerald green throat forming but
+the foundation and setting to the golden glory which waves above.
+When seen in this attitude, the Bird of Paradise really deserves
+its name, and must be ranked as one of the most beautiful and
+most wonderful of living things. I continued also to get
+specimens of the lovely little king-bird occasionally, as well as
+numbers of brilliant pigeons, sweet little parroquets, and many
+curious small birds, most nearly resembling those of Australia
+and New Guinea.
+
+Here, as among most savage people I have dwelt among, I was
+delighted with the beauty of the human form-a beauty of which
+stay-at-home civilized people can scarcely have any conception.
+What are the finest Grecian statues to the living, moving,
+breathing men I saw daily around me? The unrestrained grace of
+the naked savage as he goes about his daily occupations, or
+lounges at his ease, must be seen to be understood; and a youth
+bending his bow is the perfection of manly beauty. The women,
+however, except in extreme youth, are by no means so pleasant to
+look at as the men. Their strongly-marked features are very
+unfeminine, and hard work, privations, and very early marriages
+soon destroy whatever of beauty or grace they may for a short
+time possess. Their toilet is very simple, but also, I am sorry
+to say, very coarse, and disgusting. It consists solely of a mat
+of plaited strips of palm leaves, worn tight round the body, and
+reaching from the hips to the knees. It seems not to be changed
+till worn out, is seldom washed, and is generally very dirty.
+This is the universal dress, except in a few cases where Malay
+"sarongs" have come into use. Their frizzly hair is tied in a
+bench at the back of the head. They delight in combing, or rather
+forking it, using for that purpose a large wooden fork with four
+diverging prongs, which answers the purpose of separating and
+arranging the long tangled, frizzly mass of cranial vegetation
+much better than any comb could do. The only ornaments of the
+women are earrings and necklaces, which they arrange in various
+tasteful ways. The ends of a necklace are often attached to the
+earrings, and then looped on to the hair-knot behind. This has
+really an elegant appearance, the beads hanging gracefully on
+each side of the head, and by establishing a connexion with the
+earrings give an appearance of utility to those barbarous
+ornaments. We recommend this style to the consideration of those
+of the fair sex who still bore holes in their ears and hang rings
+thereto. Another style of necklace among these Papuan belles is
+to wear two, each hanging on one side of the neck and under the
+opposite arm, so as to cross each other. This has a very pretty
+appearance, in part due to the contrast of the white beads or
+kangaroo teeth of which they are composed with the dark glossy
+skin. The earrings themselves are formed of a bar of copper or
+silver, twisted so that the ends cross. The men, as usual among
+savages, adorn themselves more than the women. They wear
+necklaces, earrings, and finger rings, and delight in a band of
+plaited grass tight round the arm just below the shoulder, to
+which they attach a bunch of hair or bright coloured feathers by
+way of ornament. The teeth of small animals, either alone, or
+alternately with black or white beads, form their necklaces, and
+sometimes bracelets also. For these latter, however, they prefer
+brass wire, or the black, horny, wing-spines of the cassowary,
+which they consider a charm. Anklets of brass or shell, and tight
+plaited garters below the knee, complete their ordinary
+decorations.
+
+Some natives of Kobror from further south, and who are reckoned
+the worst and least civilized of the Aru tribes, came one day to
+visit us. They have a rather more than usually savage appearance,
+owing to the greater amount of ornaments they use--the most
+conspicuous being a large horseshoe-shaped comb which they wear
+over the forehead, the ends resting on the temples. The back of
+the comb is fastened into a piece of wood, which is plated with
+tin in front, and above is attached a plume of feathers from a
+cock's tail. In other respects they scarcely differed from the
+people I was living with. They brought me a couple of birds, some
+shells and insects; showing that the report of the white man and
+his doing had reached their country. There was probably hardly a
+man in Aru who had not by this time heard of me.
+
+Besides the domestic utensils already mentioned, the moveable
+property of a native is very scanty. He has a good supply of
+spears and bows and arrows for hunting, a parang, or chopping-
+knife, and an axe-for the stone age has passed away here, owing
+to the commercial enterprise of the Bugis and other Malay races.
+Attached to a belt, or hung across his shoulder, he carrion a
+little skin pouch and an ornamented bamboo, containing betel-nut,
+tobacco, and lime, and a small German wooden-handled knife is
+generally stuck between his waist-cloth of bark and his bare
+shin. Each man also possesses a °cadjan," or sleeping-mat, made
+of the broad leaves of a pandanus neatly sewn together in- three
+layers. This mat is abort four feet square, and when folded has
+one end sewn up, so that it forms a kind of sack open at one
+side. In the closed corner the head or feet can be placed, or by
+carrying it on the head in a shower it forms both coat and
+umbrella. It doubles up ix a small compass for convenient
+carriage, and then forms a light and elastic cushion, so that on
+a journey it becomes clothing, house, bedding, and furniture, all
+in one.
+
+The only ornaments in an Aru horse are trophies of the chase--
+jaws of wild pigs, the heads and backbones of cassowaries, and
+plumes made from the feathers of the Bird of Paradise, cassowary,
+and domestic fowl. The spears, shields, knife-handles, and other
+utensils are more or less carved in fanciful designs, and the
+mats and leaf boxes are painted or plaited in neat patterns of
+red, black, and yellow colours. I must not forget these boxes,
+which are most ingeniously made of the pith of a balm leaf pegged
+together, lined inside with pandanus leaves, and outside with the
+same, or with plaited grass. All the joints and angles are
+coffered with strips of split rattan sewn neatly on. The lid is
+covered with the brown leathery spathe of the Areca palm, which
+is impervious to water, and the whole box is neat, strong, and
+well finished. They are made from a few inches to two or three
+feet long, and being much esteemed by the Malay as clothes-boxes,
+are a regular article of export from Aru. The natives use the
+smaller ones for tobacco or betel-nut, but seldom have clothes
+enough to require the larger ones, which are only made for sale.
+
+Among the domestic animals which may generally be seen in native
+houses, are gaudy parrots, green, red, and blue, a few domestic
+fowls, which have baskets hung for them to lay in under the
+eaves, and who sleep on the ridge, and several half-starved
+wolfish-baking dogs. Instead of rats and mice there are curious
+little marsupial animals about the same size, which run about at
+night and nibble anything eatable that may be left uncovered.
+Four or five different kinds of ants attack everything not
+isolated by water, and one kind even swims across that; great
+spiders lurk in baskets and boxes, or hide in the folds of my
+mosquito curtain; centipedes and millepedes are found everywhere.
+I have caught them under my pillow and on my bead; while in every
+box, and under every hoard which has lain for some days
+undisturbed, little scorpions are sure to be found snugly
+ensconced, with their formidable tails quickly turned up ready
+for attack or defence. Such companions seem very alarming and
+dangerous, but all combined are not so bad as the irritation of
+mosquitoes, or of the insect pests often found at home. These
+latter are a constant and unceasing source of torment and
+disgust, whereas you may live a long time among scorpions,
+spiders, and centipedes, ugly and venomous though they are, and
+get no harm from them. After living twelve years in the tropics,
+I have never yet been bitten or stung by either.
+
+The lean and hungry dogs before mentioned were my greatest
+enemies, and kept me constantly on the watch. If my boys left the
+bird they were skinning for an instant, it was sure to be carried
+off. Everything eatable had to be hung up to the roof, to be out
+of their reach. Ali had just finished skinning a fine King Bird
+of Paradise one day, when he dropped the skin. Before he could
+stoop to pick it up, one of this famished race had seized upon
+it, and he only succeeded in rescuing it from its fangs after it
+was torn to tatters. Two skins of the large Paradisea, which were
+quite dry and ready to pack away, were incautiously left on my
+table for the night, wrapped up in paper. The next morning they
+were gone, and only a few scattered feathers indicated their
+fate. My hanging shelf was out of their reach; but having
+stupidly left a box which served as a step, a full-plumaged
+Paradise bird was next morning missing; and a dog below the house
+was to be seen still mumbling over the fragments, with the fine
+golden plumes all trampled in the mud. Every night, as soon as I
+was in bed, I could hear them searching about for what they could
+devour, under my table, and all about my boxes and baskets,
+keeping me in a state of suspense till morning, lest something of
+value might incautiously have been left within their read. They
+would drink the oil of my floating lamp and eat the wick, and
+upset or break my crockery if my lazy boys had neglected to wash
+away even the smell of anything eatable. Bad, however, as they
+are here, they were worse in a Dyak's house in Borneo where I was
+once staying, for there they gnawed off the tops of my waterproof
+boots, ate a large piece out of an old leather game-bag, besides
+devouring a portion of my mosquito curtain!
+
+April 28th.--Last evening we had a grand consultation, which had
+evidently been arranged and discussed beforehand. A number of the
+natives gathered round me, and said they wanted to talk. Two of
+the best Malay scholars helped each other, the rest putting in
+hints and ideas in their own language. They told me a long
+rambling story; but, partly owing to their imperfect knowledge of
+Malay, partly through my ignorance of local terms, and partly
+through the incoherence of their narrative, I could not make it
+out very clearly. It was, however, a tradition, and I was glad to
+find they had anything of the kind. A long time ago, they said,
+some strangers came to Aru, and came here to Wanumbai, and the
+chief of the Wanumbai people did not like them, and wanted them
+to go away, but they would not go, and so it came to fighting,
+and many Aru men were killed, and some, along with the chief,
+were taken prisoners, and carried away by the strangers. Some of
+the speakers, however, said that he was not carried away, but
+went away in his own boat to escape from the foreigners, and went
+to the sea and never came back again. But they all believe that
+the chief and the people that went with him still live in some
+foreign country; and if they could but find out where, they would
+send for them to come back again. Now having some vague idea that
+white men must know every country beyond the sea, they wanted to
+know if I had met their people in my country or in the sea. They
+thought they must be there, for they could not imagine where else
+they could be. They had sought for them everywhere, they said--on
+the land and in the sea, in the forest and on the mountains, in
+the air and in the sky, and could not find them; therefore, they
+must be in my country, and they begged me to tell them, for I
+must surely know, as I came from across the great sea. I tried to
+explain to them that their friends could not have reached my
+country in small boats; and that there were plenty of islands
+like Aru all about the sea, which they would be sure to find.
+Besides, as it was so long ago, the chief and all the people must
+be dead. But they quite laughed at this idea, and said they were
+sure they were alive, for they had proof of it. And then they
+told me that a good many years ago, when the speakers were boys,
+some Wokan men who were out fishing met these lost people in the
+sea, and spoke to them; and the chief gave the Wokan men a
+hundred fathoms of cloth to bring to the men of Wanumbai, to show
+that they were alive and would soon come back to them, but the
+Wokan men were thieves, and kept the cloth, and they only heard
+of it afterwards; and when they spoke about it, the Wokan men
+denied it, and pretended they had not received the cloth;--so
+they were quite sure their friends were at that time alive and
+somewhere in the sea. And again, not many years ago, a report
+came to them that some Bu0gis traders had brought some children
+of their lost people; so they went to Dobbo to see about it, and
+the owner of the house, who was now speaking to me, was one who
+went; but the Bugis roan would not let them see the children, and
+threatened to kill them if they came into his house. He kept the
+children shut up in a large box, and when he went away he took
+them with him. And at the end of each of these stories, they
+begged me in an imploring tone to tell them if I knew where their
+chief and their people now were.
+
+By dint of questioning, I got some account of the strangers who
+had taken away their people. They said they were wonderfully
+strong, and each one could kill a great many Aru men; and when
+they were wounded, however badly, they spit upon the place, and
+it immediately became well. And they made a great net of rattans,
+and entangled their prisoners in it, and sunk them in the water;
+and the next day, when they pulled the net up on shore, they made
+the drowned men come to life again, and carried them away.
+
+Much more of the same kind was told me, but in so confused and
+rambling a manner that I could make nothing out of it, till I
+inquired how long ago it was that all this happened, when they
+told me that after their people were taken away the Bugis came in
+their praus to trade in Aru, and to buy tripang and birds' nests.
+It is not impossible that something similar to what they related
+to me really happened when the early Portuguese discoverers first
+carne to Aru, and has formed the foundation for a continually
+increasing accumulation of legend and fable. I have no doubt that
+to the next generation, or even before, I myself shall be
+transformed into a magician or a demigod, a worker of miracles,
+and a being of supernatural knowledge. They already believe that
+all the animals I preserve will come to life again; and to their
+children it will be related that they actually did so. An unusual
+spell of fine weather setting in just at my arrival has made them
+believe I can control the seasons; and the simple circumstance of
+my always walking alone in the forest is a wonder and a mystery
+to them, as well as my asking them about birds and animals I have
+not yet seen, and showing an acquaintance with their form,
+colours, and habits. These facts are brought against me when I
+disclaim knowledge of what they wish me to tell them. "You must
+know," say they; "you know everything: you make the fine weather
+for your men to shoot, and you know all about our birds and our
+animals as well as we do; and you go alone into the forest and
+are not afraid." Therefore every confession of ignorance on my
+part is thought to be a blind, a mere excuse to avoid telling
+them too much. My very writing materials and books are to them
+weird things; and were I to choose to mystify them by a few
+simple experiments with lens and magnet, miracles without end
+would in a few years cluster about me; and future travellers,
+penetrating to Wanumbai, world h hardly believe that a poor
+English naturalist, who had resided a few months among them,
+could have been the original of the supernatural being to whom so
+many marvels were attributed.
+
+Far some days I had noticed a good deal of excitement, and many
+strangers came and went armed with spears and cutlasses, bows and
+shields. I now found there was war near us--two neighbouring
+villages having a quarrel about some matter of local politics
+that I could not understand. They told me it was quite a common
+thing, and that they are rarely without fighting somewhere near.
+Individual quarrels are taken up by villages and tribes, and the
+nonpayment of the stipulated price for a wife is one of the most
+frequent causes of bitterness and bloodshed. One of the war
+shields was brought me to look at. It was made of rattans and
+covered with cotton twist, so as to be both light, strong, and
+very tough. I should think it would resist any ordinary bullet.
+Abort the middle there was au arm-hole with a shutter or flap
+over it. This enables the arm to be put through and the bow
+drawn, while the body and face, up to the eyes, remain protected,
+which cannot be done if the shield is carried on the arm by loops
+attached at the back in the ordinary way. A few of the young men
+from our house went to help their friends, but I could not bear
+that any of them were hurt, or that there was much hard fighting.
+
+May 8th.-I had now been six weeks at Wanumbai, but for more than
+half the time was laid up in the house with ulcerated feet. My
+stores being nearly exhausted, and my bird and insect boxes full,
+and having no immediate prospect of getting the use of my legs
+again, I determined on returning to Dobbo. Birds had lately
+become rather scarce, and the Paradise birds had not yet become
+as plentiful as the natives assured me they would be in another
+month. The Wanumbai people seemed very sorry at my departure; and
+well they might be, for the shells and insects they picked up on
+the way to and from their plantations, and the birds the little
+boys shot with their bows and arrows, kept them all well supplied
+with tobacco and gambir, besides enabling them to accumulate a
+stock of beads and coppers for future expenses. The owner of the
+house was supplied gratis with a little rice, fish, or salt,
+whenever he asked for it, which I must say was not very often. On
+parting, I distributed among them my remnant stock of salt and
+tobacco, and gave my host a flask of arrack, and believe that on
+the whole my stay with these simple and good-natured people was
+productive of pleasure and profit to both parties. I fully
+intended to come back; and had I known that circumstances would
+have prevented my doing so, shoed have felt some sorrow in
+leaving a place where I had first seen so many rare and beautiful
+living things, and bad so fully enjoyed the pleasure which fills
+the heart of the naturalist when he is so fortunate as to
+discover a district hitherto unexplored, and where every day
+brings forth new and unexpected treasures. We loaded our boat in
+the afternoon, and, starting before daybreak, by the help of a
+fair wind reached Dobbo late the same evening.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE ARU ISLANDS.--SECOND RESIDENCE AT DOBBO.
+
+(MAY AND JUNE 1857.)
+
+DOBBO was full to overflowing, and I was obliged to  occupy the
+court-house where the Commissioners hold their sittings. They had
+now left the island, and I found the situation agreeable, as it
+was at the end of the village, with a view down the principal
+street. It was a mere shed, but half of it had a roughly boarded
+floor, and by putting up a partition and opening a window I made
+it a very pleasant abode. In one of the boxes I had left in
+charge of Herr Warzbergen, a colony of small ants had settled and
+deposited millions of eggs. It was luckily a fine hot day, and by
+carrying the box some distance from the house, and placing every
+article in the sunshine for an hour or two, I got rid of them
+without damage, as they were fortunately a harmless species.
+
+Dobbo now presented an animated appearance. Five or six new
+houses had been added to the street; the praus were all brought
+round to the western side of the point, where they were hauled up
+on the beach, and were being caulked and covered with a thick
+white lime-plaster for the homeward voyage, making them the
+brightest and cleanest looking things in the place. Most of the
+small boats had returned from the "blakang-tana "(back country),
+as the side of the islands towards New Guinea is called. Piles of
+firewood were being heaped up behind the houses; sail-makers and
+carpenters were busy at work; mother-of-pearl shell was being
+tied up in bundles, and the black and ugly smoked tripang was
+having a last exposure to the sun before loading. The spare
+portion of the crews were employed cutting and squaring timber,
+and boats from Ceram and Goram were constantly unloading their
+cargoes of sago-cake for the traders' homeward voyage. The fowls,
+ducks, and goats all looked fat and thriving on the refuse food
+of a dense population, and the Chinamen's pigs were in a state of
+obesity that foreboded early death. Parrots and Tories and
+cockatoos, of a dozen different binds, were suspended on bamboo
+perches at the doors of the houses, with metallic green or white
+fruit-pigeons which cooed musically at noon and eventide. Young
+cassowaries, strangely striped with black and brown, wandered
+about the houses or gambolled with the playfulness of kittens in
+the hot sunshine, with sometimes a pretty little kangaroo, caught
+in the Aru forests, but already tame and graceful as a petted
+fawn.
+
+Of an evening there were more signs of life than at the time of
+my former residence. Tom-toms, jews'-harps, and even fiddles were
+to be heard, and the melancholy Malay songs sounded not
+unpleasantly far into the night. Almost every day there was a
+cock-fight in the street. The spectators make a ring, and after
+the long steel spurs are tied on, and the poor animals are set
+down to gash and kill each other, the excitement is immense.
+Those who lave made bets scream and yell and jump frantically, if
+they think they are going to win or lose, but in a very few
+minutes it is all over; there is a hurrah from the winners, the
+owners seize their cocks, the winning bird is caressed and
+admired, the loser is generally dead or very badly wounded, and
+his master may often be seen plucking out his feathers as he
+walks away, preparing him for the cooking pot while the poor bird
+is still alive.
+
+A game at foot-ball, which generally took place at sunset, was,
+however, much more interesting to me. The ball used is a rather
+small one, and is made of rattan, hollow, light, and elastic. The
+player keeps it dancing a little while on his foot, then
+occasionally on his arm or thigh, till suddenly he gives it a
+good blow with the hollow of the foot, and sends it flying high
+in the air. Another player runs to meet it, and at its first
+bound catches it on his foot and plays in his turn. The ball must
+never be touched with the hand; but the arm, shoulder, knee, or
+thigh are used at pleasure to rest the foot. Two or three played
+very skilfully, keeping the ball continually flying about, but
+the place was too confined to show off the game to advantage. One
+evening a quarrel arose from some dispute in the game, and there
+was a great row, and it was feared there would be a fight about
+it--not two men only, but a party of a dozen or twenty on each
+side, a regular battle with knives and krisses; but after a large
+amount of talk it passed off quietly, and we heard nothing about
+it afterwards.
+
+Most Europeans being gifted by nature with a luxuriant growth of
+hair upon their faces, think it disfigures them, and keep up a
+continual struggle against her by mowing down every morning the
+crop which has sprouted up flaring the preceding twenty-four
+hours. Now the men of Mongolian race are, naturally, just as many
+of us want to he. They mostly pass their lives with faces as
+smooth and beardless as an infant's. But shaving seems an
+instinct of the human race; for many of these people, having no
+hair to take off their faces, shave their heads. Others, however,
+set resolutely to work to force nature to give them a beard. One
+of the chief cock-fighters at Dobbo was a Javanese, a sort of
+master of the ceremonies of the ring, who tied on the spars and
+acted as backer-up to one of the combatants. This man had
+succeeded, by assiduous cultivation, in raising a pair of
+moustaches which were a triumph of art, for they each contained
+about a dozen hairs more than three inches long, and which, being
+well greased and twisted, were distinctly visible (when not too
+far off) as a black thread hanging down on each side of his
+mouth. But the beard to match was the difficulty, for nature had
+cruelly refused to give him a rudiment of hair on his chin, and
+the most talented gardener could not do much if he had nothing to
+cultivate. But true genius triumphs over difficulties. Although
+there was no hair proper on the chin; there happened to be,
+rather on one side of it, a small mole or freckle which contained
+(as such things frequently do) a few stray hairs. These had been
+made the most of. They had reached four or five inches in length,
+and formed another black thread dangling from the left angle of
+the chin. The owner carried this as if it were something
+remarkable (as it certainly was); he often felt it
+affectionately, passed it between his fingers, and was evidently
+extremely proud of his moustaches and beard!
+
+One of the most surprising things connected with Aru was the
+excessive cheapness of all articles of European or native
+manufacture. We were here two thousand miles beyond Singapore and
+Batavia, which are themselves emporiums of the "far east," in a
+place unvisited by, and almost unknown to, European traders;
+everything reached us through at least two or three hands, often
+many more; yet English calicoes and American cotton cloths could
+be bought for 8s. the piece, muskets for 15s., common scissors
+and German knives at three-halfpence each, and other cutlery,
+cotton goods, and earthenware in the same proportion. The natives
+of this out-of-the-way country can, in fact, buy all these things
+at about the same money price as our workmen at home, but in
+reality very much cheaper, for the produce of a few hours' labour
+enables the savage to purchase in abundance what are to him
+luxuries, while to the European they are necessaries of life. The
+barbarian is no happier and no better off for this cheapness. On
+the contrary, it has a most injurious effect on him. He wants the
+stimulus of necessity to force him to labour; and if iron were as
+dear as silver, and calico as costly as satin, the effect would
+be beneficial to him. As it is, he has more idle hours, gets a
+more constant supply of tobacco, and can intoxicate himself with
+arrack more frequently and more thoroughly; for your Aru man
+scorns to get half drunk-a tumbler full of arrack is but a slight
+stimulus, and nothing less than half a gallon of spirit will make
+him tipsy to his own satisfaction.
+
+It is not agreeable to reflect on this state of things. At least
+half of the vast multitudes of uncivilized peoples, on whom our
+gigantic manufacturing system, enormous capital, and intense
+competition force the produce of our looms and workshops, would
+be not a whit worse off physically, and would certainly be
+improved morally, if all the articles with which w e supply them
+were double or treble their present prices. If at the same time
+the difference of cost, or a large portion of it, could find its
+way into the pockets of the manufacturing workmen, thousands
+would be raised from want to comfort, from starvation to health,
+and would be removed from one of the chief incentives to crime.
+It is difficult for an Englishman to avoid contemplating with
+pride our gigantic and ever-increasing manufactures and commerce,
+and thinking everything good that renders their progress still
+more rapid, either by lowering the price at which the articles
+can be produced, or by discovering new markets to which they may
+be sent. If, however, the question that is so frequently asked of
+the votaries of the less popular sciences were put here--"Cui
+bono?"--it would be found more difficult to answer than had been
+imagined. The advantages, even to the few who reap them, would be
+seen to be mostly physical, while the wide-spread moral and
+intellectual evils resulting from unceasing labour, low wages,
+crowded dwellings, and monotonous occupations, to perhaps as
+large a number as those who gain any real advantage, might be
+held to show a balance of evil so great, as to lead the greatest
+admirers of our manufactures and commerce to doubt the
+advisability of their further development. It will be said: "We
+cannot stop it;  capital must be employed; our population must be
+kept at work; if we hesitate a moment, other nations now hard
+pressing us will get ahead, and national ruin will follow." Some
+of this is true, some fallacious. It is undoubtedly a difficult
+problem which we have to solve; and I am inclined to think it is
+this difficulty that makes men conclude that what seems a
+necessary and unalterable state of things must be good-that its
+benefits must he greater than its evils. This was the feeling of
+the American advocates of slavery; they could not see an easy,
+comfortable way out of it. In our own case, however, it is to be
+hoped, that if a fair consideration of the matter in all its
+hearings shows that a preponderance of evil arises from the
+immensity of our manufactures and commerce-evil which must go on
+increasing with their increase-there is enough both of political
+wisdom and true philanthropy in Englishmen, to induce them to
+turn their superabundant wealth into other channels. The fact
+that has led to these remarks is surely a striking one: that in
+one of the most remote corners of the earth savages can buy
+clothing cheaper than the people of the country where it is made;
+that the weaver's child should shiver in the wintry wind, unable
+to purchase articles attainable by the wild natives of a tropical
+climate, where clothing is mere ornament or luxury, should make
+us pause ere we regard with unmixed admiration the system which
+has led to such a result, and cause us to look with some
+suspicion on the further extension of that system. It must be
+remembered too that our commerce is not a purely natural growth.
+It has been ever fostered by the legislature, and forced to an
+unnatural luxuriance by the protection of our fleets and armies.
+The wisdom and the justice of this policy have been already
+doubted. So soon, therefore, as it is seen that the further
+extension of our manufactures and commerce would be an evil, the
+remedy is not far to seek.
+
+After six weeks' confinement to the house I was at length well,
+and could resume my daily walks in the forest. I did not,
+however, find it so productive as when I had first arrived at
+Dobbo. There was a damp stagnation about the paths, and insects
+were very scarce. In some of my best collecting places I now
+found a mass of rotting wood, mingled with young shoots, and
+overgrown with climbers, yet I always managed to add something
+daily to my extensive collections. I one day met with a curious
+example of failure of instinct, which, by showing it to be
+fallible, renders it very doubtful whether it is anything more
+than hereditary habit, dependent on delicate modifications of
+sensation. Some sailors cut down a good-sized tree, and, as is
+always my practice, I visited it daily for some time in search of
+insects. Among other beetles came swarms of the little
+cylindrical woodborers (Platypus, Tesserocerus, &c.), and
+commenced making holes in the bark. After a day or two I was
+surprised to find hundreds of them sticking in the holes they had
+bored, and on examination discovered that the milky sap of the
+tree was of the nature of gutta-percha, hardening rapidly on
+exposure to the air, and glueing the little animals in self-dug
+graves. The habit of boring holes in trees in which to deposit
+their eggs, was not accompanied by a sufficient instinctive
+knowledge of which trees were suitable, and which destructive to
+them. If, as is very probable, these trees have an attractive
+odour to certain species of borers, it might very likely lead to
+their becoming extinct; while other species, to whom the same
+odour was disagreeable, and who therefore avoided the dangerous
+trees, would survive, and would be credited by us with an
+instinct, whereas they would really be guided by a simple
+sensation.
+
+Those curious little beetles, the Brenthidae, were very abundant
+in Aru. The females have a pointed rostrum, with which they bore
+deep holes in the bark of dead trees, often burying the rostrum
+up to the eyes, and in these holes deposit their eggs. The males
+are larger, and have the rostrum dilated at the end, and
+sometimes terminating in a good-sized pair of jaws. I once saw
+two males fighting together; each had a fore-leg laid across the
+neck of the other, and the rostrum bent quite in an attitude of
+defiance, and looking most ridiculous. Another time, two were
+fighting for a female, who stood close by busy at her boring.
+They pushed at each other with their rostra, and clawed and
+thumped, apparently in the greatest rage, although their coats of
+mail must have saved both from injury. The small one, however,
+soon ran away, acknowledging himself vanquished. In most
+Coleoptera the female is larger than the male, and it is
+therefore interesting, as bearing on the question of sexual
+selection, that in this case, as in the stag-beetles where the
+males fight together, they should be not only better armed, but
+also much larger than the females. Just as we were going away, a
+handsome tree, allied to Erythrina, was in blossom, showing its
+masses of large crimson flowers scattered here and there about
+the forest. Could it have been seen from an elevation, it would
+have had a fine effect; from below I could only catch sight of
+masses of gorgeous colour in clusters and festoons overhead,
+about which flocks of blue and orange lories were fluttering and
+screaming.
+
+A good many people died at Dobbo this season; I believe about
+twenty. They were buried in a little grove of Casuarinas behind
+my house. Among the traders was a. Mahometan priest, who
+superintended the funerals, which were very simple. The body was
+wrapped up in new white cotton cloth, and was carried on a bier
+to the grave. All the spectators sat down on the ground, and the
+priest chanted some verses from the Koran. The graves were fenced
+round with a slight bamboo railing, and a little carved wooden
+head-post was put to mark the spot. There was also in the village
+a small mosque, where every Friday the faithful went to pray.
+This is probably more remote from Mecca than any other mosque in
+the world, and marks the farthest eastern extension of the
+Mahometan religion. The Chinese here, as elsewhere, showed their
+superior wealth and civilization by tombstones of solid granite
+brought from Singapore, with deeply-cut inscriptions, the
+characters of which are painted in red, blue, and gold. No people
+have more respect for the graves of their relations and friends
+than this strange, ubiquitous, money-getting people.
+
+Soon after we had returned to Dobbo, my Macassar boy, Baderoon,
+took his wages and left me, because I scolded him for laziness.
