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The Malay Archipelago (1869) by Alfred Russel Wallace Complete illustrated edition prepared for Papuaweb, 2003. THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO VOLUME I & II The land of the orang-utan, and the bird or paradise. A narrative of travel, with sketches of man and nature. By ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE To CHARLES DARWIN AUTHOR OF "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" I dedicate this book Not only as a token of personal esteem and friendship But also To express my deep admiration For His genius and his works.

The Malay Archipelago (1869) by Alfred Russel Wallace

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Page 1: The Malay Archipelago (1869) by Alfred Russel Wallace

The Malay Archipelago (1869) by Alfred Russel WallaceComplete illustrated edition prepared for Papuaweb, 2003.

THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGOVOLUME I & II

The land of the orang-utan, and the bird or paradise.A narrative of travel, with sketches of man and nature.

By

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE

To

CHARLES DARWIN

AUTHOR OF "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES"I dedicate this book

Not onlyas a token of personal esteem and friendship

But alsoTo express my deep admirationFor His genius and his works.

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Orang-Utan attacked by Dyaks

PREFACE (to the tenth edition)SINCE this work was first published, twenty-one years ago, several naturalists havevisited the Archipelago; and in order to give my readers the latest results of theirresearches I have added footnotes whenever my facts or conclusions have beenmodified by later discoveries. I have also made a few verbal alterations to the text tocorrect any small errors or obscurities. These corrections and additions are however,not numerous, and the work remains substantially the same as in the early editions. Imay add that my complete collections of birds and butterflies are now in the BritishMuseum.

PARKSTONE, DORSET, October, 1890.

PREFACE (to the first edition) MY readers will naturally ask why I have delayed writing this book for six yearsafter my return; and I feel bound to give them full satisfaction on this point. When I reached England in the spring of 1862, I found myself surrounded by aroom full of packing cases containing the collections that I had, from time to time, senthome for my private use. These comprised nearly three thousand birdskins of about one

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thousand species, at least twenty thousand beetles and butterflies of about seventhousand species, and some quadrupeds and land shells besides. A large proportion ofthese I had not seen for years, and in my then weakened state of health, the unpacking,sorting, and arranging of such a mass of specimens occupied a long time. I very soon decided that until I had done something towards naming and describingthe most important groups in my collection, and had worked out some of the moreinteresting problems of variation and geographical distribution (of which I had hadglimpses while collecting them), I would not attempt to publish my travels. Indeed, Icould have printed my notes and journals at once, leaving all reference to questions ofnatural history for a future work; but, I felt that this would be as unsatisfactory tomyself as it would be disappointing to my friends, and uninstructive to the public. Since my return, up to this date, I have published eighteen papers in the"Transactions" or "Proceedings of the Linnean Zoological and EntomologicalSocieties", describing or cataloguing portions of my collections, along with twelveothers in various scientific periodicals on more general subjects connected with them. Nearly two thousand of my Coleoptera, and many hundreds of my butterflies, havebeen already described by various eminent naturalists, British and foreign; but a muchlarger number remains undescribed. Among those to whom science is most indebted forthis laborious work, I must name Mr. F. P. Pascoe, late President of the EntomologicalSociety of London, who had almost completed the classification and description of mylarge collection of Longicorn beetles (now in his possession), comprising more than athousand species, of which at least nine hundred were previously undescribed and newto European cabinets. The remaining orders of insects, comprising probably more than two thousandspecies, are in the collection of Mr. William Wilson Saunders, who has caused thelarger portion of them to be described by good entomologists. The Hymenoptera aloneamounted to more than nine hundred species, among which were two hundred andeighty different kinds of ants, of which two hundred were new. The six years' delay in publishing my travels thus enables me to give what I hopemay be an interesting and instructive sketch of the main results yet arrived at by thestudy of my collections; and as the countries I have to describe are not much visited orwritten about, and their social and physical conditions are not liable to rapid change, Ibelieve and hope that my readers will gain much more than they will lose by not havingread my book six years ago, and by this time perhaps forgotten all about it. I must now say a few words on the plan of my work. My journeys to the various islands were regulated by the seasons and the means ofconveyance. I visited some islands two or three times at distant intervals, and in somecases had to make the same voyage four times over. A chronological arrangementwould have puzzled my readers. They would never have known where they were, andmy frequent references to the groups of islands, classed in accordance with thepeculiarities of their animal productions and of their human inhabitants, would havebeen hardly intelligible. I have adopted, therefore, a geographical, zoological, andethnological arrangement, passing from island to island in what seems the most naturalsuccession, while I transgress the order in which I myself visited them, as little aspossible. I divide the Archipelago into five groups of islands, as follows: I. THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS: comprising the Malay Peninsula andSingapore, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. II. THE TIMOR GROUP: comprising the islands of Timor, Flores, Sumbawa, andLombock, with several smaller ones. III. CELEBES: comprising also the Sula Islands and Bouton. IV. THE MOLUCCAN GROUP: comprising Bouru, Ceram, Batchian, Gilolo, andMorty; with the smaller islands of Ternate, Tidore, Makian, Kaióa, Amboyna, Banda,Goram, and Matabello.

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V. THE PAPUAN GROUP: comprising the great island of New Guinea, with theAru Islands, Mysol, Salwatty, Waigiou, and several others. The Ké Islands aredescribed with this group on account of their ethnology, though zoologically andgeographically they belong to the Moluccas. The chapters relating to the separate islands of each of these groups are followedby one on the Natural History of that group; and the work may thus be divided into fiveparts, each treating one of the natural divisions of the Archipelago. The first chapter is an introductory one, on the Physical Geography of the wholeregion; and the last is a general sketch of the paces of man in the Archipelago and thesurrounding countries. With this explanation, and a reference to the maps whichillustrate the work, I trust that my readers will always know where they are, and inwhat direction they are going. I am well aware that my book is far too small for the extent of the subjects ittouches upon. It is a mere sketch; but so far as it goes, I have endeavoured to make itan accurate one. Almost the whole of the narrative and descriptive portions werewritten on the spot, and have had little more than verbal alterations. The chapters onNatural History, as well as many passages in other parts of the work, have been writtenin the hope of exciting an interest in the various questions connected with the origin ofspecies and their geographical distribution. In some cases I have been able to explainmy views in detail; while in others, owing to the greater complexity of the subject, Ihave thought it better to confine myself to a statement of the more interesting facts ofthe problem, whose solution is to be found in the principles developed by Mr. Darwinin his various works. The numerous illustrations will, it is believed, add much to theinterest and value of the book. They have been made from my own sketches, fromphotographs, or from specimens--and such, only subjects that would really illustrate thenarrative or the descriptions, have been chosen. I have to thank Messrs. Walter and Henry Woodbury, whose acquaintance I hadthe pleasure of making in Java, for a number of photographs of scenery and of natives,which have been of the greatest assistance to me. Mr. William Wilson Saunders haskindly allowed me to figure the curious horned flies; and to Mr. Pascoe I am indebtedfor a loan of two of the very rare Longicorns which appear in the plate of Borneanbeetles. All the other specimens figured are in my own collection. As the main object of all my journeys was to obtain specimens of natural history,both for my private collection and to supply duplicates to museums and amateurs, I willgive a general statement of the number of specimens I collected, and which reachedhome in good condition. I must premise that I generally employed one or two, andsometimes three Malay servants to assist me; and for nearly half the time had theservices of an English lad, Charles Allen. I was just eight years away from England, butas I travelled about fourteen thousand miles within the Archipelago, and made sixty orseventy separate journeys, each involving some preparation and loss of time, I do notthink that more than six years were really occupied in collecting. I find that my Eastern collections amounted to:

310 specimens of Mammalia.

100 - Reptiles.

8,050 - Birds.

7,500 - Shells.

13,100 - Lepidoptera.

83,200 - Coleoptera.

13,400 - other Insects.

125,660 specimens of natural history.

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It now only remains for me to thank all those friends to whom I am indebted forassistance or information. My thanks are more especially due to the Council of theRoyal Geographical Society, through whose valuable recommendations I obtainedimportant aid from our own Government and from that of Holland; and to Mr. WilliamWilson Saunders, whose kind and liberal encouragement in the early portion of myjourney was of great service to me. I am also greatly indebted to Mr. Samuel Stevens(who acted as my agent), both for the care he took of my collections, and for theuntiring assiduity with which he kept me supplied, both with useful information andwith whatever necessaries I required. I trust that these, and all other friends who have been in any way interested in mytravels and collections, may derive from the perusal of my book, some faint reflexionof the pleasures I myself enjoyed amid the scenes and objects it describes.

CONTENTS

ChaptersI PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHYINDO-MALAY ISLANDSII SINGAPOREIII MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIRIV BORNEO - THE ORANG-UTANV BORNEO - JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIORVI BORNEO - THE DYAKSVII JAVAVIII SUMATRAIX NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDSTHE TIMOR GROUPX BALI AND LOMBOCKXI LOMBOCK - MANNERS AND CUSTOMSXII LOMBOCK - HOW THE RAJAH TOOK THE CENSUSXIII TIMORXIV NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TIMOR GROUPTHE CELEBES GROUPXV CELEBES - MACASSARXVI CELEBES - MACASSARXVII CELEBES - MENADOXVIII NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBESTHE MOLUCCASXIX BANDAXX AMBOYNAXXI TERNATEXXII GILOLOXXIII VOYAGE TO THE KAIÓA ISLANDS AND BATCHIAN

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XXIV BATCHIANXXV CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDSXXVI BOURUXXVII THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MOLUCCASTHE PAPUAN GROUPXXVIII MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS IN A NATIVE PRAUXXIX THE KÉ ISLANDSXXX THE ARU ISLANDS - RESIDENCE IN DOBBOXXXI THE ARU ISLANDS - JOURNEY AND RESIDENCE IN THE INTERIORXXXII THE ARU ISLANDS - SECOND RESIDENCE IN DOBBO

XXXIII THE ARU ISLANDS - PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ASPECTS OFNATURE

XXXIV NEW GUINEA - DOREYXXXV VOYAGE FROM CERAM TO WAIGIOUXXXVI WAIGIOUXXXVII VOYAGE FROM WAIGIOU TO TERNATEXXXVIII THE BIRDS OF PARADISE

XXXIX NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PAPUAN ISLANDS

XL THE RACES OF MAN IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO

APPENDIX ON CRANIA AND LANGUAGESINDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Drawn on Woodby

Orang-Utan attacked by Dyaks WolfRare Ferns on Mount Ophir (from specimens) FitchRemarkable Bornean Beetles RobinsonFlying Frog (From a drawing by the Author) KeulemansFemale Orang-Utan (From a photograph by Woodbury) WolfPortrait of a Dyak Youth (From sketch and photographs) BainesDyak Suspension-bridge (From a sketch by the Author) FitchVanda Lowii (From specimen) FitchRemarkable Forest-trees (From a sketch by the Author) FitchAncient Bas-relief (From a specimen in possession of the Author) BainesPortrait of a Javanese Chief (From a photograph) BainsThe Calliper Butterfly (Charaxes Kaulenii) T.W.WoodPrimula imperialis (From specimen) FitchChief's House and Rice-shed in a Sumatran Village (From aphotograph) Robinson

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Females of Papilio memnon RobinsonPapilio Coön RobinsonLeaf-butterfly in flight and repose T.W.WoodFemale Hornbill and young bird T.W.WoodGrammatophyllum, a gigantic Orchid (From a sketch by the Author) FitchGun-boring in Lombock (From a sketch by the Author) BainesTimor Men (From a photograph) BainesNative Plough and Yoke, Macassar (From a sketch by the Author) BainesSugar Palms (From a sketch by the Author) FitchSkull of Babirusa RobinsonPeculiar form of Wings of Celebes Butterflies WallaceEjecting an Intruder BainesRacquet-tailed Kingfisher Robinson"Wallace's Standard Wing," a new Bird of Paradise KeulemansSago Club BainesSago-washing in Ceram (From a sketch by the Author) BainesSago Oven (From a sketch by the Author) BainesCuscus Ornatus, a Moluccan Marsupial RobinsonMoluccan Beetles RobinsonNatives shooting the Great Bird of Paradise T.W.WoodGreat Black Cockatoo T.W.WoodDobbo in the Trading Season (From a sketch by the Author) BainesMale Brethidæ Fighting RobinsonPapuan, New Guinea BainesPapuan Pipe (From a sketch by the Author) BainesHorned Flies RobinsonClay-beater, used in New Guinea RobinsonThe Red Bird of Paradise T.W.WoodMy house at Bessir, Waigiou (From a sketch by the Author) BainesMalay Anchor (From a sketch by the Author) BainesThe "Twelve-wired" and the "King" Birds of Paradise KeulemansThe Magnificent Bird of Paradise KeulemansThe Superb Bird of Paradise KeulemansThe Six-shafted Bird of Paradise KeulemansThe Long-tailed Bird of Paradise KeulemansThe Great Shielded Grasshopper RobinsonPapuan Charm Robinson

MAPS

Map showing Mr. Wallace's RouteThe British Isles and Borneo on the same scalePhysical Map of the Malay Archipelago

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Map of Minahasa, North CelebesMap of AmboynaAmboyna, with parts of Bouru and CeramThe Islands between Ceram and KéMap of the Aru IslandsVoyage from Ceram to WaigiouVoyage from Waigiou to Ternate

CHAPTER I - PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY From a look at a globe or a map of the Eastern hemisphere, we shall perceivebetween Asia and Australia a number of large and small islands forming a connectedgroup distinct from those great masses of land, and having little connection with eitherof them. Situated upon the Equator, and bathed by the tepid water of the great tropicaloceans, this region enjoys a climate more uniformly hot and moist than almost anyother part of the globe, and teems with natural productions which are elsewhereunknown. The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are Indigenous here. Itproduces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia, the great green-winged Ornithoptera(princes among the butterfly tribes), the man-like Orangutan, and the gorgeous Birds ofParadise. It is inhabited by a peculiar and interesting race of mankind--the Malay,found nowhere beyond the limits of this insular tract, which has hence been named theMalay Archipelago. To the ordinary Englishman this is perhaps the least known part of the globe. Ourpossessions in it are few and scanty; scarcely any of our travellers go to explore it; andin many collections of maps it is almost ignored, being divided between Asia and thePacific Islands. [footnote: Since the establishment of the British North BorneoCompany the region is more known, but the Dutch Colonies are still rarely visited.] Itthus happens that few persons realize that, as a whole, it is comparable with the primarydivisions of the globe, and that some of its separate islands are larger than France or theAustrian Empire. The traveller, however, soon acquires different ideas. He sails fordays or even weeks along the shores of one of these great islands, often so great that itsinhabitants believe it to be a vast continent. He finds that voyages among these islandsare commonly reckoned by weeks and months, and that their several inhabitants areoften as little known to each other as are the native races of the northern to those of thesouthern continent of America. He soon comes to look upon this region as one apartfrom the rest of the world, with its own races of men and its own aspects of nature;with its own ideas, feelings, customs, and modes of speech, and with a climate,vegetation, and animated life altogether peculiar to itself. From many points of view these islands form one compact geographical whole,and as such they have always been treated by travellers and men of science; but, amore careful and detailed study of them under various aspects reveals the unexpectedfact that they are divisible into two portions nearly equal in extent which differ widelyin their natural products, and really form two parts of the primary divisions of the earth.I have been able to prove this in considerable detail by my observations on the naturalhistory of the various parts of the Archipelago; and, as in the description of my travelsand residence in the several islands I shall have to refer continually to this view, andadduce facts in support of it, I have thought it advisable to commence with a generalsketch of the main features of the Malayan region as will render the facts hereafterbrought forward more interesting, and their bearing upon the general question moreeasily understood. I proceed, therefore, to sketch the limits and extent of the

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Archipelago, and to point out the more striking features of its geology, physicalgeography, vegetation, and animal life. Definition and Boundaries.--For reasons which depend mainly on the distributionof animal life, I consider the Malay Archipelago to include the Malay Peninsula as faras Tenasserim and the Nicobar Islands on the west, the Philippines on the north, andthe Solomon Islands, beyond New Guinea, on the east. All the great islands includedwithin these limits are connected together by innumerable smaller ones, so that no oneof them seems to be distinctly separated from the rest. With but few exceptions allenjoy an uniform and very similar climate, and are covered with a luxuriant forestvegetation. Whether we study their form and distribution on maps, or actually travelfrom island to island, our first impression will be that they form a connected whole, allthe parts of which are intimately related to each other. Extent of the Archipelago and Islands.--The Malay Archipelago extends for morethan 4,000 miles in length from east to west, and is about 1,300 in breadth from northto south. It would stretch over an expanse equal to that of all Europe from the extremewest far into Central Asia, or would cover the widest parts of South America, andextend far beyond the land into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It includes three islandslarger than Great Britain; and in one of them, Borneo, the whole of the British Islesmight be set down, and would be surrounded by a sea of forests. New Guinea, thoughless compact in shape, is probably larger than Borneo. Sumatra is about equal in extentto Great Britain; Java, Luzon, and Celebes are each about the size of Ireland. Eighteenmore islands are, on the average, as large as Jamaica; more than a hundred are as largeas the Isle of Wight; while the isles and islets of smaller size are innumerable.

THE BRITISH ISLES AND BORNEO ON THE SAME SCALE

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The absolute extent of land in the Archipelago is not greater than that contained byWestern Europe from Hungary to Spain; but, owing to the manner in which the land isbroken up and divided, the variety of its productions is rather in proportion to theimmense surface over which the islands are spread, than to the quantity of land whichthey contain. Geological Contrasts.--One of the chief volcanic belts upon the globe passesthrough the Archipelago, and produces a striking contrast in the scenery of the volcanicand non-volcanic islands. A curving line, marked out by scores of active, and hundredsof extinct, volcanoes may be traced through the whole length of Sumatra and Java, andthence by the islands of Bali, Lombock, Sumbawa, Flores, the Serwatty Islands, Banda,Amboyna, Batchian, Makian, Tidore, Ternate, and Gilolo, to Morty Island. Here thereis a slight but well-marked break, or shift, of about 200 miles to the westward, wherethe volcanic belt begins again in North Celebes, and passes by Sian and Sanguir to thePhilippine Islands along the eastern side of which it continues, in a curving line, to theirnorthern extremity. From the extreme eastern bend of this belt at Banda, we passonwards for 1,000 miles over a non- volcanic district to the volcanoes observed byDampier, in 1699, on the north-eastern coast of New Guinea, and can there traceanother volcanic belt through New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands, tothe eastern limits of the Archipelago. In the whole region occupied by this vast line of volcanoes, and for a considerablebreadth on each side of it, earthquakes are of continual recurrence, slight shocks beingfelt at intervals of every few weeks or months, while more severe ones, shaking downwhole villages, and doing more or less injury to life and property, are sure to happen,in one part or another of this district, almost every year. On many of the islands theyears of the great earthquakes form the chronological epochs of the native inhabitants,by the aid of which the ages of their children are remembered, and the dates of manyimportant events are determined. I can only briefly allude to the many fearful eruptions that have taken place in thisregion. In the amount of injury to life and property, and in the magnitude of theireffects, they have not been surpassed by any upon record. Forty villages were destroyedby the eruption of Papandayang in Java, in 1772, when the whole mountain was blownup by repeated explosions, and a large lake left in its place. By the great eruption ofTomboro in Sumbawa, in 1815, 12,000 people were destroyed, and the ashes darkenedthe air and fell thickly upon the earth and sea for 300 miles around. Even quite recently,since I left the country, a mountain which had been quiescent for more than 200 yearssuddenly burst into activity. The island of Makian, one of the Moluccas, was rent openin 1646 by a violent eruption which left a huge chasm on one side, extending into theheart of the mountain. It was, when I last visited it in 1860, clothed with vegetation tothe summit, and contained twelve populous Malay villages. On the 29th of December,1862, after 215 years of perfect inaction, it again suddenly burst forth, blowing up andcompletely altering the appearance of the mountain, destroying the greater part of theinhabitants, and sending forth such volumes of ashes as to darken the air at Ternate,forty miles off, and to almost entirely destroy the growing crops on that and thesurrounding islands [footnote: More recently, in 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoawas blown up in a terrific eruption, the sound of the explosions being heard at Ceylon,New Guinea, Manilla, and West Australia, while the ashes were spread over an area aslarge as the German Empire. The chief destruction was effected by great sea waves,which entirely destroyed many towns and villages on the coasts of Java and Sumatra,causing the deaths of between 30,000 and 40,000 persons. The atmospheric disturbancewas so great that air-waves passed three and a quarter times round the globe, and thefiner particles floating in the higher parts of the atmosphere produced remarkablecolours in the sky at sunset for more than two years afterwards and in all parts of theworld.] The island of Java contains more volcanoes, active and extinct, than any other

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known district of equal extent. They are about forty-five in number, and many of themexhibit most beautiful examples of the volcanic cone on a large scale, single or double,with entire or truncated summits, and averaging 10,000 feet high. It is now well ascertained that almost all volcanoes have been slowly built up bythe accumulation of matter--mud, ashes, and lava--ejected by themselves. The openingsor craters, however, frequently shift their position, so that a country may be coveredwith a more or less irregular series of hills in chains and masses, only here and thererising into lofty cones, and yet the whole may be produced by true volcanic action. Inthis manner the greater part of Java has been formed. There has been some elevation,especially on the south coast, where extensive cliffs of coral limestone are found; andthere may be a substratum of older stratified rocks; but still essentially Java is volcanic,and that noble and fertile island--the very garden of the East, and perhaps upon thewhole the richest, the best cultivated, and the best governed tropical island in theworld--owes its very existence to the same intense volcanic activity which stilloccasionally devastates its surface. The great island of Sumatra exhibits, in proportion to its extent, a much smallernumber of volcanoes, and a considerable portion of it has probably a non-volcanicorigin. To the eastward, the long string of islands from Java, passing by the north of Timorand away to Panda, are probably all due to volcanic action. Timor itself consists ofancient stratified rocks, but is said to have one volcano near its centre. Going northward, Amboyna, a part of Bouru, and the west end of Ceram, the northpart of Gilolo, and all the small islands around it, the northern extremity of Celebes,and the islands of Sian and Sang-air, are wholly volcanic. The Philippine Archipelagocontains many active and extinct volcanoes, and has probably been reduced to itspresent fragmentary condition by subsidences attending on volcanic action. All along this great line of volcanoes are to be found more or less palpable signs ofupheaval and depression of land. The range of islands south of Sumatra, a part of thesouth coast of Java and of the islands east of it, the west and east end of Timor,portions of all the Moluccas, the Ké and Aru Islands, Waigiou, and the whole southand east of Gilolo, consist in a great measure of upraised coral-rock, exactlycorresponding to that now forming in the adjacent seas. In many places I have observedthe unaltered surfaces of the elevated reefs, with great masses of coral standing up intheir natural position, and hundreds of shells so fresh-looking that it was hard to believethat they had been more than a few years out of the water; and, in fact, it is veryprobable that such changes have occurred within a few centuries. The united lengths of these volcanic belts is about ninety degrees, or one-fourth ofthe entire circumference of the globe. Their width is about fifty miles; but, for a spaceof two hundred miles on each side of them, evidences of subterranean action are to befound in recently elevated coral-rock, or in barrier coral- reefs, indicating recentsubmergence. In the very centre or focus of the great curve of volcanoes is placed thelarge island of Borneo, in which no sign of recent volcanic action has yet beenobserved, and where earthquakes, so characteristic of the surrounding regions, areentirely unknown. The equally large island of New Guinea occupies another quiescentarea, on which no sign of volcanic action has yet been discovered. With the exceptionof the eastern end of its northern peninsula, the large and curiously-shaped island ofCelebes is also entirely free from volcanoes; and there is some reason to believe that thevolcanic portion has once formed a separate island. The Malay Peninsula is also non-volcanic. The first and most obvious division of the Archipelago would therefore be intoquiescent and volcanic regions, and it might, perhaps, be expected that such a divisionwould correspond to some differences in the character of the vegetation and the formsof life. This is the case, however, to a very limited extent; and we shall presently seethat, although this development of subterranean fires is on so vast a scale--has piled up

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chains of mountains ten or twelve thousand feet high--has broken up continents andraised up islands from the ocean--yet it has all the character of a recent action whichhas not yet succeeded in obliterating the traces of a more ancient distribution of landand water. Contrasts of Vegetation.--Placed immediately upon the Equator and surrounded byextensive oceans, it is not surprising that the various islands of the Archipelago shouldbe almost always clothed with a forest vegetation from the level of the sea to thesummits of the loftiest mountains. This is the general rule. Sumatra, New Guinea,Borneo, the Philippines and the Moluccas, and the uncultivated parts of Java andCelebes, are all forest countries, except a few small and unimportant tracts, dueperhaps, in some cases, to ancient cultivation or accidental fires. To this, however, thereis one important exception in the island of Timor and all the smaller islands around it,in which there is absolutely no forest such as exists in the other islands, and thischaracter extends in a lesser degree to Flores, Sumbawa, Lombock, and Bali. In Timor the most common trees are Eucalypti of several species, alsocharacteristic of Australia, with sandalwood, acacia, and other sorts in less abundance.These are scattered over the country more or less thickly, but, never so as to deserve thename of a forest. Coarse and scanty grasses grow beneath them on the more barrenhills, and a luxuriant herbage in the moister localities. In the islands between Timor andJava there is often a more thickly wooded country abounding in thorny and pricklytrees. These seldom reach any great height, and during the force of the dry season theyalmost completely lose their leaves, allowing the ground beneath them to be parchedup, and contrasting strongly with the damp, gloomy, ever-verdant forests of the otherislands. This peculiar character, which extends in a less degree to the southernpeninsula of Celebes and the east end of Java, is most probably owing to the proximityof Australia. The south-east monsoon, which lasts for about two-thirds of the year(from March to November), blowing over the northern parts of that country, produces adegree of heat and dryness which assimilates the vegetation and physical aspect of theadjacent islands to its own. A little further eastward in Timor and the Ké Islands, amoister climate prevails; the southeast winds blowing from the Pacific through TorresStraits and over the damp forests of New Guinea, and as a consequence, every rockyislet is clothed with verdure to its very summit. Further west again, as the same drywinds blow over a wider and wider extent of ocean, they have time to absorb freshmoisture, and we accordingly find the island of Java possessing a less and less aridclimate, until in the extreme west near Batavia, rain occurs more or less all the yearround, and the mountains are everywhere clothed with forests of unexampledluxuriance. Contrasts in Depth of Sea.--It was first pointed out by Mr. George Windsor Earl,in a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society in 1845, and subsequently in apamphlet "On the Physical Geography of South-Eastern Asia and Australia", dated1855, that a shallow sea connected the great islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo withthe Asiatic continent, with which their natural productions generally agreed; while asimilar shallow sea connected New Guinea and some of the adjacent islands toAustralia, all being characterised by the presence of marsupials.

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The shallow sea is lightly tinted, active volcanoes (black dots) and volcanic belts (lines of red).(Mr Wallace's route is indicated by a solid black line which criss-crosses the archipelago.)

We have here a clue to the most radical contrast in the Archipelago, and byfollowing it out in detail I have arrived at the conclusion that we can draw a line amongthe islands, which shall so divide them that one-half shall truly belong to Asia, whilethe other shall no less certainly be allied to Australia. I term these respectively theIndo-Malayan and the Austro-Malayan divisions of the Archipelago. On referring to pages 12, 13, and 36 of Mr. Earl's pamphlet, it will be seen that hemaintains the former connection of Asia and Australia as an important part of his view;whereas, I dwell mainly on their long continued separation. Notwithstanding this andother important differences between us, to him undoubtedly belongs the merit of firstindicating the division of the Archipelago into an Australian and an Asiatic region,which it has been my good fortune to establish by more detailed observations. Contrasts in Natural Productions.--To understand the importance of this class offacts, and its bearing upon the former distribution of land and sea, it is necessary toconsider the results arrived at by geologists and naturalists in other parts of the world. It is now generally admitted that the present distribution of living things on thesurface of the earth is mainly the result of the last series of changes that it hasundergone. Geology teaches us that the surface of the land, and the distribution of landand water, is everywhere slowly changing. It further teaches us that the forms of lifewhich inhabit that surface have, during every period of which we possess any record,been also slowly changing. It is not now necessary to say anything about how either of those changes tookplace; as to that, opinions may differ; but as to the fact that the changes themselveshave occurred, from the earliest geological ages down to the present day, and are stillgoing on, there is no difference of opinion. Every successive stratum of sedimentaryrock, sand, or gravel, is a proof that changes of level have taken place; and the differentspecies of animals and plants, whose remains are found in these deposits, prove thatcorresponding changes did occur in the organic world. Taking, therefore, these two series of changes for granted, most of the presentpeculiarities and anomalies in the distribution of species may be directly traced to them.In our own islands, with a very few trifling exceptions, every quadruped, bird, reptile,insect, and plant, is found also on the adjacent continent. In the small islands ofSardinia and Corsica, there are some quadrupeds and insects, and many plants, quitepeculiar. In Ceylon, more closely connected to India than Britain is to Europe, many

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animals and plants are different from those found in India, and peculiar to the island. Inthe Galapagos Islands, almost every indigenous living thing is peculiar to them, thoughclosely resembling other kinds found in the nearest parts of the American continent. Most naturalists now admit that these facts can only be explained by the greater orless lapse of time since the islands were upraised from beneath the ocean, or wereseparated from the nearest land; and this will be generally (though not always)indicated by the depth of the intervening sea. The enormous thickness of many marinedeposits through wide areas shows that subsidence has often continued (withintermitting periods of repose) during epochs of immense duration. The depth of seaproduced by such subsidence will therefore generally be a measure of time; and in likemanner, the change which organic forms have undergone is a measure of time. Whenwe make proper allowance for the continued introduction of new animals and plantsfrom surrounding countries by those natural means of dispersal which have been sowell explained by Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Darwin, it is remarkable how closely thesetwo measures correspond. Britain is separated from the continent by a very shallow sea,and only in a very few cases have our animals or plants begun to show a differencefrom the corresponding continental species. Corsica and Sardinia, divided from Italy bya much deeper sea, present a much greater difference in their organic forms. Cuba,separated from Yucatan by a wider and deeper strait, differs more markedly, so thatmost of its productions are of distinct and peculiar species; while Madagascar, dividedfrom Africa by a deep channel three hundred miles wide, possesses so many peculiarfeatures as to indicate separation at a very remote antiquity, or even to render itdoubtful whether the two countries have ever been absolutely united. Returning now to the Malay Archipelago, we find that all the wide expanse of seawhich divides Java, Sumatra, and Borneo from each other, and from Malacca andSiam, is so shallow that ships can anchor in any part of it, since it rarely exceeds fortyfathoms in depth; and if we go as far as the line of a hundred fathoms, we shall includethe Philippine Islands and Bali, east of Java. If, therefore, these islands have beenseparated from each other and the continent by subsidence of the intervening tracts ofland, we should conclude that the separation has been comparatively recent, since thedepth to which the land has subsided is so small. It is also to be remarked that the greatchain of active volcanoes in Sumatra and Java furnishes us with a sufficient cause forsuch subsidence, since the enormous masses of matter they have thrown out would takeaway the foundations of the surrounding district; and this may be the true explanationof the often-noticed fact that volcanoes and volcanic chains are always near the sea.The subsidence they produce around them will, in time, make a sea, if one does notalready exist. [footnote: It is now believed by most geologists that subsidence isproduced by the weight of every fresh deposit of materials either in the sea or on theland. Accumulations of roch or ashes from volcanoes would, therefore, be itself a causeof subsidence.] But it is when we examine the zoology of these countries that we find what wemost require--evidence of a very striking character that these great islands must haveonce formed a part of the continent, and could only have been separated at a veryrecent geological epoch. The elephant and tapir of Sumatra and Borneo, the rhinocerosof Sumatra and the allied species of Java, the wild cattle of Borneo and the kind longsupposed to be peculiar to Java, are now all known to inhabit some part or other ofSouthern Asia. None of these large animals could possibly have passed over the armsof the sea which now separate these countries, and their presence plainly indicates thata land communication must have existed since the origin of the species. Among thesmaller mammals, a considerable portion are common to each island and the continent;but the vast physical changes that must have occurred during the breaking up andsubsidence of such extensive regions have led to the extinction of some in one or moreof the islands, and in some cases there seems also to have been time for a change ofspecies to have taken place. Birds and insects illustrate the same view, for every family

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and almost every genus of these groups found in any of the islands occurs also on theAsiatic continent, and in a great number of cases the species are exactly identical. Birdsoffer us one of the best means of determining the law of distribution; for though at firstsight it would appear that the watery boundaries which keep out the land quadrupedscould be easily passed over by birds, yet practically it is not so; for if we leave out theaquatic tribes which are preeminently wanderers, it is found that the others (andespecially the Passeres, or true perching-birds, which form the vast majority) aregenerally as strictly limited by straits and arms of the sea as are quadrupedsthemselves. As an instance, among the islands of which I am now speaking, it is aremarkable fact that Java possesses numerous birds which never pass over to Sumatra,though they are separated by a strait only fifteen miles wide, and with islands in mid-channel. Java, in fact, possesses more birds and insects peculiar to itself than eitherSumatra or Borneo, and this would indicate that it was earliest separated from thecontinent; next in organic individuality is Borneo, while Sumatra is so nearly identicalin all its animal forms with the peninsula of Malacca, that we may safely conclude it tohave been the most recently dismembered island. The general result therefore, at which we arrive, is that the great islands of Java,Sumatra, and Borneo resemble in their natural productions the adjacent parts of thecontinent, almost as much as such widely-separated districts could be expected to doeven if they still formed a part of Asia; and this close resemblance, joined with the factof the wide extent of sea which separates them being so uniformly and remarkablyshallow, and lastly, the existence of the extensive range of volcanoes in Sumatra andJava, which have poured out vast quantities of subterranean matter and have built upextensive plateaux and lofty mountain ranges, thus furnishing a vera causa for a parallelline of subsidence--all lead irresistibly to the conclusion that at a very recent geologicalepoch, the continent of Asia extended far beyond its present limits in a south- easterlydirection, including the islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, and probably reaching asfar as the present 100-fathom line of soundings. The Philippine Islands agree in many respects with Asia and the other islands, butpresent some anomalies, which seem to indicate that they were separated at an earlierperiod, and have since been subject to many revolutions in their physical geography. Turning our attention now to the remaining portion of the Archipelago, we shallfind that all the islands from Celebes and Lombock eastward exhibit almost as close aresemblance to Australia and New Guinea as the Western Islands do to Asia. It is wellknown that the natural productions of Australia differ from those of Asia more thanthose of any of the four ancient quarters of the world differ from each other. Australia,in fact, stands alone: it possesses no apes or monkeys, no cats or tigers, wolves, bears,or hyenas; no deer or antelopes, sheep or oxen; no elephant, horse, squirrel, or rabbit;none, in short, of those familiar types of quadruped which are met with in every otherpart of the world. Instead of these, it has Marsupials only: kangaroos and opossums;wombats and the duckbilled Platypus. In birds it is almost as peculiar. It has nowoodpeckers and no pheasants--families which exist in every other part of the world;but instead of them it has the mound-making brush-turkeys, the honeysuckers, thecockatoos, and the brush-tongued lories, which are found nowhere else upon the globe.All these striking peculiarities are found also in those islands which form the Austro-Malayan division of the Archipelago. The great contrast between the two divisions of the Archipelago is nowhere soabruptly exhibited as on passing from the island of Bali to that of Lombock, where thetwo regions are in closest proximity. In Bali we have barbets, fruit-thrushes, andwoodpeckers; on passing over to Lombock these are seen no more, but we haveabundance of cockatoos, honeysuckers, and brush- turkeys, which are equally unknownin Bali, or any island further west. [footnote: I was informed, however, that there werea few cockatoos at one spot on the west of Bali, showing that the intermingling of theproductions of these islands is now going on.] The strait is here fifteen miles wide, so

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that we may pass in two hours from one great division of the earth to another, differingas essentially in their animal life as Europe does from America. If we travel from Javaor Borneo to Celebes or the Moluccas, the difference is still more striking. In the first,the forests abound in monkeys of many kinds, wild cats, deer, civets, and otters, andnumerous varieties of squirrels are constantly met with. In the latter none of theseoccur; but the prehensile- tailed Cuscus is almost the only terrestrial mammal seen,except wild pigs, which are found in all the islands, and deer (which have probablybeen recently introduced) in Celebes and the Moluccas. The birds which are mostabundant in the Western Islands are woodpeckers, barbets, trogons, fruit-thrushes, andleaf-thrushes; they are seen daily, and form the great ornithological features of thecountry. In the Eastern Islands these are absolutely unknown, honeysuckers and smalllories being the most common birds, so that the naturalist feels himself in a new world,and can hardly realize that he has passed from the one region to the other in a few days,without ever being out of sight of land. The inference that we must draw from these facts is, undoubtedly, that the whole ofthe islands eastwards beyond Java and Borneo do essentially form a part of a formerAustralian or Pacific continent, although some of them may never have been actuallyjoined to it. This continent must have been broken up not only before the WesternIslands were separated from Asia, but probably before the extreme southeastern portionof Asia was raised above the waters of the ocean; for a great part of the land of Borneoand Java is known to be geologically of quite recent formation, while the very greatdifference of species, and in many cases of genera also, between the productions of theEastern Malay Islands and Australia, as well as the great depth of the sea nowseparating them, all point to a comparatively long period of isolation. It is interesting to observe among the islands themselves how a shallow sea alwaysintimates a recent land connexion. The Aru Islands, Mysol, and Waigiou, as well asJobie, agree with New Guinea in their species of mammalia and birds much moreclosely than they do with the Moluccas, and we find that they are all united to NewGuinea by a shallow sea. In fact, the 100-fathom line round New Guinea marks outaccurately the range of the true Paradise birds. It is further to be noted--and this is a very interesting point in connection withtheories of the dependence of special forms of life on external conditions--that thisdivision of the Archipelago into two regions characterised by a striking diversity intheir natural productions does not in any way correspond to the main physical orclimatal divisions of the surface. The great volcanic chain runs through both parts, andappears to produce no effect in assimilating their productions. Borneo closely resemblesNew Guinea not only in its vast size and its freedom from volcanoes, but in its varietyof geological structure, its uniformity of climate, and the general aspect of the forestvegetation that clothes its surface. The Moluccas are the counterpart of the Philippinesin their volcanic structure, their extreme fertility, their luxuriant forests, and theirfrequent earthquakes; and Bali with the east end of Java has a climate almost as dryand a soil almost as arid as that of Timor. Yet between these corresponding groups ofislands, constructed as it were after the same pattern, subjected to the same climate, andbathed by the same oceans, there exists the greatest possible contrast when we comparetheir animal productions. Nowhere does the ancient doctrine--that differences orsimilarities in the various forms of life that inhabit different countries are due tocorresponding physical differences or similarities in the countries themselves--meetwith so direct and palpable a contradiction. Borneo and New Guinea, as alikephysically as two distinct countries can be, are zoologically wide as the poles asunder;while Australia, with its dry winds, its open plains, its stony deserts, and its temperateclimate, yet produces birds and quadrupeds which are closely related to those inhabitingthe hot damp luxuriant forests, which everywhere clothe the plains and mountains ofNew Guinea. In order to illustrate more clearly the means by which I suppose this great contrast

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has been brought about, let us consider what would occur if two strongly contrasteddivisions of the earth were, by natural means, brought into proximity. No two parts ofthe world differ so radically in their productions as Asia and Australia, but thedifference between Africa and South America is also very great, and these two regionswill well serve to illustrate the question we are considering. On the one side we havebaboons, lions, elephants, buffaloes, and giraffes; on the other spider-monkeys, pumas,tapirs, anteaters, and sloths; while among birds, the hornbills, turacos, orioles, andhoneysuckers of Africa contrast strongly with the toucans, macaws, chatterers, andhummingbirds of America. Now let us endeavour to imagine (what it is very probable may occur in futureages) that a slow upheaval of the bed of the Atlantic should take place, while at thesame time earthquake- shocks and volcanic action on the land should cause increasedvolumes of sediment to be poured down by the rivers, so that the two continents shouldgradually spread out by the addition of newly-formed lands, and thus reduce theAtlantic which now separates them, to an arm of the sea a few hundred miles wide. Atthe same time we may suppose islands to be upheaved in mid- channel; and, as thesubterranean forces varied in intensity, and shifted their points of greatest action, theseislands would sometimes become connected with the land on one side or other of thestrait, and at other times again be separated from it. Several islands would at one timebe joined together, at another would be broken up again, until at last, after many longages of such intermittent action, we might have an irregular archipelago of islandsfilling up the ocean channel of the Atlantic, in whose appearance and arrangement wecould discover nothing to tell us which had been connected with Africa and which withAmerica. The animals and plants inhabiting these islands would, however, certainlyreveal this portion of their former history. On those islands which had ever formed apart of the South American continent, we should be sure to find such common birds aschatterers and toucans and hummingbirds, and some of the peculiar Americanquadrupeds; while on those which had been separated from Africa, hornbills, orioles,and honeysuckers would as certainly be found. Some portion of the upraised landmight at different times have had a temporary connection with both continents, andwould then contain a certain amount of mixture in its living inhabitants. Such seems tohave been the case with the islands of Celebes and the Philippines. Other islands,again, though in such close proximity as Bali and Lombock, might each exhibit analmost unmixed sample of the productions of the continents of which they had directlyor indirectly once formed a part. In the Malay Archipelago we have, I believe, a case exactly parallel to that which Ihave here supposed. We have indications of a vast continent, with a peculiar fauna andflora having been gradually and irregularly broken up; the island of Celebes probablymarking its furthest westward extension, beyond which was a wide ocean. [footnote:Further study on the subject has led me to conclude that Celebes never formed part ofthe Austro-Malayan land, but that it more probably indicates the furthest eastwardextension of the Asiatic continent at a very early period. (See the author's Island Life,p.427.] At the same time Asia appears to have been extending its limits in a southeastdirection, first in an unbroken mass, then separated into islands as we now see it, andalmost coming into actual contact with the scattered fragments of the great southernland. From this outline of the subject, it will be evident how important an adjunctNatural History is to Geology; not only in interpreting the fragments of extinct animalsfound in the earth's crust, but in determining past changes in the surface which haveleft no geological record. It is certainly a wonderful and unexpected fact that anaccurate knowledge of the distribution of birds and insects should enable us to map outlands and continents which disappeared beneath the ocean long before the earliesttraditions of the human race. Wherever the geologist can explore the earth's surface, hecan read much of its past history, and can determine approximately its latest

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movements above and below the sea-level; but wherever oceans and seas now extend,he can do nothing but speculate on the very limited data afforded by the depth of thewaters. Here the naturalist steps in, and enables him to fill up this great gap in the pasthistory of the earth. One of the chief objects of my travels was to obtain evidence of this nature; andmy search after such evidence has been rewarded by great success, so that I have beenable to trace out with some probability the past changes which one of the mostinteresting parts of the earth has undergone. It may be thought that the facts andgeneralizations here given would have been more appropriately placed at the end ratherthan at the beginning of a narrative of the travels which supplied the facts. In somecases this might be so, but I have found it impossible to give such an account as Idesire of the natural history of the numerous islands and groups of islands in theArchipelago, without constant reference to these generalizations which add so much totheir interest. Having given this general sketch of the subject, I shall be able to showhow the same principles can be applied to the individual islands of a group, as to thewhole Archipelago; and thereby make my account of the many new and curiousanimals which inhabit them both, more interesting and more instructive than if treatedas mere isolated facts. Contrasts of Races.--Before I had arrived at the conviction that the eastern andwestern halves of the Archipelago belonged to distinct primary regions of the earth, Ihad been led to group the natives of the Archipelago under two radically distinct races.In this I differed from most ethnologists who had before written on the subject; for ithad been the almost universal custom to follow William von Humboldt and Pritchard,in classing all the Oceanic races as modifications of one type. Observation soon showedme, however, that Malays and Papuans differed radically in every physical, mental, andmoral character; and more detailed research, continued for eight years, satisfied me thatunder these two forms, as types, the whole of the peoples of the Malay Archipelago andPolynesia could be classified. On drawing the line which separates these races, it isfound to come near to that which divides the zoological regions, but somewhateastward of it; a circumstance which appears to me very significant of the same causeshaving influenced the distribution of mankind that have determined the range of otheranimal forms. The reason why exactly the same line does not limit both is sufficiently intelligible.Man has means of traversing the sea which animals do not possess; and a superior racehas power to press out or assimilate an inferior one. The maritime enterprise and highercivilization of the Malay races have enabled them to overrun a portion of the adjacentregion, in which they have entirely supplanted the indigenous inhabitants if it everpossessed any; and to spread much of their language, their domestic animals, and theircustoms far over the Pacific, into islands where they have but slightly, or not at all,modified the physical or moral characteristics of the people. I believe, therefore, that all the peoples of the various islands can be grouped eitherwith the Malays or the Papuans; and that these two have no traceable affinity to eachother. I believe, further, that all the races east of the line I have drawn have moreaffinity for each other than they have for any of the races west of that line; that, in fact,the Asiatic races include the Malays, and all have a continental origin, while the Pacificraces, including all to the east of the former (except perhaps some in the NorthernPacific), are derived, not from any existing continent, but from lands which now existor have recently existed in the Pacific Ocean. These preliminary observations willenable the reader better to apprehend the importance I attach to the details of physicalform or moral character, which I shall give in describing the inhabitants of many of theislands.

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INDO-MALAY ISLANDS

CHAPTER II

SINGAPORE

(A SKETCH OF THE TOWN AND ISLAND AS SEEN DURING SEVERALVISITS FROM 1854 TO 1862)

FEW places are more interesting to a traveller from Europe than the town andisland of Singapore, furnishing, as it does, examples of a variety of Eastern races, andof many different religions and modes of life. The government, the garrison, and thechief merchants are English; but the great mass of the population is Chinese, includingsome of the wealthiest merchants, the agriculturists of the interior, and most of themechanics and labourers. The native Malays are usually fishermen and boatmen, andthey form the main body of the police. The Portuguese of Malacca supply a largenumber of the clerks and smaller merchants. The Klings of Western India are anumerous body of Mahometans, and, with many Arabs, are petty merchants andshopkeepers. The grooms and washermen are all Bengalees, and there is a small buthighly respectable class of Parsee merchants. Besides these, there are numbers ofJavanese sailors and domestic servants, as well as traders from Celebes, Bali, and manyother islands of the Archipelago. The harbour is crowded with men-of-war and tradingvessels of many European nations, and hundreds of Malay praus and Chinese junks,from vessels of several hundred tons burthen down to little fishing boats and passengersampans; and the town comprises handsome public buildings and churches, Mahometanmosques, Hindu temples, Chinese joss-houses, good European houses, massivewarehouses, queer old Kling and China bazaars, and long suburbs of Chinese andMalay cottages. By far the most conspicuous of the various kinds of people in Singapore, and thosewhich most attract the stranger's attention, are the Chinese, whose numbers andincessant activity give the place very much the appearance of a town in China. TheChinese merchant is generally a fat round-faced man with an important and business-like look. He wears the same style of clothing (loose white smock, and blue or blacktrousers) as the meanest coolie, but of finer materials, and is always clean and neat; andhis long tail tipped with red silk hangs down to his heels. He has a handsomewarehouse or shop in town and a good house in the country. He keeps a fine horse andgig, and every evening may be seen taking a drive bareheaded to enjoy the cool breeze.He is rich--he owns several retail shops and trading schooners, he lends money at highinterest and on good security, he makes hard bargains, and gets fatter and richer everyyear. In the Chinese bazaar are hundreds of small shops in which a miscellaneouscollection of hardware and dry goods are to be found, and where many things are soldwonderfully cheap. You may buy gimlets at a penny each, white cotton thread at fourballs for a halfpenny, and penknives, corkscrews, gunpowder, writing- paper, and manyother articles as cheap or cheaper than you can purchase them in England. Theshopkeeper is very good-natured; he will show you everything he has, and does notseem to mind if you buy nothing. He bates a little, but not so much as the Klings, whoalmost always ask twice what they are willing to take. If you buy a few things fromhim, he will speak to you afterwards every time you pass his shop, asking you to walkin and sit down, or take a cup of tea; and you wonder how he can get a living where somany sell the same trifling articles.

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The tailors sit at a table, not on one; and both they and the shoemakers work welland cheaply. The barbers have plenty to do, shaving heads and cleaning ears; for whichlatter operation they have a great array of little tweezers, picks, and brushes. In theoutskirts of the town are scores of carpenters and blacksmiths. The former seem chieflyto make coffins and highly painted and decorated clothes-boxes. The latter are mostlygun-makers, and bore the barrels of guns by hand out of solid bars of iron. At thistedious operation they may be seen every day, and they manage to finish off a gun witha flintlock very handsomely. All about the streets are sellers of water, vegetables, fruit,soup, and agar-agar (a jelly made of seaweed), who have many cries as unintelligibleas those of London. Others carry a portable cooking-apparatus on a pole balanced by atable at the other end, and serve up a meal of shellfish, rice, and vegetables for two orthree halfpence--while coolies and boatmen waiting to be hired are everywhere to bemet with. In the interior of the island the Chinese cut down forest trees in the jungle, and sawthem up into planks; they cultivate vegetables, which they bring to market; and theygrow pepper and gambir, which form important articles of export. The French Jesuitshave established missions among these inland Chinese, which seem very successful. Ilived for several weeks at a time with the missionary at Bukit-tima, about the centre ofthe island, where a pretty church has been built and there are about 300 converts.While there, I met a missionary who had just arrived from Tonquin, where he had beenliving for many years. The Jesuits still do their work thoroughly as of old. In CochinChina, Tonquin, and China, where all Christian teachers are obliged to live in secret,and are liable to persecution, expulsion, and sometimes death [footnote: Since theFrench settlement in Cochin China this is no longer the case.], every province, eventhose farthest in the interior, has a permanent Jesuit mission establishment, constantlykept up by fresh aspirants, who are taught the languages of the countries they are goingto at Penang or Singapore. In China there are said to be near a million converts; inTonquin and Cochin China, more than half a million. One secret of the success of thesemissions is the rigid economy practised in the expenditure of the funds. A missionary isallowed about £30. a year, on which he lives in whatever country he may be. Thisrenders it possible to support a large number of missionaries with very limited means;and the natives, seeing their teachers living in poverty and with none of the luxuries oflife, are convinced that they are sincere in what they teach, and have really given uphome and friends and ease and safety, for the good of others. No wonder they makeconverts, for it must be a great blessing to the poor people among whom they labour tohave a man among them to whom they can go in any trouble or distress, who willcomfort and advise them, who visits them in sickness, who relieves them in want, andwho they see living from day-to-day in danger of persecution and death--entirely fortheir sakes. My friend at Bukit-tima was truly a father to his flock. He preached to them inChinese every Sunday, and had evenings for discussion and conversation on religionduring the week. He had a school to teach their children. His house was open to themday and night. If a man came to him and said, "I have no rice for my family to eattoday," he would give him half of what he had in the house, however little that mightbe. If another said, "I have no money to pay my debt," he would give him half thecontents of his purse, were it his last dollar. So, when he was himself in want, he wouldsend to some of the wealthiest among his flock, and say, "I have no rice in the house,"or "I have given away my money, and am in want of such and such articles." The resultwas that his flock trusted and loved him, for they felt sure that he was their true friend,and had no ulterior designs in living among them. The island of Singapore consists of a multitude of small hills, three or four hundredfeet high, the summits of many of which are still covered with virgin forest. Themission-house at Bukit-tima was surrounded by several of these wood-topped hills,which were much frequented by woodcutters and sawyers, and offered me an excellent

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collecting ground for insects. Here and there, too, were tiger pits, carefully coveredover with sticks and leaves, and so well concealed, that in several cases I had a narrowescape from falling into them. They are shaped like an iron furnace, wider at the bottomthan the top, and are perhaps fifteen or twenty feet deep so that it would be almostimpossible for a person unassisted to get out of one. Formerly a sharp stake was stuckerect in the bottom; but after an unfortunate traveller had been killed by falling on one,its use was forbidden. There are always a few tigers roaming about Singapore, and theykill on an average a Chinaman every day, principally those who work in the gambirplantations, which are always made in newly-cleared jungle. We heard a tiger roaronce or twice in the evening, and it was rather nervous work hunting for insects amongthe fallen trunks and old sawpits when one of these savage animals might be lurkingclose by, awaiting an opportunity to spring upon us. Several hours in the middle of every fine day were spent in these patches of forest,which were delightfully cool and shady by contrast with the bare open country we hadto walk over to reach them. The vegetation was most luxuriant, comprising enormousforest trees, as well as a variety of ferns, caladiums, and other undergrowth, andabundance of climbing rattan palms. Insects were exceedingly abundant and veryinteresting, and every day furnished scores of new and curious forms. In about two months I obtained no less than 700 species of beetles, a largeproportion of which were quite new, and among them were 130 distinct kinds of theelegant Longicorns (Cerambycidae), so much esteemed by collectors. Almost all thesewere collected in one patch of jungle, not more than a square mile in extent, and in allmy subsequent travels in the East I rarely if ever met with so productive a spot. Thisexceeding productiveness was due in part no doubt to some favourable conditions in thesoil, climate, and vegetation, and to the season being very bright and sunny, withsufficient showers to keep everything fresh. But it was also in a great measuredependent, I feel sure, on the labours of the Chinese wood- cutters. They had been atwork here for several years, and during all that time had furnished a continual supply ofdry and dead and decaying leaves and bark, together with abundance of wood andsawdust, for the nourishment of insects and their larvae. This had led to the assemblageof a great variety of species in a limited space, and I was the first naturalist who hadcome to reap the harvest they had prepared. In the same place, and during my walks inother directions, I obtained a fair collection of butterflies and of other orders of insects,so that on the whole I was quite satisfied with these--my first attempts to gain aknowledge of the Natural History of the Malay Archipelago.

CHAPTER III

MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR

(JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1854)

BIRDS and most other kinds of animals being scarce at Singapore, I left it in Julyfor Malacca, where I spent more than two months in the interior, and made anexcursion to Mount Ophir. The old and picturesque town of Malacca is crowded alongthe banks of the small river, and consists of narrow streets of shops and dwellinghouses, occupied by the descendants of the Portuguese, and by Chinamen. In thesuburbs are the houses of the English officials and of a few Portuguese merchants,embedded in groves of palms and fruit-trees, whose varied and beautiful foliagefurnishes a pleasing relief to the eye, as well as most grateful shade. The old fort, the large Government House, and the ruins of a cathedral attest the

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former wealth and importance of this place, which was once as much the centre ofEastern trade as Singapore is now. The following description of it by Linschott, whowrote two hundred and seventy years ago, strikingly exhibits the change it hasundergone: "Malacca is inhabited by the Portuguese and by natives of the country, calledMalays. The Portuguese have here a fortress, as at Mozambique, and there is no fortressin all the Indies, after those of Mozambique and Ormuz, where the captains performtheir duty better than in this one. This place is the market of all India, of China, of theMoluccas, and of other islands around about--from all which places, as well as fromBanda, Java, Sumatra, Siam, Pegu, Bengal, Coromandel, and India--arrive ships whichcome and go incessantly, charged with an infinity of merchandises. There would be inthis place a much greater number of Portuguese if it were not for the inconvenience,and unhealthiness of the air, which is hurtful not only to strangers, but also to nativesof the country. Thence it is that all who live in the country pay tribute of their health,suffering from a certain disease, which makes them lose either their skin or their hair.And those who escape consider it a miracle, which occasions many to leave thecountry, while the ardent desire of gain induces others to risk their health, andendeavour to endure such an atmosphere. The origin of this town, as the natives say,was very small, only having at the beginning, by reason of the unhealthiness of the air,but six or seven fishermen who inhabited it. But the number was increased by themeeting of fishermen from Siam, Pegu, and Bengal, who came and built a city, andestablished a peculiar language, drawn from the most elegant nodes of speaking ofother nations, so that in fact the, language of the Malays is at present the most refined,exact, and celebrated of all the East. The name of Malacca was given to this town,which, by the convenience of its situation, in a short time grew to such wealth, that itdoes not yield to the most powerful towns and regions around about. The natives, bothmen and women, are very courteous and are reckoned the most skillful in the world incompliments, and study much to compose and repeat verses and love-songs. Theirlanguage is in vogue through the Indies, as the French is here. At present, a vessel over a hundred tons hardly ever enters its port, and the trade isentirely confined to a few petty products of the forests, and to the fruit, which the trees,planted by the old Portuguese, now produce for the enjoyment of the inhabitants ofSingapore. Although rather subject to fevers, it is not at present considered veryunhealthy. The population of Malacca consists of several races. The ubiquitous Chinese areperhaps the most numerous, keeping up their manners, customs, and language; theindigenous Malays are next in point of numbers, and their language is the Lingua-franca of the place. Next come the descendants of the Portuguese--a mixed, degraded,and degenerate race, but who still keep up the use of their mother tongue, thoughruefully mutilated in grammar; and then there are the English rulers, and thedescendants of the Dutch, who all speak English. The Portuguese spoken at Malacca isa useful philological phenomenon. The verbs have mostly lost their inflections, and oneform does for all moods, tenses, numbers, and persons. Eu vai, serves for "I go," "Iwent," or, "I will go." Adjectives, too, have been deprived of their feminine and pluralterminations, so that the language is reduced to a marvellous simplicity, and, with theadmixture of a few Malay words, becomes rather puzzling to one who has heard onlythe pure Lusitanian. In costume these several peoples are as varied as in their speech. The Englishpreserve the tight-fitting coat, waistcoat, and trousers, and the abominable hat andcravat; the Portuguese patronise a light jacket, or, more frequently, shirt and trousersonly; the Malays wear their national jacket and sarong (a kind of kilt), with loosedrawers; while the Chinese never depart in the least from their national dress, which,indeed, it is impossible to improve for a tropical climate, whether as regards comfort orappearance. The loosely-hanging trousers, and neat white half- shirt half jacket, are

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exactly what a dress should be in this low latitude. I engaged two Portuguese to accompany me into the interior; one as a cook, theother to shoot and skin birds, which is quite a trade in Malacca. I first stayed a fortnightat a village called Gading, where I was accommodated in the house of some Chineseconverts, to whom I was recommended by the Jesuit missionaries. The house was amere shed, but it was kept clean, and I made myself sufficiently comfortable. My hostswere forming a pepper and gambir plantation, and in the immediate neighbourhoodwere extensive tin-washings, employing over a thousand Chinese. The tin is obtained inthe form of black grains from beds of quartzose sand, and is melted into ingots in rudeclay furnaces. The soil seemed poor, and the forest was very dense with undergrowth,and not at all productive of insects; but, on the other hand, birds were abundant, and Iwas at once introduced to the rich ornithological treasures of the Malayan region. The very first time I fired my gun I brought down one of the most curious andbeautiful of the Malacca birds, the blue-billed gaper (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus),called by the Malays the "Rainbird." It is about the size of a starling, black and richclaret colour with white shoulder stripes, and a very large and broad bill of the mostpure cobalt blue above and orange below, while the iris is emerald green. As the skinsdry the bill turns dull black, but even then the bird is handsome. When fresh killed, thecontrast of the vivid blue with the rich colours of the plumage is remarkably strikingand beautiful. The lovely Eastern trogons, with their rich-brown backs, beautifullypencilled wings, and crimson breasts, were also soon obtained, as well as the largegreen barbets (Megalaema versicolor)--fruit- eating birds, something like small toucans,with a short, straight bristly bill, and whose head and neck are variegated with patchesof the most vivid blue and crimson. A day or two after, my hunter brought me aspecimen of the green gaper (Calyptomena viridis), which is like a small cock-of-the-rock, but entirely of the most vivid green, delicately marked on the wings with blackbars. Handsome woodpeckers and gay kingfishers, green and brown cuckoos withvelvety red faces and green beaks, red-breasted doves and metallic honeysuckers, werebrought in day after day, and kept me in a continual state of pleasurable excitement.After a fortnight one of my servants was seized with fever, and on returning toMalacca, the same disease, attacked the other as well as myself. By a liberal use ofquinine, I soon recovered, and obtaining other men, went to stay at the Governmentbungalow of Ayer-panas, accompanied by a young gentleman, a native of the place,who had a taste for natural history. At Ayer-panas we had a comfortable house to stay in, and plenty of room to dryand preserve our specimens; but, owing to there being no industrious Chinese to cutdown timber, insects were comparatively scarce, with the exception of butterflies, ofwhich I formed a very fine collection. The manner in which I obtained one fine insectwas curious, and indicates bow fragmentary and imperfect a traveller's collection mustnecessarily be. I was one afternoon walking along a favourite road through the forest,with my gun, when I saw a butterfly on the ground. It was large, handsome, and quitenew to me, and I got close to it before it flew away. I then observed that it had beensettling on the dung of some carnivorous animal. Thinking it might return to the samespot, I next day after breakfast took my net, and as I approached the place wasdelighted to see the same butterfly sitting on the same piece of dung, and succeeded incapturing it. It was an entirely new species of great beauty, and has been named by Mr.Hewitson--Nymphalis calydona. I never saw another specimen of it, and it was onlyafter twelve years had elapsed that a second individual reached this country from thenorthwestern part of Borneo. Having determined to visit MountOphir, which is situated in the middle ofthe peninsula about fifty miles east ofMalacca, we engaged six Malays toaccompany us and carry our baggage. As

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RARE FERNS AT MOUNT OPHIR

we meant to stay at least a week at themountain, we took with us a goodsupply of rice, a little biscuit, butter andcoffee, some dried fish and a littlebrandy, with blankets, a change ofclothes, insect and bird boxes, nets, gunsand ammunition. The distance fromAyer-panas was supposed to be aboutthirty miles. Our first day's march lay throughpatches of forest, clearings, and Malayvillages, and was pleasant enough. Atnight we slept at the house of a Malaychief, who lent us a verandah, and gaveus a fowl and some eggs. The next daythe country got wilder and more dilly.We passed through extensive forests,along paths often up to our knees inmud, and were much annoyed by theleeches for which this district is famous.These little creatures infest the leavesand herbage by the side of the paths, andwhen a passenger comes along theystretch themselves out at full length, andif they touch any part of his dress orbody, quit their leaf and adhere to it.They then creep on to his feet, legs, or other part of his body and suck their fill, the firstpuncture being rarely felt during the excitement of walking. On bathing in the eveningwe generally found half a dozen or a dozen on each of us, most frequently on our legs,but sometimes on our bodies, and I had one who sucked his fill from the side of myneck, but who luckily missed the jugular vein. There are many species of these forestleeches. All are small, but some are beautifully marked with stripes of bright yellow.They probably attach themselves to deer or other animals which frequent the forestpaths, and have thus acquired the singular habit of stretching themselves out at thesound of a footstep or of rustling foliage. Early in the afternoon we reached the foot ofthe mountain, and encamped by the side of a fine stream, whose rocky banks wereovergrown with ferns. Our oldest Malay had been accustomed to shoot birds in thisneighbourhood for the Malacca dealers, and had been to the top of the mountain, andwhile we amused ourselves shooting and insect hunting, he went with two others toclear the path for our ascent the next day. Early next morning we started after breakfast, carrying blankets and provisions, aswe intended to sleep upon the mountain. After passing a little tangled jungle andswampy thickets through which our men had cleared a path, we emerged into a finelofty forest pretty clear of undergrowth, and in which we could walk freely. Weascended steadily up a moderate slope for several miles, having a deep ravine on ourleft. We then had a level plateau or shoulder to cross, after which the ascent wassteeper and the forest denser until we came out upon the "Padang-batu," or stone field,a place of which we had heard much, but could never get anyone to describeintelligibly. We found it to be a steep slope of even rock, extending along the mountainside farther than we could see. Parts of it were quite bare, but where it was cracked andfissured there grew a most luxuriant vegetation, among which the pitcher plants werethe most remarkable. These wonderful plants never seem to succeed well in our hot-houses, and are there seen to little advantage. Here they grew up into half climbingshrubs, their curious pitchers of various sizes and forms hanging abundantly from their

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leaves, and continually exciting our admiration by their size and beauty. A fewconiferae of the genus Dacrydium here first appeared, and in the thickets just above therocky surface we walked through groves of those splendid ferns Dipteris Horsfieldiiand Matonia pectinata, which bear large spreading palmate fronds on slender stems sixor eight feet high. The Matonia is the tallest and most elegant, and is known only fromthis mountain, and neither of them is yet introduced into our hot-houses. It was very striking to come out from the dark, cool, and shady forest in which wehad been ascending since we started, on to this hot, open rocky slope where we seemedto have entered at one step from a lowland to an alpine vegetation. The height, asmeasured by a sympiesometer, was about 2,800 feet. We had been told we should findwater at Padang-batuas we were exceedingly thirsty; but we looked about for it in vain.At last we turned to the pitcher-plants, but the water contained in the pitchers (abouthalf a pint in each) was full of insects, and otherwise uninviting. On tasting it, however,we found it very palatable though rather warm, and we all quenched our thirst fromthese natural jugs. Farther on we came to forest again, but of a more dwarf and stuntedcharacter than below; and alternately passing along ridges and descending into valleys,we reached a peak separated from the true summit of the mountain by a considerablechasm. Here our porters gave in, and declared they could carry their loads no further;and certainly the ascent to the highest peak was very precipitous. But on the spot wherewe were there was no water, whereas it was well known that there was a spring close tothe summit, so we determined to go on without them, and carry with us only what wasabsolutely necessary. We accordingly took a blanket each, and divided our food andother articles among us, and went on with only the old Malay and his son. After descending into the saddle between the two peaks we found the ascent verylaborious, the slope being so steep, as often to necessitate hand-climbing. Besides abushy vegetation the ground was covered knee-deep with mosses on a foundation ofdecaying leaves and rugged rock, and it was a hard hour's climb to the small ledge justbelow the summit, where an overhanging rock forms a convenient shelter, and a littlebasin collects the trickling water. Here we put down our loads, and in a few minutesmore stood on the summit of Mount Ophir, 4,000 feet above the sea. The top is a smallrocky platform covered with rhododendrons and other shrubs. The afternoon was clear,and the view fine in its way--ranges of hill and valley everywhere covered withinterminable forest, with glistening rivers winding among them. In a distant view a forest country is very monotonous, and no mountain I have everascended in the tropics presents a panorama equal to that from Snowdon, while theviews in Switzerland are immeasurably superior. When boiling our coffee I tookobservations with a good boiling-point thermometer, as well as with thesympiesometer, and we then enjoyed our evening meal and the noble prospect that laybefore us. The night was calm and very mild, and having made a bed of twigs andbranches over which we laid our blankets, we passed a very comfortable night. Ourporters had followed us after a rest, bringing only their rice to cook, and luckily we didnot require the baggage they left behind them. In the morning I caught a few butterfliesand beetles, and my friend got a few land-shells; and we then descended, bringing withus some specimens of the ferns and pitcher-plants of Padang- batu. The place where we had first encamped at the foot of the mountain being verygloomy, we chose another in a kind of swamp near a stream overgrown withZingiberaceous plants, in which a clearing was easily made. Here our men built twolittle huts without sides that would just shelter us from the rain; we lived in them for aweek, shooting and insect-hunting, and roaming about the forests at the foot of themountain. This was the country of the great Argus pheasant, and we continually heardits cry. On asking the old Malay to try and shoot one for me, he told me that althoughhe had been for twenty years shooting birds in these forests he had never yet shot one,and had never even seen one except after it had been caught. The bird is so exceedinglyshy and wary, and runs along the ground in the densest parts of the forest so quickly,

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that it is impossible to get near it; and its sober colours and rich eye-like spots, whichare so ornamental when seen in a museum, must harmonize well with the dead leavesamong which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. All the specimens sold inMalacca are caught in snares, and my informant, though he had shot none, had snaredplenty. The tiger and rhinoceros are still found here, and a few years ago elephantsabounded, but they have lately all disappeared. We found some heaps of dung, whichseemed to be that of elephants, and some tracks of the rhinoceros, but saw none of theanimals. However, we kept a fire up all night in case any of these creatures should visitus, and two of our men declared that they did one day see a rhinoceros. When our ricewas finished, and our boxes full of specimens, we returned to Ayer-Panas, and a fewdays afterwards went on to Malacca, and thence to Singapore. Mount Ophir has quite areputation for fever, and all our friends were astonished at our recklessness in stayingso long at its foot; but none of us suffered in the least, and I shall ever look back withpleasure to my trip as being my first introduction to mountain scenery in the Easterntropics. The meagreness and brevity of the sketch I have here given of my visit toSingapore and the Malay Peninsula is due to my having trusted chiefly to some privateletters and a notebook, which were lost; and to a paper on Malacca and Mount Ophirwhich was sent to the Royal Geographical Society, but which was neither read norprinted owing to press of matter at the end of a session, and the MSS. of which cannotnow be found. I the less regret this, however, as so many works have been written onthese parts; and I always intended to pass lightly over my travels in the western andbetter known portions of the Archipelago, in order to devote more space to the remoterdistricts, about which hardly anything has been written in the English language.

CHAPTER IV

BORNEO - THE ORANGUTAN

I ARRIVED at Sarawak on November 1st, 1854, and left it on January 25th, 1856.In the interval I resided at many different localities, and saw a good deal of the Dyaktribes as well as of the Bornean Malays. I was hospitably entertained by Sir JamesBrooke, and lived in his house whenever I was at the town of Sarawak in the intervalsof my journeys. But so many books have been written about this part of Borneo since Iwas there, that I shall avoid going into details of what I saw and heard and thought ofSarawak and its ruler, confining myself chiefly to my experiences as a naturalist insearch of shells, insects, birds and the Orangutan, and to an account of a journeythrough a part of the interior seldom visited by Europeans. The first four months of my visit were spent in various parts of the Sarawak River,from Santubong at its mouth up to the picturesque limestone mountains and Chinesegold-fields of Bow and Bede. This part of the country has been so frequently describedthat I shall pass it over, especially as, owing to its being the height of the wet season,my collections were comparatively poor and insignificant. In March 1865 I determined to go to the coalworks which were being opened nearthe Simunjon River, a small branch of the Sadong, a river east of Sarawak and betweenit and the Batang- Lupar. The Simunjon enters the Sadong River about twenty miles up.It is very narrow and very winding, and much overshadowed by the lofty forest, whichsometimes almost meets over it. The whole country between it and the sea is a perfectlylevel forest- covered swamp, out of which rise a few isolated hills, at the foot of one ofwhich the works are situated. From the landing- place to the hill a Dyak road had been

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formed, which consisted solely of tree-trunks laid end to end. Along these thebarefooted natives walk and carry heavy burdens with the greatest ease, but to a bootedEuropean it is very slippery work, and when one's attention is constantly attracted bythe various objects of interest around, a few tumbles into the bog are almost inevitable.During my first walk along this road I saw few insects or birds, but noticed some veryhandsome orchids in flower, of the genus Coelogyne, a group which I afterwards foundto be very abundant, and characteristic of the district. On the slope of the hill near itsfoot a patch of forest had been cleared away, and several rule houses erected, in whichwere residing Mr. Coulson the engineer, and a number of Chinese workmen. I was atfirst kindly accommodated in Mr. Coulson's house, but finding the spot very suitablefor me and offering great facilities for collecting, I had a small house of two rooms anda verandah built for myself. Here I remained nearly nine months, and made animmense collection of insects, to which class of animals I devoted my chief attention,owing to the circumstances being especially favourable. In the tropics a large proportion of the insects of all orders, and especially of thelarge and favourite group of beetles, are more or less dependent on vegetation, andparticularly on timber, bark, and leaves in various stages of decay. In the untouchedvirgin forest, the insects which frequent such situations are scattered over an immenseextent of country, at spots where trees have fallen through decay and old age, or havesuccumbed to the fury of the tempest; and twenty square miles of country may notcontain so many fallen and decayed trees as are to be found in any small clearing. Thequantity and the variety of beetles and of many other insects that can be collected at agiven time in any tropical locality, will depend, first upon the immediate vicinity of agreat extent of virgin forest, and secondly upon the quantity of trees that for somemonths past have been, and which are still being cut down, and left to dry and decayupon the ground. Now, during my whole twelve years' collecting in the western and eastern tropics, Inever enjoyed such advantages in this respect as at the Simunjon coalworks. Forseveral months from twenty to fifty Chinamen and Dyaks were employed almostexclusively in clearing a large space in the forest, and in making a wide opening for arailroad to the Sadong River, two miles distant. Besides this, sawpits were establishedat various points in the jungle, and large trees were felled to be cut up into beams andplanks. For hundreds of miles in every direction a magnificent forest extended overplain and mountain, rock and morass, and I arrived at the spot just as the rains began todiminish and the daily sunshine to increase; a time which I have always found the mostfavourable season for collecting. The number of openings, sunny places, and pathwayswere also an attraction to wasps and butterflies; and by paying a cent each for allinsects that were brought me, I obtained from the Dyaks and the Chinamen many finelocusts and Phasmidae, as well as numbers of handsome beetles. When I arrived at the mines, on the 14th of March, I had collected in the fourpreceding months, 320 different kinds of beetles. In less than a fortnight I had doubledthis number, an average of about 24 new species every day. On one day I collected 76different kinds, of which 34 were new to me. By the end of April I had more than athousand species, and they then went on increasing at a slower rate, so that I obtainedaltogether in Borneo about two thousand distinct kinds, of which all but about ahundred were collected at this place, and on scarcely more than a square mile ofground. The most numerous and most interesting groups of beetles were theLongicorns and Rhynchophora, both pre- eminently wood-feeders. The former,characterised by their graceful forms and long antenna, were especially numerous,amounting to nearly three hundred species, nine-tenths of which were entirely new, andmany of them remarkable for their large size, strange forms, and beautiful colouring.The latter correspond to our weevils and allied groups, and in the tropics areexceedingly numerous and varied, often swarming upon dead timber, so that Isometimes obtained fifty or sixty different kinds in a day. My Bornean collections of

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this group exceeded five hundred species.

REMARKABLE BEETLES FOUND AT SIMUNJON, BORNEO

My collection of butterflies was not large; but I obtained some rare and veryhandsome insects, the most remarkable being the Ornithoptera Brookeana, one of themost elegant species known. This beautiful creature has very long and pointed wings,almost resembling a sphinx moth in shape. It is deep velvety black, with a curved bandof spots of a brilliant metallic-green colour extending across the wings from tip to tip,each spot being shaped exactly like a small triangular feather, and having very muchthe effect of a row of the wing coverts of the Mexican trogon, laid upon black velvet.The only other marks are a broad neck-collar of vivid crimson, and a few delicatewhite touches on the outer margins of the hind wings. This species, which was thenquite new and which I named after Sir James Brooke, was very rare. It was seenoccasionally flying swiftly in the clearings, and now and then settling for an instant atpuddles and muddy places, so that I only succeeded in capturing two or threespecimens. In some other parts of the country I was assured it was abundant, and agood many specimens have been sent to England; but as yet all have been males, andwe are quite unable to conjecture what the female may be like, owing to the extremeisolation of the species, and its want of close affinity to any other known insect.[footnote: Females have since been captured in some plenty. They resemble the male,but have more white and less brilliant colours.] One of the most curious and interesting reptiles which I met with in Borneo was alarge tree-frog, which was brought me by one of the Chinese workmen. He assured methat he had seen it come down in a slanting direction from a high tree, as if it flew. Onexamining it, I found the toes very long and fully webbed to their very extremity, sothat when expanded they offered a surface much larger than the body. The forelegswere also bordered by a membrane, and the body was capable of considerable inflation.The back and limbs were of a very deep shining green colour, the undersurface and theinner toes yellow, while the webs were black, rayed with yellow. The body was aboutfour inches long, while the webs of each hind foot, when fully expanded, covered asurface of four square inches, and the webs of all the feet together about twelve squareinches. As the extremities of the toes have dilated discs for adhesion, showing the

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FLYING FROG

creature to be a true tree frog, it is difficult to imagine that this immense membrane ofthe toes can be for the purpose of swimming only, and the account of the Chinaman,that it flew down from the tree, becomes more credible. This is, I believe, the firstinstance known of a "flying frog," and it is very interesting to Darwinians as showingthat the variability of the toes which have been already modified for purposes ofswimming and adhesive climbing, have been taken advantage of to enable an alliedspecies to pass through the air like the flying lizard. It would appear to be a newspecies of the genus Rhacophorus, which consists of several frogs of a much smallersize than this, and having the webs of the toes less developed. During my stay in Borneo I hadno hunter to shoot for me regularly,and, being myself fully occupiedwith insects, I did not succeed inobtaining a very good collection ofthe birds or Mammalia, many ofwhich, however, are well known,being identical with species found inMalacca. Among the Mammaliawere five squirrels,and twotigercats--the Gymnurus Rafesii,which looks like a cross between apig and a polecat, and the CynogaleBennetti--a rare, otter-like animal,with very broad muzzle clothed withlong bristles. One of my chief objects incoming to stay at Simunjon was tosee the Orangutan (or great man-likeape of Borneo) in his native haunts,to study his habits, and obtain good specimens of the different varieties and species ofboth sexes, and of the adult and young animals. In all these objects I succeeded beyondmy expectations, and will now give some account of my experience in hunting theOrangutan, or "Mias," as it is called by the natives; and as this name is short, and easilypronounced, I shall generally use it in preference to Simia satyrus, or Orangutan. Just a week after my arrival at the mines, I first saw a Mias. I was out collectinginsects, not more than a quarter of a mile from the house, when I heard a rustling in atree near, and, looking up, saw a large red-haired animal moving slowly along, hangingfrom the branches by its arms. It passed on from tree to tree until it was lost in thejungle, which was so swampy that I could not follow it. This mode of progression was,however, very unusual, and is more characteristic of the Hylobates than of the Orang. Isuppose there was some individual peculiarity in this animal, or the nature of the treesjust in this place rendered it the most easy mode of progression. About a fortnight afterwards I heard that one was feeding in a tree in the swampjust below the house, and, taking my gun, was fortunate enough to find it in the sameplace. As soon as I approached, it tried to conceal itself among the foliage; but, I got ashot at it, and the second barrel caused it to fall down almost dead, the two balls havingentered the body. This was a male, about half-grown, being scarcely three feet high. OnApril 26th, I was out shooting with two Dyaks, when we found another about the samesize. It fell at the first shot, but did not seem much hurt, and immediately climbed upthe nearest tree, when I fired, and it again fell, with a broken arm and a wound in thebody. The two Dyaks now ran up to it, and each seized hold of a hand, telling me to cuta pole, and they would secure it. But although one arm was broken and it was only ahalf-grown animal, it was too strong for these young savages, drawing them up towardsits mouth notwithstanding all their efforts, so that they were again obliged to leave go,

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or they would have been seriously bitten. It now began climbing up the tree again; and,to avoid trouble, I shot it through the heart. On May 2nd, I again found one on a very high tree, when I had only a small 80-bore gun with me. However, I fired at it, and on seeing me it began howling in astrange voice like a cough, and seemed in a great rage, breaking off branches with itshands and throwing them down, and then soon made off over the tree-tops. I did notcare to follow it, as it was swampy, and in parts dangerous, and I might easily have lostmyself in the eagerness of pursuit. On the 12th of May I found another, which behaved in a very similar manner,howling and hooting with rage, and throwing down branches. I shot at it five times, andit remained dead on the top of the tree, supported in a fork in such a manner that itwould evidently not fall. I therefore returned home, and luckily found some Dyaks,who came back with me, and climbed up the tree for the animal. This was the first full-grown specimen I had obtained; but it was a female, and not nearly so large orremarkable as the full-grown males. It was, however, 3 ft. 6 in. high, and its armsstretched out to a width of 6 ft. 6 in. I preserved the skin of this specimen in a cask ofarrack, andprepared a perfect skeleton, which was afterwards purchased for the DerbyMuseum.

FEMALE ORANG-UTAN

Only four days afterwards some Dyaks saw another Mias near the same place, andcame to tell me. We found it to be a rather large one, very high up on a tall tree. At thesecond shot it fell rolling over, but almost immediately got up again and began toclimb. At a third shot it fell dead. This was also a full-grown female, and whilepreparing to carry it home, we found a young one face downwards in the bog. Thislittle creature was only about a foot long, and had evidently been hanging to its motherwhen she first fell. Luckily it did not appear to have been wounded, and after we had

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cleaned the mud out of its mouth it began to cry out, and seemed quite strong andactive. While carrying it home it got its hands in my beard, and grasped so tightly that Ihad great difficulty in getting free, for the fingers are habitually bent inwards at the lastjoint so as to form complete hooks. At this time it had not a single tooth, but a fewdays afterwards it cut its two lower front teeth. Unfortunately, I had no milk to give it,as neither Malays- Chinese nor Dyaks ever use the article, and I in vain inquired forany female animal that could suckle my little infant. I was therefore obliged to give itrice-water from a bottle with a quill in the cork, which after a few trials it learned tosuck very well. This was very meagre diet, and the little creature did not thrive well onit, although I added sugar and cocoa-nut milk occasionally, to make it more nourishing.WhenI put my finger in its mouth it sucked with great vigour, drawing in its cheekswith all its might in the vain effort to extract some milk, and only after persevering along time would it give up in disgust, and set up a scream very like that of a baby insimilar circumstances. When handled or nursed, it was very quiet and contented, but when laid down byitself would invariably cry; and for the first few nights was very restless and noisy. Ifitted up a little box for a cradle, with a soft mat for it to lie upon, which was changedand washed everyday; and I soon found it necessary to wash the little Mias as well.After I had done so a few times, it came to like the operation, and as soon as it wasdirty would begin crying and not leave off until I took it out and carried it to the spout,when it immediately became quiet, although it would wince a little at the first rush ofthe cold water and make ridiculously wry faces while the stream was running over itshead. It enjoyed the wiping and rubbing dry amazingly, and when I brushed its hairseemed to be perfectly happy, lying quite still with its arms and legs stretched out whileI thoroughly brushed the long hair of its back and arms. For the first few days it clungdesperately with all four hands to whatever it could lay hold of, and I had to be carefulto keep my beard out of its way, as its fingers clutched hold of hair more tenaciouslythan anything else, and it was impossible to free myself without assistance. Whenrestless, it would struggle about with its hands up in the air trying to find something totake hold of, and, when it had got a bit of stick or rag in two or three of its hands,seemed quite happy. For want of something else, it would often seize its own feet, andafter a time it would constantly cross its arms and grasp with each hand the long hairthat grew just below the opposite shoulder. The great tenacity of its grasp soondiminished, and I was obliged to invent some means to give it exercise and strengthenits limbs. For this purpose I made a short ladder of three or four rounds, on which I putit to hang for a quarter of an hour at a time. At first it seemed much pleased, but itcould not get all four hands in a comfortable position, and, after changing about severaltimes, would leave hold of one hand after the other, and drop onto the floor. Sometimeswhen hanging only by two hands, it would loose one, and cross it to the oppositeshoulder, grasping its own hair; and, as this seemed much more agreeable than thestick, it would then loose the other and tumble down, when it would cross both and lieon its back quite contentedly, never seeming to be hurt by its numerous tumbles.Finding it so fond of hair, I endeavoured to make an artificial mother, by wrapping up apiece of buffalo-skin into a bundle, and suspending it about a foot from the floor. Atfirst this seemed to suit it admirably, as it could sprawl its legs about and always findsome hair, which it grasped with the greatest tenacity. I was now in hopes that I hadmade the little orphan quite happy; and so it seemed for some time, until it began toremember its lost parent, and try to suck. It would pull itself up close to the skin, andtry about everywhere for a likely place; but, as it only succeeded in getting mouthfulsof hair and wool, it would be greatly disgusted, and scream violently, and, after two orthree attempts, let go altogether. One day it got some wool into its throat, and I thoughtit would have choked, but after much gasping it recovered, and I was obliged to takethe imitation mother to pieces again, and give up this last attempt to exercise the littlecreature.

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After the first week I found I could feed it better with a spoon, and give it a littlemore varied and more solid food. Well-soaked biscuit mixed with a little egg andsugar, and sometimes sweet potatoes, were readily eaten; and it was a never-failingamusement to observe the curious changes of countenance by which it would expressits approval or dislike of what was given to it. The poor little thing would lick its lips,draw in its cheeks, and turn up its eyes with an expression of the most supremesatisfaction when it had a mouthful particularly to its taste. On the other hand, when itsfood was not sufficiently sweet or palatable, it would turn the mouthful about with itstongue for a moment as if trying to extract what flavour there was, and then push it allout between its lips. If the same food was continued, it would set up a scream and kickabout violently, exactly like a baby in a passion. After I had had the little Mias about three weeks, I fortunately obtained a younghare-lip monkey (Macacus cynomolgus), which, though small, was very active, andcould feed itself. I placed it in the same box with the Mias, and they immediatelybecame excellent friends, neither exhibiting the least fear of the other. The littlemonkey would sit upon the other's stomach, or even on its face, without the least regardto its feelings. While I was feeding the Mias, the monkey would sit by, picking up allthat was spilt, and occasionally putting out its hands to intercept the spoon; and as soonas I had finished would pick off what was left sticking to the Mias' lips, and then pullopen its mouth and see if any still remained inside; afterwards lying down on the poorcreature's stomach as on a comfortable cushion. The little helpless Mias would submitto all these insults with the most exemplary patience, only too glad to have somethingwarm near it, which it could clasp affectionately in its arms. It sometimes, however,had its revenge; for when the monkey wanted to go away, the Mias would hold on aslong as it could by the loose skin of its back or head, or by its tail, and it was only aftermany vigorous jumps that the monkey could make his escape. It was curious to observe the different actions of these two animals, which couldnot have differed much in age. The Mias, like a very young baby, lying on its backquite helpless, rolling lazily from side to side, stretching out all four hands into the air,wishing to grasp something, but hardly able to guide its fingers to any definite object;and when dissatisfied, opening wide its almost toothless mouth, and expressing itswants by a most infantine scream. The little monkey, on the other hand, in constantmotion, running and jumping about wherever it pleased, examining everything aroundit, seizing hold of the smallest object with the greatest precision, balancing itself on theedge of the box or running up a post, and helping itself to anything eatable that came inits way. There could hardly be a greater contrast, and the baby Mias looked more baby-like by the comparison. When I had had it about a month, it began to exhibit some signs of learning to runalone. When laid upon the floor it would push itself along by its legs, or roll itself over,and thus make an unwieldy progression. When lying in the box it would lift itself up tothe edge into almost an erect position, and once or twice succeeded in tumbling out.When left dirty, or hungry, or otherwise neglected, it would scream violently untilattended to, varied by a kind of coughing or pumping noise very similar to that which ismade by the adult animal. If no one was in the house, or its cries were not attended to,it would be quiet after a little while, but the moment it heard a footstep would beginagain harder than ever. After five weeks it cut its two upper front teeth, but in all this time it had notgrown the least bit, remaining both in size and weight the same as when I first procuredit. This was no doubt owing to the want of milk or other equally nourishing food. Rice-water, rice, and biscuits were but a poor substitute, and the expressed milk of thecocoa-nut which I sometimes gave it did not quite agree with its stomach. To this Iimputed an attack of diarrhoea from which the poor little creature suffered greatly, buta small dose of castor-oil operated well, and cured it. A week or two afterwards it wasagain taken ill, and this time more seriously. The symptoms were exactly those of

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intermittent fever, accompanied by watery swellings on the feet and head. It lost allappetite for its food, and, after lingering for a week a most pitiable object, died, afterbeing in my possession nearly three months. I much regretted the loss of my little pet,which I had at one time looked forward to bringing up to years of maturity, and takinghome to England. For several months it had afforded me daily amusement by itscurious ways and the inimitably ludicrous expression of its little countenance. Itsweight was three pounds nine ounces, its height fourteen inches, and the spread of itsarms twenty-three inches. I preserved its skin and skeleton, and in doing so found thatwhen it fell from the tree it must have broken an arm and a leg, which had, however,united so rapidly that I had only noticed the hard swellings on the limbs where theirregular junction of the bones had taken place. Exactly a week after I had caught this interesting little animal, I succeeded inshooting a full-grown male Orangutan. I had just come home from an entomologisingexcursion when Charles [footnote: Charles Allen, an English lad of sixteen,accompanied me as an assistant.] rushed in out of breath with running and excitement,and exclaimed, interrupted by gasps, "Get the gun, sir,--be quick,-- such a large Mias!""Where is it?" I asked, taking hold of my gun as I spoke, which happened luckily tohave one barrel loaded with ball. "Close by, sir--on the path to the mines--he can't getaway." Two Dyaks chanced to be in the house at the time, so I called them toaccompany me, and started off, telling Charley to bring all the ammunition after me assoon as possible. The path from our clearing to the mines led along the side of the hilla little way up its slope, and parallel with it at the foot a wide opening had been madefor a road, in which several Chinamen were working, so that the animal could notescape into the swampy forest below without descending to cross the road or ascendingto get round the clearings. We walked cautiously along, not making the least noise, andlistening attentively for any sound which might betray the presence of the Mias,stopping at intervals to gaze upwards. Charley soon joined us at the place where he hadseen the creature, and having taken the ammunition and put a bullet in the other barrel,we dispersed a little, feeling sure that it must be somewhere near, as it had probablydescended the hill, and would not be likely to return again. After a short time I heard a very slight rustling sound overhead, but on gazing upcould see nothing. I moved about in every direction to get a full view into every part ofthe tree under which I had been standing, when I again heard the same noise but louder,and saw the leaves shaking as if caused by the motion of some heavy animal whichmoved off to an adjoining tree. I immediately shouted for all of them to come up andtry and get a view, so as to allow me to have a shot. This was not an easy matter, as theMias had a knack of selecting places with dense foliage beneath. Very soon, however,one of the Dyaks called me and pointed upwards, and on looking I saw a great redhairy body and a huge black face gazing down from a great height, as if wanting toknow what was making such a disturbance below. I instantly fired, and he made off atonce, so that I could not then tell whether I had hit him. He now moved very rapidly and very noiselessly for so large an animal, so I toldthe Dyaks to follow and keep him in sight while I loaded. The jungle was here full oflarge angular fragments of rock from the mountain above, and thick with hanging andtwisted creepers. Running, climbing, and creeping among these, we came up with thecreature on the top of a high tree near the road, where the Chinamen had discoveredhim, and were shouting their astonishment with open mouths: "Ya Ya, Tuan;Orangutan, Tuan." Seeing that he could not pass here without descending, he turned upagain towards the hill, and I got two shots, and following quickly, had two more by thetime he had again reached the path, but he was always more or less concealed byfoliage, and protected by the large branch on which he was walking. Once whileloading I had a splendid view of him, moving along a large limb of a tree in a semi-erect posture, and showing it to be an animal of the largest size. At the path he got onto one of the loftiest trees in the forest, and we could see one leg hanging down

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useless, having been broken by a ball. He now fixed himself in a fork, where he washidden by thick foliage, and seemed disinclined to move. I was afraid he would remainand die in this position, and as it was nearly evening. I could not have got the tree cutdown that day. I therefore fired again, and he then moved off, and going up the hill wasobliged to get on to some lower trees, on the branches of one of which he fixed himselfin such a position that he could not fall, and lay all in a heap as if dead, or dying. I now wanted the Dyaks to go up and cut off the branch he was resting on, but theywere afraid, saying he was not dead, and would come and attack them. We then shookthe adjoining tree, pulled the hanging creepers, and did all we could to disturb him, butwithout effect, so I thought it best to send for two Chinamen with axes to cut down thetree. While the messenger was gone, however, one of the Dyaks took courage andclimbed towards him, but the Mias did not wait for him to get near, moving off toanother tree, where he got on to a dense mass of branches and creepers which almostcompletely hid him from our view. The tree was luckily a small one, so when the axescame we soon had it cut through; but it was so held up by jungle ropes and climbers toadjoining trees that it only fell into a sloping position. The Mias did not move, and Ibegan to fear that after all we should not get him, as it was near evening, and half adozen more trees would have to be cut down before the one he was on would fall. As alast resource we all began pulling at the creepers, which shook the tree very much, and,after a few minutes, when we had almost given up all hope, down he came with a crashand a thud like the fall of a giant. And he was a giant, his head and body being fully aslarge as a man's. He was of the kind called by the Dyaks "Mias Chappan," or "MiasPappan," which has the skin of the face broadened out to a ridge or fold at each side.His outstretched arms measured seven feet three inches across, and his height,measuring fairly from the top of the head to the heel was four feet two inches. The bodyjust below the arms was three feet two inches round, and was quite as long as a man's,the legs being exceedingly short in proportion. On examination we found he had beendreadfully wounded. Both legs were broken, one hip-joint and the root of the spinecompletely shattered, and two bullets were found flattened in his neck and jaws. Yet hewas still alive when he fell. The two Chinamen carried him home tied to a pole, and Iwas occupied with Charley the whole of the next day preparing the skin and boiling thebones to make a perfect skeleton, which are now preserved in the Museum at Derby. About ten days after this, on June 4th, some Dyaks came to tell us that the daybefore a Mias had nearly killed one of their companions. A few miles down the riverthere is a Dyak house, and the inhabitants saw a large Orang feeding on the youngshoots of a palm by the riverside. On being alarmed he retreated towards the junglewhich was close by, and a number of the men, armed with spears and choppers, ran outto intercept him. The man who was in front tried to run his spear through the animal'sbody, but the Mias seized it in his hands, and in an instant got hold of the man's arm,which he seized in his mouth, making his teeth meet in the flesh above the elbow,which he tore and lacerated in a dreadful manner. Had not the others been close behind,the man would have keen more seriously injured, if not killed, as he was quitepowerless; but they soon destroyed the creature with their spears and choppers. Theman remained ill for a long time, and never fully recovered the use of his arm. They told me the dead Mias was still lying where it had been killed, so I offeredthem a reward to bring it up to our landing- place immediately, which they promised todo. They did not come, however, until the next day, and then decomposition hadcommenced, and great patches of the hair came off, so that it was useless to skin it.This I regretted much, as it was a very fine full-grown male. I cut off the head and tookit home to clean, while I got my men to make a closed fence about five feet higharound the rest of the body, which would soon be devoured by maggots, small lizards,and ants, leaving me the skeleton. There was a great gash in his face, which had cutdeep into the bone, but the skull was a very fine one, and the teeth were remarkablylarge and perfect.

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On June 18th I had another great success, and obtained a fine adult male. AChinaman told me be had seen him feeding by the side of the path to the river, and Ifound him at the same place as the first individual I had shot. He was feeding on anoval green fruit having a fine red arillus, like the mace which surrounds the nutmeg,and which alone he seemed to eat, biting off the thick outer rind and dropping it in acontinual shower. I had found the same fruit in the stomach of some others which I hadkilled. Two shots caused this animal to loose his hold, but he hung for a considerabletime by one hand, and then fell flat on his face and was half buried in the swamp. Forseveral minutes he lay groaning and panting, while we stood close around, expectingevery breath to be his last. Suddenly, however, by a violent effort he raised himself up,causing us all to step back a yard or two, when, standing nearly erect, he caught hold ofa small tree, and began to ascend it. Another shot through the back caused him to falldown dead. A flattened bullet was found in his tongue, having entered the lower part ofthe abdomen and completely traversed the body, fracturing the first cervical vertebra.Yet it was after this fearful wound that he had risen, and begun climbing withconsiderable facility. This also was a full-grown male of almost exactly the samedimensions as the other two I had measured. On June 21st I shot another adult female, which was eating fruit in a low tree, andwas the only one which I ever killed by a single ball. On June 24th I was called by a Chinaman to shoot a Mias, which, he said, was on atree close by his house, at the coal-mines. Arriving at the place, we had some difficultyin finding the animal, as he had gone off into the jungle, which was very rocky anddifficult to traverse. At last we found him up a very high tree, and could see that he wasa male of the largest size. As soon as I had fired, he moved higher up the tree, andwhile he was doing so I fired again; and we then saw that one arm was broken. He hadnow reached the very highest part of an immense tree, and immediately began breakingoff boughs all around, and laying them across and across to make a nest. It was veryinteresting to see how well he had chosen his place, and how rapidly he stretched outhis unwounded arm in every direction, breaking off good-sized boughs with the greatestease, and laying them back across each other, so that in a few minutes he had formed acompact mass of foliage, which entirely concealed him from our sight. He wasevidently going to pass the night here, and would probably get away early the nextmorning, if not wounded too severely. I therefore fired again several times, in hopes ofmaking him leave his nest; but, though I felt sure I had hit him, as at each shot hemoved a little, he would not go away. At length he raised himself up, so that half hisbody was visible, and then gradually sank down, his head alone remaining on the edgeof the nest. I now felt sure he was dead, and tried to persuade the Chinaman and hiscompanion to cut down the tree; but it was a very large one, and they had been at workall day, and nothing would induce them to attempt it. The next morning, at daybreak, Icame to the place, and found that the Mias was evidently dead, as his head was visiblein exactly the same position as before. I now offered four Chinamen a day's wages eachto cut the tree down at once, as a few hours of sunshine would cause decomposition onthe surface of the skin; but, after looking at it and trying it, they determined that it wasvery big and very hard, and would not attempt it. Had I doubled my offer, they wouldprobably have accepted it, as it would not have been more than two or three hours'work; and had I been on a short visit only, I would have done so; but as I was aresident, and intended remaining several months longer, it would not have answered tobegin paying too exorbitantly, or I should have got nothing done in the future at alower rate. For some weeks after, a cloud of flies could be seen all day, hovering over thebody of the dead Mias; but in about a month all was quiet, and the body was evidentlydrying up under the influence of a vertical sun alternating with tropical rains. Two orthree months later two Malays, on the offer of a dollar, climbed the tree and let downthe dried remains. The skin was almost entirely enclosing the skeleton, and inside were

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millions of the pupa-cases of flies and other insects, with thousands of two or threespecies of small necrophagous beetles. The skull had been much shattered by balls, butthe skeleton was perfect, except one small wristbone, which had probably dropped outand been carried away by a lizard. Three days after I had shot this one and lost it, Charles found three small Orangsfeeding together. We had a long chase after them, and had a good opportunity of seeinghow they make their way from tree to tree by always choosing those limbs whosebranches are intermingled with those of some other tree, and then grasping several ofthe small twigs together before they venture to swing themselves across. Yet they dothis so quickly and certainly, that they make way among the trees at the rate of full fiveor six miles an hour, as we had continually to run to keep up with them. One of thesewe shot and killed, but it remained high up in the fork of a tree; and, as young animalsare of comparatively little interest, I did not have the tree cut down to get it. At this time I had the misfortune to slip among some fallen trees, and hurt myankle; and, not being careful enough at first, it became a severe inflamed ulcer, whichwould not heal, and kept me a prisoner in the house the whole of July and part ofAugust. When I could get out again, I determined to take a trip up a branch of theSimunjon River to Semabang, where there was said to be a large Dyak house, amountain with abundance of fruit, and plenty of Orangs and fine birds. As the river wasvery narrow, and I was obliged to go in a very small boat with little luggage, I onlytook with me a Chinese boy as a servant. I carried a cask of medicated arrack to putMias skins in, and stores and ammunition for a fortnight. After a few miles, the streambecame very narrow and winding, and the whole country on each side was flooded. Onthe banks were an abundance of monkeys--the common Macacus cynomolgus, a blackSemnopithecus, and the extraordinary long-nosed monkey (Nasalis larvatus), which isas large as a three-year old child, has a very long tail, and a fleshy nose longer thanthat of the biggest-nosed man. The further we went on the narrower and more windingthe stream became; fallen trees sometimes blocked up our passage, and sometimestangled branches and creepers met completely across it, and had to be cut away beforewe could get on. It took us two days to reach Semabang, and we hardly saw a bit of dryland all the way. In the latter part of the journey I could touch the bushes on each sidefor miles; and we were often delayed by the screw-pines (Pandanus), which growabundantly in the water, falling across the stream. In other places dense rafts of floatinggrass completely filled up the channel, making our journey a constant succession ofdifficulties. Near the landing-place we found a fine house, 250 feet long, raised high above theground on posts, with a wide verandah and still wider platform of bamboo in front ofit. Almost all the people, however, were away on some excursion after edible birds'-nests or bees'-wax, and there only remained in the house two or three old men andwomen with a lot of children. The mountain or hill was close by, covered with acomplete forest of fruit-trees, among which the Durian and Mangusteen were veryabundant; but the fruit was not yet quite ripe, except a little here and there. I spent aweek at this place, going out everyday in various directions about the mountain,accompanied by a Malay, who had stayed with me while the other boatmen returned.For three days we found no Orangs, but shot a deer and several monkeys. On the fourthday, however, we found a Mias feeding on a very lofty Durian tree, and succeeded inkilling it, after eight shots. Unfortunately it remained in the tree, hanging by its hands,and we were obliged to leave it and return home, as it was several miles off. As I feltpretty sure it would fall during the night, I returned to the place early the next morning,and found it on the ground beneath the tree. To my astonishment and pleasure, itappeared to be a different kind from any I had yet seen; for although a full-grownmale, by its fully developed teeth and very large canines, it had no sign of the lateralprotuberance on the face, and was about one-tenth smaller in all its dimensions than theother adult males. The upper incisors, however, appeared to be broader than in the

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larger species, a character distinguishing the Simia morio of Professor Owen, which hehad described from the cranium of a female specimen. As it was too far to carry theanimal home, I set to work and skinned the body on the spot, leaving the head, hands,and feet attached, to be finished at home. This specimen is now in the British Museum. At the end of a week, finding no more Orangs, I returned home; and, taking in afew fresh stores, and this time accompanied by Charles, went up another branch of theriver, very similar in character, to a place called Menyille, where there were severalsmall Dyak houses and one large one. Here the landing place was a bridge of ricketypoles, over a considerable distance of water; and I thought it safer to leave my cask ofarrack securely placed in the fork of a tree. To prevent the natives from drinking it, I letseveral of them see me put in a number of snakes and lizards; but I rather think this didnot prevent them from tasting it. We were accommodated here in the verandah of thelarge house, in which were several great baskets of dried human heads, the trophies ofpast generations of head-hunters. Here also there was a little mountain covered withfruit-trees, and there were some magnificent Durian trees close by the house, the fruitof which was ripe; and as the Dyaks looked upon me as a benefactor in killing theMias, which destroys a great deal of their fruit, they let us eat as much as we liked; werevelled in this emperor of fruits in its greatest perfection. The very day after my arrival in this place, I was so fortunate as to shoot anotheradult male of the small Orang, the Mias- kassir of the Dyaks. It fell when dead, butcaught in a fork of the tree and remained fixed. As I was very anxious to get it, I triedto persuade two young Dyaks who were with me to cut down the tree, which was tall,perfectly straight and smooth-barked, and without a branch for fifty or sixty feet. Tomy surprise, they said they would prefer climbing up it, but it would be a good deal oftrouble, and, after a little talking together, they said they would try. They first went to aclump of bamboo that stood near, and cut down one of the largest stems. From this theychopped off a short piece, and splitting it, made a couple of stout pegs, about a footlong and sharp at one end. Then cutting a thick piece of wood for a mallet, they droveone of the pegs into the tree and hung their weight upon it. It held, and this seemed tosatisfy them, for they immediately began making a quantity of pegs of the same kind,while I looked on with great interest, wondering how they could possibly ascend such alofty tree by merely driving pegs in it, the failure of any one of which at a good heightwould certainly cause their death. When about two dozen pegs were made, one of thembegan cutting some very long and slender bamboo from another clump, and alsoprepared some cord from the hark of a small tree. They now drove in a peg very firmlyat about three feet from the ground, and bringing one of the long bamboos, stood itupright close to the tree, and bound it firmly to the two first pegs, by means of the barkcord and small notches near the head of each peg. One of the Dyaks now stood on thefirst peg and drove in a third, about level with his face, to which he tied the bamboo inthe same way, and then mounted another step, standing on one foot, and holding by thebamboo at the peg immediately above him, while he drove in the next one. In thismanner he ascended about twenty feet; when the upright bamboo was becoming thin,another was handed up by his companion, and this was joined by tying both bamboos tothree or four of the pegs. When this was also nearly ended, a third was added, andshortly after, the lowest branches of the tree were reached, along which the young Dyakscrambled, and soon sent the Mias tumbling down headlong. I was exceedingly struckby the ingenuity of this mode of climbing, and the admirable manner in which thepeculiar properties of the bamboo were made available. The ladder itself was perfectlysafe, since if any one peg were loose or faulty, and gave way, the strain would bethrown on several others above and below it. I now understood the use of the line ofbamboo pegs sticking in trees, which I had often seen, and wondered for what purposethey could have been put there. This animal was almost identical in size and appearancewith the one I had obtained at Semabang, and was the only other male specimen of theSimia morio which I obtained. It is now in the Derby Museum.

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I afterwards shot two adult females and two young ones of different ages, all ofwhich I preserved. One of the females, with several young ones, was feeding on aDurian tree with unripe fruit; and as soon as she saw us she began breaking offbranches and the great spiny fruits with every appearance of rage, causing such ashower of missiles as effectually kept us from approaching too near the tree. This habitof throwing down branches when irritated has been doubted, but I have, as herenarrated, observed it myself on at least three separate occasions. It was however alwaysthe female Arias who behaved in this way, and it may be that the male, trusting more tohis great strength and his powerful canine teeth, is not afraid of any other animal, anddoes not want to drive them away, while the parental instinct of the female leads her toadopt this mode of defending herself and her young ones. In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I was much troubled by theDyak dogs, which, being always kept in a state of semi-starvation, are ravenous foranimal food. I had a great iron pan, in which I boiled the bones to make skeletons, andat night I covered this over with boards, and put heavy stones upon it; but the dogsmanaged to remove these and carried away the greater part of one of my specimens. Onanother occasion they gnawed away a good deal of the upper leather of my strongboots, and even ate a piece of my mosquito-curtain, where some lamp-oil had beenspilt over it some weeks before. On our return down the stream, we had the fortune to fall in with a very old maleMias, feeding on some low trees growing in the water. The country was flooded for along distance, but so full of trees and stumps that the laden boat could not be got inamong them, and if it could have been we should only have frightened the Mias away. Itherefore got into the water, which was nearly up to my waist, and waded on until I wasnear enough for a shot. The difficulty then was to load my gun again, for I was so deepin the water that I could not hold the gun sloping enough to pour the powder in. Itherefore had to search for a shallow place, and after several shots under these tryingcircumstances, I was delighted to see the monstrous animal roll over into the water. Inow towed him after me to the stream, but the Malays objected to having the animalput into the boat, and he was so heavy that I could not do it without their help. I lookedabout for a place to skin him, but not a bit of dry ground was to be seen, until at last Ifound a clump of two or three old trees and stumps, between which a few feet of soilhad collected just above the water, which was just large enough for us to drag theanimal upon it. I first measured him, and found him to be by far the largest I had yetseen, for, though the standing height was the same as the others (4 feet 2 inches), theoutstretched arms were 7 feet 9 inches, which was six inches more than the previousone, and the immense broad face was 13 1/2 inches wide, whereas the widest I hadhitherto seen was only 11 1/2 inches. The girth of the body was 3 feet 7 1/2 inches. I aminclined to believe, therefore, that the length and strength of the arms, and the width ofthe face continues increasing to a very great age, while the standing height, from thesole of the foot to the crown of the head, rarely if ever exceeds 4 feet 2 inches. As this was the last Mias I shot, and the last time I saw an adult living animal, Iwill give a sketch of its general habits, and any other facts connected with it. TheOrangutan is known to inhabit Sumatra and Borneo, and there is every reason tobelieve that it is confined to these two great islands, in the former of which, however, itseems to be much more rare. In Borneo it has a wide range, inhabiting many districtson the southwest, southeast, northeast, and northwest coasts, but appears to be chieflyconfined to the low and swampy forests. It seems, at first sight, very inexplicable thatthe Mias should be quite unknown in the Sarawak valley, while it is abundant inSambas, on the west, and Sadong, on the east. But when we know the habits and modeof life of the animal, we see a sufficient reason for this apparent anomaly in thephysical features of the Sarawak district. In the Sadong, where I observed it, the Mias isonly found when the country is low level and swampy, and at the same time coveredwith a lofty virgin forest. From these swamps rise many isolated mountains, on some of

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which the Dyaks have settled and covered with plantations of fruit trees. These are agreat attraction to the Mias, which comes to feed on the unripe fruits, but always retiresto the swamp at night. Where the country becomes slightly elevated, and the soil dry,the Mias is no longer to be found. For example, in all the lower part of the Sadongvalley it abounds, but as soon as we ascend above the limits of the tides, where thecountry, though still flat, is high enough to be dry, it disappears. Now the Sarawakvalley has this peculiarity--the lower portion though swampy, is not covered with acontinuous lofty forest, but is principally occupied by the Nipa palm; and near the townof Sarawak where the country becomes dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, andcovered with small patches of virgin forest, and much second- growth jungle on theground, which has once been cultivated by the Malays or Dyaks. Now it seems probable to me that a wide extent of unbroken and equally loftyvirgin forest is necessary to the comfortable existence of these animals. Such forestsform their open country, where they can roam in every direction with as much facilityas the Indian on the prairie, or the Arab on the desert, passing from tree-top to tree-topwithout ever being obliged to descend upon the earth. The elevated and the drierdistricts are more frequented by man, more cut up by clearings and low second-growthjungle--not adapted to its peculiar mode of progression, and where it would thereforebe more exposed to danger, and more frequently obliged to descend upon the earth.There is probably also a greater variety of fruit in the Mias district, the small mountainswhich rise like islands out of it serving as gardens or plantations of a sort, where thetrees of the uplands are to be found in the very midst of the swampy plains. It is a singular and very interesting sight to watch a Mias making his way leisurelythrough the forest. He walks deliberately along some of the larger branches in the semi-erect attitude which the great length of his arms and the shortness of his legs cause himnaturally to assume; and the disproportion between these limbs is increased by hiswalking on his knuckles, not on the palm of the hand, as we should do. He seemsalways to choose those branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree, onapproaching which he stretches out his long arms, and seizing the opposing boughs,grasps them together with both hands, seems to try their strength, and then deliberatelyswings himself across to the next branch, on which he walks along as before. He neverjumps or springs, or even appears to hurry himself, and yet manages to get alongalmost as quickly as a person can run through the forest beneath. The long andpowerful arms are of the greatest use to the animal, enabling it to climb easily up theloftiest trees, to seize fruits and young leaves from slender boughs which will not bearits weight, and to gather leaves and branches with which to form its nest. I havealready described how it forms a nest when wounded, but it uses a similar one to sleepon almost every night. This is placed low down, however, on a small tree not more thanfrom twenty to fifty feet from the ground, probably because it is warmer and lessexposed to wind than higher up. Each Mias is said to make a fresh one for himselfevery night; but I should think that is hardly probable, or their remains would be muchmore abundant; for though I saw several about the coal-mines, there must have beenmany Orangs about every day, and in a year their deserted nests would become verynumerous. The Dyaks say that, when it is very wet, the Mias covers himself over withleaves of pandanus, or large ferns, which has perhaps led to the story of his making ahut in the trees. The Orang does not leave his bed until the sun has well risen and has dried up thedew upon the leaves. He feeds all through the middle of the day, but seldom returns tothe same tree two days running. They do not seem much alarmed at man, as they oftenstared down upon me for several minutes, and then only moved away slowly to anadjacent tree. After seeing one, I have often had to go half a mile or more to fetch mygun, and in nearly every case have found it on the same tree, or within a hundred yards,when I returned. I never saw two full-grown animals together, but both males andfemales are sometimes accompanied by half-grown young ones, while, at other times,

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three or four young ones were seen in company. Their food consists almost exclusivelyof fruit, with occasionally leaves, buds, and young shoots. They seem to prefer unripefruits, some of which were very sour, others intensely bitter, particularly the large red,fleshy arillus of one which seemed an especial favourite. In other cases they eat onlythe small seed of a large fruit, and they almost always waste and destroy more thanthey eat, so that there is a continual rain of rejected portions below the tree they arefeeding on. The Durian is an especial favourite, and quantities of this delicious fruit aredestroyed wherever it grows surrounded by forest, but they will not cross clearings toget at them. It seems wonderful how the animal can tear open this fruit, the outercovering of which is so thick and tough, and closely covered with strong conical spines.It probably bites off a few of these first, and then, making a small hole, tears open thefruit with its powerful fingers. The Mias rarely descends to the ground, except when pressed by hunger, it seekssucculent shoots by the riverside; or, in very dry weather, has to search after water, ofwhich it generally finds sufficient in the hollows of leaves. Only once I saw two half-grown Orangs on the ground in a dry hollow at the foot of the Simunjon hill. Theywere playing together, standing erect, and grasping each other by the arms. It may besafely stated, however, that the Orang never walks erect, unless when using its hands tosupport itself by branches overhead or when attacked. Representations of its walkingwith a stick are entirely imaginary. The Dyaks all declare that the Mias is never attacked by any animal in the forest,with two rare exceptions; and the accounts I received of these are so curious that I givethem nearly in the words of my informants, old Dyak chiefs, who had lived all theirlives in the places where the animal is most abundant. The first of whom I inquiredsaid: "No animal is strong enough to hurt the Mias, and the only creature he ever fightswith is the crocodile. When there is no fruit in the jungle, he goes to seek food on thebanks of the river where there are plenty of young shoots that he likes, and fruits thatgrow close to the water. Then the crocodile sometimes tries to seize him, but the Miasgets upon him, and beats him with his hands and feet, and tears him and kills him." Headded that he had once seen such a fight, and that he believes that the Mias is alwaysthe victor. My next informant was the Orang Kaya, or chief of the Balow Dyaks, on theSimunjon River. He said: "The Mias has no enemies; no animals dare attack it but thecrocodile and the python. He always kills the crocodile by main strength, standing uponit, pulling open its jaws, and ripping up its throat. If a python attacks a Mias, he seizesit with his hands, and then bites it, and soon kills it. The Mias is very strong; there is noanimal in the jungle so strong as he." It is very remarkable that an animal so large, so peculiar, and of such a high typeof form as the Orangutan, should be confined to so limited a district--to two islands,and those almost the last inhabited by the higher Mammalia; for, east of Borneo andJava, the Quadrumania, Ruminants, Carnivora, and many other groups of Mammalladiminish rapidly, and soon entirely disappear. When we consider, further, that almostall other animals have in earlier ages been represented by allied yet distinct forms--that, in the latter part of the tertiary period, Europe was inhabited by bears, deer,wolves, and cats; Australia by kangaroos and other marsupials; South America bygigantic sloths and ant-eaters; all different from any now existing, though intimatelyallied to them--we have every reason to believe that the Orangutan, the Chimpanzee,and the Gorilla have also had their forerunners. With what interest must everynaturalist look forward to the time when the caves and tertiary deposits of the tropicsmay be thoroughly examined, and the past history and earliest appearance of the greatman-like apes be made known at length. I will now say a few words as to the supposed existence of a Bornean Orang aslarge as the Gorilla. I have myself examined the bodies of seventeen freshly-killedOrangs, all of which were carefully measured; and of seven of them, I preserved the

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skeleton. I also obtained two skeletons killed by other persons. Of this extensive series,sixteen were fully adult, nine being males, and seven females. The adult males of thelarge Orangs only varied from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2 inches in height, measured fairlyto the heel, so as to give the height of the animal if it stood perfectly erect; the extent ofthe outstretched arms, from 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 8 inches; and the width of the face,from 10 inches to 13 1/2 inches. The dimensions given by other naturalists closely agreewith mine. The largest Orang measured by Temminck was 4 feet high. Of twenty-fivespecimens collected by Schlegel and Muller, the largest old male was 4 feet 1 inch; andthe largest skeleton in the Calcutta Museum was, according to Mr. Blyth, 4 feet 1 1/2inch. My specimens were all from the northwest coast of Borneo; those of the Dutchfrom the west and south coasts; and no specimen has yet reached Europe exceedingthese dimensions, although the total number of skins and skeletons must amount to overa hundred. Strange to say, however, several persons declare that they have measured Orangsof a much larger size. Temminck, in his Monograph of the Orang, says that he has justreceived news of the capture of a specimen 5 feet 3 inches high. Unfortunately, it neverseems to have a reached Holland, for nothing has since been heard of any such animal.Mr. St. John, in his "Life in the Forests of the Far East," vol. ii. p. 237, tells us of anOrang shot by a friend of his, which was 5 feet 2 inches from the heel to the top of thehead, the arm 17 inches in girth, and the wrist 12 inches! The head alone was broughtto Sarawak, and Mr. St. John tells us that he assisted to measure this, and that it was 15inches broad by 14 long. Unfortunately, even this skull appears not to have beenpreserved, for no specimen corresponding to these dimensions has yet reached England. In a letter from Sir James Brooke, dated October 1857 in which he acknowledgesthe receipt of my Papers on the Orang, published in the "Annals and Magazine ofNatural History," he sends me the measurements of a specimen killed by his nephew,which I will give exactly as I received it: "September 3rd, 1867, killed femaleOrangutan. Height, from head to heel, 4 feet 6 inches. Stretch from fingers to fingersacross body, 6 feet 1 inch. Breadth of face, including callosities, 11 inches." Now, inthese dimensions, there is palpably one error; for in every Orang yet measured by anynaturalist, an expanse of arms of 6 feet 1 inch corresponds to a height of about 3 feet 6inches, while the largest specimens of 4 feet to 4 feet 2 inches high, always have theextended arms as much as 7 feet 3 inches to 7 feet 8 inches. It is, in fact, one of thecharacters of the genus to have the arms so long that an animal standing nearly erectcan rest its fingers on the ground. A height of 4 feet 6 inches would therefore require astretch of arms of at least 8 feet! If it were only 6 feet to that height, as given in thedimensions quoted, the animal would not be an Orang at all, but a new genus of apes,differing materially in habits and mode of progression. But Mr. Johnson, who shot thisanimal, and who knows Orangs well, evidently considered it to be one; and we havetherefore to judge whether it is more probable that he made a mistake of two feet in thestretch of the arms, or of one foot in the height. The latter error is certainly the easiestto make, and it will bring his animal into agreement, as to proportions and size, with allthose which exist in Europe. How easy it is to be deceived as to the height of theseanimals is well shown in the case of the Sumatran Orang, the skin of which wasdescribed by Dr. Clarke Abel. The captain and crew who killed this animal declaredthat when alive he exceeded the tallest man, and looked so gigantic that they thought hewas 7 feet high; but that, when he was killed and lay upon the ground, they found hewas only about 6 feet. Now it will hardly be credited that the skin of this identicalanimal exists in the Calcutta Museum, and Mr. Blyth, the late curator, states "that it isby no means one of the largest size"; which means that it is about 4 feet high! Having these undoubted examples of error in the dimensions of Orangs, it is nottoo much to conclude that Mr. St. John's friend made a similar error of measurement,or rather, perhaps, of memory; for we are not told that the dimensions were noted downat the time they were made. The only figures given by Mr. St. John on his own

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authority are that "the head was 15 inches broad by 14 inches long." As my largest malewas 13 1/2 broad across the face, measured as soon as the animal was killed, I can quiteunderstand that when the head arrived at Sarawak from the Batang Lupar, after two orthree days' voyage, it was so swollen by decomposition as to measure an inch morethan when it was fresh. On the whole, therefore, I think it will be allowed, that up tothis time we have not the least reliable evidence of the existence of Orangs in Borneomore than 4 feet 2 inches high.

CHAPTER V

BORNEO - JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR

(NOVEMBER 1855 TO JANUARY 1856)

As the wet season was approaching, I determined to return to Sarawak, sending allmy collections with Charles Allen around by sea, while I myself proposed to go up tothe sources of the Sadong River and descend by the Sarawak valley. As the route wassomewhat difficult, I took the smallest quantity of baggage, and only one servant, aMalay lad named Bujon, who knew the language of the Sadong Dyaks, with whom hehad traded. We left the mines on the 27th of November, and the next day reached theMalay village of Gúdong, where I stayed a short time to buy fruit and eggs, and calledupon the Datu Bandar, or Malay governor of the place. He lived in a large, arid well-built house, very dirty outside and in, and was very inquisitive about my business, andparticularly about the coal-mines. These puzzle the natives exceedingly, as they cannotunderstand the extensive and costly preparations for working coal, and cannot believe itis to be used only as fuel when wood is so abundant and so easily obtained. It wasevident that Europeans seldom came here, for numbers of women skeltered away as Iwalked through the village and one girl about ten or twelve years old, who had justbrought a bamboo full of water from the river, threw it down with a cry of horror andalarm the moment she caught sight of me, turned around and jumped into the stream.She swam beautifully, and kept looking back as if expecting I would follow her,screaming violently all the time; while a number of men and boys were laughing at herignorant terror. At Jahi, the next village, the stream became so swift in consequence of a flood, thatmy heavy boat could make no way, and I was obliged to send it back and go on in avery small open one. So far the river had been very monotonous, the banks beingcultivated as rice-fields, and little thatched huts alone breaking the unpicturesque lineof muddy bank crowned with tall grasses, and backed by the top of the forest behindthe cultivated ground. A few hours beyond Jahi we passed the limits of cultivation, andhad the beautiful virgin forest coming down to the water's edge, with its palms andcreepers, its noble trees, its ferns, and epiphytes. The banks of the river were, however,still generally flooded, and we had some difficulty in finding a dry spot to sleep on.Early in the morning we reached Empugnan, a small Malay village, situated at the footof an isolated mountain which had been visible from the mouth of the Simunjon River.Beyond here the tides are not felt, and we now entered upon a district of elevatedforest, with a finer vegetation. Large trees stretch out their arms across the stream, andthe steep, earthy banks are clothed with ferns and zingiberaceous plants. Early in the afternoon we arrivedat Tabókan, the first village of theHill Dyaks. On an open space nearthe river, about twenty boys were

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PORTRAIT OF DYAK YOUTH

playing at a game something likewhat we call "prisoner's base;" theirornaments of beads and brass wireand their gay-coloured kerchiefs andwaist-cloths showing to muchadvantage, and forming a verypleasing sight. On being called byBujon, they immediately left theirgame to carry my things up to the"headhouse,"--a circular buildingattached to most Dyak villages, andserving as a lodging for strangers, theplace for trade, the sleeping-room ofthe unmarried youths, and the generalcouncil-chamber. It is elevated onlofty posts, has a large fireplace inthe middle and windows in the roofall round, and forms a very pleasantand comfortable abode. In theevening it was crowded with youngmen and boys, who came to look atme. They were mostly fine youngfellows, and I could not help admiring the simplicity and elegance of their costume.Their only dress is the long "chawat," or waist-cloth, which hangs down before andbehind. It is generally of blue cotton, ending in three broad bands of red, blue, andwhite. Those who can afford it wear a handkerchief on the head, which is either red,with a narrow border of gold lace, or of three colours, like the "chawat." The large flatmoon-shaped brass earrings, the heavy necklace of white or black beads, rows of brassrings on the arms and legs, and armlets of white shell, all serve to relieve and set offthe pure reddish brown skin and jet-black hair. Add to this the little pouch containingmaterials for betel-chewing, and a long slender knife, both invariably worn at the side,and you have the everyday dress of the young Dyak gentleman. The "Orang Kaya," or rich man, as the chief of the tribe is called, now came inwith several of the older men; and the "bitchara" or talk commenced, about getting aboat and men to take me on the next morning. As I could not understand a word oftheir language, which is very different from Malay, I took no part in the proceedings,but was represented by my boy Bujon, who translated to me most of what was said. AChinese trader was in the house, and he, too, wanted men the next day; but on hishinting this to the Orang Kaya, he was sternly told that a white man's business was nowbeing discussed, and he must wait another day before his could be thought about. After the "bitchara "was over and the old chiefs gone, I asked the young men toplay or dance, or amuse themselves in their accustomed way; and after some littlehesitation they agreed to do so. They first had a trial of strength, two boys sittingopposite each other, foot being placed against foot, and a stout stick grasped by boththeir hands. Each then tried to throw himself back, so as to raise his adversary up fromthe ground, either by main strength or by a sudden effort. Then one of the men wouldtry his strength against two or three of the boys; and afterwards they each grasped theirown ankle with a hand, and while one stood as firm as he could, the other swunghimself around on one leg, so as to strike the other's free leg, and try to overthrow him.When these games had been played all around with varying success, we had a novelkind of concert. Some placed a leg across the knee, and struck the fingers sharply onthe ankle, others beat their arms against their sides like a cock when he is going tocrow, this making a great variety of clapping sounds, while another with his hand underhis armpit produced a deep trumpet note; and, as they all kept time very well, the effect

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was by no means unpleasing. This seemed quite a favourite amusement with them, andthey kept it up with much spirit. The next morning we started in a boat about thirty feet long, and only twenty-eightinches wide. The stream here suddenly changes its character. Hitherto, though swift, ithad been deep and smooth, and confined by steep banks. Now it rushed and rippledover a pebbly, sandy, or rocky bed, occasionally forming miniature cascades andrapids, and throwing up on one side or the other broad banks of finely colouredpebbles. No paddling could make way here, but the Dyaks with bamboo poles propelledus along with great dexterity and swiftness, never losing their balance in such a narrowand unsteady vessel, though standing up and exerting all their force. It was a brilliantday, and the cheerful exertions of the men, the rushing of the sparkling waters, with thebright and varied foliage, which from either bank stretched over our heads, producedan exhilarating sensation which recalled my canoe voyages on the grander waters ofSouth America. Early in the afternoon we reached the village of Borotói, and, though it would havebeen easy to reach the next one before night, I was obliged to stay, as my men wantedto return and others could not possibly go on with me without the preliminary talking.Besides, a white man was too great a rarity to be allowed to escape them, and theirwives would never have forgiven them if, when they returned from the fields, theyfound that such a curiosity had not been kept for them to see. On entering the house towhich I was invited, a crowd of sixty or seventy men, women, and children gatheredaround me, and I sat for half an hour like some strange animal submitted for the firsttime to the gaze of an inquiring public. Brass rings were here in the greatest profusion,many of the women having their arms completely covered with them, as well as theirlegs from the ankle to the knee. Round the waist they wear a dozen or more coils offine rattan stained red, to which the petticoat is attached. Below this are generally anumber of coils of brass wire, a girdle of small silver coins, and sometimes a broad beltof brass ring armour. On their heads they wear a conical hat without a crown, formedof variously coloured beads, kept in shape by rings of rattan, and forming a fantasticbut not unpicturesque headdress. Walking out to a small hill near the village, cultivated as a rice-field, I had a fineview of the country, which was becoming quite hilly, and towards the south,mountainous. I took bearings and sketches of all that was visible, an operation whichcaused much astonishment to the Dyaks who accompanied me, and produced a requestto exhibit the compass when I returned. I was then surrounded by a larger crowd thanbefore, and when I took my evening meal in the midst of a circle of about a hundredspectators anxiously observing every movement and criticising every mouthful, mythoughts involuntarily recurred to the lion at feeding time. Like those noble animals, Itoo was used to it, and it did not affect my appetite. The children here were more shythan at Tabokan, and I could not persuade them to play. I therefore turned showmanmyself, and exhibited the shadow of a dog's head eating, which pleased them so muchthat all the village in succession came out to see it. The "rabbit on the wall" does not doin Borneo, as there is no animal it resembles. The boys had tops shaped something likewhipping-tops, but spun with a string. The next morning we proceeded as before, but the river had become so rapid andshallow and the boats were all so small, that though I had nothing with me but a changeof clothes, a gun, and a few cooking utensils, two were required to take me on. Therock which appeared here and there on the riverbank was an indurated clay-slate,sometimes crystalline, and thrown up almost vertically. Right and left of us roseisolated limestone mountains, their white precipices glistening in the sun andcontrasting beautifully with the luxuriant vegetation that elsewhere clothed them. Theriver bed was a mass of pebbles, mostly pure white quartz, but with abundance ofjasper and agate, presenting a beautifully variegated appearance. It was only ten in themorning when we arrived at Budu, and, though there were plenty of people about, I

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could not induce them to allow me to go on to the next village. The Orang Kaya saidthat if I insisted on having men, of course he would get them, but when I took him athis word and said I must have them, there came a fresh remonstrance; and the idea ofmy going on that day seemed so painful that I was obliged to submit. I therefore walkedout over the rice-fields, which are here very extensive, covering a number of the littlehills and valleys into which the whole country seems broken up, and obtained a fineview of hills and mountains in every direction. In the evening the Orang Kaya came in full dress (a spangled velvet jacket, but notrowsers), and invited me over to his house, where he gave me a seat of honour under acanopy of white calico and coloured handkerchiefs. The great verandah was crowdedwith people, and large plates of rice with cooked and fresh eggs were placed on theground as presents for me. A very old man then dressed himself in bright-colouredcloths and many ornaments, and sitting at the door, murmured a long prayer orinvocation, sprinkling rice from a basin he held in his hand, while several large gongswere loudly beaten and a salute of muskets fired off. A large jar of rice wine, very sourbut with an agreeable flavour, was then handed around, and I asked to see some oftheir dances. These were, like most savage performances, very dull and ungracefulaffairs; the men dressing themselves absurdly like women, and the girls makingthemselves as stiff and ridiculous as possible. All the time six or eight large Chinesegongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing sucha deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept verycomfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head, The river was now so shallow that boats could hardly get along. I thereforepreferred walking to the next village, expecting to see something of the country, butwas much disappointed, as the path lay almost entirely through dense bamboo thickets.The Dyaks get two crops off the ground in succession; one of rice, and the other ofsugarcane, maize, and vegetables. The ground then lies fallow eight or ten years, andbecomes covered with bamboos and shrubs, which often completely arch over the pathand shut out everything from the view. Three hours' walking brought us to the villageof Senankan, where I was again obliged to remain the whole day, which I agreed to doon the promise of the Orang Kaya that his men should next day take me through twoother villages across to Senna, at the head of the Sarawak River. I amused myself as Ibest could till evening, by walking about the high ground near, to get views of thecountry and bearings of the chief mountains. There was then another public audience,with gifts of rice and eggs, and drinking of rice wine. These Dyaks cultivate a greatextent of ground, and supply a good deal of rice to Sarawak. They are rich in gongs,brass trays, wire, silver coins, and other articles in which a Dyak's wealth consists; andtheir women and children are all highly ornamented with bead necklaces, shells, andbrass wire. In the morning I waited some time, but the men that were to accompany me did notmake their appearance. On sending to the Orang Kaya I found that both he and anotherhead-man had gone out for the day, and on inquiring the reason was told that theycould not persuade any of their men to go with me because the journey was long andfatiguing one. As I was determined to get on, I told the few men that remained that thechiefs had behaved very badly, and that I should acquaint the Rajah with their conduct,and I wanted to start immediately. Every man present made some excuse, but otherswere sent for, and by hint of threats and promises, and the exertion of all Bujon'seloquence, we succeeded in getting off after two hours' delay. For the first few miles our path lay over a country cleared for rice-fields, consistingentirely of small but deep and sharply- cut ridges and valleys without a yard of levelground. After crossing the Kayan river, a main branch of the Sadong, we got on to thelower slopes of the Seboran Mountain, and the path lay along a sharp and moderatelysteep ridge, affording an excellent view of the country. Its features were exactly thoseof the Himalayas in miniature, as they are described by Dr. Hooker and other travellers,

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and looked like a natural model of some parts of those vast mountains on a scale ofabout a tenth--thousands of feet being here represented by hundreds. I now discoveredthe source of the beautiful pebbles which had so pleased me in the riverbed. The slateyrocks had ceased, and these mountains seemed to consist of a sandstone conglomerate,which was in some places a mere mass of pebbles cemented together. I might haveknown that such small streams could not produce such vast quantities of well-roundedpebbles of the very hardest materials. They had evidently been formed in past ages, bythe action of some continental stream or seabeach, before the great island of Borneohad risen from the ocean. The existence of such a system of hills and valleysreproducing in miniature all the features of a great mountain region, has an importantbearing on the modern theory that the form of the ground is mainly due to atmosphericrather than to subterranean action. When we have a number of branching valleys andravines running in many different directions within a square mile, it seems hardlypossible to impute their formation, or even their origination, to rents and fissuresproduced by earthquakes. On the other hand, the nature of the rock, so easilydecomposed and removed by water, and the known action of the abundant tropicalrains, are in this case, at least, quite sufficient causes for the production of such valleys.But the resemblance between their forms and outlines, their mode of divergence, andthe slopes and ridges that divide them, and those of the grand mountain scenery of theHimalayas, is so remarkable, that we are forcibly led to the conclusion that the forces atwork in the two cases have been the same, differing only in the time they have been inaction, and the nature of the material they have had to work upon. About noon we reached the village of Menyerry, beautifully situated on a spur ofthe mountain about 600 feet above the valley, and affording a delightful view of themountains of this part of Borneo. I here got a sight of Penrissen Mountain, at the headof the Sarawak River, and one of the highest in the district, rising to about 6,000 feetabove the sea. To the south the Rowan, and further off the Untowan Mountains in theDutch territory appeared equally lofty. Descending from Menyerry we again crossedthe Kayan, which bends round the spur, and ascended to the pass which divides theSadong and Sarawak valleys, and which is about 2,000 feet high. The descent from thispoint was very fine. A stream, deep in a rocky gorge, rushed on each side of us, to oneof which we gradually descended, passing over many lateral gullys and along the facesof some precipices by means of native bamboo bridges. Some of these were severalhundred feet long and fifty or sixty high, a single smooth bamboo four inches diameterforming the only pathway, while a slender handrail of the same material was often soshaky that it could only be used as a guide rather than a support. Late in the afternoon we reached Sodos, situated on a spur between two streams,but so surrounded by fruit trees that little could be seen of the country. The house wasspacious, clean and comfortable, and the people very obliging. Many of the women andchildren had never seen a white man before, and were very sceptical as to my being thesame colour all over, as my face. They begged me to show them my arms and body,and they were so kind and good-tempered that I felt bound to give them somesatisfaction, so I turned up my trousers and let them see the colour of my leg, whichthey examined with great interest. In the morning early we continued our descent along a fine valley, with mountainsrising 2,000 or 3,000 feet in every direction. The little river rapidly increased in sizeuntil we reached Serma, when it had become a fine pebbly stream navigable for smallcanoes. Here again the upheaved slatey rock appeared, with the same dip and directionas in the Sadong River. On inquiring for a boat to take me down the stream, I was toldthat the Senna Dyaks, although living on the river-banks, never made or used boats.They were mountaineers who had only come down into the valley about twenty yearsbefore, and had not yet got into new habits. They are of the same tribe as the people ofMenyerry and Sodos. They make good paths and bridges, and cultivate much mountainland, and thus give a more pleasing and civilized aspect to the country than where the

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people move about only in boats, and confine their cultivation to the banks of thestreams. After some trouble I hired a boat from a Malay trader, and found three Dyaks whohad been several times with Malays to Sarawak, and thought they could manage it verywell. They turned out very awkward, constantly running aground, striking against rocks,and losing their balance so as almost to upset themselves and the boat--offering astriking contrast to the skill of the Sea Dyaks. At length we came to a really dangerousrapid where boats were often swamped, and my men were afraid to pass it. SomeMalays with a boatload of rice here overtook us, and after safely passing down kindlysent back one of their men to assist me. As it was, my Dyaks lost their balance in thecritical part of the passage, and had they been alone would certainly have upset theboat. The river now became exceedingly picturesque, the ground on each side beingpartially cleared for ricefields, affording a good view of the country. Numerous littlegranaries were built high up in trees overhanging the river, and having a bamboo bridgesloping up to them from the bank; and here and there bamboo suspension bridgecrossed the stream, where overhanging trees favoured their construction. I slept that night in the village of the Sebungow Dyaks, and the next day reachedSarawak, passing through a most beautiful country where limestone mountains withtheir fantastic forms and white precipices slot up on every side, draped and festoonedwith a luxuriant vegetation. The banks of the Sarawak River are everywhere coveredwith fruit trees, which supply the Dyaks with a great deal of their food. TheMangosteen, Lansat, Rambutan, Jack, Jambou, and Blimbing, are all abundant; butmost abundant and most esteemed is the Durian, a fruit about which very little isknown in England, but which both by natives and Europeans in the Malay Archipelagois reckoned superior to all others. The old traveller Linschott, writing in 1599, says: "Itis of such an excellent taste that it surpasses in flavour all the other fruits of the world,according to those who have tasted it." And Doctor Paludanus adds: "This fruit is of ahot and humid nature. To those not used to it, it seems at first to smell like rottenonions, but immediately when they have tasted it, they prefer it to all other food. Thenatives give it honourable titles, exalt it, and make verses on it." When brought into ahouse the smell is often so offensive that some persons can never bear to taste it. Thiswas my own case when I first tried it in Malacca, but in Borneo I found a ripe fruit onthe ground, and, eating it out of doors, I at once became a confirmed Durian eater. The Durian grows on a large and lofty forest tree, somewhat resembling an elm inits general character, but with a more smooth and scaly bark. The fruit is round orslightly oval, about the size of a large cocoanut, of a green colour, and covered all overwith short stout spines the bases of which touch each other, and are consequentlysomewhat hexagonal, while the points are very strong and sharp. It is so completelyarmed, that if the stalk is broken off it is a difficult matter to lift one from the ground.The outer rind is so thick and tough, that from whatever height it may fall it is neverbroken. From the base to the apex five very faint lines may be traced, over which thespines arch a little; these are the sutures of the carpels, and show where the fruit maybe divided with a heavy knife and a strong hand. The five cells are satiny white within,and are each filled with an oval mass of cream-coloured pulp, imbedded in which aretwo or three seeds about the size of chestnuts. This pulp is the eatable part, and itsconsistency and flavour are indescribable. A rich butter-like custard highly flavouredwith almonds gives the best general idea of it, but intermingled with it come wafts offlavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, brown sherry, and otherincongruities. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing elsepossesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid, nor sweet, nor juicy; yetone feels the want of more of these qualities, for it is perfect as it is. It produces nonausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop.In fact to eat Durians is a new sensation, worth a voyage to the East to experience. When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself, and the only way to eat Durians in perfection

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is to get them as they fall; and the smell is then less overpowering. When unripe, itmakes a very good vegetable if cooked, and it is also eaten by the Dyaks raw. In a goodfruit season large quantities are preserved salted, in jars and bamboos, and kept the yearround, when it acquires a most disgusting odour to Europeans, but the Dyaks appreciateit highly as a relish with their rice. There are in the forest two varieties of wild Durianswith much smaller fruits, one of them orange-coloured inside; and these are probablythe origin of the large and fine Durians, which are never found wild. It would not,perhaps, be correct to say that the Durian is the best of all fruits, because it cannotsupply the place of the subacid juicy kinds, such as the orange, grape, mango, andmangosteen, whose refreshing and cooling qualities are so wholesome and grateful; butas producing a food of the most exquisite flavour, it is unsurpassed. If I had to fix ontwo only, as representing the perfection of the two classes, I should certainly choose theDurian and the Orange as the king and queen of fruits. The Durian is, however, sometimes dangerous. When the fruit begins to ripen itfalls daily and almost hourly, and accidents not unfrequently happen to persons walkingor working under the trees. When a Durian strikes a man in its fall, it produces adreadful wound, the strong spines tearing open the flesh, while the blow itself is veryheavy; but from this very circumstance death rarely ensues, the copious effusion ofblood preventing the inflammation which might otherwise take place. A Dyak chiefinformed me that he had been struck down by a Durian falling on his head, which hethought would certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a very short time. Poets and moralists, judging from our English trees and fruits, have thought thatsmall fruits always grew on lofty trees, so that their fall should be harmless to man,while the large ones trailed on the ground. Two of the largest and heaviest fruitsknown, however, the Brazil-nut fruit (Bertholletia) and Durian, grow on lofty foresttrees, from which they fall as soon as they are ripe, and often wound or kill the nativeinhabitants. From this we may learn two things: first, not to draw general conclusionsfrom a very partial view of nature; and secondly, that trees and fruits, no less than thevaried productions of the animal kingdom, do not appear to be organized with exclusivereference to the use and convenience of man. During my many journeys in Borneo, and especially during my various residencesamong the Dyaks, I first came to appreciate the admirable qualities of the Bamboo. Inthose parts of South America which I had previously visited, these gigantic grasseswere comparatively scarce; and where found but little used, their place being taken asto one class of uses by the great variety of Palms, and as to another by calabashes andgourds. Almost all tropical countries produce Bamboos, and wherever they are found inabundance the natives apply them to a variety of uses. Their strength, lightness,smoothness, straightness, roundness and hollowness, the facility and regularity withwhich they can be split, their many different sizes, the varying length of their joints, theease with which they can be cut and with which holes can be made through them, theirhardness outside, their freedom from any pronounced taste or smell, their greatabundance, and the rapidity of their growth and increase, are all qualities which renderthem useful for a hundred different purposes, to serve which other materials wouldrequire much more labour and preparation. The Bamboo is one of the most wonderfuland most beautiful productions of the tropics, and one of nature's most valuable gifts touncivilized man. The Dyak houses are all raised on posts, and are often two or three hundred feetlong and forty or fifty wide. The floor is always formed of strips split from largeBamboos, so that each may be nearly flat and about three inches wide, and these arefirmly tied down with rattan to the joists beneath. When well made, this is a delightfulfloor to walk upon barefooted, the rounded surfaces of the bamboo being very smoothand agreeable to the feet, while at the same time affording a firm hold. But, what ismore important, they form with a mat over them an excellent bed, the elasticity of theBamboo and its rounded surface being far superior to a more rigid and a flatter floor.