+He then occupied himself in gambling, and at first had some luck,
+and bought ornaments, and had plenty of money. Then his luck
+turned; he lost everything, borrowed money and lost that, and was
+obliged to become the slave of his creditor till he had worked
+out the debt. He was a quick and active lad when he pleased, but
+was apt to be idle, and had such an incorrigible propensity for
+gambling, that it will very likely lead to his becoming a slave
+for life.
+
+The end of June was now approaching, the east monsoon had set in
+steadily, and in another week or two Dobbo would be deserted.
+Preparations for departure were everywhere visible, and every
+sunny day (rather rare now) the streets were as crowded and as
+busy as beehives. Heaps of tripang were finally dried and packed
+up in sacks; mother-of-pearl shell, tied up with rattans into
+convenient bundles, was all day long being carried to the beach
+to be loaded; water-casks were filled, and cloths and mat-sails
+mended and strengthened for the run home before the strong east
+wind. Almost every day groups of natives arrived from the most
+distant parts of the islands, with cargoes of bananas and sugar-
+cane to exchange for tobacco, sago, bread, and other luxuries,
+before the general departure. The Chinamen killed their fat pig
+and made their parting feast, and kindly sent me some pork, and a
+basin of birds' nest stew, which had very little more taste than
+a dish of vermicelli. My boy Ali returned from Wanumbai, where I
+had sent him alone for a fortnight to buy Paradise birds and
+prepare the skins; he brought me sixteen glorious specimens, and
+had he not been very ill with fever and ague might have obtained
+twice the number. He had lived with the people whose house I had
+occupied, and it is a proof of their goodness, if fairly treated,
+that although he took with him a quantity of silver dollars to
+pay for the birds they caught, no attempt was made to rob him,
+which might have been done with the most perfect impunity. He was
+kindly treated when ill, and was brought back to me with the
+balance of the dollars he had not spent.
+
+The Wanumbai people, like almost all the inhabitants of the Aru
+Islands, are perfect savages, and I saw no signs of any religion.
+There are, however, three or four villages on the coast where
+schoolmasters from Amboyna reside, and the people are nominally
+Christians, and are to some extent educated and civilized. I
+could not get much real knowledge of the customs of the Aru
+people during the short time I was among them, but they have
+evidently been considerably influenced by their long association
+with Mahometan traders. They often bury their dead, although the
+national custom is to expose the body an a raised stage till it
+decomposes. Though there is no limit to the number of wives a man
+may have, they seldom exceed one or two. A wife is regularly
+purchased from the parents, the price being a large assortment of
+articles, always including gongs, crockery, and cloth. They told
+me that some of the tribes kill the old men and women when they
+can no longer work, but I saw many very old and decrepid people,
+who seemed pretty well attended to. No doubt all who have much
+intercourse with the Bugis and Ceramese traders gradually lose
+many of their native customs, especially as these people often
+settle in their villages and marry native women.
+
+The trade carried on at Dobbo is very considerable. This year
+there were fifteen large praus from Macassar, and perhaps a
+hundred small boats from Ceram, Goram, and Ke. The Macassar
+cargoes are worth about Ł1,000. each, and the other boats take
+away perhaps about Ł3,000, worth, so that the whole exports may
+be estimated at Ł18,000. per annum. The largest and most bulky
+items are pearl-shell and tripang, or "beche-de-mer," with
+smaller quantities of tortoise-shell, edible birds' nests,
+pearls, ornamental woods, timber, and Birds of Paradise. These
+are purchased with a variety of goods. Of arrack, about equal in
+strength to ordinary West India rum, 3,000 boxes, each containing
+fifteen half-gallon bottles, are consumed annually. Native cloth
+from Celebes is much esteemed for its durability, and large
+quantities are sold, as well as white English calico and American
+unbleached cottons, common crockery, coarse cutlery, muskets,
+gunpowder, gongs, small brass cannon, and elephants' tusks. These
+three last articles constitute the wealth of the Aru people, with
+which they pay for their wives, or which they hoard up as "real
+property." Tobacco is in immense demand for chewing, and it must
+be very strong, or an Aru man will not look at it. Knowing how
+little these people generally work, the mass of produce obtained
+annually shows that the islands must be pretty thickly inhabited,
+especially along the coasts, as nine-tenths of the whole are
+marine productions.
+
+It was on the 2d of July that we left Aru, followed by all the
+Macassar praus, fifteen in number, who had agreed to sail in
+company. We passed south of Banda,  and then steered due west,
+not seeing land for three days, till we sighted some low islands
+west of Bouton. We had a strong and steady south-east wind day
+and night, which carried us on at about five knots an hour, where
+a clipper ship would have made twelve. The sky was continually
+cloudy, dark, and threatening, with occasional drizzling showers,
+till we were west of Bouru, when it cleared up and we enjoyed the
+bright sunny skies of the dry season for the rest of our voyage.
+It is about here, therefore that the seasons of the eastern and
+western regions of the Archipelago are divided. West of this line
+from June to December is generally fine, and often very dry, the
+rest of the year being the wet season. East of it the weather is
+exceedingly uncertain, each island, and each side of an island,
+having its own peculiarities. The difference seems to consist not
+so much in the distribution of the rainfall as in that of the
+clouds and the moistness of the atmosphere. In Aru, for example,
+when we left, the little streams were all dried up, although the
+weather was gloomy; while in January, February, and March, when
+we had the hottest sunshine and the finest days, they were always
+flowing. The driest time of all the year in Aru occurs in
+September and October, just as it does in Java and Celebes. The
+rainy seasons agree, therefore, with those of the western
+islands, although the weather is very different. The Molucca sea
+is of a very deep blue colour, quite distinct from the clear
+light blue of the Atlantic. In cloudy and dull weather it looks
+absolutely black, and when crested with foam has a stern and
+angry aspect. The wind continued fair and strong during our whole
+voyage, and we reached Macassar in perfect safety on the evening
+of the 11th of July, having made the passage from Aru (more than
+a thousand miles) in nine and a half days.
+
+My expedition to the Aru Islands had been eminently successful.
+Although I had been for months confined to the house by illness,
+and had lost much time by the want of the means of locomotion,
+and by missing the right season at the right place, I brought
+away with me more than nine thousand specimens of natural
+objects, of about sixteen hundred distinct species. I had made
+the acquaintance of a strange and little-known race of men; I had
+become familiar with the traders of the far East; I had revelled
+in the delights of exploring a new fauna and flora, one of the
+most remarkable and most beautiful and least-known in the world;
+and I had succeeded in the main object for which I had undertaken
+the journey-namely, to obtain fine specimens of the magnificent
+Birds of Paradise, and to be enabled to observe them in their
+native forests. By this success I was stimulated to continue my
+researches in the Moluccas and New Guinea for nearly five years
+longer, and it is still the portion of my travels to which I look
+back with the most complete satisfaction.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE ARU ISLANDS--PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ASPECTS OF NATURE.
+
+IN this chapter I propose to give a general sketch of the
+physical geography of the Aru Islands, and of their relation to
+the surrounding countries; and shall thus be able to incorporate
+the information obtained from traders, and from the works of
+other naturalists with my own observations in these exceedingly
+interesting and little-known regions.
+
+The Aru group may be said to consist of one very large central
+island with a number of small ones scattered round it. The great
+island is called by the natives and traders "Tang-busar" (great
+or mainland), to distinguish it as a whole from Dobbo, or any of
+the detached islands. It is of an irregular oblong form, about
+eighty miles from north to south, and forty or fifty from east to
+west, in which direction it is traversed by three narrow
+channels, dividing it into four portions. These channels are
+always called rivers by the traders, which puzzled me much till I
+passed through one of them, and saw how exceedingly applicable
+the name was. The northern channel, called the river of Watelai,
+is about a quarter of a mile wide at its entrance, but soon
+narrows to abort the eighth of a mile, which width it retains,
+with little variation, during its whole, length of nearly fifty
+miles, till it again widens at its eastern mouth. Its course is
+moderately winding, and the hanks are generally dry and somewhat
+elevated. In many places there are low cliffs of hard coralline
+limestone, more or less worn by the action of water; while
+sometimes level spaces extend from the banks to low ranges of
+hills a little inland. A few small streams enter it from right
+and left, at the mouths of which are some little rocky islands.
+The depth is very regular, being from ten to fifteen fathoms, and
+it has thus every feature of a true river, but for the salt water
+and the absence of a current. The other two rivers, whose names
+are Vorkai and Maykor, are said to be very similar in general
+character; but they are rather near together, and have a number
+of cross channels intersecting the flat tract between them. On
+the south side of Maykor the banks are very rocky, and from
+thence to the southern extremity of Aru is an uninterrupted
+extent of rather elevated and very rocky country, penetrated by
+numerous small streams, in the high limestone cliffs bordering
+which the edible birds' nests of Aru are chiefly obtained. All my
+informants stated that the two southern rivers are larger than
+Watelai.
+
+The whole of Aru is low, but by no means so flat as it has been
+represented, or as it appears from the sea. Most of it is dry
+rocky ground, with a somewhat undulating surface, rising here and
+there into abrupt hillocks, or cut into steep and narrow ravines.
+Except the patches of swamp which are found at the mouths of most
+of the small rivers, there is no absolutely level ground,
+although the greatest elevation is probably not more than two
+hundred feet. The rock which everywhere appears in the ravines
+and brooks is a coralline limestone, in some places soft and
+pliable, in others so hard and crystalline as to resemble our
+mountain limestone.
+
+The small islands which surround the central mass are very
+numerous; but most of them are on the east side, where they form
+a fringe, often extending ten or fifteen miles from the main
+islands. On the west there are very few, Wamma and Palo Pabi
+being the chief, with Ougia, and Wassia at the north-west
+extremity. On the east side the sea is everywhere shallow, and
+full of coral; and it is here that the pearl-shells are found
+which form one of the chief staples of Aru trade. All the islands
+are covered with a dense and very lofty forest.
+
+The physical features here described are of peculiar interest,
+and, as far as I am aware, are to some extent unique; for I have
+been unable to find any other record of an island of the size of
+Aru crossed by channels which exactly resemble true rivers. How
+these channels originated were a complete puzzle to me, till,
+after a long consideration of the whole of the natural phenomena
+presented by these islands, I arrived at a conclusion which I
+will now endeavour to explain. There are three ways in which we
+may conceive islands which are not volcanic to have been formed,
+or to have been reduced to their present condition, by elevation,
+by subsidence, or by separation from a continent or larger
+island. The existence of coral rock, or of raised beaches far
+inland, indicates recent elevation; lagoon coral-islands, and
+such as have barrier or encircling reefs, have suffered
+subsidence; while our own islands, whose productions are entirely
+those of the adjacent continent, have been separated from it. Now
+the Aru Islands are all coral rock, and the adjacent sea is
+shallow and full of coral, it is therefore evident that they have
+been elevated from beneath the ocean at a not very distant epoch.
+But if we suppose that elevation to be the first and only cause
+of their present condition, we shall find ourselves quite unable
+to explain the curious river-channels which divide them. Fissures
+during upheaval would not produce the regular width, the regular
+depth, or the winding curves which characterise them; and the
+action of tides and currents during their elevation might form
+straits of irregular width and depth, but not the river-like
+channels which actually exist. If, again, we suppose the last
+movement to have been one of subsidence, reducing the size of the
+islands, these channels are quite as inexplicable; for subsidence
+would necessarily lead to the flooding of all low tracts on the
+banks of the old rivers, and thus obliterate their courses;
+whereas these remain perfect, and of nearly uniform width from
+end to end.
+
+Now if these channels have ever been rivers they must have flowed
+from some higher regions, and this must have been to the east,
+because on the north and west the sea-bottom sinks down at a
+short distance from the shore to an unfathomable depth; whereas
+on the east. a shallow sea, nowhere exceeding fifty fathoms,
+extends quite across to New Guinea, a distance of about a hundred
+and fifty miles. An elevation of only three hundred feet would
+convert the whole of this sea into moderately high land, and make
+the Aru Islands a portion of New Guinea; and the rivers which
+have their mouths at Utanata and Wamuka, might then have flowed
+on across Aru, in the channels which are now occupied by salt
+water. Then the intervening land sunk down, we must suppose the
+land that now constitutes Aru to have remained nearly stationary,
+a not very improbable supposition, when we consider the great
+extent of the shallow sea, and the very small amount of
+depression the land need have undergone to produce it.
+
+But the fact of the Aru Islands having once been connected with
+New Guinea does not rest on this evidence alone. There is such a
+striking resemblance between the productions of the two countries
+as only- exists between portions of a common territory. I
+collected one hundred species of land-birds in the Aru Islands,
+and about eighty of them, have been found on the mainland of New
+Guinea. Among these are the great wingless cassowary, two species
+of heavy brush turkeys, and two of short winged thrushes; which
+could certainly not have passed over the 150 miles of open sea to
+the coast of New Guinea. This barrier is equally effectual in the
+case of many other birds which live only in the depths of the
+forest, as the kinghunters (Dacelo gaudichaudi), the fly-catching
+wrens (Todopsis), the great crown pigeon (Goura coronata), and
+the small wood doves (Ptilonopus perlatus, P. aurantiifrons, and
+P. coronulatus). Now, to show the real effect of such barrier,
+let us take the island of Ceram, which is exactly the same
+distance from New Guinea, but separated from it by a deep sea.
+Cut of about seventy land-birds inhabiting Ceram, only fifteen
+are found in New Guinea, and none of these are terrestrial or
+forest-haunting species. The cassowary is distinct; the
+kingfishers, parrots, pigeons, flycatchers, honeysuckers,
+thrushes, and cuckoos, are almost always quite distinct species.
+More than this, at least twenty genera, which are common to New
+Guinea and Aru, do not extend into Ceram, indicating with a force
+which every naturalist will appreciate, that the two latter
+countries have received their faunas in a radically different
+manner. Again, a true kangaroo is found in Aru, and the same
+species occurs in Mysol, which is equally Papuan in its
+productions, while either the same, or one closely allied to it,
+inhabits New Guinea; but no such animal is found in Ceram, which
+is only sixty miles from Mysol. Another small marsupial animal
+(Perameles doreyanus) is common to Aru and New Guinea. The
+insects show exactly the same results. The butterflies of Aru are
+all either New Guinea species, or very slightly modified forms;
+whereas those of Ceram are more distinct than are the birds of
+the two countries.
+
+It is now generally admitted that we may safely reason on such
+facts as those, which supply a link in the defective geological
+record. The upward and downward movements which any country has
+undergone, and the succession of such movements, can be
+determined with much accuracy; but geology alone can tell us
+nothing of lands which have entirely disappeared beneath the
+ocean. Here physical geography and the distribution of animals
+and plants are of the greatest service. By ascertaining the depth
+of the seas separating one country from another, we can form some
+judgment of the changes which are taking place. If there are
+other evidences of subsidence, a shallow sea  implies a former
+connexion of the adjacent lands; but iŁ this evidence is wanting,
+or if there is reason to suspect a rising of the land, then the
+shallow sea may be the result of that rising, and may indicate
+that the two countries will be joined at some future time, but
+not that they have previously been so. The nature of the animals
+and plants inhabiting these countries will, however, almost
+always enable us to determine this question. Mr. Darwin has shown
+us how we may determine in almost every case, whether an island
+has ever been connected with a continent or larger land, by the
+presence or absence of terrestrial Mammalia and reptiles. What he
+terms "oceanic islands "possess neither of these groups of
+animals, though they may have a luxuriant vegetation, and a fair
+number of birds, insects, and landshells; and we therefore
+conclude that they have originated in mid-ocean, and have never
+been connected with the nearest masses of land. St. Helena,
+Madeira, and New Zealand are examples of oceanic islands. They
+possess all other classes of life, because these have means of
+dispersion over wide spaces of sea, which terrestrial mammals and
+birds have not, as is fully explained in Sir Charles Lyell's
+"Principles of Geology," and Mr. Darwin's "Origin of Species." On
+the other hand, an island may never have been actually connected
+with the adjacent continents or islands, and yet may possess
+representatives of all classes of animals, because many
+terrestrial mammals and some reptiles have the means of passing
+over short distances of sea. But in these cases the number of
+species that have thus migrated will be very small, and there
+will be great deficiencies even in birds and flying insects,
+which we should imagine could easily cross over. The island of
+Timor (as I have already shown in Chapter XIII) bears this
+relation to Australia; for while it contains several birds and
+insects of Australian forms, no Australian mammal or reptile is
+found in it, and a great number of the most abundant and
+characteristic forms of Australian birds and insects are entirely
+absent. Contrast this with the British Islands, in, which a large
+proportion of the plants, insects, reptiles, and Mammalia of the
+adjacent parts of the continent are fully represented, while
+there are no remarkable deficiencies of extensive groups, such as
+always occur when there is reason to believe there has been no
+such connexion. The case of Sumatra, Borneo, and Java, and the
+Asiatic continent is equally clear; many large Mammalia,
+terrestrial birds, and reptiles being common to all, while a
+large number more are of closely allied forms. Now, geology has
+taught us that this representation by allied forms in the same
+locality implies lapse of time, and we therefore infer that in
+Great Britain, where almost every species is absolutely identical
+with those on the Continent, the separation has been very recent;
+while in Sumatra and Java, where a considerable number of the
+continental species are represented by allied forms, the
+separation was more remote.
+
+From these examples we may see how important a supplement to
+geological evidence is the study of the geographical distribution
+of animals and plants, in determining the former condition of the
+earth's surface; and how impossible it is to understand the
+former without taking the latter into account. The productions of
+the Aru Islands offer the strangest evidence, that at no very
+distant epoch they formed a part of New Guinea; and the peculiar
+physical features which I have described, indicate that they must
+have stood at very nearly the same level then as they do now,
+having been separated by the subsidence of the great plain which
+formerly connected them with it.
+
+Persons who have formed the usual ideas of the vegetation of the
+tropics who picture to themselves the abundance and brilliancy of
+the flowers, and the magnificent appearance of hundreds of forest
+trees covered with masses of coloured blossoms, will be surprised
+to hear, that though vegetation in Aru is highly luxuriant and
+varied, and would afford abundance of fine and curious plants to
+adorn our hothouses, yet bright and showy flowers are, as a
+general rule, altogether absent, or so very scarce as to produce
+no effect whatever on the general scenery. To give particulars: I
+have visited five distinct localities in the islands, I have
+wandered daily in the forests, and have passed along upwards of a
+hundred miles of coast and river during a period of six months,
+much of it very fine weather, and till just as I was about to
+leave, I never saw a single plant of striking brilliancy or
+beauty, hardly a shrub equal to a hawthorn, or a climber equal to
+a honeysuckle! It cannot be said that the flowering season had
+not arrived, for I saw many herbs, shrubs, and forest trees in
+flower, but all had blossoms of a green or greenish-white tint,
+not superior to our lime-trees. Here and there on the river banks
+and coasts are a few Convolvulaceae, not equal to our garden
+Ipomaeas, and in the deepest shades of the forest some fine
+scarlet and purple Zingiberaceae, but so few and scattered as to
+be nothing amid the mass of green and flowerless vegetation. Yet
+the noble Cycadaceae and screw-pines, thirty or forty feet high,
+the elegant tree ferns, the lofty palms, and the variety of
+beautiful and curious plants which everywhere meet the eye,
+attest the warmth and moisture of the tropics, and the fertility
+of the soil.
+
+It is true that Aru seemed to me exceptionally poor in flowers,
+but this is only an exaggeration of a general tropical feature;
+for my whole experience in the equatorial regions of the west and
+the east has convinced me, that in the most luxuriant parts of
+the tropics, flowers are less abundant, on the average less
+showy, and are far less effective in adding colour to the
+landscape than in temperate climates. I have never seen in the
+tropics such brilliant masses of colour as even England can show
+in her furze-clad commons, her heathery mountain-sides, her
+glades of wild hyacinths, her fields of poppies, her meadows of
+buttercups and orchises--carpets of yellow, purple, azure-blue,
+and fiery crimson, which the tropics can rarely exhibit. We, have
+smaller masses of colour in our hawthorn and crab trees, our
+holly and mountain-ash, our boom; foxgloves, primroses, and
+purple vetches, which clothe with gay colours the whole length
+and breadth of our land, These beauties are all common. They are
+characteristic of the country and the climate; they have not to
+be sought for, but they gladden the eye at every step. In the
+regions of the equator, on the other hand, whether it be forest
+or savannah, a sombre green clothes universal nature. You may
+journey for hours, and even for days, and meet with nothing to
+break the monotony. Flowers are everywhere rare, and anything at
+all striking is only to be met with at very distant intervals.
+
+The idea that nature exhibits gay colours in the tropics, and
+that the general aspect of nature is there more bright and varied
+in hue than with us, has even been made the foundation of
+theories of art, and we have been forbidden to use bright colours
+in our garments, and in the decorations of our dwellings, because
+it was supposed that we should be thereby acting in opposition to
+the teachings of nature. The argument itself is a very poor one,
+since it might with equal justice be maintained, that as we
+possess faculties for the appreciation of colours, we should make
+up for the deficiencies of nature and use the gayest tints in
+those regions where the landscape is most monotonous. But the
+assumption on which the argument is founded is totally false, so
+that even if the reasoning were valid, we need not be afraid of
+outraging nature, by decorating our houses and our persons with
+all those gay hues which are so lavishly spread over our fields
+and mountains, our hedges, woods, and meadows.
+
+It is very easy to see what has led to this erroneous view of the
+nature of tropical vegetation. In our hothouses and at our
+flower-shows we gather together the finest flowering plants from
+the most distant regions of the earth, and exhibit them in a
+proximity to each other which never occurs in nature. A hundred
+distinct plants, all with bright, or strange, or gorgeous
+flowers, make a wonderful show when brought together; but perhaps
+no two of these plants could ever be seen together in a state of
+nature, each inhabiting a distant region or a different station.
+Again, all moderately warm extra-European countries are mixed up
+with the tropics in general estimation, and a vague idea is
+formed that whatever is preeminently beautiful must come from the
+hottest parts of the earth. But the fact is quite the contrary.
+Rhododendrons and azaleas are plants of temperate regions, the
+grandest lilies are from temperate Japan, and a large proportion
+of our most showy flowering plants are natives of the Himalayas,
+of the Cape, of the United States, of Chili, or of China and
+Japan, all temperate regions. True, there are a great number of
+grand and gorgeous flowers in the tropics, but the proportion
+they bear to the mass of the vegetation is exceedingly small; so
+that what appears an anomaly is nevertheless a fact, and the
+effect of flowers on the general aspect of nature is far less in
+the equatorial than in the temperate regions of the earth.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+NEW GUINEA.--DOREY,
+
+(MARCH TO JULY 1858.)
+
+AFTER my return from Gilolo to Ternate, in March 1858, I made
+arrangements for my long-wished-for voyage to the mainland of New
+Guinea, where I anticipated that my collections would surpass
+those which I had formed at the Aru Islands. The poverty of
+Ternate in articles used by Europeans was shown, by my searching
+in vain through all the stores for such common things as flour,
+metal spoons, wide-mouthed phials, beeswax, a penknife, and a
+stone or metal pestle and mortar. I took with me four servants:
+my head man Ali, and a Ternate lad named Jumaat (Friday), to
+shoot; Lahagi, a steady middle-aged man, to cut timber and assist
+me in insect-collecting; and Loisa, a Javanese cook. As I knew I
+should have to build a house at Dorey, where I was going, I took
+with me eighty cadjans, or waterproof mats, made of pandanus
+leaves, to cover over my baggage on first landing, and to help to
+roof my house afterwards.
+
+We started on the 25th of March in the schooner Hester Helena,
+belonging to my friend Mr. Duivenboden, and bound on a trading
+voyage along the north coast of New Guinea. Having calms and
+light airs, we were three days reaching Gane, near the south end
+of Gilolo, where we stayed to fill. up our water-casks and buy a
+few provisions. We obtained fowls, eggs, sago, plantains, sweet
+potatoes, yellow pumpkins, chilies, fish, and dried deer's meat;
+and on the afternoon of the 29th proceeded on our voyage to Dorey
+harbour. We found it, however, by no means easy to get along; for
+so near to the equator the monsoons entirely fail of their
+regularity, and after passing the southern point of Gilolo we had
+calms, light puffs of wind, and contrary currents, which kept us
+for five days in sight of the same islands between it and Poppa.
+A squall them brought us on to the entrance of Dampier's Straits,
+where we were again becalmed, and were three more days creeping
+through them. Several native canoes now came off to us from
+Waigiou on one side, and Batanta on the other, bringing a few
+common shells, palm-leaf mats, cocoa-nuts, and pumpkins. They
+were very extravagant in their demands, being accustomed to sell
+their trifles to whalers and China ships, whose crews will
+purchase anything at ten times its value. My only purchases were
+a float belonging to a turtle-spear, carved to resemble a bird,
+and a very well made palm-leaf box, for which articles I gave a
+copper ring and a yard of calico. The canoes were very narrow and
+furnished with an outrigger, and in some of them there was only
+one man, who seemed to think nothing of coming out alone eight or
+ten miles from shore. The people were Papuans, much resembling
+the natives of Aru.
+
+When we had got out of the Straits, and were fairly in the great
+Pacific Ocean, we had a steady wind for the first time since
+leaving Ternate, but unfortunately it was dead ahead, and we had
+to beat against it, tacking on and off the coast of New Guinea. I
+looked with intense interest on those rugged mountains,
+retreating ridge behind ridge into the interior, where the foot
+of civilized man had never trod. There was the country of the
+cassowary and the tree-kangaroo, and those dark forests produced
+the most extraordinary and the most beautiful of the feathered
+inhabitants of the earth--the varied species of Birds of
+Paradise. A few days more and I hoped to be in pursuit of these,
+and of the scarcely less beautiful insects which accompany them.
+We had still, however, for several days only calms and light
+head-winds, and it was not till the l0th of April that a fine
+westerly breeze set in, followed by a squally night, which kept
+us off the entrance of Dorey harbour. The next morning we
+entered, and came to anchor off the small island of Mansinam, on
+which dwelt two German missionaries, Messrs. Otto and Geisler.
+The former immediately came on board to give us welcome, and
+invited us to go on shore and breakfast with him. We were then
+introduced to his companion who was suffering dreadfully from an
+abscess on the heel, which had confined him to the house for six
+months--and to his wife, a young German woman, who had been out
+only three months. Unfortunately she could speak no Malay or
+English, and had to guess at our compliments on her excellent
+breakfast by the justice we did to it.
+
+These missionaries were working men, and had been sent out, as
+being more useful among savages than persons of a higher class.
+They had been here about two years, and Mr. Otto had already
+learnt to speak the Papuan language with fluency, and had begun
+translating some portions of the Bible. The language, however, is
+so poor that a considerable number of Malay words have to be
+used; and it is very questionable whether it is possible to
+convey any idea of such a book, to a people in so low a state of
+civilization. The only nominal converts yet made are a few of the
+women; and some few of the children attend school, and are being
+taught to read, but they make little progress. There is one
+feature of this mission which I believe will materially interfere
+with its moral effect. The missionaries are allowed to trade to
+eke out the very small salaries granted them from Europe, and of
+course are obliged to carry out the trade principle of buying
+cheap and selling dear, in order to make a profit. Like all
+savages the natives are quite careless of the future, and when
+their small rice crops are gathered they bring a large portion of
+it to the missionaries, and sell it for knives, beads, axes,
+tobacco, or any other articles they may require. A few months
+later, in the wet season, when food is scarce, they come to buy
+it back again, and give in exchange tortoiseshell, tripang, wild
+nutmegs, or other produce. Of course the rice is sold at a much
+higher rate than it was bought, as is perfectly fair and just--
+and the operation is on the whole thoroughly beneficial to the
+natives, who would otherwise consume and waste their food when it
+was abundant, and then starve--yet I cannot imagine that the
+natives see it in this light. They must look upon the trading
+missionaries with some suspicion, and cannot feel so sure of
+their teachings being disinterested, as would be the case if they
+acted like the Jesuits in Singapore. The first thing to be done
+by the missionary in attempting to improve savages, is to
+convince them by his actions that lie comes among them for their
+benefit only, and not for any private ends of his own. To do this
+he must act in a different way from other men, not trading and
+taking advantage of the necessities of those who want to sell,
+but rather giving to those who are in distress. It would he well
+if he conformed himself in some degree to native customs, and
+then endeavoured to show how these customs might be gradually
+modified, so as to be more healthful and more agreeable. A few
+energetic and devoted men acting in this way might probably
+effect a decided moral improvement on the lowest savage tribes,
+whereas trading missionaries, teaching what Jesus said, but not
+doing as He did, can scarcely be expected to do more than give
+them a very little of the superficial varnish of religion.
+
+Dorey harbour is in a fine bay, at one extremity of which an
+elevated point juts out, and, with two or three small islands,
+forms a sheltered anchorage. The only vessel it contained when we
+arrived was a Dutch brig, laden with coals for the use of a war-
+steamer, which was expected daily, on an exploring expedition
+along the coasts of New Guinea, for the purpose of fixing on a
+locality for a colony. In the evening we paid it a visit, and
+landed at the village of Dorey, to look out for a place where I
+could build my house. Mr. Otto also made arrangements for me with
+some of the native chiefs, to send men to cut wood, rattans, and
+bamboo the next day.
+
+The villages of Mansinam and Dorey presented some features quite
+new to me. The houses all stand completely in the water, and are
+reached by long rude bridges. They are very low, with the roof
+shaped like a large boat, bottom upwards. The posts which support
+the houses, bridges, and platforms are small crooked sticks,
+placed without any regularity, and looking as if they were
+tumbling down. The floors are also formed of sticks, equally
+irregular, and so loose and far apart that I found it almost
+impossible to walls on them. The walls consist of bits of boards,
+old boats, rotten mats, attaps, and palm-leaves, stuck in anyhow
+here and there, and having altogether the most wretched and
+dilapidated appearance it is possible to conceive. Under the
+eaves of many of the houses hang human skulls, the trophies of
+their battles with the savage Arfaks of the interior, who often
+come to attack them. A large boat-shaped council-house is
+supported on larger posts, each of which is grossly carved to
+represent a naked male or female human figure, and other carvings
+still more revolting are placed upon the platform before the
+entrance. The view of an ancient lake-dweller's village, given as
+the frontispiece of Sir Charles Lyell's "Antiquity of Man," is
+chiefly founded on a sketch of this very village of Dorey; but
+the extreme regularity of the structures there depicted has no
+place in the original, any more than it probably had in the
+actual lake-villages.
+
+The people who inhabit these miserable huts are very similar to
+the Ke and Aru islanders, and many of them are very handsome,
+being tall and well-made, with well-cut features and large
+aquiline noses. Their colour is a deep brown, often approaching
+closely to black, and the fine mop-like heads of frizzly hair
+appear to be more common than elsewhere, and are considered a
+great ornament, a long six-pronged bamboo fork being kept stuck
+in them to serve the purpose of a comb; and this is assiduously
+used at idle moments to keep the densely growing mass from
+becoming matted and tangled. The majority have short woolly hair,
+which does not seem capable of an equally luxuriant development.
+A growth of hair somewhat similar to this, and almost as
+abundant, is found among the half-breeds between the Indian and
+Negro in South America. Can this be an indication that the
+Papuans are a mixed race?
+
+For the first three days after our arrival I was fully occupied
+from morning to night building a house, with the assistance of a
+dozen Papuans and my own men. It was immense trouble to get our
+labourers to work, as scarcely one of them could speak a word of
+Malay; and it was only by the most energetic gesticulations, and
+going through a regular pantomime of what was wanted, that we
+could get them to do anything. If we made them understand that a
+few more poles were required, which two could have easily cut,
+six or eight would insist upon going together, although we needed
+their assistance in other things. One morning ten of them came to
+work, bringing only one chopper between them, although they knew
+I had none ready for use.
+
+I chose a place about two hundred yards from the beach, on an
+elevated ground, by the side of the chief path from the village
+of Dorey to the provision-grounds and the forest. Within twenty
+yards was a little stream; which furnished us with excellent
+water and a nice place to bathe. There was only low underwood to
+clear away, while some fine forest trees stood at a short
+distance, and we cut down the wood for about twenty yards round
+to give us light and air. The house, about twenty feet by
+fifteen; was built entirely of wood, with a bamboo floor, a
+single door of thatch, and a large window, looking over the sea,
+at which I fixed my table, and close beside it my bed, within a
+little partition. I bought a number of very large palm-leaf mats
+of the natives, which made excellent walls; while the mats I had
+brought myself were used on the roof, and were covered over with
+attaps as soon as we could get them made. Outside, and rather
+behind, was a little hut, used for cooking, and a bench, roofed
+over, where my men could sit to skin birds and animals. When all
+was finished, I had my goods and stores brought up, arranged them
+conveniently inside, and then paid my Papuans with knives and
+choppers, and sent them away. The next day our schooner left for
+the more eastern islands, and I found myself fairly established
+as the only European inhabitant of the vast island of New Guinea.
+
+As we had some doubt about the natives, we slept at first with
+loaded guns beside us and a watch set; but after a few days,
+finding the people friendly, and feeling sure that they would not
+venture to attack five well-armed men, we took no further
+precautions. We had still a day or two's work in finishing up the
+house, stopping leaks, putting up our hanging shelves for drying
+specimens inside and out, and making the path down to the water,
+and a clear dry space in front of the horse.
+
+On the 17th, the steamer not having arrived, the coal-ship left,
+having lain here a month, according to her contract; and on the
+same day my hunters went out to shoot for the first time, and
+brought home a magnificent crown pigeon and a few common birds.
+The next day they were more successful, and I was delighted to
+see them return with a Bird of Paradise in full plumage, a pair
+of the fine Papuan lories (Lorius domicella), four other lories
+and parroquets, a grackle (Gracula dumonti), a king-hunter
+(Dacelo gaudichaudi), a racquet-tailed kingfisher (Tanysiptera
+galatea), and two or three other birds of less beauty.
+
+I went myself to visit the native village on the hill behind
+Dorey, and took with me a small present of cloth, knives, and
+beads, to secure the good-will of the chief, and get him to send
+some men to catch or shoot birds for me. The houses were
+scattered about among rudely cultivated clearings. Two which I
+visited consisted of a central passage, on each side of which
+opened short passages, admitting to two rooms, each of which was
+a house accommodating a separate family. They were elevated at
+least fifteen feet above the ground, on a complete forest of
+poles, and were so rude and dilapidated that some of the small
+passages had openings in the floor of loose sticks, through which
+a child might fall. The inhabitants seemed rather uglier than
+those at Dorey village. They are, no doubt, the true indigenes of
+this part of New Guinea, living in the interior, and subsisting
+by cultivation and hunting. The Dorey men, on the other hand, are
+shore-dwellers, fishers and traders in a small way, and have thus
+the character of a colony who have migrated from another
+district. These hillmen or "Arfaks "differed much in physical
+features. They were generally black, but some were brown like
+Malays. Their hair, though always more or less frizzly, was
+sometimes short and matted, instead of being long, loose, and
+woolly; and this seemed to be a constitutional difference, not
+the effect of care and cultivation. Nearly half of them were
+afflicted with the scurfy skin-disease. The old chief seemed much
+pleased with his present, and promised (through an interpreter I
+brought with me) to protect my men when they came there shooting,
+and also to procure me some birds and animals. While conversing,
+they smoked tobacco of their own growing, in pipes cut from a
+single piece of wood with a long upright handle.
+
+We had arrived at Dorey about the end of the wet season, when the
+whole country was soaked with moisture The native paths were so
+neglected as to be often mere tunnels closed over with
+vegetation, and in such places there was always a fearful
+accumulation of mud. To the naked Papuan this is no obstruction.
+He wades through it, and the next watercourse makes him clean
+again; but to myself, wearing boots and trousers, it was a most
+disagreeable thing to have to go up to my knees in a mud-hole
+every morning. The man I brought with me to cut wood fell ill
+soon after we arrived, or I would have set him to clear fresh
+paths in the worst places. For the first ten days it generally
+rained every afternoon and all night r but by going out every
+hour of fine weather, I managed to get on tolerably with my
+collections of birds and insects, finding most of those collected
+by Lesson during his visit in the Coquille, as well as many new
+ones. It appears, however, that Dorey is not the place for Birds
+of Paradise, none of the natives being accustomed to preserve
+them. Those sold here are all brought from Amberbaki, about a
+hundred miles west, where the Doreyans go to trade.
+
+The islands in the bay, with the low lands near the coast, seem
+to have been formed by recently raised coral reef's, and are much
+strewn with masses of coral but little altered. The ridge behind
+my house, which runs out to the point, is also entirely coral
+rock, although there are signs of a stratified foundation in the
+ravines, and the rock itself is more compact and crystalline. It
+is therefore, probably older, a more recent elevation having
+exposed the low grounds and islands. On the other side of the bay
+rise the great mass of the Arfak mountains, said by the French
+navigators to be about ten thousand feet high, and inhabited by
+savage tribes. These are held in great dread by the Dorey people,
+who have often been attacked and plundered by them, and have some
+of their skulls hanging outside their houses. If I was seem going
+into the forest anywhere in the direction of the mountains, the
+little boys of the village would shout after me, "Arfaki!
+Arfaki?" just as they did after Lesson nearly forty years before.
+
+On the 15th of May the Dutch war-steamer Etna arrived; but, as
+the coals had gone, it was obliged to stay till they came back.
+The captain knew when the coalship was to arrive, and how long it
+was chartered to stay at Dorey, and could have been back in time,
+but supposed it would wait for him, and so did not hurry himself.
+The steamer lay at anchor just opposite my house, and I had the
+advantage of hearing the half-hourly bells struck, which was very
+pleasant after the monotonous silence of the forest. The captain,
+doctor, engineer, and some other of the officers paid me visits;
+the servants came to the brook to wash clothes, and the son of
+the Prince of Tidore, with one or two companions, to bathe;
+otherwise I saw little of them, and was not disturbed by visitors
+so much as I had expected to be. About this time the weather set
+in pretty fine, but neither birds nor insects became much more
+abundant, and new birds -were very scarce. None of the Birds of
+Paradise except the common one were ever met with, and we were
+still searching in vain for several of the fine birds which
+Lesson had obtained here. Insects were tolerably abundant, but
+were not on the average so fine as those of Amboyna, and I
+reluctantly came to the conclusion that Dorey was not a good
+collecting locality. Butterflies were very scarce, arid were
+mostly the same as those which I had obtained at Aru.
+
+Among the insects of other orders, the most curious and novel
+were a group of horned flies, of which I obtained four distinct
+species, settling on fallen trees and decaying trunks. These
+remarkable insects, which have been described by Mr. W. W.
+Saunders as a new genus, under the name of Elaphomia or deer-
+flies, are about half an inch long, slender-bodied, and with very
+long legs, which they draw together so as to elevate their bodies
+high above the surface they are standing upon. The front pair of
+legs are much shorter, and these are often stretched directly
+forwards, so as to resemble antenna. The horns spring from
+beneath the eye, and seem to be a prolongation of the lower part
+of the orbit. In the largest and most singular species, named
+Elaphomia cervicornis or the stag-horned deer-fly, these horns
+are nearly as long as the body, having two branches, with two
+small snags near their bifurcation, so as to resemble the horns
+of a stag. They are black, with the tips pale, while the body and
+legs are yellowish brown, and the eyes (when alive) violet and
+green. The next species (Elaphomia wallacei) is of a dark brown
+colour, banded and spotted with yellow. The horns are about one-
+third the length of the insect, broad, flat, and of an elongated
+triangular foam. They are of a beautiful pink colour, edged with
+black, and with a pale central stripe. The front part of the head
+is also pink, and the eyes violet pink, with a green stripe
+across them, giving the insect a very elegant and singular
+appearance. The third species (Elaphomia alcicornis, the elk-
+horned deer-fly) is a little smaller than the two already
+described, but resembling in colour Elaphomia wallacei. The horns
+are very remarkable, being suddenly dilated into a flat plate,
+strongly toothed round the outer margin, and strikingly
+resembling the horns of the elk, after which it has been named.
+They are of a yellowish colour, margined with brown, and tipped
+with black on the three upper teeth. The fourth species
+(Elaphomia brevicornis, the short-horned deer-fly) differs
+considerably from the rest. It is stouter in form, of a nearly
+black colour, with a yellow ring at the base of the abdomen; the
+wings have dusky stripes, and the head is compressed and dilated
+laterally, with very small flat horns; which are black with a
+pale centre, and look exactly like the rudiment of the horns of
+the two preceding species. None of the females have any trace of
+the horns, ane Mr. Saunders places in the same genus a species
+which has no horns in either sex (Elaphomia polita). It is of a
+shining black colour, and resembles Elaphomia cervicornis in
+form, size, and general appearance. The figures above given
+represent these insects of their natural size and in
+characteristic attitudes.
+
+The natives seldom brought me anything. They are poor creatures,
+and, rarely shoot a bird, pig, or kangaroo, or even the sluggish
+opossum-like Cuscus. The tree-kangaroos are found here, but must
+be very scarce, as my hunters, although out daily in the forest,
+never once saw them. Cockatoos, lories, and parroquets were
+really the only common birds. Even pigeons were scarce, and in
+little variety, although we occasionally got the fine crown
+pigeon, which was always welcome as an addition to our scantily
+furnished larder.
+
+Just before the steamer arrived I had wounded my ankle by
+clambering among the trunks and branches of fallen trees (which
+formed my best hunting grounds for insects), and, as usual with
+foot wounds in this climate, it turned into an obstinate ulcer,
+keeping me in the house for several days. When it healed up it
+was followed by an internal inflammation of the foot, which by
+the doctor's advice I poulticed incessantly for four or five
+days, bringing out a severe inflamed swelling on the tendon above
+the heel. This had to be leeched, and lanced, and doctored with
+ointments and poultices for several weeks, till I was almost
+driven to despair,--for the weather was at length fine, and I was
+tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, and
+thinking of the twenty or thirty new species of insects that I
+ought to be getting every day. And this, too, in New Guinea--a
+country which I might never visit again,--a country which no
+naturalist had ever resided in before,--a country which contained
+more strange and new and beautiful natural objects than any other
+part of the globe. The naturalist will be able to appreciate my
+feelings, sitting from morning to night in my little hut, unable
+to move without a crutch, and my only solace the birds my hunters
+brought in every afternoon, and the few insects caught by my
+Ternate man, Lahagi, who now went out daily in my place, but who
+of course did not get a fourth part of what I should have
+obtained. To add to my troubles all my men were more or less ill,
+some with fever, others with dysentery or ague; at one time there
+were three of them besides myself all helpless, the coon alone
+being well, and having enough to do to wait upon us. The Prince
+of Tidore and the Resident of Panda were both on board the
+steamer, and were seeking Birds of Paradise, sending men round in
+every direction, so that there was no chance of my getting even
+native skins of the rarer kinds; and any birds, insects, or
+animals the Dorey people had to sell were taken on board the
+steamer, where purchasers were found for everything, and where a
+larger variety of articles were offered in exchange than I had to
+show.
+
+After a month's close confinement in the house I was at length
+able to go out a little, and about the same time I succeeded in
+getting a boat and six natives to take Ali and Lahagi to
+Amberbaki, and to bring them back at the end of a month. Ali was
+charged to buy all the Birds of Paradise he could get, and to
+shoot and skin all other rare or new birds; and Lahagi was to
+collect insects, which I hoped might be more abundant than at
+Dorey. When I recommenced my daily walks in search of insects, I
+found a great change in the neighbourhood, and one very agreeable
+to me. All the time I had been laid up the ship's crew and the
+Javanese soldiers who had been brought in a tender (a sailing
+ship which had arrived soon after the Etna), had been employed
+cutting down, sawing, and splitting large trees for firewood, to
+enable the steamer to get back to Amboyna if the coal-ship did
+not return; and they had also cleared a number of wide, straight
+paths through the forest in various directions, greatly to the
+astonishment of the natives, who could not make out what it all
+meant. I had now a variety of walks, and a good deal of dead wood
+on which to search for insects; but notwithstanding these
+advantages, they were not nearly so plentiful as I had found them
+at Sarawak, or Amboyna, or Batchian, confirming my opinion that
+Dorey was not a good locality. It is quite probable, however,
+that at a station a few miles in the interior, away from the
+recently elevated coralline rocks and the influence of the sea
+air, a much more abundant harvest might be obtained.
+
+One afternoon I went on board the steamer to return the captain's
+visit, and was shown some very nice sketches (by one of the
+lieutenants), made on the south coast, and also at the Arfak
+mountain, to which they had made an excursion. From these and the
+captain's description, it appeared that the people of Arfak were
+similar to those of Dorey, and I could hear nothing of the
+straight-haired race which Lesson says inhabits the interior, but
+which no one has ever seen, and the account of which I suspect
+has originated in some mistake. The captain told me he had made a
+detailed survey of part of the south coast, and if the coal
+arrived should go away at once to Humboldt Pay, in longitude 141°
+east, which is the line up to which the Dutch claim New Guinea.
+On board the tender I found a brother naturalist, a German named
+Rosenberg, who was draughtsman to the surveying staff. He had
+brought two men with him to shoot and skin birds, and had been
+able to purchase a few rare skins from the natives. Among these
+was a pair of the superb Paradise Pie (Astrapia nigra) in
+tolerable preservation. They were brought from the island of
+Jobie, which may be its native country, as it certainly is of the
+rarer species of crown pigeon (Goura steursii), one of which was
+brought alive and sold on board. Jobie, however, is a very
+dangerous place, and sailors are often murdered there when on
+shore; sometimes the vessels themselves being attacked.
+Wandammen, on the mainland opposite Jobie, inhere there are said
+to be plenty of birds, is even worse, and at either of these
+places my life would not have been worth a week's purchase had I
+ventured to live alone and unprotected as at Dorey. On board the
+steamer they had a pair of tree kangaroos alive. They differ
+chiefly from the ground-kangaroo in having a more hairy tail, not
+thickened at the base, and not used as a prop; and by the
+powerful claws on the fore-feet, by which they grasp the bark and
+branches, and seize the leaves on which they feed. They move
+along by short jumps on their hind-feet, which do not seem
+particularly well adapted for climbing trees. It has been
+supposed that these tree-kangaroos are a special adaptation to
+the swampy, half-drowned forests of, New Guinea, in place of the
+usual form of the group, which is adapted only to dry ground. Mr.
+Windsor Earl makes much of this theory, but, unfortunately for
+it, the tree-kangaroos are chiefly found in the northern
+peninsula of New Guinea, which is entirely composed of hills and
+mountains with very little flat land, while the kangaroo of the
+low flat Aru Islands (Dorcopsis asiaticus) is a ground species. A
+more probable supposition seems to lie, that the tree-kangaroo
+has been modified to enable it to feed on foliage in the vast
+forests of New Guinea, as these form the great natural feature
+which distinguishes that country from Australia.
+
+On June 5th, the coal-ship arrived, having been sent back from
+Amboyna, with the addition of some fresh stores for the steamer.
+The wood, which had been almost all taken on board, was now
+unladen again, the coal taken in, and on the 17th both steamer
+and tender left for Humboldt Bay. We were then a little quiet
+again, and got something to eat; for while the vessels were here
+every bit of fish or vegetable was taken on board, and I had
+often to make a small parroquet serve for two meals. My men now
+returned from Amberbaki, but, alas brought me almost nothing.
+They had visited several villages, and even went two days'
+journey into the interior, but could find no skins of Birds of
+Paradise to purchase, except the common kind, and very few even
+of those. The birds found were the same as at Dorey, but were
+still scarcer. None of the natives anywhere near the coast shoot
+or prepare Birds of Paradise, which come from far in the interior
+over two or three ranges of mountains, passing by barter from
+village to village till they reach the sea. There the natives of
+Dorey buy them, and on their return home sell them .to the Bugis
+or Ternate traders. It is therefore hopeless for a traveller to
+go to any particular place on the coast of New Guinea where rare
+Paradise birds may have been bought, in hopes of obtaining
+freshly killed specimens from the natives; and it also shows the
+scarcity of these birds in any one locality, since from the
+Amberbaki district, a celebrated place, where at least five or
+six species have been procured, not one of the rarer ones has
+been obtained this year. The Prince of Tidore, who would
+certainly have got them if any were to be had, was obliged to put
+up with a few of the common yellow ones. I think it probable that
+a longer residence at Dorey, a little farther in the interior,
+might show that several of the rarer kinds were found there, as I
+obtained a single female of the fine scale-breasted Ptiloris
+magnificus. I was told at Ternate of a bird that is certainly not
+yet known in Europe, a black King Paradise Bird, with the curled
+tail and beautiful side plumes of the common species, but all the
+rest of the plumage glossy black. The people of Dorey knew
+nothing about this, although they recognised by description most
+of the otter species.
+
+When the steamer left, I was suffering from a severe attack of
+fever. In about a week I got over this, but it was followed by
+such a soreness of the whole inside of the mouth, tongue, and
+gums, that for many days I could put nothing solid between my
+lips, but was obliged to subsist entirely on slops, although in
+other respects very well. At the same time two of my men again
+fell ill, one with fever, the other with dysentery, and both got
+very bad. I did what I could for them with my small stock of
+medicines, but they lingered on for some weeks, till on June 26th
+poor Jumaat died. He was about eighteen years of age, a native, I
+believe, of Bouton, and a quiet lad, not very active, but doing
+his work pretty steadily, and as well as he was able. As my men
+were all Mahometans, I let them bury him in their own fashion,
+giving them some new cotton cloth for a shroud.
+
+On July 6th the steamer returned from the eastward. The weather
+was still terribly wet, when, according to rule, it should have
+been fine and dry. We had scarcely anything to eat, and were all
+of us ill. Fevers, colds, and dysentery were continually
+attacking us, and made me long I-o get away from New Guinea, as
+much as ever I had longed to come there. The captain of the Etna
+paid me a visit, and gave me a very interesting account of his
+trip. They had stayed at Humboldt Bay several days, and found it
+a much more beautiful and more interesting place than Dorey, as
+well as a better harbour. The natives were quite unsophisticated,
+being rarely visited except by stray whalers, and they were
+superior to the Dorey people, morally and physically. They went
+quite naked. Their houses were some in the water and some inland,
+and were all neatly and well built; their fields were well
+cultivated, and the paths to them kept clear and open, in which
+respects Dorey is abominable. They were shy at first, and opposed
+the boats with hostile demonstrations, beading their bows, and
+intimating that they would shoot if an attempt was made to land.
+Very judiciously the captain gave way, but threw on shore a few
+presents, and after two or three trials they were permitted to
+land, and to go about and see the country, and were supplied with
+fruits and vegetables. All communication was carried on with them
+by signs--the Dorey interpreter, who accompanied the steamer,
+being unable to understand a word of their language. No new birds
+or animals were obtained, but in their ornaments the feathers of
+Paradise birds were seen, showing, as might be expected, that
+these birds range far in this direction, and probably all over
+New Guinea.
+
+It is curious that a rudimental love of art should co-exist with
+such a very low state of civilization. The people of Dorey are
+great carvers and painters. The outsides of the houses, wherever
+there is a plank, are covered with rude yet characteristic
+figures. The high-peaked prows of their boats are ornamented with
+masses of open filagree work, cut out of solid blocks of wood,
+and often of very tasteful design, As a figurehead, or pinnacle,
+there is often a human figure, with a head of cassowary feathers
+to imitate the Papuan "mop." The floats of their fishing-lines,
+the wooden beaters used in tempering the clay for their pottery,
+their tobacco-boxes, and other household articles, are covered
+with carving of tasteful and often elegant design. Did we not
+already know that such taste and skill are compatible with utter
+barbarism, we could hardly believe that the same people are, in
+other matters, utterly wanting in all sense of order, comfort, or
+decency. Yet such is the case. They live in the most miserable,
+crazy, and filthy hovels, which are utterly destitute of anything
+that can be called furniture; not a stool, or bench, or board is
+seen in them, no brush seems to be known, and the clothes they
+wear are often filthy bark, or rags, or sacking. Along the paths
+where they daily pass to and from their provision grounds, not an
+overhanging bough or straggling briar ever seems to he cut, so
+that you have to brush through a rank vegetation, creep under
+fallen trees and spiny creepers, and wade through pools of mud
+and mire, which cannot dry up because the sun is not allowed to
+penetrate. Their food is almost wholly roots and vegetables, with
+fish or game only as an occasional luxury, and they are
+consequently very subject to various skin diseases, the children
+especially being often miserable-looking objects, blotched all
+over with eruptions and sores. If these people are not savages,
+where shall we find any? Yet they have all a decided love for the
+fine arts, and spend their leisure time in executing works whose
+good taste and elegance would often be admired in our schools of
+design!
+
+During the latter part of my stay in New Guinea the weather was
+very wet, my only shooter was ill, and birds became scarce, so
+that my only resource was insect-hunting. I worked very hard
+every hour of fine weather, and daily obtained a number of new
+species. Every dead tree and fallen log was searched and searched
+again; and among the dry and rotting leaves, which still hung on
+certain trees which had been cut down, I found an abundant
+harvest of minute Coleoptera. Although I never afterwards found
+so many large and handsome beetles as in Borneo, yet I obtained
+here a great variety of species. For the first two or three
+weeks, while I was searching out the best localities, I took
+about 30 different kinds of beetles n day, besides about half
+that number of butterflies, and a few of the other orders. But
+afterwards, up to the very last week, I averaged 49 species a
+day. On the 31st of May, I took 78 distinct sorts, a larger
+number than I had ever captured before, principally obtained
+among dead trees and under rotten bark. A good long walk on a
+fine day up the hill, and to the plantations of the natives,
+capturing everything not very common that came in my way, would
+produce about 60 species; but on the last day of June I brought
+home no less than 95 distinct kinds of beetles, a larger number
+than I ever obtained in one day before or since. It was a fine
+hot day, and I devoted it to a search among dead leaves, beating
+foliage, and hunting under rotten bark, in all the best stations
+I had discovered during my walks. I was out from ten in the
+morning till three in the afternoon, and it took me six hours'
+work at home to pin and set out all the specimens, and to
+separate the species. Although T had already been working this
+shot daily for two months and a half, and had obtained over 800
+species of Coleoptera, this day's work added 32 new ones. Among
+these were 4 Longicorns, 2 Caribidae, 7 Staphylinidae, 7
+Curculionidae, 2 Copridae, 4 Chrysomelidae, 3 Heteromera, 1
+Elates, and 1 Buprestis. Even on the last day I went out, I
+obtained 10 new species; so that although I collected over a
+thousand distinct sorts of beetles in a space not much exceeding
+a square mile during the three months of my residence at Dorey, I
+cannot believe that this represents one half the species really
+inhabiting the same spot, or a fourth of what might be obtained
+in an area extending twenty miles in each direction.
+
+On the 22d of July the schooner Hester Helena arrived, and five
+days afterwards we bade adieu to Dorey, without much regret, for
+in no place which I have visited have I encountered more
+privations and annoyances. Continual rain, continual sickness,
+little wholesome food, with a plague of ants and files,
+surpassing anything I had before met with, required all a
+naturalist's ardour to encounter; and when they were
+uncompensated by great success in collecting, became all the more
+insupportable. This long thought-of and much-desired voyage to
+New Guinea had realized none of my expectations. Instead of being
+far better than the Aru Islands, it was in almost everything much
+worse. Instead of producing several of the rarer Paradise birds,
+I had not even seen one of them, and had not obtained any one
+superlatively fine bird or insect. I cannot deny, however, that
+Dorey was very rich in ants. One small black kind was excessively
+abundant. Almost every shrub and tree was more or less infested
+with it, and its large papery nests were everywhere to be seen.
+They immediately took possession of my house, building a large
+nest in the roof, and forming papery tunnels down almost every
+post. They swarmed on my table as I was at work setting out my
+insects, carrying them off from under my very nose, and even
+tearing them from the cards on which they were gummed if I left
+them for an instant. They crawled continually over my hands and
+face, got into my hair, and roamed at will over my whole body,
+not producing much inconvenience till they began to bite, which
+they would do on meeting with any obstruction to their passage,
+and with a sharpness which made me jump again and rush to undress
+and turn out the offender. They visited my bed also, so that
+night brought no relief from their persecutions; and I verily
+believe that during my three and a half months' residence at
+Dorey I was never for a single hour entirely free from them. They
+were not nearly so voracious as many other kinds, but their
+numbers and ubiquity rendered it necessary to be constantly on
+guard against them.
+
+The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle
+or blow-fly. These settled in swarms on my bird skins when first
+put out to dry, filling their plumage with masses of eggs, which,
+if neglected, the next day produced maggots. They would get under
+the wings or under the body where it rested on the drying-board,
+sometimes actually raising it up half an inch by the mass of eggs
+deposited in a few hours; and every egg was so firmly glued to
+the fibres of the feathers, as to make it a work of much time and
+patience to get them off without injuring the bird. In no other
+locality have I ever been troubled with such a plague as this.
+
+On the 29th we left Dorey, and expected a quick voyage home, as
+it was the time of year when we ought to have had steady
+southerly and easterly winds. Instead of these, however, we had
+calms and westerly breezes, and it was seventeen days before we
+reached Ternate, a distance of five hundred miles only, which,
+with average winds, could have been done in five days. It was a
+great treat to me to find myself back again in my comfortable
+house, enjoying milk to my tea and coffee, fresh bread and
+butter, and fowl and fish daily for dinner. This New Guinea
+voyage had used us all up, and I determined to stay and recruit
+before I commenced any fresh expeditions. My succeeding journeys
+to Gilolo and Batchian have already been narrated, and if; now
+only remains for me to give an account of my residence in
+Waigiou, the last Papuan territory I visited in search of Birds
+of Paradise.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+VOYAGE FROM CERAM TO WAIGIOU.
+
+(JUNE AND JULY 1860.)
+
+IN my twenty-fifth chapter I have described my arrival at Wahai,
+on my way to Mysol and Waigiou, islands which belong to the
+Papuan district, and the account of which naturally follows after
+that of my visit to the mainland of New Guinea. I now take up my
+narrative at my departure from Wahai, with the intention of
+carrying various necessary stores to my assistant, Mr. Allen, at
+Silinta, in Mysol, and then continuing my journey to Waigiou. It
+will be remembered that I was travelling in a small prau, which I
+had purchased and fitted up in Goram, and that, having been
+deserted by my crew on the coast of Ceram, I had obtained four
+men at Wahai, who, with my Amboynese hunter, constituted my crew.