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Here we at once find a use for Bamboo which cannot be supplied so well by anothermaterial without a vast amount of labour--palms and other substitutes requiring muchcutting and smoothing, and not being equally good when finished. When, however, aflat, close floor is required, excellent boards are made by splitting open large Bambooson one side only, and flattening them out so as to form slabs eighteen inches wide andsix feet long, with which some Dyaks floor their houses. These with constant rubbingof the feet and the smoke of years become dark and polished, like walnut or old oak, sothat their real material can hardly be recognised. What labour is here saved to a savagewhose only tools are an axe and a knife, and who, if he wants boards, must hew themout of the solid trunk of a tree, and must give days and weeks of labour to obtain asurface as smooth and beautiful as the Bamboo thus treated affords him. Again, if atemporary house is wanted, either by the native in his plantation or by the traveller inthe forest, nothing is so convenient as the Bamboo, with which a house can beconstructed with a quarter of the labour and time than if other materials are used. As I have already mentioned, the Hill Dyaks in the interior of Sarawak make pathsfor long distances from village to village and to their cultivated grounds, in the courseof which they have to cross many gullies and ravines, and even rivers; or sometimes, toavoid a long circuit, to carry the path along the face of a precipice. In all these cases thebridges they construct are of Bamboo, and so admirably adapted is the material for thispurpose, that it seems doubtful whether they ever would have attempted such works ifthey had not possessed it. The Dyak bridge is simple but well designed. It consistsmerely of stout Bamboos crossing each other at the road-way like the letter X, andrising a few feet above it. At the crossing they are firmly bound together, and to a largeBamboo which lays upon them and forms the only pathway, with a slender and oftenvery shaky one to serve as a handrail. When a river is to be crossed, an overhangingtree is chosen from which the bridge is partly suspended and partly supported bydiagonal struts from the banks, so as to avoid placing posts in the stream itself, whichwould be liable to be carried away by floods. In carrying a path along the face of aprecipice, trees and roots are made use of for suspension; struts arise from suitablenotches or crevices in the rocks, and if these are not sufficient, immense Bamboos fiftyor sixty feet long are fixed on the banks or on the branch of a tree below. These bridgesare traversed daily by men and women carrying heavy loads, so that any insecurity issoon discovered, and, as the materials are close at hand, immediately repaired. When apath goes over very steep ground, and becomes slippery in very wet or very dryweather, the Bamboo is used in another way. Pieces are cut about a yard long, andopposite notches being made at each end, holes are formed through which pegs aredriven, and firm and convenient steps are thus formed with the greatest ease andcelerity. It is true that much of this will decay in one or two seasons, but it can be soquickly replaced as to make it more economical than using a harder and more durablewood.

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DYAK CROSSING A BAMBOO BRIDGE

One of the most striking uses to which Bamboo is applied by the Dyaks, is to assistthem in climbing lofty trees by driving in pegs in the way I have already described atpage 85. This method is constantly used in order to obtain wax, which is one of themost valuable products of the country. The honey-bee of Borneo very generally hangsits combs under the branches of the Tappan, a tree which towers above all others in theforest, and whose smooth cylindrical trunk often rises a hundred feet without a branch.The Dyaks climb these lofty trees at night, building up their Bamboo ladder as they go,and bringing down gigantic honeycombs. These furnish them with a delicious feast ofhoney and young bees, besides the wax, which they sell to traders, and with theproceeds buy the much-coveted brass wire, earrings, and bold-edged handkerchiefswith which they love to decorate themselves. In ascending Durian and other fruit treeswhich branch at from thirty to fifty feet from the ground, I have seen them use theBamboo pegs only, without the upright Bamboo which renders them so much moresecure. The outer rind of the Bamboo, split and shaved thin, is the strongest material forbaskets; hen-coops, bird-cages, and conical fish-traps are very quickly made from asingle joint, by splitting off the skin in narrow strips left attached to one end, whilerings of the same material or of rattan are twisted in at regular distances. Water isbrought to the houses by little aqueducts formed of large Bamboos split in half andsupported on crossed sticks of various heights so as to give it a regular fall. Thin long-jointed Bamboos form the Dyaks' only water- vessels, and a dozen of them stand in thecorner of every house. They are clean, light, and easily carried, and are in many wayssuperior to earthen vessels for the same purpose. They also make excellent cookingutensils; vegetables and rice can be boiled in them to perfection, and they are oftenused when travelling. Salted fruit or fish, sugar, vinegar, and honey are preserved inthem instead of in jars or bottles. In a small Bamboo case, prettily carved andornamented, the Dyak carries his sirih and lime for betel chewing, and his little long-bladed knife has a Bamboo sheath. His favourite pipe is a huge hubble-bubble, whichhe will construct in a few minutes by inserting a small piece of Bamboo for a bowlobliquely into a large cylinder about six inches from the bottom containing water,

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VANDA LOWII

through which the smoke passes to a long slender Bamboo tube. There are many othersmall matters for which Bamboo is daily used, but enough has now been mentioned toshow its value. In other parts of the Archipelago I have myself seen it applied to manynew uses, and it is probable that my limited means of observation did not make meacquainted with one-half the ways in which it is serviceable to the Dyaks of Sarawak. While upon the subject of plants Imay here mention a few of the morestriking vegetable productions of Borneo.The wonderful Pitcher-plants, formingthe genus Nepenthes of botanists, herereach their greatest development. Everymountain-top abounds with them,running along the ground, or climbingover shrubs and stunted trees; theirelegant pitchers hanging in everydirection. Some of these are long andslender, resembling in form the beautifulPhilippine lace-sponge (Euplectella),which has now become so common;others are broad and short. Their coloursare green, variously tinted and mottledwith red or purple. The finest yet knownwere obtained on the summit of Kini-balou, in North-west Borneo. One of thebroad sort, Nepenthes rajah, will holdtwo quarts of water in its pitcher.Another, Nepenthes Edwardsiania, has anarrow pitcher twenty inches long; whilethe plant itself grows to a length oftwenty feet. Ferns are abundant, but are not sovaried as on the volcanic mountains ofJava; and Tree-ferns are neither soplentiful nor so large as on that island.They grow, however, quite down to thelevel of the sea, and are generally slender and graceful plants from eight to fifteen feethigh. Without devoting much time to the search I collected fifty species of Ferns inBorneo, and I have no doubt a good botanist would have obtained twice the number.The interesting group of Orchids is very abundant, but, as is generally the case, nine-tenths of the species have small and inconspicuous flowers. Among the exceptions arethe fine Coelogynes, whose large clusters of yellow flowers ornament the gloomiestforests, and that most extraordinary plant, Vanda Lowii, which last is particularlyabundant near some hot springs at the foot of the Penin-jauh Mountain. It grows on thelower branches of trees, and its us strange pendant flower-spires often hang down so asalmost to reach the ground. These are generally six or eight feet long, bearing large andhandsome flowers three inches across, and varying in colour from orange to red, withdeep purple-red spots. I measured one spike, which reached the extraordinary length ofnine feet eight inches, and bore thirty- six flowers, spirally arranged upon a slenderthread-like stalk. Specimens grown in our English hot-houses have produced flower-spires of equal length, and with a much larger number of blossoms. Flowers were scarce, as is usual in equatorial forests, and it was only at rareintervals that I met with anything striking. A few fine climbers were sometimes seen,especially a handsome crimson and yellow Aeschynanthus, and a fine leguminous plantwith clusters of large Cassia-like flowers of a rich purple colour. Once I found a

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number of small Anonaceous trees of the genus Polyalthea, producing a most strikingeffect in the gloomy forest shades. They were about thirty feet high, and their slendertrunks were covered with large star-like crimson flowers, which clustered over themlike garlands, and resembled some artificial decoration more than a natural product.

POLYALTHEA - - - STRANGE FOREST TREE - - - TREE-FERN

The forests abound with gigantic trees with cylindrical, buttressed, or furrowedstems, while occasionally the traveller comes upon a wonderful fig-tree, whose trunk isitself a forest of stems and aerial roots. Still more rarely are found trees which appearto have begun growing in mid-air, and from the same point send out wide-spreadingbranches above and a complicated pyramid of roots descending for seventy or eightyfeet to the ground below, and so spreading on every side, that one can stand in the verycentre with the trunk of the tree immediately overhead. Trees of this character arefound all over the Archipelago, and the accompanying illustration (taken from onewhich I often visited in the Aru Islands) will convey some idea of their generalcharacter. I believe that they originate as parasites, from seeds carried by birds anddropped in the fork of some lofty tree. Hence descend aerial roots, clasping andultimately destroying the supporting tree, which is in time entirely replaced by thehumble plant which was at first dependent upon it. Thus we have an actual struggle forlife in the vegetable kingdom, not less fatal to the vanquished than the struggles amonganimals which we can so much more easily observe and understand. The advantage ofquicker access to light and warmth and air, which is gained in one way by climbingplants, is here obtained by a forest tree, which has the means of starting in life at anelevation which others can only attain after many years of growth, and then only when

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the fall of some other tree has made room for then. Thus it is that in the warm andmoist and equable climate of the tropics, each available station is seized upon andbecomes the means of developing new forms of life especially adapted to occupy it. On reaching Sarawak early in December, I found there would not be anopportunity of returning to Singapore until the latter end of January. I thereforeaccepted Sir James Brooke's invitation to spend a week with him and Mr. St. John athis cottage on Peninjauh. This is a very steep pyramidal mountain of crystalline basalticrock, about a thousand feet high, and covered with luxuriant forest. There are threeDyak villages upon it, and on a little platform near the summit is the rude woodenlodge where the English Rajah was accustomed to go for relaxation and cool fresh air.It is only twenty miles up the river, but the road up the mountain is a succession ofladders on the face of precipices, bamboo bridges over gullies and chasms, and slipperypaths over rocks and tree-trunks and huge boulders as big as houses. A cool springunder an overhanging rock just below the cottage furnished us with refreshing bathsand delicious drinking water, and the Dyaks brought us daily heaped-up baskets ofMangosteens and Lansats, two of the most delicious of the subacid tropical fruits. Wereturned to Sarawak for Christmas (the second I had spent with Sir James Brooke),when all the Europeans both in the town and from the out-stations enjoyed thehospitality of the Rajah, who possessed in a pre-eminent degree the art of making everyone around him comfortable and happy. A few days afterwards I returned to the mountain with Charles and a Malay boynamed Ali and stayed there three weeks for the purpose of making a collection of land-shells, butterflies and moths, ferns and orchids. On the hill itself ferns were tolerablyplentiful, and I made a collection of about forty species. But what occupied me mostwas the great abundance of moths which on certain occasions I was able to capture. Asduring the whole of my eight years' wanderings in the East I never found another spotwhere these insects were at all plentiful, it will be interesting to state the exactconditions under which I here obtained them. On one side of the cottage there was a verandah, looking down the whole side ofthe mountain and to its summit on the right, all densely clothed with forest. Theboarded sides of the cottage were whitewashed, and the roof of the verandah was low,and also boarded and whitewashed. As soon as it got dark I placed my lamp on a tableagainst the wall, and with pins, insect-forceps, net, and collecting-boxes by my side,sat down with a book. Sometimes during the whole evening only one solitary mothwould visit me, while on other nights they would pour in, in a continual stream,keeping me hard at work catching and pinning till past midnight. They came literally bythe thousands. These good nights were very few. During the four weeks that I spentaltogether on the hill I only had four really good nights, and these were always rainy,and the best of them soaking wet. But wet nights were not always good, for a rainymoonlight night produced next to nothing. All the chief tribes of moths wererepresented, and the beauty and variety of the species was very great. On good nights Iwas able to capture from a hundred to two hundred and fifty moths, and thesecomprised on each occasion from half to two-thirds that number of distinct species.Some of them would settle on the wall, some on the table, while many would fly up tothe roof and give me a chase all over the verandah before I could secure them. In orderto show the curious connection between the state of weather and the degree in whichmoths were attracted to light, I add a list of my captures each night of my stay on thehill.

Date No. of Moths Remarks1855. Dec.. 13th 1 Fine; starlight. " . . 14th 75 Drizzly and fog.

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" . . 15th 41 Showery; cloudy. " . . 16th 158 (120 species.) Steady rain. " . . 17th 82 Wet; rather moonlight. " . . 18th 9 Fine; moonlight. " . . 19th 2 Fine; clear moonlight. " . . 31st 200 (130 species.) Dark and windy; heavy rain. 1856. Jan.. 1st 185 Very wet. " . . 2cd 68 Cloudy and showers. " . . 3rd 50 Cloudy. " . . 4th 12 Fine. " . . 5th 10 Fine. " . . 6th 8 Very fine. " . . 7th 8 Very fine. " . . 8th 10 Fine. " . . 9th 36 Showery. " .. 10th 30 Showery. " .. 11th 260 Heavy rain all night, and dark. " .. 12th 56 Showery. " .. 13th 44 Showery; some moonlight. " .. 14th 4 Fine; moonlight. " .. 15th 24 Rain; moonlight. " .. 16th 6 Showers; moonlight. " .. 17th 6 Showers; moonlight. " .. 18th 1 Showers; moonlight.Total 1,386

It thus appears that on twenty-six nights I collected 1,386 moths, but that more than800 of them were collected on four very wet and dark nights. My success here led meto hope that, by similar arrangements, I might on every island be able to obtain anabundance of these insects; but, strange to say, during the six succeeding years, I wasnever once able to make any collections at all approaching those at Sarawak. Thereason for this I can pretty well understand to be owing to the absence of some one orother essential condition that were here all combined. Sometimes the dry season wasthe hindrance; more frequently residence in a town or village not close to virgin forest,and surrounded by other houses whose lights were a counter-attraction; still morefrequently residence in a dark palm-thatched house, with a lofty roof, in whose recessesevery moth was lost the instant it entered. This last was the greatest drawback, and thereal reason why I never again was able to make a collection of moths; for I neverafterwards lived in a solitary jungle-house with a low boarded and whitewashedverandah, so constructed as to prevent insects at once escaping into the upper part ofthe house, quite out of reach. After my long experience, my numerous failures, and my one success, I feel surethat if any party of naturalists ever make a yacht-voyage to explore the MalayanArchipelago, or any other tropical region, making entomology one of their chiefpursuits, it would well repay them to carry a small framed verandah, or a verandah-shaped tent of white canvas, to set up in every favourable situation, as a means ofmaking a collection of nocturnal Lepidoptera, and also of obtaining rare specimens ofColeoptera and other insects. I make the suggestion here, because no one would suspectthe enormous difference in results that such an apparatus would produce; and because Iconsider it one of the curiosities of a collector's experience, to have found out that

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some such apparatus is required. When I returned to Singapore I took with me the Malay lad named Ali, whosubsequently accompanied me all over the Archipelago. Charles Allen preferred stayingat the Mission-house, and afterwards obtained employment in Sarawak and inSingapore, until he again joined me four years later at Amboyna in the Moluccas.

CHAPTER VI

BORNEO - THE DYAKS

THE manners and customs of the aborigines of Borneo have been described ingreat detail, and with much fuller information than I possess, in the writings of SirJames Brooke, Messrs. Low, St. John, Johnson Brooke, and many others. I do notpropose to go over the ground again, but shall confine myself to a sketch, frompersonal observation, of the general character of the Dyaks, and of such physical,moral, and social characteristics as have been less frequently noticed. The Dyak is closely allied to the Malay, and more remotely to the Siamese,Chinese, and other Mongol races. All these are characterised by a reddish-brown oryellowish-brown skin of various shades, by jet- black straight hair, by the scanty ordeficient beard, by the rather small and broad nose, and high cheekbones; but none ofthe Malayan races have the oblique eyes which are characteristic of the more typicalMongols. The average stature of the Dyaks is rather more than that of the Malays, whileit is considerably under that of most Europeans. Their forms are well proportioned,their feet and hands small, and they rarely or never attain the bulk of body so oftenseen in Malays and Chinese. I am inclined to rank the Dyaks above the Malays in mental capacity, while inmoral character they are undoubtedly superior to them. They are simple and honest, andbecome the prey of the Malay and Chinese trailers, who cheat and plunder themcontinually. They are more lively, more talkative, less secretive, and less suspiciousthan the Malay, and are therefore pleasanter companions. The Malay boys have littleinclination for active sports and games, which form quite a feature in the life of theDyak youths, who, besides outdoor games of skill and strength, possess a variety ofindoor amusements. One wet day, in a Dyak house, when a number of boys and youngmen were about me, I thought to amuse them with something new, and showed themhow to make "cat's cradle" with a piece of string. Greatly to my surprise, they knew allabout it, and more than I did; for, after Charles and I had gone through all the changeswe could make, one of the boys took it off my hand, and made several new figureswhich quite puzzled me. They then showed me a number of other tricks with pieces ofstring, which seemed a favourite amusement with them. Even these apparently trifling matters may assist us to form a truer estimate of theDyaks' character and social condition. We learn thereby, that these people have passedbeyond that first stage of savage life in which the struggle for existence absorbs all ofthe faculties, and in which every thought and idea is connected with war or hunting, orthe provision for their immediate necessities. These amusements indicate a capabilityof civilization, an aptitude to enjoy other than mere sensual pleasures, which night betaken advantage of to elevate their whole intellectual and social life. The moral character of the Dyaks is undoubtedly high--a statement which willseem strange to those who have heard of them only as head-hunters and pirates. TheHill Dyaks of whom I am speaking, however, have never been pirates, since they nevergo near the sea; and head-hunting is a custom originating in the petty wars of villagewith village, and tribe with tribe, which no more implies a bad moral character than did

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the custom of the slave-trade a hundred years ago imply want of general morality in allwho participated in it. Against this one stain on their character (which in the case of theSarawak Dyaks no longer exists) we have to set many good points. They are truthfuland honest to a remarkable degree. From this cause it is very often impossible to getfrom them any definite information, or even an opinion. They say, "If I were to tell yonwhat I don't know, I might tell a lie;" and whenever they voluntarily relate any matterof fact, you may be sure they are speaking the truth. In a Dyak village the fruit treeshave each their owner, and it has often happened to me, on asking an inhabitant togather me some fruit, to be answered, "I can't do that, for the owner of the tree is nothere;" never seeming to contemplate the possibility of acting otherwise. Neither willthey take the smallest thing belonging to an European. When living at Simunjon, theycontinually came to my house, and would pick up scraps of torn newspaper or crookedpins that I had thrown away, and ask as a great favour whether they might have them.Crimes of violence (other than head-hunting) are almost unknown; for in twelve years,under Sir James Brooke's rule, there had been only one case of murder in a Dyak tribe,and that one was committed by a stranger who had been adopted into the tribe. Inseveral other matters of morality they rank above most uncivilized, and even abovemany civilized nations. They are temperate in food and drink, and the gross sensualityof the Chinese and Malays is unknown among them. They have the usual fault of allpeople in a half-savage state-- apathy and dilatoriness, but, however annoying this maybe to Europeans who come in contact with them, it cannot be considered a very graveoffence, or be held to outweigh their many excellent qualities. During my residence among the Hill Dyaks, I was much struck by the apparentabsence of those causes which are generally supposed to check the increase ofpopulation, although there were plain indications of stationary or but slowly increasingnumbers. The conditions most favourable to a rapid increase of population are: anabundance of food, a healthy climate, and early marriages. Here these conditions allexist. The people produce far more food than they consume, and exchange the surplusfor gongs and brass cannon, ancient jars, and gold and silver ornaments, whichconstitute their wealth. On the whole, they appear very free from disease, marriagestake place early (but not too early), and old bachelors and old maids are alike unknown.Why, then, we must inquire, has not a greater population been produced? Why are theDyak villages so small and so widely scattered, while nine-tenths of the country is stillcovered with forest? Of all the checks to population among savage nations mentioned by Malthus--starvation, disease, war, infanticide, immorality, and infertility of the women--the lastis that which he seems to think least important, and of doubtful efficacy; and yet it isthe only one that seems to me capable of accounting for the state of the populationamong the Sarawak Dyaks. The population of Great Britain increases so as to doubleitself in about fifty years. To do this it is evident that each married couple must averagethree children who live to be married at the age of about twenty-five. Add to thesethose who die in infancy, those who never marry, or those who marry late in life andhave no offspring, the number of children born to each marriage must average four orfive, and we know that families of seven or eight are very common, and of ten andtwelve by no means rare. But from inquiries at almost every Dyak tribe I visited, Iascertained that the women rarely had more than three or four children, and an old chiefassured me that he had never known a woman to have more than seven. In a village consisting of a hundred and fifty families, only one consisted of sixchildren living, and only six of five children, the majority of families appearing to betwo, three, or four. Comparing this with the known proportions in European countries,it is evident that the number of children to each marriage can hardly average more thanthree or four; and as even in civilized countries half the population die before the ageof twenty-five, we should have only two left to replace their parents; and so long asthis state of things continued, the population must remain stationary. Of course this is a

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mere illustration; but the facts I have stated seem to indicate that something of the kindreally takes place; and if so, there is no difficulty in understanding the smallness andalmost stationary population of the Dyak tribes. We have next to inquire what is the cause of the small number of births and ofliving children in a family. Climate and race may have something to do with this, but amore real and efficient cause seems to me to be the hard labour of the women, and theheavy weights they constantly carry. A Dyak woman generally spends the whole day inthe field, and carries home every night a heavy load of vegetables and firewood, oftenfor several miles, over rough and hilly paths; and not unfrequently has to climb up arocky mountain by ladders, and over slippery steppingstones, to an elevation of athousand feet. Besides this, she has an hour's work every evening to pound the rice witha heavy wooden stamper, which violently strains every part of the body. She begins thiskind of labour when nine or ten years old, and it never ceases but with the extremedecrepitude of age. Surely we need not wonder at the limited number of her progeny,but rather be surprised at the successful efforts of nature to prevent the extermination ofthe race. One of the surest and most beneficial effects of advancing civilization, will be theamelioration of the condition of these women. The precept and example of higher raceswill make the Dyak ashamed of his comparatively idle life, while his weaker partnerlabours like a beast of burthen. As his wants become increased and his tastes refined,the women will have more household duties to attend to, and will then cease to labourin the field--a change which has already to a great extent taken place in the alliedMalay, Javanese, and Bugis tribes. Population will then certainly increase more rapidly,improved systems of agriculture and some division of labour will become necessary inorder to provide the means of existence, and a more complicated social state will takethe place of the simple conditions of society which now occur among them. But, withthe sharper struggle for existence that will then arise, will the happiness of the peopleas a whole be increased or diminished? Will not evil passions be aroused by the spiritof competition, and crimes and vices, now unknown or dormant, be called into activeexistence? These are problems that time alone can solve; but it is to be hoped thateducation and a high-class European example may obviate much of the evil that toooften arises in analogous cases, and that we may at length be able to point to oneinstance of an uncivilized people who have not become demoralized, and finallyexterminated, by contact with European civilization. A few words in conclusion, about the government of Sarawak. Sir James Brookefound the Dyaks oppressed and ground down by the most cruel tyranny. They werecheated by the Malay traders and robbed by the Malay chiefs. Their wives and childrenwere often captured and sold into slavery, and hostile tribes purchased permission fromtheir cruel rulers to plunder, enslave, and murder them. Anything like justice or redressfor these injuries was utterly unattainable. From the time Sir James obtained possessionof the country, all this was stopped. Equal justice was awarded to Malay, Chinaman,and Dyak. The remorseless pirates from the rivers farther east were punished, andfinally shut up within their own territories, and the Dyak, for the first time, could sleepin peace. His wife and children were now safe from slavery; his house was no longerburned over his head; his crops and his fruits were now his own to sell or consume ashe pleased. And the unknown stranger who had done all this for them, and asked fornothing in return, what could he be? How was it possible for them to realize hismotives? Was it not natural that they should refuse to believe he was a man? For ofpure benevolence combined with great power, they had had no experience among men.They naturally concluded that he was a superior being, come down upon earth to conferblessings on the afflicted. In many villages where he had not been seen, I was askedstrange questions about him. Was he not as old as the mountains? Could he not bringthe dead to life? And they firmly believe that he can give them good harvests, andmake their fruit-trees bear an abundant crop.

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In forming a proper estimate of Sir James Brooke's government it must ever beremembered that he held Sarawak solely by the goodwill of the native inhabitant. Hehad to deal with two races, one of whom, the Mahometan Malays, looked upon theother race, the Dyaks, as savages and slaves, only fit to be robbed and plundered. Hehas effectually protected the Dyaks, and has invariably treated them as, in his sight,equal to the Malays; and yet he has secured the affection and goodwill of both.Notwithstanding the religious prejudice, of Mahometans, he has induced them tomodify many of their worst laws and customs, and to assimilate their criminal code tothat of the civilized world. That his government still continues, after twenty- sevenyears--notwithstanding his frequent absences from ill-health, notwithstandingconspiracies of Malay chiefs, and insurrections of Chinese gold-diggers, all of whichhave been overcome by the support of the native population, and notwithstandingfinancial, political, and domestic troubles is due, I believe, solely to the manyadmirable qualities which Sir James Brooke possessed, and especially to his havingconvinced the native population, by every action of his life, that he ruled them, not forhis own advantage, but for their good. Since these lines were written, his noble spirit has passed away. But though, bythose who knew him not, he may be sneered at as an enthusiastic adventurer, abused asa hard-hearted despot, the universal testimony of everyone who came in contact withhim in his adopted country, whether European, Malay, or Dyak, will be, that RajahBrooke was a great, a wise, and a good ruler; a true and faithful friend-- a man to beadmired for his talents, respected for his honesty and courage, and loved for his genuinehospitality, his kindness of disposition, and his tenderness of heart. [footnote: Thepresent Rajah, Charles Johnston Brooke, nephew of Sir James, seems to have continuedthe government in the spirit of its founder. Its territories have been extended by friendlyarrangement with the Sultan of Bruni so as to include the larger part of the north-westdistrict of Borneo, and peace and prosperity have everywhere been maintained. Fiftyyears of government of alien and antagonistic races, with their own consent, and withthe continued support of the native chieds, is a success of which the friends andcountrymen of Sir James Brooke may well be proud.]

CHAPTER VII

JAVA

I SPENT three months and a half in Java, from July 18th to October 31st, 1861,and shall briefly describe my own movements, and my observations of the people andthe natural history of the country. To all those who wish to understand how the Dutchnow govern Java, and how it is that they are enabled to derive a large annual revenuefrom it, while the population increases, and the inhabitants are contented, I recommendthe study of Mr. Money's excellent and interesting work, "How to Manage a Colony."The main facts and conclusions of that work I most heartily concur in, and I believethat the Dutch system is the very best that can be adopted, when a European nationconquers or otherwise acquires possession of a country inhabited by an industrious butsemi-barbarous people. In my account of Northern Celebes, I shall show howsuccessfully the same system has been applied to a people in a very different state ofcivilization from the Javanese; and in the meanwhile will state in the fewest wordspossible what that system is. The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole series ofnative rulers, from the village chief up to princes, who, under the name of Regents, arethe heads of districts about the size of a small English county. With each Regent is

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placed a Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resident, who is considered to be his "elderbrother," and whose "orders" take the form of "recommendations," which are, however,implicitly obeyed. Along with each Assistant Resident is a Controller, a kind ofinspector of all the lower native rulers, who periodically visits every village in thedistrict, examines the proceedings of the native courts, hears complaints against thehead-men or other native chiefs, and superintends the Government plantations. Thisbrings us to the "culture system," which is the source of all the wealth the Dutch derivefrom Java, and is the subject of much abuse in this country because it is the reverse of"free trade." To understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first to sketchthe common results of free European trade with uncivilized peoples. Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are supplied, aredisinclined to work for superfluities without some strong incitement. With such apeople the introduction of any new or systematic cultivation is almost impossible,except by the despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been accustomed to obey, aschildren obey their parents. The free competition of European traders, howeverintroduces two powerful inducements to exertion. Spirits or opium is a temptation toostrong for most savages to resist, and to obtain these he will sell whatever he has, andwill work to get more. Another temptation he cannot resist, is goods on credit. Thetrader offers him bay cloths, knives, gongs, guns, and gunpowder, to be paid for bysome crop perhaps not yet planted, or some product yet in the forest. He has notsufficient forethought to take only a moderate quantity, and not enough energy to workearly and late in order to get out of debt; and the consequence is that he accumulatesdebt upon debt, and often remains for years, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave.This is a state of things which occurs very largely in every part of the world in whichmen of a superior race freely trade with men of a lower race. It extends trade no doubtfor a time, but it demoralizes the native, checks true civilization--and does not lead toany permanent increase in the wealth of the country; so that the European governmentof such a country must be carried on at a loss. The system introduced by the Dutch was to induce the people, through their chiefs,to give a portion of their till, to the cultivation of coffee, sugar, and other valuableproducts. A fixed rate of wages--low indeed, but, about equal to that of all places whereEuropean competition has not artificially raised it- -was paid to the labourers engagedin clearing the ground and forming the plantations under Government superintendence.The produce is sold to the Government at a low, fixed price. Out of the net profit apercentage goes to the chiefs, and the remainder is divided among the workmen. Thissurplus in good years is something considerable. On the whole, the people are well fedand decently clothed, and have acquired habits of steady industry and the art ofscientific cultivation, which must be of service to them in the future. It must beremembered, that the Government expended capital for years before any return wasobtained; and if they now derive a large revenue, it is in a way which is far lessburthensome, and far more beneficial to the people, than any tax that could be levied. But although the system may be a good one, and as well adapted to thedevelopment of arts and industry in a half civilized people as it is to the materialadvantage of the governing country, it is not pretended that in practice it is perfectlycarried out. The oppressive and servile relations between chiefs and people, which havecontinued for perhaps a thousand years, cannot be at once abolished; and some evilmust result from those relations, until the spread of education and the gradual infusionof European blood causes it naturally and insensibly to disappear. It is said that theResidents, desirous of showing a large increase in the products of their districts, havesometimes pressed the people to such continued labour on the plantations that their ricecrops have been materially diminished, and famine has been the result. If this hashappened, it is certainly not a common thing, and is to be set down to the abuse of thesystem, by the want of judgment, or want of humanity in the Resident. A tale has lately been written in Holland, and translated into English, entitled "Max

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Havelaar; or, the "Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company," and with our usualone-sidedness in all relating to the Dutch Colonial System, this work has beenexcessively praised, both for its own merits, and for its supposed crushing exposure ofthe iniquities of the Dutch government of Java. Greatly to my surprise, I found it a verytedious and long-winded story, full of rambling digressions; and whose only point is toshow that the Dutch Residents and Assistant Residents wink at the extortions of thenative princes; and that in some districts the natives have to do work without payment,and have their goods taken away from them without compensation. Every statement ofthis kind is thickly interspersed with italics and capital letters; but as the names are allfictitious, and neither dates, figures, nor details are ever given, it is impossible to verifyor answer them. Even if not exaggerated, the facts stated are not nearly so bad as thoseof the oppression by free-trade indigo-planters, and torturing by native tax-gatherersunder British rule in India, with which the readers of English newspapers were familiara few years ago. Such oppression, however, is not fairly to be imputed in either case tothe particular form of government, but is rather due to the infirmity of human nature,and to the impossibility of at once destroying all trace of ages of despotism on the oneside, and of slavish obedience to their chiefs on the other. It must be remembered, that the complete establishment of the Dutch power in Javais much more recent than that of our rule in India, and that there have been severalchanges of government, and in the mode of raising revenue. The inhabitants have beenso recently under the rule of their native princes, that it is not easy at once to destroythe excessive reverence they feel for their old masters, or to diminish the oppressiveexactions which the latter have always been accustomed to make. There is, however,one grand test of the prosperity, and even of the happiness, of a community, which wecan apply here--the rate of increase of the population. It is universally admitted that when a country increases rapidly in population, thepeople cannot be very greatly oppressed or very badly governed. The present system ofraising a revenue by the cultivation of coffee and sugar, sold to Government at a fixedprice, began in 1832. Just before this, in 1826, the population by census was 5,500,000,while at the beginning of the century it was estimated at 3,500,000. In 1850, when thecultivation system had been in operation eighteen years, the population by census wasover 9,500,000, or an increase of 73 per cent in twenty-four years. At the last census, in1865, it amounted to 14,168,416, an increase of very nearly 50 per cent in fifteen years--a rate which would double the population in about twenty-six years. As Java (withMadura) contains about 38,500 geographical square miles, this will give an average of368 persons to the square mile, just double that of the populous and fertile BengalPresidency as given in Thornton's Gazetteer of India, and fully one-third more than thatof Great Britain and Ireland at the last Census. If, as I believe, this vast population ison the whole contented and happy, the Dutch Government should consider well beforeabruptly changing a system which has led to such great results. [footnote: In 1879 thepopulation had still further increased to over nineteen millions, and in 1894 to twenty-five millions.] Taking it as a whole, and surveying it front every point of view, Java is probablythe very finest and most interesting tropical island in the world. It is not first in size,but it is more than 600 miles long, and from 60 to 120 miles wide, and in area is nearlyequal to England; and it is undoubtedly the most fertile, the most productive, and themost populous island within the tropics. Its whole surface is magnificently varied withmountain and forest scenery. It possesses thirty-eight volcanic mountains, several ofwhich rise to ten or twelve thousand feet high. Some of these are in constant activity,and one or other of them displays almost every phenomenon produced by the action ofsubterranean fires, except regular lava streams, which never occur in Java. Theabundant moisture and tropical heat of the climate causes these mountains to be clothedwith luxuriant vegetation, often to their very summits, while forests and plantationscover their lower slopes. The animal productions, especially the birds and insects, are

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beautiful and varied, and present many peculiar forms found nowhere else upon theglobe. The soil throughout the island is exceedingly fertile, and all the productions of thetropics, together with many of the temperate zones, can be easily cultivated. Java toopossesses a civilization, a history and antiquities of its own, of great interest. TheBrahminical religion flourished in it from an epoch of unknown antiquity until aboutthe year 1478, when that of Mahomet superseded it. The former religion wasaccompanied by a civilization which has not been equalled by the conquerors; for,scattered through the country, especially in the eastern part of it, are found buried inlofty forests, temples, tombs, and statues of great beauty and grandeur; and the remainsof extensive cities, where the tiger, the rhinoceros, and the wild bull now roamundisturbed. A modern civilization of another type is now spreading over the land.Good roads run through the country from end to end; European and native rulers workharmoniously together; and life and property are as well secured as in the best governedstates of Europe. I believe, therefore, that Java may fairly claim to be the finest tropicalisland in the world, and equally interesting to the tourist seeking after new andbeautiful scenes; to the naturalist who desires to examine the variety and beauty oftropical nature; or to the moralist and the politician who want to solve the problem ofhow man may be best governed under new and varied conditions. The Dutch mail steamer brought me from Ternate to Sourabaya, the chief town andport in the eastern part of Java, and after a fortnight spent in packing up and sending offmy last collections, I started on a short journey into the interior. Travelling in Java isvery luxurious but very expensive, the only way being to hire or borrow a carriage, andthen pay half a crown a mile for post-horses, which are changed at regular posts everysix miles, and will carry you at the rate of ten miles an hour from one end of the islandto the other. Bullock carts or coolies are required to carry all extra baggage. As thiskind of travelling world not suit my means, I determined on making only a shortjourney to the district at the foot of Mount Arjuna, where I was told there wereextensive forests, and where I hoped to be able to make some good collections. Thecountry for many miles behind Sourabaya is perfectly flat and everywhere cultivated;being a delta or alluvial plain, watered by many branching streams. Immediately aroundthe town the evident signs of wealth and of an industrious population were verypleasing; but as we went on, the constant succession of open fields skirted by rows ofbamboos, with here and there the white buildings and a tall chimney of a sugar-mill,became monotonous. The roads run in straight lines for several miles at a stretch, andare bordered by rows of dusty tamarind-trees. At each mile there are little guardhouses,where a policeman is stationed; and there is a wooden gong, which by means ofconcerted signals may be made to convey information over the country with greatrapidity. About every six or seven miles is the post-house, where the horses arechanged as quickly as were those of the mail in the old coaching days in England. I stopped at Modjokerto, a small town about forty miles south of Sourabaya, andthe nearest point on the high road to the district I wished to visit. I had a letter ofintroduction to Mr. Ball, an Englishman, long resident in Java and married to a Dutchlady; and he kindly invited me to stay with him until I could fix on a place to suit me.A Dutch Assistant Resident as well as a Regent or native Javanese prince lived here.The town was neat, and had a nice open grassy space like a village green, on whichstood a magnificent fig-tree (allied to the Banyan of India, but more lofty), under whoseshade a kind of market is continually held, and where the inhabitants meet together tolounge and chat. The day after my arrival, Mr. Ball drove me over to the village ofModjo-agong, where he was building a house and premises for the tobacco trade,which is carried on here by a system of native cultivation and advance purchase,somewhat similar to the indigo trade in British India. On our way we stayed to look at afragment of the ruins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit, consisting of two lofty brickmasses, apparently the sides of a gateway. The extreme perfection and beauty of the

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ANCIENT BAS-RELIEF

brickwork astonished me. The bricks are exceedingly fine and hard, with sharp anglesand true surfaces. They are laid with great exactness, without visible mortar or cement,yet somehow fastened together so that the joints are hardly perceptible, and sometimesthe two surfaces coalesce in a most incomprehensible manner. Such admirable brickwork I have never seen before or since. There was nosculpture here, but an abundance of bold projections and finely-worked mouldings.Traces of buildings exist for many miles in every direction, and almost every road andpathway shows a foundation of brickwork beneath it--the paved roads of the old city.In the house of the Waidono or district chief at Modjo- agong, I saw a beautiful figurecarved in high relief out of a block of lava, and which had been found buried in theground near the village. On my expressing a wish to obtain some such specimen, Mr.B. asked the chief for it, and much to my surprise he immediately gave it me. Itrepresented the Hindu goddess Durga, called in Java, Lora Jonggrang (the exaltedvirgin). She has eight arms, and stands on the back of a kneeling bull. Her lower righthand holds the tail of the bull, while the corresponding left hand grasps the hair of acaptive, Dewth Mahikusor, the personification of vice, who has attempted to slay herbull. He has a cord round his waist, and crouches at her feet in an attitude ofsupplication. The other hands of the goddess hold, on her right side, a double hook orsmall anchor, a broad straight sword, and a noose of thick cord; on her left, a girdle orarmlet of large beads or shells, an unstrung bow, and a standard or war flag. This deitywas a special favourite among the old Javanese, and her image is often found in theruined temples which abound in the eastern part of the island.

The specimen I hadobtained was a smallone, about two feet high,weighing perhaps ahundredweight; and thenext day we had itconveyed to Modjo-Kerto to await my returnto Sourabaya. Havingdecided to stay sometime at Wonosalem, onthe lower slopes of theArjuna Mountain, whereI was informed I shouldfind forest and plenty ofgame, I had first toobtain a recommendationfrom the AssistantResident to the Regent,and then an order fromthe Regent to theWaidono; and when aftera week's delay I arrivedwith my baggage andmen at Modjo-agong, Ifound them all in themidst of a five days'feast, to celebrate thecircumcision of theWaidono's youngerbrother and cousin, and

had a small room in an on outhouse given me to stay in. The courtyard and the great

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open reception-shed were full of natives coming and going and making preparationsfor a feast which was to take place at midnight, to which I was invited, but preferredgoing to bed. A native band, or Gamelang, was playing almost all the evening, and Ihad a good opportunity of seeing the instruments and musicians. The former are chieflygongs of various sizes, arranged in sets of from eight to twelve, on low wooden frames.Each set is played by one performer with one or two drumsticks. There are also somevery large gongs, played singly or in pairs, and taking the place of our drums andkettledrums. Other instruments are formed by broad metallic bars, supported on stringsstretched across frames; and others again of strips of bamboo similarly placed andproducing the highest notes. Besides these there were a flute and a curious two-stringedviolin, requiring in all twenty-four performers. There was a conductor, who led off andregulated the time, and each performer took his part, coming in occasionally with a fewbars so as to form a harmonious combination. The pieces played were long andcomplicated, and some of the players were mere boys, who took their parts with greatprecision. The general effect was very pleasing, but, owing to the similarity of most ofthe instruments, more like a gigantic musical box than one of our bands; and in order toenjoy it thoroughly it is necessary to watch the large number of performers who areengaged in it. The next morning, while I was waiting for the men and horses who wereto take me and my baggage to my destination, the two lads, who were about fourteenyears old, were brought out, clothed in a sarong from the waist downwards, and havingthe whole body covered with yellow powder, and profusely decked with white blossomin wreaths, necklaces, and armlets, looking at first sight very like savage brides. Theywere conducted by two priests to a bench placed in front of the house in the open air,and the ceremony of circumcision was then performed before the assembled crowd. The road to Wonosalem led through a magnificent forest in the depths of which wepassed a fine ruin of what appeared to have been a royal tomb or mausoleum. It isformed entirely of stone, and elaborately carved. Near the base is a course of boldlyprojecting blocks, sculptured in high relief, with a series of scenes which are probablyincidents in the life of the defunct. These are all beautifully executed, some of thefigures of animals in particular, being easily recognisable and very accurate. Thegeneral design, as far as the ruined state of the upper part will permit of its being seen,is very good, effect being given by an immense number and variety of projecting orretreating courses of squared stones in place of mouldings. The size of this structure isabout thirty feet square by twenty high, and as the traveller comes suddenly upon it on asmall elevation by the roadside, overshadowed by gigantic trees, overrun with plantsand creepers, and closely backed by the gloomy forest, he is struck by the solemnityand picturesque beauty of the scene, and is led to ponder on the strange law ofprogress, which looks so like retrogression, and which in so many distant parts of theworld has exterminated or driven out a highly artistic and constructive race, to makeroom for one which, as far as we can judge, is very far its inferior. Few Englishmen are aware of the number and beauty of the architectural remainsin Java. They have never been popularly illustrated or described, and it will thereforetake most persons by surprise to learn that they far surpass those of Central America,perhaps even those of India. To give some idea of these ruins, and perchance to excitewealthy amateurs to explore them thoroughly and obtain by photography an accuraterecord of their beautiful sculptures before it is too late, I will enumerate the mostimportant, as briefly described in Sir Stamford Raffles' "History of Java." BRAMBANAM.-- Near the centre of Java, between the native capitals of Djoko-kerta and Surakerta, is the village of Brambanam, near which are abundance of ruins,the most important being the temples of Loro-Jongran and Chandi Sewa. At Loro-Jongran there were twenty separate buildings, six large and fourteen small temples.They are now a mass of ruins, but the largest temples are supposed to have been ninetyfeet high. They were all constructed of solid stone, everywhere decorated with carvingsand bas-reliefs, and adorned with numbers of statues, many of which still remain

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entire. At Chandi Sewa, or the "Thousand Temples," are many fine colossal figures.Captain Baker, who surveyed these ruins, said he had never in his life seen "suchstupendous and finished specimens of human labour, and of the science and taste ofages long since forgot, crowded together in so small a compass as in this spot." Theycover a space of nearly six hundred feet square, and consist of an outer row of eighty-four small temples, a second row of seventy-six, a third of sixty-four, a fourth of forty-four, and the fifth forming an inner parallelogram of twenty-eight, in all two hundredand ninety-six small temples; disposed in five regular parallelograms. In the centre is alarge cruciform temple surrounded by lofty flights of steps richly ornamented withsculpture, and containing many apartments. The tropical vegetation has ruined most ofthe smaller temples, but some remain tolerably perfect, from which the effect of thewhole may be imagined. About half a mile off is another temple, called Chandi Kali Bening, seventy-twofeet square and sixty feet high, in very fine preservation, and covered with sculptures ofHindu mythology surpassing any that exist in India, other ruins of palaces, halls, andtemples, with abundance of sculptured deities, are found in the same neighbourhood. BOROBODO.-- About eighty miles westward, in the province of Kedu, is the greattemple of Borobodo. It is built upon a small hill, and consists of a central dome andseven ranges of terraced walls covering the slope of the hill and forming open gallerieseach below the other, and communicating by steps and gateways. The central dome isfifty feet in diameter; around it is a triple circle of seventy-two towers, and the wholebuilding is six hundred and twenty feet square, and about one hundred feet high. In theterrace walls are niches containing cross-legged figures larger than life to the number ofabout four hundred, and both sides of all the terrace walls are covered with bas-reliefscrowded with figures, and carved in hard stone and which must therefore occupy anextent of nearly three miles in length! The amount of human labour and skill expendedon the Great Pyramid of Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared with thatrequired to complete this sculptured hill-temple in the interior of Java. GUNONG PRAU.-- About forty miles southwest of Samarang, on a mountaincalled Gunong Prau, an extensive plateau is covered with ruins. To reach these temples,four flights of stone steps were made up the mountain from opposite directions, eachflight consisting of more than a thousand steps. Traces of nearly four hundred templeshave been found here, and many (perhaps all) were decorated with rich and delicatesculptures. The whole country between this and Brambanam, a distance of sixty miles,abounds with ruins, so that fine sculptured images may be seen lying in the ditches, orbuilt into the walls of enclosures. In the eastern part of Java, at Kediri and in Malang, there are equally abundanttraces of antiquity, but the buildings themselves have been mostly destroyed.Sculptured figures, however, abound; and the ruins of forts, palaces, baths, aqueducts,and temples, can be everywhere traced. It is altogether contrary to the plan of this bookto describe what I have not myself seen; but, having been led to mention them, I feltbound to do something to call attention to these marvellous works of art. One isoverwhelmed by the contemplation of these innumerable sculptures, worked withdelicacy and artistic feeling in a hard, intractable, trachytic rock, and all found in onetropical island. What could have been the state of society, what the amount ofpopulation, what the means of subsistence which rendered such gigantic workspossible, will, perhaps, ever remain a mystery; and it is a wonderful example of thepower of religious ideas in social life, that in the very country where, five hundredyears ago, these grand works were being yearly executed, the inhabitants now onlybuild rude houses of bamboo and thatch, and look upon these relics of their forefatherswith ignorant amazement, as the undoubted productions of giants or of demons. It ismuch to be regretted that the Dutch Government does not take vigorous steps for thepreservation of these ruins from the destroying agency of tropical vegetation; and forthe collection of the fine sculptures which are everywhere scattered over the land.

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Wonosalem is situated about a thousand feet above the sea, but unfortunately it isat a distance from the forest, and is surrounded by coffee plantations, thickets ofbamboo, and coarse grasses. It was too far to walk back daily to the forest, and in otherdirections I could find no collecting ground for insects. The place was, however,famous for peacocks, and my boy soon shot several of these magnificent birds, whoseflesh we found to be tender, white, and delicate, and similar to that of a turkey. TheJava peacock is a different species from that of India, the neck being covered withscale-like green feathers, and the crest of a different form; but the eyed train is equallylarge and equally beautiful. It is a singular fact in geographical distribution that thepeacock should not be found in Sumatra or Borneo, while the superb Argus, Fire-backed and Ocellated pheasants of those islands are equally unknown in Java. Exactlyparallel is the fact that in Ceylon and Southern India, where the peacock abounds, thereare none of the splendid Lophophori and other gorgeous pheasants which inhabitNorthern India. It would seem as if the peacock can admit of no rivals in its domain.Were these birds rare in their native country, and unknown alive in Europe, they wouldassuredly be considered as the true princes of the feathered tribes, and altogetherunrivalled for stateliness and beauty. As it is, I suppose scarcely anyone if asked to fixupon the most beautiful bird in the world would name the peacock, any more than thePapuan savage or the Bugis trader would fix upon the bird of paradise for the samehonour. Three days after my arrival at Wonosalem, my friend Mr. Ball came to pay me avisit. He told me that two evenings before, a boy had been killed and eaten by a tigerclose to Modjo-agong. He was riding on a cart drawn by bullocks, and was cominghome about dusk on the main road; and when not half a mile from the village a tigersprang upon him, carried him off into the jungle close by, and devoured him. Nextmorning his remains were discovered, consisting only of a few mangled bones. TheWaidono had got together about seven hundred men, and were in chase of the animal,which, I afterwards heard, they found and killed. They only use spears when in pursuitof a tiger in this way. They surround a large tract of country, and draw graduallytogether until the animal is enclosed in a compact ring of armed men. When he seesthere is no escape he generally makes a spring, and is received on a dozen spears, andalmost instantly stabbed to death. The skin of an animal thus killed is, of course,worthless, and in this case the skull, which I had begged Mr. Ball to secure for me, washacked to pieces to divide the teeth, which are worn as charms. After a week at Wonosalem, I returned to the foot of the mountain, to a villagenamed Djapannan, which was surrounded by several patches of forest, and seemedaltogether pretty well spited to my pursuits. The chief of the village had prepared twosmall bamboo rooms on one side of his own courtyard to accommodate me, and seemedinclined to assist me as much as he could. The weather was exceedingly hot and dry, norain having fallen for several months, and there was, in consequence, a great scarcity ofinsects, and especially of beetles. I therefore devoted myself chiefly to obtaining a goodset of the birds, and succeeded in making a tolerable collection. All the peacocks wehad hitherto shot had had short or imperfect tails, but I now obtained two magnificentspecimens more than seven feet long, one of which I preserved entire, while I kept thetrain only attached to the tail of two or three others. When this bird is seen feeding onthe ground, it appears wonderful how it can rise into the air with such a long andcumbersome train of feathers. It does so however with great ease, by running quicklyfor a short distance, and then rising obliquely; and will fly over trees of a considerableheight. I also obtained here a specimen of the rare green jungle-fowl (Gallus furcatus),whose back and neck are beautifully scaled with bronzy feathers, and whose smooth-edged oval comb is of a violet purple colour, changing to green at the base. It is alsoremarkable in possessing a single large wattle beneath its throat, brightly coloured inthree patches of red, yellow, and blue. The common jungle-cock (Gallus bankiva) wasalso obtained here. It is almost exactly like a common game-cock, but the voice is

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different, being much shorter and more abrupt; hence its native name is Bekeko. Sixdifferent kinds of woodpeckers and four kingfishers were found here, the fine hornbill,Buceros lunatus, more than four feet long, and the pretty little lorikeet, Loriculuspusillus, scarcely more than as many inches. One morning, as I was preparing and arranging specimens, I was told there was tobe a trial; and presently four or five men came in and squatted down on a mat under theaudience-shed in the court. The chief then came in with his clerk, and sat downopposite them. Each spoke in turn, telling his own tale, and then I found that those whofirst entered were the prisoner, accuser, policemen, and witness, and that the prisonerwas indicated solely by having a loose piece of cord twilled around his wrists, but nottied. It was a case of robbery, and after the evidence was given, and a few questionshad been asked by the chief, the accused said a few words, and then sentence waspronounced, which was a fine. The parties then got up and walked away together,seeming quite friendly; and throughout there was nothing in the manner of any onepresent indicating passion or ill-feeling--a very good illustration of the Malayan type ofcharacter. In a month's collecting at Wonosaleni and Djapannan I accumulated ninety-eightspecies of birds, but a most miserable lot of insects. I then determined to leave EastJava and try the more moist and luxuriant districts at the western extremity of theisland. I returned to Sourabaya by water, in a roomy boat which brought myself,servants, and baggage at one-fifth the expense it had cost me to come to Modjo-kerto.The river has been rendered navigable by being carefully banked up, but with the usualeffect of rendering the adjacent country liable occasionally to severe floods. Animmense traffic passes down this river; and at a lock we passed through, a mile ofladen boats were waiting two or three deep, which pass through in their turn six at atime.

A few days afterwards Iwent by steamer to Batavia,where I stayed about a week atthe chief hotel, while I madearrangements for a trip into theinterior. The business part ofthe city is near the harbour, butthe hotels and all theresidences of the officials andEuropean merchants are in asuburb two miles off, laid outin wide streets and squares soas to cover a great extent ofground. This is veryinconvenient for visitors, asthe only public conveyancesare handsome two-horsecarriages, whose lowest chargeis five guilders (8s. 4d.) forhalf a day, so that an hour'sbusiness in the morning and avisit in the evening costs 16s.8d. a day for carriage hirealone. Batavia agrees very wellwith Mr. Money's graphicaccount of it, except that his"clear canals" were all muddy,

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PORTRAIT OF JAVANESE CHIEFand his "smooth gravel drives"up to the houses were one andall formed of coarse pebbles,

very painful to walk upon, and hardly explained by the fact that in Batavia everybodydrives, as it can hardly be supposed that people never walk in their gardens. The Hôteldes Indes was very comfortable, each visitor having a sitting-room and bedroomopening on a verandah, where he can take his morning coffee and afternoon tea. In thecentre of the quadrangle is a building containing a number of marble baths alwaysready for use; and there is an excellent table d'hôte breakfast at ten, and dinner at six,for all which there is a moderate charge per day. I went by coach to Buitenzorg, forty miles inland and about a thousand feet abovethe sea, celebrated for its delicious climate and its Botanical Gardens. With the latter Iwas somewhat disappointed. The walks were all of loose pebbles, making anylengthened wanderings about them very tiring and painful under a tropical sun. Thegardens are no doubt wonderfully rich in tropical and especially in Malayan plants, butthere is a great absence of skillful laying-out; there are not enough men to keep theplace thoroughly in order, and the plants themselves are seldom to be compared forluxuriance and beauty to the same species grown in our hothouses. This can easily beexplained. The plants can rarely be placed in natural or very favourable conditions. Theclimate is either too hot or too cool, too moist or too dry, for a large proportion ofthem, and they seldom get the exact quantity of shade or the right quality of soil to suitthem. In our stoves these varied conditions can be supplied to each individual plant farbetter than in a large garden, where the fact that the plants are most of them growing inor near their native country is supposed to preclude, the necessity of giving them muchindividual attention. Still, however, there is much to admire here. There are avenues ofstately palms, and clumps of bamboos of perhaps fifty different kinds; and an endlessvariety of tropical shrubs and trees with strange and beautiful foliage. As a changefrom the excessive heat of Batavia, Buitenzorg is a delightful abode. It is just elevatedenough to have deliciously cool evenings and nights, but not so much as to require anychange of clothing; and to a person long resident in the hotter climate of the plains, theair is always fresh and pleasant, and admits of walking at almost any hour of the day.The vicinity is most picturesque and luxuriant, and the great volcano of Gunung Salak,with its truncated and jagged summit, forms a characteristic background to many of thelandscapes. A great mud eruption took place in 1699, since which date the mountainhas been entirely inactive. On leaving Buitenzorg, I had coolies to carry my baggage and a horse for myself,both to be changed every six or seven miles. The road rose gradually, and after the firststage the hills closed in a little on each side, forming a broad valley; and thetemperature was so cool and agreeable, and the country so interesting, that I preferredwalking. Native villages imbedded in fruit trees, and pretty villas inhabited by plantersor retired Dutch officials, gave this district a very pleasing and civilized aspect; butwhat most attracted my attention was the system of terrace-cultivation, which is hereuniversally adopted, and which is, I should think, hardly equalled in the world. Theslopes of the main valley, and of its branches, were everywhere cut in terraces up to aconsiderable height, and when they wound round the recesses of the hills produced allthe effect of magnificent amphitheatres. Hundreds of square miles of country are thusterraced, and convey a striking idea of the industry of the people and the antiquity oftheir civilization. These terraces are extended year by year as the population increases,by the inhabitants of each village working in concert under the direction of their chiefs;and it is perhaps by this system of village culture alone, that such extensive terracingand irrigation has been rendered possible. It was probably introduced by the Brahminsfrom India, since in those Malay countries where there is no trace of a previousoccupation by a civilized people, the terrace system is unknown. I first saw this modeof cultivation in Bali and Lombock, and, as I shall have to describe it in some detail

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there (see Chapter X.), I need say no more about it in this place, except that, owing tothe finer outlines and greater luxuriance of the country in West Java, it produces therethe most striking and picturesque effect. The lower slopes of the mountains in Javapossess such a delightful climate and luxuriant soil; living is so cheap and life andproperty are so secure, that a considerable number of Europeans who have beenengaged in Government service, settle permanently in the country instead of returningto Europe. They are scattered everywhere throughout the more accessible parts of theisland, and tend greatly to the gradual improvement of the native population, and to thecontinued peace and prosperity of the whole country. Twenty miles beyond Buitenzorg the post road passes over the MegamendongMountain, at an elevation of about 4,500 feet. The country is finely mountainous, andthere is much virgin forest still left upon the hills, together with some of the oldestcoffee-plantations in Java, where the plants have attained almost the dimensions offorest trees. About 500 feet below the summit level of the pass there is a road-keeper'shut, half of which I hired for a fortnight, as the country looked promising for makingcollections. I almost immediately found that the productions of West Java wereremarkably different from those of the eastern part of the island; and that all the moreremarkable and characteristic Javanese birds and insects were to be found here. On thevery first day, my hunters obtained for me the elegant yellow and green trogon(Harpactes Reinwardti), the gorgeous little minivet flycatcher (Pericrocotus miniatus),which looks like a flame of fire as it flutters among the bushes, and the rare andcurious black and crimson oriole (Analcipus sanguinolentus), all of these species whichare found only in Java, and even seem to be confined to its western portion. In a week I obtained no less than twenty-four species of birds, which I had notfound in the east of the island, and in a fortnight this number increased to forty species,almost all of which are peculiar to the Javanese fauna. Large and handsome butterflieswere also tolerably abundant. In dark ravines, and occasionally on the roadside, Icaptured the superb Papilio arjuna, whose wings seem powdered with grains of goldengreen, condensed into bands and moon-shaped spots; while the elegantly- formedPapilio coon was sometimes to be found fluttering slowly along the shady pathways(see figure at page 201). One day a boy brought me a butterfly between his fingers,perfectly unhurt. He had caught it as it was sitting with wings erect, sucking up theliquid from a muddy spot by the roadside. Many of the finest tropical butterflies havethis habit, and they are generally so intent upon their meal that they can be easily bereached and captured. It proved to be the rare and curious Charaxes kadenii,remarkable for having on each hind wing two curved tails like a pair of callipers. It wasthe only specimen I ever saw, and is still the only representative of its kind in Englishcollections.

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CALLIPER BUTTERFLY

In the east of Java I had suffered from the intense heat and drought of the dryseason, which had been very inimical to insect life. Here I had got into the otherextreme of damp, wet, and cloudy weather, which was equally unfavourable. Duringthe month which I spent in the interior of West Java, I never had a really hot fine, daythroughout. It rained almost every afternoon, or dense mists came down from themountains, which equally stopped collecting, and rendered it most difficult to dry myspecimens, so that I really had no chance of getting a fair sample of Javaneseentomology. By far the most interesting incident in my visit to Java was a trip to the summit ofthe Pangerango and Gedeh mountains; the former an extinct volcanic cone about10,000 feet high, the latter an active crater on a lower portion of the same mountainrange. Tchipanas, about four miles over the Megamendong Pass, is at the foot of themountain. A small country house for the Governor-General and a branch of the BotanicGardens are situated here, the keeper of which accommodated me with a bed for anight. There are many beautiful trees and shrubs planted here, and large quantities ofEuropean vegetables are grown for the Governor- General's table. By the side of a littletorrent that bordered the garden, quantities of orchids were cultivated, attached to thetrunks of trees, or suspended from the branches, forming an interesting open air orchid-house. As I intended to stay two or three nights on the mountain, I engaged two cooliesto carry my baggage, and with my two hunters we started early the next morning. The first mile was over open country, which brought us to the forest that covers thewhole mountain from a height of about 5,000 feet. The next mile or two was a tolerablysteep ascent through a grand virgin forest, the trees being of great size, and theundergrowth consisting of fine herbaceous plants, tree-ferns, and shrubby vegetation. Iwas struck by the immense number of ferns that grew by the side of the road. Theirvariety seemed endless, and I was continually stopping to admire some new andinteresting forms. I could now well understand what I had been told by the gardener,that 300 species had been found on this one mountain. A little before noon we reached

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the small plateau of Tjiburong, at the foot of the steeper part of the mountain, wherethere is a plank-house for the accommodation of travellers. Close by is a picturesquewaterfall and a curious cavern, which I had not time to explore. Continuing our ascentthe road became narrow, rugged and steep, winding zigzag up the cone, which iscovered with irregular masses of rock, and overgrown with a dense luxuriant but lesslofty vegetation. We passed a torrent of water which is not much lower than the boilingpoint, and has a most singular appearance as it foams over its rugged bed, sending upclouds of steam, and often concealed by the overhanging herbage of ferns andlycopodia, which here thrive with more luxuriance than elsewhere. At about 7,500 feet we came to another hut of open bamboos, at a place calledKandang Badak, or "Rhinoceros-field," which we were going to make our temporaryabode. Here was a small clearing, with abundance of tree-ferns and some youngplantations of Cinchona. As there was now a thick mist and drizzling rain, I did notattempt to go on to the summit that evening, but made two visits to it during my stay, aswell as one to the active crater of Gedeh. This is a vast semicircular chasm, bounded byblack perpendicular walls of rock, and surrounded by miles of rugged scoria-coveredslopes. The crater itself is not very deep. It exhibits patches of sulphur and variously-coloured volcanic products, and emits from several vents continual streams of smokeand vapour. The extinct cone of Pangerango was to me more interesting. The summit isan irregular undulating plain with a low bordering ridge, and one deep lateral chasm.Unfortunately, there was perpetual mist and rain either above or below us all the time Iwas on the mountain; so that I never once saw the plain below, or had a glimpse of themagnificent view which in fine weather is to be obtained from its summit.Notwithstanding this drawback I enjoyed the excursion exceedingly, for it was the firsttime I had been high enough on a mountain near the Equator to watch the change froma tropical to a temperate flora. I will now briefly sketch these changes as I observedthem in Java.

On ascending the mountain, wefirst meet with temperate forms ofherbaceous plants, so low as 3,000feet, where strawberries and violetsbegin to grow, but the former aretasteless, and the latter have verysmall and pale flowers. Weedycomposites also begin to give aEuropean aspect to the waysideherbage. It is between 2,000 and 5,000feet that the forests and ravines exhibitthe utmost development of tropicalluxuriance and beauty. The abundanceof noble Tree-ferns, sometimes fiftyfeet high, contributes greatly to thegeneral effect, since of all the forms oftropical vegetation they are certainlythe most striking and beautiful. Someof the deep ravines which have beencleared of large timber are full of themfrom top to bottom; and where theroad crosses one of these valleys, theview of their feathery crowns, invaried positions above and below theeye, offers a spectacle of picturesquebeauty never to be forgotten. Thesplendid foliage of the broad-leaved

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PRIMULA IMPERIALIS

Musceae and Zingiberaceae, with theircurious and brilliant flowers; and theelegant and varied forms of plantsallied to Begonia and Melastoma,

continually attract the attention in this region. Filling in the spaces between the treesand larger plants, on every trunk and stump and branch, are hosts of Orchids, Ferns andLycopods, which wave and hang and intertwine in ever-varying complexity. At about5,000 feet I first saw horsetails (Equisetum), very like our own species. At 6,000 feet,raspberries abound, and thence to the summit of the mountain there are three species ofeatable Rubus. At 7,000 feet Cypresses appear, and the forest trees become reduced insize, and more covered with mosses and lichens. From this point upward these rapidlyincrease, so that the blocks of rock and scoria that form the mountain slope arecompletely hidden in a mossy vegetation. At about 5,000 feet European forms of plantsbecome abundant. Several species of Honeysuckle, St. John's-wort, and Guelder-roseabound, and at about 9,000 feet we first meet with the rare and beautiful Royal Cowslip(Primula imperialis), which is said to be found nowhere else in the world but on thissolitary mountain summit. It has a tall, stout stem, sometimes more than three feet high,the root leaves are eighteen inches long, and it bears several whorls of cowslip-likeflowers, instead of a terminal cluster only. The forest trees, gnarled and dwarfed to thedimensions of bushes, reach up to the very rim of the old crater, but do not extend overthe hollow on its summit. Here we find a good deal of open ground, with thickets ofshrubby Artemisias and Gnaphaliums, like our southernwood and cudweed, but six oreight feet high; while Buttercups, Violets, Whortleberries, Sow-thistles, Chickweed,white and yellow Cruciferae Plantain, and annual grasses everywhere abound. Wherethere are bushes and shrubs, the St. John's-wort and Honeysuckle grow abundantly,while the Imperial Cowslip only exhibits its elegant blossoms under the damp shade ofthe thickets. Mr. Motley, who visited the mountain in the dry season, and paid much attention tobotany, gives the following list of genera of European plants found on or near thesummit: Two species of Violet, three of Ranunculus, three of Impatiens, eight or ten ofRubus, and species of Primula, Hypericum, Swertia, Convallaria (Lily of the Valley),Vaccinium (Cranberry), Rhododendron, Gnaphalium, Polygonum, Digitalis (Foxglove),Lonicera (Honey- suckle), Plantago (Rib-grass), Artemisia (Wormwood), Lobelia,Oxalis (Wood-sorrel), Quercus (Oak), and Taxus (Yew). A few of the smaller plants(Plantago major and lanceolata, Sonchus oleraceus, and Artemisia vulgaris) areidentical with European species. The fact of a vegetation so closely allied to that of Europe occurring on isolatedmountain peaks, in an island south of the Equator, while all the lowlands for thousandsof miles around are occupied by a flora of a totally different character, is veryextraordinary; and has only recently received an intelligible explanation. The Peak ofTeneriffe, which rises to a greater height and is much nearer to Europe, contains nosuch Alpine flora; neither do the mountains of Bourbon and Mauritius. The case of thevolcanic peaks of Java is therefore somewhat exceptional, but there are severalanalogous, if not exactly parallel cases, that will enable us better to understand in whatway the phenomena may possibly have been brought about. The higher peaks of the Alps, and even of the Pyrenees, contain a number of plantsabsolutely identical with those of Lapland, but nowhere found in the intervening plains.On the summit of the White Mountains, in the United States, every plant is identicalwith species growing in Labrador. In these cases all ordinary means of transport fail.Most of the plants have heavy seeds, which could not possibly be carried suchimmense distances by the wind; and the agency of birds in so effectually stocking theseAlpine heights is equally out of the question. The difficulty was so great, that somenaturalists were driven to believe that these species were all separately created twiceover on these distant peaks. The determination of a recent glacial epoch, however, soon

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offered a much more satisfactory solution, and one that is now universally accepted bymen of science. At this period, when the mountains of Wales were full of glaciers, andthe mountainous parts of Central Europe, and much of America north of the greatlakes, were covered with snow and ice, and had a climate resembling that of Labradorand Greenland at the present day, an Arctic flora covered all these regions. As thisepoch of cold passed away, and the snowy mantle of the country, with the glaciers thatdescended from every mountain summit, receded up their slopes and towards the northpole, the plants receded also, always clinging as now to the margins of the perpetualsnow line. Thus it is that the same species are now found on the summits of themountains of temperate Europe and America, and in the barren north-polar regions. But there is another set of facts, which help us on another step towards the case ofthe Javanese mountain flora. On the higher slopes of the Himalayas, on the tops of themountains of Central India and of Abyssinia, a number of plants occur which, thoughnot identical with those of European mountains, belong to the same genera, and are saidby botanists to represent them; and most of these could not exist in the warmintervening plains. Mr. Darwin believes that this class of facts can be explained in thesame way; for, during the greatest severity of the glacial epoch, temperate forms ofplants will have extended to the confines of the tropics, and on its departure, will haveretreated up these southern mountains, as well as northward to the plains and hills ofEurope. But in this case, the time elapsed, and the great change of conditions, haveallowed many of these plants to become so modified that we now consider them to bedistinct species. A variety of other facts of a similar nature have led him to believe thatthe depression of temperature was at one time sufficient to allow a few north-temperateplants to cross the Equator (by the most elevated routes) and to reach the Antarcticregions, where they are now found. The evidence on which this belief rests will befound in the latter part of Chapter II. of the "Origin of Species"; and, accepting it forthe present as an hypothesis, it enables us to account for the presence of a flora ofEuropean type on the volcanoes of Java. It will, however, naturally be objected that there is a wide expanse of sea betweenJava and the continent, which would have effectually prevented the immigration oftemperate fortes of plants during the glacial epoch. This would undoubtedly be a fatalobjection, were there not abundant evidence to show that Java has been formerlyconnected with Asia, and that the union must have occurred at about the epochrequired. The most striking proof of such a junction is, that the great Mammalia ofJava, the rhinoceros, the tiger, and the Banteng or wild ox, occur also in Siam andBurmah, and these would certainly not have been introduced by man. The Javanesepeacock and several other birds are also common to these two countries; but, in themajority of cases, the species are distinct, though closely allied, indicating that aconsiderable time (required for such modification) has elapsed since the separation,while it has not been so long as to cause an entire change. Now this exactlycorresponds with the time we should require since the temperate forms of plantsentered Java. These are now almost distinct species, but the changed conditions underwhich they are now forced to exist, and the probability of some of them having sincedied out on the continent of India, sufficiently accounts for the Javanese species beingdifferent. [footnote: I have now arrived at another explanation of these and analogousfacts, and one which seems to me more complete and less improbable. (See my IslandLife, chapter xxiii, and Darwinism, pp.362-373.)] In my more special pursuits, I had very little success upon the mountain--owing,perhaps, to the excessively unpropitious weather and the shortness of my stay. At from7,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, I obtained one of almost lovely of the small Fruit pigeons(Ptilonopus roseicollis), whose entire head and neck are of an exquisite rosy pinkcolour, contrasting finely with its otherwise blue plumage; and on the very summit,feeding on the ground among the strawberries that have been planted there, I obtained adull-coloured thrush, with the form and habits of a starling (Turdus fumidus). Insects

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were almost entirely absent, owing no doubt to the extreme dampness, and I did not geta single butterfly the whole trip; yet I feel sure that, during the dry season, a week'sresidence on this mountain would well repay the collector in every department ofnatural history. After my return to Toego, I endeavoured to find another locality to collect in, andremoved to a coffee-plantation some miles to the north, and tried in succession higherand lower stations on the mountain; but, I never succeeded in obtaining insects in anyabundance and birds were far less plentiful than on the Megamendong Mountan. Theweather now became more rainy than ever, and as the wet season seemed to have set inin earnest, I returned to Batavia, packed up and sent off my collections, and left bysteamer on November 1st for Banca and Sumatra.

CHAPTER VIII

SUMATRA

(NOVEMBER 1861 to JANUARY 1862)

The mail steamer from Batavia to Singapore took me to Muntok (or as on Englishmaps, "Minto"), the chief town and port of Banca. Here I stayed a day or two, until Icould obtain a boat to take me across the straits, and all the river to Palembang. A fewwalks into the country showed me that it was very hilly, and full of granitic and lateriterocks, with a dry and stunted forest vegetation; and I could find very few insects. Agood-sized open sailing-boat took me across to the mouth of the Palembang riverwhere, at a fishing village, a rowing-boat was hired to take me up to Palembang--adistance of nearly a hundred miles by water. Except when the wind was strong andfavourable we could only proceed with the tide, and the banks of the river weregenerally flooded Nipa-swamps, so that the hours we were obliged to lay at anchorpassed very heavily. Reaching Palembang on the 8th of November, I was lodged by theDoctor, to whom I had brought a letter of introduction, and endeavoured to ascertainwhere I could find a good locality for collecting. Everyone assured me that I shouldhave to go a very long way further to find any dry forest, for at this season the wholecountry for many miles inland was flooded. I therefore had to stay a week at Palembangbefore I could determine my future movements. The city is a large one, extending for three or four miles along a fine curve of theriver, which is as wide as the Thames at Greenwich. The stream is, however, muchnarrowed by the houses which project into it upon piles, and within these, again, thereis a row of houses built upon great bamboo rafts, which are moored by rattan cables tothe shore or to piles, and rise and fall with the tide. The whole riverfront on both sides is chiefly formed of such houses, and they aremostly shops open to the water, and only raised a foot above it, so that by taking asmall boat it is easy to go to market and purchase anything that is to be had inPalembang. The natives are true Malays, never building a house on dry land if they canfind water to set it in, and never going anywhere on foot if they can reach the place in aheat. A considerable portion of the population are Chinese and Arabs, who carry on allthe trade; while the only Europeans are the civil and military officials of the DutchGovernment. The town is situated at the head of the delta of the river, and between itand the sea there is very little ground elevated above highwater mark; while for manymiles further inland, the banks of the main stream and its numerous tributaries areswampy, and in the wet season hooded for a considerable distance. Palembang is builton a patch of elevated ground, a few miles in extent, on the north bank of the river. At

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a spot about three miles from the town this turns into a little hill, the top of which isheld sacred by the natives, shaded by some fine trees,and inhabited by a colony ofsquirrels which have become half-tame. On holding out a few crumbs of bread or anyfruit, they come running down the trunk, take the morsel out of your fingers, and dartaway instantly. Their tails are carried erect, and the hair, which is ringed with grey,yellow, and brown, radiates uniformly around them, and looks exceedingly pretty. Theyhave somewhat of the motions of mice, coming on with little starts, and gazing intentlywith their large black eyes before venturing to advance further. The manner in whichMalays often obtain the confidence of wild animals is a very pleasing trait in theircharacter, and is due in some degree to the quiet deliberation of their manners, andtheir love of repose rather than of action. The young are obedient to the wishes of theirelders, and seem to feel none of that propensity to mischief which European boysexhibit. How long would tame squirrels continue to inhabit trees in the vicinity of anEnglish village, even if close to the church? They would soon be pelted and drivenaway, or snared and confined in a whirling cage. I have never heard of these prettyanimals being tamed in this way in England, but I should think it might be easily donein any gentleman's park, and they would certainly be as pleasing and attractive as theywould be uncommon. After many inquiries, I found that a day's journey by water above Palembang therecommenced a military road which extended up to the mountains and even across toBencoolen, and I determined to take this route and travel on until I found sometolerable collecting ground. By this means I should secure dry land and a good road,and avoid the rivers, which at this season are very tedious to ascend owing to thepowerful currents, and very unproductive to the collector owing to most of the lands intheir vicinity being underwater. Leaving early in the morning we did not reach Lorok,the village where the road begins, until late at night. I stayed there a few days, butfound that most all the ground in the vicinity not underwater was cultivated, and thatthe only forest was in swamps which were now inaccessible. The only bird new to mewhich I obtained at Lorok was the fine long- tailed parroquet (Palaeornis longicauda).The people here assured me that the country was just the same as this for a very longway--more than a week's journey, and they seemed hardly to have any conception of anelevated forest-clad country, so that I began to think it would be useless going on, asthe time at my disposal was too short to make it worth my while to spend much moreof it in moving about. At length, however, I found a man who knew the country, andwas more intelligent; and he at once told me that if I wanted forest I must go to thedistrict of Rembang, which I found on inquiry was about twenty-five or thirty milesoff.

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CHIEF'S HOUSE AND RICE SHED IN A SUMATRAN VILLAGE

The road is divided into regular stages of ten or twelve miles each, and, withoutsending on in advance to have coolies ready, only this distance can be travelled in aday. At each station there are houses for the accommodation of passengers, withcooking-house and stables, and six or eight men always on guard. There is anestablished system for coolies at fixed rates, the inhabitants of the surrounding villagesall taking their turn to be subject to coolie service, as well as that of guards at thestation for five days at a time. This arrangement makes travelling very easy, and was agreat convenience for me. I had a pleasant walk of ten or twelve miles in the morning,and the rest of the day could stroll about and explore the village and neighbourhood,having a house ready to occupy without any formalities whatever. In three days Ireached Moera-dua, the first village in Rembang, and finding the country dry andundulating, with a good sprinkling of forest, I determined to remain a short time and trythe neighbourhood. Just opposite the station was a small but deep river, and a goodbathing-place; and beyond the village was a fine patch of forest, through which theroad passed, overshadowed by magnificent trees, which partly tempted me to stay; butafter a fortnight I could find no good place for insects, and very few birds differentfrom the common species of Malacca. I therefore moved on another stage to LoboRaman, where the guard-house is situated quite by itself in the forest, nearly a milefrom each of three villages. This was very agreeable to me, as I could move aboutwithout having every motion watched by crowds of men, women and children, and Ihad also a much greater variety of walks to each of the villages and the plantationsaround them. The villages of the Sumatran Malays are somewhat peculiar and very picturesque.A space of some acres is surrounded with a high fence, and over this area the housesare thickly strewn without the least attempt at regularity. Tall cocoa-nut trees growabundantly between them, and the ground is bare and smooth with the trampling ofmany feet. The houses are raised about six feet on posts, the best being entirely built ofplanks, others of bamboo. The former are always more or less ornamented with carvingand have high-pitched roofs and overhanging eaves. The gable ends and all the chiefposts and beams are sometimes covered with exceedingly tasteful carved work, and thisis still more the case in the district of Menangkabo, further west. The floor is made ofsplit bamboo, and is rather shaky, and there is no sign of anything we should callfurniture. There are no benches or chairs or stools, but merely the level floor covered

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with mats, on which the inmates sit or lie. The aspect of the village itself is very neat,the ground being often swept before the chief houses; but very bad odours abound,owing to there being under every house a stinking mud-hole, formed by all wasteliquids and refuse matter, poured down through the floor above. In most other thingsMalays are tolerably clean--in some scrupulously so; and this peculiar and nastycustom, which is almost universal, arises, I have little doubt, from their having beenoriginally a maritime and water-loving people, who built their houses on posts in thewater, and only migrated gradually inland, first up the rivers and streams, and then intothe dry interior. Habits which were at once so convenient and so cleanly, and whichhad been so long practised as to become a portion of the domestic life of the nation,were of course continued when the first settlers built their houses inland; and without aregular system of drainage, the arrangement of the villages is such that any othersystem would be very inconvenient. In all these Sumatran villages I found considerable difficulty in getting anything toeat. It was not the season for vegetables, and when, after much trouble, I managed toprocure some yams of a curious variety, I found them hard and scarcely eatable. Fowlswere very scarce; and fruit was reduced to one of the poorest kinds of banana. Thenatives (during the wet season at least) live exclusively on rice, as the poorer Irish doon potatoes. A pot of rice cooked very dry and eaten with salt and red peppers, twice aday, forms their entire food during a large part of the year. This is no sign of poverty,but is simply custom; for their wives and children are loaded with silver armlets fromwrist to elbow, and carry dozens of silver coins strung round their necks or suspendedfrom their ears. As I had moved away from Palembang, I had found the Malay spoken by thecommon people less and less pure, until at length it became quite unintelligible,although the continual recurrence of many well-known words assured me it was a formof Malay, and enabled me to guess at the main subject of conversation. This district hada very bad reputation a few years ago, and travellers were frequently robbed andmurdered. Fights between village and village were also of frequent occurrence, andmany lives were lost, owing to disputes about boundaries or intrigues with women.Now, however, since the country has been divided into districts under "Controlleurs,"who visit every village in turn to hear complaints and settle disputes, such things areheard of no more. This is one of the numerous examples I have met with of the goodeffects of the Dutch Government. It exercises a strict surveillance over its most distantpossessions, establishes a form of government well adapted to the character of thepeople, reforms abuses, punishes crimes, and makes itself everywhere respected by thenative population. Lobo Raman is a central point of the east end of Sumatra, being about a hundredand twenty miles from the sea to the east, north, and west. The surface is undulating,with no mountains or even hills, and there is no rock, the soil being generally a redpliable clay. Numbers of small streams and rivers intersect the country, and it is prettyequally divided between open clearings and patches of forest, both virgin and secondgrowth, with abundance of fruit trees; and there is no lack of paths to get about in anydirection. Altogether it is the very country that would promise most for a naturalist, andI feel sure that at a more favourable time of year it would prove exceedingly rich; but itwas now the rainy season, when, in the very best of localities, insects are always scarce,and there being no fruit on the trees, there was also a scarcity of birds. During a month'scollecting, I added only three or four new species to my list of birds, although Iobtained very fine specimens of many which were rare and interesting. In butterflies Iwas rather more successful, obtaining several fine species quite new to me, and aconsiderable number of very rare and beautiful insects. I will give here some account oftwo species of butterflies, which, though very common in collections, present us withpeculiarities of the highest interest.

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DIFFERENT FEMALES OF PAPILIO MEMNON

The first is the handsome Papilio memnon, a splendid butterfly of a deep blackcolour, dotted over with lines and groups of scales of a clear ashy blue. Its wings arefive inches in expanse, and the hind wings are rounded, with scalloped edges. Thisapplies to the males; but the females are very different, and vary so much that theywere once supposed to form several distinct species. They may be divided into twogroups--those which resemble the male in shape, and, those which differ entirely fromhim in the outline of the wings. The first vary much in colour, being often nearly whitewith dusky yellow and red markings, but such differences often occur in butterflies.The second group are much more extraordinary, and would never be supposed to be thesame insect, since the hind wings are lengthened out into large spoon- shaped tails, norudiment of which is ever to be perceived in the males or in the ordinary form offemales. These tailed females are never of the dark and blue-glossed tints which prevailin the male and often occur in the females of the same form, but are invariablyornamented with stripes and patches of white or buff, occupying the larger part of thesurface of the hind wings. This peculiarity of colouring led me to discover that thisextraordinary female closely resembles (when flying) another butterfly of the samegenus but of a different group (Papilio coön), and that we have here a case of mimicrysimilar to those so well illustrated and explained by Mr. Bates.[footnote: Trans. Linn.Soc. vol. xviii. p. 495; Naturalist on the Amazons, vol. i. p. 290.] That the resemblanceis not accidental is sufficiently proved by the fact, that in the North of India, wherePapilio coön is replaced by all allied forms, (Papilio Doubledayi) having red spots inplace of yellow, a closely-allied species or variety of Papilio memnon (P. androgens)has the tailed female also red spotted. The use and reason of this resemblance appears

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to be that the butterflies imitated belong to a section of the genus Papilio which fromsome cause or other are not attacked by birds, and by so closely resembling these inform and colour the female of Memnon and its ally, also escape persecution. Two otherspecies of this same section (Papilio antiphus and Papilio polyphontes) are so closelyimitated by two female forms of Papilio tbeseus (which comes in the same section withMemnon), that they completely deceived the Dutch entomologist De Haan, and heaccordingly classed them as the same species!

PAPILIO COON

But the most curious fact connected with these distinct forms is that they are boththe offspring of either form. A single brood of larva were bred in Java by a Dutchentomologist, and produced males as well as tailed and tailless females, and there isevery reason to believe that this is always the case, and that forms intermediate incharacter never occur. To illustrate these phenomena, let us suppose a roamingEnglishman in some remote island to have two wives--one a black-haired/ red-skinnedIndian, the other a woolly-headed/ sooty-skinned negress; and that instead of thechildren being mulattoes of brown or dusky tints, mingling the characteristics of eachparent in varying degrees, all the boys should be as fair-skinned and blue-eyed as theirfather, while the girls should altogether resemble their mothers. This would be thoughtstrange enough, but the case of these butterflies is yet more extraordinary, for eachmother is capable not only of producing male offspring like the father, and female likeherself, but also other females like her fellow wife, and altogether differing fromherself! The other species to which I have to direct attention is the Kallima paralekta, abutterfly of the same family group as our Purple Emperor, and of about the same sizeor larger. Its upper surface is of a rich purple, variously tinged with ash colour, andacross the forewings there is a broad bar of deep orange, so that when on the wing it isvery conspicuous. This species was not uncommon in dry woods and thickets, and Ioften endeavoured to capture it without success, for after flying a short distance itwould enter a bush among dry or dead leaves, and however carefully I crept up to thespot I could never discover it until it would suddenly start out again and then disappearin a similar place. If at length I was fortunate enough to see the exact spot where thebutterfly settled, and though I lost sight of it for some time, I would discover that it wasclose before my eyes, but that in its position of repose it so closely resembled a dead

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leaf attached to a twig as almost certainly to deceive the eye even when gazing fullupon it. I captured several specimens on the wing, and was able fully to understand theway in which this wonderful resemblance is produced. The end of the upper wings terminates in a fine point, just as the leaves of manytropical shrubs and trees are pointed, while the lower wings are somewhat more obtuse,and are lengthened out into a short thick tail. Between these two points there runs adark curved line exactly representing the midrib of a leaf, and from this radiate on eachside a few oblique marks which well imitate the lateral veins. These marks are moreclearly seen on the outer portion of the base of the wings, and on the innerside towardsthe middle and apex, and they are produced by striae and markings which are verycommon in allied species, but which are here modified and strengthened so as toimitate more exactly the venation of a leaf. The tint of the undersurface varies much,but it is always some ashy brown or reddish colour, which matches with those of deadleaves. The habit of the species is always to rest on a twig and among dead or dryleaves, and in this position with the wings closely pressed together, their outline isexactly that of a moderately-sized leaf, slightly curved or shrivelled. The tail of thehind wings forms a perfect stalk, and touches the stick while the insect is supported bythe middle pair of legs, which are not noticed among the twigs and fibres that surroundit. The head and antennae are drawn back between the wings so as to be quiteconcealed, and there is a little notch hollowed out at the very base of the wings, whichallows the head to be retracted sufficiently. All these varied details combine to producea disguise that is so complete and marvellous as to astonish everyone who observes it;and the habits of the insects are such as to utilize all these peculiarities, and renderthem available in such a manner as to remove all doubt of the purpose of this singularcase of mimicry, which is undoubtedly a protection to the insect.

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LEAF BUTTERFLY IN FLIGHT AND REPOSE

Its strong and swift flight is sufficient to save it from its enemies when on the wing,but if it were equally conspicuous when at rest it could not long escape extinction,owing to the attacks of the insectivorous birds and reptiles that abound in the tropicalforests. A very closely allied species, Kallima inachis, inhabits India, where it is verycommon, and specimens are sent in every collection from the Himalayas. Onexamining a number of these, it will be seen that no two are alike, but all the variationscorrespond to those of dead leaves. Every tint of yellow, ash, brown, and red is foundhere, and in many specimens there occur patches and spots formed of small black dots,so closely resembling the way in which minute fungi grow on leaves that it is almostimpossible at first not to believe that fungi have gown on the butterflies themselves! If such an extraordinary adaptation as this stood alone, it would be very difficult tooffer any explanation of it; but although it is perhaps the most perfect case of protectiveimitation known, there are hundreds of similar resemblances in nature, and from these itis possible to deduce a general theory of the manner in which they have been slowlybrought about. The principle of variation and that of "natural selection," or survival ofthe fittest, as elaborated by Mr. Darwin in his celebrated "Origin of Species," offers thefoundation for such a theory; and I have myself endeavoured to apply it to all the chiefcases of imitation in an article published in the "Westminster Review" for 1867,entitled, "Mimicry, and other Protective Resemblances Among Animals," to which anyreader is referred who wishes to know more about this subject. [footnote: This articleforms the third chapter of my Natural Selection and Tropical Nature.] In Sumatra, monkeys are very abundant, and at Lobo Kaman they used to frequentthe trees which overhang the guard-house, and give me a fine opportunity of observing

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their gambols. Two species of Semnopithecus were most plentiful--monkeys of aslender form, with very long tails. Not being much shot at they are rather bold, andremain quite unconcerned when natives alone are present; but when I came out to lookat them, they would stare for a minute or two and then make off. They take tremendousleaps from the branches of one tree to those at another a little lower, and it is veryamusing when a one strong leader takes a bold jump, to see the others following withmore or less trepidation; and it often happens that one or two of the last seem quiteunable to make up their minds to leap until the rest are disappearing, when, as if indesperation at being left alone, they throw themselves frantically into the air, and oftengo crashing through the slender branches and fall to the ground. A very curious ape, the Siamang, was also rather abundant, but it is much less boldthan the monkeys, keeping to the virgin forests and avoiding villages. This species isallied to the little long- armed apes of the genus Hylobates, but is considerably larger,and differs from them by having the two first fingers of the feet united together, nearlyto the endm as does its Latin native, Siamanga syndactyla. It moves much more slowlythan the active Hylobates, keeping lower down in trees, and not indulging in suchtremendous leaps; but it is still very active, and by means of its immense long arms,five feet six inches across in an adult about three feet high, can swing itself alongamong the trees at a great rate. I purchased a small one, which had been caught by thenatives and tied up so tightly as to hurt it. It was rather savage at first, and tried to bite;but when we had released it and given it two poles under the verandah to hang upon,securing it by a short cord, running along the pole with a ring so that it could moveeasily, it became more contented, and would swing itself about with great rapidity. Itate almost any kind of fruit and rice, and I was in hopes to have brought it to England,but it died just before I started. It took a dislike to me at first, which I tried to get overby feeding it constantly myself. One day, however, it bit me so sharply while giving itfood, that I lost patience and gave it rather a severe beating, which I regrettedafterwards, as from that time it disliked me more than ever. It would allow my Malayboys to play with it, and for hours together would swing by its arms from pole to poleand on to the rafters of the verandah, with so much ease and rapidity, that it was aconstant source of amusement to us. When I returned to Singapore it attracted greatattention, as no one had seen a Siamang alive before, although it is not uncommon insome parts of the Malay peninsula. As the Orangutan is known to inhabit Sumatra, and was in fact first discoveredthere, I made many inquiries about it; but none of the natives had ever heard of such ananimal, nor could I find any of the Dutch officials who knew anything about it. Wemay conclude, therefore, that it does not inhabit the great forest plains in the east ofSumatra where one would naturally expect to find it, but is probably confined to alimited region in the northwest part of the island entirely in the hands of native rulers.The other great Mammalia of Sumatra, the elephant and the rhinoceros, are morewidely distributed; but the former is much more scarce than it was a few years ago, andseems to retire rapidly before the spread of cultivation. Lobo Kaman tusks and bonesare occasionally found about in the forest, but the living animal is now never seen. Therhinoceros (Rhinoceros sumatranus) still abounds, and I continually saw its tracks andits dung, and once disturbed one feeding, which went crashing away through the jungle,only permitting me a momentary glimpse of it through the dense underwood. I obtaineda tolerably perfect cranium, and a number of teeth, which were picked up by thenatives. Another curious animal, which I had met with in Singapore and in Borneo, butwhich was more abundant here, is the Galeopithecus, or flying lemur. This creature hasa broad membrane extending all aound its body to the extremities of the toes, and tothe point of the rather long tail. This enables it to pass obliquely through the air fromone tree to another. It is sluggish in its motions, at least by day, going up a tree by shortruns of a few feet, and then stopping a moment as if the action was difficult. It rests

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during the day clinging to the trunks of trees, where its olive or brown fur, mottled withirregular whitish spots and blotches, resembles closely the colour of mottled bark, andno doubt helps to protect it. Once, in a bright twilight, I saw one of these animals runup a trunk in a rather open place, and then glide obliquely through the air to anothertree, on which it alighted near its base, and immediately began to ascend. I paced thedistance from the one tree to the other, and found it to be seventy yards; and theamount of descent I estimated at not more than thirty-five or forty feet, or less than onein five. This I think proves that the animal must have some power of guiding itselfthrough the air, otherwise in so long a distance it would have little chance of alightingexactly upon the trunk. Like the Cuscus of the Moluccas, the Galeopithecus feedschiefly on leaves, and possesses a very voluminous stomach and long convolutedintestines. The brain is very small, and the animal possesses such remarkable tenacityof life, that it is exceedingly difficult to kill it by any ordinary means. The tail isprehensile; and is probably made use of as an additional support while feeding. It issaid to have only a single young one at a time, and my own observation confirms thisstatement, for I once shot a female with a very small blind and naked little creatureclinging closely to its breast, which was quite bare and much wrinkled, reminding meof the young of Marsupials, to which it seemed to form a transition. On the back, andextending over the limbs and membrane, the fur of these animals is short, butexquisitely soft, resembling in its texture that of the Chinchilla.

FEMALE HORNBILL, AND YOUNG BIRD

I returned to Palembang by water, and while staying a day at a village while a boatwas being made watertight, I had the good fortune to obtain a male, female, and young

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bird of one of the large hornbills. I had sent my hunters to shoot, and while I was atbreakfast they returned, bringing me a fine large male of the Buceros bicornis, whichone of them assured me he had shot while feeding the female, which was shut up in ahole in a tree. I had often read of this curious habit, and immediately returned to theplace, accompanied by several of the natives. After crossing a stream and a bog, wefound a large tree leaning over some water, and on its lower side, at a height of abouttwenty feet, appeared a small hole, and what looked like a quantity of mud, which Iwas assured had been used in stopping up the large hole. After a while we heard theharsh cry of a bird inside, and could see the white extremity of its beak put out. Ioffered a rupee to anyone who would go up and get the bird out, with the egg or youngone; but they all declared it was too difficult, and they were afraid to try. I thereforevery reluctantly came away. About an hour afterwards, much to my surprise, atremendous loud, hoarse screaming was heard, and the bird was brought me, togetherwith a young one which had been found in the hole. This was a most curious object, aslarge as a pigeon, but without a particle of plumage on any part of it. It wasexceedingly plump and soft, and with a semi-transparent skin, so that it looked morelike a bag of jelly, with head and feet stuck on, than like a real bird. The extraordinary habit of the male, in plastering up the female with her egg, andfeeding her during the whole time of incubation, and until the young one is fledged, iscommon to several of the large hornbills, and is one of those strange facts in naturalhistory which are "stranger than fiction."

CHAPTER IX

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS

IN the first chapter of this work I have stated generally the reasons which lead usto conclude that the large islands in the western portion of the Archipelago--Java,Sumatra, and Borneo--as well as the Malay peninsula and the Philippine islands, havebeen recently separated from the continent of Asia. I now propose to give a sketch ofthe Natural History of these, which I term the Indo-Malay islands, and to show how farit supports this view, and how much information it is able to give us of the antiquityand origin of the separate islands. The flora of the Archipelago is at present so imperfectly known, and I have myselfpaid so little attention to it, that I cannot draw from it many facts of importance. TheMalayan type of vegetation is however a very important one; and Dr. Hooker informsus, in his "Flora Indica," that it spreads over all the moister and more equable parts ofIndia, and that many plants found in Ceylon, the Himalayas, the Nilghiri, and Khasiamountains are identical with those of Java and the Malay peninsula. Among the morecharacteristic forms of this flora are the rattans-- climbing palms of the genus Calamus,and a great variety of tall, as well as stemless palms. Orchids, Aracae, Zingiberaceaeand ferns, are especially abundant, and the genus Grammatophyllum-- a giganticepiphytal orchid, whose clusters of leaves and flower-stems are ten or twelve feet long--is peculiar to it. Here, too, is the domain of the wonderful pitcher plants(Nepenthaceae), which are only represented elsewhere by solitary species in Ceylon,Madagascar, the Seychelles, Celebes, and the Moluccas. Those celebrated fruits, theMangosteen and the Durian, are natives of this region, and will hardly grow out of theArchipelago. The mountain plants of Java have already been alluded to as showing aformer connexion with the continent of Asia; and a still more extraordinary and moreancient connection with Australia has been indicated by Mr. Low's collections from thesummit of Kini-balou, the loftiest mountain in Borneo.

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GRAMMATOPHYLLUM, A GIGANTIC ORCHID

Plants have much greater facilities for passing across arms of the sea than animals.The lighter seeds are easily carried by the winds, and many of them are speciallyadapted to be so carried. Others can float a long tune unhurt in the water, and aredrifted by winds and currents to distant shores. Pigeons, and other fruit-eating birds, arealso the means of distributing plants, since the seeds readily germinate after passingthrough their bodies. It thus happens that plants which grow on shores and lowlandshave a wide distribution, and it requires an extensive knowledge of the species of eachisland to determine the relations of their floras with any approach to accuracy. Atpresent we have no such complete knowledge of the botany of the several islands of theArchipelago; and it is only by such striking phenomena as the occurrence of northernand even European genera on the summits of the Javanese mountains that we can provethe former connection of that island with the Asiatic continent. With land animals,however, the case is very different. Their means of passing a wide expanse of sea arefar more restricted. Their distribution has been more accurately studied, and we possessa much more complete knowledge of such groups as mammals and birds in most of theislands, than we do of the plants. It is these two classes which will supply us with mostof our facts as to the geographical distribution of organized beings in this region. The number of Mammalia known to inhabit the Indo-Malay region is veryconsiderable, exceeding 170 species. With the exception of the bats, none of these haveany regular means of passing arms of the sea many miles in extent, and a considerationof their distribution must therefore greatly assist us in determining whether theseislands have ever been connected with each other or with the continent since the epochof existing species. The Quadrumana or monkey tribe form one of the most characteristic features ofthis region. Twenty-four distinct species are known to inhabit it, and these aredistributed with tolerable uniformity over the islands, nine being found in Java, ten in

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the Malay peninsula, eleven in Sumatra, and thirteen in Borneo. The great man-likeOrangutans are found only in Sumatra and Borneo; the curious Siamang (next to themin size) in Sumatra and Malacca; the long-nosed monkey only in Borneo; while everyisland has representatives of the Gibbons or long-armed apes, and of monkeys. Thelemur-like animals, Nycticebus, Tarsius, and Galeopithecus, are found on all theislands. Seven species found on the Malay peninsula extend also into Sumatra, four intoBorneo, and three into Java; while two range into Siam and Burma, and one into NorthIndia. With the exception of the Orangutan, the Siamang, the Tarsius spectrum, and theGaleopithecus, all the Malayan genera of Quadrumana are represented in India byclosely allied species, although, owing to the limited range of most of these animals, sofew are absolutely identical. Of Carnivora, thirty-three species are known from the Indo-Malay region, of whichabout eight are found also in Burma and India. Among these are the tiger, leopard, atiger-cat, civet, and otter; while out of the twenty genera of Malayan Carnivora, thirteenare represented in India by more or less closely allied species. As an example, theMalayan bear is represented in North India by the Tibetan bear, both of which may beseen alive at the Zoological Society's Gardens. The hoofed animals are twenty-two in number, of which about seven extend intoBurmahand India. All the deer are of peculiar species, except two, which range fromMalacca into India. Of the cattle, one Indian species reaches Malacca, while the Bossondiacus of Java and Borneo is also found in Siam and Burma. A goat-like animal isfound in Sumatra which has its representative in India; while the two-hornedrhinoceros of Sumatra and the single-horned species of Java, long supposed to bepeculiar to these islands, are now both ascertained to exist in Burma, Pegu, andMoulmein. The elephant of Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca is now considered to beidentical with that of Ceylon and India. In all other groups of Mammalia the same general phenomena recur. A few speciesare identical with those of India. A much larger number are closely allied orrepresentative forms, while there are always a small number of peculiar genera,consisting of animals unlike those found in any other part of the world. There are aboutfifty bats, of which less than one-fourth are Indian species; thirty-four Rodents(squirrels, rats, &c.), of which six or eight only are Indian; and ten Insectivora, withone exception peculiar to the Malay region. The squirrels are very abundant andcharacteristic, only two species out of twenty-five extending into Siam and Burma. TheTupaias are curious insect-eaters, which closely resemble squirrels, and are almostconfined to the Malay islands, as,are the small feather-tailed Ptilocerus lowii of Borneo,and the curious long-snouted and naked-tailed Gymnurus rafllesii. As the Malay peninsula is a part of the continent of Asia, the question of theformer union of the islands to the mainland will be best elucidated by studying thespecies which are found in the former district, and also in some of the islands. Now, ifwe entirely leave out of consideration the bats, which have the power of flight, there arestill forty-eight species of mammals common to the Malay peninsula and the threelarge islands. Among these are seven Quadrumana (apes, monkeys, and lemurs),animals who pass their whole existence in forests, who never swim, and who would bequite unable to traverse a single mile of sea; nineteen Carnivora, some of which nodoubt might cross by swimming, but we cannot suppose so large a number to havepassed in this way across a strait which, except at one point, is from thirty to fifty mileswide; and five hoofed animals, including the Tapir, two species of rhinoceros, and anelephant. Besides these there are thirteen Rodents and four Insectivora, including ashrew-mouse and six squirrels, whose unaided passage over twenty miles of sea is evenmore inconceivable than that of the larger animals. But when we come to the cases of the same species inhabiting two of the morewidely separated islands, the difficulty is much increased. Borneo is distant nearly 150

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miles from Biliton, which is about fifty miles from Banca, and this fifteen fromSumatra, yet there are no less than thirty-six species of mammals common to Borneoand Sumatra. Java again is more than 250 miles from Borneo, yet these two islandshave twenty-two species in common, including monkeys, lemurs, wild oxen, squirrelsand shrews. These facts seem to render it absolutely certain that there has been at someformer period a connection between all these islands and the mainland, and the fact thatmost of the animals common to two or more of then, show little or no variation, but areoften absolutely identical, indicates that the separation must have been recent in ageological sense; that is, not earlier than the Newer Pliocene epoch, at which time landanimals began to assimilate closely with those now existing. Even the bats furnish an additional argument, if one were needed, to show that theislands could not have been peopled from each other and from the continent withoutsome former connection. For if such had been the mode of stocking them with animals,it is quite certain that creatures which can fly long distances would be the first to spreadfrom island to island, and thus produce an almost perfect uniformity of species over thewhole region. But no such uniformity exists, and the bats of each island are almost, ifnot quite, as distinct as the other mammals. For example, sixteen species are known inBorneo, and of these ten are found in Java and five in Sumatra, a proportion about thesame as that of the Rodents, which have no direct means of migration. We learn fromthis fact, that the seas which separate the islands from each other are wide enough toprevent the passage even of flying animals, and that we must look to the same causes ashaving led to the present distribution of both groups. The only sufficient cause we canimagine is the former connection of all the islands with the continent, and such achange is in perfect harmony with what we know of the earth's past history, and isrendered probable by the remarkable fact that a rise of only three hundred feet wouldconvert the wide seas that separate them into an immense winding valley or plain aboutthree hundred miles wide and twelve hundred long. It may, perhaps, be thought thatbirds which possess the power of flight in so pre-eminent a degree, would not belimited in their range by arms of the sea, and would thus afford few indications of theformer union or separation of the islands they inhabit. This, however, is not the case. Avery large number of birds appear to be as strictly limited by watery barriers as arequadrupeds; and as they have been so much more attentively collected, we have morecomplete materials to work upon, and are able to deduce from them still more definiteand satisfactory results. Some groups, however, such as the aquatic birds, the waders,and the birds of prey, are great wanderers; other groups are little known except toornithologists. I shall therefore refer chiefly to a few of the best known and mostremarkable families of birds as a sample of the conclusions furnished by the entireclass. The birds of the Indo-Malay region have a close resemblance to those of India; forthough a very large proportion of the species are quite distinct, there are only aboutfifteen peculiar genera, and not a single family group confined to the former district. If,however, we compare the islands with the Burmese, Siamese, and Malayan countries,we shall find still less difference, and shall be convinced that all are closely united bythe bond of a former union. In such well-known families as the woodpeckers, parrots,trogons, barbets, kingfishers, pigeons, and pheasants, we find some identical speciesspreading over all India, and as far as Java and Borneo, while a very large proportionare common to Sumatra and the Malay peninsula. The force of these facts can only be appreciated when we come to treat the islandsof the Austro-Malay region, and show how similar barriers have entirely prevented thepassage of birds from one island to another, so that out of at least three hundred andfifty land birds inhabiting Java and Borneo, not more than ten have passed eastwardinto Celebes. Yet the Straits of Macassar are not nearly so wide as the Java sea, and atleast a hundred species are common to Borneo and Java. I will now give two examples to show how a knowledge of the distribution of

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animals may reveal unsuspected facts in the past history of the earth. At the easternextremity of Sumatra, and separated from it by a strait about fifteen miles wide, is thesmall rocky island of Banca, celebrated for its tin mines. One of the Dutch residentsthere sent some collections of birds and animals to Leyden, and among them werefound several species distinct from those of the adjacent coast of Sumatra. One of thesewas a squirrel (Sciurus bangkanus), closely allied to three other species inhabitingrespectively the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, but quite as distinct from themall as they are from each other. There were also two new ground thrushes of the genusPitta, closely allied to, but quite distinct from, two other species inhabiting bothSumatra and Borneo, and which did not perceptibly differ in these large and widelyseparated islands. This is just as if the Isle of Man possessed a peculiar species ofthrush and blackbird, distinct from the birds which are common to England and Ireland. These curious facts would indicate that Banca may have existed as a distinct islandeven longer than Sumatra and Borneo, and there are some geological and geographicalfacts which render this not so improbable as it would at first seem to be. Although onthe map Banca appears so close to Sumatra, this does not arise from its having beenrecently separated from it; for the adjacent district of Palembang is new land, being agreat alluvial swamp formed by torrents from the mountains a hundred miles distant. Banca, on the other hand, agrees with Malacca, Singapore, and the interveningisland of Lingen, in being formed of granite and laterite; and these have all most likelyonce formed an extension of the Malay peninsula. As the rivers of Borneo and Sumatrahave been for ages filling up the intervening sea, we may be sure that its depth hasrecently been greater, and it is very probable that those large islands were never directlyconnected with each other except through the Malay peninsula. At that period the samespecies of squirrel and Pitta may have inhabited all these countries; but when thesubterranean disturbances occurred which led to the elevation of the volcanoes ofSumatra, the small island of Banca may have been separated first, and its productionsbeing thus isolated might be gradually modified before the separation of the largerislands had been completed. As the southern part of Sumatra extended eastward and formed the narrow straitsof Banca, many birds and insects and some Mammalia would cross from one to theother, and thus produce a general similarity of productions, while a few of the olderinhabitants remained, to reveal by their distinct forms, their different origin. Unless wesuppose some such changes in physical geography to have occurred, the presence ofpeculiar species of birds and mammals in such an island as Banca is a hopeless puzzle;and I think I have shown that the changes required are by no means so improbable as amere glance at the map would lead us to suppose. For our next example let us take the great islands of Sumatra and Java. Theseapproach so closely together, and the chain of volcanoes that runs through them givessuch an air of unity to the two, that the idea of their having been recently dissevered isimmediately suggested. The natives of Java, however, go further than this; for theyactually have a tradition of the catastrophe which broke them asunder, and fix its dateat not much more than a thousand years ago. It becomes interesting, therefore, to seewhat support is given to this view by the comparison of their animal productions. The Mammalia have not been collected with sufficient completeness in bothislands to make a general comparison of much value, and so many species have beenobtained only as live specimens in captivity, that their locality has often beenerroneously given, the island in which they were obtained being substituted for thatfrom which they originally came. Taking into consideration only those whosedistribution is more accurately known, we learn that Sumatra is, in a zoological sense,more neatly related to Borneo than it is to Java. The great man-like apes, the elephant,the tapir, and the Malay bear, are all common to the two former countries, while theyare absent from the latter. Of the three long-tailed monkeys (Semnopithecus) inhabitingSumatra, one extends into Borneo, but the two species of Java are both peculiar to it.

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So also the great Malay deer (Rusa equina), and the small Tragulus kanchil, arecommon to Sumatra and Borneo, but do not extend into Java, where they are replacedby Tragulas javanicus. The tiger, it is true, is found in Sumatra and Java, but not inBorneo. But as this animal is known to swim well, it may have found its way across theStraits of Sunda, or it may have inhabited Java before it was separated from themainland, and from some unknown cause have ceased to exist in Borneo. In Ornithology there is a little uncertainty owing to the birds of Java and Sumatrabeing much better known than those of Borneo; but the ancient separation of Java as anisland is well exhibited by the large number of its species which are not found in any ofthe other islands. It possesses no less than seven pigeons peculiar to itself, whileSumatra has only one. Of its two parrots one extends into Borneo, but neither intoSumatra. Of the fifteen species of woodpeckers inhabiting Sumatra only four reachJava, while eight of them are found in Borneo and twelve in the Malay peninsula. Thetwo Trogons found in Java are peculiar to it, while of those inhabiting Sumatra at leasttwo extend to Malacca and one to Borneo. There are a very large number of birds, suchas the great Argus pheasant, the fire-backed and ocellated pheasants, the crestedpartridge (Rollulus coronatus), the small Malacca parrot (Psittinus incertus), the greathelmeted hornbill (Buceroturus galeatus), the pheasant ground-cuckoo (Carpococcyxradiatus), the rose-crested bee-eater (Nyctiornis amicta), the great gaper (Corydonsumatranus), and the green- crested gaper (Calyptomena viridis), and many others,which are common to Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo, but are entirely absent from Java.On the other hand we have the peacock, the green jungle cock, two blue groundthrushes (Arrenga cyanea and Myophonus flavirostris), the fine pink-headed dove(Ptilonopus porphyreus), three broad-tailed ground pigeons (Macropygia), and manyother interesting birds, which are found nowhere in the Archipelago out of Java. Insects furnish us with similar facts wherever sufficient data are to be had, butowing to the abundant collections that have been made in Java, an unfairpreponderance may be given to that island. This does not, however, seem to be the casewith the true Papilionidae or swallow-tailed butterflies, whose large size and gorgeouscolouring has led to their being collected more frequently than other insects. Twenty-seven species are known from Java, twenty-nine from Borneo, and only twenty-onefrom Sumatra. Four are entirely confined to Java, while only two are peculiar to Borneoand one to Sumatra. The isolation of Java will, however, be best shown by grouping theislands in pairs, and indicating the number of species common to each pair. Thus:--

Borneo . . 29 speciesSumatra. . 21 do. 20 species common to both islands.

Borneo . . 29 do.Java . . . . 27 do. 20 do. do.

Sumatra. . 21 do.Java . . . . 27 do. 11 do. do.

Making some allowance for our imperfect knowledge of the Sumatran species, wesee that Java is more isolated from the two larger islands than they are from each other,thus entirely confirming the results given by the distribution of birds and Mammalia,and rendering it almost certain that the last-named island was the first to be completelyseparated from the Asiatic continent, and that the native tradition of its having beenrecently separated from Sumatra is entirely without foundation. We are now able to trace out with some probability the course of events. Beginningat the time when the whole of the Java sea, the Gulf of Siam, and the Straits ofMalacca were dry land, forming with Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, a vast southernprolongation of the Asiatic continent, the first movement would be the sinking down ofthe Java sea, and the Straits of Sunda, consequent on the activity of the Javanesevolcanoes along the southern extremity of the land, and leading to the complete

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separation of that island. As the volcanic belt of Java and Sumatra increased in activity,more and more of the land was submerged, until first Borneo, and afterwards Sumatra,became entirely severed. Since the epoch of the first disturbance, several distinctelevations and depressions may have taken place, and the islands may have been morethan once joined with each other or with the main land, and again separated. Successivewaves of immigration may thus have modified their animal productions, and led tothose anomalies in distribution which are so difficult to account for by any singleoperation of elevation or submergence. The form of Borneo, consisting of radiatingmountain chains with intervening broad alluvial valleys, suggests the idea that it hasonce been much more submerged than it is at present (when it would have somewhatresembled Celebes or Gilolo in outline), and has been increased to its presentdimensions by the filling up of its gulfs with sedimentary matter, assisted by gradualelevation of the land. Sumatra has also been evidently much increased in size by theformation of alluvial plains along its northeastern coasts. There is one peculiarity in the productions of Java that is very puzzling:--theoccurrence of several species or groups characteristic of the Siamese countries or ofIndia, but which do not occur in Borneo or Sumatra. Among Mammals the Rhinocerosjavanicus is the most striking example, for a distinct species is found in Borneo andSumatra, while the Javanese species occurs in Burma and even in Bengal. Amongbirds, the small ground-dove, Geopelia striata, and the curious bronze-colouredmagpie, Crypsirhina varians, are common to Java and Siam; while there are in Javaspecies of Pteruthius, Arrenga, Myiophonus, Zoothera, Sturnopastor, and Estrelda, thenear allies of which are found in various parts of India, while nothing like them isknown to inhabit Borneo or Sumatra. Such a curious phenomenon as this can only be understood by supposing that,subsequent to the separation of Java, Borneo became almost entirely submerged, and onits re-elevation was for a time connected with the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, butnot with Java or Siam. Any geologist who knows how strata have been contorted andtilted up, and how elevations and depressions must often have occurred alternately, notonce or twice only, but scores and even hundreds of times, will have no difficulty inadmitting that such changes as have been here indicated, are not in themselvesimprobable. The existence of extensive coal-beds in Borneo and Sumatra, of suchrecent origin that the leaves which abound in their shales are scarcely distinguishablefrom those of the forests which now cover the country, proves that such changes oflevel actually did take place; and it is a matter of much interest, both to the geologistand to the philosophic naturalist, to be able to form some conception of the order ofthose changes, and to understand how they may have resulted in the actual distributionof animal life in these countries; a distribution which often presents phenomena sostrange and contradictory, that without taking such changes into consideration we areunable even to imagine how they could have been brought about.

THE TIMOR GROUP

CHAPTER X

BALI AND LOMBOCK

(JUNE, JULY, 1856)

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THE islands of Bali and Lombock, situated at the eastern end of Java, areparticularly interesting. They are the only islands of the whole Archipelago in whichthe Hindu religion still maintains itself--and they form the extreme points of the twogreat zoological divisions of the Eastern hemisphere; for although so similar in externalappearance and in all physical features, they differ greatly in their natural productions.It was after having spent two years in Borneo, Malacca and Singapore, that I made asomewhat involuntary visit to these islands on my way to Macassar. Had I been able toobtain a passage direct to that place from Singapore, I should probably never have gonenear them, and should have missed some of the most important discoveries of mywhole expedition the East. It was on the 13th of June, 1856, after a twenty days' passage from Singapore inthe "Kembang Djepoon" (Rose of Japan), a schooner belonging to a Chinese merchant,manned by a Javanese crew, and commanded by an English captain, that we castanchor in the dangerous roadstead of Bileling on the north side of the island of Bali.Going on shore with the captain and the Chinese supercargo, I was at once introducedto a novel and interesting scene. We went first to the house of the Chinese Bandar, orchief merchant, where we found a number of natives, well dressed, and allconspicuously armed with krisses, displaying their large handles of ivory or gold, orbeautifully grained and polished wood. The Chinamen had given up their national costume and adopted the Malay dress,and could then hardly be distinguished from the natives of the island--an indication ofthe close affinity of the Malayan and Mongolian races. Under the thick shade of somemango- trees close by the house, several women-merchants were selling cotton goods;for here the women trade and work for the benefit of their husbands, a custom whichMahometan Malays never adopt. Fruit, tea, cakes, and sweetmeats were brought to us;many questions were asked about our business and the state of trade in Singapore, andwe then took a walk to look at the village. It was a very dull and dreary place; acollection of narrow lanes bounded by high mud walls, enclosing bamboo houses, intosome of which we entered and were very kindly received. During the two days that we remained here, I walked out into the surroundingcountry to catch insects, shoot birds, and spy out the nakedness or fertility of the land. Iwas both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I hadnever beheld so beautiful and well cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightlyundulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it isbounded by a wide range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, markedout by dense clumps of cocoa-nut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dottedabout in every direction; while between then extend luxuriant rice-grounds, watered byan elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts ofEurope. The whole surface of the country is divided into irregular patches, followingthe undulations of the ground, from many acres to a few perches in extent, each ofwhich is itself perfectly level, but stands a few inches or several feet above or belowthose adjacent to it. Every one of these patches can be flooded or drained at will bymeans of a system of ditches and small channels, into which are diverted the whole ofthe streams that descend from the mountains. Every patch now bore crops in variousstages of growth, some almost ready for cutting, and all in the most flourishingcondition and of the most exquisite green tints. The sides of the lanes and bridle roads were often edged with prickly Cacti and aleafless Euphorbia, but the country being so highly cultivated there was not much roomfor indigenous vegetation, except upon the sea-beach. We saw plenty of the fine race ofdomestic cattle descended from the Bos banteng of Java, driven by half naked boys, ortethered in pasture-grounds. They are large and handsome animals, of a light browncolour, with white legs, and a conspicuous oval patch behind of the same colour. Wildcattle of the same race are said to be still found in the mountains. In so well-cultivated

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a country it was not to be expected that I could do much in natural history, and myignorance of how important a locality this was for the elucidation of the geographicaldistribution of animals, caused me to neglect obtaining some specimens which I nevermet with again. One of these was a weaver bird with a bright yellow head, which builtits bottle-shaped nests by dozens on some trees near the beach. It was the Ploceushypoxantha, a native of Java; and here, at the extreme limits of its range westerly, Ishot and preserved specimens of a wagtail-thrush, an oriole, and some starlings, allspecies found in Java, and some of them peculiar to that island. I also obtained somebeautiful butterflies, richly marked with black and orange on a white ground, and whichwere the most abundant insects in the country lanes. Among these was a new species,which I have named Pieris tamar. Leaving Bileling, a pleasant sail of two days brought us to Ampanam in the islandof Lombock, where I proposed to remain till I could obtain a passage to Macassar. Weenjoyed superb views of the twin volcanoes of Bali and Lombock, each about eightthousand feet high, which form magnificent objects at sunrise and sunset, when theyrise out of the mists and clouds that surround their bases, glowing with the rich andchanging tints of these the most charming moments in a tropical day. The bay or roadstead of Ampanam is extensive, and being at this season shelteredfrom the prevalent southeasterly winds, was as smooth as a lake. The beach of blackvolcanic sand is very steep, and there is at all times, a heavy surf upon it, which duringspring-tides increases to such an extent that it is often impossible for boats to land, andmany serious accidents have occurred. Where we lay anchored, about a quarter of amile from the shore, not the slightest swell was perceptible, but on approaching nearerundulations began, which rapidly increased, so as to form rollers which toppled overonto the beach at regular intervals with a noise like thunder. Sometimes this surfincreases suddenly during perfect calms to as great a force and fury as when a gale ofwind is blowing, beating to pieces all boats that may not have been hauled sufficientlyhigh upon the beach, and carrying away uncautious natives. This violent surf isprobably in some way dependent upon the swell of the great southern ocean and theviolent currents that flow through the Straits of Lombock. These are so uncertain thatvessels preparing to anchor in the bay are sometimes suddenly swept away into thestraits, and are not able to get back again for a fortnight. What seamen call the "ripples" are also very violent in the straits, the sea appearingto boil and foam and dance like the rapids below a cataract; vessels are swept abouthelplessly, and small ones are occasionally swamped in the finest weather and underthe brightest skies. I felt considerably relieved when all my boxes and myself had passed in safetythrough the devouring surf, which the natives look upon with some pride, saying, that"their sea is always hungry, and eats up everything it can catch." I was kindly receivedby Mr. Carter, an Englishman, who is one of the Bandars or licensed traders of the port,who offered me hospitality and every assistance during my stay. His house,storehouses, and offices were in a yard surrounded by a tall bamboo fence, and wereentirely constructed of bamboo with a thatch of grass, the only available buildingmaterials. Even these were now very scarce, owing to the great consumption inrebuilding the place since the great fire some months before, which in an hour or twohad destroyed every building in the town. The next day I went to see Mr. S., another merchant to whom I had brought lettersof introduction, and who lived about seven miles off. Mr. Carter kindly lent me a horse,and I was accompanied by a young Dutch gentleman residing at Ampanam, whooffered to be my guide. We first passed through the town and suburbs along a straightroad bordered by mud walls and a fine avenue of lofty trees; then through rice-fields,irrigated in the same manner as I had seen them at Bileling; and afterwards over sandypastures near the sea, and occasionally along the beach itself. Mr. S. received us kindly,and offered me a residence at his house should I think the neighbourhood favourable

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for my pursuits. After an early breakfast we went out to explore, taking guns and insectnets. We reached some low hills which seemed to offer the most favourable ground,passing over swamps, sandy flats overgrown with coarse sedges, and through pasturesand cultivated grounds, finding however very little in the way of either birds or insects.On our way we passed one or two human skeletons, enclosed within a small bamboofence, with the clothes, pillow, mat, and betel-box of the unfortunate individual, whohad been either murdered or executed. Returning to the house, we found a Balinesechief and his followers on a visit. Those of higher rank sat on chairs, the otherssquatted on the floor. The chief very coolly asked for beer and brandy, and helpedhimself and his followers, apparently more out of curiosity than anything else asregards the beer, for it seemed very distasteful to them, while they drank the brandy intumblers with much relish. Returning to Ampanam, I devoted myself for some days to shooting the birds ofthe neighbourhood. The fine fig-trees of the avenues, where a market was held, weretenanted by superb orioles (Oriolus broderpii) of a rich orange colour, and peculiar tothis island and the adjacent ones of Sumbawa and Flores. All round the town wereabundance of the curious Tropidorhynchus timoriensis, allied to the Friar bird ofAustralia. They are here called "Quaich-quaich," from their strange loud voice, whichseems to repeat these words in various and not unmelodious intonations. Every day boys were to be seen walking along the roads and by the hedges andditches, catching dragonflies with birdlime. They carry a slender stick, with a few twigsat the end well annointed, so that the least touch captures the insect, whose wings arepulled off before it is consigned to a small basket. The dragon- flies are so abundant atthe time of the rice flowering that thousands are soon caught in this way. The bodiesare fried in oil with onions and preserved shrimps, or sometimes alone, and areconsidered a great delicacy. In Borneo, Celebes, and many other islands, the larvae ofbees and wasps are eaten, either alive as pulled out of the cells, or fried like thedragonflies. In the Moluccas the grubs of the palm-beetles (Calandra) are regularlybrought to market in bamboos and sold for food; and many of the great hornedLamellicorn beetles are slightly roasted on the embers and eaten whenever met with.The superabundance of insect life is therefore turned to some account by theseislanders. Finding that birds were not very numerous, and hearing much of Labuan Tring atthe southern extremity of the bay, where there was said to be much uncultivatedcountry and plenty of birds as well as deer and wild pigs, I determined to go there withmy two servants, Ali, the Malay lad from Borneo, and Manuel, a Portuguese ofMalacca accustomed to bird-skinning. I hired a native boat with outriggers to take uswith our small quantity of luggage, on a day's rowing and tracking along the shorebrought us to the place. I had a note of introduction to an Amboynese Malay, and obtained the use of partof his house to live and work in. His name was "Inchi Daud" (Mr. David), and he wasvery civil; but his accommodations were limited, and he could only hire me part of hisreception-room. This was the front part of a bamboo house (reached by a ladder ofabout six rounds very wide apart), and having a beautiful view over the bay. However,I soon made what arrangements were possible, and then set to work. The countryaround was pretty and novel to me, consisting of abrupt volcanic hills enclosing flatvalleys or open plains. The hills were covered with a dense scrubby bush of bamboosand prickly trees and shrubs, the plains were adorned with hundreds of noble palm-trees, and in many places with a luxuriant shrubby vegetation. Birds were plentiful andvery interesting, and I now saw for the first time many Australian forms that are quiteabsent from the islands westward. Small white cockatoos were abundant, and their loudscreams, conspicuous white colour, and pretty yellow crests, rendered them a veryimportant feature in the landscape. This is the most westerly point on the globe whereany of the family are to be found. Some small honeysuckers of the genus Ptilotis, and

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the strange moundmaker (Megapodius gouldii), are also here first met with on thetraveller's journey eastward. The last mentioned bird requires a fuller notice. The Megapodidae are a small family of birds found only in Australia and thesurrounding islands, but extending as far as the Philippines and Northwest Borneo.They are allied to the gallinaceous birds, but differ from these and from all others innever sitting upon their eggs, which they bury in sand, earth, or rubbish, and leave tobe hatched by the heat of the sun or by fermentation. They are all characterised by verylarge feet and long curved claws, and most of the species of Megapodius rake andscratch together all kinds of rubbish, dead leaves, sticks, stones, earth, rotten wood, etc.,until they form a large mound, often six feet high and twelve feet across, in the middleof which they bury their eggs. The natives can tell by the condition of these moundswhether they contain eggs or not; and they rob them whenever they can, as the brick-red eggs (as large as those of a swan) are considered a great delicacy. A number ofbirds are said to join in making these mounds and lay their eggs together, so thatsometimes forty or fifty may be found. The mounds are to be met with here and therein dense thickets, and are great puzzles to strangers, who cannot understand who canpossibly have heaped together cartloads of rubbish in such out-of-the-way places; andwhen they inquire of the natives they are but little wiser, for it almost always appears tothem the wildest romance to be told that it is all done by birds. The species found inLombock is about the size of a small hen, and entirely of dark olive and brown tints. Itis a miscellaneous feeder, devouring fallen fruits, earthworms, snails, and centipedes,but the flesh is white and well-flavoured when properly cooked. The large green pigeons were still better eating, and were much more plentiful.These fine birds, exceeding our largest tame pigeons in size, abounded on the palm-trees, which now bore huge bunches of fruits--mere hard globular nuts, about an inchin diameter, and covered with a dry green skin and a very small portion of pulp.Looking at the pigeon's bill and head, it would seem impossible that it could swallowsuch large masses, or that it could obtain any nourishment from them; yet I often shotthese birds with several palm-fruits in the crop, which generally burst when they fell tothe ground. I obtained here eight species of Kingfishers; among which was a verybeautiful new one, named by Mr. Gould, Halcyon fulgidus. It was found always inthickets, away from water, and seemed to feed on snails and insects picked up from theground after the manner of the great Laughing Jackass of Australia. The beautiful littleviolet and orange species (Ceyx rufidorsa) is found in similar situations, and dartsrapidly along like a flame of fire. Here also I first met with the pretty Australian Bee-eater (Merops ornatus). This elegant little bird sits on twigs in open places, gazingeagerly around, and darting off at intervals to seize some insect which it sees flyingnear; returning afterwards to the same twig to swallow it. Its long, sharp, curved bill,the two long narrow feathers in its tail, its beautiful green plumage varied with richbrown and black and vivid blue on the throat, render it one of the most graceful andinteresting objects a naturalist can see for the first time. Of all the birds of Lombock, however, I sought most after the beautiful groundthrushes (Pitta concinna), and always thought myself lucky if I obtained one. Theywere found only in the dry plains densely covered with thickets, and carpeted at thisseason with dead leaves. They were so shy that it was very difficult to get a shot atthem, and it was only after a good deal of practice that I discovered low to do it. Thehabit of these birds is to hop about on the ground, picking up insects, and on the leastalarm to run into the densest thicket or take a flight close to the ground. At intervalsthey utter a peculiar cry of two notes which when once heard is easily recognised, andthey can also be heard hopping along among the dry leaves. My practice was, therefore, to walk cautiously along the narrow pathways withwhich the country abounded, and on detecting any sign of a Pitta's vicinity to standmotionless and give a gentle whistle occasionally, imitating the notes as near aspossible. After half an hour's waiting I was often rewarded by seeing the pretty bird

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hopping along in the thicket. Then I would perhaps lose sight of it again, until leavingmy gun raised and ready for a shot, a second glimpse would enable me to secure myprize, and admire its soft puffy plumage and lovely colours. The upper part is rich softgreen, the head jet black with a stripe of blue and brown over each eye; at the base ofthe tail and on the shoulders are bands of bright silvery blue; the under side is delicatebuff with a stripe of rich crimson, bordered with black on the belly. Beautiful grass-green doves, little crimson and black flower- peckers, large black cuckoos, metallicking-crows, golden orioles, and the fine jungle-cocks--the origin of all our domesticbreeds of poultry--were among the birds that chiefly attracted my attention during ourstay at Labuan Tring. The most characteristic feature of the jungle was its thorniness. The shrubs werethorny; the creepers were thorny; the bamboos even were thorny. Everything grewzigzag and jagged, and in an inextricable tangle, so that to get through the bush withgun or net or even spectacles, was generally not to be done, and insect- catching insuch localities was out of the question. It was in such places that the Pittas often lurked,and when shot it became a matter of some difficulty to secure the bird, and seldomwithout a heavy payment of pricks and scratches and torn clothes could the prize bewon. The dry volcanic soil and arid climate seem favourable to the production of suchstunted and thorny vegetation, for the natives assured me that this was nothing to thethorns and prickles of Sumbawa whose surface still bears the covering of volcanicashes thrown out forty years ago by the terrible eruption of Tomboro. Among the shrubs and trees that are not prickly the Apocynaceae were mostabundant, their bilobed fruits of varied form and colour and often of most temptingappearance, hanging everywhere by the waysides as if to invite to destruction the wearytraveller who may be unaware of their poisonous properties. One in particular with asmooth shining skin of a golden orange colour rivals in appearance the golden apples ofthe Hesperides, and has great attractions for many birds, from the white cockatoos tothe little yellow Zosterops, who feast on the crimson seeds which are displayed whenthe fruit bursts open. The great palm called "Gubbong" by the natives, a species ofCorypha, is the most striking feature of the plains, where it grows by thousands andappears in three different states--in leaf, in flower and fruit, or dead. It has a loftycylindrical stem about a hundred feet high and two to three feet in diameter; the leavesare large and fan-shaped, and fall off when the tree flowers, which it does only once inits life in a huge terminal spike, upon which are produced masses of a smooth roundfruit of a green colour rind about an inch in diameter. When those ripen and fall the treedies, and remains standing a year or two before it falls. Trees in leaf only are by far themost numerous, then those in flower and fruit, while dead trees are scattered here andthere among them. The trees in fruit are the resort of the great green fruit pigeons,which have been already mentioned. Troops of monkeys (Macacus cynoraolgus) mayoften be seen occupying a tree, showering down the fruit in great profusion, chatteringwhen disturbed and making an enormous rustling as they scamper off among the deadpalm leaves; while the pigeons have a loud booming voice more like the roar of a wildbeast than the note of a bird. My collecting operations here were carried on under more than usual difficulties.One small room had to serve for eating, sleeping and working,and one for storehouseand dissecting-room; in it were no shelves, cupboards, chairs or tables; ants swarmed inevery part of it, and dogs, cats and fowls entered it at pleasure. Besides this it was theparlour and reception-room of my host, and I was obliged to consult his convenienceand that of the numerous guests who visited us. My principal piece of furniture was abox, which served me as a dining table, a seat while skinning birds, and as thereceptacle of the birds when skinned and dried. To keep them free from ants weborrowed, with somedifficulty, an old bench, the four legs of which being placed incocoa-nut shells filled with water kept us tolerably free from these pests. The box andthe bench were, however, literally the only places where anything could be put away,

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and they were generally well occupied by two insect boxes and about a hundred birds'skins in process of drying. It may therefore be easily conceived that when anythingbulky or out of the common way was collected, the question "Where is it to be put?"was rather a difficult one to answer. All animal substances moreover require some timeto dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeable odour while doing so, and are particularlyattractive to ants, flies, dogs, rats, cats, and other vermin, calling for special cautionsand constant supervision, which under the circumstances above described wereimpossible. My readers may now partially understand why a travelling naturalist of limitedmeans, like myself, does so much less than is expected or than he would himself wishto do. It would be interesting to preserve skeletons of many birds and animals, reptilesand fishes in spirits, skins of the larger animals, remarkable fruits and woods and themost curious articles of manufacture and commerce; but it will be seen that under thecircumstances I have just described, it would have been impossible to add these to thecollections which were my own more especial favourites. When travelling by boat thedifficulties are as great or greater, and they are not diminished when the journey is byland. It was absolutely necessary therefore to limit my collections to certain groups towhich I could devote constant personal attention, and thus secure from destruction ordecay what had been often obtained by much labour and pains. While Manuel sat skinning his birds of an afternoon, generally surrounded by alittle crowd of Malays and Sassaks (as the indigenes of Lombock are termed), he oftenheld forth to them with the air of a teacher, and was listened to with profound attention.He was very fond of discoursing on the "special providences" of which he believed hewas daily the subject. "Allah has been merciful today," he would say--for although aChristian he adopted the Mahometan mode of speech- "and has given us some very finebirds; we can do nothing without him." Then one of the Malays would reply, "To besure, birds are like mankind; they have their appointed time to die; when that timecomes nothing can save them, and if it has not come you cannot kill them." A murmurof assent follow, until sentiments and cries of "Butul! Butul!" (Right, right.) ThenManuel would tell a long story of one of his unsuccessful hunts--how he saw some finebird and followed it a long way, and then missed it, and again found it, and shot two orthree times at it, but could never hit it, "Ah!" says an old Malay, "its time was notcome, and so it was impossible for you to kill it." A doctrine is this which is veryconsoling to the bad marksman, and which quite accounts for the facts, but which is yetsomehow not altogether satisfactory. It is universally believed in Lombock that some men have the power to turnthemselves into crocodiles, which they do for the sake of devouring their enemies, andmany strange tales are told of such transformations. I was therefore rather surprised oneevening to hear the following curious fact stated, and as it was not contradicted by anyof the persons present, I am inclined to accept it provisionally as a contribution to theNatural History of the island. A Bornean Malay who had been for many years residenthere said to Manuel, "One thing is strange in this country--the scarcity of ghosts.""How so? "asked Manuel. "Why, you know," said the Malay, "that in our countries tothe westward, if a man dies or is killed, we dare not pass near the place at night, for allsorts of noises are heard which show that ghosts are about. But here there are numbersof men killed, and their bodies lie unburied in the fields and by the roadside, and yetyou can walk by them at night and never hear or see anything at all, which is not thecase in our country, as you know very well." "Certainly I do," said Manuel; and so itwas settled that ghosts were very scarce, if not altogether unknown in Lombock. Iwould observe, however, that as the evidence is purely negative we should be wantingin scientific caution if we accepted this fact as sufficiently well established. One evening I heard Manuel, Ali, and a Malay man whispering earnestly togetheroutside the door, and could distinguish various allusions to "krisses," throat-cutting,heads, etc. etc. At length Manuel came in, looking very solemn and frightened, and said

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to me in English, "Sir--must take care,--no safe here;--want cut throat." On furtherinquiry, I found that the Malay had been telling them that the Rajah had just sent downan order to the village, that they were to get a certain number of heads for an offeringin the temples to secure a good crop of rice. Two or three other Malays and Bugis, aswell as the Amboyna man in whose house we lived, confirmed this account, anddeclared that it was a regular thing every year, and that it was necessary to keep a goodwatch and never go out alone. I laughed at the whole thing, and tried to persuade themthat it was a mere tale, but to no effect. They were all firmly persuaded that their liveswere in danger. Manuel would not go out shooting alone, and I was obliged toaccompany him every morning, but I soon gave him the slip in the jungle. Ali wasafraid to go and look for firewood without a companion, and would not even fetchwater from the well a few yards behind the house unless armed with an enormousspear. I was quite sure all the time that no such order had been sent or received, andthat we were in perfect safety. This was well shown shortly afterwards, when anAmerican sailor ran away from his ship on the east side of the island, and made his wayon foot and unarmed across to Ampanam, having met with the greatest hospitality onthe whole route. Nowhere would the smallest payment be taken for the food andlodging which were willingly furbished him. On pointing out this fact to Manuel, hereplied, "He one bad man,--run away from his ship--no one can believe word he say;"and so I was obliged to leave him in the uncomfortable persuasion that he might anyday have his throat cut. A circumstance occurred here which appeared to throw some light on the cause ofthe tremendous surf at Ampanam. One evening I heard a strange rumbling noise, and atthe same time the house shook slightly. Thinking it might be thunder, I asked, "What isthat?" "It is an earthquake," answered Inchi Daud, my host; and he then told me thatslight shocks were occasionally felt there, but he had never known them to be severe.This happened on the day of the last quarter of the moon, and consequently when tideswere low and the surf usually at its weakest. On inquiry afterwards at Ampanam, Ifound that no earthquake had been noticed, but that on one night there had been a veryheavy surf, which shook the house, and the next day there was a very high tide, thewater having flooded Mr. Carter's premises, higher than he had ever known it before.These unusual tides occur every now and then, and are not thought much of; but bycareful inquiry I ascertained that the surf had occurred on the very night I had felt theearthquake at Labuan Tring, nearly twenty miles off. This would seem to indicate, thatalthough the ordinary heavy surf may be due to the swell of the great Southern Oceanconfined in a narrow channel, combined with a peculiar form of bottom near the shore,yet the sudden heavy surfs and high tides that occur occasionally in perfectly calmweather, may be due to slight upheavals of the ocean-bed in this eminently volcanicregion.

CHAPTER XI

LOMBOCK: MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE

HAVING made a very fine and interesting collection of the birds of Labuan Tring,I took leave of my kind host, Inchi Daud, and returned to Ampanam to await anopportunity to reach Macassar. As no vessel had arrived bound for that port, Idetermined to make an excursion into the interior of the island, accompanied by Mr.Ross, an Englishman born in the Keeling Islands, and now employed by the DutchGovernment to settle the affairs of a missionary who had unfortunately becomebankrupt here. Mr. Carter kindly lent me a horse, and Mr. Ross took his native groom.

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Our route for some distance lay along a perfectly level country bearing ample cropsof rice. The road was straight and generally bordered with lofty trees forming a dueavenue. It was at first sandy, afterwards grassy, with occasional streams and mudholes.At a distance about four miles we reached Mataram, the capital of the island and theresidence of the Rajah. It is a large village with wide streets bordered by a magnificentavenue of trees, and low houses concealed behind mud walls. Within this royal city nonative of the lower orders is allowed to ride, and our attendant, a Javanese, was obligedto dismount and lead his horse while we rode slowly through. The abodes of the Rajahand of the High Priest are distinguished by pillars of red brick constructed with muchtaste; but the palace itself seemed to differ but little from the ordinary houses of thecountry. Beyond Mataram and close to it is Karangassam, the ancient residence of thenative or Sassak Rajahs before the conquest of the island by the Balinese. Soon after passing Mataram the country began gradually to rise in gentleundulations, swelling occasionally into low hills towards the two mountainous tracts inthe northern and southern parts of the island. It was now that I first obtained anadequate idea of one of the most wonderful systems of cultivation in the world,equalling all that is related of Chinese industry, and as far as I know surpassing in thelabour that has been bestowed upon it any tract of equal extent in the most civilizedcountries of Europe. I rode through this strange garden utterly amazed and hardly ableto realize the fact that in this remote and little known island, from which all Europeansexcept a few traders at the port are jealously excluded, many hundreds of square milesof irregularly undulating country have been so skillfully terraced and levelled, and sopermeated by artificial channels, that every portion of it can be irrigated and dried atpleasure. According as the slope of the ground is more or less rapid, each terraced plotconsists in some places of many acres, in others of a few square yards. We saw them inevery state of cultivation; some in stubble, some being ploughed, some with rice-cropsin various stages of growth. Here were luxuriant patches of tobacco; there, cucumbers,sweet potatoes, yams, beans or Indian-corn varied the scene. In some places the ditcheswere dry, in others little streams crossed our road and were distributed over lands aboutto be sown or planted. The banks which bordered every terrace rose regularly inhorizontal lines above each other; sometimes rounding an abrupt knoll and looking likea fortification, or sweeping around some deep hollow and forming on a gigantic scalethe seats of an amphitheatre. Every brook and rivulet had been diverted from its bed,and instead of flowing along the lowest ground, were to be found crossing our roadhalf-way up an ascent, yet bordered by ancient trees and moss-grown stones so as tohave all the appearance of a natural channel, and bearing testimony to the remoteperiod at which the work had been done. As we advanced further into the country, thescene was diversified by abrupt rocky bills, by steep ravines, and by clumps ofbamboos and palm- trees near houses or villages; while in the distance the fine range ofmountains of which Lombock Peak, eight thousand feet high, is the culminating point,formed a fit background to a view scarcely to be surpassed either in human interest orpicturesque beauty. Along the first part of our road we passed hundreds of women carrying rice, fruit,and vegetables to market; and further on, an almost uninterrupted line of horses ladenwith rice in bags or in the car, on their way to the port of Ampanam. At every fewmiles along the road, seated under shady trees or slight sheds, were sellers of sugar-cane, palm-wine, cooked rice, salted eggs, and fried plantains, with a few other nativedelicacies. At these stalls a hearty meal may be made for a penny, but we contentedourselves with drinking some sweet palm-wine, a most delicious beverage in the heatof the day. After having travelled about twenty miles we reached a higher and drierregion, where, water being scarce, cultivation was confined to the little fiats borderingthe streams. Here the country was as beautiful as before, but of a different character;consisting of undulating downs of short turf interspersed with fine clumps of trees andbushes, sometimes the woodland, sometimes the open ground predominating. We only

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passed through one small patch of true forest, where we were shaded by lofty trees, andsaw around us a dark and dense vegetation, highly agreeable after the heat and glare ofthe open country. At length, about an hour after noon, we reached our destination-- the village ofCoupang, situated nearly in the centre of the island--and entered the outer court of ahouse belonging to one of the chiefs with whom my friend Mr. Ross had a slightacquaintance. Here we were requested to seat ourselves under an open den with araised floor of bamboo, a place used to receive visitors and hold audiences. Turningour horses to graze on the luxuriant glass of the courtyard, we waited until the greatman's Malay interpreter appeared, who inquired our business and informed us that thePumbuckle (chief) was at the Rajah's house, but would soon be back. As we had not yetbreakfasted, we begged he would get us something to eat, which be promised to do assoon as possible. It was however about two hours before anything appeared, when asmall tray was brought containing two saucers of rice, four small fried fish, and a fewvegetables. Having made as good a breakfast as we could, we strolled about the village,and returning, amused ourselves by conversation with a number of men and boys whogathered around us; and by exchanging glances and smiles with a number of womenand girls who peeped at us through half-opened doors and other crevices. Two littleboys named Mousa and Isa (Moses and Jesus) were great friends with us, and animpudent little rascal called Kachang (a bean) made us all laugh by his mimicry andantics. At length, about four o'clock, the Pumbuckle made his appearance, and weinformed him of our desire to stay with him a few days, to shoot birds and see thecountry. At this he seemed somewhat disturbed, and asked if we had brought a letterfrom the Anak Agong (Son of Heaven) which is the title of the Rajah of Lombock.This we had not done, thinking it quite unnecessary; and he then abruptly told us thathe must go and speak to his Rajah, to see if we could stay. Hours passed away, nightcame, and he did not return. I began to think we were suspected of some evil designs,for the Pumbuckle was evidently afraid of getting himself into trouble. He is a Sassakprince, and, though a supporter of the present Rajah, is related to some of the heads ofa conspiracy which was quelled a few years since. About five o'clock a pack-horse bearing my guns and clothes arrived, with my menAli and Manuel, who had come on foot. The sun set, and it soon became dark, and wegot rather hungry as we sat wearily under the shed and no one came. Still hour afterhour we waited, until about nine o'clock, the Pumbuckle, the Rajah, some priests, and anumber of their followers arrived and took their seats around us. We shook hands, andfor some minutes there was a dead silence. Then the Rajah asked what we wanted; towhich Mr. Ross replied by endeavouring to make them understand who we were, andwhy we had come, and that we had no sinister intentions whatever; and that we had notbrought a letter from the "Anak Agong," merely because we had thought it quiteunnecessary. A long conversation in the Bali language then took place, and questionswere asked about my guns, and what powder I had, and whether I used shot or bullets;also what the birds were for, and how I preserved them, and what was done with themin England. Each of my answers and explanations was followed by a low and seriousconversation which we could not understand, but the purport of which we could guess.They were evidently quite puzzled, and did not believe a word we had told them. Theythen inquired if we were really English, and not Dutch; and although we stronglyasserted our nationality, they did not seem to believe us. After about an hour, however, they brought us some supper (which was the sameas the breakfast, but without the fish), and after it some very weak coffee and pumpkinsboiled with sugar. Having discussed this, a second conference took place; questionswere again asked, and the answers again commented on. Between whiles lighter topicswere discussed. My spectacles (concave glasses) were tried in succession by three orfour old men, who could not make out why they could not see through them, and the

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fact no doubt was another item of suspicion against me. My beard, too, was the subjectof some admiration, and many questions were asked about personal peculiarities whichit is not the custom to allude to in European society. At length, about one in themorning, the whole party rose to depart, and, after conversing some time at the gate, allwent away. We now begged the interpreter, who with a few boys and men remainedabout us, to show us a place to sleep in, at which he seemed very much surprised,saying he thought we were very well accommodated where we were. It was quitechilly, and we were very thinly clad and had brought no blankets, but all we could getafter another hour's talk was a native mat and pillow, and a few old curtains to hanground three sides of the open shed and protect us a little from the cold breeze. Wepassed the rest of the night very uncomfortably, and determined to return in themorning and not submit any longer to such shabby treatment. We rose at daybreak, but it was near an hour before the interpreter made hisappearance. We then asked to have some coffee and to see the Pumbuckle, as wewanted a horse for Ali, who was lame, and wished to bid him adieu. The man lookedpuzzled at such unheard--of demands and vanished into the inner court, locking thedoor behind him and leaving us again to our meditations. An hour passed and no onecame, so I ordered the horses to be saddled and the pack-horse to be loaded, andprepared to start. Just then the interpreter came up on horse back, and looked aghast atour preparations. "Where is the Pumbuckle?" we asked. "Gone to the Rajah's," said he."We are going," said I. "Oh! pray don't," said he; "wait a little; they are having aconsultation, and some priests are coming to see you, and a chief is going off toMataram to ask the permission of the Anak Agong for you to stay." This settled thematter. More talk, more delay, and another eight or ten hours' consultation were not tobe endured; so we started at once, the poor interpreter almost weeping at our obstinacyand hurry, and assuring us "the Pumbuckle would be very sorry, and the Rajah wouldbe very sorry, and if we would but wait all would be right." I gave Ali my horse, andstarted on foot, but he afterwards mounted behind Mr. Ross's groom, and we got homevery well, though rather hot and tired. At Mataram we called at the house of Gusti Gadioca, one of the princes ofLombock, who was a friend of Mr. Carter's, and who had promised to show me theguns made by native workmen. Two guns were exhibited, one six, the other seven feetlong, and of a proportionably large bore. The barrels were twisted and well finished,though not so finely worked as ours. The stock was well made, and extended to the endof the barrel. Silver and gold ornament was inlaid over most of the surface, but thelocks were taken from English muskets. The Gusti assured me, however, that the Rajahhad a man who made locks and also rifled barrels. The workshop where these guns aremade and the tools used were next shown us, and were very remarkable. An open shedwith a couple of small mud forges were the chief objects visible. The bellows consistedof two bamboo cylinders, with pistons worked by hand. They move very easily, havinga loose stuffing of feathers thickly set round the piston so as to act as a valve, andproduce a regular blast. Both cylinders communicate with the same nozzle, one pistonrising while the other falls. An oblong piece of iron on the ground was the anvil, and asmall vice was fixed on the projecting root of a tree outside. These, with a few files andhammers, were literally the only tools with which an old man makes these fine guns,finishing then himself from the rough iron and wood.