+
+Between Ceram and Mysol there are sixty miles of open sea, and
+along this wide channel the east monsoon blows strongly; so that
+with native praus, which will not lay up to the wind, it requires
+some care in crossing. In order to give ourselves sufficient
+leeway, we sailed back from Wahai eastward, along the coast of
+Ceram, with the land-breeze; but in the morning (June 18th) had
+not gone nearly so far as I expected. My pilot, an old and
+experienced sailor, named Gurulampoko, assured me there was a
+current setting to the eastward, and that we could easily lay
+across to Silinta, in Mysol. As we got out from the land the wind
+increased, and there was a considerable sea, which made my short
+little vessel plunge and roll about violently. By sunset -we had
+not got halfway across, but could see Mysol distinctly. All night
+we went along uneasily, and at daybreak, on looking out
+anxiously, I found that we had fallen much to the westward during
+the night, owing, no doubt, to the pilot being sleepy and not
+keeping the boat sufficiently close to the wind. We could see the
+mountains distinctly, but it was clear we should not reach
+Silinta, and should have some difficulty in getting to the
+extreme westward point of the island. The sea was now very
+boisterous, and our prau was continually beaten to leeward by the
+waves, and after another weary day we found w e could not get to
+Mysol at all, but might perhaps reach the island called Pulo
+Kanary, about ten miles to the north-west. Thence we might await
+a favourable wind to reach Waigamma, on the north side of the
+island, and visit Allen by means of a small boat.
+
+About nine o'clock at night, greatly to my satisfaction, we got
+under the lea of this island, into quite smooth water--for I had
+been very sick and uncomfortable, and had eaten scarcely anything
+since the preceding morning. We were slowly nearing the shore,
+which the smooth dark water told us we could safely approach; and
+were congratulating ourselves on soon being at anchor, with the
+prospect of hot coffee, a good supper, and a sound sleep, when
+the wind completely dropped, and we had to get out the oars to
+row. We were not more than two hundred yards from the shore, when
+I noticed that we seemed to get no nearer although the men were
+rowing hard, but drifted to the westward, and the prau would not
+obey the helm, but continually fell off, and gave us much trouble
+to bring her up again. Soon a laud ripple of water told us we
+were seized by one of those treacherous currents which so
+frequently frustrate all the efforts of the voyager in these
+seas; the men threw down the oars in despair, and in a few
+minutes we drifted to leeward of the island fairly out to sea
+again, and lost our last chance of ever reaching Mysol! Hoisting
+our jib, we lay to, and in the morning found ourselves only a few
+miles from the island, but wit, such a steady wind blowing from
+its direction as to render it impossible for us to get back to
+it.
+
+We now made sail to the northward, hoping soon to get a more
+southerly wind. Towards noon the sea was much smoother, and with
+a S.S.E. wind we were laying in the direction of Salwatty, which
+I hoped to reach, as I could there easily get a boat to take
+provisions and stores to my companion in Mysol. This wind did
+not, however, last long, but died away into a calm; and a light
+west wind springing up, with a dark bank of clouds, again gave us
+hopes of reaching Mysol. We were soon, however, again
+disappointed. The E.S.E. wind began to blow again with violence,
+and continued all night in irregular gusts, and with a short
+cross sea tossed us about unmercifully, and so continually took
+our sails aback, that we were at length forced to run before it
+with our jib only, to escape being swamped by our heavy mainsail.
+After another miserable and anxious night, we found that we had
+drifted westward of the island of Poppa, and the wind being again
+a little southerly, we made all sail in order to reach it. This
+we did not succeed in doing, passing to the north-west, when the
+wind again blew hard from the E.S.E., and our last hope of
+finding a refuge till better weather was frustrated. This was a
+very serious matter to me, as I could not tell how Charles Allen
+might act, if, after waiting in vain for me, he should return to
+Wahai, and find that I had left there long before, and had not
+since been heard of. Such an event as our missing an island forty
+miles long would hardly occur to him, and he would conclude
+either that our boat had foundered, or that my crew had murdered
+me and run away with her. However, as it was physically
+impossible now for me to reach him, the only thing to be done was
+to make the best of my way to Waigiou, and trust to our meeting
+some traders, who might convey to him the news of my safety.
+
+Finding on my map a group of three small islands, twenty-five
+miles north of Poppa, I resolved, if possible, to rest there a
+day or two. We could lay our boat's head N.E. by N.; but a heavy
+sea from the eastward so continually beat us off our course, and
+we made so much leeway, that I found it would be as much as we
+could do to reach them. It was a delicate point to keep our head
+in the best direction, neither so close to the wind as to stop
+our way, or so free as to carry us too far to leeward. I
+continually directed the steersman myself, and by incessant
+vigilance succeeded, just at sunset, in bringing our boat to an
+anchor under the lee of the southern point of one of the islands.
+The anchorage was, however, by no means good, there being a
+fringing coral reef, dry at low water, beyond which, on a bottom
+strewn with masses of coral, we were obliged to anchor. We had
+now been incessantly tossing about for four days in our small
+undecked boat, with constant disappointments and anxiety, and it
+was a great comfort to have a night of quiet and comparative
+safety. My old pilot had never left the helm for more than an
+hour at a time, when one of the others would relieve him for a
+little sleep; so I determined the next morning to look out for a
+secure and convenient harbour, and rest on shore for a day.
+
+In the morning, finding it would be necessary for us to get round
+a rocky point, I wanted my men to go on shore and cut jungle-
+rope, by which to secure us from being again drafted away, as the
+wind was directly off shore. I unfortunately, however, allowed
+myself to be overruled by the pilot and crew, who all declared
+that it was the easiest thing possible, and that they would row
+the boat round the point in a few minutes. They accordingly got
+up the anchor, set the jib, and began rowing; but, just as I had
+feared, we drifted rapidly off shore, and had to drop anchor
+again in deeper water, and much farther off. The two best men, a
+Papuan and a Malay now swam on shore, each carrying a hatchet,
+and went into the jungle to seek creepers for rope. After about
+an hour our anchor loosed hold, and began to drag. This alarmed
+me greatly, and we let go our spare anchor, and, by running out
+all our cable, appeared tolerably secure again. We were now most
+anxious for the return of the men, and were going to fire our
+muskets to recall them, when we observed them on the beach, some
+way off, and almost immediately our anchors again slipped, and we
+drifted slowly away into deep water. We instantly seized the
+oars, but found we could not counteract the wind and current, and
+our frantic cries to the men were not heard till we had got a
+long way off; as they seemed to be hunting for shell-fish on the
+beach. Very soon, however, they stared at us, and in a few
+minutes seemed to comprehend their situation; for they rushed
+down into the water, as if to swim off, but again returned on
+shore, as if afraid to make the attempt. We had drawn up our
+anchors at first not to check our rowing; but now, finding we
+could do nothing, we let them both hang down by the full length
+of the cables. This stopped our way very much, and we drifted
+from shore very slowly, and hoped the men would hastily form a
+raft, or cut down a soft-wood tree, and paddle out, to us, as we
+were still not more than a third of a mile from shore. They
+seemed, however, to have half lost their senses, gesticulating
+wildly to us, running along the beach, then going unto the
+forest; and just when we thought they had prepared some mode of
+making an attempt to reach us, we saw the smoke of a fire they
+had made to cook their shell-fish! They had evidently given up
+all idea of coming after us, and we were obliged to look to our
+own position.
+
+We were now about a mile from shore, and midway between two of
+the islands, but we were slowly drifting out, to sea to the
+westward, and our only chance of yet saving the men was to reach
+the opposite shore. We therefore sot our jib and rowed hard; but
+the wind failed, and we drifted out so rapidly that we had some
+difficulty in reaching the extreme westerly point of the island.
+Our only sailor left, then swam ashore with a rope, and helped to
+tow us round the point into a tolerably safe and secure
+anchorage, well sheltered from the wind, but exposed to a little
+swell which jerked our anchor and made us rather uneasy. We were
+now in a sad plight, having lost our two best men, and being
+doubtful if we had strength left to hoist our mainsail. We had
+only two days' water on board, and the small, rocky, volcanic
+island did not promise us much chance of finding any. The conduct
+of the men on shore was such as to render it doubtful if they
+would make any serious attempt to reach us, though they might
+easily do so, having two good choppers, with which in a day they
+could male a small outrigger raft on which they could safely
+cross the two miles of smooth sea with the wind right aft, if
+they started from the east end of the island, so as to allow for
+the current. I could only hope they would be sensible enough to
+make the attempt, and determined to stay as long as I could to
+give them the chance.
+
+We passed an anxious night, fearful of again breaking our anchor
+or rattan cable. In the morning (23d), finding all secure, I
+waded on shore with my two men, leaving the old steersman and the
+cook on board, with a loaded musketto recall us if needed. We
+first walked along the beach, till stopped by the vertical cliffs
+at the east end of the island, finding a place where meat had
+been smoked, a turtle-shell still greasy, and some cut wood, the
+leaves of which were still green, showing that some boat had been
+here very recently. We then entered the jungle, cutting our way
+up to the top of the hill, but when we got there could see
+nothing, owing to the thickness of the forest. Returning, we cut
+some bamboos, and sharpened them to dig for water in a low spot
+where some sago -trees were growing; when, just as we were going
+to begin, Hoi, the Wahai man, called out to say he had found
+water. It was a deep hole among the Sago trees, in stiff black
+clay, full of water, which was fresh, but smelt horribly from the
+quantity of dead leaves and sago refuse that had fallen in.
+Hastily concluding that it was a spring, or that the water had
+filtered in, we baled it all out as well as a dozen or twenty
+buckets of mud and rubbish, hoping by night to have a good supply
+of clean water. I then went on board to breakfast, leaving my two
+men to make a bamboo raft to carry us on shore and back without
+wading. I had scarcely finished when our cable broke, and we
+bumped against the rocks. Luckily it was smooth and calm, and no
+damage was done. We searched for and got up our anchor, and found
+teat the cable had been cut by grating all night upon the coral.
+Had it given way in the night, we might have drifted out to sea
+without our anchor, or been seriously damaged. In the evening we
+went to fetch water from the well, when, greatly to our dismay,
+we found nothing but a little liquid mud at the bottom, and it
+then became evident that the hole was one which had been made to
+collect rain water, and would never fill again as long as the
+present drought continued. As we did not know what we might
+suffer for want of water, we filled our jar with this muddy stuff
+so that it might settle. In the afternoon I crossed over to the
+other side of the island, and made a large fire, in order that
+our men might see we were still there.
+
+The next day (24th) I determined to have another search for
+water; and when the tide was out rounded a rocky point and went
+to the extremity of the island without finding any sign of the
+smallest stream. On our way back, noticing a very small dry bed
+of a watercourse, I went up it to explore, although everything
+was so dry that my men loudly declared it was useless to expect
+water there; but a little way up I was rewarded by finding a few
+pints in a small pool. We searched higher up in every hole and
+channel where water marks appeared, but could find not a drop
+more. Sending one of my men for a large jar and teacup, we
+searched along the beach till we found signs of another dry
+watercourse, and on ascending this were so fortunate as to
+discover two deep sheltered rock-holes containing several gallons
+of water, enough to fill all our jars. When the cup came we
+enjoyed a good drink of the cool pure water, and before we left
+had carried away, I believe, every drop on the island.
+
+In the evening a good-sized prau appeared in sight, making
+apparently for the island where our men were left, and we had
+some hopes they might be seen and picked up, but it passed along
+mid-channel, and did not notice the signals we tried to make. I
+was now, however, pretty easy as to the fate of the men. There
+was plenty of sago on our rocky island, and there world probably
+be some on the fiat one they were left on. They had choppers, and
+could cut down a tree and make sago, and would most likely find
+sufficient water by digging. Shell-fish were abundant, and they
+would be able to manage very well till some boat should touch
+there, or till I could send and fetch them. The next day we
+devoted to cutting wood, filling up our jars with all the water
+we could find, and making ready to sail in the evening. I shot a
+small lory closely resembling a common species at Ternate, and a
+glossy starling which differed from the allied birds of Ceram and
+Matabello. Large wood-pigeons and crows were the only other birds
+I saw, but I did not obtain specimens.
+
+About eight in the evening of June 25th we started, and found
+that with all hands at work we could just haul up our mainsail.
+We had a fair wind during the night and sailed north-east,
+finding ourselves in the morning about twenty miles west of the
+extremity of Waigiou with a number of islands intervening. About
+ten o'clock we ran full on to a coral reef, which alarmed us a
+good deal, but luckily got safe off again. About two in the
+afternoon we reached an extensive coral reef, and were sailing
+close alongside of it, when the wind suddenly dropped, and we
+drifted on to it before we could get in our heavy mainsail, which
+we were obliged to let run down and fall partly overboard. We had
+much difficulty in getting off, but at last got into deep water
+again, though with reefs and islands all around us. At night we
+did not know what to do, as no one on board could tell where we
+were or what dangers might surround us, the only one of our crew
+who was acquainted with the coast of Waigiou having been. left on
+the island. We therefore took in all sail and allowed ourselves
+to drift, as we were some miles from the nearest land. A light
+breeze, however, sprang up, and about midnight we found ourselves
+again bumping over a coral reef. As it was very dark, and we knew
+nothing of our position, we could only guess how to get off
+again, and had there been a little more wind we might have been
+knocked to pieces. However, in about half an hour we did get off,
+and then thought it best to anchor on the edge of the reef till
+morning. Soon after daylight on the 7th, finding our prau had
+received no damage, we sailed on with uncertain winds and
+squalls, threading our way among islands and reefs, and guided
+only by a small map, which was very incorrect and quite useless,
+and by a general notion of the direction we ought to take. In the
+afternoon we found a tolerable anchorage under a small island and
+stayed for the night, and I shot a large fruit-pigeon new to me,
+which I have since named Carpophaga tumida. I also saw and shot
+at the rare white-headed kingfisher (Halcyon saurophaga), but did
+not kill it. The next morning we sailed on, and having a fair
+wind reached the shores of the large island of Waigiou. On
+rounding a point we again ran full on to a coral reef with our
+mainsail up, but luckily the wind had almost died away, and with
+a good deal of exertion we managed get safely off.
+
+We now had to search for the narrow channel among islands, which
+we knew was somewhere hereabouts, and which leads to the villages
+on the south side ofWaigiou. Entering a deep bay which looked
+promising, we got to the end of it, but it was then dusk, so we
+anchored for the night, and having just finished all our water
+could cook no rice for supper. Next morning early (29th) we went
+on shore among the mangroves, and a little way inland found some
+water, which relieved our anxiety considerably, and left us free
+to go along the coast in search of the opening, or of some one
+who could direct us to it. During the three days we had now been
+among the reefs and islands, we had only seen a single small
+canoe, which had approached pretty near to us, and then,
+notwithstanding our signals, went off in another direction. The
+shores seemed all desert; not a house, or boat, or human being,
+or a puff of smoke was to be seen; and as we could only go on the
+course that the ever-changing wind would allow us (our hands
+being too few to row any distance), our prospects of getting to
+our destination seemed rather remote and precarious. Having gone
+to the eastward extremity of the deep bay we had entered, without
+finding any sign of an opening, we turned westward; and towards
+evening were so fortunate as to find a small village of seven
+miserable houses built on piles in the water. Luckily the Orang-
+kaya, or head man, could speak a little. Malay, and informed us
+that the entrance to the strait was really in the bay we had
+examined, but that it was not to be seen except when- close
+inshore. He said the strait was often very narrow, and wound
+among lakes and rocks and islands, and that it would take two
+days to reach the large village of Muka, and three more to get to
+Waigiou. I succeeded in hiring two men to go with us to Muka,
+bringing a small boat in which to return; but we had to wait a
+day for our guides, so I took my gun and made a little excursion
+info the forest. The day was wet and drizzly, and I only
+succeeded in shooting two small birds, but I saw the great black
+cockatoo, and had a glimpse of one or two Birds of Paradise,
+whose loud screams we had heard on first approaching the coast.
+Leaving the village the next morning (July 1st) with a light
+wind, it took us all day to reach the entrance to the channel,
+which resembled a small river, and was concealed by a projecting
+point, so that it was no wonder we did not discover it amid the
+dense forest vegetation which everywhere covers these islands to
+the water's edge. A little way inside it becomes bounded by
+precipitous rocks, after winding among which for about two miles,
+we emerged into what seemed a lake, but which was in fact a deep
+gulf having a narrow entrance on the south coast. This gulf was
+studded along its shores with numbers of rocky islets, mostly
+mushroom shaped, from the `eater having worn away the lower part
+of the soluble coralline limestone, leaving them overhanging from
+ten to twenty feet. Every islet was covered will strange-looping
+shrubs and trees, and was generally crowned by lofty and elegant
+palms, which also studded the ridges of the mountainous shores,
+forming one of the most singular and picturesque landscapes I
+have ever seen. The current which had brought us through the
+narrow strait now ceased, and we were obliged to row, which with
+our short and heavy prau was slow work. I went on shore several
+times, but the rocks were so precipitous, sharp, and honeycombed,
+that Ifound it impossible to get through the tangled thicket with
+which they were everywhere clothed. It took us three days to get
+to the entrance of the gulf, and then the wind was such as to
+prevent our going any further, and we might have had to wait for
+days or weeps, when, much to my surprise and gratification, a
+boat arrived from Muka with one of the head men, who had in some
+mysterious manner heard I was on my way, and had come to my
+assistance, bringing a present of cocoa-nuts and vegetables.
+Being thoroughly acquainted with the coast, and having several
+extra men to assist us, he managed to get the prau along by
+rowing, poling, or sailing, and by night had brought us safely
+into harbour, a great relief after our tedious and unhappy
+voyage. We had been already eight days among the reefs and
+islands of Waigiou, coming a distance of about fifty miles, and
+it was just forty days since we had sailed from Goram.
+
+Immediately on our arrival at Muka, I engaged a small boat and
+three natives to go in search of my lost men, and sent one of my
+own men with them to make sure of their going to the right
+island. In ten days they returned, but to my great regret and
+disappointment, without the men. The weather had been very bad,
+and though they had reached an island within sight of that in
+which the men were, they could get no further. They had waited
+there six days for better weather, and then, having no more
+provisions, and the man I had sent with them being very ill and
+not expected to live, they returned. As they now knew the island,
+I was determined they should make another trial, and (by a
+liberal payment of knives, handkerchiefs, and tobacco, with
+plenty of provisions) persuaded them to start back immediately,
+and make another attempt. They did not return again till the 29th
+of July, having stayed a few days at their own village of Bessir
+on the way; but this time they had succeeded and brought with
+them my two lost men, in tolerable health, though thin and weak.
+They had lived exactly a month on the island had found water, and
+had subsisted on the roots and tender flower-stalks of a species
+of Bromelia, on shell-fish. and on a few turtles' eggs. Having
+swum to the island, they had only a pair of trousers and a shirt
+between them, but had made a hut of palm-leaves, and had
+altogether got on very well. They saw that I waited for them
+three days at the opposite island, but had been afraid to cross,
+lest the current should have carried them out to sea, when they
+would have been inevitably lost. They had felt sure I would send
+for them on the first opportunity, and appeared more grateful
+than natives usually are for my having done so; while I felt much
+relieved that my voyage, though sufficiently unfortunate, had not
+involved loss of life.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+WAIGIOU.
+
+(JULY TO SEPTEMER 1860.)
+
+THE village of Muka, on the south coast of Waigiou, consists of a
+number of poor huts, partly in the water and partly on shore, and
+scattered irregularly over a space of about half a mile in a
+shallow bay. Around it are a few cultivated patches, and a good
+deal of second-growth woody vegetation; while behind, at the
+distance of about half a mile, rises the virgin forest, through
+which are a few paths to some houses and plantations a mile or
+two inland. The country round is rather flat, and in places
+swampy, and there are one or two small streams which run behind
+the village into the sea below it. Finding that no house could be
+had suitable to my purpose, and hawing so often experienced the
+advantages of living close to or just within the forest, I
+obtained the assistance of half-a-dozen men; and having selected
+a spot near the path and the stream, and close to a fine fig-
+tree, which stood just within the forest, we cleared the ground
+and set to building a house. As I did not expect to stay here so
+long as I had done at Dorey, I built a long, low, narrow shed,
+about seven feet high on one side and four on the other, which
+required but little wood, and was put up very rapidly. Our sails,
+with a few old attaps from a deserted but in the village, formed
+the walls, and a quantity of "cadjans," or palm-leaf mats,
+covered in the roof. On the third day my house was finished, and
+all my things put in and comfortably arranged to begin work, and
+I was quite pleased at having got established so quickly and in
+such a nice situation.
+
+It had been so far fine weather, but in the night it rained hard,
+and we found our mat roof would not keep out water. It first
+began to drop, and then to stream over everything. I had to get
+up in the middle of the night to secure my insect-boxes, rice,
+and other perishable articles, and to find a dry place to sleep
+in, for my bed was soaked. Fresh leaks kept forming as the rain
+continued, and w e all passed a very miserable and sleepless
+night. In the morning the sun shone brightly, and everything was
+put out to dry. We tried to find out why the mats leaked, and
+thought we had discovered that they had been laid on upside down.
+Having shifted there all, and got everything dry and comfortable
+by the evening, we again went to bed, and before midnight were
+again awaked by torrent of rain and leaks streaming in upon us as
+bad as ever. There was no more sleep for us that night, and the
+next day our roof was again taken to pieces, and we came to the
+conclusion that the fault was a want of slope enough in the roof
+for mats, although it would be sufficient for the usual attap
+thatch. I therefore purchased a few new and some old attaps, and
+in the parts these would not cover we put the mats double, and
+then at last had the satisfaction of finding our roof tolerably
+water-tight.
+
+I was now able to begin working at the natural history of the
+island. When I first arrived I was surprised at being told that
+there were no Paradise Birds at Muka, although there were plenty
+at Bessir, a place where the natives caught them and prepared the
+skins. I assured the people I had heard the cry of these birds
+close to the village, but they world not believe that I could
+know their cry. However, the very first time I went into the
+forest I not only heard but saw them, and was convinced there
+were plenty about; but they were very shy, and it was some time
+before we got any. My hunter first shot a female, and I one day
+got very close to a fine male. He was, as I expected, the rare
+red species, Paradisea rubra, which alone inhabits this island,
+and is found nowhere else. He was quite low down, running along a
+bough searching for insects, almost like a woodpecker, and the
+long black riband-like filaments in his tail hung down in the
+most graceful double curve imaginable. I covered him with my gun,
+and was going to use the barrel which had a very small charge of
+powder and number eight shot, so as not to injure his plumage,
+but the gun missed fire, and he was off in an instant among the
+thickest jungle. Another day we saw no less than eight fine males
+at different times, and fired four times at them; but though
+other birds at the same distance almost always dropped, these all
+got away, and I began to think we were not to get this
+magnificent species. At length the fruit ripened on the fig-tree
+close by my house, and many birds came to feed on it; and one
+morning, as I was taking my coffee, a male Paradise Bird was seen
+to settle on its top. I seized my gun, ran under the tree, and,
+gazing up, could see it flying across from branch to branch,
+seizing a fruit here and another there, and then, before I could
+get a sufficient aim to shoot at such a height (for it was one of
+the loftiest trees of the tropics), it was away into the forest.
+They now visited the tree every morning; but they stayed so short
+a time, their motions were so rapid, and it was so difficult to
+see them, owing to the lower trees, which impeded the view, that
+it was only after several days' watching, and one or two misses,
+that I brought down my bird--a male in the most magnificent
+plumage.
+
+This bird differs very much from the two large species which I
+had already obtained, and, although it wants the grace imparted
+by their long golden trains, is in many respects more remarkable
+and more beautiful. The head, back, and shoulders are clothed
+with a richer yellow, the deep metallic green colour of the
+throat extends further over the head, and the feathers are
+elongated on the forehead into two little erectile crests. The
+side plumes are shorter, but are of a rich red colour,
+terminating in delicate white points, and the middle tail-
+feathers are represented by two long rigid glossy ribands, which
+are black, thin, and semi-cylindrical, and droop gracefully in a
+spiral curve. Several other interesting birds were obtained, and
+about half-a-dozen quite new ones; but none of any remarkable
+beauty, except the lovely little dove, Ptilonopus pulchellus,
+which with several other pigeons I shot on the same fig-tree
+close to my house. It is of a beautiful green colour above, with
+a forehead of the richest crimson, while beneath it is ashy white
+and rich yellow, banded with violet red.
+
+On the evening of our arrival at Muka I observed what appeared
+like a display of Aurora Borealis, though I could hardly believe
+that this was possible at a point a little south of the equator.
+The night was clear and calm, and the northern sky presented a
+diffused light, with a constant succession of faint vertical
+flashings or flickerings, exactly similar to an ordinary aurora
+in England. The next day was fine, but after that the weather was
+unprecedentedly bad, considering that it ought to have been the
+dry monsoon. For near a month we had wet weather; the sun either
+not appearing at all, or only for an hour or two about noon.
+Morning and evening, as well as nearly all night, it rained or
+drizzled, and boisterous winds, with dark clouds, formed the
+daily programme. With the exception that it was never cold, it
+was just such weather as a very bad English November or February.
+
+The people of Waigiou are not truly indigenes of the island,
+which possesses no "Alfuros," or aboriginal inhabitants. They
+appear to be a mixed race, partly from Gilolo, partly from New
+Guinea. Malays and Alfuros from the former island have probably
+settled here, and many of them have taken Papuan wives from
+Salwatty or Dorey, while the influx of people from those places,
+and of slaves, has led to the formation of a tribe exhibiting
+almost all the transitions from a nearly pure Malayan to an
+entirely Papuan type. The language spoken by them is entirely
+Papuan, being that which is used on all the coasts of Mysol,
+Salwatty, the north-west of New Guinea, and the islands in the
+great Geelvink Bay,--a fact which indicates the way in which the
+coast settlements have been formed. The fact that so many of the
+islands between New Guinea and the Moluccas--such as Waigiou,
+Guebe, Poppa, Obi, Batchian, as well as the south and east
+peninsulas of Gilolo--possess no aboriginal tribes, but are
+inhabited by people who are evidently mongrels and wanderers, is
+a remarkable corroborative proof of the distinctness of the
+Malayan and Papuan races, and the separation of the geographical
+areas they inhabit. If these two great races were direct
+modifications, the one of the other, we should expect to find in
+the intervening region some homogeneous indigenous race
+presenting intermediate characters. For example, between the
+whitest inhabitants of Europe and the black Klings of South
+India, there are in the intervening districts homogeneous races
+which form a gradual transition from one to the other; while in
+America, although there is a perfect transition from the Anglo-
+Saxon to the negro, and from the Spaniard to the Indian, there is
+no homogeneous race forming a natural transition from one to the
+other. In the Malay Archipelago we have an excellent example of
+two absolutely distinct races, which appear to have approached
+each other, and intermingled in an unoccupied territory at a very
+recent epoch in the history of man; and I feel satisfied that no
+unprejudiced person could study them on the spot without being
+convinced that this is the true solution of the problem, rather
+than the almost universally accepted view that they are but
+modifications of one and the same race.
+
+The people of Muka live in that abject state of poverty that is
+almost always found where the sago-tree is abundant. Very few of
+them take the trouble to plant any vegetables or fruit, but live
+almost entirely on sago and fish, selling a little tripang or
+tortoiseshell to buy the scanty clothing they require. Almost all
+of them, however, possess one or more Papuan slaves, on whose
+labour they live in almost absolute idleness, just going out on
+little fishing or trading excursions, as an excitement in their
+monotonous existence. They are under the rule of the Sultan of
+Tidore, and every year have to pay a small tribute of Paradise
+birds, tortoiseshell, or sago. To obtain these, they go in the
+fine season on a trading voyage to the mainland of New Guinea,
+and getting a few goods on credit from some Ceram or Bugis
+trader, make hard bargains with the natives, and gain enough to
+pay their tribute, and leave a little profit for themselves.
+
+Such a country is not a very pleasant one to live in, for as
+there are no superfluities, there is nothing to sell; and had it
+not been for a trader from Ceram who was residing there during my
+stay, who had a small vegetable garden, and whose men
+occasionally got a few spare fish, I should often have had
+nothing to eat. Fowls, fruit, and vegetables are luxuries very
+rarely to be purchased at Muka; and even cocoa-nuts, so
+indispensable for eastern cookery, are not to be obtained; for
+though there are some hundreds of trees in the village, all the
+fruit is eaten green, to supply the place of the vegetables the
+people are too lazy to cultivate. Without eggs, cocoa-nuts, or
+plantains, we had very short commons, and the boisterous weather
+being unpropitious for fishing, we had to live on what few
+eatable birds we could shoot, with an occasional cuscus, or
+eastern opossum, the only quadruped, except pigs, inhabiting the
+island.