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GUN-BORING IN LOMBOCK

I was anxious to know how they bored these long barrels, which seemed perfectlytrue and are said to shoot admirably; and, on asking the Gusti, received the enigmaticalanswer: "We use a basket full of stones." Being utterly unable to imagine what hecould mean, I asked if I could see how they did it, and one of the dozen little boysaround us was sent to fetch the basket. He soon returned with this most extraordinaryboring-machine, the mode of using which the Gusti then explained to me. It was simplya strong bamboo basket, through the bottom of which was stuck upright a pole aboutthree feet long, kept in its place by a few sticks tied across the top with rattans. The bottom of the pole has an iron ring, and a hole in which four-cornered borersof hardened iron can be fitted. The barrel to be bored is buried upright in the ground,the borer is inserted into it, the top of the stick or vertical shaft is held by a cross-pieceof bamboo with a hole in it, and the basket is filled with stones to get the requiredweight. Two boys turn the bamboo round. The barrels are made in pieces of abouteighteen inches long, which are first bored small, and then welded together upon astraight iron rod. The whole barrel is then worked with borers of gradually increasingsize, and in three days the boring is finished. The whole matter was explained in such astraightforward manner that I have no doubt the process described to me was thatactually used; although, when examining one of the handsome, well-finished, andserviceable guns, it was very hard to realize the fact that they had been made from firstto last with tools hardly sufficient for an English blacksmith to make a horseshoe. The day after we returned from our excursion, the Rajah came to Ampanam to afeast given by Gusti Gadioca, who resides there; and soon after his arrival we went tohave an audience. We found him in a large courtyard sitting on a mat under a shady

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tree; and all his followers, to the number of three or four hundred, squatting on theground in a large circle round him. He wore a sarong or Malay petticoat and a greenjacket. He was a man about thirty- five years of age, and of a pleasing countenance,with some appearance of intellect combined with indecision. We bowed, and took ourseats on the ground near some chiefs we were acquainted with, for while the Rajah sitsno one can stand or sit higher. He just inquired who I was, and what I was doing inLombock, and then requested to see some of my birds. I accordingly sent for one of myboxes of bird-skins and one of insects, which he examined carefully, and seemed muchsurprised that they could be so well preserved. We then had a little conversation aboutEurope and the Russian war, in which all natives take an interest. Having heard muchof a country-seat of the Rajah's called Gunong Sari, I took the opportunity to askpermission to visit it and shoot a few birds there which he immediately granted. I thenthanked him, and we took our leave. An hour after, his son came to visit Mr. Carter accompanied by about a hundredfollowers, who all sat on the ground while he came into the open shed where Manuelwas skinning birds. After some time he went into the house, had a bed arranged tosleep a little, then drank some wine, and after an hour or two had dinner brought himfrom the Gusti's house, which he ate with eight of the principal priests and princes, hepronounced a blessing over the rice and commenced eating first, after which the restfell to. They rolled up balls of rice in their hands, dipped them in the gravy andswallowed them rapidly, with little pieces of meat and fowl cooked in a variety ofways. A boy fanned the young Rajah while eating. He was a youth of about fifteen, andhad already three wives. All wore the kris, or Malay crooked dagger, on the beauty andvalue of which they greatly pride themselves. A companion of the Rajah's had one witha golden handle, in which were set twenty-eight diamonds and several other jewels. Hesaid it had cost him £700. The sheaths are of ornamental wood and ivory, often coveredon one side with gold. The blades are beautifully veined with white metal worked intothe iron, and they are kept very carefully. Every man without exception carries a kris,stuck behind into the large waist-cloth which all wear, and it is generally the mostvaluable piece of property he possesses. A few days afterwards our long-talked-of excursion to Gunong Sari took place.Our party was increased by the captain and supercargo of a Hamburg ship loading withrice for China. We were mounted on a very miscellaneous lot of Lombock ponies,which we had some difficulty in supplying with the necessary saddles, etc.; and mostof us had to patch up our girths, bridles, or stirrup-leathers as best we could. We passedthrough Mataram, where we were joined by our friend Gusti Gadioca, mounted on ahandsome black horse, and riding as all the natives do, without saddle or stirrups, usingonly a handsome saddlecloth and very ornamental bridle. About three miles further, along pleasant byways, brought us to the place. Weentered through a rather handsome brick gateway supported by hideous Hindu deities instone. Within was an enclosure with two square fish-ponds and some fine trees; thenanother gateway through which we entered into a park. On the right was a brick house,built somewhat in the Hindu style, and placed on a high terrace or platform; on the lefta large fish- pond, supplied by a little rivulet which entered it out of the mouth of agigantic crocodile well executed in brick and stone. The edges of the pond werebricked, and in the centre rose a fantastic and picturesque pavilion ornamented withgrotesque statues. The pond was well stocked with fine fish, which come every morningto be fed at the sound of a wooden gong which is hung near for the purpose. Onstriking it a number of fish immediately came out of the masses of weed with which thepond abounds, and followed us along the margin expecting food. At the same timesome deer came out of as adjacent wood, which, from being seldom shot at andregularly fed, are almost tame. The jungle and woods which surrounded the parkappearing to abound in birds, I went to shoot a few, and was rewarded by gettingseveral specimens of the fine new kingfisher, Halcyon fulgidus, and the curious and

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handsome ground thrush, Zoothera andromeda. The former belies its name by notfrequenting water or feeding on fish. It lives constantly in low damp thickets picking upground insects, centipedes, and small mollusca. Altogether I was much pleased with myvisit to this place, and it gave me a higher opinion than I had before entertained of thetaste of these people, although the style of the buildings and of the sculpture is verymuch inferior to those of the magnificent ruins in Java. I must now say a few words about the character, manners, and customs of theseinteresting people. The aborigines of Lombock are termed Sassaks. They are a Malay race hardlydiffering in appearance from the people of Malacca or Borneo. They are Mahometansand form the bulk of the population. The ruling classes, on the other hand, are nativesof the adjacent island of Bali, and are of the Brahminical religion. The government isan absolute monarchy, but it seems to be conducted with more wisdom and moderationthan is usual in Malay countries. The father of the present Rajah conquered the island,and the people seem now quite reconciled to their new rulers, who do not interfere withtheir religion, and probably do not tax them any heavier than did the native chiefs theyhave supplanted. The laws now in force in Lombock are very severe. Theft is punishedby death. Mr. Carter informed me that a man once stole a metal coffee-pot from hishouse. He was caught, the pot restored, and the man brought to Mr. Carter to punish ashe thought fit. All the natives recommended Mr. Carter to have him "krissed" on thespot; "for if you don't," said they, "he will rob you again." Mr. Carter, however, let himoff with a warning, that if he ever came inside his premises again he would certainly beshot. A few months afterwards the same man stole a horse from Mr. Carter. The horsewas recovered, but the thief was not caught. It is an established rule, that anyone foundin a house after dark, unless with the owner's knowledge, may be stabbed, his bodythrown out into the street or upon the beach, and no questions will be asked. The men are exceedingly jealous and very strict with their wives. A marriedwoman may not accept a cigar or a sirih leaf from a stranger under pain of death. I wasinformed that some years ago one of the English traders had a Balinese woman of goodfamily living with him--the connection being considered quite honourable by thenatives. During some festival this girl offended against the law by accepting a flower orsome such trifle from another man. This was reported to the Rajah (to some of whosewives the girl was related), and he immediately sent to the Englishman's house orderinghim to give the woman up as she must be "krissed." In vain he begged and prayed, andoffered to pay any fine the Rajah might impose, and finally refused to give her upunless he was forced to do so. This the Rajah did not wish to resort to, as he no doubtthought he was acting as much for the Englishman's honour as for his own; so heappeared to let the matter drop. But some time afterwards he sent one of his followersto the house, who beckoned the girl to the door, and then saying, "The Rajah sends youthis," stabbed her to the heart. More serious infidelity is punished still more cruelly, thewoman and her paramour being tied back to back and thrown into the sea, where somelarge crocodiles are always on the watch to devour the bodies. One such execution tookplace while I was at Ampanam, but I took a long walk into the country to be out of theway until it was all over, thus missing the opportunity of having a horrible narrative toenliven my somewhat tedious story. One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. Carter's servant informed us thatthere was an "Amok" in the village--in other words, that a man was "running a muck."Orders were immediately given to shut and fasten the gates of our enclosure; buthearing nothing for some time, we went out, and found there had been a false alarm,owing to a slave having run away, declaring he would "amok," because his masterwanted to sell him. A short time before, a man had been killed at a gaming-tablebecause, having lost half-a-dollar more than he possessed, he was going to "amok."Another had killed or wounded seventeen people before he could be destroyed. In theirwars a whole regiment of these people will sometimes agree to "amok," and then rush

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on with such energetic desperation as to be very formidable to men not so excited asthemselves. Among the ancients these would have been looked upon as heroes ordemigods who sacrificed themselves for their country. Here it is simply said--theymade "amok." Macassar is the most celebrated place in the East for "running a muck." There aresaid to be one or two a month on the average, and five, ten, or twenty persons aresometimes killed or wounded at one of them. It is the national, and therefore thehonourable, mode of committing suicide among the natives of Celebes, and is thefashionable way of escaping from their difficulties. A Roman fell upon his sword, aJapanese rips up his stomach, and an Englishman blows out his brains with a pistol.The Bugis mode has many advantages to one suicidically inclined. A man thinkshimself wronged by society--he is in debt and cannot pay--he is taken for a slave orhas gambled away his wife or child into slavery--he sees no way of recovering what hehas lost, and becomes desperate. He will not put up with such cruel wrongs, but will berevenged on mankind and die like a hero. He grasps his kris-handle, and the nextmoment draws out the weapon and stabs a man to the heart. He runs on, with bloodykris in his hand, stabbing at everyone he meets. "Amok! Amok!" then resounds throughthe streets. Spears, krisses, knives and guns are brought out against him. He rushesmadly forward, kills all he can--men, women, and children--and dies overwhelmed bynumbers amid all the excitement of a battle. And what that excitement is those whohave been in one best know, but all who have ever given way to violent passions, oreven indulged in violent and exciting exercises, may form a very good idea. It is adelirious intoxication, a temporary madness that absorbs every thought and everyenergy. And can we wonder at the kris-bearing, untaught, brooding Malay preferringsuch a death, looked upon as almost honourable to the cold-blooded details of suicide,if he wishes to escape from overwhelming troubles, or the merciless of the hangmanand the disgrace of a public execution, when he has taken the law into his own handsand too hastily revenged himself upon his enemy? In either case he chooses rather to"amok." The great staples of the trade of Lombock as well as of Bali are rice and coffee; theformer grown on the plains, the latter on the hills. The rice is exported very largely toother islands of the Archipelago, to Singapore, and even to China, and there aregenerally one or more vessels loading in the port. It is brought into Ampanam on pack-horses, and almost everyday a string of these would come into Mr. Carter's yard. Theonly money the natives will take for their rice is Chinese copper cash, twelve hundredof which go to a dollar. Every morning two large sacks of this money had to becounted out into convenient sums for payment. From Bali quantities of dried beef andox-tongues are exported, and from Lombock a good many ducks and ponies. The ducksare a peculiar breed, which have very long flat bodies, and walk erect almost likepenguins. They are generally of a pale reddish ash colour, and are kept in large flocks.They are very cheap and are largely consumed by the crews of the rice ships, by whomthey are called Baly-soldiers, but are more generally known elsewhere as penguin-ducks. My Portuguese bird-stuffer Fernandez now insisted on breaking his agreement andreturning to Singapore; partly from homesickness, but more I believe from the idea thathis life was not worth many months' purchase among such bloodthirsty and uncivilizedpeoples. It was a considerable loss to me, as I had paid him full three times the usualwages for three months in advance, half of which was occupied in the voyage and therest in a place where I could have done without him, owing to there being so fewinsects that I could devote my own time to shooting and skinning. A few days afterFernandez had left, a small schooner came in bound for Macassar, to which place Itook a passage. As a fitting conclusion to my sketch of these interesting islands, I willnarrate an anecdote which I heard of the present Rajah; and which, whether altogethertrue or not, well illustrates native character, and will serve as a means of introducing

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some details of the manners and customs of the country to which I have not yetalluded.

CHAPTER XII

L0MBOCK: HOW THE RAJAH TOOK THE CENSUS

The Rajah of Lombock was a very wise man and he showed his wisdom greatly inthe way he took the census. For my readers must know that the chief revenues of theRajah were derived from a head-tax of rice, a small measure being paid annually byevery man, woman, and child in the island, There was no doubt that every one paid thistax, for it was a very light one, and the land was fertile and the people well off; but ithad to pass through many hands before it reached the Government storehouses. Whenthe harvest was over the villagers brought their rice to the Kapala kampong, or head ofthe village; and no doubt he sometimes had compassion for the poor or sick and passedover their short measure, and sometimes was obliged to grant a favour to those who hadcomplaints against him; and then he must keep up his own dignity by having hisgranaries better filled than his neighbours, and so the rice that he took to the "Waidono"that was over his district was generally good deal less than it should have been. And allthe "Waidonos" had of course to take care of themselves, for they were all in debt andit was so easy to take a little of the Government rice, and there would still be plenty forthe Rajah. And the "Gustis" or princes who received the rice from the Waidonos helpedthemselves likewise, and so when the harvest was all over and the rice tribute was allbrought in, the quantity was found to be less each year than the one before. Sickness inone district, and fevers in another, and failure of the crops in a third, were of coursealleged as the cause of this falling off; but when the Rajah went to hunt at the foot ofthe great mountain, or went to visit a "Gusti" on the other side of the island, he alwayssaw the villages full of people, all looking well-fed and happy. And he noticed that thekrisses of his chiefs and officers were getting handsomer and handsomer; and thehandles that were of yellow wood were changed for ivory, and those of ivory werechanged for gold, and diamonds and emeralds sparkled on many of them; and he knewvery well which way the tribute-rice went. But as he could not prove it he kept silence,and resolved in his own heart someday to have a census taken, so that he might knowthe number of his people, and not be cheated out of more rice than was just andreasonable. But the difficulty was how to get this census. He could not go himself into everyvillage and every house, and count all the people; and if he ordered it to be done by theregular officers they would quickly understand what it was for, and the census would besure to agree exactly with the quantity of rice he got last year. It was evident thereforethat to answer his purpose no one must suspect why the census was taken; and to makesure of this, no one must know that there was any census taken at all. This was a veryhard problem; and the Rajah thought and thought, as hard as a Malay Rajah can beexpected to think, but could not solve it; and so he was very unhappy, and did nothingbut smoke and chew betel with his favourite wife, and eat scarcely anything; and evenwhen he went to the cock-fight did not seem to care whether his best birds won or lost.For several days he remained in this sad state, and all the court were afraid some evileye had bewitched the Rajah; and an unfortunate Irish captain who had come in for acargo of rice and who squinted dreadfully, was very nearly being krissed, but being firstbrought to the royal presence was graciously ordered to go on board and remain therewhile his ship stayed in the port. One morning however, after about a week's continuance of this unaccountable

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melancholy, a welcome change tool place, for the Rajah sent to call together all thechiefs, priests, and princes who were then in Mataram, his capital city; and when theywere all assembled in anxious expectation, he thus addressed them: "For many days my heart has been very sick and I knew not why, but now thetrouble is cleared away, for I have had a dream. Last night the spirit of the 'GunongAgong'--the great fire mountain-- appeared to me, and told me that I must go up to thetop of the mountain. All of you may come with me to near the top, but then I must goup alone, and the great spirit will again appear to me and will tell me what is of greatimportance to me and to you and to all the people of the island. Now go all of you andmake this known through the island, and let every village furnish men to make clear aroad for us to go through the forest and up the great mountain." So the news was spread over the whole island that the Rajah must go to meet thegreat spirit on the top of the mountain; and every village sent forth its men, and theycleared away the jungle and made bridges over the mountain streams and smoothed therough places for the Rajah's passage. And when they came to the steep and craggyrocks of the mountain, they sought out the best paths, sometimes along the bed of atorrent, sometimes along narrow ledges of the black rocks; in one place cutting down atall tree so as to bridge across a chasm, in another constructing ladders to mount thesmooth face of a precipice. The chiefs who superintended the work fixed upon thelength of each day's journey beforehand according to the nature of the road, and chosepleasant places by the banks of clear streams and in the neighbourhood of shady trees,where they built sheds and huts of bamboo well thatched with the leaves of palm-trees,in which the Rajah and his attendants might eat and sleep at the close of each day. And when all was ready, the princes and priests and chief men came again to theRajah, to tell him what had been done and to ask him when he would go up themountain. And he fixed a day, and ordered every man of rank and authority toaccompany him, to do honour to the great spirit who had bid him undertake the journey,and to show how willingly they obeyed his commands. And then there was muchpreparation throughout the whole island. The best cattle were killed and the meat saltedand sun-dried; and abundance of red peppers and sweet potatoes were gathered; andthe tall pinang-trees were climbed for the spicy betel nut, the sirih-leaf was tied up inbundles, and every man filled his tobacco pouch and lime box to the brim, so that hemight not want any of the materials for chewing the refreshing betel during the journey.The stores of provisions were sent on a day in advance. And on the day before thatappointed for starting, all the chiefs both great and small came to Mataram, the abodeof the king, with their horses and their servants, and the bearers of their sirih boxes,and their sleeping-mats, and their provisions. And they encamped under the tallWaringin-trees that border all the roads about Mataram, and with blazing fires frightedaway the ghouls and evil spirits that nightly haunt the gloomy avenues. In the morning a great procession was formed to conduct the Rajah to themountain. And the royal princes and relations of the Rajah mounted their black horseswhose tails swept the ground; they used no saddle or stirrups, but sat upon a cloth ofgay colours; the bits were of silver and the bridles of many-coloured cords. The lessimportant people were on small strong horses of various colours, well suited to amountain journey; and all (even the Rajah) were bare-legged to above the knee,wearing only the gay coloured cotton waist-cloth, a silk or cotton jacket, and a largehandkerchief tastefully folded around the head. Everyone was attended by one or twoservants bearing his sirih and betel boxes, who were also mounted on ponies; and greatnumbers more had gone on in advance or waited to bring up the rear. The men inauthority were numbered by hundreds and their followers by thousands, and all theisland wondered what great thing would come of it. For the first two days they went along good roads and through many villages whichwere swept clean, and where bright cloths were hung out at the windows; and all thepeople, when the Rajah came, squatted down upon the ground in respect, and every

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man riding got off his horse and squatted down also, and many joined the procession atevery village. At the place where they stopped for the night, the people had placedstakes along each side of the roads in front of the houses. These were split crosswise atthe top, and in the cleft were fastened little clay lamps, and between them were stuckthe green leaves of palm-trees, which, dripping with the evening dew, gleamed prettilywith the many twinkling lights. And few went to sleep that night until the morninghours, for every house held a knot of eager talkers, and much betel-nut was consumed,and endless were the conjectures what would come of it. On the second day they left the last village behind them and entered the wildcountry that surrounds the great mountain, and rested in the huts that had been preparedfor them on the banks of a stream of cold and sparkling water. And the Rajah's hunters,armed with long and heavy guns, went in search of deer and wild bulls in thesurrounding woods, and brought home the meat of both in the early morning, and sentit on in advance to prepare the mid-day meal. On the third day they advanced as far ashorses could go, and encamped at the foot of high rocks, among which narrowpathways only could be found to reach the mountain-top. And on the fourth morningwhen the Rajah set out, he was accompanied only by a small party of priests andprinces with their immediate attendants; and they toiled wearily up the rugged way, andsometimes were carried by their servants, until they passed up above the great trees,and then among the thorny bushes, and above them again on to the black and burnedrock of the highest part of the mountain. And when they were near the summit, the Rajah ordered them all to halt, while healone went to meet the great spirit on the very peak of the mountain. So he went onwith two boys only who carried his sirih and betel, and soon reached the top of themountain among great rocks, on the edge of the great gulf whence issue forthcontinually smoke and vapour. And the Rajah asked for sirih, and told the boys to sitdown under a rock and look down the mountain, and not to move until he returned tothem. And as they were tired, and the sun was warm and pleasant, and the rocksheltered them from the cold grind, the boys fell asleep. And the Rajah went a littleway on under another rock; and as he was tired, and the sun was warm and pleasant,and he too fell asleep. And those who were waiting for the Rajah thought him a long time on the top ofthe mountain, and thought the great spirit must have much to say, or might perhapswant to keep him on the mountain always, or perhaps he had missed his way inconning down again. And they were debating whether they should go and search forhim, when they saw him coming down with the two boys. And when he met them helooked very grave, but said nothing; and then all descended together, and theprocession returned as it had come; and the Rajah went to his palace and the chiefs totheir villages, and the people to their houses, to tell their wives and children all that hadhappened, and to wonder yet again what would come of it. And three days afterwards the Rajah summoned the priests and the princes and thechief men of Mataram, to hear what the great spirit had told him on the top of themountain. And when they were all assembled, and the betel and sirih had been handedround, he told them what had happened. On the top of the mountain he had fallen intoa trance, and the great spirit had appeared to him with a face like burnished gold, andhad said--"0h Rajah! much plague and sickness and fevers are coming upon all theearth, upon men and upon horses and upon cattle; but as you and your people haveobeyed me and have come up to my great mountain, I will teach you how you and allthe people of Lombock may escape this plague." And all waited anxiously, to hear howthey were to be saved from so fearful a calamity. And after a short silence the Rajahspoke again and told them, that the great spirit had commanded that twelve sacredkrisses should be made, and that to make them every village and every district mustsend a bundle of needles--a needle for every head in the village. And when anygrievous disease appeared in any village, one of the sacred krisses should be sent there;

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and if every house in that village had sent the right number of needles, the diseasewould immediately cease; but if the number of needles sent had not been exact, the kriswould have no virtue. So the princes and chiefs sent to all their villages and communicated the wonderfulnews; and all made haste to collect the needles with the greatest accuracy, for theyfeared that if but one were wanting, the whole village would suffer. So one by one thehead men of the villages brought in their bundles of needles; those who were nearMataram came first, and those who were far off came last; and the Rajah received themwith his own hands and put them away carefully in an inner chamber, in a camphor-wood chest whose hinges and clasps were of silver; and on every bundle was markedthe name of the village and the district from whence it came, so that it might be knownthat all had heard and obeyed the commands of the great spirit. And when it was quite certain that every village had sent in its bundle, the Rajahdivided the needles into twelve equal parts, and ordered the best steelworker inMataram to bring his forge and his bellows and his hammers to the palace, and to makethe twelve krisses under the Rajah's eye, and in the sight of all men who chose to see it.And when they were finished, they were wrapped up in new silk and put awaycarefully until they might be wanted. Now the journey to the mountain was in the time of the east wind when no rainfalls in Lombock. And soon after the krisses were made it was the time of the riceharvest, and the chiefs of districts and of villages brought their tax to the Rajahaccording to the number heads in their villages. And to those that wanted but little ofthe full amount, the Rajah said nothing; but when those came who brought only half ora fourth part of what was strictly due, he said to them mildly, "The needles which yousent from your village were many more than came from such-a-one's village, yet yourtribute is less than his; go back and see who it is that has not paid the tax." And thenext year the produce of the tax increased greatly, for they feared that the Rajah mightjustly kill those who a second time kept back the right tribute. And so the Rajahbecame very rich, and increased the number of his soldiers, and gave golden jewels tohis wives, and bought fine black horses from the white-skinned Hollanders, and madegreat feasts when his children were born or were married; and none of the Rajahs orSultans among the Malays were so great or powerful as the Rajah of Lombock. And the twelve sacred krisses had great virtue. And, when any sickness appeared ina village one of them was sent for; and sometimes the sickness went away, and then thesacred kris was taken back again with great Honour, and the head men of the villagecame to tell the Rajah of its miraculous power, and to thank him. And sometimes thesickness would not go away; and then everybody was convinced that there had been amistake in the number of needles sent from that village, and therefore the sacred krishad no effect, and had to be taken back again by the head men with heavy hearts, butstill, with all honour--for was not the fault their own?

CHAPTER XIII

TIMOR

(COUPANG, 1857-1869. DELLI, 1861)

THE island of Timor is about three hundred miles long and sixty wide, and seemsto form the termination of the great range of volcanic islands which begins withSumatra more than two thousand miles to the west. It differs however very remarkablyfrom all the other islands of the chain in not possessing any active volcanoes, with the

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one exception of Timor Peak near the centre of the island, which was formerly active,but was blown up during an eruption in 1638 and has since been quiescent. In no otherpart of Timor do there appear to be any recent igneous rocks, so that it can hardly beclassed as a volcanic island. Indeed its position is just outside of the great volcanic belt,which extends from Flores through Ombay and Wetter to Banda. I first visited Timor in 1857, staying a day at Coupang, the chief Dutch town at thewest end of the island; and again in May 1859, when I stayed a fortnight in the sameneighbourhood. In the spring of 1861 I spent four months at Delli, the capital of thePortuguese possessions in the eastern part of the island. The whole neighbourhood of Coupang appears to have been elevated at a recentepoch, consisting of a rugged surface of coral rock, which rises in a vertical wallbetween the beach and the town, whose low, white, red-tiled houses give it anappearance very similar to other Dutch settlements in the East. The vegetation iseverywhere scanty and scrubby. Plants of the families Apocynaceae and Euphorbiacea,abound; but there is nothing that can be called a forest, and the whole country has aparched and desolate appearance, contrasting strongly with the lofty forest trees andperennial verdure of the Moluccas or of Singapore. The most conspicuous feature ofthe vegetation was the abundance of fine fanleaved palms (Borassus flabelliformis),from the leaves of which are constructed the strong and durable water-buckets ingeneral use, and which are much superior to those formed from any other species ofpalm. From the same tree, palm-wine and sugar are made, and the common thatch forhouses formed of the leaves lasts six or seven years without removal. Close to the townI noticed the foundation of a ruined house below high-water mark, indicating recentsubsidence. Earthquakes are not severe here, and are so infrequent and harmless thatthe chief houses are built of stone. The inhabitants of Coupang consist of Malays, Chinese, and Dutch, besides thenatives, so that there are many strange and complicated mixtures among the population.There is one resident English merchant, and whalers as well as Australian ships oftencome here for stores and water. The native Timorese preponderate, and a very littleexamination serves to show that they have nothing in common with Malays, but aremuch more closely allied to the true Papuans of the Aru Islands and New Guinea. Theyare tall, have pronounced features, large somewhat aquiline noses, and frizzly hair, andare generally of a dusky brown colour. The way in which the women talk to each otherand to the men, their loud voices and laughter, and general character of self- assertion,would enable an experienced observer to decide, even without seeing them, that theywere not Malays. Mr. Arndt, a German and the Government doctor, invited me to stay at his housewhile in Coupang, and I gladly accepted his offer, as I only intended making a shortvisit. We at first began speaking French, but he got on so badly that we soon passedinsensibly into Malay; and we afterwards held long discussions on literary, scientific,and philosophical questions in that semi-barbarous language, whose deficiencies wemade up by the free use of French or Latin words. After a few walks in the neighbourhood of the town, I found such a poverty ofinsects and birds that I determined to go for a few days to the island of Semao at thewestern extremity of Timor, where I heard that there was forest country with birds notfound at Coupang. With some difficulty I obtained a large dugout boat with outriggers,to take me over a distance of about twenty miles. I found the country pretty wellwooded, but covered with shrubs and thorny bushes rather than forest trees, andeverywhere excessively parched and dried up by the long-continued dry season. Istayed at the village of Oeassa, remarkable for its soap springs. One of these is in themiddle of the village, bubbling out from a little cone of mud to which the ground risesall round like a volcano in miniature. The water has a soapy feel and produces a stronglather when any greasy substance is washed in it. It contains alkali and iodine, in suchquantities as to destroy all vegetation for some distance around. Close by the village is

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one of the finest springs I have ever seen, contained in several rocky basinscommunicating by narrow channels. These have been neatly walled where required andpartly levelled, and form fine natural baths. The water is well tasted and clear ascrystal, and the basins are surrounded by a grove of lofty many-stemmed banyan-trees,which keep them always cool and shady, and add greatly to the picturesque beauty ofthe scene. The village consists of curious little houses very different from any I have seenelsewhere. They are of an oval figure, and the walls are made of sticks about four feethigh placed close together. From this rises a high conical roof thatched with grass. Theonly opening is a door about three feet high. The people are like the Timorese withfrizzly or wavy hair and of a coppery brown colour. The better class appear to have amixture of some superior race which has much improved their features. I saw inCoupang some chiefs from the island of Savu further west, who presented charactersvery distinct from either the Malay or Papuan races. They most resembled Hindus,having fine well- formed features and straight thin noses with clear brown complexions.As the Brahminical religion once spread over all Java, and even now exists in Bali andLombock, it is not at all improbable that some natives of India should have reached thisisland, either by accident or to escape persecution, and formed a permanent settlementthere. I stayed at Oeassa four days, when, not finding any insects and very few new birds,I returned to Coupang to await the next mail steamer. On the way I had a narrowescape of being swamped. The deep coffin- like boat was filled up with my baggage,and with vegetables, cocoa- nut and other fruit for Coupang market, and when we hadgot some way across into a rather rough sea, we found that a quantity of water wascoming in which we had no means of baling out. This caused us to sink deeper in thewater, and then we shipped seas over our sides, and the rowers, who had beforedeclared it was nothing, now became alarmed and turned the boat round to get back tothe coast of Semao, which was not far off. By clearing away some of the baggage alittle of the water could be baled out, but hardly so fast as it came in, and when weneared the coast we found nothing but vertical walls of rock against which the sea wasviolently beating. We coasted along some distance until we found a little cove, intowhich we ran the boat, hauled it on shore, and emptying it found a large hole in thebottom, which had been temporarily stopped up with a plug of cocoa-nut which hadcome out. Had we been a quarter of a mile further off before we discovered the leak,we should certainly have been obliged to throw most of our baggage overboard, andmight easily have lost our lives. After we had put all straight and secure we againstarted, and when we were halfway across got into such a strong current and high crosssea that we were very nearly being swamped a second time, which made me vow neverto trust myself again in such small and miserable vessels. The mail steamer did not arrive for a week, and I occupied myself in getting asmany of the birds as I could, and found some which were very interesting. Amongthem were five species of pigeons of as many distinct genera, and most of then peculiarto the island; two parrots--the fine red-winged broad-tail (Platycercus vulneratus),allied to an Australian species, and a green species of the genus Geoffroyus. TheTropidorhynchus timorensis was as ubiquitous and as noisy as I had found it atLombock; and the Sphaecothera viridis, a curious green oriole with bare red orbits, wasa great acquisition. There were several pretty finches, warblers, and flycatchers, andamong them I obtained the elegant blue and red Cyornis hyacinthina; but I cannotrecognise among my collections the species mentioned by Dampier, who seems to havebeen much struck by the number of small songbirds in Timor. He says: "One sort ofthese pretty little birds my men called the ringing bird, because it had six notes, andalways repeated all his notes twice, one after the other, beginning high and shrill andending low. The bird was about the bigness of a lark, having a small, sharp, black billand blue wings; the head and breast were of a pale red, and there was a blue streak

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about its neck." In Semao, monkeys are abundant. They are the common bare-lippedmonkey (Macacus cynomolgus), which is found all over the western islands of theArchipelago, and may have been introduced by natives, who often carry it aboutcaptive. There are also some deer, but it is not quite certain whether they are of thesame species as are found in Java. I arrived at Delli, the capital of the Portuguese possessions in Timor, on January12, 1861, and was kindly received by Captain Hart, an Englishman and an old resident,who trades in the produce of the country and cultivates coffee on an estate at the foot ofthe hills. With him I was introduced to Mr. Geach, a mining-engineer who had been fortwo years endeavouring to discover copper in sufficient quantity to be worth working. Delli is a most miserable place compared with even the poorest of the Dutchtowns. The houses are all of mud and thatch; the fort is only a mud enclosure; and thecustom-house and church are built of the same mean materials, with no attempt atdecoration or even neatness. The whole aspect of the place is that of a poor nativetown, and there is no sign of cultivation or civilization round about it. His Excellencythe Governor's house is the only one that makes any pretensions to appearance, and thatis merely a low whitewashed cottage or bungalow. Yet there is one thing in whichcivilization exhibits itself-- officials in black and white European costume, and officersin gorgeous uniforms abound in a degree quite disproportionate to the size orappearance of the place. The town being surrounded for some distance by swamps and mudflats is veryunhealthy, and a single night often gives a fever to newcomers which not unfrequentlyproves fatal. To avoid this malaria, Captain Hart always slept at his plantation, on aslight elevation about two miles from the town, where Mr. Geach also had a smallhouse, which he kindly invited me to share. We rode there in the evening; and in thecourse of two days my baggage was brought up, and I was able to look about me andsee if I could do any collecting. For the first few weeks I was very unwell and could not go far from the house. Thecountry was covered with low spiny shrubs and acacias, except in a little valley wherea stream came down from the hills, where some fine trees and bushes shaded the waterand formed a very pleasant place to ramble up. There were plenty of birds about, andof a tolerable variety of species; but very few of them were gaily coloured. Indeed, withone or two exceptions, the birds of this tropical island were hardly so ornamental asthose of Great Britain. Beetles were so scarce that a collector might fairly say therewere none, as the few obscure or uninteresting species would not repay him for thesearch. The only insects at all remarkable or interesting were the butterflies, which,though comparatively few in species, were sufficiently abundant, and comprised a largeproportion of new or rare sorts. The banks of the stream formed my best collecting-ground, and I daily wandered up and down its shady bed, which about a mile upbecame rocky and precipitous. Here I obtained the rare and beautiful swallow- tailbutterflies, Papilio aenomaus and P. liris; the males of which are quite unlike eachother, and belong in fact to distinct sections of the genus, while the females are somuch alike that they are undistinguishable on the wing, and to an uneducated eyeequally so in the cabinet. Several other beautiful butterflies rewarded my search in thisplace, among which I may especially mention the Cethosia leschenaultii, whose wingsof the deepest purple are bordered with buff in such a manner as to resemble at firstsight our own Camberwell beauty, although it belongs to a different genus. The mostabundant butterflies were the whites and yellows (Pieridae), several of which I hadalready found at Lombock and at Coupang, while others were new to me. Early in February we made arrangements to stay for a week at a village calledBaliba, situated about four miles off on the mountains, at an elevation of 2,000 feet. Wetook our baggage and a supply of all necessaries on packhorses; and though thedistance by the route we took was not more than six or seven miles, we were half a daygetting there. The roads were mere tracks, sometimes up steep rocky stairs, sometimes

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in narrow gullies worn by the horses' feet, and where it was necessary to tuck up ourlegs on our horses' necks to avoid having them crushed. At some of these places thebaggage had to be unloaded, at others it was knocked off. Sometimes the ascent ordescent was so steep that it was easier to walk than to cling to our ponies' backs; andthus we went up and down over bare hills whose surface was covered with smallpebbles and scattered over with Eucalypti, reminding me of what I had read of parts ofthe interior of Australia rather than of the Malay Archipelago. The village consisted of three houses only, with low walls raised a few feet onposts, and very high roofs thatched with brass hanging down to within two or three feetof the ground. A house which was unfinished and partly open at the back was given forour use, and in it we rigged up a table, some benches, and a screen, while an innerenclosed portion served us for a sleeping apartment. We had a splendid view downupon Delli and the sea beyond. The country around was undulating and open, except inthe hollows, where there were some patches of forest, which Mr. Geach, who had beenall over the eastern part of Timor, assured me was the most luxuriant he had yet seen inthe island. I was in hopes of finding some insects here, but was much disappointed,owing perhaps to the dampness of the climate; for it was not until the sun was prettyhigh that the mists cleared away, and by noon we were generally clouded up again, sothat there was seldom more than an hour or two of fitful sunshine. We searched inevery direction for birds and other game, but they were very scarce. On our way I hadshot the find white-headed pigeon, Ptilonopus cinctus, and the pretty little lorikeet,Trichoglossus euteles. I got a few more of these at the blossoms of the Eucalypti, andalso the allied species Trichoglossus iris, and a few other small but interesting birds.The common jungle-cock of India (Gallus bankiva) was found here, and furnished uswith some excellent meals; but we could get no deer. Potatoes are grown higher up themountains in abundance, and are very good. We had a sheep killed every other day,and ate our mutton with much appetite in the cool climate, which rendered a firealways agreeable. Although one-half the European residents in Delli are continually ill from fever,and the Portuguese have occupied the place for three centuries, no one has yet built ahouse on these fine hills, which, if a tolerable road were made, would be only an hour'sride from the town; and almost equally good situations might be found on a lower levelat half an hour's distance. The fact that potatoes and wheat of excellent quality aregrown in abundance at from 3,000 to 3,500 feet elevation, shows what the climate andsoil are capable of if properly cultivated. From one to two thousand feet high, coffeewould thrive; and there are hundreds of square miles of country over which all thevaried products which require climates between those of coffee and wheat wouldflourish; but no attempt has yet been made to form a single mile of road, or a singleacre of plantation! There must be something very unusual in the climate of Timor to permit wheatbeing grown at so moderate an elevation. The grain is of excellent quality, the breadmade from it being equal to any I have ever tasted, and it is universally acknowledgedto be unsurpassed by any made from imported European or American flour. The factthat the natives have (quite of their own accord) taken to cultivating such foreignarticles as wheat and potatoes, which they bring in small quantities on the backs ofponies by the most horrible mountain tracks, and sell very cheaply at the seaside,sufficiently indicates what might be done if good roads were made, and if the peoplewere taught, encouraged, and protected. Sheep also do well on the mountains; and abreed of hardy ponies in much repute all over the Archipelago, runs half-wild, so that itappears as if this island, so barren-looking and devoid of the usual features of tropicalvegetation, were yet especially adapted to supply a variety of products essential toEuropeans, which the other islands will not produce, and which they accordinglyimport from the other side of the globe. On the 24th of February my friend Mr. Geach left Timor, having finally reported

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that no minerals worth working were to be found. The Portuguese were very muchannoyed, having made up their minds that copper is abundant, and still believing it tobe so. It appears that from time immemorial pure native copper has been found at aplace on the coast about thirty miles east of Delli. The natives say they find it in the bed of a ravine, and many years ago a captain ofa vessel is said to have got some hundreds-weight of it. Now, however, it is evidentlyvery scarce, as during the two years Mr. Geach resided in the country, none was found.I was shown one piece several pounds' weight, having much the appearance of one ofthe larger Australian nuggets, but of pure copper instead of gold. The natives and thePortuguese have very naturally imagined that where these fragments come from theremust be more; and they have a report or tradition, that a mountain at the head of theravine is almost pure copper, and of course of immense value. After much difficulty a company was at length formed to work the coppermountain, a Portuguese merchant of Singapore supplying most of the capital. Soconfident were they of the existence of the copper, that they thought it would be wasteof time and money to have any exploration made first; and accordingly, sent toEngland for a mining engineer, who was to bring out all necessary tools, machinery,laboratory, utensils, a number of mechanics, and stores of all kinds for two years, inorder to commence work on a copper-mine which he was told was already discovered.On reaching Singapore a ship was freighted to take the men and stores to Timor, wherethey at length arrived after much delay, a long voyage, and very great expense. A day was then fixed to "open the mines." Captain Hart accompanied Mr. Geach asinterpreter. The Governor, the Commandante, the Judge, and all the chief people of theplace went in state to the mountain, with Mr. Geach's assistant and some of theworkmen. As they went up the valley Mr. Leach examined the rocks, but saw no signsof copper. They went on and on, but still nothing except a few mere traces of very poorore. At length they stood on the copper mountain itself. The Governor stopped, theofficials formed a circle, and he then addressed them, saying, that at length the day hadarrived they had all been so long expecting, when the treasures of the soil of Timorwould be brought to light, and much more in very graandiloquent Portuguese; andconcluded by turning to Mr. Leach, and requesting him to point out the best spot forthem to begin work at once, and uncover the mass of virgin copper. As the ravines andprecipices among which they had passed, and which had been carefully examined,revealed very clearly the nature and mineral constitution of the country, Mr. Geachsimply told them that there was not a trace of copper there, and that it was perfectlyuseless to begin work. The audience were thunderstruck! The Governor could notbelieve his ears. At length, when Mr. Geach had repeated his statement, the Governortold him severely that he was mistaken; that they all knew there was copper there inabundance, and all they wanted him to tell them, as a mining-engineer, was how best toget at it; and that at all events he was to begin work somewhere. This Mr. Geachrefused to do, trying to explain that the ravines had cut far deeper into the hill than hecould do in years, and that he would not throw away money or time on any suchuseless attempt. After this speech had been interpreted to him, the Governor saw it wasno use, and without saying a word turned his horse and rode away, leaving my friendsalone on the mountain. They all believed there was some conspiracy that theEnglishman would not find the copper, and that they had been cruelly betrayed. Mr. Geach then wrote to the Singapore merchant who was his employer, and it wasarranged that he should send the mechanics home again, and himself explore thecountry for minerals. At first the Government threw obstacles in his way and entirelyprevented his moving; but at length he was allowed to travel about, and for more than ayear he and his assistant explored the eastern part of Timor, crossing it in several placesfrom sea to sea, and ascending every important valley, without finding any mineralsthat would pay the expense of working. Copper ore exists in several places, but alwaystoo poor in quality. The best would pay well if situated in England; but in the interior

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of an utterly barren country, with roads to make, and all skilled labour and materials toimport, it would have been a losing concern. Gold also occurs, but very sparingly andof poor quality. A fine spring of pure petroleum was discovered far in the interior,where it can never be available until the country is civilized. The whole affair was adreadful disappointment to the Portuguese Government, who had considered it such acertain thing that they had contracted for the Dutch mail steamers to stop at Delli andseveral vessels from Australia were induced to come with miscellaneous cargoes, forwhich they expected to find a ready sale among the population at the newly- openedmines. The lumps of native copper are still, however, a mystery. Mr. Geach hasexamined the country in every direction without being able to trace their origin; so thatit seems probable that they result from the debris of old copper-bearing strata, and arenot really more abundant than gold nuggets are in Australia or California. A highreward was offered to any native who should find a piece and show the exact spotwhere he obtained it, but without effect. The mountaineers of Timor are a people of Papuan type, having rather slenderforms, bushy frizzled hair, and the skin of a dusky brown colour. They have the longnose with overhanging apex which is so characteristic of the Papuan, and so absolutelyunknown among races of Malayan origin. On the coast there has been much admixtureof some of the Malay races, and perhaps of Hindu, as well as of Portuguese. Thegeneral stature there is lower, the hair wavy instead of frizzled, and the features lessprominent. The houses are built on the ground, while the mountaineers raise theirs onposts three or four feet high. The common dress is a long cloth, twisted around thewaist and hanging to the knee, as shown in the illustration (page 305), copied from aphotograph. Both men carry the national umbrella, made of an entire fan-shaped palmleaf, carefully stitched at the fold of each leaflet to prevent splitting. This is opened out,and held sloping over the head and back during a shower. The small water-bucket ismade from an entire unopened leaf of the same palm, and the covered bamboo probablycontains honey for sale. A curious wallet is generally carried, consisting of a square ofstrongly woven cloth, the four corners of which are connected by cords, and often muchornamented with beads and tassels. Leaning against the house behind the figure on theright are bamboos, used instead of water jars. A prevalent custom is the "pomali," exactly equivalent to the "taboo" of the Pacificislanders, and equally respected. It is used on the commonest occasions, and a few palmleaves stuck outside a garden as a sign of the "pomali" will preserve its produce fromthieves as effectually as the threatening notice of man-traps, spring guns, or a savagedog would do with us. The dead are placed on a stage, raised six or eight feet above theground, sometimes open and sometimes covered with a roof. Here the body remainsuntil the relatives can afford to make a feast, when it is buried. The Timorese aregenerally great thieves, but are not bloodthirsty. They fight continually amongthemselves, and take every opportunity of kidnapping unprotected people of other tribesfor slaves; but Europeans may pass anywhere through the country in safety. Except fora few half-breeds in the town, there are no native Christians in the island of Timor. Thepeople retain their independence in a great measure, and both dislike and despise theirwould-be rulers, whether Portuguese or Dutch.

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TIMOR MEN (from a photograph)

The Portuguese government in Timor is a most miserable one. Nobody seems tocare the least about the improvement of the country, and at this time, after threehundred years of occupation, there has not been a mile of road made beyond the town,and there is not a solitary European resident anywhere in the interior. All theGovernment officials oppress and rob the natives as much as they can, and yet there isno care taken to render the town defensible should the Timorese attempt to attack it. Soignorant are the military officers, that having received a small mortar and some shells,no one could be found who knew how to use them; and during an insurrection of thenatives (while I was at Delli) the officer who expected to be sent against the insurgentswas instantly taken ill! And they were allowed to get possession of an important passwithin three miles of the town, where they could defend themselves against ten timesthe force. The result was that no provisions were brought down from the hills; a faminewas imminent; and the Governor had to send off to beg for supplies from the DutchGovernor of Amboyna. In its present state Timor is more trouble than profit to its Dutch and Portugueserulers, and it will continue to be so unless a different system is pursued. A few goodroads into the elevated districts of the interior; a conciliatory policy and strict justicetowards the natives, and the introduction of a good system of cultivation as in Java andnorthern Celebes, might yet make Timor a productive and valuable island. Rice growswell on the marshy flats, which often fringe the coast, and maize thrives in all thelowlands, and is the common food of the natives as it was when Dampier visited theisland in 1699. The small quantity of coffee now grown is of very superior quality, andit might be increased to any extent. Sheep thrive, and would always be valuable as

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fresh food for whalers and to supply the adjacent islands with mutton, if not for theirwool; although it is probable that on the mountains this product might soon be obtainedby judicious breeding. Horses thrive amazingly; and enough wheat might be grown tosupply the whole Archipelago if there were sufficient inducements to the natives toextend its cultivation, and good roads by which it could be cheaply transported to thecoast. Under such a system the natives would soon perceive that European governmentwas advantageous to them. They would begin to save money, and property beingrendered secure they would rapidly acquire new wants and new tastes, and becomelarge consumers of European goods. This would be a far surer source of profit to theirrulers than imposts and extortion, and would be at the same time more likely to producepeace and obedience than the mock-military rule which has hitherto proved mostineffective. To inaugurate such a system would however require an immediate outlay ofcapital, which neither Dutch nor Portuguese seem inclined to make, and a number ofhonest and energetic officials, which the latter nation at least seems unable to produce;so that it is much to be feared that Timor will for many years to come remain in itspresent state of chronic insurrection and mis-government. [footnote: When Mr. H.O.Forbes visited Delli in 1883, a slight improvement had taken place under a moreenergetic governor.] Morality at Delli is at as low an ebb as in the far interior of Brazil, and crimes areconnived at which would entail infamy and criminal prosecution in Europe. While Iwas there it was generally asserted and believed in the place, that two officers hadpoisoned the husbands of women with whom they were carrying on intrigues, and withwhom they immediately cohabited on the death of their rivals. Yet no one ever thoughtfor a moment of showing disapprobation of the crime, or even of considering it a crimeat all, the husbands in question being low half-castes, who of course ought to make wayfor the pleasures of their superiors. Judging from what I saw myself and by the descriptions of Mr. Geach, theindigenous vegetation of Timor is poor and monotonous. The lower ranges of the hillsare everywhere covered with scrubby Eucalypti, which only occasionally grow intolofty forest trees. Mingled with these in smaller quantities are acacias and the fragrantsandalwood, while the higher mountains, which rise to about six or seven thousand feet,are either covered with coarse grass or are altogether barren. In the lower grounds are avariety of weedy bushes, and open waste places are covered everywhere with a nettle-like wild mint. Here is found the beautiful crown lily, Gloriosa superba, winding amongthe bushes, and displaying its magnificent blossoms in great profusion. A wild vine alsooccurs, bearing great irregular bunches of hairy grapes of a coarse but very lusciousflavour. In some of the valleys where the vegetation is richer, thorny shrubs andclimbers are so abundant as to make the thickets quite impenetrable. [footnote: Mr H.O.Forbes collected plants assiduously for six months in the eastern portion of Timor, andobtained about 255 species of flowering plants, a very small number for a tropicalisland. The total number of species known from the whole island is considerably lessthan a thousand, although it was visited by the celebrated Robert Brown in 1803, andlater by numberous continental botanists and collectors. (See Forbes' Naturalist'sWanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, pp.497-523.)] The soil seems very poor, consisting chiefly of decomposing clayey shales; and thebare earth and rock is almost everywhere visible. The drought of the hot season is sosevere that most of the streams dry up in the plains before they reach the sea;everything becomes burned up, and the leaves of the larger trees fall as completely asin our winter. On the mountains from two to four thousand feet elevation there is amuch moister atmosphere, so that potatoes and other European products can be grownall the year round. Besides ponies, almost the only exports of Timor are sandalwoodand beeswax. The sandalwood (Santalum sp.) is the produce of a small tree, whichgrows sparingly in the mountains of Timor and many of the other islands in the far

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East. The wood is of a fine yellow colour, and possesses a well-known delightfulfragrance which is wonderfully permanent. It is brought down to Delli in small logs,and is chiefly exported to China, where it is largely used to burn in the temples, and inthe houses of the wealthy. The beeswax is a still more important and valuable product, formed by the wildbees (Apis dorsata), which build huge honeycombs, suspended in the open air from theunderside of the lofty branches of the highest trees. These are of a semicircular form,and often three or four feet in diameter. I once saw the natives take a bees' nest, and avery interesting sight it was. In the valley where I used to collect insects, I one day sawthree or four Timorese men and boys under a high tree, and, looking up, saw on a verylofty horizontal branch three large bees' combs. The tree was straight and smooth-barked and without a branch, until at seventy or eighty feet from the ground it gave outthe limb which the bees had chosen for their home. As the men were evidently lookingafter the bees, I waited to watch their operations. One of them first produced a longpiece of wood apparently the stem of a small tree or creeper, which he had broughtwith him, and began splitting it through in several directions, which showed that it wasvery tough and stringy. He then wrapped it in palm- leaves, which were secured bytwisting a slender creeper round them. He then fastened his cloth tightly round hisloins, and producing another cloth wrapped it around his head, neck, and body, and tiedit firmly around his neck, leaving his face, arms, and legs completely bare. Slung to hisgirdle he carried a long thin coil of cord; and while he had been making thesepreparations, one of his companions had cut a strong creeper or bush-rope eight or tenyards long, to one end of which the wood-torch was fastened, and lighted at thebottom, emitting a steady stream of smoke. Just above the torch a chopping- knife wasfastened by a short cord. The bee-hunter now took hold of the bush-rope just above the torch and passed theother end around the trunk of the tree, holding one end in each hand. Jerking it up thetree a little above his head he set his foot against the trunk, and leaning back beganwalking up it. It was wonderful to see the skill with which he took advantage of theslightest irregularities of the bark or obliquity of the stem to aid his ascent, jerking thestiff creeper a few feet higher when he had found a firm hold for his bare foot. It almostmade me giddy to look at him as he rapidly got up--thirty, forty, fifty feet above theground; and I kept wondering how he could possibly mount the next few feet of straightsmooth trunk. Still, however, he kept on with as much coolness and apparent certaintyas if he were going up a ladder, until he got within ten or fifteen feet of the bees. Thenhe stopped a moment, and took care to swing the torch (which hung just at his feet) alittle towards these dangerous insects, so as to send up the stream of smoke betweenhim and them. Still going on, in a minute more he brought himself under the limb, and,in a manner quite unintelligible to me, seeing that both hands were occupied insupporting himself by the creeper, managed to get upon it. By this time the bees began to be alarmed, and formed a dense buzzing swarm justover him, but he brought the torch up closer to him, and coolly brushed away those thatsettled on his arms or legs. Then stretching himself along the limb, he crept towards thenearest comb and swung the torch just under it. The moment the smoke touched it, itscolour changed in a most curious manner from black to white, the myriads of bees thathad covered it flying off and forming a dense cloud above and around. The man thenlay at full length along the limb, and brushed off the remaining bees with his hand, andthen drawing his knife cut off the comb at one slice close to the tree, and attaching thethin cord to it, let it down to his companions below. He was all this time enveloped in acrowd of angry bees, and how he bore their stings so coolly, and went on with his workat that giddy height so deliberately, was more than I could understand. The bees wereevidently not stupified by the smoke or driven away far by it, and it was impossible thatthe small stream from the torch could protect his whole body when at work. There werethree other combs on the same tree, and all were successively taken, and furnished the

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whole party with a luscious feast of honey and young bees, as well as a valuable lot ofwax. After two of the combs had been let down, the bees became rather numerousbelow, flying about wildly and stinging viciously. Several got about me, and I was soonstung, and had to run away, beating them off with my net and capturing them forspecimens. Several of them followed me for at least half a mile, getting into my hairand persecuting me most pertinaciously, so that I was more astonished than ever at theimmunity of the natives. I am inclined to think that slow and deliberate motion, and noattempt at escape, are perhaps the best safeguards. A bee settling on a passive nativeprobably behaves as it would on a tree or other inanimate substance, which it does notattempt to sting. Still they must often suffer, but they are used to the pain and learn tobear it impassively, as without doing so no man could be a bee-hunter.

CHAPTER XIV

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TIMOR GROUP

IF we look at a map of the Archipelago, nothing seems more unlikely than that theclosely connected chain of islands from Java to Timor should differ materially in theirnatural productions. There are, it is true, certain differences of climate and of physicalgeography, but these do not correspond with the division the naturalist is obliged tomake. Between the two ends of the chain there is a great contrast of climate, the westbeing exceedingly moist and leaving only a short and irregular dry season, the eastbeing as dry and parched up, and having but a short wet season. This change, however,occurs about the middle of Java, the eastern portion of that island having as stronglymarked seasons as Lombock and Timor. There is also a difference in physicalgeography; but this occurs at the eastern termination of the chain where the volcanoeswhich are the marked feature of Java, Bali, Lombock, Sumbawa, and Flores, turnnorthwards through Gunong Api to Banda, leaving Timor with only one volcanic peaknear its centre, while the main portion of the island consists of old sedimentary rocks.Neither of these physical differences corresponds with the remarkable change in naturalproductions which occurs at the Straits of Lombock, separating the island of that namefrom Bali, and which is at once so large in amount and of so fundamental a character,as to form an important feature in the zoological geography of our globe. The Dutch naturalist Zollinger, who resided a long time on the island of Bali,informs us that its productions completely assimilate with those of Java, and that he isnot aware of a single animal found in it which does not inhabit the larger island.During the few days which I stayed on the north coast of Bali on my way to Lombock,I saw several birds highly characteristic of Javan ornithology. Among these were theyellow-headed weaver (Ploceus hypoxantha), the black grasshopper thrush (Copsychusamoenus), the rosy barbet (Megalaema rosea), the Malay oriole (Oriolus horsfieldi), theJava ground starling (Sturnopastor jalla), and the Javanese three-toed woodpecker(Chrysonotus tiga). On crossing over to Lombock, separated from Bali by a strait lessthan twenty miles wide, I naturally expected to meet with some of these birds again;but during a stay there of three months I never saw one of them, but found a totallydifferent set of species, most of which were utterly unknown not only in Java, but alsoin Borneo, Sumatra, and Malacca. For example, among the commonest birds inLombock were white cockatoos and three species of Meliphagidae or honeysuckers,belonging to family groups which are entirely absent from the western or Indo-Malayanregion of the Archipelago. On passing to Flores and Timor the distinctness from theJavanese productions increases, and we find that these islands form a natural group,

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whose birds are related to those of Java and Australia, but are quite distinct from either.Besides my own collections in Lombock and Timor, my assistant Mr. Allen made agood collection in Flores; and these, with a few species obtained by the Dutchnaturalists, enable us to form a very good idea of the natural history of this group ofislands, and to derive therefrom some very interesting results. The number of birds known from these islands up to this date is: 63 fromLombock, 86 from Flores, and 118 from Timor; and from the whole group, 188species. [footnote: Four or five new species have been since added from the island ofSumbawa. (See Guillemard's Cruise of the Marchesa, Vol. II, p.364.)] With theexception of two or three species which appear to have been derived from theMoluccas, all these birds can be traced, either directly or by close allies, to Java on theone side or to Australia on the other; although no less than 82 of them are foundnowhere out of this small group of islands. There is not, however, a single genuspeculiar to the group, or even one which is largely represented in it by peculiar species;and this is a fact which indicates that the fauna is strictly derivative, and that its origindoes not go back beyond one of the most recent geological epochs. Of course there area large number of species (such as most of the waders, many of the raptorial birds,some of the kingfishers, swallows, and a few others), which range so widely over alarge part of the Archipelago that it is impossible to trace them as having come fromany one part rather than from another. There are fifty-seven such species in my list,and besides these there are thirty-five more which, though peculiar to the Timor group,are yet allied to wide- ranging forms. Deducting these ninety-two species, we havenearly a hundred birds left whose relations with those of other countries we will nowconsider. If we first take those species which, as far as we yet know, are absolutely confinedto each island, we find, in:

Lombock 4 belonging to 2 genera, of which 1 is Australian, 1 Indian.

Flores 12 " 7 " 5 are " 2 "

Timor 42 " 20 " 16 are " 4 "

The actual number of peculiar species in each island I do not suppose to be at allaccurately determined, since the rapidly increasing numbers evidently depend upon themore extensive collections made in Timor than in Flores, and in Flores than inLombock; but what we can depend more upon, and what is of more special interest, isthe greatly increased proportion of Australian forms and decreased proportion of Indianforms, as we go from west to east. We shall show this in a yet more striking manner bycounting the number of species identical with those of Java and Australia respectivelyin each island, thus:

In Lombock. In Flores. In Timor.

Javan birds 33 23 11

Australian birds 4 5 10

Here we see plainly the course of the migration which has been going on forhundreds or thousands of years, and is still going on at the present day. Birds enteringfrom Java are most numerous in the island nearest Java; each strait of the sea to becrossed to reach another island offers an obstacle, and thus a smaller number get overto the next island. [footnote: The names of all the birds inhabiting these islands are tobe found in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London" for the year 1863.]It will be observed that the number of birds that appear to have entered from Australiais much less than those which have come from Java; and we may at first sight supposethat this is due to the wide sea that separates Australia from Timor. But this would be ahasty and, as we shall soon see, an unwarranted supposition. Besides these birds

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identical with species inhabiting Java and Australia, there are a considerable number ofothers very closely allied to species peculiar to those countries, and we must take thesealso into account before we form any conclusion on the matter. It will be as well tocombine these with the former table thus:

In Lombock. In Flores. In Timor.

Javan birds 33 23 11

Closely allied to Javan birds 1 5 6

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 28 17

Australian birds 4 5 10

Closely allied to Australian birds 3 9 26

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 14 36

We now see that the total number of birds which seem to have been derived fromJava and Australia is very nearly equal, but there is this remarkable difference betweenthe two series: that whereas the larger proportion by far of the Java set are identicalwith those still inhabiting that country, an almost equally large proportion of theAustralian set are distinct, though often very closely allied species. It is to be observedalso, that these representative or allied species diminish in number as they recede fromAustralia, while they increase in number as they recede from Java. There are tworeasons for this, one being that the islands decrease rapidly in size from Timor toLombock, and can therefore support a decreasing number of species; the other and themore important is, that the distance of Australia from Timor cuts off the supply of freshimmigrants, and has thus allowed variation to have full play; while the vicinity ofLombock to Bali and Java has allowed a continual influx of fresh individuals which, bycrossing with the earlier immigrants, has checked variation. To simplify our view of the derivative origin of the birds of these islands let ustreat them as a whole, and thus perhaps render more intelligible their respectiverelations to Java and Australia. The Timor group of islands contains:

Javan birds 36 Australian birds 13

Closely allied species 11 Closely allied species 35

Derived from Java 47 Derived from Australia 48

We have here a wonderful agreement in the number of birds belonging toAustralian and Javanese groups, but they are divided in exactly a reverse manner, three-fourths of the Javan birds being identical species and one-fourth representatives, whileonly one-fourth of the Australian forms are identical and three-fourths representatives.This is the most important fact which we can elicit from a study of the birds of theseislands, since it gives us a very complete clue to much of their past history. [footnote:The new species of birds discovered in the group since this was written are so few, andso equally distributed between the two regions, that they will not affect the conclusionshere arrived at.] Change of species is a slow process--on that we are all agreed, though we maydiffer about how it has taken place. The fact that the Australian species in these islandshave mostly changed, while the Javan species have almost all remained unchanged,would therefore indicate that the district was first peopled from Australia. But, for thisto have been the case, the physical conditions must have been very different from whatthey are now. Nearly three hundred miles of open sea now separate Australia fromTimor, which island is connected with Java by a chain of broken land divided by straits

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which are nowhere more than about twenty miles wide. Evidently there are now greatfacilities for the natural productions of Java to spread over and occupy the whole ofthese islands, while those of Australia would find very great difficulty in getting across.To account for the present state of things, we should naturally suppose that Australiawas once much more closely connected with Timor than it is at present; and that thiswas the case is rendered highly probable by the fact of a submarine bank extendingalong all the north and west coast of Australia, and at one place approaching withintwenty miles of the coast of Timor. This indicates a recent subsidence of NorthAustralia, which probably once extended as far as the edge of this bank, between whichand Timor there is an unfathomed depth of ocean. I do not think that Timor was ever actually connected with Australia, because sucha large number of very abundant and characteristic groups of Australian birds are quiteabsent, and not a single Australian mammal has entered Timor-- which would certainlynot have been the case had the lands been actually united. Such groups as the bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus), the black and red cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus), the blue wrens(Malurus), the crowshrikes (Cracticus), the Australian shrikes (Falcunculus andColluricincla), and many others, which abound all over Australia, would certainly havespread into Timor if it had been united to that country, or even if for any long time ithad approached nearer to it than twenty miles. Neither do any of the most characteristicgroups of Australian insects occur in Timor; so that everything combines to indicatethat a strait of the sea has always separated it from Australia, but that at one period thisstrait was reduced to a width of about twenty miles. But at the time when this narrowing of the sea took place in one direction, theremust have been a greater separation at the other end of the chain, or we should findmore equality in the numbers of identical and representative species derived from eachextremity. It is true that the widening of the strait at the Australian end by subsidence,would, by putting a stop to immigration and intercrossing of individuals from themother country, have allowed full scope to the causes which have led to themodification of the species; while the continued stream of immigrants from Java,would, by continual intercrossing, check such modification. This view will not,however, explain all the facts; for the character of the fauna of the Timorese group isindicated as well by the forms which are absent from it as by those which it contains,and is by this kind of evidence shown to be much more Australian than Indian. No lessthan twenty-nine genera, all more or less abundant in Java, and most of which rangeover a wide area, are altogether absent; while of the equally diffused Australian generaonly about fourteen are wanting. This would clearly indicate that there has been, untilrecently, a wide separation from Java; and the fact that the islands of Bali andLombock are small, and are almost wholly volcanic, and contain a smaller number ofmodified forms than the other islands, would point them out as of comparatively recentorigin. A wide arm of the sea probably occupied their place at the time when Timorwas in the closest proximity to Australia; and as the subterranean fires were slowlypiling up the now fertile islands of Bali and Lombock, the northern shores of Australiawould be sinking beneath the ocean. Some such changes as have been here indicated,enable us to understand how it happens, that though the birds of this group are on thewhole almost as much Indian as Australian, yet the species which are peculiar to thegroup are mostly Australian in character; and also why such a large number of commonIndian forms which extend through Java to Bali, should not have transmitted a singlerepresentative to the island further east. The Mammalia of Timor as well as those of the other islands of the group areexceedingly scanty, with the exception of bats. These last are tolerably abundant, andno doubt many more remain to be discovered. Out of fifteen species known fromTimor, nine are found also in Java, or the islands west of it; three are Moluccan species,most of which are also found in Australia, and the rest are peculiar to Timor. The land mammals are only seven in number, as follows: 1. The common monkey,

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Macacus cynomolgus, which is found in all the Indo-Malayan islands, and has spreadfrom Java through Bali and Lombock to Timor. This species is very frequent on thebanks of rivers, and may have been conveyed from island to island on trees carrieddown by hoods. 2. Paradoxurus fasciatus; a civet cat, very common over a large part ofthe Archipelago. 3. Felis megalotis; a tiger cat, said to be peculiar to Timor, where itexists only in the interior, and is very rare. Its nearest allies are in Java. 4. Cervustimoriensis; a deer, closely allied to the Javan and Moluccan species, if distinct. 5. Awild pig, Sus timoriensis; perhaps the same as some of the Moluccan species. 6. Ashrew mouse, Sorex tenuis; supposed to be peculiar to Timor. 7. An Eastern opossum,Cuscus orientalis; found also in the Moluccas, if not a distinct species. The fact that not one of these species is Australia or nearly allied to any Australianform, is strongly corroborative of the opinion that Timor has never formed a part of thatcountry; as in that case some kangaroo or other marsupial animal would almostcertainly be found there. It is no doubt very difficult to account for the presence ofsome of the few mammals that do exist in Timor, especially the tiger cat and the deer.We must consider, however, that during thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousandsof years, these islands and the seas between them have been subjected to volcanicaction. The land has been raised and has sunk again; the straits have been narrowed orwidened; many of the islands may have been joined and dissevered again; violentfloods have again and again devastated the mountains and plains, carrying out to seahundreds of forest trees, as has often happened during volcanic eruptions in Java; and itdoes not seem improbable that once in a thousand, or ten thousand years, there shouldhave occurred such a favourable combination of circumstances as would lead to themigration of two or three land animals from one island to another. This is all that weneed ask to account for the very scanty and fragmentary group of Mammalia whichnow inhabit the large island of Timor. The deer may very probably have beenintroduced by man, for the Malays often keep tame fawns; and it may not require athousand, or even five hundred years, to establish new characters in an animal removedto a country so different in climate and vegetation as is Timor from the Moluccas. Ihave not mentioned horses, which are often thought to be wild in Timor, because thereare no grounds whatever for such a belief. The Timor ponies have every one an owner,and are quite as much domesticated animals as the cattle on a South Americanhacienda. I have dwelt at some length upon the origin of the Timorese fauna because itappears to be a most interesting and instructive problem. It is very seldom that we cantrace the animals of a district so clearly as we can in this case to two definite sources,and still more rarely that they furnish such decisive evidence of the time, the manner,and the proportions of their introduction. We have here a group of Oceanic Islands inminiature--islands which have never formed part of the adjacent lands, although soclosely approaching them; and their productions have the characteristics of trueOceanic islands slightly modified. These characteristics are: the absence all Mammaliaexcept bats; and the occurrence of peculiar species of birds, insects, and land shells,which, though found nowhere else, are plainly related to those of the nearest land.Thus, we have an entire absence of Australian mammals, and the presence of only afew stragglers from the west which can be accounted for in the manner alreadyindicated. Bats are tolerably abundant. Birds have many peculiar species, with a decided relationship to those of the twonearest masses of land. The insects have similar relations with the birds. As anexample, four species of the Papilionidae are peculiar to Timor, three others are alsofound in Java, and one in Australia. Of the four peculiar species two are decidedmodifications of Javanese forms, while the others seen allied to those of the Moluccasand Celebes. The very few land shells known are all, curiously enough, allied to oridentical with Moluccan or Celebes forms. The Pieridae (white and yellow butterflies)which wander more, and from frequenting open grounds, are more liable to be blown

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out to sea, seem about equally related to those of Java, Australia, and the Moluccas. It has been objected to in Mr. Darwin's theory, of Oceanic Islands having neverbeen connected with the mainland, that this would imply that their animal populationwas a matter of chance; it has been termed the "flotsam and jetsam theory," and it hasbeen maintained that nature does not work by the "chapter of accidents." But in thecase which I have here described, we have the most positive evidence that such hasbeen the mode of peopling the islands. Their productions are of that miscellaneouscharacter which we should expect front such an origin; and to suppose that they havebeen portions of Australia or of Java will introduce perfectly gratuitous difficulties, andrender it quite impossible to explain those curious relations which the best knowngroup of animals (the birds) have been shown to exhibit. On the other hand, the depthof the surrounding seas, the form of the submerged banks, and the volcanic character ofmost of the islands, all point to an independent origin. Before concluding, I must make one remark to avoid misapprehension. When I saythat Timor has never formed part of Australia, I refer only to recent geological epochs.In Secondary or even Eocene or Miocene times, Timor and Australia may have beenconnected; but if so, all record of such a union has been lost by subsequentsubmergence, and in accounting for the present land-inhabitants of any country wehave only to consider those changes which have occurred since its last elevation abovethe waters since such last elevation, I feel confident that Timor has not formed part ofAustralia.