+
+I had only shot two male Paradiseas on my tree when they ceased
+visiting it, either owing to the fruit becoming scarce, or that
+they were wise enough to know there was danger. We continued to
+hear and see them in the forest, but after a month had not
+succeeded in shooting any more; and as my chief object in
+visiting Waigiou was to get these birds, I determined to go to
+Bessir, where there are a number of Papuans who catch and
+preserve them. I hired a small outrigger boat for this journey,
+and left one of my men to guard my house and goods. We had to
+wait several days for fine weather, and at length started early
+one morning, and arrived late at night, after a rough and
+disagreeable passage. The village of Bessir was built in the
+water at the point of a small island. The chief food of the
+people was evidently shell-fish, since great heaps of the shells
+had accumulated in the shallow water between the houses and the
+land, forming a regular "kitchen-midden "for the exploration of
+some future archeologist. We spent the night in the chief's
+house, and the next morning went over to the mainland to look out
+for a place where I could reside. This part of Waigiou is really
+another island to the south of the narrow channel we had passed
+through in coming to Muka. It appears to consist almost entirely
+of raised coral, whereas the northern island contains hard
+crystalline rocks. The shores were a range of low limestone
+cliffs, worn out by the water, so that the upper part generally
+overhung. At distant intervals were little coves and openings,
+where small streams came down from the interior; and in one of
+these we landed, pulling our boat up on a patch of white sandy
+beach. Immediately above was a large newly-made plantation of
+yams and plantains, and a small hot, which the chief said we
+might have the use of, if it would do for me. It was quite a
+dwarf's house, just eight feet square, raised on posts so that
+the floor was four and a half feet above the ground, and the
+highest part of the ridge only five feet above the flour. As I am
+six feet and an inch in my stockings, I looked at this with some
+dismay; but finding that the other houses were much further from
+water, were dreadfully dirty, and were crowded with people, I at
+once accepted the little one, and determined to make the best of
+it. At first I thought of taking out the floor, which would leave
+it high enough to walk in and out without stooping; but then
+there would not be room enough, so I left it just as it was, had
+it thoroughly cleaned out, and brought up my baggage. The upper
+story I used for sleeping in, and for a store-room. In the lower
+part (which was quite open all round) I fixed up a small table,
+arranged my boxes, put up hanging-shelves, laid a mat on the
+ground with my wicker-chair upon it, hung up another mat on the
+windward side, and then found that, by bending double and
+carefully creeping in, I could sit on my chair with my head just
+clear of the ceiling. Here I lived pretty comfortably for six
+weeks, taking all my meals and doing all my work at my little
+table, to and from which I had to creep in a semi-horizontal
+position a dozen times a day; and, after a few severe knocks on
+the head by suddenly rising from my chair, learnt to accommodate
+myself to circumstances. We put up a little sloping cooking-but
+outside, and a bench on which my lads could skin their birds. At
+night I went up to my little loft, they spread their mats on the,
+floor below, and we none of us grumbled at our lodgings.
+
+My first business was to send for the men who were accustomed to
+catch the Birds of Paradise. Several came, and I showed them my
+hatchets, beads, knives, and handkerchiefs; and explained to
+them, as well as I could by signs, the price I would give for
+fresh-killed specimens. It is the universal custom to pay for
+everything in advance; but only one man ventured on this occasion
+to take goods to the value of two birds. The rest were
+suspicious, and wanted to see the result of the first bargain
+with the strange white man, the only one who had ever come to
+their island. After three days, my man brought me the first bird-
+-a very fine specimen, and alive, but tied up in a small bag, and
+consequently its tail and wing feathers very much crushed and
+injured. I tried to explain to him, and to the others that came
+with him, that I wanted them as perfect as possible, and that
+they should either kill them, or keep them on a perch with a
+string to their leg. As they were now apparently satisfied that
+all was fair, and that I had no ulterior designs upon them, six
+others took away goods; some for one bird, some for more, and one
+for as many as six. They said they had to go a long way for them,
+and that they would come back as soon as they caught any. At
+intervals of a few days or a week, some of them would return,
+bringing me one or more birds; but though they did not bring any
+more in bags, there was not much improvement in their condition.
+As they caught them a long way off in the forest, they would
+scarcely ever come with one, but would tie it by the leg to a
+stick, and put it in their house till they caught another. The
+poor creature would make violent efforts to escape, would get
+among the ashes, or hang suspended by the leg till the limb was
+swollen and half-putrefied, and sometimes die of starvation and
+worry. One had its beautiful head all defiled by pitch from a
+dammar torch; another had been so long dead that its stomach was
+turning green. Luckily, however, the skin and plumage of these
+birds is so firm and strong, that they bear washing and cleaning
+better than almost any other sort; and I was generally able to
+clean them so well that they did not perceptibly differ from
+those I had shot myself.
+
+Some few were brought me the same day they were caught, and I had
+an opportunity of examining them in all their beauty and
+vivacity. As soon as I found they were generally brought alive, I
+set one of my men to make a large bamboo cage with troughs for
+food and water, hoping to be able to keep some of them. I got the
+natives to bring me branches of a fruit they were very fond of,
+and I was pleased to find they ate it greedily, and would also
+take any number of live grasshoppers I gave them, stripping off
+the legs and wings, and then swallowing them. They drank plenty
+of water, and were in constant motion, jumping about the cage
+from perch to perch, clinging on the top and sides, and rarely
+resting a moment the first day till nightfall. The second day
+they were always less active, although they would eat as freely
+as before; and on the morning of the third day they were almost
+always found dead at the bottom of the cage, without any apparent
+cause. Some of them ate boiled rice as well as fruit and insects;
+but after trying many in succession, not one out of ten lived
+more than three days. The second or third day they would be dull,
+and in several cases they were seized with convulsions, and fell
+off the perch, dying a few hours afterwards. I tried immature as
+well as full-plumaged birds, but with no better success, and at
+length gave it up as a hopeless task, and confined my attention
+to preserving specimens in as good a condition as possible.
+
+The Red Birds of Paradise are not shot with blunt arrows, as in
+the Aru Islands and some parts of New Guinea, but are snared in a
+very ingenious manner. A large climbing Arum bears a red
+reticulated fruit, of which the birds are very fond. The hunters
+fasten this fruit on a stout forked stick, and provide themselves
+with a fine but strong cord. They then seep out some tree in the
+forest on which these birds are accustomed to perch, and climbing
+up it fasten the stick to a branch and arrange the cord in a
+noose so ingeniously, that when the bird comes to eat the fruit
+its legs are caught, and by pulling the end of the cord, which
+hangs down to the ground, it comes free from the branch and
+brings down the bird. Sometimes, when food is abundant elsewhere,
+the hunter sits from morning till night under his tree with the
+cord in his hand, and even for two or three whole days in
+succession, without even getting a bite; while, on the other
+hand, if very lucky, he may get two or three birds in a day.
+There are only eight or ten men at Bessir who practise this art,
+which is unknown anywhere else in the island. I determined,
+therefore, to stay as long as possible, as my only chance of
+getting a good series of specimens; and although I was nearly
+starved, everything eatable by civilized man being scarce or
+altogether absent, I finally succeeded.
+
+The vegetables and fruit in the plantations around us did not
+suffice for the wants of the inhabitants, and were almost always
+dug up or gathered before they were ripe. It was very rarely we
+could purchase a little fish; fowls there were none; and we were
+reduced to live upon tough pigeons and cockatoos, with our rice
+and sago, and sometimes we could not get these. Having been
+already eight months on this voyage, my stock of all condiments,
+spices and butter, was exhausted, and I found it impossible to
+eat sufficient of my tasteless and unpalatable food to support
+health. I got very thin and weak, and had a curious disease known
+(I have since heard) as brow-ague. Directly after breakfast every
+morning an intense pain set in on a small spot on the right
+temple. It was a severe burning ache, as bad as the worst
+toothache, and lasted about two hours, generally going off at
+noon. When this finally ceased, I had an attack of fever, which
+left me so weak and so unable to eat our regular food, that I
+feel sure my life was saved by a couple of tins of soup which I
+had long reserved for some such extremity. I used often to go out
+searching after vegetables, and found a great treasure in a lot
+of tomato plants run wild, and bearing little fruits about the
+size of gooseberries. I also boiled up the tops of pumpkin plants
+and of ferns, by way of greens, and occasionally got a few green
+papaws. The natives, when hard up for food, live upon a fleshy
+seaweed, which they boil till it is tender. I tried this also,
+but found it too salt and bitter to be endured.
+
+Towards the end of September it became absolutely necessary for
+me to return, in order to make our homeward voyage before the end
+of the east monsoon. Most of the men who had taken payment from
+me had brought the birds they had agreed for. One poor fellow had
+been so unfortunate as not to get one, and he very honestly
+brought back the axe he had received in advance; another, who had
+agreed for six, brought me the fifth two days before I was to
+start, and went off immediately to the forest again to get the
+other. He did not return, however, and we loaded our boat, and
+were just on the point of starting, when he came running down
+after us holding up a bird, which he handed to me, saying with
+great satisfaction, "Now I owe you nothing." These were
+remarkable and quite unexpected instances of honesty among
+savages, where it would have been very easy for them to have been
+dishonest without fear of detection or punishment.
+
+The country round about Bessir was very hilly and rugged,
+bristling with jagged and honey-combed coralline rocks, and with
+curious little chasms and ravines. The paths often passed through
+these rocky clefts, which in the depths of the forest were gloomy
+and dark in the extreme, and often full of fine-leaved herbaceous
+plants and curious blue-foliaged Lycopodiaceae. It was in such
+places as these that I obtained many of my most beautiful small
+butterflies, such as Sospita statira and Taxila pulchra, the
+gorgeous blue Amblypodia hercules, and many others. On the skirts
+of the plantations I found the handsome blue Deudorix despoena,
+and in the shady woods the lovely Lycaena wallacei. Here, too, I
+obtained the beautiful Thyca aruna, of the richest orange on the
+upper side; while below it is intense crimson and glossy black;
+and a superb specimen of a green Ornithoptera, absolutely fresh
+and perfect, and which still remains one of the glories of my
+cabinet.
+
+My collection of birds, though not very rich in number of
+species, was yet very interesting. I got another specimen of the
+rare New Guinea kite (Henicopernis longicauda), a large new
+goatsucker (Podargus superciliaris), and a most curious ground-
+pigeon of an entirely new genus, and remarkable for its long and
+powerful bill. It has been named Henicophaps albifrons. I was
+also much pleased to obtain a fine series of a large fruit-pigeon
+with a protuberance on the bill (Carpophaga tumida), and to
+ascertain that this was not, as had been hitherto supposed, a
+sexual character, but was found equally in male and female birds.
+I collected only seventy-three species of birds in Waigiou, but
+twelve of them were entirely new, and many others very rare; and
+as I brought away with me twenty-four fine specimens of the
+Paradisea rubra, I did not regret my visit to the island,
+although it had by no means answered my expectations.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+VOYAGE FROM WAIGIOU TO TERNATE.
+
+(SEPTEMBER 29 To NOVEMBER 5, 1860.)
+
+I HAD left the old pilot at Waigiou to take care of my house and
+to get the prau into sailing order--to caulk her bottom, and to
+look after the upper works, thatch, and ringing. When I returned
+I found it nearly ready, and immediately began packing up and
+preparing for the voyage. Our mainsail had formed one side of our
+house, but the spanker and jib had been put away in the roof, and
+on opening them to see if any repairs were wanted, to our horror
+we found that some rats had made them their nest, and had gnawed
+through them in twenty places. We had therefore to buy matting
+and make new sails, and this delayed us till the 29th of
+September, when we at length left Waigiou.
+
+It took us four days before we could get clear of the land,
+having to pass along narrow straits beset with reefs and shoals,
+and full of strong currents, so that an unfavourable wind stopped
+us altogether. One day, when nearly clear, a contrary tide and
+head wind drove us ten miles back to our anchorage of the night
+before. This delay made us afraid of running short of water if we
+should be becalmed at sea, and we therefore determined, if
+possible, to touch at the island where our men had been lost, and
+which lay directly in our proper course. The wind was, however,
+as usual, contrary, being S.S.W. instead of S.S.E., as it should
+have been at this time of the year, and all we could do was to
+reach the island of Gagie, where we came to an anchor by
+moonlight under bare volcanic hills. In the morning we tried to
+enter a deep bay, at the head of which some Galela fishermen told
+us there was water, but a head-wind prevented us. For the reward
+of a handkerchief, however, they took us to the place in their
+boat, and we filled up our jars and bamboos. We then went round
+to their camping-place on the north coast of the island to try
+and buy something to eat, but could only get smoked turtle meat
+as black and as hard as lumps of coal. A little further on there
+was a plantation belonging to Guebe people, but under the care of
+a Papuan slave, and the next morning we got some plantains and a
+few vegetables in exchange for a handkerchief and some knives. On
+leaving this place our anchor had got foul in some rock or sunken
+log in very deep water, and after many unsuccessful attempts, we
+were forced to cut our rattan cable and leave it behind us. We
+had now only one anchor left.
+
+Starting early, on the 4th of October, the same S.S.W wind
+continued, and we began to fear that we should hardly clear the
+southern point of Gilolo. The night of the 5th was squally, with
+thunder, but after midnight it got tolerably fair, and we were
+going along with a light wind arid looking out for the coast of
+Gilolo, which we thought we must be nearing, when we heard a dull
+roaring sound, like a heavy surf, behind us. In a short time the
+roar increased, and we saw a white line of foam coming on, which
+rapidly passed us without doing any harm, as our boat rose easily
+over the wave. At short intervals, ten or a dozen others overtook
+us with bleat rapidity, and then the sea became perfectly smooth,
+as it was before. I concluded at once that these must be
+earthquake waves; and on reference to the old voyagers we find
+that these seas have been long subject to similar phenomena.
+Dampier encountered them near Mysol and New Guinea, and describes
+them as follows: "We found here very strange tides, that ran in
+streams, making a great sea, and roaring so loud that we could
+hear them before they came within a mile of us. The sea round
+about them seemed all broken, and tossed the ship so that she
+would not answer her helm. These ripplings commonly lasted ten or
+twelve minutes, and then the sea became as still and smooth as a
+millpond. We sounded often when in the midst of them, but found
+no ground, neither could we perceive that they drove us any way.
+We had in one night several of these tides, that came mostly from
+the west, and the wind being from that quarter we commonly heard
+them a long time before they came, and sometimes lowered our
+topsails, thinking it was a gust of wind. They were of great
+length, from north to south, but their breadth not exceeding 200
+yards, and they drove a great pace. For though we had little wind
+to move us, yet these world soon pass away, and leave the water
+very smooth, and just before we encountered them we met a great
+swell, but it did not break." Some time afterwards, I learnt that
+an earthquake had been felt on the coast of Gilolo the very day
+we had encountered these curious waves.
+
+When daylight came, we saw the land of Gilolo a few miles off,
+but the point was unfortunately a little to windward of us. We
+tried to brace up all we could to round it, but as we approached
+the shore we got into a strong current setting northward, which
+carried us so rapidly with it that we found it necessary to stand
+off again, in order to get out of its influence. Sometimes we
+approached the point a little, and our hopes revived; then the
+wind fell, and we drifted slowly away. Night found us in nearly
+the same position as we had occupied in the morning, so we hung
+down our anchor with about fifteen fathoms of cable to prevent
+drifting. On the morning of the 7th we were however, a good way
+up the coast, and we now thought our only chance would be to got
+close in-shore, where there might be a return current, and we
+could then row. The prau was heavy, and my men very poor
+creatures for work, so that it took us six hours to get to the
+edge of the reef that fringed the shore; and as the wind might at
+any moment blow on to it, our situation was a very dangerous one.
+Luckily, a short distance off there was a sandy bay, where a
+small stream stopped the growth of the coral; and by evening we
+reached this and anchored for the night. Here we found some
+Galela men shooting deer and pigs; but they could not or would
+not speak Malay, and we could get little information from them.
+We found out that along shore the current changed with the tide,
+while about a mile out it was always one way, and against us; and
+this gave us some hopes of getting back to the point, from which
+we were now distant twenty miles. Next morning we found that the
+Galela men had left before daylight, having perhaps some vague
+fear of our intentions, anal very likely taking me for a pirate.
+During the morning a boat passed, and the people informed us
+that, at a short distance further towards the point, there was a
+much better harbour, where there were plenty of Galela men, from
+whom we, might probably get some assistance.
+
+At three in the afternoon, when the current turned, we started;
+but having a head-wind, made slow progress. At dusk we reached
+the entrance of the harbour, but an eddy and a gust of wind
+carried us away and out to sea. After sunset there was a land
+breeze, and we sailed a little to the south-east. It then became
+calm, and eve hung down our anchor forty fathoms, to endeavour to
+counteract the current; but it was of little avail, and in the
+morning we found ourselves a good way from shore, and just
+opposite our anchorage of the day before, which we again reached
+by hard rowing. I gave the men this day to rest and sleep; and
+the next day (Oct. 10th) we again started at two in the morning
+with a land breeze. After I had set them to their oars, and given
+instructions to keep close in-shore, and on no account to get out
+to sea, I went below, being rather unwell. At daybreak I found,
+to my great astonishment, that we were again far off-shore, and
+was told that the wind had gradually turned more ahead, and had
+carried us out--none of them having the sense to take down the
+sail and row in-shore, or to call me. As soon as it was daylight,
+we saw that we had drifted back, and were again opposite our
+former anchorage, and, for the third time, had to row hard to get
+to it. As we approached the shore, I saw that the current was
+favourable to us, and we continued down the coast till we were
+close to the entrance to the lower harbour. Just as we were
+congratulating ourselves on having at last reached it, a strong
+south-east squall carne on, blowing us back, and rendering it
+impossible for us to enter. Not liking the idea of again
+returning, I determined on trying to anchor, and succeeded in
+doing so, in very deep water and close to the reefs; but the
+prevailing winds were such that, should we not hold, we should
+have no difficulty in getting out to sea. By the time the squall
+had passed, the current had turned against us, and we expected to
+have to wait till four in the afternoon, when we intended to
+enter the harbour.
+
+Now, however, came the climax of our troubles. The swell produced
+by the squall made us jerk our cable a good deal, and it suddenly
+snapped low down in the water. We drifted out to sea, and
+immediately set our mainsail, but we were now without any anchor,
+and in a vessel so poorly manned that it could not be rowed
+against the most feeble current or the slightest wind, it word be
+madness to approach these dangerous shores except in the most
+perfect calm. We had also only three days' food left. It was
+therefore out of the question making any further attempts to get
+round the point without assistance, and I at once determined to
+run to the village of Gani-diluar, about ten miles further north,
+where we understood there was a good harbour, and where we might
+get provisions and a few more rowers. Hitherto winds and currents
+load invariably opposed our passage southward, and we might have
+expected them to be favourable to us now we had turned our
+bowsprit in an opposite direction. But it immediately fell calm,
+and then after a time a westerly land breeze set in, which would
+not serve us, and we had to row again for hours, and when night
+came had not reached the village. We were so fortunate, however,
+as to find a deep sheltered cove where the water was quite
+smooth, and we constructed a temporary anchor by filling a sack
+with stones from our ballast, which being well secured by a
+network of rattans held us safely during the night. The next
+morning my men went on shore to cut wood suitable for making
+fresh anchors, and about noon, the current turning in our favour,
+we proceeded to the village, where we found an excellent and
+well-protected anchorage.
+
+On inquiry, we found that the head men resided at the other Gani
+on the western side of the peninsula, and it was necessary to
+send messengers across (about half a day's journey) to inform
+them of my arrival, and to beg them to assist me. I then
+succeeded in buying a little sago, some dried deer-meat and
+cocoa-nuts, which at once relieved our immediate want of
+something to eat. At night we found our bag of atones still held
+us very well, and we slept tranquilly.
+
+The next day (October 12th), my men set to work making anchors
+and oars. The native Malay anchor is ingeniously constructed of a
+piece of tough forked timber, the fluke being strengthened by
+twisted rattans binding it to the stem, while the cross-piece is
+formed of a long flat stone, secured in the same manner. These
+anchors when well made, hold exceedingly arm, and, owing to the
+expense of iron, are still almost universally used on board the
+smaller praus. In the afternoon the head men arrived, and
+promised me as many rowers as I could put on the prau, and also
+brought me a few eggs and a little rice, which were very
+acceptable. On the 14th there was a north wind all day, which
+would have been invaluable to us a few days earlier, but which
+was now only tantalizing. On the 16th, all being ready, we
+started at daybreak with two new anchors and ten rowers, who
+understood their work. By evening we had come more than half-way
+to the point, and anchored for the night in a small bay. At three
+the next morning I ordered the anchor up, but the rattan cable
+parted close to the bottom, having been chafed by rocks, and we
+then lost our third anchor on this unfortunate voyage. The day
+was calm, and by noon we passed the southern point of Gilolo,
+which had delayed us eleven days, whereas the whole voyage during
+this monsoon should not have occupied more than half that time.
+Having got round the point our course was exactly in the opposite
+direction to what it had been, and now, as usual, the wind
+changed accordingly, coming from the north and north-west,--so
+that we still had to row every mile up to the village of Gani,
+which we did not reach till the evening of the 18th. A Bugis
+trader who was residing there, and the Senaji, or chief, were
+very kind; the former assisting me with a spare anchor and a
+cable, and making me a present of some vegetables, and the latter
+baking fresh sago cakes for my men; and giving rue a couple of
+fowls, a bottle of oil, and some pumpkins. As the weather was
+still very uncertain, I got four extra men to accompany me to
+Ternate, for which place we started on the afternoon of the 20th.
+
+We had to keep rowing all night, the land breezes being too weak
+to enable us to sail against the current. During the afternoon of
+the 21st we had an hour's fair wind, which soon changed into a
+heavy squall with rain, and my clumsy men let the mainsail get
+taken aback and nearly upset us, tearing the sail; and, what was
+worse, losing an hour's fair wind. The night was calm, and we
+made little progress.
+
+On the 22d we had light head-winds. A little before noon we
+passed, with the assistance of our oars, the Paciencia Straits,
+the narrowest part of the channel between Batchian and Gilolo.
+These were well named by the early Portuguese navigators, as the
+currents are very strong, and there are so many eddies, that even
+with a fair wind vessels are often quite unable to pass through
+them. In the afternoon a strong north wind (dead ahead) obliged
+us to anchor twice. At nigh it was calm, and we crept along
+slowly with our oars.
+
+On the 23d we still had the wind ahead, or calms. We then crossed
+over again to the mainland of Gilolo by the advice of our Gani
+men, who knew the coast well. Just as we got across we had
+another northerly squall with rain, and had to anchor on the edge
+of a coral reef for the night. I called up my men about three on
+the morning of the 24th, but there was no wind to help us, and we
+rowed along slowly. At daybreak there was a fair breeze from the
+south, but it lasted only an hour. All the rest of the day we had
+nothing but calms, light winds ahead, and squalls, and made very
+little progress.
+
+On the 25th we drifted out to the middle of the channel, but made
+no progress onward. In the afternoon we sailed and rowed to the
+south end of Kaióa, and by midnight reached the village. I
+determined to stay here a few days to rest and recruit, and in
+hopes of getting better weather. I bought some onions and other
+vegetables, and plenty of eggs, and my men baked fresh sago
+cakes. I went daily to my old hunting-ground in search of
+insects, but with very poor success. It was now wet, squally
+weather, and there appeared a stagnation of insect life. We
+Staved five days, during which time twelve persons died in the
+village, mostly from simple intermittent fever, of the treatment
+of which the natives are quite ignorant. During the whole of this
+voyage I had suffered greatly from sunburnt lips, owing to having
+exposed myself on deck all day to loon after our safety among the
+shoals and reefs near Waigiou. The salt in the air so affected
+them that they would not heal, but became excessively painful,
+and bled at the slightest touch, and for a long time it was with
+great difficulty I could eat at all, being obliged to open my
+mouth very wide, and put in each mouthful with the greatest
+caution. I kept them constantly covered with ointment, which was
+itself very disagreeable, and they caused me almost constant pain
+for more than a month, as they did not get well till I had
+returned to Ternate, and was able to remain a week indoors.
+
+A boat which left for Ternate, the day after we arrived, was
+obliged to return the next day, on account of bad weather. On the
+31st we went out to the anchorage at the mouth of the harbour, so
+as to be ready to start at the first favourable opportunity.
+
+On the 1st of November I called up my men at one in the morning,
+and we started with the tide in our favour. Hitherto it had
+usually been calm at night, but on this occasion we had a strong
+westerly squall with rain, which turned our prau broadside, and
+obliged us to anchor. When it had passed we went on rowing all
+night, but the wind ahead counteracted the current in our favour,
+and we advanced but little. Soon after sunrise the wind became
+stronger and more adverse, and as we had a dangerous lee-shore
+which we could not clear, we had to put about and get an offing
+to the W.S.W. This series of contrary winds and bad weather ever
+since we started, not having had a single day of fair wind, was
+very remarkable. My men firmly believed there was something
+unlucky in the boat, and told me I ought to have had a certain
+ceremony gone through before starting, consisting of boring a
+hole in the bottom and pouring some kind of holy oil through it.
+It must be remembered that this was the season of the south-east
+monsoon, and yet we had not had even half a day's south-east wind
+since we left Waigiou. Contrary winds, squalls, and currents
+drifted us about the rest of the day at their pleasure. The night
+was equally squally and changeable, and kept us hard at work
+taking in and making sail, and rowing in the intervals.
+
+Sunrise on the 2d found us in the middle of the ten-mile channel
+between Kaióa and Makian. Squalls and showers succeeded each
+other during the morning. At noon there was a dead calm, after
+which a light westerly breeze enabled us to reach a village on
+Makian in the evening. Here I bought some pumelos (Citrus
+decumana), kanary-nuts, and coffee, and let my men have a night's
+sleep.
+
+The morning of the 3d was fine, and we rowed slowly along the
+coast of Makian. The captain of a small prau at anchor, seeing me
+on deck and guessing who I was, made signals for us to stop, and
+brought me a letter from Charles Allen, who informed me he had
+been at Ternate twenty days, and was anxiously waiting my
+arrival. This was good news, as I was equally anxious about him,
+and it cheered up my spirits. A light southerly wind now sprung
+up, and we thought we were going to have fine weather. It soon
+changed, however, to its old quarter, the west; dense clouds
+gathered over the sky, and in less than half an hour we had the
+severest squall we had experienced during our whole voyage.
+Luckily we got our great mainsail down in time, or the
+consequences might have been serious. It was a regular little
+hurricane, and my old Bugis steersman began shouting out to
+"Allah! il Allah!" to preserve us. We could only keep up our jib,
+which was almost blown to rags, but by careful handling it kept
+us before the wind, and the prau behaved very well. Our small
+boat (purchased at Gani) was towing astern, and soon got full of
+water, so that it broke away and we saw no more of it. In about
+an hour the fury of the wind abated a little, and in two more we
+were able to hoist our mainsail, reefed and half-mast high.
+Towards evening it cleared up and fell calm, and the sea, which
+had been rather high, soon went down. Not being much of a seaman
+myself I had been considerably alarmed, and even the old
+steersman assured me he had never been in a worse squall all his
+life. He was now more than ever confirmed in his opinion of the
+unluckiness of the boat, and in the efficiency of the holy oil
+which all Bugis praus had poured through their bottoms. As it
+was, he imputed our safety and the quick termination of the
+squall entirely to his own prayers, saying with a laugh, "Yes,
+that's the way we always do on board our praus; when things are
+at the worst we stand up and shout out our prayers as loud as we
+can, and then Tuwan Allah helps us."
+
+After this it took us two days more to reach Ternate, having our
+usual calms, squalls, and head-winds to the very last; and once
+having to return back to our anchorage owing to violent gusts of
+wind just as we were close to the town. Looking at my whole
+voyage in this vessel from the time when I left Goram in May, it
+will appear that rely experiences of travel in a native prau have
+not been encouraging. My first crew ran away; two men were lost
+for a month on a desert island; we were ten times aground on
+coral reefs; we lost four anchors; the sails were devoured by
+rats; the small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight days
+on the voyage home, which should not have taken twelve; we were
+many times short of food and water; we had no compass-lamp, owing
+to there not being a drop of oil in Waigiou when we left; and to
+crown all, during the whole of our voyages from Goram by Ceram to
+Waigiou, and from Waigiou to Ternate, occupying in all seventy-
+eight days, or only twelve days short of three months (all in
+what was supposed to be the favourable season), we had not one
+single day of fair wind. We were always close braced up, always
+struggling against wind, tide, and leeway, and in a vessel that
+would scarcely sail nearer than eight points from the wind. Every
+seaman will admit that my first voyage in my own boat was a most
+unlucky one.
+
+Charles Allen had obtained a tolerable collection of birds and
+insects at Mysol, but far less than be would have done if I had
+not been so unfortunate as to miss visiting him. After waiting
+another week or two till he was nearly starved, he returned to
+Wahai in Ceram, and heard, much to his surprise, that I had left
+a fortnight before. He was delayed there more than a month before
+he could get back to the north side of Mysol, which he found a
+much better locality, but it was not yet the season for the
+Paradise Birds; and before he had obtained more than a few of the
+common sort, the last prau was ready to leave for Ternate, and he
+was obliged to take the opportunity, as he expected I would be
+waiting there for him.
+
+This concludes the record of my wanderings. I next went to Timor,
+and afterwards to Bourn, Java, and Sumatra, which places have
+already been described. Charles Allen made a voyage to New
+Guinea, a short account of which will be given in my next chapter
+on the Birds of Paradise. On his return he went to the Sula
+Islands, and made a very interesting collection which served to
+determine the limits of the zoological group of Celebes, as
+already explained in my chapter on the natural history of that
+island. His next journey was to Flores and Solor, where he
+obtained some valuable materials, which I have used in my chapter
+on the natural history of the Timor group. He afterwards went to
+Coti on the east coast of Borneo, from which place I was very
+anxious to obtain collections, as it is a quite new locality as
+far as possible from Sarawak, and I had heard very good accounts
+of it. On his return thence to Sourabaya in Java, he was to have
+gone to the entirely unknown Sumba or Sandal-wood Island. Most
+unfortunately, however, he was seized with a terrible fever on
+his arrival at Coti, and, after lying there some weeks, was taken
+to Singapore in a very bad condition, where he arrived after I
+had left for England. When he recovered he obtained employment in
+Singapore, and I lost his services as a collector.