THE CELEBES GROUP

CHAPTER XV

CELEBES

(MACASSAR, SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER, 1856)

I LEFT Lombock on the 30th of August, and reached Macassar in three days. Itwas with great satisfaction that I stepped on a shore which I had been vainly trying toreach since February, and where I expected to meet with so much that was new andinteresting. The coast of this part of Celebes is low and flat, lined with trees and villages so asto conceal the interior, except at occasional openings which show a wide extent of careand marshy rice-fields. A few hills of no great height were visible in the background;but owing to the perpetual haze over the land at this time of the year, I could nowherediscern the high central range of the peninsula, or the celebrated peak of Bontyne at itssouthern extremity. In the roadstead of Macassar there was a fine 42-gun frigate, theguardship of the place, as well as a small war steamer and three or four little cuttersused for cruising after the pirates which infest these seas. There were also a few square-rigged trading-vessels, and twenty or thirty native praus of various sizes. I broughtletters of introduction to a Dutch gentleman, Mr. Mesman, and also to a Danishshopkeeper, who could both speak English and who promised to assist me in finding aplace to stay, suitable for my pursuits. In the meantime, I went to a kind of clubhouse,in default of any hotel in the place. Macassar was the first Dutch town I had visited, and I found it prettier and cleaner

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than any I had yet seen in the East. The Dutch have some admirable local regulations.All European houses must be kept well white-washed, and every person must, at fourin the afternoon, water the road in front of his house. The streets are kept clear ofrefuse, and covered drains carry away all impurities into large open sewers, into whichthe tide is admitted at high-water and allowed to flow out when it has ebbed, carryingall the sewage with it into the sea. The town consists chiefly of one long narrow streetalong the seaside, devoted to business, and principally occupied by the Dutch andChinese merchants' offices and warehouses, and the native shops or bazaars. Thisextends northwards for more than a mile, gradually merging into native houses often ofa most miserable description, but made to have a neat appearance by being all built upexactly to the straight line of the street, and being generally backed by fruit trees. Thisstreet is usually thronged with a native population of Bugis and Macassar men, whowear cotton trousers about twelve inches long, covering only from the hip to half-waydown the thigh, and the universal Malay sarong, of gay checked colours, worn aroundthe waist or across the shoulders in a variety of ways. Parallel to this street run twoshort ones which form the old Dutch town, and are enclosed by gates. These consist ofprivate houses, and at their southern end is the fort, the church, and a road at rightangles to the beach, containing the houses of the Governor and of the principalofficials. Beyond the fort, again along the beach, is another long street of native hutsand many country-houses of the tradesmen and merchants. All around extend the flatrice-fields, now bare and dry and forbidding, covered with dusty stubble and weeds. Afew months back these were a mass of verdure, and their barren appearance at thisseason offered a striking contrast to the perpetual crops on the same kind of country inLombock and Bali, where the seasons are exactly similar, but where an elaboratesystem of irrigation produces the effect of a perpetual spring. The day after my arrival I paid a visit of ceremony to the Governor, accompaniedby my friend the Danish merchant, who spoke excellent English. His Excellency wasvery polite, and offered me every facility for travelling about the country andprosecuting my researches in natural history. We conversed in French, which all Dutchofficials speak very well. Finding it very inconvenient and expensive to stay in the town, I removed at theend of a week to a little bamboo house, kindly offered me by Mr. Mesman. It wassituated about two miles away, on a small coffee plantation and farm, and about a milebeyond Mr. M.'s own country-house. It consisted of two rooms raised about seven feetabove the ground, the lower part being partly open (and serving excellently to skinbirds in) and partly used as a granary for rice. There was a kitchen and other outhouses,and several cottages nearby, occupied by men in Mr. M.'s employ. After being settled a few days in my new house, I found that no collections couldbe made without going much further into the country. The rice-fields for some milesaround resembled English stubbles late in autumn, and were almost as unproductive ofbird or insect life. There were several native villages scattered about, so embosomed infruit trees that at a distance they looked like clumps or patches of forest. These weremy only collecting places; but they produced a very limited number of species, andwere soon exhausted. Before I could move to any more promising district it wasnecessary to obtain permission from the Rajah of Goa, whose territories approach towithin two miles of the town of Macassar. I therefore presented myself at theGovernor's office and requested a letter to the Rajah, to claim his protection, andpermission to travel in his territories whenever I might wish to do so. This wasimmediately granted, and a special messenger was sent with me to carry the letter. My friend Mr. Mesman kindly lent me a horse, and accompanied me on my visit tothe Rajah, with whom he was great friends. We found his Majesty seated out of doors,watching the erection of a new house. He was naked from the waist up, wearing onlythe usual short trousers and sarong. Two chairs were brought out for us, but all thechiefs and other natives were seated on the ground. The messenger, squatting down at

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the Rajah's feet, produced the letter, which was sewn up in a covering of yellow silk. Itwas handed to one of the chief officers, who ripped it open and returned it to the Rajah,who read it, and then showed it to Mr. M., who both speaks and reads the Macassarlanguage fluently, and who explained fully what I required. Permission wasimmediately granted me to go where I liked in the territories of Goa, but the Rajahdesired, that should I wish to stay any time at a place I would first give him notice, inorder that he might send someone to see that no injury was done me. Some wine wasthen brought us, and afterwards some detestable coffee and wretched sweetmeats, for itis a fact that I have never tasted good coffee where people grow it themselves. Although this was the height of the dry season, and there was a fine wind all day, itwas by no means a healthy time of year. My boy Ali had hardly been a day on shorewhen he was attacked by fever, which put me to great inconvenience, as at the housewhere I was staying, nothing could be obtained but at mealtime. After having curedAli, and with much difficulty got another servant to cook for me, I was no soonersettled at my country abode than the latter was attacked with the same disease; and,having a wife in the town, left me. Hardly was he gone than I fell ill myself with strongintermittent fever every other day. In about a week I got over it, by a liberal use ofquinine, when scarcely was I on my legs than Ali again became worse than ever. Ali'sfever attacked him daily, but early in the morning he was pretty well, and then managedto cook enough for me for the day. In a week I cured him, and also succeeded ingetting another boy who could cook and shoot, and had no objection to go into theinterior. His name was Baderoon, and as he was unmarried and had been used to aroving life, having been several voyages to North Australia to catch trepang or "bechede mer", I was in hopes of being able to keep him. I also got hold of a little impudentrascal of twelve or fourteen, who could speak some Malay, to carry my gun or insect-net and make himself generally useful. Ali had by this time become a pretty good bird-skinner, so that I was fairly supplied with servants. I made many excursions into the country, in search of a good station for collectingbirds and insects. Some of the villages a few miles inland are scattered about in woodyground which has once been virgin forest, but of which the constituent trees have beenfor the most part replaced by fruit trees, and particularly by the large palm, Arengasaccharifera, from which wine and sugar are made, and which also produces a coarseblack fibre used for cordage. That necessary of life, the bamboo, has also beenabundantly planted. In such places I found a good many birds, among which were thefine cream-coloured pigeon, Carpophaga luctuosa, and the rare blue-headed roller,Coracias temmincki, which has a most discordant voice, and generally goes in pairs,flying from tree to tree, and exhibiting while at rest that all- in-a-heap appearance andjerking motion of the head and tail which are so characteristic of the great Fissirostralgroup to which it belongs. From this habit alone, the kingfishers, bee- eaters, rollers,trogons, and South American puff-birds, might be grouped together by a person whohad observed them in a state of nature, but who had never had an opportunity ofexamining their form and structure in detail. Thousands of crows, rather smaller thanour rook, keep up a constant cawing in these plantations; the curious wood-swallows(Artami), which closely resemble swallows in their habits and flight but differ much inform and structure, twitter from the tree-tops; while a lyre-tailed drongo-shrike, withbrilliant black plumage and milk-white eyes, continually deceives the naturalist by thevariety of its unmelodious notes. In the more shady parts butterflies were tolerably abundant; the most commonbeing species of Euplaea and Danais, which frequent gardens and shrubberies, andowing to their weak flight are easily captured. A beautiful pale blue and black butterfly,which flutters along near the ground among the thickets, and settles occasionally uponflowers, was one of the most striking; and scarcely less so, was one with a rich orangeband on a blackish ground--these both belong to the Pieridae, the group that containsour common white butterflies, although differing so much from them in appearance.

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Both were quite new to European naturalists. [footnote: The former has been namedEronia tritaea; the latter Tachyris ithome.] Now and then I extended my walks somemiles further, to the only patch of true forest I could find, accompanied by my two boyswith guns and insect-net. We used to start early, taking our breakfast with us, andeating it wherever we could find shade and water. At such times my Macassar boyswould put a minute fragment of rice and meat or fish on a leaf, and lay it on a stone orstump as an offering to the deity of the spot; for though nominal Mahometans theMacassar people retain many pagan superstitions, and are but lax in their religiousobservances. Pork, it is true, they hold in abhorrence, but will not refuse wine whenoffered them, and consume immense quantities of "sagueir," or palm-wine, which isabout as intoxicating as ordinary beer or cider. When well made it is a very refreshingdrink, and we often took a draught at some of the little sheds dignified by the name ofbazaars, which are scattered about the country wherever there is any traffic. One day Mr. Mesman told me of a larger piece of forest where he sometimes wentto shoot deer, but he assured me it was much further off, and that there were no birds.However, I resolved to explore it, and the next morning at five o'clock we started,carrying our breakfast and some other provisions with us, and intending to stay thenight at a house on the borders of the wood. To my surprise two hours' hard walkingbrought us to this house, where we obtained permission to pass the night. We thenwalked on, Ali and Baderoon with a gun each, Paso carrying our provisions and myinsect-box, while I took only my net and collecting-bottle and determined to devotemyself wholly to the insects. Scarcely had I entered the forest when I found somebeautiful little green and gold speckled weevils allied to the genus Pachyrhynchus, agroup which is almost confined to the Philippine Islands, and is quite unknown inBorneo, Java, or Malacca. The road was shady and apparently much trodden by horsesand cattle, and I quickly obtained some butterflies I had not before met with. Soon acouple of reports were heard, and coming up to my boys I found they had shot twospecimens of one of the finest of known cuckoos, Phoenicophaus callirhynchus. Thisbird derives its name from its large bill being coloured of a brilliant yellow, red, andblack, in about equal proportions. The tail is exceedingly long, and of a fine metallicpurple, while the plumage of the body is light coffee brown. It is one of thecharacteristic birds of the island of Celebes, to which it is confined. After sauntering along for a couple of hours we reached a small river, so deep thathorses could only cross it by swimming, so we had to turn back; but as we were gettinghungry, and the water of the almost stagnant river was too muddy to drink, we wenttowards a house a few hundred yards off. In the plantation we saw a small raised hut,which we thought would do well for us to breakfast in, so I entered, and found inside ayoung woman with an infant. She handed me a jug of water, but looked very muchfrightened. However, I sat down on the doorstep, and asked for the provisions. Inhanding them up, Baderoon saw the infant, and started back as if he had seen a serpent.It then immediately struck me that this was a hut in which, as among the Dyaks ofBorneo and many other savage tribes, the women are secluded for some time after thebirth of their child, and that we did very wrong to enter it; so we walked off and askedpermission to eat our breakfast in the family mansion close at hand, which was ofcourse granted. While I ate, three men, two women, and four children watched everymotion, and never took eyes off me until I had finished. On our way back in the heat of the day, I had the good fortune to capture threespecimens of a fine Ornithoptera, the largest, the most perfect, and the most beautifulof butterflies. I trembled with excitement as I took the first out of my net and found itto be in perfect condition. The ground colour of this superb insect was a rich shiningbronzy black, the lower wings delicately grained with white, and bordered by a row oflarge spots of the most brilliant satiny yellow. The body was marked with shaded spotsof white, yellow, and fiery orange, while the head and thorax were intense black. Onthe under-side the lower wings were satiny white, with the marginal spots half black

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and half yellow. I gazed upon my prize with extreme interest, as I at first thought it wasquite a new species. It proved however to be a variety of Ornithoptera remus, one ofthe rarest and most remarkable species of this highly esteemed group. I also obtainedseveral other new and pretty butterflies. When we arrived at our lodging-house, beingparticularly anxious about my insect treasures, I suspended the box from a bamboo onwhich I could detect no sign of ants, and then began skinning some of my birds. Duringmy work I often glanced at my precious box to see that no intruders had arrived, untilafter a longer spell of work than usual I looked again, and saw to my horror that acolumn of small red ants were descending the string and entering the box. They werealready busy at work at the bodies of my treasures, and another half-hour would haveseen my whole day's collection destroyed. As it was, I had to take every insect out,clean them thoroughly as well as the box, and then seek a place of safety for them. Asthe only effectual one, I begged a plate and a basin from my host, filled the formerwith water, and standing the latter in it placed my box on the top, and then felt securefor the night; a few inches of clean water or oil being the only barrier these terriblepests are not able to pass. On returning home to Mamajam (as my house was called) I had a slight return ofintermittent fever, which kept me some days indoors. As soon as I was well, I againwent to Goa, accompanied by Mr. Mesman, to beg the Rajah's assistance in getting asmall house built for me near the forest. We found him at a cock-fight in a shed nearhis palace, which however, he immediately left to receive us, and walked with us up aninclined plane of boards which serves for stairs to his house. This was large, well-built,and lofty, with bamboo floor and glass windows. The greater part of it seemed to beone large hall divided by the supporting posts. Near a window sat the Queen, squattingon a rough wooden arm-chair, chewing the everlasting sirih and betel-nut, while abrass spittoon by her side and a sirih-box in front were ready to administer to herwants. The Rajah seated himself opposite to her in a similar chair, and a similarspittoon and sirih-box were held by a little boy squatting at his side. Two other chairswere brought for us. Several young women, some the Rajah's daughters, others slaves,were standing about; a few were working at frames making sarongs, but most of themwere idle. And here I might (if I followed the example of most travellers) launch out into aglowing description of the charms of these damsels, the elegant costumes they wore,and the gold and silver ornaments with which they were adorned. The jacket or body ofpurple gauze would figure well in such a description, allowing the heaving bosom to beseen beneath it, while "sparkling eyes," and "jetty tresses," and "tiny feet" might bethrown in profusely. But, alas! regard for truth will not permit me to expatiate tooadmiringly on such topics, determined as I am to give as far as I can a true picture ofthe people and places I visit. The princesses were, it is true, sufficiently good- looking,yet neither their persons nor their garments had that appearance of freshness andcleanliness without which no other charms can be contemplated with pleasure.Everything had a dingy and faded appearance, very disagreeable and unroyal to aEuropean eye. The only thing that excited some degree of admiration was the quiet anddignified manner of the Rajah and the great respect always paid to him. None can standerect in his presence, and when he sits on a chair, all present (Europeans of courseexcepted) squat upon the ground. The highest seat is literally, with these people, theplace of honour and the sign of rank. So unbending are the rules in this respect, thatwhen an English carriage which the Rajah of Lombock bad sent for arrived, it wasfound impossible to use it because the driver's seat was the highest, and it had to bekept as a show in its coach house. On being told the object of my visit, the Rajah atonce said that he would order a house to be emptied for me, which would be muchbetter than building one, as that would take a good deal of time. Bad coffee andsweetmeats were given us as before. Two days afterwards, I called on the Rajah to ask him to send a guide with me to

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show me the house I was to occupy. He immediately ordered a man to be sent for, gavehim instructions, and in a few minutes we were on our way. My conductor could speakno Malay, so we walked on in silence for an hour, when we turned into a pretty goodhouse and I was asked to sit down. The head man of the district lived here, and inabout half an hour we started again, and another hour's walk brought us to the villagewhere I was to be lodged. We went to the residence of the village chief, who conversedwith my conductor for some time. Getting tired, I asked to be shown the house that was prepared for me, but the onlyreply I could get was, "Wait a little," and the parties went on talking as before. So I toldthem I could not wait, as I wanted to see the house and then to go shooting in theforest. This seemed to puzzle them, and at length, in answer to questions, very poorlyexplained by one or two bystanders who knew a little Malay, it came out that no housewas ready, and no one seemed to have the least idea where to get one. As I did notwant to trouble the Rajah any more, I thought it best to try to frighten them a little; so Itold them that if they did not immediately find me a house as the Rajah had ordered, Ishould go back and complain to him, but that if a house was found me I would pay forthe use of it. This had the desired effect, and one of the head men of the village askedme to go with him and look for a house. He showed me one or two of the mostmiserable and ruinous description, which I at once rejected, saying, "I must have agood one, and near to the forest." The next he showed me suited very well, so I toldhim to see that it was emptied the next day, for that the day after I should come andoccupy it. On the day mentioned, as I was not quite ready to go, I sent my two Macassar boyswith brooms to sweep out the house thoroughly. They returned in the evening and toldme that when they got there the house was inhabited, and not a single article removed.However, on hearing they had come to clean and take possession, the occupants made amove, but with a good deal of grumbling, which made me feel rather uneasy as to howthe people generally might take my intrusion into their village. The next morning wetook our baggage on three packhorses, and, after a few break- downs, arrived aboutnoon at our destination. After getting all my things set straight, and having made a hasty meal, I determinedif possible to make friends with the people. I therefore sent for the owner of the houseand as many of his acquaintances as liked to come, to have a "bitchara," or talk. Whenthey were all seated, I gave them a little tobacco all around, and having my boyBaderoon for interpreter, tried to explain to them why I came there; that I was verysorry to turn them out of the house, but that the Rajah had ordered it rather than build anew one, which was what I had asked for, and then placed five silver rupees in theowner's hand as one month's rent. I then assured them that my being there would be abenefit to them, as I should buy their eggs and fowls and fruit; and if their childrenwould bring me shells and insects, of which I showed them specimens, they also mightearn a good many coppers. After all this had been fully explained to them, with a longtalk and discussion between every sentence, I could see that I had made a favourableimpression; and that very afternoon, as if to test my promise to buy even miserablelittle snail-shells, a dozen children came one after another, bringing me a fewspecimens each of a small Helix, for which they duly received "coppers," and wentaway amazed but rejoicing. A few days' exploration made me well acquainted with the surrounding country. Iwas a long way from the road in the forest which I had first visited, and for somedistance around my house were old clearings and cottages. I found a few goodbutterflies, but beetles were very scarce, and even rotten timber and newly- felled trees(generally so productive) here produced scarcely anything. This convinced me that therewas not a sufficient extent of forest in the neighbourhood to make the place worthstaying at long, but it was too late now to think of going further, as in about a monththe wet season would begin; so I resolved to stay here and get what was to be had.

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Unfortunately, after a few days I became ill with a low fever which produced excessivelassitude and disinclination to all exertion. In vain I endeavoured to shake it off; all Icould do was to stroll quietly each day for an hour about the gardens near, and to thewell, where some good insects were occasionally to be found; and the rest of the day towait quietly at home, and receive what beetles and shells my little corps of collectorsbrought me daily. I imputed my illness chiefly to the water, which was procured fromshallow wells, around which there was almost always a stagnant puddle in which thebuffaloes wallowed. Close to my house was an enclosed mudhole where three buffaloeswere shut up every night, and the effluvia from which freely entered through the openbamboo floor. My Malay boy Ali was affected with the same illness, and as he was mychief bird-skinner I got on but slowly with my collections. The occupations and mode of life of the villagers differed but little from those ofall other Malay races. The time of the women was almost wholly occupied in poundingand cleaning rice for daily use, in bringing home firewood and water, and in cleaning,dyeing, spinning, and weaving the native cotton into sarongs. The weaving is done inthe simplest kind of frame stretched on the floor; and is a very slow and tediousprocess. To form the checked pattern in common use, each patch of coloured threadshas to be pulled up separately by hand and the shuttle passed between them; so thatabout an inch a day is the usual progress in stuff a yard and a half wide. The mencultivate a little sirih (the pungent pepper leaf used for chewing with betel-nut) and afew vegetables; and once a year rudely plough a small patch of ground with theirbuffaloes and plant rice, which then requires little attention until harvest time. Now andthen they have to see to the repairs of their houses, and make mats, baskets, or otherdomestic utensils, but a large part of their time is passed in idleness. Not a single person in the village could speak more than a few words of Malay,and hardly any of the people appeared to have seen a European before. One mostdisagreeable result of this was that I excited terror alike in man and beast. Wherever Iwent, dogs barked, children screamed, women ran away, and men stared as though Iwere some strange and terrible cannibal or monster. Even the pack-horses on the roadsand paths would start aside when I appeared and rush into the jungle; and as to thosehorrid, ugly brutes, the buffaloes, they could never be approached by me; not for fear ofmy own but of others' safety. They would first stick out their necks and stare at me, andthen on a nearer view break loose from their halters or tethers, and rush away helter-skelter as if a demon were after them, without any regard for what might be in theirway. Whenever I met buffaloes carrying packs along a pathway, or being driven hometo the village, I had to turn aside into the jungle and hide myself until they had passed,to avoid a catastrophe which would increase the dislike with which I was alreadyregarded. Everyday about noon the buffaloes were brought into the villa, and weretethered in the shade around the houses; and then I had to creep about like a thief bybackways, for no one could tell what mischief they might do to children and houseswere I to walk among them. If I came suddenly upon a well where women weredrawing water or children bathing, a sudden flight was the certain result; which thingsoccurring day after day, were very unpleasant to a person who does not like to bedisliked, and who had never been accustomed to be treated as an ogre. About the middle of November, finding my health no better, and insects, birds, andshells all very scarce, I determined to return to Mamajam, and pack up my collectionsbefore the heavy rains commenced. The wind bad already begun to blow from the west,and many signs indicated that the rainy season might set in earlier than usual; and theneverything becomes very damp, and it is almost impossible to dry collections properly.My kind friend Mr. Mesman again lent me his pack-horses, and with the assistance of afew men to carry my birds and insects, which I did not like to trust on horses' backs, wegot everything home safe. Few can imagine the luxury it was to stretch myself on asofa, and to take my supper comfortably at table seated in my easy bamboo chair, afterhaving for five weeks taken all my meals uncomfortably on the floor. Such things are

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trifles in health, but when the body is weakened by disease the habits of a lifetimecannot be so easily set aside. My house, like all bamboo structures in this country, was a leaning one, the strongwesterly winds of the wet season having set all its posts out of the perpendicular tosuch a degree as to make me think it might someday possibly go over altogether. It is aremarkable thing that the natives of Celebes have not discovered the use of diagonalstruts in strengthening buildings. I doubt if there is a native house in the country twoyears old and at all exposed to the wind, which stands upright; and no wonder, as theymerely consist of posts and joists all placed upright or horizontal, and fastened rudelytogether with rattans. They may be seen in every stage of the process of tumblingdown, from the first slight inclination, to such a dangerous slope that it becomes anotice to quit to the occupiers. The mechanical geniuses of the country have only discovered two ways ofremedying the evil. One is, after it has commenced, to tie the house to a post in theground on the windward side by a rattan or bamboo cable. The other is a preventive,but how they ever found it out and did not discover the true way is a mystery. This planis, to build the house in the usual way, but instead of having all the principal supportsof straight posts, to have two or three of them chosen as crooked as possible. I hadoften noticed these crooked posts in houses, but imputed it to the scarcity of good,straight timber, until one day I met some men carrying home a post shaped somethinglike a dog's hind leg, and inquired of my native boy what they were going to do withsuch a piece of wood. "To make a post for a house," said he. "But why don't they get astraight one, there are plenty here?" said I. "Oh," replied he, "they prefer some like thatin a house, because then it won't fall," evidently imputing the effect to some occultproperty of crooked timber. A little consideration and a diagram. will, however, show,that the effect imputed to the crooked post may be really produced by it. A true squarechanges its figure readily into a rhomboid or oblique figure, but when one or two of theuprights are bent or sloping, and placed so as to oppose each other, the effect of a strutis produced, though in a rude and clumsy manner. Just before I had left Mamajam the people had sown a considerable quantity ofmaize, which appears above ground in two or three days, and in favourable seasonsripens in less than two months. Owing to a week's premature rains the ground was allflooded when I returned, and the plants just coming into ear were yellow and dead. Nota grain would be obtained by the whole village, but luckily it is only a luxury, not anecessity of life. The rain was the signal for ploughing to begin, in order to sow rice onall the flat lands between us and the town. The plough used is a rude woodeninstrument with a very short single handle, a tolerably well-shaped coulter, and thepoint formed of a piece of hard palm-wood fastened in with wedges. One or twobuffaloes draw it at a very slow pace. The seed is sown broadcast, and a rude woodenharrow is used to smooth the surface. By the beginning of December the regular wet season had set in. Westerly windsand driving rains sometimes continued for days together; the fields for miles aroundwere under water, and the ducks and buffaloes enjoyed themselves amazingly. Allalong the road to Macassar, ploughing was daily going on in the mud and water,through which the wooden plough easily makes its way, the ploughman holding theplough-handle with one hand while a long bamboo in the other serves to guide thebuffaloes. These animals require an immense deal of driving to get them on at all; acontinual shower of exclamations is kept up at them, and "Oh! ah! Gee! ugh!" are to beheard in various keys and in an uninterrupted succession all day long. At night we werefavoured with a different kind of concert. The dry ground around my house hadbecome a marsh tenanted by frogs, who kept up a most incredible noise from dusk todawn. They were somewhat musical too, having a deep vibrating note which at timesclosely resembles the tuning of two or three bass-viols in an orchestra. In Malacca andBorneo I had heard no such sounds as these, which indicates that the frogs, like most of

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the animals of Celebes, are of species peculiar to it.

NATIVE WOODEN PLOUGH

My kind friend and landlord, Mr. Mesman, was a good specimen of the Macassar-born Dutchman. He was about thirty-five years of age, had a large family, and lived ina spacious house near the town, situated in the midst of a grove of fruit trees, andsurrounded by a perfect labyrinth of offices, stables, and native cottages occupied byhis numerous servants, slaves, or dependants. He usually rose before the sun, and aftera cup of coffee looked after his servants, horses, and dogs, until seven, when asubstantial breakfast of rice and meat was ready in a cool verandah. Putting on a cleanwhite linen suit, he then (trove to town in his buggy, where he had an office, with twoor three Chinese clerks who looked after his affairs. His business was that of a coffeeand opium merchant. He had a coffee estate at Bontyne, and a small prau which tradedto the Eastern islands near New Guinea, for mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell. Aboutone he would return home, have coffee and cake or fried plantain, first changing hisdress for a coloured cotton shirt and trousers and bare feet, and then take a siesta with abook. About four, after a cup of tea, he would walk round his premises, and generallystroll down to Mamajam to pay me a visit, and look after his farm. This consisted of a coffee plantation and an orchard of fruit trees, a dozen horsesand a score of cattle, with a small village of Timorese slaves and Macassar servants.One family looked after the cattle and supplied the house with milk, bringing me also alarge glassful every morning, one of my greatest luxuries. Others had charge of thehorses, which were brought in every afternoon and fed with cut grass. Others had to cutgrass for their master's horses at Macassar--not a very easy task in the dry season, whenall the country looks like baked mud; or in the rainy season, when miles in everydirection are flooded. How they managed it was a mystery to me, but they know grassmust be had, and they get it. One lame woman had charge of a flock of ducks. Twice aday she took them out to feed in the marshy places, let them waddle and gobble for anhour or two, and then drove them back and shut them up in a small dark shed to digesttheir meal, whence they gave forth occasionally a melancholy quack. Every night awatch was set, principally for the sake of the horses-- the people of Goa, only twomiles off, being notorious thieves, and horses offering the easiest and most valuablespoil. This enabled me to sleep in security, although many people in Macassar thought Iwas running a great risk, living alone in such a solitary place and with such badneighbours. My house was surrounded by a kind of straggling hedge of roses, jessamines, andother flowers, and every morning one of the women gathered a basketful of the

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blossoms for Mr. Mesman's family. I generally took a couple for my own breakfasttable, and the supply never failed during my stay, and I suppose never does. Almostevery Sunday Mr. M. made a shooting excursion with his eldest son, a lad of fifteen,and I generally accompanied him; for though the Dutch are Protestants, they do notobserve Sunday in the rigid manner practised in England and English colonies. TheGovernor of the place has his public reception every Sunday evening, when card-playing is the regular amusement. On December 13th I went on board a prau bound for the Aru Islands, a journeywhich will be described in the latter part of this work. On my return, after a seven months' absence, I visited another district to the northof Macassar, which will form the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER XVI

CELEBES

(MACASSAR. JULY TO NOVEMBER, 1857)

I REACHED Macassar again on the 11th of July, and established myself in my oldquarters at Mamajam, to sort, arrange, clean, and pack up my Aru collections. Thisoccupied me a month; and having shipped them off for Singapore, had my gunsrepaired, and received a new one from England, together with a stock of pins, arsenic,and other collecting requisites. I began to feel eager for work again, and had toconsider where I should spend my time until the end of the year; I had left Macassarseven months before, a flooded marsh being ploughed up for the rice-sowing. The rainshad continued for five months, yet now all the rice was cut, and dry and dusty stubblecovered the country just as when I had first arrived there. After much inquiry I determined to visit the district of Maros, about thirty milesnorth of Macassar, where Mr. Jacob Mesman, a brother of my friend, resided, who hadkindly offered to find me house-room and give me assistance should I feel inclined tovisit him. I accordingly obtained a pass from the Resident, and having hired a boat setoff one evening for Maros. My boy Ali was so ill with fever that I was obliged to leavehim in the hospital, under the care of my friend the German doctor, and I had to makeshift with two new servants utterly ignorant of everything. We coasted along during thenight, and at daybreak entered the Maros river, and by three in the afternoon reachedthe village. I immediately visited the Assistant Resident, and applied for ten men tocarry my baggage, and a horse for myself. These were promised to be ready that night,so that I could start as soon as I liked in the morning. After having taken a cup of tea Itook my leave, and slept in the boat. Some of the men came at night as promised, butothers did not arrive until the next morning. It took some time to divide my baggagefairly among them, as they all wanted to shirk the heavy boxes, and would seize hold ofsome light article and march off with it, until made to come back and wait until thewhole had been fairly apportioned. At length about eight o'clock all was arranged, andwe started for our walk to Mr. M.'s farm. The country was at first a uniform plain of burned-up rice- grounds, but at a fewmiles' distance precipitous hills appeared, backed by the lofty central range of thepeninsula. Towards these our path lay, and after having gone six or eight miles the hillsbegan to advance into the plain right and left of us, and the ground became piercedhere and there with blocks and pillars of limestone rock, while a few abrupt conicalhills and peaks rose like islands. Passing over an elevated tract forming the shoulder ofone of the hills, a picturesque scene lay before us. We looked down into a little valley

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almost entirely surrounded by mountains, rising abruptly in huge precipices, andforming a succession of knolls and peaks aid domes of the most varied and fantasticshapes. In the very centre of the valley was a large bamboo house, while scatteredaround were a dozen cottages of the same material. I was kindly received by Mr. Jacob Mesman in an airy saloon detached from thehouse, and entirely built of bamboo and thatched with grass. After breakfast he took meto his foreman's house, about a hundred yards off, half of which was given up to meuntil I should decide where to have a cottage built for my own use. I soon found thatthis spot was too much exposed to the wind and dust, which rendered it very difficult towork with papers or insects. It was also dreadfully hot in the afternoon, and after a fewdays I got a sharp attack of fever, which determined me to move. I accordingly fixed ona place about a mile off, at the foot of a forest-covered hill, where in a few days Mr.M. built for me a nice little house, consisting of a good-sized enclosed verandah oropen room, and a small inner sleeping-room, with a little cookhouse outside. As soonas it was finished I moved into it, and found the change most agreeable. The forest which surrounded me was open and free from underwood, consisting oflarge trees, widely scattered with a great quantity of palm-trees (Arenga saccharifera),from which palm wine and sugar are made. There were also great numbers of a wildJack- fruit tree (Artocarpus), which bore abundance of large reticulated fruit, serving asan excellent vegetable. The ground was as thickly covered with dry leaves as it is in anEnglish wood in November; the little rocky streams were all dry, and scarcely a drop ofwater or even a damp place was anywhere to be seen. About fifty yards below myhouse, at the foot of the hill, was a deep hole in a watercourse where good water was tobe had, and where I went daily to bathe by having buckets of water taken out andpouring it over my body.

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SUGAR PALM (Arenga saccharifera)

My host Mr. M. enjoyed a thoroughly country life, depending almost entirely onhis gun and dogs to supply his table. Wild pigs of large size were very plentiful and hegenerally got one or two a week, besides deer occasionally, and abundance of jungle-fowl, hornbills, and great fruit pigeons. His buffaloes supplied plenty of milk fromwhich he made his own butter; he grew his own rice and coffee, and had ducks, fowls,and their eggs, in profusion. His palm-trees supplied him all the year round with"sagueir," which takes the place of beer; and the sugar made from them is an excellentsweetmeat. All the fine tropical vegetables and fruits were abundant in their season, andhis cigars were made from tobacco of his own raising. He kindly sent me a bamboo ofbuffalo-milk every morning; it was as thick as cream, and required diluting with waterto keep it fluid during the day. It mixes very well with tea and coffee, although it has aslight peculiar flavour, which after a time is not disagreeable. I also got as much sweet"sagueir "as I liked to drink, and Mr. M. always sent me a piece of each pig he killed,which with fowls, eggs, and the birds we shot ourselves, and buffalo beef about once afortnight, kept my larder sufficiently well supplied. Every bit of flatland was cleared and used as rice-fields, and on the lower slopes ofmany of the hills tobacco and vegetables were grown. Most of the slopes are coveredwith huge blocks of rock, very fatiguing to scramble over, while a number of the hillsare so precipitous as to be quite inaccessible. These circumstances, combined with theexcessive drought, were very unfavourable for lily pursuits. Birds were scarce, and Igot but few new to me. Insects were tolerably plentiful, but unequal. Beetles, usually sonumerous and interesting, were exceedingly scarce, some of the families being quiteabsent and others only represented by very minute species. The Flies and Bees, on the

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other hand, were abundant, and of these I daily obtained new and interesting species.The rare and beautiful Butterflies of Celebes were the chief object of my search, and Ifound many species altogether new to me, but they were generally so active and shy asto render their capture a matter of great difficulty. Almost the only good place for themwas in the dry beds of the streams in the forest, where, at damp places, muddy pools, oreven on the dry rocks, all sorts of insects could be found. In these rocky forests dwellsome of the finest butterflies in the world. Three species of Ornithoptera, measuringseven or eight inches across the wings, and beautifully marked with spots or masses ofsatiny yellow on a black ground, wheel through the thickets with a strong sailing flight.About the damp places are swarms of the beautiful blue-banded Papilios, miletus andtelephus, the superb golden green P. macedon, and the rare little swallow-tail Papiliorhesus, of all of which, though very active, I succeeded in capturing fine series ofspecimens. I have rarely enjoyed myself more than during my residence here. As I sat takingmy coffee at six in the morning, rare birds would often be seen on some tree close by,when I would hastily sally out in my slippers, and perhaps secure a prize I had beenseeking after for weeks. The great hornbills of Celebes (Buceros cassidix) would oftencome with loud-flapping wings, and perch upon a lofty tree just in front of me; and theblack baboon- monkeys, Cynopithecus nigrescens, often stared down in astonishment atsuch an intrusion into their domains while at night herds of wild pigs roamed about thehouse, devouring refuse, and obliging us to put away everything eatable or breakablefrom our little cooking-house. A few minutes' search on the fallen trees around myhouse at sunrise and sunset, would often produce me more beetles than I would meetwith in a day's collecting, and odd moments could be made valuable which when livingin villages or at a distance from the forest are inevitably wasted. Where the sugar-palms were dripping with sap, flies congregated in immense numbers, and it was byspending half an hour at these when I had the time to spare, that I obtained the finestand most remarkable collection of this group of insects that I have ever made. Then what delightful hours I passed wandering up and down the dry river-courses,full of water-holes and rocks and fallen trees, and overshadowed by magnificentvegetation. I soon got to know every hole and rock and stump, and came up to eachwith cautious step and bated breath to see what treasures it would produce. At one placeI would find a little crowd of the rare butterfly Tachyris zarinda, which would rise up atmy approach, and display their vivid orange and cinnabar-red wings, while amongthem would flutter a few of the fine blue-banded Papilios. Where leafy branches hungover the gully, I might expect to find a grand Ornithoptera at rest and an easy prey. Atcertain rotten trunks I was sure to get the curious little tiger beetle, Therates flavilabris.In the denser thickets I would capture the small metal-blue butterflies (Amblypodia)sitting on the leaves, as well as some rare and beautiful leaf-beetles of the familiesHispidae and Chrysomelidae. I found that the rotten jack-fruits were very attractive to many beetles, and used tosplit them partly open and lay them about in the forest near my house to rot. Amorning's search at these often produced me a score of species--Staphylinidae,Nitidulidae, Onthophagi, and minute Carabidae, being the most abundant. Now andthen the "sagueir" makers brought me a fine rosechafer (Sternoplus schaumii) whichthey found licking up the sweet sap. Almost the only new birds I met with for sometime were a handsome ground thrush (Pitta celebensis), and a beautiful violet-crowneddove (Ptilonopus celebensis), both very similar to birds I had recently obtained at Aru,but of distinct species. About the latter part of September a heavy shower of rain fell, admonishing us thatwe might soon expect wet weather, much to the advantage of the baked-up country. Itherefore determined to pay a visit to the falls of the Maros river, situated at the pointwhere it issues from the mountains--a spot often visited by travellers and consideredvery beautiful. Mr. M. lent me a horse, and I obtained a guide from a neighbouring

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village; and taking one of my men with me, we started at six in the morning, and aftera ride of two hours over the flat rice-fields skirting the mountains which rose in grandprecipices on our left, we readied the river about half-way between Maros and the falls,and thence had a good bridle-road to our destination, which we reached. in anotherhour. The hills had closed in around us as we advanced; and when we reached aruinous shed which had been erected for the accommodation of visitors, we foundourselves in a flat-bottomed valley about a quarter of a mile wide, bounded byprecipitous and often overhanging limestone rocks. So far the ground had beencultivated, but it now became covered with bushes and large scattered trees. As soon as my scanty baggage had arrived and was duly deposited in the shed, Istarted off alone for the fall, which was about a quarter of a mile further on. The riveris here about twenty yards wide, and issues from a chasm between two vertical walls oflimestone, over a rounded mass of basaltic rock about forty feet high, forming twocurves separated by a slight ledge. The water spreads beautifully over this surface in athin sheet of foam, which curls and eddies in a succession of concentric cones until itfalls into a fine deep pool below. Close to the very edge of the fall a narrow and veryrugged path leads to the river above, and thence continues close under the precipicealong the water's edge, or sometimes in the water, for a few hundred yards, after whichthe rocks recede a little, and leave a wooded bank on one side, along which the path iscontinued, until in about half a mile, a second and smaller fall is reached. Here theriver seems to issue from a cavern, the rocks having fallen from above so as to blockup the channel and bar further progress. The fall itself can only be reached by a pathwhich ascends behind a huge slice of rock which has partly fallen away from themountain, leaving a space two or three feet wide, but disclosing a dark chasmdescending into the bowels of the mountain, and which, having visited several such, Ihad no great curiosity to explore. Crossing the stream a little below the upper fall, the path ascends a steep slope forabout five hundred feet, and passing through a gap enters a narrow valley, shut in bywalls of rock absolutely perpendicular and of great height. Half a mile further thisvalley turns abruptly to the right, and becomes a mere rift in the mountain. This extendsanother half mile, the walls gradually approaching until they are only two feet apart,and the bottom rising steeply to a pass which leads probably into another valley, butwhich I had no time to explore. Returning to where this rift had begun the main pathturns up to the left in a sort of gully, and reaches a summit over which a fine naturalarch of rock passes at a height of about fifty feet. Thence was a steep descent throughthick jungle with glimpses of precipices and distant rocky mountains, probably leadinginto the main river valley again. This was a most tempting region to explore, but therewere several reasons why I could go no further. I had no guide, and no permission toenter the Bugis territories, and as the rains might at any time set in, I might beprevented from returning by the flooding of the river. I therefore devoted myself duringthe short time of my visit to obtaining what knowledge I could of the naturalproductions of the place. The narrow chasms produced several fine insects quite new to me, and one newbird, the curious Phlaegenas tristigmata, a large ground pigeon with yellow breast andcrown, and purple neck. This rugged path is the highway from Maros to the Bugiscountry beyond the mountains. During the rainy season it is quite impassable, the riverfilling its bed and rushing between perpendicular cliffs many hundred feet high. Even atthe time of my visit it was most precipitous and fatiguing, yet women and childrencame over it daily, and men carrying heavy loads of palm sugar (of very little value). Itwas along the path between the lower and the upper falls, and about the margin of theupper pool, that I found most insects. The large semi-transparent butterfly, Ideatondana, flew lazily along by dozens, and it was here that I at length obtained an insectwhich I had hoped but hardly expected to meet with--the magnificent Papilioandrocles, one of the largest and rarest known swallow-tailed butterflies. During my

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four days' stay at the falls, I was so fortunate as to obtain six good specimens. As thisbeautiful creature flies, the long white tails flicker like streamers, and when settled onthe beach it carries them raised upwards, as if to preserve them from injury. It is scarceeven here, as I did not see more than a dozen specimens in all, and had to follow manyof them up and down the river's bank repeatedly before I succeeded in their capture.When the sun shone hottest, about noon, the moist beach of the pool below the upperfall presented a beautiful sight, being dotted with groups of gay butterflies--orange,yellow, white, blue, and green-- which on being disturbed rose into the air by hundreds,forming clouds of variegated colours. Such gores, chasms, and precipices here abound,as I have nowhere seen in theArchipelago. A sloping surface is scarcely anywhere to be found, huge walls andrugged masses of rock terminating all the mountains and enclosing the valleys. In manyparts there are vertical or even overhanging precipices five or six hundred feet high, yetcompletely clothed with a tapestry of vegetation. Ferns, Pandanaceae, shrubs, creepers,and even forest trees, are mingled in an evergreen network, through the interstices ofwhich appears the white limestone rock or the dark holes and chasms with which itabounds. These precipices are enabled to sustain such an amount of vegetation by theirpeculiar structure. Their surfaces are very irregular, broken into holes and fissures, withledges overhanging the mouths of gloomy caverns; but from each projecting part havedescended stalactites, often forming a wild gothic tracery over the caves and recedinghollows, and affording an admirable support to the roots of the shrubs, trees, andcreepers, which luxuriate in the warm pure atmosphere and the gentle moisture whichconstantly exudes from the rocks. In places where the precipice offers smooth surfacesof solid rock, it remains quite bare, or only stained with lichens, and dotted withclumps of ferns that grow on the small ledges and in the minutest crevices. The reader who is familiar with tropical nature only through the medium of booksand botanical gardens will picture to himself in such a spot many other natural beauties.He will think that I have unaccountably forgotten to mention the brilliant flowers,which, in gorgeous masses of crimson, gold or azure, must spangle these verdantprecipices, hang over the cascade, and adorn the margin of the mountain stream. Butwhat is the reality? In vain did I gaze over these vast walls of verdure, among thependant creepers and bushy shrubs, all around the cascade on the river's bank, or in thedeep caverns and gloomy fissures--not one single spot of bright colour could be seen,not one single tree or bush or creeper bore a flower sufficiently conspicuous to form anobject in the landscape. In every direction the eye rested on green foliage and mottledrock. There was infinite variety in the colour and aspect of the foliage; there wasgrandeur in the rocky masses and in the exuberant luxuriance of the vegetation; butthere was no brilliancy of colour, none of those bright flowers and gorgeous masses ofblossom so generally considered to be everywhere present in the tropics. I have heregiven an accurate sketch of a luxuriant tropical scene as noted down on the spot, and itsgeneral characteristics as regards colour have been so often repeated, both in SouthAmerica and over many thousand miles in the Eastern tropics, that I am driven toconclude that it represents the general aspect of nature at the equatorial (that is, themost tropical) parts of the tropical regions. How is it then, that the descriptions of travellers generally give a very differentidea? and where, it may be asked, are the glorious flowers that we know do exist in thetropics? These questions can be easily answered. The fine tropical flowering- plantscultivated in our hothouses have been culled from the most varied regions, andtherefore give a most erroneous idea of their abundance in any one region. Many ofthem are very rare, others extremely local, while a considerable number inhabit themore arid regions of Africa and India, in which tropical vegetation does not exhibititself in its usual luxuriance. Fine and varied foliage, rather than gay flowers, is morecharacteristic of those parts where tropical vegetation attains its highest development,and in such districts each kind of flower seldom lasts in perfection more than a few

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weeks, or sometimes a few days. In every locality a lengthened residence will show anabundance of magnificent and gaily-blossomed plants, but they have to be sought for,and are rarely at any one time or place so abundant as to form a perceptible feature inthe landscape. But it has been the custom of travellers to describe and group togetherall the fine plants they have met with during a long journey, and thus produce the effectof a gay and flower- painted landscape. They have rarely studied and describedindividual scenes where vegetation was most luxuriant and beautiful, and fairly statedwhat effect was produced in them by flowers. I have done so frequently, and the resultof these examinations has convinced me that the bright colours of flowers have a muchgreater influence on the general aspect of nature in temperate than in tropical climates.During twelve years spent amid the grandest tropical vegetation, I have seen nothingcomparable to the effect produced on our landscapes by gorse, broom, heather, wildhyacinths, hawthorn, purple orchises, and buttercups. The geological structure of this part of Celebes is interesting. The limestonemountains, though of great extent, seem to be entirely superficial, resting on a basis ofbasalt which in some places forms low rounded hills between the more precipitousmountains. In the rocky beds of the streams basalt is almost always found, and it is astep in this rock which forms the cascade already described. From it the limestoneprecipices rise abruptly; and in ascending the little stairway along the side of the fall,you step two or three times from tpe of rock on to the other--the limestone dry andrough, being worn by the water and rains into sharp ridges and honeycombed holes--the basalt moist, even, and worn smooth and slippery by the passage of bare- footedpedestrians. The solubility of the limestone by rain-water is well seen in the littleblocks and peaks which rise thickly through the soil of the alluvial plains as youapproach the mountains. They are all skittle-shaped, larger in the middle than at thebase, the greatest diameter occurring at the height to which the country is flooded in thewet season, and thence decreasing regularly to the ground. Many of them overhangconsiderably, and some of the slenderer pillars appear to stand upon a point. When therock is less solid it becomes curiously honeycombed by the rains of successive winters,and I noticed some masses reduced to a complete network of stone through which lightcould be seen in every direction. From these mountains to the sea extends a perfectly flat alluvial plain, with noindication that water would accumulate at a great depth beneath it, yet the authorities atMacassar have spent much money in boring a well a thousand feet deep in hope ofgetting a supply of water like that obtained by the Artesian wells in the London andParis basins. It is not to be wondered at that the attempt was unsuccessful. Returning to my forest hut, I continued my daily search after birds and insects. Theweather, however, became dreadfully hot and dry, every drop of water disappearingfrom the pools and rock- holes, and with it the insects which frequented them. Onlyone group remained unaffected by the intense drought; the Diptera, or two-wingedflies, continued as plentifully as ever, and on these I was almost compelled toconcentrate my attention for a week or two, by which means I increased my collectionof that Order to about two hundred species. I also continued to obtain a few new birds,among which were two or three kinds of small hawks and falcons, a beautiful brush-tongued paroquet, Trichoglossus ornatus, and a rare black and white crow, Corvusadvena. At length, about the middle of October, after several gloomy days, down came adeluge of rain which continued to fall almost every afternoon, showing that the earlypart of the wet season had commenced. I hoped now to get a good harvest of insects,and in some respects I was not disappointed. Beetles became much more numerous,and under a thick bed of leaves that had accumulated on some rocks by the side of aforest stream, I found an abundance of Carbidae, a family generally scarce in thetropics. The butterflies, however, disappeared. Two of my servants were attacked withfever, dysentery, and swelled feet, just at the time that the third had left me, and for

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some days they both lay groaning in the house. When they got a little better I wasattacked myself, and as my stores were nearly finished and everything was getting verydamp, I was obliged to prepare for my return to Macassar, especially as the strongwesterly winds would render the passage in a small open boat disagreeable, if notdangerous. Since the rains began, numbers of huge millipedes, as thick as one's finger andeight or ten inches long, crawled about everywhere--in the paths, on trees, about thehouse--and one morning when I got up I even found one in my bed! They weregenerally of a dull lead colour or of a deep brick red, and were very nasty-lookingthings to be coming everywhere in one's way, although quite harmless. Snakes toobegan to show themselves. I killed two of a very abundant species--big-headed, and ofa bright green colour, which lie coiled up on leaves and shrubs and can scarcely beseen until one is close upon them. Brown snakes got into my net while beating amongdead leaves for insects, and made me rather cautious about inserting my hand until Iknew what kind of game I had captured. The fields and meadows which had beenparched and sterile, now became suddenly covered with fine long grass; the river-bedwhere I had so many times walked over burning rocks, was now a deep and rapidstream; and numbers of herbaceous plants and shrubs were everywhere springing upand bursting into flower. I found plenty of new insects, and if I had had a good, roomy,water-and-wind-proof house, I should perhaps have stayed during the wet season, as Ifeel sure many things can then be obtained which are to be found at no other time.With my summer hut, however, this was impossible. During the heavy rains a finedrizzly mist penetrated into every part of it, and I began to have the greatest difficultyin keeping my specimens dry. Early in November I returned to Macassar, and having packed up my collections,started in the Dutch mail steamer for Amboyna and Ternate. Leaving this part of myjourney for the present, I will in the next chapter conclude my account of Celebes, bydescribing the extreme northern part of the island which I visited two years later.

CHAPTER XVII

CELEBES

(MENADO. JUNE TO SEPTEMBER, 1859)

IT was after my residence at Timor-Coupang that I visited the northeasternextremity of Celebes, touching Banda, Amboyna, and Ternate on my way. I reachedMenado on the 10th of June, 1859, and was very kindly received by Mr. Tower, anEnglishman, but a very old resident in Menado, where he carries on a general business.He introduced me to Mr. L. Duivenboden (whose father had been my friend atTernate), who had much taste for natural history; and to Mr. Neys, a native of Menado,but who was educated at Calcutta, and to whom Dutch, English, and Malay wereequally mother-tongues. All these gentlemen showed me the greatest kindness,accompanied me in my earliest walks about the country, and assisted me by everymeans in their power. I spent a week in the town very pleasantly, making explorationsand inquiries after a good collecting station, which I had much difficulty in finding,owing to the wide cultivation of coffee and cacao, which has led to the clearing awayof the forests for many miles around the town, and over extensive districts far into theinterior. The little town of Menado is one of the prettiest in the East. It has the appearanceof a large garden containing rows of rustic villas with broad paths between, forming

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streets generally at right angles with each other. Good roads branch off in severaldirections towards the interior, with a succession of pretty cottages, neat gardens, andthriving plantations, interspersed with wildernesses of fruit trees. To the west and souththe country is mountainous, with groups of fine volcanic peaks 6,000 or 7,000 feet high,forming grand and picturesque backgrounds to the landscape. The inhabitants of Minahasa (as this part of Celebes is called) differ much fromthose of all the rest of the island, and in fact from any other people in the Archipelago.They are of a light- brown or yellow tint, often approaching the fairness of a European;of a rather short stature, stout and well-made; of an open and pleasing countenance,more or less disfigured as age increases by projecting check-bones; and with the usuallong, straight, jet-black hair of the Malayan races. In some of the inland villages wherethey may be supposed to be of the purest race, both men and women are remarkablyhandsome; while nearer the coasts where the purity of their blood has been destroyedby the intermixture of other races, they approach to the ordinary types of the wildinhabitants of the surrounding countries. In mental and moral characteristics they are also highly peculiar. They areremarkably quiet and gentle in disposition, submissive to the authority of those theyconsider their superiors, and easily induced to learn and adopt the habits of civilizedpeople. They are clever mechanics, and seem capable of acquiring a considerableamount of intellectual education. Up to a very recent period these people were thorough savages, and there arepersons now living in Menado who remember a state of things identical with thatdescribed by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The inhabitants ofthe several villages were distinct tribes, each under its own chief, speaking languagesunintelligible to each other, and almost always at war. They built their houses elevatedupon lofty posts to defend themselves from the attacks of their enemies. They wereheadhunters like the Dyaks of Borneo, and were said to be sometimes cannibals. Whena chief died, his tomb was adorned with two fresh human heads; and if those of enemiescould not be obtained, slaves were killed for the occasion. Human skulls were the greatornaments of the chiefs' houses. Strips of bark were their only dress. The country was apathless wilderness, with small cultivated patches of rice and vegetables, or clumps offruit-trees, diversifying the otherwise unbroken forest. Their religion was that naturallyengendered in the undeveloped human mind by the contemplation of grand naturalphenomena and the luxuriance of tropical nature. The burning mountain, the torrent andthe lake, were the abode of their deities; and certain trees and birds were supposed tohave special influence over men's actions and destiny. They held wild and excitingfestivals to propitiate these deities or demons, and believed that men could be changedby them into animals--either during life or after death. Here we have a picture of true savage life; of small isolated communities at warwith all around them, subject to the wants and miseries of such a condition, drawing aprecarious existence from the luxuriant soil, and living on, from generation togeneration, with no desire for physical amelioration, and no prospect of moraladvancement. Such was their condition down to the year 1822, when the coffee- plant was firstintroduced, and experiments were made as to its cultivation. It was found to succeedadmirably from fifteen hundred feet, up to four thousand feet above the sea. The chiefsof villages were induced to undertake its cultivation. Seed and native instructors weresent from Java; food was supplied to the labourers engaged in clearing and planting; afixed price was established at which all coffee brought to the government collectors wasto be paid for, and the village chiefs who now received the titles of "Majors" were toreceive five percent of the produce. After a time, roads were made from the port ofMenado up to the plateau, and smaller paths were cleared from village to village;missionaries settled in the more populous districts and opened schools; and Chinesetraders penetrated to the interior and supplied clothing and other luxuries in exchange

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for the money which the sale of the coffee had produced. At the same time, the country was divided into districts, and the system of"Controlleurs," which had worked so well in Java, was introduced. The "Controlleur"was a European, or a native of European blood, who was the general superintendentof the cultivation of the district, the adviser of the chiefs, the protector of the people,and the means of communication between both and the European Government. Hisduties obliged him to visit every village in succession once a month, and to send in areport on their condition to the Resident. As disputes between adjacent villages werenow settled by appeal to a superior authority, the old and inconvenient semi-fortifiedhouses were disused, and under the direction of the "Controlleurs" most of the houseswere rebuilt on a neat and uniform plan. It was this interesting district which I was nowabout to visit. Having decided on my route, I started at 8 A.M. on the 22cd of June. Mr. Towerdrove me the first three miles in his chaise, and Mr. Neys accompanied me onhorseback three miles further to the village of Lotta. Here we met the Controlleur of thedistrict of Tondano, who was returning home from one of his monthly tours, and whohad agreed to act as my guide and companion on the journey. From Lotta we had analmost continual ascent for six miles, which brought us on to the plateau of Tondano atan elevation of about 2,400 feet. We passed through three villages whose neatness andbeauty quite astonished me. The main road, along which all the coffee is brought downfrom the interior in carts drawn by buffaloes, is always turned aside at the entrance of avillage, so as to pass behind it, and thus allow the village street itself to be kept neatand clean. This is bordered by neat hedges often formed entirely of rose-trees, whichare perpetually in blossom. There is a broad central path and a border of fine turf,which is kept well swept and neatly cut. The houses are all of wood, raised about sixfeet on substantial posts neatly painted blue, while the walls are whitewashed. They allhave a verandah enclosed with a neat balustrade, and are generally surrounded byorange-trees and flowering shrubs. The surrounding scenery is verdant and picturesque.Coffee plantations of extreme luxuriance, noble palms and tree ferns, wooded hills andvolcanic peaks, everywhere meet the eye. I had heard much of the beauty of thiscountry, but the reality far surpassed my expectations. About one o'clock we reached Tomohón, the chief place of a district, having anative chief now called the "Major," at whose house we were to dine. Here was a freshsurprise for me. The house was large, airy and very substantially built of hard nativetimber, squared and put together in a most workmanlike manner. It was furnished inEuropean style, with handsome chandelier lamps, and the chairs and tables all wellmade by native workmen. As soon as we entered, madeira and bitters were offered us.Then two handsome boys neatly dressed in white, and with smoothly brushed jet-blackhair, handed us each a basin of water and a clean napkin on a salver. The dinner wasexcellent. Fowls cooked in various ways; wild pig roasted, stewed and fried; a fricasseeof bats, potatoes, rice and other vegetables; all served on good china, with finger glassesand fine napkins, and abundance of good claret and beer, seemed to me rather curiousat the table of a native chief on the mountains of Celebes. Our host was dressed in asuit of black with patent-leather shoes, and really looked comfortable and almostgentlemanly in them. He sat at the head of the table and did the honours well, thoughhe did not talk much. Our conversation was entirely in Malay, as that is the officiallanguage here, and in fact the mother-tongue and only language of the Controlleur, whois a native-born half-breed. The Major's father who was chief before him, wore, I wasinformed, a strip of bark as his sole costume, and lived in a rude but raised home onlofty poles, and abundantly decorated with human heads. Of course we were expected,and our dinner was prepared in the best style, but I was assured that the chiefs all take apride in adopting European customs, and in being able to receive their visitors in ahandsome manner. After dinner and coffee, the Controlleur went on to Tondano, and I strolled about

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the village waiting for my baggage, which was coming in a bullock-cart, and did notarrive until after midnight. Supper was very similar to dinner, and on retiring I foundan elegant little room with a comfortable bed, gauze curtains with blue and redhangings, and every convenience. Next morning at sunrise the thermometer in theverandah stood at 69°, which I was told is about the usual lowest temperature at thisplace, 2,500 feet above the sea. I had a good breakfast of coffee, eggs, and fresh breadand butter, which I took in the spacious verandah amid the odour of roses, jessamine,and other sweet-scented flowers, which filled the garden in front; and about eighto'clock left Tomohón with a dozen men carrying my baggage. Our road lay over a mountain ridge about 4,000 feet above the sea, and thendescended about 500 feet to the little village of Rurúkan, the highest in the district ofMinahasa, and probably in all Celebes. Here I had determined to stay for some time tosee whether this elevation would produce any change in the zoology. The village hadonly been formed about ten years, and was quite as neat as those I had passed through,and much more picturesque. It is placed on a small level spot, from which there is anabrupt wooded descent down to the beautiful lake of Tondano, with volcanic mountainsbeyond. On one side is a ravine, and beyond it a fine mountainous and wooded country.