+
+The three concluding chapters of my work will treat of the birds
+of Paradise, the Natural History of the Papuan (stands, and the
+Races of Man in the Malay Archipelago.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE BIRDS OF PARADISE.
+
+AS many of my journeys were made with the express object of
+obtaining specimens of the Birds of Paradise, and learning
+something of their habits and distribution; and being (as far as
+I am aware) the only Englishman who has seen these wonderful
+birds in their native forests, and obtained specimens of many of
+them, I propose to give here, in a connected form, the result of
+my observations and inquiries.
+
+When the earliest European voyagers reached the Moluccas in
+search of cloves and nutmegs, which were then rare and precious
+spices, they were presented with the dried shins of birds so
+strange and beautiful as to excite the admiration even of those
+wealth-seeking rovers. The Malay traders gave them the name of
+"Manuk dewata," or God's birds; and the Portuguese, finding that
+they had no feet or wings, and not being able to learn anything
+authentic about then, called them "Passaros de Col," or Birds of
+the Sun; while the learned Dutchmen, who wrote in Latin, called
+them "Avis paradiseus," or Paradise Bird. John van Linschoten
+gives these names in 1598, and tells us that no one has seen
+these birds alive, for they live in the air, always turning
+towards the sun, and never lighting on the earth till they die;
+for they have neither feet nor wings, as, he adds, may be seen by
+the birds carried to India, and sometimes to Holland, but being
+very costly they were then rarely seen in Europe. More than a
+hundred years later Mr. William Funnel, who accompanied Dampier,
+and wrote an account of the voyage, saw specimens at Amboyna, and
+was told that they came to Banda to eat nutmegs, which
+intoxicated them and made them fall down senseless, when they
+were killed by ants. Down to 1760, when Linnaeus named the
+largest species, Paradisea apoda (the footless Paradise Bird), no
+perfect specimen had been seen in Europe, and absolutely nothing
+was known about them. And even now, a hundred years later, most
+books state that they migrate annually to Ternate, Banda, and
+Amboyna; whereas the fact is, that they are as completely unknown
+in those islands in a wild state as they are in England. Linnaeus
+was also acquainted with a small species, which he named
+Paradisea regia (the King Bird of Paradise), and since then nine
+or ten others have been named, all of which were first described
+from skins preserved by the savages of New Guinea, and generally
+more or less imperfect. These are now all known in the Malay
+Archipelago as "Burong coati," or dead birds, indicating that the
+Malay traders never saw them alive.
+
+The Paradiseidae are a group of moderate-sized birds, allied in
+their structure and habits to crows, starlings, and to the
+Australian honeysuckers; but they are characterised by
+extraordinary developments of plumage, which are unequalled in
+any other family of birds. In several species large tufts of
+delicate bright-coloured feathers spring from each side of the
+body beneath the wings, forming trains, or fans, or shields; and
+the middle feathers of the tail are often elongated into wires,
+twisted into fantastic shapes, or adorned with the most brilliant
+metallic tints. In another set of species these accessory plumes
+spring from the head, the back, or the shoulders; while the
+intensity of colour and of metallic lustre displayed by their
+plumage, is not to be equalled by any other birds, except,
+perhaps, the humming-birds, and is not surpassed even by these.
+They have been usually classified under two distinct families,
+Paradiseidae and Epimachidae, the latter characterised by long
+and slender beaks, and supposed to be allied to the Hoopoes; but
+the two groups are so closely allied in every essential point of
+structure and habits, that I shall consider them as forming
+subdivisions of one family. I will now give a short description
+of each of the known species, and then add some general remarks
+on their natural history.
+
+The Great Bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda of Linnaeus) is the
+largest species known, being generally seventeen or eighteen
+inches from the beak to the tip of
+the tail. The body, wings, and tail are of a rich coffee-brown,
+which deepens on the breast to a blackish-violet or purple-brown.
+The whole top of the head and neck is of an exceedingly delicate
+straw-yellow, the feathers being short and
+close set, so as to resemble plush or velvet; the lower part of
+the throat up to the eye clothed with scaly feathers of an
+emerald, green colour, and with a rich metallic gloss, and
+velvety plumes of a still deeper green extend in a band across
+the forehead and chin as far as the eye, which is bright yellow.
+The beak is pale lead blue; and the feet, which are rather large
+and very strong and well formed, are of a pale ashy-pink. The two
+middle feathers of the tail have no webs, except a very small one
+at the base and at the extreme tip, forming wire-like cirrhi,
+which spread out in an elegant double curve, and vary from
+twenty-four to thirty-four inches long. From each side of the
+body, beneath the wings, springs a dense tuft of long and
+delicate plumes, sometimes two feet in length, of the most
+intense golden-orange colour and very glossy, but changing
+towards the tips into a pale brown. This tuft of plumage cam be
+elevated and spread out at pleasure, so as almost to conceal the
+body of the bird.
+
+These splendid ornaments are entirely confined to the male sex,
+while the female is really a very plain and ordinary-looking bird
+of a uniform coffee-brown colour which never changes, neither
+does she possess the long tail wires, nor a single yellow or
+green feather about the dead. The young males of the first year
+exactly resemble the females, so that they can only be
+distinguished by dissection. The first change is the acquisition
+of the yellow and green colour on the head and throat, and at the
+same time the two middle tail feathers grow a few inches longer
+than the rest, but remain webbed on both sides. At a later period
+these feathers arc replaced by the long bare shafts of the full
+length, as in the adult bird; but there is still no sign of the
+magnificent orange side-plumes, which later still complete the
+attire of the perfect male. To effect these changes there must be
+at least three successive moultings; and as the birds were found
+by me in all the stages about the same time, it is probable that
+they moult only once a year, and that the full plumage is not
+acquired till the bird is four years old. It was long thought
+that the fine train of feathers was assumed for a short time only
+at the breeding season, but my own experience, as well as the
+observation of birds of an allied species which I brought home
+with me, and which lived two years in this country, show that the
+complete plumage is retained during the whole year, except during
+a short period of moulting as with most other birds.
+
+The Great Bird of Paradise is very active and vigorous and seems
+to be in constant motion all day long. It is very abundant, small
+flocks of females and young male being constantly met with; and
+though the full-plumaged birds are less plentiful, their loud
+cries, which are heard daily, show that they also are very
+numerous. Their note is, "Wawk-wawk-wawk-Wok-wok-wok," and is so
+loud and shrill as to be heard a great distance, and to form the
+most prominent and characteristic animal sound in the Aru
+Islands. The mode of nidification is unknown; but the natives
+told me that the nest was formed of leaves placed on an ant's
+nest, or on some projecting limb of a very lofty tree, and they
+believe that it contains only one young bird. The egg is quite
+unknown, and the natives declared they had never seen it; and a
+very high reward offered for one by a Dutch official did not meet
+with success. They moult about January or February, and in May,
+when they are in full plumage, the males assemble early in the
+morning to exhibit themselves in the singular manner already
+described at p. 252. This habit enables the natives to obtain
+specimens with comparative ease. As soon as they find that the
+birds have fled upon a tree on which to assemble, they build a
+little shelter of palm leaves in a convenient place among the
+branches, and the hunter ensconces himself in it before daylight,
+armed with his bow and a number of arrows terminating in a round
+knob. A boy waits at the foot of the tree, and when the birds
+come at sunrise, and a sufficient number have assembled, and have
+begun to dance, the hunter shoots with his blunt arrow so
+strongly as to stun the bird, which drops down, and is secured
+and killed by the boy without its plumage being injured by a drop
+of blood. The rest take no notice, and fall one after another
+till some of them take the alarm. (See Frontispiece.)
+
+The native mode of preserving them is to cut off the wings and
+feet, and then skin the body up to the beak, taking out the
+skull. A stout stick is then run up through the specimen coming
+out at the mouth. Round this some leaves are stuffed, and the
+whole is wrapped up in a palm spathe and dried in the smoky hut.
+By this plan the head, which is really large, is shrunk up almost
+to nothing, the body is much reduced and shortened, and the
+greatest prominence is given to the flowing plumage. Some of
+these native skins are very clean, and often have wings and feet
+left on; others are dreadfully stained with smoke, and all hive a
+most erroneous idea of the proportions of the living bird.
+
+The Paradisea apoda, as far as we have any certain knowledge, is
+confined to the mainland of the Aru Islands, never being found in
+the smaller islands which surround the central mass. It is
+certainly not found in any of the parts of New Guinea visited by
+the Malay and Bugis traders, nor in any of the other islands
+where Birds of Paradise are obtained. But this is by no means
+conclusive evidence, for it is only in certain localities that
+the natives prepare skins, and in other places the same birds may
+be abundant without ever becoming known. It is therefore quite
+possible that this species may inhabit the great southern mass of
+New Guinea, from which Aru has been separated; while its near
+ally, which I shall next describe, is confined to the north-
+western peninsula.
+
+The Lesser Bird of Paradise (Paradisea papuana of Bechstein), "Le
+petit Emeraude" of French authors, is a much smaller bird than
+the preceding, although very similar to it. It differs in its
+lighter brown colour, not becoming darker or purpled on the
+breast; in the extension of the yellow colour all over the upper
+part of the back and on the wing coverts; in the lighter yellow
+of the side plumes, which have only a tinge of orange, and at the
+tips are nearly pure white; and in the comparative shortness of
+the tail cirrhi. The female differs remarkably front the same sex
+in Paradisea apoda, by being entirely white on the under surface
+of the body, and is thus a much handsomer bird. The young males
+are similarly coloured, and as they grow older they change to
+brown, and go through the same stages in acquiring the perfect
+plumage as has already been described in the allied species. It
+is this bird which is most commonly used in ladies' head-dresses
+in this country, and also forms an important article of commerce
+in the East.
+
+The Paradisea papuana has a comparatively wide range, being the
+common species on the mainland of New Guinea, as well as on the
+islands of Mysol, Salwatty, Jobie, Biak and Sook. On the south
+coast of New Guinea, the Dutch naturalist, Muller, found it at
+the Oetanata river in longitude 136° E. I obtained it myself at
+Dorey; and the captain of the Dutch steamer Etna informed me that
+he had seen the feathers among the natives of Humboldt Bay, in
+141° E. longitude. It is very probable, therefore, that it ranges
+over the whole of the mainland of New Guinea.
+
+The true Paradise Birds are omnivorous, feeding on fruits and
+insects--of the former preferring the small figs; of the latter,
+grasshoppers, locusts, and phasmas, as well as cockroaches and
+caterpillars. When I returned home, in 1862, I was so fortunate
+as to find two adult males of this species in Singapore; and as
+they seemed healthy, and fed voraciously on rice, bananas, and
+cockroaches, I determined on giving the very high price asked for
+them--Ł100.--and to bring them to England by the overland route
+under my own care. On my way home I stayed a week at Bombay, to
+break the journey, and to lay in a fresh stock of bananas for my
+birds. I had great difficulty, however, in supplying them with
+insect food, for in the Peninsular and Oriental steamers
+cockroaches were scarce, and it was only by setting traps in the
+store-rooms, and by hunting an hour every night in the
+forecastle, that I could secure a few dozen of these creatures,--
+scarcely enough for a single meal. At Malta, where I stayed a
+fortnight, I got plenty of cockroaches from a bake-house, and
+when I left, took with me several biscuit-tins' full, as
+provision for the voyage home. We came through the Mediterranean
+in March, with a very cold wind; and the only place on board the
+mail-steamer where their large cage could be accommodated was
+exposed to a strong current of air down a hatchway which stood
+open day and night, yet the birds never seemed to feel the cold.
+During the night journey from Marseilles to Paris it was a sharp
+frost; yet they arrived in London in perfect health, and lived in
+the Zoological Gardens for one, and two years, often displaying
+their beautiful plumes to the admiration of the spectators. It is
+evident, therefore, that the Paradise Birds are very hardy, and
+require air and exercise rather than heat; and I feel sure that
+if a good sized conservators` could be devoted to them, or if
+they could be turned loose in the tropical department of the
+Crystal Palace or the Great Palm House at Kew, they would live in
+this country for many years.
+
+The Red Bird of Paradise (Paradisea rubra of Viellot), though
+allied to the two birds already described, is much more distinct
+from them than they are from each other. It is about the same
+size as Paradisea papuana (13 to 14 inches long), but differs
+from it in many particulars. The side plumes, instead of being
+yellow, are rich crimson, and only extend about three or four
+inches beyond the end of the tail; they are somewhat rigid, and
+the ends are curved downwards and inwards, and are tipped with
+white. The two middle tail feathers, instead of being simply
+elongated and deprived of their webs, are transformed into stiff
+black ribands, a quarter of an inch wide, but curved like a split
+quill, and resembling thin half cylinders of horn or whalebone.
+When a dead bird is laid on its back, it is seen that these
+ribands take a curve or set, which brings them round so as to
+meet in a double circle on the neck of the bird; but when they
+hang downwards, during life, they assume a spiral twist, and form
+an exceedingly graceful double curve. They are about twenty-two
+inches long, and always attract attention as the most conspicuous
+and extraordinary feature of the species. The rich metallic green
+colour of the throat extends over the front half of the head to
+behind the eyes, and on the forehead forms a little double crest
+of scaly feathers, which adds much to the vivacity of the bird's
+aspect. The bill is gamboge yellow, and the iris blackish olive.
+(Figure at p. 353.)
+
+The female of this species is of a tolerably uniform coffee-brown
+colour, but has a blackish head, and the nape neck, and shoulders
+yellow, indicating the position of the brighter colours of the
+male. The changes of plumage follow the same order of succession
+as in the other species, the bright colours of the head and neck
+being first developed, then the lengthened filaments of the tail,
+and last of all, the red side plumes. I obtained a series of
+specimens, illustrating the manner in which the extraordinary
+black tail ribands are developed, which is very remarkable. They
+first appear as two ordinary feathers, rather shorter than the
+rest of the tail; the second stage would no doubt be that shown
+in a specimen of Paradisea apoda, in which the feathers are
+moderately lengthened, and with the web narrowed in the middle;
+the third stage is shown by a specimen which has part of the
+midrib bare, and terminated by a spatulate web; in another the
+bare midrib is a little dilated and semi-cylindrical, and the
+terminal web very small; in a fifth, the perfect black horny
+riband is formed, but it bears at its extremity a brown spatulate
+web, while in another a portion of the black riband itself bears,
+for a portion of its length, a narrow brown web. It is only after
+these changes are fully completed that the red side plumes begin
+to appear.
+
+The successive stages of development of the colours and plumage
+of the Birds of Paradise are very interesting, from the striking
+manner in which they accord with the theory of their having been
+produced by the simple action of variation, and the cumulative
+power of selection by the females, of those male birds which were
+more than usually ornamental. Variations of _colour_ are of all
+others the most frequent and the most striking, and are most
+easily modified and accumulated by man's selection of them. We
+should expect, therefore, that the sexual differences of _colour_
+would be those most early accumulated and fixed, and would
+therefore appear soonest in the young birds; and this is exactly
+what occurs in the Paradise Birds. Of all variations in the
+_form_ of birds' feathers, none are so frequent as those in the
+head and tail. These occur more, or less in every family of
+birds, and are easily produced in many domesticated varieties,
+while unusual developments of the feathers of the body are rare
+in the whole class of birds, and have seldom or never occurred in
+domesticated species. In accordance with these facts, we find the
+scale-formed plumes of the throat, the crests of the head, and
+the long cirrhi of the tail, all fully developed before the
+plumes which spring from the side of the body begin to mane their
+appearance. If, on the other hand, the male Paradise Birds have
+not acquired their distinctive plumage by successive variations,
+but have been as they are mow from the moment they first appeared
+upon the earth, this succession becomes at the least
+unintelligible to us, for we can see no reason why the changes
+should not take place simultaneously, or in a reverse order to
+that in which they actually occur.
+
+What is known of the habits of this bird, and the way in which it
+is captured by the natives, have already been described at page
+362.
+
+The Red Bird of Paradise offers a remarkable case of restricted
+range, being entirely confined to the small island of Waigiou,
+off the north-west extremity of New Guinea, where it replaces the
+allied species found in the other islands.
+
+The three birds just described form a well-marked group, agreeing
+in every point of general structure, in their comparatively large
+size, the brown colour of their bodies, wings, and tail, and in
+the peculiar character of the ornamental  plumage which
+distinguishes the male bird. The group ranges nearly over the
+whole area inhabited by the family of the Paradiseidae, but each
+of the species has its own limited region, and is never found in
+the same district with either of its close allies. To these three
+birds properly belongs the generic title Paradisea, or true
+Paradise Bird.
+
+The next species is the Paradisea regia of Linnaeus, or Ding Bird
+of Paradise, which differs so much from the three preceding
+species as to deserve a distinct generic name, and it has
+accordingly been called Cicinnurus regius. By the Malays it is
+called "Burong rajah," or King Bird, and by the natives of the
+Aru Islands "Goby-goby."
+
+This lovely little bird is only about six and a half inches long,
+partly owing to the very short tail, which does not surpass the
+somewhat square wings. The head, throat, and entire upper surface
+are of the richest glossy crimson red, shading to orange-crimson
+on the forehead, where the feathers extend beyond the nostrils
+more than half-way down the beak. The plumage is excessively
+brilliant, shining in certain lights with a metallic or glassy
+lustre. The breast and belly are pure silky white, between which
+colour and the red of the throat there is a broad band of rich
+metallic green, and there is a small spot of the same colour
+close above each eye. From each side of the body beneath the
+wing, springs a tuft of broad delicate feathers about an inch and
+a half long, of an ashy colour, but tipped with a broad band of
+emerald green, bordered within by a narrow line of buff: These
+plumes are concealed beneath the wing, but when the bird pleases,
+can be raised and spread out so as to form an elegant
+semicircular fan on each shoulder. But another ornament still
+more extraordinary, and if possible more beautiful, adorns this
+little bird. The two middle tail feathers are modified into very
+slender wirelike shafts, nearly six inches long, each of which
+bears at the extremity, on the inner side only, a web of an
+emerald green colour, which is coiled up into a perfect spiral
+disc, and produces a most singular and charming effect. The bill
+is orange yellow, and the feet and legs of a fine cobalt blue.
+(See upper figure on the plate at the commencement of this
+chapter.)
+
+The female of this little gem is such a plainly coloured bird,
+that it can at first sight hardly be believed to belong to the
+same species. The upper surface is of a dull earthy brown, a
+slight tinge of orange red appearing only on the margins of the
+quills. Beneath, it is of a paler yellowish brown, scaled and
+banded with narrow dusky markings. The young males are exactly
+like the female, and they no doubt undergo a series of changes as
+singular as those of Paradisea rubra; but, unfortunately, I was
+unable to obtain illustrative specimens.
+
+This exquisite little creature frequents the smaller trees in the
+thickest parts of the forest, feeding on various fruits; often of
+a very large size for so small a bird. It is very active both on
+its wings and feet, and makes a whirring sound while flying,
+something like the South American manakins. It often flutters its
+wings and displays the beautiful fan which adorns its breast,
+while the star-bearing tail wires diverge in an elegant double
+curve. It is tolerably plentiful in the Aru Islands, which led to
+it, being brought to Europe at an early period along with
+Paradisea apoda. It also occurs in the island of Mysol and in
+every part of New Guinea which has been visited by naturalists.
+
+We now come to the remarkable little bird called the
+"Magnificent," first figured by Buffon, and named Paradisea
+speciosa by Boddaert, which, with one allied species, has been
+formed into a separate genus by Prince Buonaparte, under the name
+of Diphyllodes, from the curious double mantle which clothes the
+back.
+
+The head is covered with short brown velvety feathers, which
+advance on the back so as to cover the nostrils. From the nape
+springs a dense mass of feathers of a straw-yellow colour, and
+about one and a half inches long, forming a mantle over the upper
+part of the back. Beneath this, and forming a band about one-
+third of an inch beyond it, is a second mantle of rich, glossy,
+reddish-brown fathers. The rest of the bath is orange-brown, the
+tail-coverts and tail dark bronzy, the wings light orange-buff:
+The whole under surface is covered with an abundance of plumage
+springing from the margins of the breast, and of a rich deep
+green colour, with changeable hues of purple. Down the middle of
+the breast is a broad band of scaly plumes of the same colour,
+while the chin and throat are of a rich metallic bronze. From the
+middle of the tail spring two narrow feathers of a rich steel
+blue, and about ten inches long. These are webbed on the inner
+side only, and curve outward, so as to form a double circle.
+
+From what we know of the habits of allied species, we may be sure
+that the greatly developed plumage of this bird is erected and
+displayed in some remarkable manner. The mass of feathers on the
+under surface are probably expanded into a hemisphere, while the
+beautiful yellow mantle is no doubt elevated so as to give the
+bird a very different appearance from that which it presents in
+the dried and flattened skins of the natives, through which alone
+it is at present known. The feet appear to be dark blue.
+
+This rare and elegant little bird is found only on the mainland
+of New Guinea, and in the island of Mysol.
+
+A still more rare and beautiful species than the last is the
+Diphyllodes wilsoni, described by Mr. Cassin from a native skin
+in the rich museum of Philadelphia. The same bird was afterwards
+named "Diphyllodes respublica" by Prince Buonaparte, and still
+later, "Schlegelia calva," by Dr. Bernstein, who was so fortunate
+as to obtain fresh specimens in Waigiou.
+
+In this species the upper mantle is sulphur yellow, the lower one
+and the wings pure red, the breast plumes dark green, and the
+lengthened middle tail feathers much shorter than in the allied
+species. The most curious difference is, however, that the top of
+the head is bald, the bare skin being of a rich cobalt blue,
+crossed by several lines of black velvety feathers.
+
+It is about the same size as Diphyllodes speciosa, and is no
+doubt entirely confined to the island of Waigiou. The female, as
+figured and described by Dr. Bernstein, is very like that of
+Cicinnurus regius, being similarly banded beneath; and we may
+therefore conclude that its near ally, the "Magnificent," is at
+least equally plain in this sex, of which specimens have not yet
+been obtained.
+
+The Superb Bird of Paradise was first figured by Buffon, and was
+named by Boddaert, Paradisea atra, from the black ground colour
+of its plumage. It forms the genus Lophorina of Viellot, and is
+one of the rarest and most brilliant of the whole group, being
+only known front mutilated native skins. This bird is a little
+larger than the Magnificent. The ground colour of the plumage is
+intense black, but with beautiful bronze reflections on the neck,
+and the whole head scaled with feathers of brilliant metallic
+green and blue. Over its breast it bears a shield formed of
+narrow and rather stiff feathers, much elongated towards the
+sides, of a pure bluish-green colour, and with a satiny gloss.
+But a still more extraordinary ornament is that which springs
+from the back of the neck,--a shield of a similar form to that on
+the breast, but much larger, and of a velvety black colour,
+glossed with bronze and purple. The outermost feathers of this
+shield are half an inch longer than the wing, and when it is
+elevated it must, in conjunction with the breast shield,
+completely change the form and whole appearance of the bird. The
+bill is black, and the feet appear to be yellow.
+
+This wonderful little bird inhabits the interior of the northern
+peninsula of New Guinea only. Neither I nor Mr. Allen could hear
+anything of it in any of the islands or on any part of the coast.
+It is true that it was obtained from the coast-natives by Lesson;
+but when at Sorong in 1861, Mr. Allen learnt that it is only
+found three days' journey in the interior. Owing to these "Black
+Birds of Paradise," as they are called, not being so much valued
+as articles of merchandise, they now seem to be rarely preserved
+by the natives, and it thus happened that during several years
+spent on the coasts of New Guinea and in the Moluccas I was never
+able to obtain a skin. We are therefore quite ignorant of the
+habits of this bird, and also of its female, though the latter is
+no doubt as plain and inconspicuous as in all the other species
+of this family.
+
+The Golden, or Six-shafted, Paradise Bird, is another rare
+species, first figured by Buffon, and never yet obtained in
+perfect condition. It was named by Boddaert, Paradisea sexpennis,
+and forms the genus Parotia of Viellot. This wonderful bird is
+about the size of the female Paradisea rubra. The plumage appear,
+at first sight black, but it glows in certain light with bronze
+and deep purple. The throat and breast are scaled with broad flat
+feathers of an intense golden hue, changing to green and blue
+tints in certain lights. On the back of the head is a broad
+recurved band of feathers, whose brilliancy is indescribable,
+resembling the sheen of emerald and topaz rather than any organic
+substance. Over the forehead is a large patch of pure white
+feathers, which shine like satin; and from the sides of the head
+spring the six wonderful feathers from which the bird receives
+its name. These are slender wires, six inches long, with a small
+oval web at the extremity. In addition to these ornaments, there
+is also an immense tuft of soft feathers on each side of the
+breast, which when elevated must entirely hide the wings, and
+give the bird au appearance of being double its real bulk. The
+bill is black, short, and rather compressed, with the feathers
+advancing over the nostrils, as in Cicinnurus regius. This
+singular and brilliant bird inhabits the same region as the
+Superb Bird of Paradise, and nothing whatever is known about it
+but what we can derive from an examination of the skins preserved
+by the natives of New Guinea.
+
+The Standard Wing, named Semioptera wallacei by Mr. G. R. Gray,
+is an entirely new form of Bird of Paradise, discovered by myself
+in the island of Batchian, and especially distinguished by a pair
+of long narrow feathers of a white colour, which spring from
+among the short plumes which clothe the bend of the wing, and are
+capable of being erected at pleasure. The general colour of this
+bird is a delicate olive-brown, deepening to a loud of bronzy
+olive in the middle of the back, and changing to a delicate ashy
+violet with a metallic gloss, on the crown of the head. The
+feathers, which cover the nostrils and extend half-way down the
+beak, are loose and curved upwards. Beneath, it is much more
+beautiful. The scale-like feathers of the breast are margined
+with rich metallic blue-green, which colour entirely covers the
+throat and sides of the neck, as well as the long pointed plumes
+which spring from the sides of the breast, and extend nearly as
+far as the end of the wings. The most curious feature of the
+bird, however, and one altogether unique in the whole class, is
+found in the pair of long narrow delicate feathers which spring
+from each wing close to the bend. On lifting the wing-coverts
+they are seen to arise from two tubular horny sheaths, which
+diverge from near the point of junction of the carpal bones. As
+already described at p. 41, they are erectile, and when the bird
+is excited are spread out at right angles to the wing and
+slightly divergent. They are from six to six and a half inches
+long, the upper one slightly exceeding the lower. The total
+length of the bird is eleven inches. The bill is horny olive, the
+iris deep olive, and the feet bright orange.
+
+The female bird is remarkably plain, being entirely of a dull
+pale earthy brown, with only a slight tinge of ashy violet on the
+head to relieve its general monotony; and the young males exactly
+resemble her. (See figures at p. 41.)
+
+This bird, frequents the lower trees of the forests, and, like
+most Paradise Birds, is in constant motion--flying from branch to
+branch, clinging to the twigs and even to the smooth and vertical
+trunks almost as easily as a woodpecker. It continually utters a
+harsh, creaking note, somewhat intermediate between that of
+Paradisea apoda, and the more musical cry of Cicinnurus regius.
+The males at short intervals open and flutter their wings, erect
+the long shoulder feathers, and spread out the elegant green
+breast shields.
+
+The Standard Wing is found in Gilolo as well as in Batchian, and
+all the specimens from the former island have the green breast
+shield rather longer, the crown of the head darker violet, and
+the lower parts of the body rather more strongly scaled with
+green. This is the only Paradise Bird yet found in the Moluccan
+district, all the others being confined to the Papuan Islands and
+North Australia.
+
+We now come to the Epimachidae, or Long-billed Birds of Paradise,
+which, as before stated, ought not to be separated from the
+Paradiseidae by the intervention of any other birds. One of the
+most remarkable of these is the Twelve-wired Paradise Bird,
+Paradises alba of Blumenbach, but now placed in the genus
+Seleucides of Lesson.
+
+This bird is about twelve inches long, of which the compressed
+and curved beak occupies two inches. The colour of the breast and
+upper surface appears at first sight nearly black, but a close
+examination shows that no part of it is devoid of colour; and by
+holding it in various lights, the most rich and glowing tints
+become visible. The head, covered with short velvety feathers,
+which advance on the chic much further than on the upper part of
+the beak, is of a purplish bronze colour; the whole of the back
+and shoulders is rich bronzy green, while the closed wings and
+tail are of the most brilliant violet purple, all the plumage
+having a delicate silky gloss. The mass of feathers which cover
+the breast is really almost black, with faint glosses of green
+and purple, but their outer edges are margined with glittering
+bands of emerald green. The whole lower part of the body is rich
+buffy yellow, including the tuft of plumes which spring from the
+sides, and extend an inch and a half beyond the tail. When skins
+are exposed to the light the yellow fades into dull white, from
+which circumstance it derived its specific name. About six of the
+innermost of these plumes on each side have the midrib elongated
+into slender black wires, which bend at right angles, and curve
+somewhat backwards to a length of about ten inches, forming one
+of those extraordinary and fantastic ornaments with which this
+group of birds abounds. The bill is jet black, and the feet
+bright yellow. (See lower figure on the plate at the beginning of
+this chapter).
+
+The female, although not quite so plain a bird as in some other
+species, presents none of the gay colours or ornamental plumage
+of the male. The top of the head and back of the neck are black,
+the rest of the upper parts rich reddish brown; while the under
+surface is entirely yellowish ashy, somewhat blackish on the
+breast, and crossed throughout with narrow blackish wavy bands.
+
+The Seleucides alba is found in the island of Salwatty, and in
+the north-western parts of New Guinea, where it frequents
+flowering trees, especially sago-palms and pandani, sucking the
+flowers, round and beneath which its unusually large and powerful
+feet enable it to cling. Its motions are very rapid. It seldom
+rests more than a few moments on one tree, after which it flies
+straight off, and with great swiftness, to another. It has a loud
+shrill cry, to be heard a long way, consisting of "Cah, cah,"
+repeated five or six times in a descending scale, and at the last
+note it generally flies away. The males are quite solitary in
+their habits, although, perhaps, they assemble at pertain times
+like the true Paradise Birds. All the specimens shot and opened
+by my assistant Mr. Allen, who obtained this fine bird during his
+last voyage to New Guinea, had nothing in their stomachs but a
+brown sweet liquid, probably the nectar of the flowers on which
+they had been feeding. They certainly, however, eat both fruit
+and insects, for a specimen which I saw alive on board a Dutch
+steamer ate cockroaches and papaya fruit voraciously. This bird
+had the curious habit of resting at noon with the bill pointing
+vertically upwards. It died on the passage to Batavia, and I
+secured the body and formed a skeleton, which shows indisputably
+that it is really a Bird of Paradise. The tongue is very long and
+extensible, but flat and little fibrous at the end, exactly like
+the true Paradiseas.
+
+In the island of Salwatty, the natives search in the forests till
+they find the sleeping place of this bird, which they know by
+seeing its dung upon the ground. It is generally in a low bushy
+tree. At night they climb up the trap, and either shoot the birds
+with blunt arrows, or even catch them alive with a cloth. In New
+Guinea they are caught by placing snares on the trees frequented
+by them, in the same way as the Red Paradise birds are caught in
+Waigiou, and which has already been described at page 362.
+
+The great Epimaque, or Long-tailed Paradise Bird (Epimachus
+magnus), is another of these wonderful creatures, only known by
+the imperfect skins prepared by the
+natives. In its dark velvety plumage, glowed with bronze and
+purple, it resembles the Seleucides alba, but it bears a
+magnificent tail more than two feet long, glossed on the upper
+surface with the most intense opalescent blue. Its chief
+ornament, however, consists in the group of broad plumes which
+spring from the sides of the breast, and which are dilated at the
+extremity, and banded with the most vivid metallic blue and
+green. The bill is long and curved, and the feet black, and
+similar to those of the allied forms. The total length of this
+fine bird is between three and four feet.
+
+This splendid bird inhabits the mountains of New Guinea, in the
+same district with the Superb and the Six-shafted Paradise Birds,
+and I was informed is sometimes found in the ranges near the
+coast. I was several times assured by different natives that this
+bird makes its nest in a hole under ground, or under rocks,
+always choosing a place with two apertures, so that it may enter
+at one and go out at the other. This is very unlike what we
+should suppose to be the habits of the bird, but it is not easy
+to conceive how the story originated if it is not true; and all
+travellers know that native accounts of the habits of animals,
+however strange they may seem, almost invariably turn out to be
+correct.
+
+The Scale-breasted Paradise Bird (Epimachus magnificus of Cuvier)
+is now generally placed with the Australian Rifle birds in the
+genus Ptiloris. Though very beautiful, these birds are less
+strikingly decorated with accessory plumage than the other
+species we have been describing, their chief ornament being a
+more or less developed breastplate of stiff metallic green
+feathers, and a small tuft of somewhat hairy plumes on the sides
+of the breast. The back and wings of this species are of an
+intense velvety black, faintly glossed in certain lights with
+rich purple. The two broad middle tail feathers are opalescent
+green-blue with a velvety surface, and the top of the head is
+covered with feathers resembling scales of burnished steel. A
+large triangular space covering the chin, throat, and breast, is
+densely scaled with feathers, having a steel-blue or green
+lustre, and a silky feel. This is edged below with a narrow band
+of black, followed by shiny bronzy green, below which the body is
+covered with hairy feathers of a rich claret colour, deepening to
+black at the tail. The tufts of side plumes somewhat resemble
+those of the true Birds of Paradise, but are scanty, about as
+long as the tail, and of a black colour. The sides of the head
+are rich violet, and velvety feathers extend on each side of the
+beak over the nostrils.
+
+I obtained at Dorey a young male of this bird, in a state of
+plumage which is no doubt that of the adult female, as is the
+case in all the allied species. The upper surface, wings, and
+tail are rich reddish brown, while the under surface is of a pale
+ashy colour, closely barred throughout with narrow wavy black
+bands. There is also a pale banded stripe over the eye, and a
+long dusky stripe from the gape down each side of the neck. This
+bird is fourteen inches long, whereas the native skins of the
+adult male are only about ten inches, owing to the way in which
+the tail is pushed in, so as to give as much prominence as
+possible to the ornamental plumage of the breast.
+
+At Cape York, in North Australia, there is a closely allied
+species, Ptiloris alberti, the female of which is very similar to
+the young male bird here described. The beautiful Rifle Birds of
+Australia, which much resemble those Paradise Birds, are named
+Ptiloris paradiseus and Ptiloris victories, The Scale-breasted
+Paradise Bird seems to be confined to the mainland of New Guinea,
+and is less rare than several of the other species.
+
+There are three other New Guinea birds which are by some authors
+classed with the Birds of Paradise, and which, being almost
+equally remarkable for splendid plumage, deserve to be noticed
+here. The first is the Paradise pie (Astrapia nigra of Lesson), a
+bird of the size of Paradises rubra, but with a very long tail,
+glossed above with intense violet. The back is bronzy black, the
+lower parts green, the throat and neck bordered with loose broad
+feathers of an intense coppery hue, while on the top of the head
+and neck they are glittering emerald green, All the plumage round
+the head is lengthened and erectile, and when spread out by the
+living bird must lave an effect hardly surpassed by any of the
+true Paradise birds. The bill is black and the feet yellow. The
+Astrapia seems to me to be somewhat intermediate between the
+Paradiseidae and Epimachidae.
+
+There is an allied species, having a bare carunculated head,
+which has been called Paradigalla carunculata. It is believed to
+inhabit, with the preceding, the mountainous, interior of New
+Guinea, but is exceedingly rare, the only known specimen being in
+the Philadelphia Museum.
+
+The Paradise Oriole is another beautiful bird, which is now
+sometimes classed with the Birds of Paradise. It has been named
+Paradises aurea and Oriolus aureus by the old naturalists, and is
+now generally placed in the same genus as the Regent Bird of
+Australia (Sericulus chrysocephalus). But the form of the bill
+and the character of the plumage seem to me to be so different
+that it will have to form a distinct genus. This bird is almost
+entirely yellow, with the exception of the throat, the tail, and
+part of the wings and back, which are black; but it is chiefly
+characterised by a quantity of long feathers of an intense glossy
+orange colour, which cover its neck down to the middle of the
+back, almost like the hackles of a game-cock.
+
+This beautiful bird inhabits the mainland of New Guinea, and is
+also found in Salwatty, but is so rare that I was only able to
+obtain one imperfect native skin, and nothing whatever is known
+of its habits.
+
+I will now give a list of all the Birds of Paradise yet known,
+with the places they are believed to inhabit.
+
+1. Paradisea apoda (The Great Paradise Bird). Aru Islands.
+
+2. Paradisea papuana (The Lesser Paradise Bird). New Guinea,
+Mysol, Jobie.
+
+3. Paradisea rubra (The Red Paradise Bird). Waigiou,
+
+4. Cicinnurus regius (The King Paradise Bird). New Guinea, Aru
+Islands, Mysol, Salwatty.
+
+5. Diphyllodes speciosa (The Magnificent). New Guinea, Mysol,
+Salwatty.
+
+6. Diphyllodes wilsoni (The Red Magnificent). Waigiou.
+
+7. Lophorina atra (The Superb). New Guinea.
+
+8. Parotia sexpennis (The Golden Paradise Bird). New Guinea.
+
+9. Semioptera wallacei (The Standard Wing). Batchian, Gilolo.
+
+10. Epimachus magnus (The Long-tailed Paradise Bird). New Guinea
+
+11. Seleucides albs (The Twelve-wired Paradise Bird).New Guinea,
+Salwatty.
+
+12. Ptiloris magnifica (The Scale-breasted Paradise Bird). New
+Guinea.
+
+13. Ptiloris alberti (Prince Albert's Paradise Bird). North
+Australia.
+
+14. Ptiloris Paradisea (The Rifle Bird). East Australia.
+
+15. Ptiloris victoriae (The Victorian Rifle Bird). North-East
+Australia.
+
+16. Astrapia nigra (The Paradise Pie). New Guinea.
+
+17. Paradigalla carunculata (The Carunculated Paradise Pie). New
+Guinea.
+
+I8. (?) Sericulus aureus (The Paradise Oriole). New Guinea,
+Salwatty.
+
+We see, therefore, that of the eighteen species which seem to
+deserve a place among the Birds of Paradise, eleven are known to
+inhabit the great island of New Guinea, eight of which are
+entirely confined to it and the hardly separated island of
+Salwatty. But if we consider those islands which are now united
+to New Guinea by a shallow sea to really form a part of it, we
+shall find that fourteen of the Paradise Birds belong to that
+country, while three inhabit the northern and eastern parts of
+Australia, and one the Moluccas. All the more extraordinary and
+magnificent species are, however, entirely confined to the Papuan
+region.
+
+Although I devoted so much time to a search after these wonderful
+birds, I only succeeded myself in obtaining five species during a
+residence of many months in the Aru Islands, New Guinea, and
+Waigiou. Mr. Allen's voyage to Mysol did not procure a single
+additional species, but we both heard of a place called Sorong,
+on the mainland of New Guinea, near Salwatty, where we were told
+that all the kinds we desired could be obtained. We therefore
+determined that he should visit this place, and endeavour to
+penetrate into the interior among the natives, who actually shoot
+and skin the Birds of Paradise. He went in the small prau I had
+fitted up at Goram, and through the kind assistance of the Dutch
+Resident at Ternate, a lieutenant and two soldiers were sent by
+the Sultan of Tidore to accompany and protect him, and to assist
+him in getting men and in visiting the interior.
+
+Notwithstanding these precautions, Mr. Allen met with
+difficulties in this voyage which we had neither of us
+encountered before. To understand these, it is necessary to
+consider that the Birds of Paradise are an article of commerce,
+and are the monopoly of the chiefs of the coast villages, who
+obtain them at a low rate from the mountaineers, and sell them to
+the Bugis traders. A portion is also paid every year as tribute
+to the Sultan of Tidore. The natives are therefore very jealous
+of a stranger, especially a European, interfering in their trade,
+and above all of going into the interior to deal with the
+mountaineers themselves. They of course think he will raise the
+prices in the interior, and lessen the supply on the coast,
+greatly to their disadvantage; they also think their tribute will
+be raised if a European takes back a quantity of the rare sorts;
+and they have besides a vague and very natural dread of some
+ulterior object in a white man's coming at so much trouble and
+expense to their country only to get Birds of Paradise, of which
+they know he can buy plenty (of the common yellow ones which
+alone they value) at Ternate, Macassar, or Singapore.
+
+It thus happened that when Mr. Allen arrived at Sorong, and
+explained his intention of going to seek Birds of Paradise in the
+interior, innumerable objections were raised. He was told it was
+three or four days' journey over swamps and mountains; that the
+mountaineers were savages and cannibals, who would certainly kill
+him; and, lastly, that not a man in the village could be found
+who dare go with him. After some days spent in these discussions,
+as he still persisted in making the attempt, and showed them his
+authority from the Sultan of Tidore to go where be pleased and
+receive every assistance, they at length provided him with a boat
+to go the first part of the journey up a river; at the same time,
+however, they sent private orders to the interior villages to
+refuse to sell any provisions, so as to compel him to return. On
+arriving at the village where they were to leave the river and
+strike inland, the coast people returned, leaving Mr. Allen to
+get on as he could. Here he called on the Tidore lieutenant to
+assist him, and procure men as guides and to carry his baggage to
+the villages of the mountaineers. This, however, was not so
+easily done. A quarrel took place, and the natives, refusing to
+obey the imperious orders of the lieutenant, got out their knives
+and spears to attack him and his soldiers; and Mr. Allen himself
+was obliged to interfere to protect those who had come to guard
+him. The respect due to a white man and the timely distribution
+of a few presents prevailed; and, on showing the knives,
+hatchets, and beads he was willing to give to those who
+accompanied him, peace was restored, and the next day, travelling
+over a frightfully rugged country, they reached the villages of
+the mountaineers. Here Mr. Allen remained a month without any
+interpreter through whom he could understand a word or
+communicate a want. However, by signs and presents and a pretty
+liberal barter, he got on very well, some of them accompanying
+him every day in the forest to shoot, and receiving a small
+present when he was successful.
+
+In the grand matter of the Paradise Birds, however, little was
+done. Only one additional species was found, the Seleucides alba,
+of which be had already obtained a specimen in Salwatty; but he
+learnt that the other kinds' of which be showed them drawings,
+were found two or three days' journey farther in the interior.
+When I sent my men from Dorey to Amberbaki, they heard exactly
+the same story--that the rarer sorts were only found several
+days' journey in the interior, among rugged mountains, and that
+the skins were prepared by savage tribes who had never even been
+seen by any of the coast people.
+
+It seems as if Nature had taken precautions that these her
+choicest treasures should not be made too common, and thus be
+undervalued. This northern coast of New Guinea is exposed to the
+full swell of the Pacific Ocean, and is rugged and harbourless.
+The country is all rocky and mountainous, covered everywhere with
+dense forests, offering in its swamps and precipices and serrated
+ridges an almost impassable barrier to the unknown interior; and
+the people are dangerous savages, in the very lowest stage of
+barbarism. In such a country, and among such a people, are found
+these wonderful productions of Nature, the Birds of Paradise,
+whose exquisite beauty of form and colour and strange
+developments of plumage are calculated to excite the wonder and
+admiration of the most civilized and the most intellectual of
+mankind, and to furnish inexhaustible materials for study to the
+naturalist, and for speculation to the philosopher.
+
+Thus ended my search after these beautiful birds. Five voyages to
+different parts of the district they inhabit, each occupying in
+its preparation and execution the larger part of a year, produced
+me only five species out of the fourteen known to exist in the
+New Guinea district. The kinds obtained are those that inhabit
+the coasts of New Guinea and its islands, the remainder seeming
+to be strictly confined to the central mountain-ranges of the
+northern peninsula; and our researches at Dorey and Amberbaki,
+near one end of this peninsula, and at Salwatty and Sorong, near
+the other, enable me to decide with some certainty on the native
+country of these rare and lovely birds, good specimens of which
+have never yet been seen in Europe.
+
+It must be considered as somewhat extraordinary that, during five
+years' residence and travel in Celebes, the Moluccas, and New
+Guinea, I should never have been able to purchase skins of half
+the species which Lesson, forty years ago, obtained during a few
+weeks in the same countries. I believe that all, except the
+common species of commerce, are now much more difficult to obtain
+than they were even twenty years ago; and I impute it principally
+to their having been sought after by the Dutch officials through
+the Sultan of Tidore. The chiefs of the annual expeditions to
+collect tribute have had orders to get all the rare sorts of
+Paradise Birds; and as they pay little or nothing for them (it
+being sufficient to say they are for the Sultan), the head men of
+the coast villages would for the future refuse to purchase them
+from the mountaineers, and confine themselves instead to the
+commoner species, which are less sought after by amateurs, but
+are a more profitable merchandise. The same causes frequently
+lead the inhabitants of uncivilized countries to conceal minerals
+or other natural products with which they may become acquainted,
+from the fear of being obliged to pay increased tribute, or of
+bringing upon themselves a new and oppressive labour.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PAPUAN ISLANDS.
+
+NEW GUINEA, with the islands joined to it by a shallow sea,
+constitute the Papuan group, characterised by a very close
+resemblance in their peculiar forms of life. Having already, in
+my chapters on the Aru Islands and on the Birds of Paradise,
+given some details of the natural history of this district, I
+shall here confine myself to a general sketch of its animal
+productions, and of their relations to those of the rest of the
+world.
+
+New Guinea is perhaps the largest island on the globe, being a
+little larger than Borneo. It is nearly fourteen hundred miles
+long, and in the widest part four hundred broad, and seems to be
+everywhere covered with luxuriant forests. Almost everything that
+is yet known of its natural productions comes from the north-
+western peninsula, and a few islands grouped around it. These do
+not constitute a tenth part of the area of the whole island, and
+are so cut off from it, that their fauna may well he somewhat
+different; yet they have produced us (with a very partial
+exploration) no less than two hundred and fifty species of land
+birds, almost all unknown elsewhere, and comprising some of the
+most curious and most beautiful of the feathered tribes. It is
+needless to say how much interest attaches to the far larger
+unknown portion of this great island, the greatest terra
+incognita that still remains for the naturalist to explore, and
+the only region where altogether new and unimagined forms of life
+may perhaps be found. There is now, I am happy to say, some
+chance that this great country will no longer remain absolutely
+unknown to us. The Dutch Government have granted well-equipped
+steamer to carry a naturalist (Mr. Rosenberg, already mentioned
+in this work) and assistants to New Guinea, where they are to
+spend some years in circumnavigating the island, ascending its
+large rivers a< far as possible into the interior, and making
+extensive collections of its natural productions.
+
+The Mammalia of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, yet
+discovered, are only seventeen in number. Two of these are bats,
+one is a pig of a peculiar species (Sus papuensis), and the rest
+are all marsupials. The bats are, no doubt, much more numerous,
+but there is every reason to believe that whatever new land
+Mammalia man be discovered will belong to the marsupial order.
+One of these is a true kangaroo, very similar to some of middle-
+sized kangaroos of Australia, and it is remarkable as being the
+first animal of the kind ever seen by Europeans. It inhabits
+Mysol and the Aru Islands (an allied species being found in New
+Guinea), and was seen and described by Le Brun in 1714, from
+living specimens at Batavia. A much more extraordinary creature
+is the tree-kangaroo, two species of which are known from New
+Guinea. These animals do not differ very strikingly in form from
+the terrestrial kangaroos, and appear to be but imperfectly
+adapted to an arboreal life, as they move rather slowly, and do
+not seem to have a very secure footing on the limb of a tree. The
+leaping power of the muscular tail is lost, and powerful claws
+have been acquired to assist in climbing, but in other respects
+the animal seems better adapted to walls on terra firma. This
+imperfect adaptation may be due to the fact of there being no
+carnivore in New Guinea, and no enemies of any kind from which
+these animals have to escape by rapid climbing. Four species of
+Cuscus, and the small flying opossum, also inhabit New Guinea;
+and there are five other smaller marsupials, one of which is the
+size of a rat, and takes its place by entering houses and
+devouring provisions.
+
+The birds of New Guinea offer the greatest possible contrast to
+the Mammalia, since they are more numerous, more beautiful, and
+afford more new, curious, and elegant forms than those of any
+other island on the globe. Besides the Birds of Paradise, which
+we have already sufficiently considered, it possesses a number of
+other curious birds, which in the eyes of the ornithologist
+almost serves to distinguish it as one of the primary divisions
+of the earth. Among its thirty species of parrots are the Great
+Pluck Cockatoo, and the little rigid-tailed Nasiterna, the giant
+and the dwarf of the whole tribe. The bare-headed Dasyptilus is
+one of the most singular parrots known; while the beautiful
+little long-tailed Charmosyna, and the great variety of
+gorgeously-coloured lories, have no parallels elsewhere. Of
+pigeons it possesses about forty distinct species, among which
+are the magnificent crowned pigeons, now so well known in our
+aviaries, and pre-eminent both for size and beauty; the curious
+Trugon terrestris, which approaches the still more strange
+Didunculus of Samoa; and a new genus (Henicophaps), discovered by
+myself, which possesses a very long and powerful bill, quite
+unlike that of any other pigeon. Among its sixteen kingfishers,
+it possesses the carious hook-billed Macrorhina, and a red and
+blue Tanysiptera, the most beautiful of that beautiful genus.
+Among its perching birds are the fine genus of crow-like
+starlings, with brilliant plumage (Manucodia); the carious pale-
+coloured crow (Gymnocorvus senex); the abnormal red and black
+flycatcher (Peltops blainvillii); the curious little boat-billed
+flycatchers (Machaerirhynchus); and the elegant blue flycatcher-
+wrens (Todopsis).
+
+The naturalist will obtain a clearer idea of the variety and
+interest of the productions of this country, by the statement,
+that its land birds belong to 108 genera, of which 20 are
+exclusively characteristic of it; while 35 belong to that limited
+area which includes the Moluccas and North Australia, and whose
+species of these genera have been entirely derived from New
+Guinea. About one-half of the New Guinea genera are found also in
+Australia, about one-third in India and the Indo-Malay islands.
+
+A very curious fact, not hitherto sufficiently noticed, is the
+appearance of a pure Malay element in the birds of New Guinea. We
+find two species of Eupetes, a curious Malayan genus allied to
+the forked-tail water-chats; two of Alcippe, an Indian and Malay
+wren-like form; an Arachnothera, quite resembling the spider-
+catching honeysuckers of Malacca; two species of Gracula, the
+Mynahs of India; and a curious little black Prionochilus, a saw-
+billed fruit pecker, undoubtedly allied to the Malayan form,
+although perhaps a distinct genus. Now not one of these birds, or
+anything allied to them, occurs in the Moluccas, or (with one
+exception) in Celebes or Australia; and as they are most of them
+birds of short flight, it is very difficult to conceive how or
+when they could have crossed the space of more than a thousand
+miles, which now separates them from their nearest allies. Such
+facts point to changes of land and sea on a large scale, and at a
+rate which, measured by the time required for a change of
+species, must be termed rapid. By speculating on such changes, we
+may easily see how partial waves of immigration may have entered
+New Guinea, and how all trace of their passage may have been
+obliterated by the subsequent disappearance of the intervening
+land.
+
+There is nothing that the study of geology teaches us that is
+more certain or more impressive than the extreme instability of
+the earth's surface. Everywhere beneath our feet we find proofs
+that what is land has been sea, and that where oceans now spread
+out has once been land; and that this change from sea to land,
+and from land to sea, has taken place, not once or twice only,
+but again and again, during countless ages of past time. Now the
+study of the distribution of animal life upon the present surface
+of the earth, causes us to look upon this constant interchange of
+land and sea--this making and unmaking of continents, this
+elevation and disappearance of islands--as a potent reality,
+which has always and everywhere been in progress, and has been
+the main agent in determining the manner in which living things
+are now grouped and scattered over the earth's surface. And when
+we continually come upon such little anomalies of distribution as
+that just now described, we find the only rational explanation of
+them, in those repeated elevations and depressions which have
+left their record in mysterious, but still intelligible
+characters on the face of organic nature.
+
+The insects of New Guinea are less known than the birds, but they
+seem almost equally remarkable for fine forms and brilliant
+colours. The magnificent green and yellow Ornithopterae are
+abundant, and have most probably spread westward from this point
+as far as India. Among the smaller butterflies are several
+peculiar genera of Nymphalidae and Lycaenidae, remarkable for
+their large size, singular markings, or brilliant coloration. The
+largest and most beautiful of the clear-winged moths (Cocytia
+d'urvillei) is found here, as well as the large and handsome
+green moth (Nyctalemon orontes). The beetles furnish us with many
+species of large size, and of the most brilliant metallic lustre,
+among which the Tmesisternus mirabilis, a longicorn beetle of a
+golden green colour; the excessively brilliant rose-chafers,
+Lomaptera wallacei and Anacamptorhina fulgida; one of the
+handsomest of the Buprestidae, Calodema wallacei; and several
+fine blue weevils of the genus Eupholus, are perhaps the most
+conspicuous. Almost all the other orders furnish us with large or
+extraordinary forms. The curious horned flies have already been
+mentioned; and among the Orthoptera the great shielded
+grasshoppers are the most remarkable. The species here figured
+(Megalodon ensifer) has the thorax covered by a large triangular
+horny shield, two and a half inches long, with serrated edges, a
+somewhat wavy, hollow surface, and a faun median line, so as very
+closely to resemble a leaf. The glossy wing-coverts (when fully
+expanded, more than nine inches across) are of a fine green
+colour and so beautifully veined as to imitate closely some of
+the large shining tropical leaves. The body is short, and
+terminated in the female by a long curved sword-like ovipositor
+(not seen in the cut), and the legs are all long and strongly-
+spined. These insects are sluggish in their motions, depending
+for safety on their resemblance to foliage, their horny shield
+and wing-coverts, and their spiny legs.
+
+The large islands to the east of New Guinea are very little
+known, but the occurrence of crimson lories, which are quite
+absent from Australia, and of cockatoos allied to those of New
+Guinea and the Moluccas, shows that they belong to the Papuan
+group; and we are thus able to define the Malay Archipelago as
+extending eastward to the Solomon's Islands. New Caledonia and
+the New Hebrides, on the other hand, seem more nearly allied to
+Australia; and the rest of the islands of the Pacific, though
+very poor in all forms of life, possess a few peculiarities which
+compel us to class them as a separate group. Although as a matter
+of convenience I have always separated the Moluccas as a distinct
+zoological group from New Guinea, I have at the same time pointed
+out that its fauna was chiefly derived from that island, just as
+that of Timor was chiefly derived from Australia. If we were
+dividing the Australian region for zoological purposes alone, we
+should form three great groups: one comprising Australia, Timor,
+and Tasmania; another New Guinea, with the islands from Bouru to
+the Solomon's group; and the third comprising the greater part of
+the Pacific Islands.
+
+The relation of the New Guinea fauna to that of Australia is very
+close. It is best marked in the Mammalia by the abundance of
+marsupials, and the almost  complete absence of all other
+terrestrial forms. In birds it is less striking, although still
+very clear, for all the remarkable old-world forms which are
+absent from the one are equally so from the other, such as
+Pheasants, Grouse, Vultures, and Woodpeckers; while Cockatoos,
+Broad-tailed Parrots, Podargi, and the great families of the
+Honeysuckers and Brush-turkeys, with many others, comprising no
+less than twenty-four genera of land-birds, are common to both
+countries, and are entirely confined to them.
+
+When we consider the wonderful dissimilarity of the two regions
+in all those physical conditions which were once supposed to
+determine the forms of life-Australia, with its open plains,
+stony deserts, dried up rivers, and changeable temperate climate;
+New Guinea, with its luxuriant forests, uniformly hot, moist, and
+evergreen--this great similarity in their productions is almost
+astounding, and unmistakeably points to a common origin. The
+resemblance is not nearly so strongly marked in insects, the
+reason obviously being, that this class of animals are much more
+immediately dependent on vegetation and climate than are the more
+highly organized birds and Mammalia. Insects also have far more
+effective means of distribution, and have spread widely into
+every district favourable to their development and increase. The
+giant Ornithopterae have thus spread from New Guinea over the
+whole Archipelago, and as far as the base of the Himalayas; while
+the elegant long-horned Anthribidae have spread in the opposite
+direction from Malacca to New Guinea, but owing to unfavourable
+conditions have not been able to establish themselves in
+Australia. That country, on the other hand, has developed a
+variety of flower-haunting Chafers and Buprestidae, and numbers
+of large and curious terrestrial Weevils, scarcely any of which
+are adapted to the damp gloomy forests of New Guinea, where
+entirely different forms are to be found. There are, however,
+some groups of insects, constituting what appear to be the
+remains of the ancient population of the equatorial parts of the
+Australian region, which are still almost entirely confined to
+it. Such are the interesting sub-family of Longicorn coleoptera--
+Tmesisternitae; one of the best-marked genera of Buprestidae--
+Cyphogastra; and the beautiful weevils forming the genus
+Eupholus. Among butterflies we have the genera Mynes, Hypocista,
+and Elodina, and the curious eye-spotted Drusilla, of which last
+a single species is found in Java, but in no other of the western
+islands.
+
+The facilities for the distribution of plants are still greater
+than they are for insects, and it is the opinion of eminent
+botanists, that no such clearly-defined regions pan be marked out
+in botany as in zoology. The causes which tend to diffusion are
+here most powerful, and have led to such intermingling of the
+floras of adjacent regions that none but broad and general
+divisions can now be detected. These remarks have an important
+bearing on the problem of dividing the surface of the earth into
+great regions, distinguished by the radical difference of their
+natural productions. Such difference we now know to be the direct
+result of long-continued separation by more or less impassable
+barriers; and as wide oceans and great contrast: of temperature
+are the most complete barriers to the dispersal of all
+terrestrial forms of life, the primary divisions of the earth
+should in the main serve for all terrestrial organisms. However
+various may be the effects of climate, however unequal the means
+of distribution; these will never altogether obliterate the
+radical effects of long-continued isolation; and it is my firm
+conviction, that when the botany and the entomology of New Guinea
+and the surrounding islands become as well known as are their
+mammals and birds, these departments of nature will also plainly
+indicate the radical distinctions of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-
+Malayan regions of the great Malay Archipelago.
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE RACES OF MAN IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
+
+PROPOSE to conclude this account of my Eastern travels, with a
+short statement of my views as to the races of man which inhabit
+the various parts of the Archipelago, their chief physical and
+mental characteristics, their affinities with each other and with
+surrounding tribes, their migrations, and their probable origin.
+
+Two very strongly contrasted races inhabit the Archipelago--the
+Malays, occupying almost exclusively the larger western half of
+it, and the Papuans, whose headquarters are New Guinea and
+several of the adjacent islands. Between these in locality, are
+found tribes who are also intermediate in their chief
+characteristics, and it is sometimes a nice point to determine
+whether they belong to one or the other race, or have been formed
+by a mixture of the two.