Near the village are the coffee plantations. The trees are planted in rows, and arekept topped to about seven feet high. This causes the lateral branches to grow verystrong, so that some of the trees become perfect hemispheres, loaded with fruit from topto bottom, and producing from ten to twenty pounds each of cleaned coffee annually.These plantations were all formed by the Government, and are cultivated by thevillagers under the direction of their chief. Certain days are appointed for weeding or

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gathering, and the whole working population are summoned by the sound of a gong.An account is kept of the number of hours' work done by each family, and at the year'send, the produce of the sale is divided among them proportionately. The coffee is takento Government stores established at central places over the whole country, and is paidfor at a low fixed price. Out of this a certain percentage goes to the chiefs and majors,and the remainder is divided among the inhabitants. This system works very well, and Ibelieve is at present far better for the people than free-trade would be. There are alsolarge rice-fields, and in this little village of seventy houses, I was informed that ahundred pounds' worth of rice was sold annually. I had a small house at the very end of the village, almost hanging over theprecipitous slope down to the stream, and with a splendid view from the verandah. Thethermometer in the morning often stood at 62° and never rose so high as 80°, so thatwith the thin clothing used in the tropical plains we were always cool and sometimespositively cold, while the spout of water where I went daily for my bath had quite anicy feel. Although I enjoyed myself very much among these fine mountains and forests,I was somewhat disappointed as to my collections. There was hardly any perceptibledifference between the animal life in this temperate region and in the torrid plainsbelow, and what difference did exist was in most respects disadvantageous to me.There seemed to be nothing absolutely peculiar to this elevation. Birds and quadrupedswere less plentiful, but of the same species. In insects there seemed to be moredifference. The curious beetles of the family Cleridae, which are found chiefly on barkand rotten wood, were finer than I have seen them elsewhere. The beautiful Longicornswere scarcer than usual, and the few butterflies were all of tropical species. One ofthese, Papilio blumei, of which I obtained a few specimens only, is among the mostmagnificent I have ever seen. It is a green and gold swallow-tail, with azure-blue andspoon-shaped tails, and was often seen flying about the village when the sun shone, butin a very shattered condition. The great amount of wet and cloudy weather was a greatdrawback all the time I was at Rurukan. Even in the vegetation there is very little to indicate elevation. The trees are morecovered with lichens and mosses, and the ferns and tree-ferns are finer and moreluxuriant than I had been accustomed to seeing on the low grounds, both probablyattributable to the almost perpetual moisture that here prevails. Abundance of a tastelessraspberry, with blue and yellow composite, have somewhat of a temperate aspect; andminute ferns and Orchideae, with dwarf Begonias on the rocks, make some approach toa sub-alpine vegetation. The forest, however, is most luxuriant. Noble palms, Pandani,and tree-ferns are abundant in it, while the forest trees are completely festooned withOrchideae, Bromeliae, Araceae, Lycopodiums, and mosses. The ordinary stemless fernsabound; some with gigantic fronds ten or twelve feet long, others barely an inch high;some with entire and massive leaves, others elegantly waving their finely-cut foliage,and adding endless variety and interest to the forest paths. The cocoa-nut palm stillproduces fruit abundantly, but is said to be deficient in oil. Oranges thrive better thanbelow, producing abundance of delicious fruit; but the shaddock or pumplemous (Citrusdecumana) requires the full force of a tropical sun, for it will not thrive even atTondano a thousand feet lower. On the hilly slopes rice is cultivated largely, and ripenswell, although the temperature rarely or never rises to 80°, so that one would think itmight be grown even in England in fine summers, especially if the young plants wereraised under glass. The mountains have an unusual quantity of earth and vegetable mould spread overthem. Even on the steepest slopes there is everywhere a covering of clays and sands,and generally a good thickness of vegetable soil. It is this which perhaps contributes tothe uniform luxuriance of the forest, and delays the appearance of that sub-alpinevegetation which depends almost as much on the abundance of rocky and exposedsurfaces as on difference of climate. At a much lower elevation on Mount Ophir inMalacca, Dacrydiums and Rhododendrons with abundance of Nepenthes, ferns, and

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terrestrial orchids suddenly took the place of the lofty forest; but this was plainly due tothe occurrence of an extensive slope of bare, granitic rock at an elevation of less than3,000 feet. The quantity of vegetable soil, and also of loose sands and clays, resting onsteep slopes, hill-tops and the sides of ravines, is a curious and important phenomenon.It may be due in part to constant, slight earthquake shocks facilitating the disintegrationof rock; but, would also seem to indicate that the country has been long exposed togentle atmospheric action, and that its elevation has been exceedingly slow andcontinuous. During my stay at Rurukan, my curiosity was satisfied by experiencing a prettysharp earthquake-shock. On the evening of June 29th, at a quarter after eight, as I wassitting reading, the house began shaking with a very gentle, but rapidly increasingmotion. I sat still enjoying the novel sensation for some seconds; but in less than half aminute it became strong enough to shake me in my chair, and to make the house visiblyrock about, and creak and crack as if it would fall to pieces. Then began a crythroughout the village of "Tana goyang! tana goyang! "(Earthquake! earthquake!)Everybody rushed out of their houses--women screamed and children cried--and Ithought it prudent to go out too. On getting up, I found my head giddy and my stepsunsteady, and could hardly walk without falling. The shock continued about a minute,during which time I felt as if I had been turned round and round, and was almostseasick. Going into the house again, I found a lamp and a bottle of arrack upset. Thetumbler which formed the lamp had been thrown out of the saucer in which it hadstood. The shock appeared to be nearly vertical, rapid, vibratory, and jerking. It wassufficient, I have no doubt, to have thrown down brick, chimneys, walls, and churchtowers; but as the houses here are all low, and strongly framed of timber, it isimpossible for them to be much injured, except by a shock that would utterly destroy aEuropean city. The people told me it was ten years since they had had a stronger shockthan this, at which time many houses were thrown down and some people killed. At intervals of ten minutes to half an hour, slight shocks and tremors were felt,sometimes strong enough to send us all out again. There was a strange mixture of theterrible and the ludicrous in our situation. We might at any moment have a muchstronger shock, which would bring down the house over us, or-- what I feared more--cause a landslip, and send us down into the deep ravine on the very edge of which thevillage is built; yet I could not help laughing each time we ran out at a slight shock, andthen in a few moments ran in again. The sublime and the ridiculous were here literallybut a step apart. On the one hand, the most terrible and destructive of naturalphenomena was in action around us--the rocks, the mountains, the solid earth weretrembling and convulsed, and we were utterly impotent to guard against the danger thatmight at any moment overwhelm us. On the other hand was the spectacle of a numberof men, women, and children running in and out of their houses, on what each timeproved a very unnecessary alarm, as each shock ceased just as it became strong enoughto frighten us. It seemed really very much like "playing at earthquakes," and mademany of the people join me in a hearty laugh, even while reminding each other that itreally might be no laughing matter. At length the evening got very cold, and I became very sleepy, and determined toturn in; leaving orders to my boys, who slept nearer the door, to wake me in case thehouse was in danger of falling. But I miscalculated my apathy, for I could not sleepmuch. The shocks continued at intervals of half an hour or an hour all night, just strongenough to wake me thoroughly each time and keep me on the alert, ready to jump up incase of danger. I was therefore very glad when morning came. Most of the inhabitantshad not been to bed at all, and some had stayed out of doors all night. For the next twodays and nights shocks still continued at short intervals, and several times a day for aweek, showing that there was some very extensive disturbance beneath our portion ofthe earth's crust. How vast the forces at work really are can only be properlyappreciated when, after feeling their effects, we look abroad over the wide expanse of

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hill and valley, plain and mountain, and thus realize in a slight degree the immensemass of matter heaved and shaken. The sensation produced by an earthquake is never tobe forgotten. We feel ourselves in the grasp of a power to which the wildest fury of thewinds and waves are as nothing; yet the effect is more a thrill of awe than the terrorwhich the more boisterous war of the elements produces. There is a mystery and anuncertainty as to the amount of danger we incur, which gives greater play to theimagination, and to the influences of hope and fear. These remarks apply only to amoderate earthquake. A severe one is the most destructive and the most horriblecatastrophe to which human beings can be exposed. A few days after the earthquake I took a walk to Tondano, a large village of about7,000 inhabitants, situated at the lower end of the lake of the same name. I dined withthe Controlleur, Mr. Bensneider, who had been my guide to Tomohon. He had a finelarge house, in which he often received visitors; and his garden was the best for flowerswhich I had seen in the tropics, although there was no great variety. It was he whointroduced the rose hedges which give such a charming appearance to the villages; andto him is chiefly due the general neatness and good order that everywhere prevail. Iconsulted him about a fresh locality, as I found Rurúkan too much in the clouds,dreadfully damp and gloomy, and with a general stagnation of bird and insect life. Herecommended me a village some distance beyond the lake, near which was a largeforest, where he thought I should find plenty of birds. As he was going himself in a fewdays, I decided to accompany him. After dinner I asked him for a guide to the celebrated waterfall on the outlet streamof the lake. It is situated about a mile and half below the village, where a slight risingground closes in the basin, and evidently once formed, the shore of the lake. Here theriver enters a gorge, very narrow and tortuous, along which it rushes furiously for ashort distance and then plunges into a great chasm, forming the head of a large valley.Just above the fall the channel is not more than ten feet wide, and here a few planks arethrown across, whence, half hid by luxuriant vegetation, the mad waters may be seenrushing beneath, and a few feet farther plunge into the abyss. Both sight and sound aregrand and impressive. It was here that, four years before my visit, the Governor-General of the Netherland Indies committed suicide, by leaping into the torrent. This atleast is the general opinion, as he suffered from a painful disease which was supposedto have made him weary of his life. His body was found next day in the stream below. Unfortunately, no good view of the fall could now be obtained, owing to thequantity of wood and high grass that lined the margins of the precipices. There are twofalls, the lower being the most lofty; and it is possible, by long circuit, to descend intothe valley and see them from below. Were the best points of view searched for andrendered accessible, these falls would probably be found to be the finest in theArchipelago. The chasm seems to be of great depth, probably 500 or 600 feet.Unfortunately, I had no time to explore this valley, as I was anxious to devote everyfine day to increasing my hitherto scanty collections. Just opposite my abode in Rurukan was the schoolhouse. The schoolmaster was anative, educated by the Missionary at Tomohón. School was held every morning forabout three hours, and twice a week in the evening there was catechising and preaching.There was also a service on Sunday morning. The children were all taught in Malay,and I often heard them repeating the multiplication-table, up to twenty times twenty,very glibly. They always wound up with singing, and it was very pleasing to hear manyof our old psalm-tunes in these remote mountains, sung with Malay words. Singing isone of the real blessings which Missionaries introduce among savage nations, whosenative chants are almost always monotonous and melancholy. On catechising evenings the schoolmaster was a great man, preaching and teachingfor three hours at a stretch much in the style of an English ranter. This was pretty coldwork for his auditors, however warming to himself; and I am inclined to think thatthese native teachers, having acquired facility of speaking and an endless supply of

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religious platitudes to talk about, ride their hobby rather hard, without muchconsideration for their flock. The Missionaries, however, have much to be proud of inthis country. They have assisted the Government in changing a savage into a civilizedcommunity in a wonderfully short space of time. Forty years ago the country was awilderness, the people naked savages, garnishing their rude houses with human heads.Now it is a garden, worthy of its sweet native name of "Minahasa." Good roads andpaths traverse it in every direction; some of the finest coffee plantations in the worldsurround the villages, interspersed with extensive rice-fields more than sufficient for thesupport of the population. The people are now the most industrious, peaceable, and civilized in the wholeArchipelago. They are the best clothed, the best housed, the best fed, and the besteducated; and they have made some progress towards a higher social state. I believethere is no example elsewhere of such striking results being produced in so short atime--results which are entirely due to the system of government now adopted by theDutch in their Eastern possessions. The system is one which may be called a "paternaldespotism." Now we Englishmen do not like despotism--we hate the name and thething, and we would rather see people ignorant, lazy, and vicious, than use any butmoral force to make them wise, industrious, and good. And we are right when we aredealing with men of our own race, and of similar ideas and equal capacities withourselves. Example and precept, the force of public opinion, and the slow, but surespread of education, will do every thing in time, without engendering any of those bitterfeelings, or producing any of that servility, hypocrisy, and dependence, which are thesure results of despotic government. But what should we think of a man who shouldadvocate these principles of perfect freedom in a family or a school? We should saythat he was applying a good, general principle to a case in which the conditionsrendered it inapplicable--the case in which the governed are in an admitted state ofmental inferiority to those who govern them, and are unable to decide what is best fortheir permanent welfare. Children must be subjected to some degree of authority, andguidance; and if properly managed they will cheerfully submit to it, because they knowtheir own inferiority, and believe their elders are acting solely for their good. Theylearn many things the use of which they cannot comprehend, and which they wouldnever learn without some moral and social, if not physical, pressure. Habits of order, ofindustry, of cleanliness, of respect and obedience, are inculcated by similar means.Children would never grow up into well-behaved and well-educated men, if the sameabsolute freedom of action that is allowed to men were allowed to them. Ruder the bestaspect of education, children are subjected to a mild despotism for the good ofthemselves and of society; and their confidence in the wisdom and goodness of thosewho ordain and apply this despotism, neutralizes the bad passions and degradingfeelings, which under less favourable conditions are its general results. Now, there is not merely an analogy--there is in many respects an identity ofrelation between master and pupil or parent and child on the one hand, and anuncivilized race and its civilized rulers on the other. We know (or think we know) thatthe education and industry, and the common usages of civilized man, are superior tothose of savage life; and, as he becomes acquainted with them, the savage himselfadmits this. He admires the superior acquirements of the civilized man, and it is withpride that he will adopt such usages as do not interfere too much with his sloth, hispassions, or his prejudices. But as the willful child or the idle schoolboy, who wasnever taught obedience, and never made to do anything which of his own free will hewas not inclined to do, would in most cases obtain neither education nor manners; so itis much more unlikely that the savage, with all the confirmed habits of manhood andthe traditional prejudices of race, should ever do more than copy a few of the leastbeneficial customs of civilization, without some stronger stimulus than precept, veryimperfectly backed by example. If we are satisfied that we are right in assuming the government over a savage race,

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and occupying their country, and if we further consider it our duty to do what we can toimprove our rude subjects and raise them up towards our own level, we must not be toomuch afraid of the cry of "despotism" and "slavery," but must use the authority wepossess to induce them to do work which they may not altogether like, but which weknow to be an indispensable step in their moral and physical advancement. The Dutchhave shown much good policy in the means by which they have done this. They havein most cases upheld and strengthened the authority of the native chiefs, to whom thepeople have been accustomed to render a voluntary obedience; and by acting on theintelligence and self-interest of these chiefs, have brought about changes in themanners and customs of the people, which would have excited ill-feeling and perhapsrevolt, had they been directly enforced by foreigners. In carrying out such a system, much depends upon the character of the people; andthe system which succeeds admirably in one place could only be very partially workedout in another. In Minahasa the natural docility and intelligence of the race have madetheir progress rapid; and how important this is, is well illustrated by the fact, that in theimmediate vicinity of the town of Menado are a tribe called Banteks, of a much lesstractable disposition, who have hitherto resisted all efforts of the Dutch Government toinduce them to adopt any systematic cultivation. These remain in a ruder condition, butengage themselves willingly as occasional porters and labourers, for which their greaterstrength and activity well adapt them. No doubt the system here sketched seems open to serious objection. It is to acertain extent despotic, and interferes with free trade, free labour, and freecommunication. A native cannot leave his village without a pass, and cannot engagehimself to any merchant or captain without a Government permit. The coffee has all tobe sold to Government, at less than half the price that the local merchant would give forit, and he consequently cries out loudly against "monopoly" and "oppression." Heforgets, how ever, that the coffee plantations were established by the Government atgreat outlay of capital and skill; that it gives free education to the people, and that themonopoly is in lieu of taxation. He forgets that the product he wants to purchase andmake a profit by, is the creation of the Government, without whom the people wouldstill be savages. He knows very well that free trade would, as its first result, lead to theimportation of whole cargoes of arrack, which would be carried over the country andexchanged for coffee. That drunkenness and poverty would spread over the land; thatthe public coffee plantations would not be kept up; that the quality and quantity of thecoffee would soon deteriorate; that traders and merchants would get rich, but that thepeople would relapse into poverty and barbarism. That such is invariably is the result offree trade with any savage tribes who possess a valuable product, native or cultivated,is well known to those who have visited such people; but we might even anticipatefrom general principles that evil results would happen. If there is one thing rather than another to which the grand law of continuity ordevelopment will apply, it is to human progress. There are certain stages through whichsociety must pass in its onward march from barbarism to civilization. Now one of thesestages has always been some form or other of despotism, such as feudalism orservitude, or a despotic paternal government; and we have every reason to believe thatit is not possible for humanity to leap over this transition epoch, and pass at once frompure savagery to free civilization. The Dutch system attempts to supply this missinglink, and to bring the people on by gradual steps to that higher civilization, which we(the English) try to force upon them at once. Our system has always failed. Wedemoralize and we extirpate, but we never really civilize. Whether the Dutch systemcan permanently succeed is but doubtful, since it may not be possible to compress thework of ten centuries into one; but at all events it takes nature as a guide, and istherefore, more deserving of success, and more likely to succeed, than ours. [footnote:Dr. Guillemard, who visited Minahasa twenty-five years later, found the country inmuch the same condition as I describe - drunkenness and crime were almost unknown,

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and the people were contented and happy. (See The Cruise of the "Marchesa,", Vol.II,p.181.)] There is one point connected with this question which I think the Missionariesmight take up with great physical and moral results. In this beautiful and healthycountry, and with abundance of food and necessaries, the population does not increaseas it ought to do. I can only impute this to one cause. Infant mortality, produced byneglect while the mothers are working in the plantations, and by general ignorance ofthe conditions of health in infants. Women all work, as they have always beenaccustomed to do. It is no hardship to them, but I believe is often a pleasure andrelaxation. They either take their infants with them, in which case they leave them insome shady spot on the ground, going at intervals to give them nourishment, or theyleave them at home in the care of other children too young to work. Under neither ofthese circumstances can infants be properly attended to, and great mortality is theresult, keeping the increase of population far below the rate which the generalprosperity of the country and the universality of marriage would lead us to expect. Thisis a matter in which the Government is directly interested, since it is by the increase ofthe population alone that there can be any large and permanent increase in theproduction of coffee. The Missionaries should take up the question because, byinducing married women to confine themselves to domestic duties, they will decidedlypromote a higher civilization, and directly increase the health and happiness of thewhole community. The people are so docile and so willing to adopt the manners andcustoms of Europeans, that the change might be easily effected by merely showingthem that it was a question of morality and civilization, and an essential step in theirprogress towards an equality with their white rulers. After a fortnight's stay at Rurúkan, I left that pretty and interesting village in searchof a locality and climate more productive of birds and insects. I passed the eveningwith the Controlleur of Tondano, and the next morning at nine, left in a small boat forthe head of the lake, a distance of about ten miles. The lower end of the lake isbordered by swamps and marshes of considerable extent, but a little further on, the hillscome down to the water's edge and give it very much the appearance of a greet river,the width being about two miles. At the upper end is the village of Kakas, where Idined with the head man in a good house like those I have already described; and thenwent on to Langówan, four miles distant over a level plain. This was the place where Ihad been recommended to stay, and I accordingly unpacked my baggage and mademyself comfortable in the large house devoted to visitors. I obtained a man to shoot forme, and another to accompany me the next day to the forest, where I was in hopes offinding a good collecting ground. In the morning after breakfast I started off, but found I had four miles to walk overa wearisome straight road through coffee plantations before I could get to the forest,and as soon as I did so ,it came on to rain heavily and did not cease until night. Thisdistance to walk everyday was too far for any profitable work, especially when theweather was so uncertain. I therefore decided at once that I must go further on, until Ifound someplace close to or in a forest country. In the afternoon my friend Mr.Bensneider arrived, together with the Controlleur of the next district, called Belang,from whom I learned that six miles further on there was a village called Panghu, whichhad been recently formed and had a good deal of forest close to it; and he promised methe use of a small house if I liked to go there. The next morning I went to see the hot-springs and mud volcanoes, for which thisplace is celebrated. A picturesque path among plantations and ravines brought us to abeautiful circular basin about forty feet in diameter, bordered by a calcareous ledge, souniform and truly curved, that it looked like a work of art. It was filled with clear watervery near the boiling point, and emitted clouds of steam with a strong sulphureousodour. It overflows at one point and forms a little stream of hot water, which at ahundred yards' distance is still too hot to hold the hand in. A little further on, in a piece

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of rough wood, were two other springs not so regular in outline, but appearing to bemuch hotter, as they were in a continual state of active ebullition. At intervals of a fewminutes, a great escape of steam or gas took place, throwing up a column of water threeor four feet high. We then went to the mud-springs, which are about a mile off, and are still morecurious. On a sloping tract of ground in a slight hollow is a small lake of liquid mud,with patches of blue, red, or white, and in many places boiling and bubbling mostfuriously. All around on the indurated clay are small wells and craters full of boilingmud. These seem to be forming continually, a small hole appearing first, which emitsjets of steam and boiling mud, which upon hardening, forms a little cone with a craterin the middle. The ground for some distance is very unsafe, as it is evidently liquid at asmall depth, and bends with pressure like thin ice. At one of the smaller, marginal jetswhich I managed to approach, I held my hand to see if it was really as hot as it looked,when a little drop of mud that spurted on to my finger scalded like boiling water. A short distance off, there was a flat bare surface of rock as smooth and hot as anoven floor, which was evidently an old mud-pool, dried up and hardened. For hundredsof yards around where there were banks of reddish and white clay used for whitewash,it was still so hot close to the surface that the hand could hardly bear to be held incracks a few inches deep, and from which arose a strong sulphureous vapour. I wasinformed that some years back a French gentleman who visited these springs venturedtoo near the liquid mud, when the crust gave way and he was engulfed in the horriblecaldron. This evidence of intense heat so near the surface over a large tract of country wasvery impressive, and I could hardly divest myself of the notion that some terriblecatastrophe might at any moment devastate the country. Yet it is probable that all theseapertures are really safety-valves, and that the inequalities of the resistance of variousparts of the earth's crust will always prevent such an accumulation of force as would berequired to upheave and overwhelm any extensive area. About seven miles west of thisis a volcano which was in eruption about thirty years before my visit, presenting amagnificent appearance and covering the surrounding country with showers of ashes.The plains around the lake formed by the intermingling and decomposition of volcanicproducts are of amazing fertility, and with a little management in the rotation of cropsmight be kept in continual cultivation. Rice is now grown on them for three or fouryears in succession, when they are left fallow for the same period, after which rice ormaize can be again grown. Good rice produces thirty-fold, and coffee trees continuebearing abundantly for ten or fifteen years, without any manure and with scarcely anycultivation. I was delayed a day by incessant rain, and then proceeded to Panghu, which Ireached just before the daily rain began at 11 A.M. After leaving the summit level ofthe lake basin, the road is carried along the slope of a fine forest ravine. The descent isa long one, so that I estimated the village to be not more than 1,500 feet above the sea,yet I found the morning temperature often 69°, the same as at Tondano at least 600 or700 feet higher. I was pleased with the appearance of the place, which had a good dealof forest and wild country around it; and found prepared for me a little house consistingonly of a verandah and a back room. This was only intended for visitors to rest in, or topass a night, but it suited me very well. I was so unfortunate, however, as to lose bothmy hunters just at this time. One had been left at Tondano with fever and diarrhoea,and the other was attacked at Langówan with inflammation of the chest, and as his caselooked rather bad I had him sent back to Menado. The people here were all so busywith their rice-harvest, which was important for them to finish owing to the early rains,that I could get no one to shoot for me. During the three weeks that I stayed at Panghu it rained nearly everyday, either inthe afternoon only, or all day long; but there were generally a few hours' sunshine inthe morning, and I took advantage of these to explore the roads and paths, the rocks

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and ravines, in search of insects. These were not very abundant, yet I saw enough toconvince me that the locality was a good one, had I been there at the beginning insteadof at the end of the dry season. The natives brought me daily a few insects obtained atthe Sagueir palms, including some fine Cetonias and stag- beetles. Two little boys werevery expert with the blowpipe, and brought me a good many small birds, which theyshot with pellets of clay. Among these was a pretty little flower-pecker of a newspecies (Prionochilus aureolimbatus), and several of the loveliest honeysuckers I hadyet seen. My general collection of birds was, however, almost at a standstill; for thoughI at length obtained a man to shoot for me, he was not good for much, and seldombrought me more than one bird a day. The best thing he shot was the large and rarefruit-pigeon peculiar to Northern Celebes (Carpophaga forsteni), which I had long beenseeking. I was myself very successful in one beautiful group of insects, the tiger-beetles,which seem more abundant and varied here than anywhere else in the Archipelago. Ifirst met with them on a cutting in the road, where a hard clayey bank was partiallyovergrown with mosses and small ferns. Here, I found running about, a small olive-green species which never took flight; and more rarely, a fine purplish black winglessinsect, which was always found motionless in crevices, and was therefore, probablynocturnal. It appeared to me to form a new genus. About the roads in the forest, I foundthe large and handsome Cicindela heros, which I had before obtained sparingly atMacassar; but it was in the mountain torrent of the ravine itself that I got my finestthings. 0n dead trunks overhanging the water and on the banks and foliage, I obtainedthree very pretty species of Cicindela, quite distinct in size, form, and colour, buthaving an almost identical pattern of pale spots. I also found a single specimen of amost curious species with very long antennae. But my finest discovery here was theCicindela gloriosa, which I found on mossy stones just rising above the water. Afterobtaining my first specimen of this elegant insect, I used to walk up the stream,watching carefully every moss-covered rock and stone. It was rather shy, and wouldoften lead me on a long chase from stone to stone, becoming invisible every time itsettled on the damp moss, owing to its rich velvety green colour. On some days I couldonly catch a few glimpses of it; on others I got a single specimen; and on a fewoccasions two, but never without a more or less active pursuit. This and several otherspecies I never saw but in this one ravine. Among the people here I saw specimens of several types, which, with thepeculiarities of the languages, gives me some notion of their probable origin. A strikingillustration of the low state of civilization of these people, until quite recently, is to befound in the great diversity of their languages. Villages three or four miles apart haveseparate dialects, and each group of three or four such villages has a distinct languagequite unintelligible to all the rest; so that, until the recent introduction of Malay by theMissionaries, there must have been a bar to all free communication. These languagesoffer many peculiarities. They contain a Celebes-Malay element and a Papuan element,along with some radical peculiarities found also in the languages of the Siau andSanguir islands further north, and therefore, probably derived from the PhilippineIslands. Physical characteristics correspond. There are some of the less civilized tribeswhich have semi-Papuan features and hair, while in some villages the true Celebes orBugis physiognomy prevails. The plateau of Tondano is chiefly inhabited by peoplenearly as white as the Chinese, and with very pleasing semi-European features. Thepeople of Siau and Sanguir much resemble these, and I believe them to be perhapsimmigrants from some of the islands of North Polynesia. The Papuan type willrepresent the remnant of the aborigines, while those of the Bugis character show theextension northward of the superior Malay races. As I was wasting valuable time at Panghu, owing to the bad weather and the illnessof my hunters, I returned to Menado after a stay of three weeks. Here I had a littletouch of fever, and what with drying and packing all of my collections and getting

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fresh servants, it was a fortnight before I was again ready to start. I now went eastwardover an undulating country skirting the great volcano of Klabat, to a village calledLempias, situated close to the extensive forest that covers the lower slopes of thatmountain. My baggage was carried from village to village by relays of men; and aseach change involved some delay, I did not reach my destination (a distance ofeighteen miles) until sunset. I was wet through, and had to wait for an hour in anuncomfortable state until the first installment of my baggage arrived, which luckilycontained my clothes, while the rest did not come in until midnight. This being the district inhabited by that singular annual the Babirusa (Hog-deer), Iinquired about skulls and soon obtained several in tolerable condition, as well as a fineone of the rare and curious "Sapiutan" (Anoa depressicornis. Of this animal I had seentwo living specimens at Menado, and was surprised at their great resemblance to smallcattle, or still more to the Eland of South Africa. Their Malay name signifies "forestox," and they differ from very small highbred oxen principally by the low- hangingdewlap, and straight, pointed horns which slope back over the neck. I did not find theforest here so rich in insects as I had expected, and my hunters got me very few birds,but what they did obtain were very interesting. Among these were the rare forestKingfisher (Cittura cyanotis), a small new species of Megapodius, and one specimen ofthe large and interesting Maleo (Megacephalon rubripes), to obtain which was one ofmy chief reasons for visiting this district. Getting no more, however, after ten days'search, I removed to Licoupang, at the extremity of the peninsula, a place celebrated forthese birds, as well as for the Babirusa and Sapiutan. I found here Mr. Goldmann, theeldest son of the Governor of the Moluccas, who was superintending the establishmentof some Government salt-works. This was a better locality, and I obtained some finebutterflies and very good birds, among which was one more specimen of the rareground dove (Phlegaenas tristigmata), which I had first obtained near the Maroswaterfall in South Celebes. Hearing what I was particularly in search of, Mr. Goldmann kindly offered to makea hunting-party to the place where the "Maleos" are most abundant, a remote anduninhabited sea-beach about twenty miles distant. The climate here was quite differentfrom that on the mountains; not a drop of rain having fallen for four months; so I madearrangements to stay on the beach a week, in order to secure a good number ofspecimens. We went partly by boat and partly through the forest, accompanied by theMajor or head-man of Licoupang, with a dozen natives and about twenty dogs. On theway they caught a young Sapi-utan and five wild pigs. Of the former I preserved thehead. This animal is entirely confined to the remote mountain forests of Celebes andone or two adjacent islands which form part of the same group. In the adults the head isblack, with a white mark over each eye, one on each cheek and another on the throat.The horns are very smooth and sharp when young, but become thicker and ridged at thebottom with age. Most naturalists consider this curious animal to be a small ox, butfrom the character of the horns, the fine coat of hair and the descending dewlap, itseemed closely to approach the antelopes. Arrived at our destination, we built a but and prepared for a stay of some days--Ito shoot and skin "Maleos", and Mr. Goldmann and the Major to hunt wild pigs,Babirusa, and Sapi-utan. The place is situated in the large bay between the islands ofLimbe and Banca, and consists of steep beach more than a mile in length, of deep looseand coarse black volcanic sand (or rather gravel), very fatiguing to walk over. It isbounded at each extremity by a small river with hilly ground beyond, while the forestbehind the beach itself is tolerably level and its growth stunted. We probably have herean ancient lava stream from the Klabat volcano, which has flowed down a valley intothe sea, and the decomposition of which has formed the loose black sand. Inconfirmation of this view, it may be mentioned that the beaches beyond the small riversin both directions are of white sand. It is in this loose, hot, black sand that those singular birds, the "Maleos" deposit

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their eggs. In the months of August and September, when there is little or no rain, theycome down in pairs from the interior to this or to one or two other favourite spots, andscratch holes three or four feet deep, just above high-water mark, where the femaledeposits a single large egg, which she covers over with about a foot of sand--and thenreturns to the forest. At the end of ten or twelve days she comes again to the same spotto lay another egg, and each female bird is supposed to lay six or eight eggs during theseason. The male assists the female in making the hole, coming down and returningwith her. The appearance of the bird when walking on the beach is very handsome. Theglossy black and rosy white of the plumage, the helmeted head and elevated tail, likethat of the common fowl, give a striking character, which their stately and somewhatsedate walk renders still more remarkable. There is hardly any difference between thesexes, except that the casque or bonnet at the back of the head and the tubercles at thenostrils are a little larger, and the beautiful rosy salmon colour a little deeper in themale bird; but the difference is so slight that it is not always possible to tell a malefrom a female without dissection. They run quickly, but when shot at or suddenlydisturbed, take wing with a heavy noisy flight to some neighbouring tree, where theysettle on a low branch; and, they probably roost at night in a similar situation. Manybirds lay in the same hole, for a dozen eggs are often found together; and these are solarge that it is not possible for the body of the bird to contain more than one fully-developed egg at the same time. In all the female birds which I shot, none of the eggsbesides the one large one exceeded the size of peas, and there were only eight or nineof these, which is probably the extreme number a bird can lay in one season. Every year the natives come for fifty miles round to obtain these eggs, which areesteemed as a great delicacy, and when quite fresh, are indeed delicious. They arericher than hens' eggs and of a finer favour, and each one completely fills an ordinaryteacup, and forms with bread or rice a very good meal. The colour of the shell is a palebrick red, or very rarely pure white. They are elongate and very slightly smaller at oneend, from four to four and a half inches long by two and a quarter or two and a halfwide. After the eggs are deposited in the sand, they are no further cared for by themother. The young birds, upon breaking the shell, work their way up through the sandand run off at once to the forest; and I was assured by Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate,that they can fly the very day they are hatched. He had taken some eggs on board hisschooner which hatched during the night, and in the morning the little birds flewreadily across the cabin. Considering the great distances the birds come to deposit theeggs in a proper situation (often ten or fifteen miles) it seems extraordinary that theyshould take no further care of them. It is, however, quite certain that they neither do norcan watch them. The eggs being deposited by a number of hens in succession in thesame hole, would render it impossible for each to distinguish its own; and the foodnecessary for such large birds (consisting entirely of fallen fruits) can only be obtainedby roaming over an extensive district, so that if the numbers of birds which come downto this single beach in the breeding season, amounting to many hundreds, were obligedto remain in the vicinity, many would perish of hunger. In the structure of the feet of this bird, we may detect a cause for its departing fromthe habits of its nearest allies, the Megapodii and Talegalli, which heap up earth,leaves, stones, and sticks into a huge mound, in which they bury their eggs. The feet ofthe Maleo are not nearly so large or strong in proportion as in these birds, while itsclaws are short and straight instead of being long and much curved. The toes are,however, strongly webbed at the base, forming a broad powerful foot, which, with therather long leg, is well adapted to scratch away the loose sand (which flies up in aperfect shower when the birds are at work), but which could not without much labouraccumulate the heaps of miscellaneous rubbish, which the large grasping feet of theMegapodius bring together with ease. We may also, I think, see in the peculiar organization of the entire family of the

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Megapodidae or Brush Turkeys, a reason why they depart so widely from the usualhabits of the Class of birds. Each egg being so large as entirely to fill up the abdominalcavity and with difficulty pass the walls of the pelvis, a considerable interval isrequired before the successive eggs can be matured (the natives say about thirteendays). Each bird lays six or eight eggs or even more each season, so that between thefirst and last there may be an interval of two or three months. Now, if these eggs werehatched in the ordinary way, either the parents must keep sitting continually for thislong period, or if they only began to sit after the last egg was deposited, the first wouldbe exposed to injury by the climate, or to destruction by the large lizards, snakes, orother animals which abound in the district; because such large birds must roam about agood deal in search of food. Here then we seem to have a case in which the habits of abird may be directly traced to its exceptional organization; for it will hardly bemaintained that this abnormal structure and peculiar food were given to theMegapodidae in order that they might not exhibit that parental affection, or possessthose domestic instincts so general in the Class of birds, and which so much excite ouradmiration. It has generally been the custom of writers on Natural History to take the habitsand instincts of animals as fixed points, and to consider their structure andorganization, as specially adapted, to be in accordance with these. This assumption ishowever an arbitrary one, and has the bad effect of stifling inquiry into the nature andcauses of "instincts and habits," treating them as directly due to a "first cause," andtherefore, incomprehensible to us. I believe that a careful consideration of the structureof a species, and of the peculiar physical and organic conditions by which it issurrounded, or has been surrounded in past ages, will often, as in this case, throw muchlight on the origin of its habits and instincts. These again, combined with changes inexternal conditions, react upon structure, and by means of "variation" and "naturalselection", both are kept in harmony. My friends remained three days, and got plenty of wild pigs and two Anoas, butthe latter were much injured by the dogs, and I could only preserve the heads. A grandhunt which we attempted on the third day failed, owing to bad management in drivingin the game, and we waited for five hours perched on platforms in trees without gettinga shot, although we had been assured that pigs, Babirusas, and Anóas would rush pastus in dozens. I myself, with two men, stayed three days longer to get more specimensof the Maleos, and succeeded in preserving twenty-six very fine ones-- the flesh andeggs of which supplied us with abundance of good food. The Major sent a boat, as he had promised, to take home my baggage, while Iwalked through the forest with my two boys and a guide, about fourteen miles. For thefirst half of the distance there was no path, and we had often to cut our way throughtangled rattans or thickets of bamboo. In some of our turnings to find the mostpracticable route, I expressed my fear that we were losing our way, as the sun beingvertical, I could see no possible clue to the right direction. My conductors, however,laughed at the idea, which they seemed to consider quite ludicrous; and sure enough,about half way, we suddenly encountered a little hut where people from Licoupangcame to hunt and smoke wild pigs. My guide told me he had never before traversed theforest between these two points; and this is what is considered by some travellers asone of the savage "instincts," whereas it is merely the result of wide generalknowledge. The man knew the topography of the whole district; the slope of the land,the direction of the streams, the belts of bamboo or rattan, and many other indicationsof locality and direction; and he was thus enabled to hit straight upon the hut, in thevicinity of which he had often hunted. In a forest of which he knew nothing, he wouldbe quite as much at a loss as a European. Thus it is, I am convinced, with all thewonderful accounts of Indians finding their way through trackless forests to definitepoints; they may never have passed straight between the two particular points before,but they are well acquainted with the vicinity of both, and have such a general

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knowledge of the whole country, its water system, its soil and its vegetation, that asthey approach the point they are to reach, many easily-recognised indications enablethem to hit upon it with certainty. The chief feature of this forest was the abundance of rattan palms hanging from thetrees, and turning and twisting about on the ground, often in inextricable confusion.One wonders at first how they can get into such queer shapes; but it is evidently causedby the decay and fall of the trees up which they have first climbed, after which theygrow along the ground until they meet with another trunk up which to ascend. Atangled mass of twisted living rattan, is therefore, a sign that at some former period alarge tree has fallen there, though there may be not the slightest vestige of it left. Therattan seems to have unlimited powers of growth, and a single plant may moult upseveral trees in succession, and thus reach the enormous length they are said sometimesto attain. They much improve the appearance of a forest as seen from the coast; forthey vary the otherwise monotonous tree-tops with feathery crowns of leaves risingclear above them, and each terminated by an erect leafy spike like a lightning-conductor. The other most interesting object in the forest was a beautiful palm, whoseperfectly smooth and cylindrical stem rises erect to more than a hundred feet high, witha thickness of only eight or ten inches; while the fan-shaped leaves which compose itscrown, are almost complete circles of six or eight feet diameter, borne aloft on long andslender petioles, and beautifully toothed round the edge by the extremities of theleaflets, which are separated only for a few inches from the circumference. It isprobably the Livistona rotundifolia of botanists, and is the most complete and beautifulfan-leaf I have ever seen, serving admirably for folding into water-buckets andimpromptu baskets, as well as for thatching and other purposes. A few days afterwards I returned to Menado on horse-back, sending my baggagearound by sea; and had just time to pack up all my collections to go by the next mailsteamer to Amboyna. I will now devote a few pages to an account of the chiefpeculiarities of the Zoology of Celebes, and its relation to that of the surroundingcountries.

CHAPTER XVIII

NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBES

THE position of Celebes is the most central in the Archipelago. Immediately to thenorth are the Philippine islands; on the west is Borneo; on the east are the Moluccaislands; and on the south is the Timor group--and it is on all sides so connected withthese islands by its own satellites, by small islets, and by coral reefs, that neither byinspection on the map nor by actual observation around its coast, is it possible todetermine accurately which should be grouped with it, and which with the surroundingdistricts. Such being the case, we should naturally expect to find that the productions ofthis central island in some degree represented the richness and variety of the wholeArchipelago, while we should not expect much individuality in a country, so situated,that it would seem as if it were pre- eminently fitted to receive stragglers andimmigrants from all around. As so often happens in nature, however, the fact turns out to be just the reverse ofwhat we should have expected; and an examination of its animal productions showsCelebes to be at once the poorest in the number of its species, and the most isolated inthe character of its productions, of all the great islands in the Archipelago. With itsattendant islets it spreads over an extent of sea hardly inferior in length and breadth to

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that occupied by Borneo, while its actual land area is nearly double that of Java; yet itsMammalia and terrestrial birds number scarcely more than half the species found in thelast- named island. Its position is such that it could receive immigrants from every sidemore readily than Java, yet in proportion to the species which inhabit it, far fewer seemderived from other islands, while far more are altogether peculiar to it; and aconsiderable number of its animal forms are so remarkable, as to find no close allies inany other part of the world. I now propose to examine the best known groups ofCelebesian animals in some detail, to study their relations to those of other islands, andto call attention to the many points of interest which they suggest. We know far more of the birds of Celebes than we do of any other group ofanimals. No less than 191 species have been discovered, and though no doubt, manymore wading and swimming birds have to be added; yet the list of land birds, 144 innumber, and which for our present purpose are much the most important, must be verynearly complete. I myself assiduously collected birds in Celebes for nearly ten months,and my assistant, Mr. Allen, spent two months in the Sula islands. The Dutch naturalistForsten spent two years in Northern Celebes (twenty years before my visit), andcollections of birds had also been sent to Holland from Macassar. The French ship ofdiscovery, L'Astrolabe, also touched at Menado and procured collections. Since myreturn home, the Dutch naturalists Rosenberg and Bernstein have made extensivecollections both in North Celebes and in the Sula islands; yet all their researchescombined have only added eight species of land birds to those forming part of my owncollection--a fact which renders it almost certain that there are very few more todiscover. [footnote: Dr. B. Meyer and other naturalists have since explored the islandand its surrounding islets, and have raised the total number of its birds to nearly 400, ofwhich 288 are land birds.] Besides Salayer and Boutong on the south, with Peling and Bungay on the east, thethree islands of the Sula (or Zula) Archipelago also belong zoologically to Celebes,although their position is such that it would seem more natural to group them with theMoluccas. About 48 land birds are now known from the Sula group, and if we rejectfrom these, five species which have a wide range over the Archipelago, the remainderare much more characteristic of Celebes than of the Moluccas. Thirty-one species areidentical with those of the former island, and four are representatives of Celebes forms,while only eleven are Moluccan species, and two more representatives. But although the Sula islands belong to Celebes, they are so close to Bouru and thesouthern islands of the Gilolo group, that several purely Moluccan forms have migratedthere, which are quite unknown to the island of Celebes itself; the whole thirteenMoluccan species being in this category, thus adding to the productions of Celebes aforeign element which does not really belong to it. In studying the peculiarities of theCelebesian fauna, it will therefore be well to consider only the productions of the mainisland. The number of land birds in the island of Celebes is 128, and from these we may,as before, strike out a small number of species which roam over the whole Archipelago(often from India to the Pacific), and which therefore only serve to disguise thepeculiarities of individual islands. These are 20 in number, and leave 108 species whichwe may consider as more especially characteristic of the island. On accuratelycomparing these with the birds of all the surrounding countries, we find that only nineextend into the islands westward, and nineteen into the islands eastward, while no lessthan 80 are entirely confined to the Celebesian fauna--a degree of individuality which,considering the situation of the island, is hardly to be equalled in any other part of theworld. If we still more closely examine these 80 species, we shall be struck by themany peculiarities of structure they present, and by the curious affinities with distantparts of the world which many of them seem to indicate. These points are of so muchinterest and importance that it will be necessary to pass in review all those specieswhich are peculiar to the island, and to call attention to whatever is most worthy of

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remark. Six species of the Hawk tribe are peculiar to Celebes; three of these are verydistinct from allied birds which range over all India to Java and Borneo, and whichthus seem to be suddenly changed on entering Celebes. Another (Accipiter trinotatus) isa beautiful hawk, with elegant rows of large round white spots on the tail, rendering itvery conspicuous and quite different from any other known bird of the family. Threeowls are also peculiar; and one, a barn owl (Strix rosenbergii), is very much larger andstronger than its ally Strix javanica, which ranges from India through all the islands asfar as Lombock. Of the ten Parrots found in Celebes, eight are peculiar. Among them are twospecies of the singular raquet-tailed parrots forming the genus Prioniturus, and whichare characterised by possessing two long spoon-shaped feathers in the tail. Two alliedspecies are found in the adjacent island of Mindanao, one of the Philippines, and thisform of tail is found in no other parrots in the whole world. A small species of Lorikeet(Trichoglossus flavoviridis) seems to have its nearest ally in Australia. The three Woodpeckers which inhabit the island are all peculiar, and are allied tospecies found in Java and Borneo, although very different from them all. Among the three peculiar Cuckoos, two are very remarkable. Phoenicophauscallirhynchus is the largest and handsomest species of its genus, and is distinguished bythe three colours of its beak, bright yellow, red, and black. Eudynamis melanorynchusdiffers from all its allies in having a jet-black bill, whereas the other species of thegenus always have it green, yellow, or reddish. The Celebes Roller (Coracias temmincki) is an interesting example of one speciesof a genus being cut off from the rest. There are species of Coracias in Europe, Asia,and Africa, but none in the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, or Borneo. The presentspecies seems therefore quite out of place; and what is still more curious is the fact thatit is not at all like any of the Asiatic species, but seems more to resemble those ofAfrica. In the next family, the Bee-eaters, is another equally isolated bird, Meropogonforsteni, which combines the characters of African and Indian Bee-eaters, and whoseonly near ally, Meropogon breweri, was discovered by M. Du Chaillu in West Africa! The two Celebes Hornbills have no close allies in those which abound in thesurrounding countries. The only Thrush, Geocichla erythronota, is most nearly allied toa species peculiar to Timor. Two of the Flycatchers are closely allied to Indian species,which are not found in the Malay islands. Two genera somewhat allied to the Magpies(Streptocitta and Charitornis), but whose affinities are so doubtful that ProfessorSchlegel places them among the Starlings, are entirely confined to Celebes. They arebeautiful long-tailed birds, with black and white plumage, and with the feathers of thehead somewhat rigid and scale-like. Doubtfully allied to the Starlings are two other very isolated and beautiful birds.One, Enodes erythrophrys, has ashy and yellow plumage, but is ornamented with broadstripes of orange- red above the eyes. The other, Basilornis celebensis, is a blue- blackbird with a white patch on each side of the breast, and the head ornamented with abeautiful compressed scaly crest of feathers, resembling in form that of the well-knownCock-of-the- rock of South America. The only ally to this bird is found in Ceram, andhas the feathers of the crest elongated upwards into quite a different form. A still more curious bird is the Scissirostrum pagei, which although it is at presentclassed in the Starling family, differs from all other species in the form of the bill andnostrils, and seems most nearly allied in its general structure to the Ox- peckers(Buphaga) of tropical Africa, next to which the celebrated ornithologist PrinceBonaparte finally placed it. It is almost entirely of a slatey colour, with yellow bill andfeet, but the feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts each terminate in a rigid,glossy pencil or tuft of a vivid crimson. These pretty little birds take the place of themetallic-green starlings of the genus Calornis, which are found in most other islands of

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the Archipelago, but which are absent from Celebes. [footnote: Calornis neglecta, firstfound in the Sula Islands, has now been discovered in Celebes by Dr. Meyer.] They goin flocks, feeding upon grain and fruits, often frequenting dead trees, in holes of whichthey build their nests; and they cling to the trunks as easily as woodpeckers or creepers. Out of eighteen Pigeons found in Celebes, eleven are peculiar to it. Two of them,Ptilonopus gularis and Turacaena menadensis, have their nearest allies in Timor. Twoothers, Carpophaga forsteni and Phlaegenas tristigmata, most resemble Philippineisland species; and Carpophaga radiata belongs to a New Guinea group. Lastly, in theGallinaceous tribe, the curious helmeted Maleo (Megacephalon rubripes) is quiteisolated, having its nearest (but still distant) allies in the Brush-turkeys of Australia andNew Guinea. Judging, therefore, by the opinions of the eminent naturalists who have describedand classified its birds, we find that many of the species have no near allies whatsoeverin the countries which surround Celebes, but are either quite isolated, or indicaterelations with such distant regions as New Guinea, Australia, India, or Africa. Othercases of similar remote affinities between the productions of distant countries no doubtexist, but in no spot upon the globe that I am yet acquainted with, do so many of themoccur together, or do they form so decided a feature in the natural history of thecountry. The Mammalia of Celebes are very few in number, consisting of fourteen terrestrialspecies and seven bats. Of the former no less than eleven are peculiar, including twowhich there is reason to believe may have been recently carried into other islands byman. Three species which have a tolerably wide range in the Archipelago, are: (1) Thecurious Lemur, Tarsius spectrum, which is found in all the islands as far westward asMalacca; (2) the common Malay Civet, Viverra tangalunga, which has a still widerrange; and (3) a Deer, which seems to be the same as the Rusa hippelaphus of Java,and was probably introduced by man at an early period. The more characteristic species are as follow: Cynopithecus nigrescens, a curious baboon-like monkey if not a true baboon,which abounds all over Celebes, and is found nowhere else but in the one small islandof Batchian, into which it has probably been introduced accidentally. An allied speciesis found in the Philippines, but in no other island of the Archipelago is there anythingresembling them. These creatures are about the size of a spaniel, of a jet-black colour,and have the projecting dog-like muzzle and overhanging brows of the baboons. Theyhave large red callosities and a short fleshy tail, scarcely an inch long and hardlyvisible. They go in large bands, living chiefly in the trees, but often descending on theground and robbing gardens and orchards. Anoa depressicornis, the Sapi-utan, or wild cow of the Malays, is an animal whichhas been the cause of much controversy, as to whether it should be classed as ox,buffalo, or antelope. It is smaller than any other wild cattle, and in many respectsseems to approach some of the ox-like antelopes of Africa. It is found only in themountains, and is said never to inhabit places where there are deer. It is somewhatsmaller than a small Highland cow, and has long straight horns, which are ringed at thebase and slope backwards over the neck. The wild pig seems to be of a species peculiar to the island; but a much morecurious animal of this family is the Babirusa or Pig- deer; so named by the Malaysfrom its long and slender legs, and curved tusks resembling horns. This extraordinarycreature resembles a pig in general appearance, but it does not dig with its snout, as itfeeds on fallen fruits. The tusks of the lower jaw are very long and sharp, but the upperones instead of growing downwards in the usual way are completely reversed, growingupwards out of bony sockets through the skin on each side of the snout, curvingbackwards to near the eyes, and in old animals often reaching eight or ten inches inlength. It is difficult to understand what can be the use of these extraordinary horn-liketeeth. Some of the old writers supposed that they served as hooks, by which the

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creature could rest its head on a branch. But the way in which they usually diverge justover and in front of the eye has suggested the more probable idea, that they serve toguard these organs from thorns and spines, while hunting for fallen fruits among thetangled thickets of rattans and other spiny plants. Even this, however, is notsatisfactory, for the female, who must seek her food in the same way, does not possessthem. I should be inclined to believe rather, that these tusks were once useful, and werethen worn down as fast as they grew; but that changed conditions of life have renderedthem unnecessary, and they now develop into a monstrous form, just as the incisors ofthe Beaver or Rabbit will go on growing, if the opposite teeth do not wear them away.In old animals they reach an enormous size, and are generally broken off as if byfighting.

SKULL OF BABIRUSA

Here again we have a resemblance to the Wart-hogs of Africa, whose uppercanines grow outwards and curve up so as to form a transition from the usual mode ofgrowth to that of the Babirusa. In other respects there seems no affinity between theseanimals, and the Babirusa stands completely isolated, having no resemblance to the pigsof any other part of the world. It is found all over Celebes and in the Sula islands, andalso in Bourn, the only spot beyond the Celebes group to which it extends; and whichisland also shows some affinity to the Sula islands in its birds, indicating perhaps, acloser connection between them at some former period than now exists. The other terrestrial mammals of Celebes are five species of squirrels, which are alldistinct from those of Java and Borneo, and mark the furthest eastward range of thegenus in the tropics; and two of Eastern opossums (Cuscus), which are different fromthose of the Moluccas, and mark the furthest westward extension of this genus and ofthe Marsupial order. Thus we see that the Mammalia of Celebes are no less individual

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and remarkable than the birds, since three of the largest and most interesting specieshave no near allies in surrounding countries, but seem vaguely to indicate a relation tothe African continent. Many groups of insects appear to be especially subject to local influences, theirforms and colours changing with each change of conditions, or even with a change oflocality where the conditions seem almost identical. We should therefore anticipate thatthe individuality manifested in the higher animals would be still more prominent inthese creatures with less stable organisms. On the other hand, however, we have toconsider that the dispersion and migration of insects is much more easily effected thanthat of mammals or even of birds. They are much more likely to be carried away byviolent winds; their eggs may be carried on leaves either by storms of wind or byfloating trees, and their larvae and pupae, often buried in trunks of trees or enclosed inwaterproof cocoons, may be floated for days or weeks uninjured over the ocean. Thesefacilities of distribution tend to assimilate the productions of adjacent lands in twoways: first, by direct mutual interchange of species; and secondly, by repeatedimmigrations of fresh individuals of a species common to other islands, which byintercrossing, tend to obliterate the changes of form and colour, which differences ofconditions might otherwise produce. Bearing these facts in mind, we shall find that theindividuality of the insects of Celebes is even greater than we have any reason toexpect. For the purpose of insuring accuracy in comparisons with other islands, I shallconfine myself to those groups which are best known, or which I have myself carefullystudied. Beginning with the Papilionidae or Swallow-tailed butterflies, Celebespossesses 24 species, of which the large number of 18 are not found in any other island.If we compare this with Borneo, which out of 29 species has only two not foundelsewhere, the difference is as striking as anything can be. In the family of the Pieridae,or white butterflies, the difference is not quite so great, owing perhaps to the morewandering habits of the group; but it is still very remarkable. Out of 30 speciesinhabiting Celebes, 19 are peculiar, while Java (from which more species are knownthan from Sumatra or Borneo), out of 37 species, has only 13 peculiar. The Danaidaeare large, but weak-flying butterflies, which frequent forests and gardens, and areplainly but often very richly coloured. Of these my own collection contains 16 speciesfrom Celebes and 15 from Borneo; but whereas no less than 14 are confined to theformer island, only two are peculiar to the latter. The Nymphalidae are a very extensivegroup, of generally strong-winged and very bright-coloured butterflies, very abundantin the tropics, and represented in our own country by our Fritillaries, our Vanessas, andour Purple-emperor. Some months ago I drew up a list of the Eastern species of thisgroup, including all the new ones discovered by myself, and arrived at the followingcomparative results:--

Species of Nymphalidae. Species peculiar to each island. Percentage of peculiar Species.

Java 70 23 33

Borneo 52 15 29

Celebes 48 35 73

The Coleoptera are so extensive that few of the groups have yet been carefullyworked out. I will therefore refer to one only, which I have myself recently studied--the Cetoniadae or Rose- chafers--a group of beetles which, owing to their extremebeauty, have been much sought after. From Java 37 species of these insects are known,and from Celebes only 30; yet only 13, or 35 percent, are peculiar to the former island,and 19, or 63 percent, to the latter. The result of these comparisons is, that although Celebes is a single, large islandwith only a few smaller ones closely grouped around it, we must really consider it asforming one of the great divisions of the Archipelago, equal in rank and importance tothe whole of the Moluccan or Philippine groups, to the Papuan islands, or to the Indo-

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Malay islands (Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay peninsula). Taking those familiesof insects and birds which are best known, the following table shows the comparison ofCelebes with the other groups of islands:--

PAPILIONIDAE AND PERIDAE.Per cent of peculiar Species.

HAWKS, PARROTS, AND PIGEONS.Per cent of peculiar Species.

Indo-Malay region 56 54

Philippine group 66 73

Celebes 69 60

Moluccan group 52 62

Timor group 42 47

Papuan group 64 47

These large and well-known families well represent the general character of thezoology of Celebes; and they show that this island is really one of the most isolatedportions of the Archipelago, although situated in its very centre. But the insects of Celebes present us with other phenomena more curious and moredifficult to explain than their striking individuality. The butterflies of that island are inmany cases characterised by a peculiarity of outline, which distinguishes them at aglance from those of any other part of the world. It is most strongly manifested in thePapilios and the Pieridae, and consists in the forewings being either strongly curved orabruptly bent near the base, or in the extremity being elongated and often somewhathooked. Out of the 14 species of Papilio in Celebes, 13 exhibit this peculiarity in agreater or less degree, when compared with the most nearly allied species of thesurrounding islands. Ten species of Pieridae have the same character, and in four orfive of the Nymphalidae it is also very distinctly marked. In almost every case, thespecies found in Celebes are much larger than thane of the islands westward, and atleast equal to those of the Moluccas, or even larger. The difference of form is,however, the most remarkable feature, as it is altogether a new thing for a whole set ofspecies in one country to differ in exactly the same way from the corresponding sets inall the surrounding countries; and it is so well marked, that without looking at thedetails of colouring, most Celebes Papilios and many Pieridae, can be at oncedistinguished from those of other islands by their form alone. The outside figure of each pair here given, shows the exact size and form of thefore-wing in a butterfly of Celebes, while the inner one represents the most closelyallied species from one of the adjacent islands. Figure 1 shows the strongly curvedmargin of the Celebes species, Papilio gigon, compared with the much straightermargin of Papilio demolion from Singapore and Java. Figure 2 shows the abrupt bendover the base of the wing in Papilio miletus of Celebes, compared with the slightcurvature in the common Papilio sarpedon, which has almost exactly the same formfrom India to New Guinea and Australia. Figure 3 shows the elongated wing ofTachyris zarinda, a native of Celebes, compared with the much shorter wing ofTachyris nero, a very closely allied species found in all the western islands. Thedifference of form is in each case sufficiently obvious, but when the insects themselvesare compared, it is much more striking than in these partial outlines.

From the analogy of birds, we shouldsuppose that the pointed wing gaveincreased rapidity of flight, since it is acharacter of terns, swallows, falcons, andof the swift-flying pigeons. A short androunded wing, on the other hand, alwaysaccompanies a more feeble or morelaborious flight, and one much less under

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(butterfly wing - types)

command. We might suppose, therefore,that the butterflies which possess thispeculiar form were better able to escapepursuit. But there seems no unusualabundance of insectivorous birds torender this necessary; and as we cannotbelieve that such a curious peculiarity iswithout meaning, it seems probable thatit is the result of a former condition ofthings, when the island possessed a muchricher fauna, the relics of which we seein the isolated birds and Mammalia nowinhabiting it; and when the abundance ofinsectivorous creatures rendered someunusual means of escape a necessity forthe large-winged and showy butterflies.It is some confirmation of this view, thatneither the very small nor the very

obscurely coloured groups of butterflies have elongated wings, nor is any modificationperceptible in those strong-winged groups which already possess great strength andrapidity of flight. These were already sufficiently protected from their enemies, and didnot require increased power of escaping from them. It is not at all clear what effect thepeculiar curvature of the wings has in modifying flight. Another curious feature in the zoology of Celebes is also worthy of attention. Iallude to the absence of several groups which are found on both sides of it, in the Indo-Malay islands as well as in the Moluccas; and which thus seem to be unable, fromsome unknown cause, to obtain a footing in the intervening island. In Birds we have thetwo families of Podargidae and Laniadae, which range over the whole Archipelago andinto Australia, and which yet have no representative in Celebes. The genera Ceyxamong Kingfishers, Criniger among Thrushes, Rhipidura among Flycatchers, Calornisamong Starlings, and Erythrura among Finches, are all found in the Moluccas as wellas in Borneo and Java--but not a single species belonging to any one of them is foundin Celebes. Among insects, the large genus of Rose-chafers, Lomaptera, is found inevery country and island between India and New Guinea, except Celebes. Thisunexpected absence of many groups, from one limited district in the very centre oftheir area of distribution, is a phenomenon not altogether unique, but, I believe,nowhere so well marked as in this case; and it certainly adds considerably to thestrange character of this remarkable island. The anomalies and eccentricities in the natural history of Celebes which I haveendeavoured to sketch in this chapter, all point to an origin in a remote antiquity. Thehistory of extinct animals teaches us that their distribution in time and in space arestrikingly similar. The rule is, that just as the productions of adjacent areas usuallyresemble each other closely, so do the productions of successive periods in the samearea; and as the productions of remote areas generally differ widely, so do theproductions of the same area at remote epochs. We are therefore led irresistibly to theconclusion, that change of species, still more of generic and of family form, is a matterof time. But time may have led to a change of species in one country, while in anotherthe forms have been more permanent, or the change may have gone on at an equal ratebut in a different manner in both. In either case, the amount of individuality in theproductions of a district will be to some extent a measure of the time that a district hasbeen isolated from those that surround it. Judged by this standard, Celebes must be oneof the oldest parts of the Archipelago. It probably dates from a period not only anteriorto that when Borneo, Java, and Sumatra were separated from the continent, but fromthat still more remote epoch when the land that now constitutes these islands had not

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risen above the ocean. Such an antiquity is necessary, to account for the number of animal forms itpossesses, which show no relation to those of India or Australia, but rather with thoseof Africa; and we are led to speculate on the possibility of there having once existed acontinent in the Indian Ocean which might serve as a bridge to connect these distantcountries. Now it is a curious fact, that the existence of such a land has been alreadythought necessary, to account for the distribution of the curious Quadrumana formingthe family of the Lemurs. These have their metropolis in Madagascar, but are foundalso in Africa, in Ceylon, in the peninsula of India, and in the Malay Archipelago as faras Celebes, which is its furthest eastern limit. Dr. Sclater has proposed for thehypothetical continent connecting these distant points, and whose former existence isindicated by the Mascarene islands and the Maldive coral group, the name of Lemuria.Whether or not we believe in its existence in the exact form here indicated, the studentof geographical distribution must see in the extraordinary and isolated productions ofCelebes, proof of the former existence of some continent from whence the ancestors ofthese creatures, and of many other intermediate forms, could have been derived.[footnote: I have since come to the conclusion that no such connecting land as Lemuriais required to explain these facts. (See my Island Life, pages 395 and 427.)] In this short sketch of the most striking peculiarities of the Natural History ofCelebes, I have been obliged to enter much into details that I fear will have beenuninteresting to the general reader, but unless I had done so, my exposition would havelost much of its force and value. It is by these details alone that I have been able toprove the unusual features that Celebes presents to us. Situated in the very midst of anArchipelago, and closely hemmed in on every side by islands teeming with variedforms of life, its productions have yet a surprising amount of individuality. While it ispoor in the actual number of its species, it is yet wonderfully rich in peculiar forms,many of which are singular or beautiful, and are in some cases absolutely unique uponthe globe. We behold here the curious phenomenon of groups of insects changing theiroutline in a similar manner when compared with those of surrounding islands,suggesting some common cause which never seems to have acted elsewhere in exactlythe same way. Celebes, therefore, presents us with a most striking example of theinterest that attaches to the study of the geographical distribution of animals. We cansee that their present distribution upon the globe is the result of all the more recentchanges the earth's surface has undergone; and, by a careful study of the phenomena,we are sometimes able to deduce approximately what those past changes must havebeen in order to produce the distribution we find to exist. In the comparatively simplecase of the Timor group, we were able to deduce these changes with some approach tocertainty. In the much more complicated case of Celebes, we can only indicate theirgeneral nature, since we now see the result, not of any single or recent change only, butof a whole series of the later revolutions which have resulted in the present distributionof land in the Eastern Hemisphere.

THE MOLUCCAS

CHAPTER XIX

BANDA

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(DECEMBER 1857, MAY 1859, APRIL 1861)

THE Dutch mail steamer in which I travelled from Macassar to Banda andAmboyna was a roomy and comfortable vessel, although it would only go six miles anhour in the finest weather. As there were but three passengers besides myself, we hadabundance of room, and I was able to enjoy a voyage more than I had ever donebefore. The arrangements are somewhat different from those on board English or Indiansteamers. There are no cabin servants, as every cabin passenger invariably brings hisown, and the ship's stewards attend only to the saloon and the eating department. At sixA.M. a cup of tea or coffee is provided for those who like it. At seven to eight there is alight breakfast of tea, eggs, sardines, etc. At ten, Madeira, Gin and bitters are broughton deck as a whet for the substantial eleven o'clock breakfast, which differs from adinner only in the absence of soup. Cups of tea and coffee are brought around at threeP.M.; bitters, etc. again at five, a good dinner with beer and claret at half-past six,concluded by tea and coffee at eight. Between whiles, beer and sodawater are suppliedwhen called for, so there is no lack of little gastronomical excitements to while awaythe tedium of a sea voyage. Our first stopping place was Coupang, at the west end of the large island of Timor.We then coasted along that island for several hundred miles, having always a view ofhilly ranges covered with scanty vegetation, rising ridge behind ridge to the height ofsix or seven thousand feet. Turning off towards Banda we passed Pulo-Cambing,Wetter, and Roma, all of which are desolate and barren volcanic islands, almost asuninviting as Aden, and offering a strange contrast to the usual verdure and luxurianceof the Archipelago. In two days more we reached the volcanic group of Banda, coveredwith an unusually dense and brilliant green vegetation, indicating that we had passedbeyond the range of the hot dry winds from the plains of Central Australia. Banda is alovely little spot, its three islands enclosing a secure harbour from whence no outlet isvisible, and with water so transparent, that living corals and even the minutest objectsare plainly seen on the volcanic sand at a depth of seven or eight fathoms. The eversmoking volcano rears its bare cone on one side, while the two larger islands areclothed with vegetation to the summit of the hills. Going on shore, I walked up a pretty path which leads to the highest point of theisland on which the town is situated, where there is a telegraph station and amagnificent view. Below lies the little town, with its neat red-tiled white houses andthe thatched cottages of the natives, bounded on one side by the old Portuguese fort.Beyond, about half a mile distant, lies the larger island in the shape of a horseshoe,formed of a range of abrupt hills covered with fine forest and nutmeg gardens; whileclose opposite the town is the volcano, forming a nearly perfect cone, the lower partonly covered with a light green bushy vegetation. On its north side the outline is moreuneven, and there is a slight hollow or chasm about one-fifth of the way down, fromwhich constantly issue two columns of smoke, as well as a good deal from the ruggedsurface around and from some spots nearer the summit. A white efflorescence,probably sulphur, is thickly spread over the upper part of the mountain, marked by thenarrow black vertical lines of water gullies. The smoke unites as it rises, and forms adense cloud, which in calm, damp weather spreads out into a wide canopy hiding thetop of the mountain. At night and early morning, it often rises up straight and leaves thewhole outline clear. It is only when actually gazing on an active volcano that one can fully realize itsawfulness and grandeur. Whence comes that inexhaustible fire whose dense andsulphurous smoke forever issues from this bare and desolate peak? Whence the mightyforces that produced that peak, and still from time to time exhibit themselves in theearthquakes that always occur in the vicinity of volcanic vents? The knowledge fromchildhood of the fact that volcanoes and earthquakes exist, has taken away somewhat ofthe strange and exceptional character that really belongs to them. The inhabitant of

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most parts of northern Europe sees in the earth the emblem of stability and repose. Hiswhole life- experience, and that of all his age and generation, teaches him that the earthis solid and firm, that its massive rocks may contain water in abundance, but never fire;and these essential characteristics of the earth are manifest in every mountain hiscountry contains. A volcano is a fact opposed to all this mass of experience, a fact of soawful a character that, if it were the rule instead of the exception, it would make theearth uninhabitable a fact so strange and unaccountable that we may be sure it wouldnot be believed on any human testimony, if presented to us now for the first time, as anatural phenomenon happening in a distant country. The summit of the small island is composed of a highly crystalline basalt; lowerdown I found a hard, stratified slatey sandstone, while on the beach are huge blocks oflava, and scattered masses of white coralline limestone. The larger island has coral rockto a height of three or four hundred feet, while above is lava and basalt. It seemsprobable, therefore, that this little group of four islands is the fragment of a largerdistrict which was perhaps once connected with Ceram, but which was separated andbroken up by the same forces which formed the volcanic cone. When I visited thelarger island on another occasion, I saw a considerable tract covered with large foresttrees--dead, but still standing. This was a record of the last great earthquake only twoyears ago, when the sea broke in over this part of the island and so flooded it as todestroy the vegetation on all the lowlands. Almost every year there is an earthquakehere, and at intervals of a few years, very severe ones which throw down houses andcarry ships out of the harbour bodily into the streets. Notwithstanding the losses incurred by these terrific visitations, and the small sizeand isolated position of these little islands, they have been and still are of considerablevalue to the Dutch Government, as the chief nutmeg-garden in the world. Almost thewhole surface is planted with nutmegs, grown under the shade of lofty Kanary trees(Kanarium commune). The light volcanic soil, the shade, and the excessive moisture ofthese islands, where it rains more or less every month in the year, seem exactly to suitthe nutmeg-tree, which requires no manure and scarcely any attention. All the yearround flowers and ripe fruit are to be found, and none of those diseases occur whichunder a forced and unnatural system of cultivation have ruined the nutmeg planters ofSingapore and Penang. Few cultivated plants are more beautiful than nutmeg-trees. They are handsomelyshaped and glossy-leaved, growing to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and bearingsmall yellowish flowers. The fruit is the size and colour of a peach, but rather oval. It isof a tough fleshy consistence, but when ripe splits open, and shows the dark-brown nutwithin, covered with the crimson mace, and is then a most beautiful object. Within thethin, hard shell of the nut is the seed, which is the nutmeg of commerce. The nuts areeaten by the large pigeons of Banda, which digest the mace, but cast up the nut with itsseed uninjured. The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly of the Dutch Government;but since leaving the country I believe that this monopoly has been partially or whollydiscontinued, a proceeding which appears exceedingly injudicious and quiteunnecessary. There are cases in which monopolies are perfectly justifiable, and Ibelieve this to be one of them. A small country like Holland cannot afford to keepdistant and expensive colonies at a loss; and having possession of a very small islandwhere a valuable product, not a necessity of life, can be obtained at little cost, it isalmost the duty of the state to monopolise it. No injury is done thereby to anyone, but agreat benefit is conferred upon the whole population of Holland and its dependencies,since the produce of the state monopolies saves them from the weight of a heavytaxation. Had the Government not kept the nutmeg trade of Banda in its own hands, it isprobable that the whole of the islands would long ago have become the property of oneor more large capitalists. The monopoly would have been almost the same, since noknown spot on the globe can produce nutmegs so cheaply as Banda, but the profits of

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the monopoly world have gone to a few individuals instead of to the nation. As an illustration of how a state monopoly may become a state duty, let us supposethat no gold existed in Australia, but that it had been found in immense quantities byone of our ships in some small and barren island. In this case it would plainly becomethe duty of the state to keep and work the mines for the public benefit, since by doingso, the gain would be fairly divided among the whole population by decrease oftaxation; whereas by leaving it open to free trade while merely keeping the governmentof the island; we should certainly produce enormous evils during the first struggle forthe precious metal, and should ultimately subside into the monopoly of some wealthyindividual or great company, whose enormous revenue would not equally benefit thecommunity. The nutmegs of Banda and the tin of Banca are to some extent parallelcases to this supposititious one, and I believe the Dutch Government will act mostunwisely if they give up their monopoly. Even the destruction of the nutmeg and clove trees in many islands, in order torestrict their cultivation to one or two where the monopoly could be easily guarded,usually made the theme of so much virtuous indignation against the Dutch, may bedefended on similar principles, and is certainly not nearly so bad as many monopolieswe ourselves have until very recently maintained. Nutmegs and cloves arc notnecessaries of life; they are not even used as spices by the natives of the Moluccas, andno one was materially or permanently injured by the destruction of the trees, since thereare a hundred other products that can be grown in the same islands, equally valuableand far more beneficial in a social point of view. It is a case exactly parallel to ourprohibition of the growth of tobacco in England, for fiscal purposes, and is, morallyand economically, neither better nor worse. The salt monopoly which we so longmaintained in India was in much worse. As long as we keep up a system of excise andcustoms on articles of daily use, which requires an elaborate array of officers andcoastguards to carry into effect, and which creates a number of purely legal crimes, it isthe height of absurdity for us to affect indignation at the conduct of the Dutch, whocarried out a much more justifiable, less hurtful, and more profitable system in theirEastern possessions. I challenge objectors to point out any physical or moral evils that have actuallyresulted from the action of the Dutch Government in this matter; whereas such evils arethe admitted results of every one of our monopolies and restrictions. [footnote: In theDaily News parliamentary report of March 28th, 1890, I read the following:- "Baron H.de Worms said it was true that in the Newara Eliya district of Ceylon land sales,affecting 10,283 men, women and children, had taken place for non-payment of thepaddy-tax, and that 981 persons had died of consequent want and disease, and 2,539had been left destitute." Here is a dry official statement of the result of our taxing thepeople's food; and it was such a very ordinary matter to our legislators that no furthernotice seems to have been taken of it. And we dare to abuse the Dutch of threecenturies back for destroying spice trees! - for which they paid a fair compensation, andthe results of which were probably beneficial rather than hurtful to the cultivators of thesoil! (See Chap.XXI.)] The conditions of the two experiments are totally different. Thetrue "political economy" of a higher race, when governing a lower race, has never yetbeen worked out. The application of our "political economy" to such cases invariablyresults in the extinction or degradation of the lower race; whence, we may consider itprobable that one of the necessary conditions of its truth is the approximate mental andsocial unity of the society in which it is applied. I shall again refer to this subject in mychapter on Ternate, one of the most celebrated of the old spice-islands. The natives of Banda are very much mixed, and it is probable that at least three-fourths of the population are mongrels, in various degrees of Malay, Papuan, Arab,Portuguese, and Dutch. The first two form the bases of the larger portion, and the darkskins, pronounced features, and more or less frizzly hair of the Papuans preponderates.There seems little doubt that the aborigines of Banda were Papuans, and a portion of

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them still exists in the Ké islands, where they emigrated when the Portuguese first tookpossession of their native island. It is such people as these that are often looked upon astransitional forms between two very distinct races, like the Malays and Papuans,whereas they are only examples of intermixture. The animal productions of Banda, though very few, are interesting. The islandshave perhaps no truly indigenous Mammalia but bats. The deer of the Moluccas and thepig have probably been introduced. A species of Cuscus or Eastern opossum is alsofound at Banda, and this may be truly indigenous in the sense of not having beenintroduced by man. Of birds, during my three visits of one or two days each, I collectedeight kinds, and the Dutch collectors have added a few others. The most remarkable isa fine and very handsome fruit-pigeon, Carpophaga concinna, which feeds upon thenutmegs, or rather on the mace, and whose loud booming note is to be continuallyheard. This bird is found in the Ké and Matabello islands as well as Banda, but not inCeram or any of the larger islands, which are inhabited by allied but very distinctspecies. A beautiful small fruit-dove, Ptilonopus diadematus, is also peculiar to Banda.

CHAPTER XX

AMBOYNA

(DECEMBER 1857, OCTOBER 1859, FEBRUARY 1860)

TWENTY hours from Banda brought us to Amboyna, the capital of the Moluccas,and one of the oldest European settlements in the East. The island consists of twopeninsulas, so nearly divided by inlets of the sea, as to leave only a sandy isthmusabout a mile wide near their eastern extremity. The western inlet is several miles longand forms a fine harbour on the southern side of which is situated the town ofAmboyna. I had a letter of introduction to Dr. Mohnike, the chief medical officer of theMoluccas, a German and a naturalist. I found that he could write and read English, butcould not speak it, being like myself a bad linguist; so we had to use French as amedium of communication. He kindly offered me a room during my stay in Amboyna,and introduced me to his junior, Dr. Doleschall, a Hungarian and also an entomologïst.He was an intelligent and most amiable young man but I was shocked to find that hewas dying of consumption, though still able to perform the duties of his office. In theevening my host took me to the residence of the Governor, Mr. Goldmann, whoreceived me in a most kind and cordial manner, and offered me every assistance. Thetown of Amboyna consists of a few business streets, and a number of roads set out atright angles to each other, bordered by hedges of flowering shrubs, and enclosingcountry houses and huts embossed in palms and fruit trees. Hills and mountains formthe background in almost every direction, and there are few places more enjoyable for amorning or evening stroll than these sandy roads and shady lanes in the suburbs of theancient city of Amboyna. There are no active volcanoes in the island, nor is it now subject to frequentearthquakes, although very severe ones have occurred and may be expected again. Mr.William Funnell, in his voyage with Dampier to the South Seas in 1705, says: "Whilstwe were here, (at Amboyna) we had a great earthquake, which continued two days, inwhich time it did a great deal of mischief, for the ground burst open in many places,and swallowed up several houses and whole families. Several of the people were dugout again, but most of them dead, and many had their legs or arms broken by the fall ofthe houses. The castle walls were rent asunder in several places, and we thought that itand all the houses would have fallen down. The ground where we were swelled like a

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wave in the sea, but near us we had no hurt done." There are also numerous records oferuptions of a volcano on the west side of the island. In 1674 an eruption destroyed avillage. In 1694 there was another eruption. In I797 much vapour and heat was emitted.Other eruptions occurred in 1816 and 1820, and in 1824 a new crater is said to havebeen formed. Yet so capricious is the action of these subterranean fires, that since thelast-named epoch all eruptive symptoms have so completely ceased, that I was assuredby many of the most intelligent European inhabitants of Amboyna, that they had neverheard of any such thing as a volcano on the island.

During the few days that elapsed before I could make arrangements to visit theinterior, I enjoyed myself much in the society of the two doctors, both amiable andwell-educated men, and both enthusiastic entomologists, though obliged to increasetheir collections almost entirely by means of native collectors. Dr. Doleschall studiedchiefly the flies and spiders, but also collected butterflies and moths, and in his boxes Isaw grand specimens of the emerald Ornithoptera priamus and the azure PapilioUlysses, with many more of the superb butterflies of this rich island. Dr. Mohnikeconfined himself chiefly to the beetles, and had formed a magnificent collection duringmany years residence in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Japan, and Amboyna. The Japanesecollection was especially interesting, containing both the fine Carabi of northerncountries, and the gorgeous Buprestidae and Longicorns of the tropics. The doctormade the voyage to Jeddo by land from Nagasaki, and is well acquainted with thecharacter, manners, and customs of the people of Japan, and with the geology, physicalfeatures, and natural history of the country. He showed me collections of cheapwoodcuts printed in colours, which are sold at less than a farthing each, and comprisean endless variety of sketches of Japanese scenery and manners. Though rude, they arevery characteristic, and often exhibit touches of great humour. He also possesses a largecollection of coloured sketches of the plants of Japan, made by a Japanese lady, whichare the most masterly things I have ever seen. Every stem, twig, and leaf is producedby single touches of the brush, the character and perspective of very complicated plantsbeing admirably given, and the articulations of stem and leaves shown in a mostscientific manner. Having made arrangements to stay for three weeks at a small hut on a newlycleared plantation in the interior of the northern half of the island, I with somedifficulty obtained a boat and men to take me across the water--for the Amboynese are

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dreadfully lazy. Passing up the harbour, in appearance like a fine river, the clearness ofthe water afforded me one of the most astonishing and beautiful sights I have everbeheld. The bottom was absolutely hidden by a continuous series of corals, sponges,actinic, and other marine productions of magnificent dimensions, varied forms, andbrilliant colours. The depth varied from about twenty to fifty feet, and the bottom wasvery uneven, rocks and chasms and little hills and valleys, offering a variety of stationsfor the growth of these animal forests. In and out among them, moved numbers of blueand red and yellow fishes, spotted and banded and striped in the most striking manner,while great orange or rosy transparent medusa floated along near the surface. It was asight to gaze at for hours, and no description can do justice to its surpassing beauty andinterest. For once, the reality exceeded the most glowing accounts I had ever read ofthe wonders of a coral sea. There is perhaps no spot in the world richer in marineproductions, corals, shells and fishes, than the harbour of Amboyna. From the north side of the harbour, a good broad path passes through swampclearing and forest, over hill and valley, to the farther side of the island; the corallinerock constantly protruding through the deep red earth which fills all the hollows, and ismore or less spread over the plains and hill- sides. The forest vegetation is here of themost luxuriant character; ferns and palms abound, and the climbing rattans were moreabundant than I had ever seen them, forming tangled festoons over almost every largeforest tree. The cottage I was to occupy was situated in a large clearing of about ahundred acres, part of which was already planted with young cacao-trees and plantainsto shade them, while the rest was covered with dead and half- burned forest trees; andon one side there was a tract where the trees had been recently felled and were not yetburned. The path by which I had arrived continued along one side of this clearing, andthen again entering the virgin forest passed over hill and dale to the northern aide of theisland. My abode was merely a little thatched hut, consisting of an open verandah in frontand a small dark sleeping room behind. It was raised about five feet from the ground,and was reached by rude steps to the centre of the verandah. The walls and floor wereof bamboo, and it contained a table, two bamboo chairs, and a couch. Here I soonmade myself comfortable, and set to work hunting for insects among the more recentlyfelled timber, which swarmed with fine Curculionidae, Longicorns, and Buprestidae,most of them remarkable for their elegant forms or brilliant colours, and almost allentirely new to me. Only the entomologist can appreciate the delight with which Ihunted about for hours in the hot sunshine, among the branches and twigs and bark ofthe fallen trees, every few minutes securing insects which were at that time almost allrare or new to European collections. In the shady forest paths were many fine butterflies, most conspicuous amongwhich was the shining blue Papilio Ulysses, one of the princes of the tribe, though atthat time so rare in Europe, I found it absolutely common in Amboyna, though not easyto obtain in fine condition, a large number of the specimens being found when capturedto have the wings torn or broken. It flies with a rather weak undulating motion, andfrom its large size, its tailed wings and brilliant colour, is one of the most tropical-looking insects the naturalist can gaze upon. There is a remarkable contrast between the beetles of Amboyna and those ofMacassar, the latter generally small and obscure, the former large and brilliant. On thewhole, the insects here most resemble those of the Aru islands, but they are almostalways of distinct species, and when they are most nearly allied to each other, thespecies of Amboyna are of larger size and more brilliant colours, so that one might beled to conclude that in passing east and west into a less favourable soil and climate,they had degenerated into less striking forms. Of an evening I generally sat reading in the verandah, ready to capture any insectsthat were attracted to the light. One night about nine o'clock, I heard a curious noiseand rustling overhead, as if some heavy animal were crawling slowly over the thatch.