+
+The Malay is undoubtedly the most important of these two races,
+as it is the one which is the most civilized, which has come most
+into contact with Europeans, and which alone has any place in
+history. What may be called the true Malay races, as
+distinguished from others who have merely a Malay element in
+their language, present a considerable uniformity of physical and
+mental characteristics, while there are very great differences of
+civilization and of language. They consist of four great, and a
+few minor semi-civilized tribes, and a number of others who may
+be termed savages. The Malays proper inhabit the Malay peninsula,
+and almost all the coast regions of Borneo and Sumatra. They all
+speak the Malay language, or dialects of it; they write in the
+Arabic character, and are Mahometans in religion. The Javanese
+inhabit Java, part of Sumatra, Madura, Bali, and Bart of Lombock.
+They speak the Javanese and Kawi languages, which they write in a
+native character. They are now Mahometans in Java, but Brahmins
+in Bali and Lombock. The Bugis are the inhabitants of the greater
+parts of Celebes, and there seems to be an allied people in
+Sumbawa. They speak the Bugis and Macassar languages, with
+dialects, and have two different native characters in which they
+write these. They are all Mahometans. The fourth great race is
+that of the Tagalas in the Philippine Islands, about whom, as I
+did not visit those Islands, I shall say little. Many of them are
+now Christians, and speak Spanish as well as their native tongue,
+the Tagala. The Moluccan-Malays, who inhabit chiefly Ternate,
+Tidore, Batchian, and Amboyna, may be held to form a fifth
+division of semi-civilized Malays. They are all Mahometans, but
+they speak a variety of curious languages, which seem compounded
+of Bugis and Javanese, with the languages of the savage tribes of
+the Moluccas.
+
+The savage Malays are the Dyaks of Borneo; the Battaks and other
+wild tribes of Sumatra; the Jakuns of the Malay Peninsula; the
+aborigines of Northern Celebes, of the Sula island, and of part
+of Bouru.
+
+The colour of all these varied tribes is a light reddish brown,
+with more or less of an olive tinge, not varying in any important
+degree over an extent of country as large as all Southern Europe.
+The hair is equally constant, being invariably black and
+straight, and of a rather coarse texture, so that any lighter
+tint, or any wave or curl in it, is an almost certain proof of
+the admixture of some foreign blood. The face is nearly destitute
+of beard, and the breast and limbs are free from hair. The
+stature is tolerably equal, and is always considerably below that
+of the average European; the body is robust, the breast well
+developed, the feet small, thick, and short, the hands small and
+rather delicate. The face is a little broad, and inclined to be
+flat; the forehead is rather rounded, the brows low, the eyes
+black and very slightly oblique; the nose is rather small, not
+prominent, but straight and well-shaped, the apex a little
+rounded, the nostrils broad and slightly exposed; the cheek-bones
+are rather prominent, the mouth large, the lips broad and well
+cut, but not protruding, the chin round and well-formed.
+
+In this description there seems little to object to on the score
+of beauty, and yet on the whole the Malays are certainly not
+handsome. In youth, however, they are often very good-looking,
+and many of the boys and girls up to twelve or fifteen years of
+age are very pleasing, and some have countenances which are in
+their way almost perfect. I am inclined to think they lose much
+of their good looks by bad habits and irregular living. At a very
+early age. they chew betel and tobacco almost incessantly; they
+suffer much want and exposure in their fishing and other
+excursions; their lives are often passed in alternate starvation
+and feasting, idleness and excessive labour,--and this naturally
+produces premature old age and harshness of features.
+
+In character the Malay is impassive. He exhibits a reserve,
+diffidence, and even bashfulness, which is in some degree
+attractive, and leads the observer to thinly that the ferocious
+and bloodthirsty character imputed to the race must be grossly
+exaggerated. He is not demonstrative. His feelings of surprise,
+admiration, or fear, are never openly manifested, and are
+probably not strongly felt. He is slow and deliberate in speech,
+and circuitous in introducing the subject he has come expressly
+to discuss. These are the main features of his moral nature, and
+exhibit themselves in every action of his life.
+
+Children and women are timid, and scream and run at the
+unexpected sight of a European. In the company of men they are
+silent, and are generally quiet and obedient. When alone the
+Malay is taciturn; he neither talks nor sings to himself. When
+several are paddling in a canoe, they occasionally chant a
+monotonous and plaintive song. He is cautious of giving offence
+to his equals. He does not quarrel easily about money matters;
+dislikes asking too frequently even for payment of his just
+debts, and will often give them up altogether rather than quarrel
+with his debtor. Practical joking is utterly repugnant to his
+disposition; for he is particularly sensitive to breaches of
+etiquette, or any interference with the personal liberty of
+himself or another. As an example, I may mention that I have
+often found it very difficult to get one Malay servant to waken
+another. He will call as loud as he can, but will hardly touch,
+much less shake his comrade. I have frequently had to waken a
+hard sleeper myself when on a land or sea journey.
+
+The higher classes of Malays are exceedingly polite, and have all
+the quiet ease and dignity of the best-bred Europeans. Yet this
+is compatible with a reckless cruelty and contempt of human life,
+which is the dark side of their character. It is not to be
+wondered at, therefore, that different persons give totally
+opposite accounts of them--one praising them for their soberness,
+civility, and good-nature; another abusing them for their deceit,
+treachery, and cruelty. The old traveller Nicolo Conti, writing
+in 1430, says: "The inhabitants of Java and Sumatra exceed every
+other people in cruelty. They regard killing a man as a mere
+jest; nor is any punishment allotted for such a deed. If any one
+purchase a new sword, and wish to try it, he will thrust it into
+the breast of the first person he meets. The passers-by examine
+the wound, and praise the skill of the person who inflicted it,
+if he thrust in the weapon direct." Yet Drake says of the south
+of Java: "The people (as are their kings) are a very loving,
+true, and just-dealing people;" and Mr. Crawfurd says that the
+Javanese, whom he knew thoroughly, are "a peaceable, docile,
+sober, simple, and industrious people." Barbosa, on the other
+hand, who saw them at Malacca about 1660, says: "They are a
+people of great ingenuity, very subtle in all their dealings;
+very malicious, great deceivers, seldom speaking the truth;
+prepared to do all manner of wickedness, and ready to sacrifice
+their lives."
+
+The intellect of the Malay race seems rather deficient. They are
+incapable of anything beyond the simplest combinations of ideas,
+and have little taste or energy for the acquirement of knowledge.
+Their civilization, such as it is, does not seem to be
+indigenous, as it is entirely confined to those nations who have
+been converted to the Mahometan or Brahminical religions.
+
+I will now give an equally brief sketch of the other great race
+of the Malay Archipelago, the Papuan.
+
+The typical Papuan race is in many respects the very opposite of
+the Malay, and it has hitherto been very imperfectly described.
+The colour of the body is a deep sooty-brown or black, sometimes
+approaching, but never quite equalling, the jet-black of some
+negro races. It varies in tint, however, more than that of the
+Malay, and is sometimes a dusky-brown. The hair is very peculiar,
+being harsh, dry, and frizzly, growing in little tufts or curls,
+which in youth are very short and compact, but afterwards grow
+out to a, considerable length, forming the compact frizzled mop
+which is the Papuans' pride and glory. The face is adorned with a
+beard of the same frizzly nature as the hair of the head. The
+arms, legs, and breast are also more or less clothed with hair of
+a similar nature.
+
+In stature the Papuan decidedly surpasses the Malay, and is
+perhaps equal, or even superior, to the average of Europeans. The
+legs are long and thin, and the hands and feet larger than in the
+Malays. The face is somewhat elongated, the forehead flatfish,
+the brows very prominent; the nose is large, rather arched and
+high, the base thick, the nostrils broad, with the aperture
+hidden, owing to the tip of the nose being elongated; the mouth
+is large, the lips thick and protuberant. The face has thus an
+altogether more European aspect than in the Malay, owing to the
+large nose; and the peculiar form of this organ, with the more
+prominent brows and the character of the hair on the head, face,
+and body, enable us at a glance to distinguish the two races. I
+have observed that most of these characteristic features are as
+distinctly visible in children of ten or twelve years old as in
+adults, and the peculiar form of the nose is always shown in the
+figures which they carve for ornaments to their houses, or as
+charms to wear round their necks.
+
+The moral characteristics of the Papuan appear to me to separate
+him as distinctly from the Malay as do his form and features. He
+is impulsive and demonstrative in speech and action. His emotions
+and passions express themselves in shouts and laughter, in yells
+and frantic leapings. Women and children take their share in
+every discussion, and seem little alarmed at the sight of
+strangers and Europeans.
+
+Of the intellect of this race it is very difficult to judge, but
+I am inclined to rate it somewhat higher than that of the Malays,
+notwithstanding the fact that the Papuans have never yet made any
+advance towards civilization. It must be remembered, however,
+that for centuries the Malays have been influenced by Hindoo,
+Chinese, and Arabic immigration, whereas the Papuan race has only
+been subjected to the very partial and local influence of Malay
+traders. The Papuan has much more vital energy, which would
+certainly greatly assist his intellectual development. Papuan
+slaves show no inferiority of intellect. compared with Malays,
+but rather the contrary; and in the Moluccas they are often
+promoted to places of considerable trust. The Papuan has a
+greater feeling for art than the Malay. He decorates his canoe,
+his house, and almost every domestic utensil with elaborate
+carving, a habit which is rarely found among tribes of the Malay
+race.
+
+In the affections and moral sentiments, on the other hand, the
+Papuans seem very deficient. In the treatment of their children
+they are often violent and cruel; whereas the Malays are almost
+invariably kind and gentle, hardly ever interfering at all with
+their children's pursuits and amusements, and giving them perfect
+liberty at whatever age they wish to claim it. But these very
+peaceful relations between parents and children are no doubt, in
+a great measure, due to the listless and apathetic character of
+the race, which never leads the younger members into serious
+opposition to the elders; while the harsher discipline of the
+Papuans may be chiefly due to that greater vigour and energy of
+mind which always, sooner or later, leads to the rebellion of the
+weaker against the stronger,--the people against their rulers,
+the slave against his master, or the child against its parent.
+
+It appears, therefore, that, whether we consider their physical
+conformation, their moral characteristics, or their intellectual
+capacities, the Malay and Papuan races offer remarkable
+differences and striking contrasts. The Malay is of short
+stature, brown-skinned, straight-haired, beardless, and smooth-
+bodied. The Papuan is taller, is black-skinned, frizzly-haired,
+bearded, and hairy-bodied. The former is broad-faced, has a small
+nose, and flat eyebrows; the latter is long-faced, has a large
+and prominent nose, and projecting eyebrows. The Malay is
+bashful, cold, undemonstrative, and quiet; the Papuan is bold,
+impetuous, excitable, and noisy. The former is grave and seldom
+laughs; the latter is joyous arid laughter-loving,--the one
+conceals his emotions, the other displays them.
+
+Having thus described in some detail, the great physical,
+intellectual, and moral differences between the Malays and
+Papuans, we have to consider the inhabitants of the numerous
+islands which do not agree very closely with either of these
+races. The islands of Obi, Batchian, and the three southern
+peninsulas of Gilolo, possess no true indigenous population; but
+the northern peninsula is inhabited by a native race, the so-
+called Alfuros of Sahoe and Galela. These people are quite
+distinct from the Malays, and almost equally so from the Papuans.
+They are tall and well-made, with Papuan features, and curly
+hair; they are bearded and hairy-limbed, but quite as light in
+colour as the Malays. They are an industrious and enterprising
+race, cultivating rice and vegetables, and indefatigable in their
+search after game, fish, tripang, pearls, and tortoiseshell.
+
+In the great island of Ceram there is also an indigenous race
+very similar to that of Northern Gilolo. Bourn seems to contain
+two distinct races,--a shorter, round-faced people, with a Malay
+physiognomy, who may probably have come from Celebes by way of
+the Sula islands; and a taller bearded race, resembling that of
+Ceram.
+
+Far south of the Moluccas lies the island of Timor, inhabited by
+tribes much nearer to the true Papuan than those of the Moluccas.
+
+The Timorese of the interior are dusky brown or blackish, with
+bushy frizzled hair, and the long Papuan nose. They are of medium
+height, and rather slender figures. The universal dress is a long
+cloth twisted round the waist, the fringed ends of which hang
+below the knee. The people are said to be great thieves, and the
+tribes are always at war with each other, but they are not very
+courageous or bloodthirsty. The custom of "tabu," called here
+"pomali," is very general, fruit trees, houses, crop, and
+property of all kinds being protected from depredation by this
+ceremony, the reverence for which is very great. A palm branch
+stuck across an open door, showing that the house is tabooed, is
+a more effectual guard against robbery than any amount of locks
+and bars. The houses in Timor are different from those of most of
+the other islands; they seem all roof, the thatch overhanging the
+low walls and reaching the ground, except where it is cut away
+for an entrance. In some parts of the west end of Timor, and on
+the little island of Semau, the houses more resemble those of the
+Hottentots, being egg-shaped, very small, and with a door only
+about three feet high. These are built on the ground, while those
+of the eastern districts art, raised a few feet on posts. In
+their excitable disposition, loud voices, and fearless demeanour,
+the Timorese closely resemble the people of New Guinea.
+
+In the islands west of Timor, as far as Flores and Sandalwood
+Island, a very similar race is found, which also extends eastward
+to Timor-laut, where the true Papuan race begins to appear. The
+small islands of Savu and Rotti, however, to the west of Timor,
+are very remarkable in possessing a different and, in some
+respects, peculiar race. These people are very handsome, with
+good features, resembling in many characteristics the race
+produced by the mixture of the Hindoo or Arab with the Malay.
+They are certainly distinct from the Timorese or Papuan races,
+and must be classed in the western rather than the eastern
+ethnological division of the Archipelago.
+
+The whole of the great island of New Guinea, the Ke arid Aru
+Islands, with Mysol, Salwatty, and Waigiou, are inhabited almost
+exclusively by the typical Papuans. I found no trace of any other
+tribes inhabiting the interior of New Guinea, but the coast
+people are in some places mixed with the browner races of the
+Moluccas. The same Papuan race seems to extend over the islands
+east of New Guinea as far as the Fijis.
+
+There remain to be noticed the black woolly-haired races of the
+Philippines and the Malay peninsula, the former called
+"Negritos," and the latter "Semangs." I have never seen these
+people myself, but from the numerous accurate descriptions of
+them that have been published, I have had no difficulty in
+satisfying myself that they have little affinity or resemblance
+to the Papuans, with which they have been hitherto associated. In
+most important characters they differ more from the Papuan than
+they do from the Malay. They are dwarfs in stature, only
+averaging four feet six inches to four feet eight inches high, or
+eight inches less than the Malays; whereas the Papuans are
+decidedly taller than the -Malays. The nose is invariably
+represented as small, flattened, or turned up at the apex,
+whereas the most universal character of the Papuan race is to
+have the nose prominent and large, with the apex produced
+downwards, as it is invariably represented in their own rude
+idols. The hair of these dwarfish races agrees with that of the
+Papuans, but so it does with that of the negroes of Africa. The
+Negritos and the Semangs agree very closely in physical
+characteristics with each other and with the Andaman Islanders,
+while they differ in a marked manner from every Papuan race.
+
+A careful study of these varied races, comparing them with those
+of Eastern Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Australia, has led me
+to adopt a comparatively simple view as to their origin and
+affinities.
+
+If we draw a line (see Physical Map, Vol. 1. p. 14), commencing
+to the east of the Philippine Islands, thence along the western
+coast of Gilolo, through the island of Bouru, and curving round
+the west end of Mores, then bending back by Sandalwood Island to
+take in Rotti, we shall divide the Archipelago into two portions,
+the races of which have strongly marked distinctive
+peculiarities. This line will separate the Malayan and all the
+Asiatic races, from the Papuans and all that inhabit the Pacific;
+and though along the line of junction intermigration and
+commixture have taken place, yet the division is on the whole
+almost as well defined and strongly contrasted, as is the
+corresponding zoological division of the Archipelago, into an
+Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan region.
+
+I must briefly explain the reasons that have led me to consider
+this division of the Oceanic races to be a true and natural one.
+The Malayan race, as a whole, undoubtedly very closely resembles
+the East Asian populations, from Siam to Mandchouria. I was much
+struck with this, when in the island of Bali I saw Chinese
+traders who had adopted the costume of that country, and who
+could then hardly be distinguished from Malays; and, on the other
+hand, I have seen natives of Java who, as far as physiognomy was
+concerned, would pass very well for Chinese. Then, again, we have
+the most typical of the Malayan tribes inhabiting a portion of
+the Asiatic continent itself, together with those great islands
+which, possessing the same species of large Mammalia with the
+adjacent parts of the continent, have in all probability formed a
+connected portion of Asia during the human period. The Negritos
+are, no doubt, quite a distinct race from the Malay; but yet, as
+some of them inhabit a portion of the continent, and others the
+Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, they must be considered to
+have had, in all probability, an Asiatic rather than a Polynesian
+origin.
+
+Now, turning to the eastern parts of the Archipelago, I find, by
+comparing my own observations with those of the most trustworthy
+travellers and missionaries, that a race identical in all its
+chief features with the Papuan, is found in all the islands as
+far east as the Fijis; beyond this the brown Polynesian race, or
+some intermediate type, is spread everywhere over the Pacific.
+The descriptions of these latter often agree exactly with the
+characters of the brown indigenes of Gilolo and Ceram.
+
+It is to be especially remarked that the brown and the black
+Polynesian races closely resemble each other. Their features are
+almost identical, so that portraits of a New Zealander or
+Otaheitan will often serve accurately to represent a Papuan or
+Timorese, the darker colour and more frizzly hair of the latter
+being the only differences. They are both tall races. They agree
+in their love of art and the style of their decorations. They are
+energetic, demonstrative, joyous, and laughter-loving, and in all
+these particulars they differ widely from the Malay.
+
+I believe, therefore, that the numerous intermediate forms that
+occur among the countless islands of the Pacific, are not merely
+the result of a mixture of these races, but are, to some extent,
+truly intermediate or transitional; and that the brown and the
+black, the Papuan, the natives of Gilolo and Ceram, the Fijian,
+the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands and those of New Zealand,
+are all varying forms of one great Oceanic or Polynesian race.
+
+It is, however, quite possible, and perhaps probable, that the
+brown Polynesians were originally the produce of a mixture of
+Malays, or some lighter coloured Mongol race with the dark
+Papuans; but if so, the intermingling took place at such a remote
+epoch, and has been so assisted by the continued influence of
+physical conditions and of natural selection, leading to the
+preservation of a special type suited to those conditions, that
+it has become a fixed and stable race with no signs of
+mongrelism, and showing such a decided preponderance of Papuan
+character, that it can best be classified as a modification of
+the Papuan type. The occurrence of a decided Malay element in the
+Polynesian languages, has evidently nothing to do with any such
+ancient physical connexion. It is altogether a recent phenomenon,
+originating in the roaming habits of the chief Malay tribes; and
+this is proved by the fact that we find actual modern words of
+the Malay and Javanese languages in use in Polynesia, so little
+disguised by peculiarities of pronunciation as to be easily
+recognisable--not mere Malay roots only to be detected by the
+elaborate researches of the philologist, as would certainly have
+been the case had their introduction been as
+remote as the origin of a very distinct race--a race as different
+from the Malay in mental and moral, as it is in physical
+characters.
+
+As bearing upon this question it is important to point out the
+harmony which exists, between the line of separation of the human
+races of the Archipelago and that of the animal productions of
+the same country, which I have already so fully explained and
+illustrated. The dividing lines do not, it is true, exactly
+agree; but I think it is a remarkable fact, and something more
+than a mere coincidence, that they should traverse the same
+district and approach each other so closely as they do. If,
+however, I am right in my supposition that the region where the
+dividing line of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan regions of
+zoology can now be drawn, was formerly occupied by a much wider
+sea than at present, and if man existed on the earth at that
+period, we shall see good reason why the races inhabiting the
+Asiatic and Pacific areas should now meet and partially
+intermingle in the vicinity of that dividing line.
+
+It has recently been maintained by Professor Huxley, that the
+Papuans are more closely allied to the negroes of Africa than to
+any other race. The resemblance both in physical and mental
+characteristics had often struck myself, but the difficulties in
+the way of accepting it as probable or possible, have hitherto
+prevented me front giving full weight to those resemblances.
+Geographical, zoological, and ethnological considerations render
+it almost certain, that if these two races ever had a common
+origin, it could only have been at a period far more remote than
+any which has yet been assigned to the antiquity of the human
+race. And even if their lenity could be proved, it would in no
+way affect my argument for the close affinity of the Papuan and
+Polynesian races, and the radical distinctness of both from the
+Malay.
+
+Polynesia is pre-eminently an area of subsidence, and its goat
+widespread groups of coral-reefs mark out tile position of former
+continents and islands. The rich and varied, yet strangely
+isolated productions of Australia and New Guinea, also indicate
+an extensive continent where such specialized forms were
+developed. The races of men now inhabiting these countries are,
+therefore, most probably the descendants of the races which
+inhabited these continents and islands. This is the most simple
+and natural supposition to make. And if we find any signs of
+direct affinity between the inhabitants of any other part of the
+world and those of Polynesia, it by no means follows that the
+latter were derived from the former. For as, when a Pacific
+continent existed, the whole geography of the earth's surface
+would probably be very different from what it now is, the present
+continents may not then have risen above the ocean, and, when
+they were formed at a subsequent epoch, may have derived some of
+their inhabitants from the Polynesian area itself. It is
+undoubtedly true that there are proofs of extensive migrations
+among the Pacific islands, which have led to community of
+language from the sandwich group to New Zealand; but there are no
+proofs whatever of recent migration from any surrounding country
+to Polynesia, since there is no people to be found elsewhere
+sufficiently resembling the Polynesian race in their chief
+physical and mental characteristics.
+
+If the past history of these varied races is obscure and
+uncertain, the future is no less so. The true Polynesians,
+inhabiting the farthest isles of the Pacific, are no doubt doomed
+to an early extinction. But the more numerous Malay race seems
+well adapted to survive as the cultivator of the soil, even when
+his country and government have passed into the hands of
+Europeans. If the tide of colonization should be turned to New
+Guinea, there can be little doubt of the early extinction of the
+Papuan race. A warlike and energetic people, who will not submit
+to national slavery or to domestic servitude, must disappear
+before the white man as surely as do the wolf and the tiger.
+
+I have now concluded my task. I have given, in more or less
+detail, a sketch of my eight years' wanderings among the largest
+and the most luxuriant islands which adorn our earth's surface. I
+have endeavoured to convey my impressions of their scenery, their
+vegetation, their animal productions, and their human
+inhabitants. I have dwelt at some length on the varied and
+interesting problems they offer to the student of nature. Before
+bidding my reader farewell, I wish to make a few observations on
+a subject of yet higher interest and deeper importance, which the
+contemplation of savage life has suggested, and on which I
+believe that the civilized can learn something from the savage
+man.
+
+We most of us believe that we, the higher races have progressed
+and are progressing. If so, there must be some state of
+perfection, some ultimate goal, which we may never reach, but to
+which all true progress must bring nearer. What is this ideally
+perfect social state towards which mankind ever has been, and
+still is tending? Our best thinkers maintain, that it is a state
+of individual freedom and self-government, rendered possible by
+the equal development and just balance of the intellectual,
+moral, and physical parts of our nature,--a state in which we
+shall each be so perfectly fitted for a social existence, by
+knowing what is right, and at the same time feeling an
+irresistible impulse to do what we know to be right., that all
+laws and all punishments shall be unnecessary. In such a state
+every man would have a sufficiently well-balanced intellectual
+organization, to understand the moral law in all its details, and
+would require no other motive but the free impulses of his own
+nature to obey that law.
+
+Now it is very remarkable, that among people in a very low stage
+of civilization, we find some approach to such a perfect social
+state. I have lived with communities of savages in South America
+and in the East, who have no laws or law courts but the public
+opinion of the village freely expressed. Each man scrupulously
+respects the rights of his fellow, and any infraction of those
+rights rarely or never takes place. In such a community, all are
+nearly equal. There are cone of those wide distinctions, of
+education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant,
+which are the product of our civilization; there is none of that
+wide-spread division of labour, which, while it increases wealth,
+products also conflicting interests; there is not that severe
+competition and struggle for existence, or for wealth, which the
+dense population of civilized countries inevitably creates. All
+incitements to great crimes are thus wanting, and petty ones are
+repressed, partly by the influence of public opinion, but chiefly
+by that natural sense of justice and of his neighbour's right,
+which seems to be, in some degree, inherent in every race of man.
+
+Now, although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state
+in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in
+morals. It is true that among those classes who have no wants
+that cannot be easily supplied, and among whom public opinion has
+great influence; the rights of others are fully respected. It is
+true, also, that we have vastly extended the sphere of those
+rights, and include within them all the brotherhood of man. But
+it is not too much to say, that the mass of our populations have
+not at all advanced beyond the savage code of morals, and have in
+many cases sunk below it. A deficient morality is the great blot
+of modern civilization, and the greatest hindrance to true
+progress.
+
+During the last century, and especially in the last thirty years,
+our intellectual and material advancement has been too quickly
+achieved for us to reap the full benefit of it. Our mastery over
+the forces of mature has led to a rapid growth of population, and
+a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them
+such au amount of poverty and crime, and have fostered the growth
+of so much sordid feeling and so many fierce passions, that it
+may well be questioned, whether the mental and moral status of
+our population has not on the average been lowered, and whether
+the evil has not overbalanced the good. Compared with our
+wondrous progress in physical science and its practical
+applications, our system of government, of administering justice,
+of national education, and our whole social and moral
+organization, remains in a state of barbarism. [See note next
+page.] And if we continue to devote our chief energies to the
+utilizing of our knowledge the laws of nature with the view of
+still further extending our commerce and our wealth, the evils
+which necessarily accompany these when too eagerly pursued, may
+increase to such gigantic dimensions as to be beyond cur power to
+alleviate.
+
+We should now clearly recognise the fact, that the wealth and
+knowledge and culture of the few do not constitute civilization,
+and do not of themselves advance us towards the "perfect social
+state." Our vast manufacturing system, our gigantic commerce, our
+crowded towns and cities, support and continually renew a mass of
+human misery and crime absolutely greater than has ever existed
+before. They create and maintain in life-long labour an ever-
+increasing army, whose lot is the more hard to bear, by contrast
+with the pleasures, the comforts, and the luxury which they see
+everywhere around them, but which they can never hope to enjoy;
+and who, in this respect, are worse off than the savage in the
+midst of his tribe.
+
+This is not a result to boast of, or to be satisfied with; and,
+until there is a more general recognition of this failure of our
+civilization--resulting mainly from our neglect to train and
+develop more thoroughly the sympathetic feelings and moral
+faculties of our nature, and to allow them a larger share of
+influence in our legislation, our commerce, and our whole social
+organization--we shall never, as regards the whole community,
+attain to any real or important superiority over the better class
+of savages.
+
+This is the lesson I have been taught by my observations of
+uncivilized man. I now bid my readers--Farewell!
+
+
+NOTE.
+
+THOSE who believe that our social condition approaches
+perfection, will think the above word harsh and exaggerated, but
+it seems to me the only word that can be truly applied to us. We
+are the richest country in the world, and yet cue-twentieth of
+our population are parish paupers, and one-thirtieth known
+criminals. Add to these, the criminals who escape detection; and
+the poor who live mainly on private charity, (which, according to
+Dr. Hawkesley, expends seven millions sterling annually is London
+alone,) and we may be sure that more than ONE-TENTH of our
+population are actually Paupers and Criminals. Both these classes
+we keep idle or at unproductive labour, and each criminal costs
+us annually in our prisons more than the wages of an honest
+agricultural labourer. We allow over a hundred thousand persons
+known to have no means of subsistence but by crime, to remain at
+large and prey upon the community, and many thousand children to
+grow up before our eyes in ignorance and vice, to supply trained
+criminals for the next generation. This, in a country which
+boasts of its rapid increase in wealth, of its enormous commerce
+and gigantic manufactures, of its mechanical skill and scientific
+knowledge, of its high civilization and its pure Christianity,--I
+can but term a state of social barbarism. We also boast of our
+love of justice, and that the law protects rich and. poor alike,
+yet we retain money fines as a punishment, and male the very
+first steps to obtain justice a. matter of expense-in both cases
+a barbarous injustice, or denial of justice to the poor. Again,
+our laws render it possible, that, by mere neglect of a legal
+form, and contrary to his own wish and intention, a man's
+property may all go to a stranger, and his own children be left
+destitute. Such cases have happened through the operation of the
+laws of inheritance of landed property; and that such unnatural
+injustice is possible among us, shows that we are in a state of
+social barbarism. Ono more example to justify my use of the term,
+and I have done. We permit absolute possession of the soil of our
+country, with no legal rights of existence on the soil, to the
+vast majority who do not possess it. A great landholder may
+legally convert his whole property into a forest or a hunting-
+ground, and expel every human being who has hitherto lived upon
+it. In a thickly-populated country like England, where every acre
+has its owner and its occupier, this is a power of legally
+destroying his fellow-creatures; and that such a power should
+exist, and be exercised by individuals, in however small a
+degree, indicates that, as regards true social science, we are
+still in a state of barbarism.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Malay Archipelago by Alfred R. Wallace
+
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