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The noise soon ceased, and I thought no more about it and went to bed soon afterwards.The next afternoon just before dinner, being rather tired with my day's work, I waslying on the couch with a book in my hand, when gazing upwards I saw a large mass ofsomething overhead which I had not noticed before. Looking more carefully I could seeyellow and black marks, and thought it must be a tortoise-shell put up there out of theway between the ridge-pole and the roof Continuing to gaze, it suddenly resolved itselfinto a large snake, compactly coiled up in a kind of knot; and I could detect his headand his bright eyes in the very centre of the folds. The noise of the evening before wasnow explained. A python had climbed up one of the posts of the house, and had madehis way under the thatch within a yard of my head, and taken up a comfortable positionin the roof--and I had slept soundly all night directly under him.

EJECTING AN INTRUDER

I called to my two boys who were skinning birds below and said, "Here's a bigsnake in the roof;" but as soon as I had shown it to them they rushed out of the houseand begged me to come out directly. Finding they were too much afraid to do anything,we called some of the labourers in the plantation, and soon had half a dozen men inconsultation outside. One of these, a native of Bouru, where there are a great manysnakes, said he would get him out, and proceeded to work in a businesslike manner. Hemade a strong noose of rattan, and with a long pole in the other hand poked at thesnake, who then began slowly to uncoil itself. He then managed to slip the noose overits head, and getting it well on to the body, dragged the animal down. There was a greatscuffle as the snake coiled round the chairs and posts to resist his enemy, but at lengththe man caught hold of its tail, rushed out of the house (running so quick that thecreature seemed quite confounded), and tried to strike its head against a tree. He missedhowever, and let go, and the snake got under a dead trunk close by. It was again pokedout, and again the Bourn man caught hold of its tail, and running away quickly dashedits head with a swing against a tree, and it was then easily killed with a hatchet. It wasabout twelve feet long and very thick, capable of doing much mischief and ofswallowing a dog or a child. I did not get a great many birds here. Themost remarkable were the fine crimson lory, Eosrubra--a brush-tongued parroquet of a vividcrimson colour, which was very abundant. Large

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RACQUET-TAILED KINGFISHER

flocks of them came about the plantation, andformed a magnificent object when they settleddown upon some flowering tree, on the nectar ofwhich lories feed. I also obtained one or twospecimens of the fine racquet-tailed kingfisher ofAmboyna, Tanysiptera nais, one of the mostsingular and beautiful of that beautiful family.These birds differ from all other kingfishers(which have usually short tails) by having thetwo middle tail-feathers immensely lengthenedand very narrowly webbed, but terminated by aspoon- shaped enlargement, as in the motmotsand some of the humming- birds. They belong tothat division of the family termed king- hunters,living chiefly on insects and small land-molluscs, which they dart down upon and pickup from the ground, just as a kingfisher picks afish out of the water. They are confined to a verylimited area, comprising the Moluccas, NewGuinea and Northern Australia. About tenspecies of these birds are now known, all muchresembling each other, but yet sufficientlydistinguishable in every locality. The Amboynesespecies, of which a very accurate representationis here given, is one of the largest andhandsomest. It is full seventeen inches long tothe tips of the tail-feathers; the bill is coral red,the under- surface pure white, the back and wings deep purple, while the shoulders,head and nape, and some spots on the upper part of the back and wings, are pure azureblue; the tail is white, with the feathers narrowly blue-edged, but the narrow part of thelong feathers is rich blue. This was an entirely new species, and has been well namedafter an ocean goddess, by Mr. R. G. Gray. On Christmas eve I returned to Amboyna, where I stayed about ten days with mykind friend Dr. Mohnike. Considering that I had been away only twenty days, and thaton five or six of those I was prevented doing any thing by wet weather and slightattacks of fever, I had made a very nice collection of insects, comprising a much largerproportion of large and brilliant species than I had ever before obtained in so short atime. Of the beautiful metallic Buprestidae I had about a dozen handsome species, yetin the doctor's collection I observed four or five more very fine ones, so that Amboynais unusually rich in this elegant group. During my stay here I had a good opportunity of seeing how Europeans live in theDutch colonies, and where they have adopted customs far more in accordance with theclimate than we have done in our tropical possessions. Almost all business is transactedin the morning between the hours of seven and twelve, the afternoon being given up torepose, and the evening to visiting. When in the house during the heat of the day, andeven at dinner, they use a loose cotton dress, only putting on a suit of thin European-made clothes for out of doors and evening wear. They often walk about after sunsetbareheaded, reserving the black hat for visits of ceremony. Life is thus made far moreagreeable, and the fatigue and discomfort incident to the climate greatly diminished.Christmas day is not made much of, but on New Year's day official and complimentaryvisits are paid, and about sunset we went to the Governor's, where a large party ofladies and gentlemen were assembled. Tea and coffee were handed around, as is almostuniversal during a visit, as well as cigars, for on no occasion is smoking prohibited inDutch colonies, cigars being generally lighted before the cloth is withdrawn at dinner,

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even though half the company are ladies. I here saw for the first time the rare black loryfrom New Guinea, Chalcopsitta atra. The plumage is rather glossy, and slightly tingedwith yellowish and purple, the bill and feet being entirely black. The native Amboynese who reside in the city are a strange half- civilized, half-savage lazy people, who seem to be a mixture of at least three races--Portuguese,Malay, and Papuan or Ceramese, with an occasional cross of Chinese or Dutch. ThePortuguese element decidedly predominates in the old Christian population, asindicated by features, habits, and the retention of many Portuguese words in the Malay,which is now their language. They have a peculiar style of dress which they wearamong themselves, a close-fitting white shirt with black trousers, and a black frock orupper shirt. The women seem to prefer a dress entirely black. On festivals and stateoccasions they adopt the swallow- tail coat, chimneypot hat, and their accompaniments,displaying all the absurdity of our European fashionable dress. Though now Protestants,they preserve at feasts and weddings the processions and music of the Catholic Church,curiously mixed up with the gongs and dances of the aborigines of the country. Theirlanguage has still much more Portuguese than Dutch in it, although they have been inclose communication with the latter nation for more than two hundred and fifty years;even many names of birds, trees and other natural objects, as well as many domesticterms, being plainly Portuguese. [footnote: The following are a few of the Portuguesewords in common use by the Malay-speaking natives of Amboyna and the otherMolucca islands: Pombo (pigeon); milo (maize); testa (forehead); horas (hours); alfinete(pin); cadeira (chair); lenco (handkerchief); fresco (cool); trigo (flour); sono (sloop);familia (family); histori (talk); vosse (you); mesmo (even); cuñhado (brother-in-law);senhor (sir); nyora for signora (madam) - None of them, however, have the least notionthat these words belong to a European language.] This people seems to have had amarvellous power of colonization, and a capacity for impressing their nationalcharacteristics on every country they conquered, or in which they effected a merelytemporary settlement. In a suburb of Amboyna there is a village of aboriginal Malayswho are Mahometans, and who speak a peculiar language allied to those of Ceram, aswell as Malay. They are chiefly fishermen, and are said to be both more industrious andmore honest than the native Christians. I went on Sunday, by invitation, to see a collection of shells and fish made by agentleman of Amboyna. The fishes are perhaps unrivalled for variety and beauty bythose of any one spot on the earth. The celebrated Dutch ichthyologist, Dr. Blecker, hasgiven a catalogue of seven hundred and eighty species found at Amboyna, a numberalmost equal to those of all the seas and rivers of Europe. A large proportion of themare of the most brilliant colours, being marked with bands and spots of the purestyellows, reds, and blues; while their forms present all that strange and endless varietyso characteristic of the inhabitants of the ocean. The shells are also very numerous, andcomprise a number of the finest species in the world. The Mactras and Ostreas inparticular struck me by the variety and beauty of their colours. Shells have long beenan object of traffic in Amboyna; many of the natives get their living by collecting andcleaning them, and almost every visitor takes away a small collection. The result is thatmany of the commoner-sorts have lost all value in the eyes of the amateur, numbers ofthe handsome but very common cones, cowries, and olives sold in the streets of Londonfor a penny each, being natives of the distant isle of Amboyna, where they cannot bebought so cheaply. The fishes in the collection were all well preserved in clear spirit inhundreds of glass jars, and the shells were arranged in large shallow pith boxes linedwith paper, every specimen being fastened down with thread. I roughly estimated thatthere were nearly a thousand different kinds of shells, and perhaps ten thousandspecimens, while the collection of Amboyna fishes was nearly perfect. On the 4th of January I left Amboyna for Ternate; but two years later, in October1859, I again visited it after my residence in Menado, and stayed a month in the townin a small house which I hired for the sake of assorting and packing up a large and

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varied collection which I had brought with me from North Celebes, Ternate, andGilolo. I was obliged to do this because the mail steamer would have come thefollowing month by way of Amboyna to Ternate, and I should have been delayed twomonths before I could have reached the former place. I then paid my first visit toCeram, and on returning to prepare for my second more complete exploration of thatisland, I stayed (much against my will) two months at Paso, on the isthmus whichconnects the two portions of the island of Amboyna. This village is situated on theeastern side of the isthmus, on sandy ground, with a very pleasant view over the sea tothe island of Haruka. On the Amboyna side of the isthmus there is a small river whichhas been continued by a shallow canal to within thirty yards of high-water mark on theother side. Across this small space, which is sandy and but slightly elevated, all smallboats and praus can be easily dragged, and all the smaller traffic from Ceram and theislands of Saparúa and Harúka, passes through Paso. The canal is not continued quitethrough, merely because every spring-tide would throw up just such a sand-bank asnow exists. I had been informed that the fine butterfly Ornithoptera priamus was plentiful here,as well as the racquet-tailed kingfisher and the ring-necked lory. I found, however, thatI had missed the time for the former: and birds of all kinds were very scarce, although Iobtained a few good ones, including one or two of the above-mentioned rarities. I wasmuch pleased to get here the fine long-armed chafer, Euchirus longimanus. Thisextraordinary insect is rarely or never captured except when it comes to drink the sap ofthe sugar palms, where it is found by the natives when they go early in the morning totake away the bamboos which have been filled during the night. For some time one ortwo were brought me every day, generally alive. They are sluggish insects, and pullthemselves lazily along by means of their immense forelegs. A figure of this and otherMoluccan beetles is given in the 27th chapter of this work. I was kept at Paso by an inflammatory eruption, brought on by the constant attacksof small acari-like harvest-bugs, for which the forests of Ceram are famous, and alsoby the want of nourishing food while in that island. At one time I was covered withsevere boils. I had them on my eye, cheek, armpits, elbows, back, thighs, knees, andankles, so that I was unable to sit or walk, and had great difficulty in finding a side tolie upon without pain. These continued for some weeks, fresh ones coming out as fastas others got well; but good living and sea baths ultimately cured them. About the end of January Charles Allen, who had been my assistant in Malaccaand Borneo, again joined me on agreement for three years; and as soon as I gottolerably well, we had plenty to do laying in stores and making arrangements for ourensuing campaign. Our greatest difficulty was in obtaining men, but at last wesucceeded in getting two each. An Amboyna Christian named Theodorus Watakena,who had been some time with me and had learned to skin birds very well, agreed to gowith Allen, as well as a very quiet and industrious lad named Cornelius, whom I hadbrought from Menado. I had two Amboynese, named Petrus Rehatta, and MesachMatahena; the latter of whom had two brothers, named respectively Shadrach andAbednego, in accordance with the usual custom among these people of giving onlyScripture names to their children. During the time I resided in this place, I enjoyed a luxury I have never met witheither before or since--the true bread-fruit. A good deal of it has been planted abouthere and in the surrounding villages, and almost everyday we had opportunities ofpurchasing some, as all the boats going to Amboyna were unloaded just opposite mydoor to be dragged across the isthmus. Though it grows in several other parts of theArchipelago, it is nowhere abundant, and the season for it only lasts a short time. It isbaked entire in the hot embers, and the inside scooped out with a spoon. I compared itto Yorkshire pudding; Charles Allen said it was like mashed potatoes and milk. It isgenerally about the size of a melon, a little fibrous towards the centre, but everywhereelse quite smooth and puddingy, something in consistence between yeast-dumplings

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and batter-pudding. We sometimes made curry or stew of it, or fried it in slices; but itis no way so good as simply baked. It may be eaten sweet or savory. With meat andgravy it is a vegetable superior to any I know, either in temperate or tropical countries.With sugar, milk, butter, or treacle, it is a delicious pudding, having a very slight anddelicate but characteristic flavour, which, like that of good bread and potatoes, onenever gets tired of. The reason why it is comparatively scarce is that it is a fruit ofwhich the seeds are entirely aborted by cultivation, and the tree can therefore only bepropagated by cuttings. The seed-bearing variety is common all over the tropics, andthough the seeds are very good eating, resembling chestnuts, the fruit is quite worthlessas a vegetable. Now that steam and Ward's cases render the transport of young plantsso easy, it is much to be wished that the best varieties of this unequalled vegetableshould be introduced into our West India islands, and largely propagated there. As thefruit will keep some time after being gathered, we might then be able to obtain thistropical luxury in Covent Garden Market. Although the few months I at various times spent in Amboyna were not altogethervery profitable to me in the way of collections, it will always remain as a bright spot inthe review of my Eastern travels, since it was there that I first made the acquaintance ofthose glorious birds and insects which render the Moluccas classic ground in the eyesof the naturalist, and characterise its fauna as one of the most remarkable and beautifulupon the globe. On the 20th of February I finally quitted Amboyna for Ceram andWaigiou, leaving Charles Allen to go by a Government boat to Wahai on the northcoast of Ceram, and thence to the unexplored island of Mysol.

CHAPTER XXI

THE MOLUCCAS - TERNATE

ON the morning of the 8th of January, 1858, I arrived at Ternate, the fourth of arow of fine conical volcanic islands which shirt the west coast of the large and almostunknown 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, butwith a more rounded and irregular summit. [footnote: The officers of the Challengerfound that Ternate was 5,600 feet high and Tidore 5,900 feet.] The town of Ternate isconcealed from view till we enter between the two islands, when it is discoveredstretching along the shore at the very base of the mountain. Its situation is fine, andthere are grand views on every side. Close opposite is the rugged promontory andbeautiful 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, whileimmediately behind the town rises the huge mountain, sloping easily at first andcovered with thick groves of fruit trees, but soon becoming steeper, and furrowed withdeep gullies. Almost to the summit, whence issue perpetually faint wreaths of smoke, itis clothed with vegetation, and looks calm and beautiful, although beneath are hiddenfires which occasionally burst forth in lava-streams, but more frequently make theirexistence known by the earthquakes which have many times devastated the town. I brought letters of introduction to Mr. Duivenboden, a native of Ternate, of anancient Dutch family, but who was educated in England, and speaks our languageperfectly. He was a very rich man, owned half the town, possessed many ships, andabove a hundred slaves. He was moreover, well educated, and fond of literature andscience--a phenomenon in these regions. He was generally known as the king ofTernate, from his large property and great influence with the native Rajahs and theirsubjects. Through his assistance I obtained a house; rather ruinous, but well adapted to

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my purpose, being close to the town, yet with a free outlet to the country and themountain. A few needful repairs were soon made, some bamboo furniture and othernecessaries obtained, and after a visit to the Resident and Police Magistrate I foundmyself an inhabitant of the earthquake- tortured island of Ternate, and able to lookabout me and lay down the plan of my campaign for the ensuing year. I retained thishouse for three years, as I found it very convenient to have a place to return to after myvoyages to the various islands of the Moluccas and New Guinea, where I could packmy collections, recruit my health, and make preparations for future journeys. To avoidrepetitions, 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 readerto understand a very common mode of building in these islands. There is of course onlyone floor. The walls are of stone up to three feet high; on this are strong squared postssupporting the roof, everywhere except in the verandah filled in with the leaf-stems ofthe sago-palm, fitted neatly in wooden owing. The floor is of stucco, and the ceilingsare like the walls. The house is forty feet square, consists of four rooms, a hall, and twoverandahs, and is surrounded by a wilderness of fruit trees. A deep well supplied mewith pure cold water, a great luxury in this climate. Five minutes' walk down the roadbrought me to the market and the beach, while in the opposite direction there were nomore European houses between me and the mountain. In this house I spent many happydays. Returning to it after a three or four months' absence in some uncivilized region, Ienjoyed the unwonted luxuries of milk and fresh bread, and regular supplies of fish andeggs, meat and vegetables, which were often sorely needed to restore my health andenergy. I had ample space and convenience or unpacking, sorting, and arranging mytreasures, and I had delightful walks in the suburbs of the town, or up the lower slopesof 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 entirelycovered 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

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of the very finest tropical fruits, are in greater abundance at Ternate than I have everseen 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 upthe mountain to a height of between two and three thousand feet, above which is virginforest, reaching nearly to the summit, which on the side next the town is covered with ahigh 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 ablack scoriaceous tract; very rugged, and covered with a scanty vegetation of scatteredbushes 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 openspace to the peach, and beyond this the native town extends for about a mile to thenorth-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 retainsthe sovereignty over the native population of the island, and of the northern part ofGilolo. The sultans of Ternate and Tidore were once celebrated through the East fortheir power and regal magnificence. When Drake visited Ternate in 1579, thePortuguese had been driven out of the island, although they still had a settlement atTidore. He gives a glowing account of the Sultan: "The King had a very rich canopywith embossings of gold borne over him, and was guarded with twelve lances. From thewaist to the ground was all cloth of gold, and that very rich; in the attire of his headwere 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 hisneck he had a chain of perfect gold, the links very great and one fold double; on his lefthand was a diamond, an emerald, a ruby, and a turky; on his right hand in one ring abig 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 theSultans kept the monopoly, and by which they became wealthy. Ternate, with the smallislands in a line south of it, as far as Batchian, constitute the ancient Moluccas, thenative country of the clove, as well as the only part in which it was cultivated. Nutmegsand 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 theEuropean traders were glad to give gold and jewels, and the finest manufactures ofEurope or of India, in exchange. When the Dutch established their influence in theseseas, and relieved the native princes from their Portuguese oppressors, they saw that theeasiest 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 thesevaluable products in those spots only of which they could have complete control. To dothis 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 allthe spice trees in their possessions destroyed. They gave up large though fluctuatingrevenues, but they gained in return a fixed subsidy, freedom from the constant attacksand harsh oppressions of the Portuguese, and a continuance of their regal power andexclusive authority over their own subjects, which is maintained in all the islandsexcept Ternate to this day. It is no doubt supposed by most Englishmen, who have been accustomed to lookupon this act of the Dutch with vague horror, as something utterly unprincipled andbarbarous, that the native population suffered grievously by this destruction of suchvaluable property. But it is certain that this was not the case. The Sultans kept thislucrative trade entirely in their own hands as a rigid monopoly, and they would takecare 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

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from the Sultans and Rajahs, and not from the cultivators. Now the absorption of somuch labour in the cultivation of this one product must necessarily have raised theprice of food and other necessaries; and when it was abolished, more rice would begrown, 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. Ibelieve, therefore, that this abolition of the spice trade in the Moluccas was actuallybeneficial to the inhabitants, and that it was an act both wise in itself and morally andpolitically justifiable. [footnote: See ante, p.222, and footnote] In the selection of the places in which to carry on the cultivation, the Dutch werenot altogether fortunate or wise. Banda was chosen for nutmegs, and was eminentlysuccessful, since ü; continues to this day to produce a large supply of this spice, and toyield a considerable revenue. Amboyna was fixed upon for establishing the clovecultivation; but the soil and climate, although apparently very similar to that of itsnative islands, is not favourable, and for some years the Government have actually beenpaying to the cultivators a higher rate than they could purchase cloves elsewhere, owingto a great fall in the price since the rate of payment was fixed for a term of years by theDutch Government, and which rate is still most honourably paid. In walking about the suburbs of Ternate, we find everywhere the ruins of massivestone and brick buildings, gateways and arches, showing at once the superior wealth ofthe ancient town and the destructive effects of earthquakes. It was during my secondstay in the town, after my return from New Guinea, that I first felt an earthquake. Itwas a very slight one, scarcely more than has been felt in this country, but occurring ina place that lad been many times destroyed by them it was rather more exciting. I hadjust awoke at gun-fire (5 A.M.), when suddenly the thatch began to rustle and shake asif an army of cats were galloping over it, and immediately afterwards my bed shooktoo, 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 wasnow on a solid earthen floor, I said to myself, "Why, it's an earthquake," and lay still inthe pleasing expectation of another shock; but none came, and this was the onlyearthquake I ever felt in Ternate. The last great one was in February 1840, when almost every house in the place wasdestroyed. It began about midnight on the Chinese New Year's festival, at which timeevery one stays up nearly all night feasting at the Chinamen's houses and seeing theprocessions. This prevented any lives being lost, as every one ran out of doors at thefirst shock, which was not very severe. The second, a few minutes afterwards, threwdown a great many houses, and others, which continued all night and part of the nextday, completed the devastation. The line of disturbance was very narrow, so that thenative town a mile to the east scarcely suffered at all. The wave passed from north tosouth, through the islands of Tidore and Makian, and terminated in Batchian, where itwas not felt till four the following afternoon, thus taking no less than sixteen hours totravel a hundred miles, or about six miles an hour. It is singular that on this occasionthere was no rushing up of the tide, or other commotion of the sea, as is usually the caseduring great earthquakes. The people of Ternate are of three well-marked races the Ternate Malays, theOrang Sirani, and the Dutch. The first are an intrusive Malay race somewhat allied tothe Macassar people, who settled in the country at a very early epoch, drove out theindigenes, 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 thenatives, which will account for the extraordinary language they speak--in some respectsclosely allied to that of the natives of Gilolo, while it contains much that points to aMalayan 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," orNazarenes, is the name given by the Malays to the Christian descendants of thePortuguese, who resemble those of Amboyna, and, like them, speak only Malay. There

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are also a number of Chinese merchants, many of them natives of the place, a fewArabs, and a number of half-breeds between all these races and native women. Besidesthese 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 haveshown the distinct origin of its component parts. Soon after my first arrival in Ternate I went to the island of Gilolo, accompaniedby 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 atstarting 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 noneappeared 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 banteringmanner, and laughed and joked with him in reply. Then, just as we were starting, oneof the strongest men refused to go at all, and his master had to beg and persuade him togo, and only succeeded by assuring him that I would give him something; so with thispromise, and knowing that there would be plenty to eat and drink and little to do, theblack gentleman was induced to favour us with his company and assistance. In threehours' rowing and sailing we reached our destination, Sedingole, where there is a housebelonging to the Sultan of Tidore, who sometimes goes there hunting. It was a dirtyruinous shed, with no furniture but a few bamboo bedsteads. On taking a walk into thecountry, I saw at once that it was no place for me. For many miles extends a plaincovered with coarse high grass, thickly dotted here and there with trees, the forestcountry only commencing at the hills a good way in the interior. Such a place wouldproduce few birds and no insects, and we therefore arranged to stay only two days, andthen go on to Dodinga, at the narrow central isthmus of Gilolo, whence my friendswould 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 crewwent out fishing with a net, so we did not want for provisions. When the time came forus to continue our journey, a fresh difficulty presented itself, for our gentlemen slavesrefused in a body to go with us; saying very determinedly that they would return toTernate. So their masters were obliged to submit, and I was left behind to get toDodinga as I could. Luckily I succeeded in hiring a small boat, which took me there thesame night, with my two men and my baggage. Two or three years after this, and about the same length of time before I left theEast, the Dutch emancipated all their slaves, paying their owners a small compensation.No ill results followed. Owing to the amicable relations which had always existedbetween them and their masters, due no doubt in part to the Government having longaccorded them legal rights and protection against cruelty and ill-usage, many continuedin the same service, and after a little temporary difficulty in some cases, almost allreturned to work either for their old or for new, masters. The Government took the veryproper 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 hadsome honestly-acquired means of existence. All who could not do so were placed uponpublic works at low wages, and thus were kept from the temptation to peculation orother crimes, which the excitement of newly-acquired freedom, and disinclination tolabour, might have led them into.

CHAPTER XXII

GILOLO

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(MARCH AND SEPTEMBER 1858)

I MADE but few and comparatively short visits to this large and little knownisland, but obtained a considerable knowledge of its natural history by sending first myboy Ali, and then my assistant, Charles Allen, who stayed two or three months each inthe northern peninsula, and brought me back large collections of birds and insects. Inthis chapter I propose to give a sketch of the parts which I myself visited. My first staywas at Dodinga, situated at the head of a deep-bay exactly opposite Ternate, and ashort distance up a little stream which penetrates a few miles inland. The village is asmall 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 Iunloaded my baggage on the beach and made some tea, and afterwards discovered asmall but which the owner was willing to vacate if I would pay him five guilders for amonth's rent. As this was something less than the fee-simple value of the dwelling, Iagreed to give it him for the privilege of immediate occupation, only stipulating that hewas to make the roof water-tight. This he agreed to do, and came every day to tally andlook at me; and when I each time insisted upon his immediately mending the roofaccording 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 itwas not done, and a guilder extra if any of my things were wetted, he condescended towork 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 thevery small but substantial fort erected by the Portuguese. Its battlements and turretshave long since been overthrown by earthquakes, by which its massive structure hasalso 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 approachedby 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 Javanesesoldiers, the sole representatives of the Netherlands Government in the island. Thevillage is occupied entirely by Ternate men. The true indigenes of Gilolo, "Alfuros" asthey are here called, live on the eastern coast, or in the interior of the northernpeninsula. The distance across the isthmus at this place is only two miles, and there, is agood path, along which rice and sago are brought from the eastern villages. The wholeisthmus is very rugged, though not high, being a succession of little abrupt hills analvalleys, with angular masses of limestone rock everywhere projecting, and often almostblocking up the pathway. Most of it is virgin forest, very luxuriant and picturesque, andat this time having abundance of large scarlet Ixoras in flower, which made itexceptionally gay. I got some very nice insects here, though, owing to illness most ofthe time, my collection was a small one, and my boy Ali shot me a pair of one of themost beautiful birds of the East, Pitta gigas, a lame ground-thrush, whose plumage ofvelvety black above is relieved by a breast of pure white, shoulders of azure blue, andbelly of vivid crimson. It has very long and strong legs, and hops about with suchactivity in the dense tangled forest, bristling with rocks, as to make it very difficult toshoot. In September 1858, after my return from New Guinea, I went to stay some time atthe village of Djilolo, situated in a bay on the northern peninsula. Here I obtained ahouse through the kindness of the Resident of Ternate, who sent orders to prepare onefor me. The first walk into the unexplored forests of a new locality is a moment ofintense interest to the naturalist, as it is almost sure to furnish him with somethingcurious 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 ofthe Charmosyna placentis, one of the smallest and most elegant of the brush-tongued

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lories. My hunters soon shot me several other fine birds, and I myself found a specimenof 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 theirpresent abode. The place was then no doubt much more populous, as is indicated by thewide 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, whichobliged me to change my locality. There was another village called Sahoe, to whichthere was a road of about twelve miles overland, and this had been recommended to meas a good place for birds, and as possessing a large population both of Mahomotans andAlfuros, which latter race I much wished to see. I set off one morning to examine thisplace myself, expecting to pass through some extent of forest on my way. In thishowever I was much disappointed, as the whole road lies through grass and scrubbythickets, and it was only after reaching the village of Sahoe that some high forest landwas perceived stretching towards the mountains to the north of it. About half-way wedad to pass a deep river on a bamboo raft, which almost sunk beneath us. This streamwas 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 atrial, and a few days afterwards obtained a boat to carry my things by sea while Iwalked overland. A large house on the beach belonging to the Sultan was given me. Itstood alone, and was quite open on every side, so that little privacy could be had, but asI only intended to stay a short time I made it do. Avery, few days dispelled all hopes Imight have entertained of making good collections in this place. Nothing was to befound 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 offruit trees, patches of low wood, and abundance of plantations and rice grounds, all ofwhich are, in tropical regions, a very desert for the entomologist. The virgin forest thatI was in search of, existed only on the summits and on the steep rocky sides of themountains a long way off, and in inaccessible situations. In the suburbs of the village Ifound a fair number of bees and wasps, and some small but interesting beetles. Two orthree new birds were obtained by my hunters, and by incessant inquiries and promises Ísucceeded in getting the natives to bring me some land shells, among which was a veryfine and handsome one, Helix pyrostoma. I was, however, completely wasting my timehere compared with what I might be doing in a good locality, and after a week returnedto 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 ofindigenes, numbers of whom came daily into the village, bringing their produce forsale, while others were engaged as labourers by the Chinese and Ternate traders. Acareful examination convinced me that these people are radically distinct from all theMalay races. Their stature and their features, as well as their disposition and habits, arealmost 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 perfectPapuan type, but always crisp, waved, and rough, such as often occurs among the truePapuans, but never among the Malays. Their colour alone is often exactly that of theMalay, or even lighter. Of course there has been intermixture, and there occuroccasionally 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, thebearded 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 exactboundary lice between the Malay and Papuan races, and at a spot where no other writerhad expected it. I was very much pleased at this determination, as it gave me a clue toone of the most difficult problems in Ethnology, and enabled me in many other places

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to separate the two races, and to unravel their intermixtures. On my return from Waigiou in 1860, I stayed some days on the southern extremityof 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 thereare any indígenes, the whole of the rest of the island, with Batchian and the otherislands westward, being exclusively inhabited by Malay tribes, allied to those ofTernate and Tidore. This would seem to indicate that the Alfuros were a comparativelyrecent immigration, and that they lead come from the north or east, perhaps from someof the islands of the Pacific. It is otherwise difficult to understand how so many fertiledistricts should possess no true indigenes. Gilolo, or Halmaheira as it is called by the Malays and Dutch, seems to have beenrecently modified by upheaval and subsidence. In 1673, a mountain is said to stavebeen upheaved at Gamokonora on the northern peninsula. All the parts that I have seenhave either been volcanic or coralline, and along the coast there are fringing coral reefsvery dangerous to navigation. At the same time, the character of its natural historyproves it to be a rather ancient land, since it possesses a number of animals peculiar toitself or common to the small islands around it, but almost always distinct from those ofNew Guinea on the east, of Ceram on the south, and of Celebes and the Sula islands onthe west. The island of Morty, close to the north-eastern extremity of Gilolo, was visited bymy assistant Charles Allen, as well as by Dr. Bernstein; and the collections obtainedthere present some curious differences from those of the main island. About fifty- sixspecies 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 inGilolo. The island is coralline and sandy, and we must therefore believe it to have beenseparated from Gilolo at a somewhat remote epoch; while we learn from its naturalhistory that an arm of the sea twenty-five miles wide serves to limit the range even ofbirds of considerable powers of flight.

CHAPTER XXIII

TERNATE TO THE KAIÓA ISLANDS AND BATCHIAN

(OCTOBER 1858)

ON returning to Ternate from Sahoe, I at once began making preparations for ajourney to Batchian, an island which I had been constantly recommended to visit sinceI had arrived in this part of the Moluccas. After all was ready I found that I should haveto hire a boat, as no opportunity of obtaining a passage presented itself. I accordinglywent into the native town, and could only find two boats for hire, one much larger thanI required, and the other far smaller than I wished. I chose the smaller one, chieflybecause it would not cost me one-third as much as the larger one, and also because in acoasting voyage a small vessel can be more easily managed, and more readily got intoa place of safety during violent gales, than a large one. I took with me my Bornean ladAli, who was now very useful to me; Lahagi, a native of Ternate, a very good steadyman, and a fair shooter, who had been with me to New Guinea; Lahi, a native ofGilolo, who could speak Malay, as woodcutter and general assistant; and Garo, a boywho was to act as cook. As the boat was so small that we had hardly room to stowourselves away when all my stores were on board, I only took one other man namedLatchi, as pilot. He was a Papuan slave, a tall, strong black fellow, but very civil and

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careful. The boat I had hired from a Chinaman named Lau Keng Tong, for five guildersa month. We started on the morning of October 9th, but had not got a hundred yards fromland, when a strong head wind sprung up, against which we could not row, so we creptalong shore to below the town, and waited till the turn of the tide should enable us tocross over to the coast of Tidore. About three in the afternoon we got off, and foundthat our boat sailed well, and would keep pretty close to the wind. We got on a goodway before the wind fell and we had to take to our oars again. We landed on a nicesandy beach to cook our suppers, just as the sun set behind the rugged volcanic hills, tothe south of the great cone of Tidore, and soon after beheld the planet Venus shining inthe twilight with the brilliancy of a new moon, and casting a very distinct shadow. Weleft again a little before seven, and as we got out from the shadow of the mountain Iobserved a bright light over one part of the edge, and soon after, what seemed a fire ofremarkable whiteness on the very summit of the hill. I called the attention of my mento it, and they too thought it merely a fire; but a few minutes afterwards, as we gotfarther off shore, the light rose clear up above the ridge of the hill, and some faintclouds clearing away from it, discovered the magnificent comet which was at the sametime, astonishing all Europe. The nucleus presented to the naked eye a distinct disc ofbrilliant white light, from which the tail rose at an angle of about 30° or 35° with thehorizon, 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 ofthe tail next the comet appeared three or four tunes as bright as the most luminousportion of the milky way, and what struck me as a singular feature was that its uppermargin, from the nucleus to very near the extremity, was clearly and almost sharplydefined, while the lower side gradually shaded off into obscurity. Directly it rose abovethe 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 thatthey had often heard tell of such, but had never seen one till now. I had no telescopewith 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 vainsearched for any insects worth capturing. One of my men went out to shoot, butreturned home without a single bird. At sunset, the wind having dropped, we quittedTidore, and reached the next island, March, where we stayed till morning. The cometwas again visible, but not nearly so brilliant, being partly obscured by clouds; anddimmed 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 areperfectly flat, and are only covered at high water, ending in craggy vertical walls ofcoral in very deep water. When there is a little wind, it is dangerous to come near theserocks; but luckily it was quite smooth, so we moored to their edge, while the mencrawled over the reef to the land, to make; a fire and cook our dinner-the boat havingno 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 geta nice westerly breeze, which carried us over the strait to the island of Makian, wherewe 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 geologicalformation. 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, notthemselves volcanoes, but which have been probably recently upraised, are generallymore or less completely surrounded by fringing reefs of coral, and have beaches of

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shining white coral sand. Their coasts present volcanic conglomerates, basalt, and insome places a foundation of stratified rocks, with patches of upraised coral. Mareh andMotir are of this character, the outline of the latter giving it the appearance of havingbeen a true volcano, and it is said by Forrest to have thrown out stones in l778. Thenext day (Oct. 12th), we coasted along the island of Makian, which consists of a singlegrand volcano. It was now quiescent, but about two centuries ago (in 1646) there was aterrible eruption, which blew up the whole top of the mountain, leaving the truncatedjagged summit and vast gloomy crater valley which at this time distinguished it. It wassaid to have been as lofty as Tidore before this catastrophe. [footnote: Soon after I leftthe Archipelago, on the 29th of December, 1862, another eruption of this mountainsuddenly took place, which caused great devastation in the island. All the villages andcrops were destroyed, and numbers of the inhabitants killed. The sand and ashes fell sothick that the crops were partially destroyed fifty miles off, at Ternate, where it was sodark the following day that lamps had to be lighted at noon. For the position of this andthe 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 ofthe mountain, and obtained a few interesting insects. In the evening we went on to theextreme southern point, to be ready to pass across the fifteen-mile strait to the island ofKaióa. At five the next morning we started, but the wind, which had hitherto beenwesterly, now got to the south and southwest, and we had to row almost all the waywith a burning sun overhead. As we approached land a fine breeze sprang up, and wewent along at a great pace; yet after an hour we were no nearer, and found we were ina violent current carrying us out to sea. At length we overcame it, and got on shore justas the sun set, having been exactly thirteen hours coming fifteen miles. We landed on abeach of hard coralline rock, with rugged cliffs of the same, resembling those of the KéIslands (Chap. XXIX.) It was accompanied by a brilliancy and luxuriance of thevegetation, very like what I had observed at those islands, which so much pleased methat I resolved to stay a few days at the chief village, and see if their animalproductions were correspondingly interesting. While searching for a secure anchoragefor the night we again saw the comet, still apparently as brilliant as at first, but the tailhad now risen to a higher angle. October 14th. - All this day we coasted along the Kaióa Islands, which have muchthe appearance and outline of Ké on a small scale, with the addition of flat swampytracts along shore, and outlying coral reefs. Contrary winds and currents had preventedour taking the proper course to the west of them, and we had to go by a circuitous routeround the southern extremity of one island, often having to go far out to sea on accountof coral reefs. On trying to pass a channel through one of these reefs we weregrounded, and all had to get out into the water, which in this shallow strait had been soheated by the sun as to be disagreeably warm, and drag our vessel a considerabledistance among weeds and sponges, corals and prickly corallines. It was late at nightwhen we reached the little village harbour, and we were all pretty well knocked up byhard work, and having had nothing but very brackish water to drink all day-the best wecould find at our last stopping-place. There was a house close to the shore, built for theuse of the Resident of Ternate when he made his official visits, but now occupied byseveral 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. Iinformed him that I wanted to stay a few days in the house at the landing, and beggedhim to have it made ready for me. He was very civil, and came down at once to get itcleared, 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 outdogs and other animals. The land here was evidently sinking rapidly, as shown by thenumber of trees standing in salt water dead and dying. After breakfast I started for awalk to the forest-covered hill above the village, with a couple of boys as guides. Itwas exceedingly hot and dry, no rain having fallen for two months. When we reached

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an elevation of about two hundred feet, the coralline rock which fringes the shore wassucceeded by a hard crystalline rock, a kind of metamorphic sandstone. This wouldindicate flat there had been a recent elevation of more than two hundred feet, whichhad still more recently clanged into a movement of subsidence. The hill was veryrugged, but among dry sticks and fallen trees I found some good insects, mostly offorms and species I was already acquainted with from Ternate and Gilolo. Finding nogood paths I returned, and explored the lower ground eastward of the village, passingthrough a long range of plantain and tobacco grounds, encumbered with felled andburnt logs, on which I found quantities of beetles of the family Buprestidae of sixdifferent species, one of which was new to me. I then reached a path in the swampyforest where I hoped to find some butterflies, but was disappointed. Being now prettywell exhausted by the intense heat, I thought it wise to return and reserve furtherexploration for the next day. When I sat down in the afternoon to arrange my insects, the louse was surroundedby 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 placeon small circular tickets, and attach one to each, even the old Kapala, the Mahometanpriest, and some Malay traders could not repress signs of astonishment. If they hadknown a little more about the ways and opinions of white men, they would probablyhave looked upon me as a fool or a madman, but in their ignorance they accepted myoperations 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 anew clearing was being made in the virgin forest. It was a long and hot walk, and thesearch among the fallen trunks and branches was very fatiguing, but I was rewarded byobtaining about seventy distinct species of beetles, of which at least a dozen were newto me, and many others rare and interesting. I have never in my life seen beetles soabundant as they were on this spot. Some dozen species of good-sized goldenBuprestidae, 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 aloud buzzing hum. Along with these, several fine Longicorns were almost equallycommon, forming such au assemblage as for once to realize that idea of tropicalluxuriance which one obtains by looking over the drawers of a well-filled cabinet. Onthe 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 withoutstretched antenna ready to take flight at the least alarm. It was a glorious spot, andone which will always live in my memory as exhibiting the insect-life of the tropics inunexampled 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 maybe 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, ofwhich 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 newto me. My boys were less fortunate in shooting. The only birds at all common were thegreat red parrot (Eclectus grandis), found in most of the Moluccas, a crow, and aMegapodius, or mound-maker. A few of the pretty racquet-tailed kingfishers were alsoobtained, but in very poor plumage. They proved, however, to be of a different speciesfrom those found in the other islands, and come nearest to the bird originally describedby Linnaeus under the name of Alcedo dea, and which came from Ternate. This wouldindicate that the small chain of islands parallel to Gilolo have a few peculiar species incommon, a fact which certainly occurs in insects. The people of Kaióa interested me much. They are evidently a mixed race, havingMalay 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

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islands, but quite distinct. They are now Mahometans, and are subject to Ternate, Theonly fruits seen here were papaws and pine-apples, the rocky soil and dry climate beingunfavourable. Rice, maize, and plantains flourish well, except that they suffer fromoccasional dry seasons like the present one. There is a little cotton grown, from whichthe women weave sarongs (Malay petticoats). There is only one well of good water onthe islands, situated close to the landing-place, to which all the inhabitants come fordrinking water. The men are good boat-builders, and they make a regular trade of it andseem to be very well off. After five days at Kaióa we continued our journey, and soon got among the narrowstraits and islands which lead down to the town of Batchian. In the evening we stayedat a settlement of Galela men. These are natives of a district in the extreme north ofGilolo, and are great wanderers over this part of the Archipelago. They build large androomy 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 cutdown the forest and plant rice or maize, and are altogether remarkably energetic andindustrious. They are very line people, of light complexion, tall, and with Papuanfeatures, coming nearer to the drawings and descriptions of the true Polynesians ofTahiti and Owyhee than any I have seen. During this voyage I had several times had an opportunity of seeing my men getfire by friction. A sharp-edged piece of bamboo is rubbed across the convex surface ofanother piece, on which a small notch is first cut. The rubbing is slow at first andgradually quicker, till it becomes very rapid, and the fine powder rubbed off ignites andfalls through the hole which the rubbing has cut in the bamboo. This is done with greatquickness and certainty. The Ternate, people use bamboo in another way. They strikeits flinty surface with a bit of broken china, and produce a spark, which they catch insome kind of tinder. On the evening of October 21st we reached our destination, having been twelvedays on the voyage. It had been tine weather all the time, and, although very hot, I hadenjoyed myself exceedingly, and had besides obtained some experience in boat workamong islands and coral reefs, which enabled me afterwards to undertake much longervoyages of the same kind. The village or town of Batchian is situated at the head of awide and deep bay, where a low isthmus connects the northern and southernmountainous parts of the island. To the south is a fine. range of mountains, and I hadnoticed at several of our landing-places that the geological formation of the island wasvery different from those around it. Whenever rock was visible it was either sandstonein thin layers, dipping south, or a pebbly conglomerate. Sometimes there was a littlecoralline limestone, but no volcanic rocks. The forest had a dense luxuriance andloftiness seldom found on the dry and porous lavas and raised coral reefs of Ternateand Gilolo; and hoping for a corresponding richness in the birds and insects, it waswith much satisfaction and with considerable expectation that I began my explorationsin 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 wasmet 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,

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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 wouldnever do to stay long in. There was no water except at a considerable distance, and oneof my men would be almost entirely occupied getting water and firewood, and I shouldmyself have to walk all through the village every day to the forest, and live almost inpublic, a thing I much dislike. The rooms were all boarded, and had ceilings, which area 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 accordinglyinquired for a house outside of the village on the road to the coal mines, and wasinformed by the Secretary that there was a small one belonging to the Sultan, and thathe 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 wadethrough another fine pebbly stream of clear water, just beyond which the little but wassituated. It was very small, not raised on posts, but with the earth for a floor, and wasbuilt 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 thehorse led through cultivated grounds to the forest about half a mile on, and thence tothe coal mines tour miles further. These advantages at once decided me, and I told theSecretary I would be very glad to occupy the house. I therefore sent my two menimmediately to buy "ataps" (palm-leaf thatch) to repair the roof, and the next day, withthe assistance of eight of the Sultan's men, got all my stores and furniture carried upand pretty comfortably arranged. A rough bamboo bedstead was soon constructed, anda table made of boards which I had brought with me, fixed under the window. Twobamboo chairs, an easy cane chair, and hanging shelves suspended with insulating oilcups, so as to be safe from ants, completed my furnishing arrangements. In the afternoon succeeding my arrival, the Secretary accompanied me to visit theSultan. We were kept waiting a few minutes in an outer gate-house, and then usheredto the door of a rude, half- fortified whitewashed house. A small table and three chairswere placed in a large outer corridor, and an old dirty-faced man with grey hair and agrimy beard, dressed in a speckled blue cotton jacket and loose red trousers, cameforward, shook hands, and asked me to be coated. After a quarter of an hour'sconversation on my pursuits, in which his Majesty seemed to take great interest, tea andcakes-of rather better quality than usual on such occasions-were brought in. I thankedhim for the house, and offered to show him my collections, which he promised to comeand look at. He then asked me to teach him to take views-to make maps-to get him asmall gun from England, and a milch-goat from Bengal; all of which requests I evadedas skilfully as I was able, and we parted very good friends. He seemed a sensible oldman, and lamented the small population of the island, which he assured me was rich inmany valuable minerals, including gold; but there were not people enough to look afterthem and work them. I described to him the great rush of population on the discoveryof the Australian gold mines, and the huge nuggets found there, with which he wasmuch interested, and exclaimed, "Oh? if we had but people like that, my country wouldbe quite as rich " The morning after I had got into my new house, I sent my boys out to shoot, andwent myself to explore the road to the coal mines. In less than half a mile it entered thevirgin 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 finestream which passed behind my house, and which here rushed and gurgled over arocky or pebbly bed, sometimes leaving wide sandbanks on its margins, and at otherplaces flowing between high banks crowned with a varied and magnificent forestvegetation. After about two miles, the valley narrowed, and the road was carried alongthe steep hill-side which rose abruptly from the water's edge. In some places the rockhad 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

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rich variety which it never attains in the dry volcanic soil to which I had been latelyaccustomed. A little further the road passed to the other side of the valley by a bridgeacross the stream at a place where a great mass of rock in the middle offered anexcellent support for it, and two miles more of most picturesque and interesting roadbrought me to the mining establishment. This is situated in a large open space, at a spot where two tributaries fall into themain 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 toreserve a more thorough exploration for future occasions. Coal had been discoveredhere some years before, and the road was made in order to bring down a sufficientquantity for a fair trial on the Dutch steamers. The quality, however, was not thoughtsufficiently good, and the mines were abandoned. Quite recently, works had beencommenced in another spot, in Hopes of finding a better vein. There ware about eightymen employed, chiefly convicts; but this was far too small a number for miningoperations in such a country, where the mere keeping a few miles of road in repairrequires the constant work of several men. If coal of sufficiently good quality should befound, a tramroad would be made, and would be very easily worked, owing to theregular descent of the valley. Just as I got home I overtook Ali returning from shooting with some birch hangingfrom 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 splendidgreen feathers on its breast, elongated into two glittering tufts; but, what I could notunderstand was a pair of long white feathers, which stuck straight out from eachshoulder. Ali assured me that the bird stuck them out this way itself, when fluttering itswings, and that they had remained so without his touching them. I now saw that I hadgot a great prize, no less than a completely new form of the Bird of Paradise, differingmost 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 isbeautifully glossed with pale metallic violet, and the feathers of the front extend asmuch over the beak as inmost of the family. The neck and breast are scaled with finemetallic green, and the feathers on the lower part are elongated on each side, so as toform a two-pointed gorget, which can be folded beneath the wings, or partially erectedand spread out in the same way as the side plumes of most of the birds of paradise. Thefour long white plumes which give the bird its altogether unique character, spring fromlittle tubercles close to the upper edge of the shoulder or bend of the wing; they arenarrow, gentle curved, and equally webbed on both sides, of a pure creamy whitecolour. They arc about six inches long, equalling the wing, and can be raised at rightangles 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."

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WALLACE'S STANDARD WING, MALE AND FEMALE

A few days later I obtained an exceedingly beautiful new butterfly, allied to thefine blue Papilio Ulysses, but differing from it in the colour being of a more intensetint, and in having a row of blue stripes around the margin of the lower wings. Thisgood beginning was, however, rather deceptive, and I soon found that insects, andespecially butterflies, were somewhat scarce, and birds in tar less variety than I hadanticipated. Several of the fine Moluccan species were however obtained. Thehandsome 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 thevillage, 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. Anotherbeautiful bird of the parrot tribe was the Geoffroyus cyanicollis, a green parrot with ared bill and head, which colour shaded on the crown into azure blue, and thence intoverditer blue and the green of the back. Two large and handsome fruit pigeons, withmetallic green, ashy, and rufous plumage, were not uncommon; and I was rewarded byfinding a splendid deep blue roller (Eurystomus azureus); a lovely golden-cappedsunbird (Nectarinea auriceps), and a fine racquet-tailed kingfisher (Tanysiptera isis), allof which were entirely new to ornithologists. Of insects I obtained a considerablenumber of interesting beetles, including many fine longicorns, among which was thelargest and handsomest species of the genus Glenea yet discovered. Among butterfliesthe beautiful little Danis sebae was abundant, making the forests gay with its delicatewings 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 andpleasing occupation.

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The island of Batchian possesses no really indigenous inhabitants, the interiorbeing altogether uninhabited; and there are only a few small villages on various parts ofthe coast; yet I found here four distinct races, which would wofully mislead anethnological traveller unable to obtain information as to their origin, first there are theBatchian Malays, probably the earliest colonists, differing very little from those ofTernate. Their language, however, seems to have more of the Papuan element, with amixture 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 atTernate and Amboyna. Many of these have the Portuguese physiognomy strikinglypreserved, but combined with a skin generally darker than the Malays. Some nationalcustoms are retained, and the Malay, which is their only language, contains a largenumber of Portuguese words and idioms. The third race consists of the Galela menfrom the north of Gilolo, a singular people, whom I have already described; and thefourth is a colony from Tomóre, in the eastern peninsula of Celebes. These people werebrought here at their own request a few years ago, to avoid extermination by anothertribe. They have a very light complexion, open Tartar physiognomy, low stature, and alanguage of the Bugis type. They are an industrious agricultural people, and supply thetown with vegetables. They make a good deal of bark cloth, similar to the tapa of thePolynesians, 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 socontinuously and regularly beaten out that it becomes as thin and as tough asparchment. In this foam it is much used for wrappers for clothes; and they also makejackets 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 andabout the town of Batchian. Now if we suppose a traveller ignorant of Malay, pickingup 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"--(forthere are travellers who do all this in four-and- twenty hours)--what an accurate andinstructive chapter we should have' what transitions would be pointed out, whattheories of the origin of races would be developed while the next traveller might flatlycontradict every statement and arrive at exactly opposite conclusions. Soon after I arrived here the Dutch Government introduced a new copper coinageof cents instead of doits (the 100th instead of the 120th part of a guilder), and all theold coins were ordered to be sent to Ternate to be changed. I sent a bag containing6,000 doits, and duly received the new money by return of the boat. Then Ali went tobring it, however, the captain required a written order; so I waited to send again thenext day, and it was lucky I did so, for that night my house was entered, all my boxescarried out and ransacked, and the various articles left on the road about twenty yardsoff, where we found them at five in the morning, when, on getting up and finding thehouse empty, we rushed out to discover tracks of the thieves. Not being able to find thecopper money which they thought I had just received, they decamped, taking nothingbut a few yards of cotton cloth and a black coat and trousers, which latter were pickedup a few days afterwards hidden in the grass. There was no doubt whatever who werethe thieves. Convicts are employed to guard the Government stores when the boatarrives from Ternate. Two of them watch all night, and often take the opportunity toroam about and commit robberies. The next day I received my money, and secured it well in a strong box fastenedunder my bed. I took out five or six hundred cents for daily expenses, and put them in asmall japanned box, which always stood upon my table. In the afternoon I went for ashort walk, and on my return this box and my keys, which I had carelessly left on thetable, were gone. Two of my boys were in the house, but had heard nothing. Iimmediately gave information of the two robberies to the Director at the mines and tothe Commandant at the fort, and got for answer, that if I caught the thief in the act I

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might shoot him. By inquiry in the village, we afterwards found that one of the convictswho was on duty at the Government rice-store in the village had quitted his guard, wasseen to pass over the bridge towards my house, was seen again within two hundredyards of my house, and on returning over the bridge into the village carried somethingunder his arm, carefully covered with his sarong. My box was stolen between the hourshe was seen going and returning, and it was so small as to be easily carried in the waydescribed. This seemed pretty clear circumstantial evidence. I accused the man andbrought the witnesses to the Commandant. The man was examined, and confessedhaving 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 coveredover, _because he was ashamed to be seen carrying them!_ This explanation wasthought satisfactory, and he was acquitted. I lost my cash and my box, a seal I muchvalued, with other small articles, and all my keys- the severest loss by far. Luckily mylarge cash-box was left locked, but so were others which I required to openimmediately. There was, however, a very clever blacksmith employed to do ironworkfor the mines, and he picked my locks for me when I required them, and in a few daysmade 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 almostincessant rains, with only about one or two hours' sunshine in the morning. The flatparts of the forest became flooded, the roads filled with mud, and insects and birdswere scarcer than ever. On December Lath, in the afternoon, we had a sharp earthquakeshock, which made the house and furniture shale and rattle for five minutes, and thetrees and shrubs wave as if a gust of wind had passed over them. About the middle ofDecember I removed to the village, in order more easily to explore the district to thewest of it, and to be near the sea when I wished to return to Ternate. I obtained the useof a good- sized house in the Campong Sirani (or Christian village), and at Christmasand the New Year had to endure the incessant gun- firing, drum-beating, and fiddlingof the inhabitants. These people are very fond of music and dancing, and it would astonish aEuropean to visit one of their assemblies. We enter a gloomy palm-leaf hut, in whichtwo or three very dim lamps barely render darkness visible. The floor is of black sandyearth, the roof hid in a smoky impenetrable blackness; two or three benches standagainst 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 neatlydressed in white and black--a true Portuguese habit. Quadrilles, waltzes, polkas, andmazurkas are danced with great vigour and much skill. The refreshments are muddycoffee and a few sweetmeats. Dancing is kept up for hours, and all is conducted withmuch decorum and propriety. A party of this kind meets about once a week, theprincipal inhabitants taking it by turns, and all who please come in without muchceremony. 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 theirown nationality. They are still in manners and appearance almost pure Portuguese, verysimilar 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 nominallyProtestants, but Sunday evening is their grand day for music and dancing. The men areoften good hunters; and two or three times a week, deer or wild pigs are brought to thevillage, which, with fish and fowls, enables them to live well. They are almost the onlypeople in the Archipelago who eat the great fruit-eating bats called by us "flyingfoxes." 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 congregateduring 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,

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and are brought home by basketsfull. They require to be carefully prepared, as the skinand fur has a rank end powerful foxy odour; but they are generally cooked withabundance of spices and condiments, and are really very good eating, something likehare. The Orang Sirani are good cooks, having a much greater variety of savoury dishesthan 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 mixedwith the native races they leave become darker in colour than either of the parentstocks. This is the case almost always with these "Orang Sirani" in the Moluccas, andwith the Portuguese of Malacca. The reverse is the case in South America, where themixture of the Portuguese or Brazilian with the Indian produces the "Mameluco," whois not unfrequently lighter than either parent, and always lighter than the Indian. Thewomen at Batchian, although generally fairer than the men, are coarse in features, andvery far inferior in beauty to the mixed Dutch-Malay girls, or even to many pureMalays. The part of the village in which I resided was a grove of cocoa- nut trees, and atnight, when the dead leaves were sometimes collected together and burnt, the effectwas most magnificent-- the tall stems, the fine crowns of foliage, and the immensefruit-clusters, being brilliantly illuminated against a dark sky, and appearing like a fairypalace 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 leafout of reach, an immense butterfly of a dark colour marked with white and yellowspots. I could not capture it as it flew away high up into the forest, but I at once sawthat it was a female of a new species of Ornithoptera or "bird-winged butterfly," thepride of the Eastern tropics. I was very anxious to get it and to find the male, which inthis genus is always of extreme beauty. During the two succeeding months I only saw itonce again, and shortly afterwards I saw the male flying high in the air at the miningvillage. I had begun to despair of ever getting a specimen, as it seemed so rare andwild; till one day, about the beginning of January, I found a beautiful shrub with largewhite leafy bracts and yellow flowers, a species of Mussaenda, and saw one of thesenoble insects hovering over it, but it was too quick for me, and flew away. The nextclay I went again to the same shrub and succeeded in catching a female, and the dayafter a fine male. I found it to be as I had expected, a perfectly new and mostmagnificent 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 arevelvety black and fiery orange, the latter colour replacing the green of the alliedspecies. The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but anaturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at lengthcaptured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart beganto beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than Ihave done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of theday, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to most people a veryinadequate cause. I had decided to return to Ternate in a week or two more, but this grand capturedetermined me to stay on till I obtained a good series of the new butterfly, which I havesince named Ornithoptera croesus. The Mussaenda bush was an admirable place, whichI could visit every day on my way to the forest; and as it was situated in a dense thicketof shrubs and creepers, I set my man Lahi to clear a space all round it, so that I couldeasily get at any insect that might visit it. Afterwards, finding that it was oftennecessary to wait some time there, I had a little seat put up under a tree by the side ofit, where I came every day to eat my lunch, and thus had half an hour's watching aboutnoon, besides a chance as I passed it in the morning. In this way I obtained on anaverage one specimen a day for a long time, but more than half of these were females,

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and more than half the remainder worn or broken specimens, so that I should not haveobtained 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 onpurpose to search for them, as they had also been seen at some flowering trees on thebeach, and I promised him half a day's wages extra for every good specimen he couldcatch. After a day or two he brought me two very fair specimens, and told me he hadcaught them in the bed of a large rocky stream that descends from the mountains to thesea abort a mile below the village. They flew down this river, settling occasionally onstones and rocks in the water, and he was obliged to wade up it or jump from rock torock to get at them. I went with him one day, but found that the stream was far toorapid and the stones too slippery for me to do anything, so I left it entirely to him, andall the rest of the time we stayed in Batchian he used to be out all day, generallybringing me one, and on good days two or three specimens. I was thus able to bringaway with me more than a hundred of both sexes, including perhaps twenty very finemales, 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, thenthrough a sago swamp over a causeway of very shaky poles to the village of theTomore 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 goldenBuprestidae and curious Brenthidae, and longicorns, while in the forest I foundabundance of the smaller Curculionidae, many longicorns, and some fine greenCarabidae. 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 veryrare Papilio Wallacei, of which I had taken the hitherto unique specimen in the AruIslands. 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 specimensof the Semioptera Wallacei, and I was greatly excited by the positive statements ofseveral of the native hunters that another species of this bird existed, much handsomerand more remarkable. They declared that the plumage was glossy black, with metallicgreen 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 ordeer far in the forest they occasionally saw this bird, but that it was rare. I immediatelyoffered twelve guilders (a pound) for a specimen; but all in vain, and I am to this dayuncertain 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 LeydenMuseum; and as he was not more successful than myself, we must consider either thatthe bird is very rare, or is altogether a myth. Batchian is remarkable as being the most eastern point on the globe inhabited byany of the Quadrumana. A large black baboon- monkey (Cynopithecus nigrescens) isabundant in some parts of the forest. This animal has bare red callosities, and arudimentary tail about an inch long--a mere fleshy tubercle, which may be very easilyoverlooked. It is the same species that is found all over the forests of Celebes, and asnone of the other Mammalia of that island extend into Batchian I am inclined tosuppose that this species has been accidentally introduced by the roaming Malays, whooften carry about with them tame monkeys and other animals. This is rendered moreprobable by the fact that the animal is not found in Gilolo, which is only separated fromBatchian by a very narrow strait. The introduction may have been very recent, as in afertile and unoccupied island such an animal would multiply rapidly. The only othermammals obtained were an Eastern opossum, which Dr. Gray has described as Cuscusornatus; the little flying opossum, Belideus ariel; a Civet cat, Viverra zebetha; and nice

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species of bats, most of the smaller ones being caught in the dusk with my butterfly netas they flew about before the house. After much delay, owing to bad weather and the illness of one of my men, Idetermined to visit Kasserota (formerly the chief village), situated up a small stream, onan island close to the north coast of Batchian; where I was told that many rare birdswere found. After my boat was loaded and everything ready, three days of heavysqualls 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 theSultan's house, which I had obtained permission to use. It was situated on the bank ofthe river, and surrounded by a forest of fruit trees, among which were some of the veryloftiest and most graceful cocoa-nut palms I have ever seen. It rained nearly all thatday, 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 onlypath was a perfect mud swamp, along which it was almost impossible to walk, and thesurrounding forest so damp and dark as to promise little in the way of insects. I foundtoo 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 andunproductive. The next day I sent my men to this hill, hoping it might produce somegood birds; but they returned with only two common species, and I myself had beenable to get nothing; every little track I had attempted to follow leading to a dense sagoswamp. I saw that I should waste time by staying here, and determined to leave thefollowing day. This is one of those spots so hard for the European naturalist to conceive, wherewith all the riches of a tropical vegetation, and partly perhaps from the very luxurianceof that vegetation, insects are as scarce as in the most barren parts of Europe, andhardly more conspicuous. In temperate climates there is a tolerable uniformity in thedistribution of insects over those parts of a country in which there is a similarity in thevegetation, any deficiency being easily accounted for by the absence of wood oruniformity of surface. The traveller hastily passing through such a country can at oncepick 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 groundwhich can only be ascertained to exist by some days' search in the vicinity of eachvillage. In some places there is no virgin forest, as at Djilolo and Sahoe; in others thereare no open pathways or clearings, as here. At Batchian there are only two tolerablecollecting places,--the road to the coal mines, and the new clearings made by theTomóre people, the latter being by far the most productive. I believe the fact to be thatinsects are pretty uniformly distributed over these countries (where the forests have notbeen cleared away), and are so scarce in any one spot that searching for them is almostuseless. If the forest is all cleared away, almost all the insects disappear with it; butwhen small clearings and paths are made, the fallen trees in various stages of dryingand 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 isadmitted, are so many attractions to the insects for miles around, and cause a wonderfulaccumulation of species and individuals. When the entomologist can discover such aspot, he does more in a mouth than he could possibly do by a year's search in thedepths of the undisturbed forest. The next morning we left early, and reached the mouth of the little river in aboutau hour. It flows through a perfectly flat alluvial plain, but there are hills whichapproach it near the mouth. Towards the lower part, in a swamp where the salt-watermust enter at high tides, were a number of elegant tree-ferns from eight to fifteen feethigh. These are generally considered to be mountain plants, and rarely to occur on theequator at an elevation of less than one or two thousand feet. In Borneo, in the AruIslands, 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

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deduced from facts observed in countries where the plains and lowlands are largelycultivated, and most of the indigenous vegetation destroyed. Such is the case in mostparts of Java, India, Jamaica, and Brazil, where the vegetation of the tropics has beenmost fully explored. Coming out to sea we turned northwards, and in about two hours' sail reached afew huts, called Langundi, where some Galela men had established themselves ascollectors of gum-dammar, with which they made torches for the supply of the Ternatemarket. About a hundred yards back rises a rather steep hill, and a short walk havingshown 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 islandscompletely 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 scourgesof the Archipelago wander in one direction or another, making their rendezvous onsome uninhabited island, and carrying devastation to all the small settlements around;robbing, destroying, killing, or taking captive all they nee with. Their long well-mannedpraus escape from the pursuit of any sailing vessel by pulling away right in the wind'seye, and the warning smoke of a steamer generally enables them to hide in someshallow bay, or narrow river, or forest-covered inlet, till the danger is passed. The onlyeffectual way to put a stop to their depredations would be to attack them in theirstrongholds and villages, and compel them to give up piracy, and submit to strictsurveillance. Sir James Brooke did this with the pirates of the north-west coast ofBorneo, and deserves the thanks of the whole population of the Archipelago for havingrid them of half their enemies. All along the beach here, and in the adjacent strip of sandy lowland, is aremarkable display of Pandanaceae or Screw-pines. Some are like huge branchingcandelabra, forty or fifty feet high, and bearing at the end of each branch a tuft ofimmense sword-shaped leaves, six or eight inches wide, and as many feet long. Othershave a single unbranched stem, six or seven feet high, the upper part clothed with thespirally 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 moreor less spiny-edged leaves and ringed stems. The young plants of the larger specieshave smooth glossy thick leaves, sometimes ten feet long and eight inches wide, whichare 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 billis 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 areentirely engaged in searching for this product, and making it into torches by pounding itand filling it into tubes of palm leaves about a yard long, which are the only lights usedby many of the natives. Sometimes the dammar accumulates in large masses of ten ortwenty pounds weight, either attached to the trunk, or found buried in the ground at thefoot 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 justwhere the tree branches out above, so that there is no real trunk. This pyramid or coneis formed of roots of every size, mostly descending in straight lines, but more or lessobliquely- and so crossing each other, and connected by cross branches, which growfrom one to another; as to form a dense and complicated network, to which nothing buta photograph could do justice (see illustration at Vol. I. page 130). The Kanary is alsoabundant in this forest, the nut of which has a very agreeable flavour, and produces anexcellent oil. The fleshy outer covering of the nut is the favourite food of the greatgreen pigeons of these islands (Carpophaga, perspicillata), and their hoarse copings andheavy flutterings among the branches can be almost continually heard. After ten days at Langundi, finding it impossible to get the bird I was particularlyin search of (the Nicobar pigeon, or a new species allied to it), and finding no newbirds, and very few insects, I left early on the morning of April 1st, and in the evening

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entered a river on the main island of Batchian (Langundi, like Kasserota, being on adistinct island), where some Malays and Galela men have a small village, and havemade extensive rice-fields and plantain grounds. Here we found a good house near theriver bank, where the water was fresh and clear, and the owner, a respectable BatchianMalay, offered me sleeping room and the use of the verandah if I liked to stay. Seeingforest all round within a short distance, I accepted his offer, and the next morningbefore breakfast walked out to explore, and on the skirts of the forest captured a fewinteresting 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 attractedmy attention from its elegance. The stein was not thicker than my wrist, yet it was verylofty, 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 SouthAmerica. Here also grew the fan-leafed palm, whose small, nearly entire leaves areused 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 Pandanidifferent from those of Langundi. There were also some very fine climbing ferns andtrue wild Plantains (Musa), bearing an edible fruit not so large as one's thumb, andconsisting of a mass of seeds just covered with pulp and skin. The people assured methey had tried the experiment of sowing and cultivating this species, but could notimprove it. They probably did not grow it in sufficient quantity, and did not perseveresufficiently long. Batchian is an island that would perhaps repay the researches of a botanist betterthan any other in the whole Archipelago. It contains a great variety of surface and ofsoil, abundance of large and small streams, many of which are navigable for somedistance, and there being no savage inhabitants, every part of it can be visited withperfect safety. It possesses gold, copper, and coal, hot springs and geysers, sedimentaryand volcanic rocks and coralline limestone, alluvial plains, abrupt hills and loftymountains, a moist climate, and a grand and luxuriant forest vegetation. The few days I stayed here produced me several new insects, but scarcely anybirds. Butterflies and birds are in fact remarkably scarce in these forests. One may walka whole day and not see more than two or three species of either. In everything butbeetles, 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, wheretwenty or thirty species of butterflies may be caught every day, and on very good daysa hundred, a number we can hardly reach here in months of unremitting search. In birdsthere is the same difference. In most parts of tropical America we may always findsome species of woodpecker tanager, bush shrike, chatterer, trogon, toucan, cuckoo,and tyrant-flycatcher; and a few days' active search will produce more variety than canbe here met with in as many months. Yet, along with this poverty of individuals and ofspecies, there are in almost every class and order, some one, or two species of suchextreme beauty or singularity, as to vie with, or even surpass, anything that even SouthAmerica can produce. One afternoon when I was arranging my insects, and surrounded by a crowd ofwondering 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 thereforefixed the glass firmly to a piece of soft wood at the proper focus, and put under it alittle spiny beetle of the genus Hispa, and then passed it round for examination. Theexcitement 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 shoutingand gesticulation, as children at a pantomime, or at a Christmas exhibition of theoxyhydrogen 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 totheir unaccustomed eyes appeared to enlarge a hundred fold.

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On the last day of my stay here, one of my hunters succeeded in finding andshooting the beautiful Nicobar pigeon, of which I had been so long in search. None ofthe residents had ever seen it, which shows that it is rare and slay. My specimen was afemale in beautiful condition, and the glassy coppery and green of its plumage, thesnow-white tail and beautiful pendent feathers of the neck, were greatly admired. Isubsequently 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 theNicobar islands, whence it receives its name. It is a ground feeder, only going upontrees to roost, and is a very heavy fleshy bird. This may account far the fact of its beingfound chiefly on very small islands, while in the western half of the Archipelago, itseems entirely absent from the larger ones. Being a ground feeder it is subject to theattacks of carnivorous quadrupeds, which are not found in the very small islands. Itswide 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 deficientin power of extended flight, and this species is so bulky and heavy that it appears atfirst sight quite unable to fly a mile. A closer examination shows, however, that itswings are remarkably large, perhaps in proportion to its size larger than those of anyother pigeon, and its pectoral muscles are immense. A fact communicated to me by theson of my friend Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate, would show that, in accordance withthese 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 NewGuinea, with no intervening land. After the island had been settled a year, and traversedin every direction, his son paid it a visit; and just as the schooner was coming to ananchor, a bird was seen flying from seaward which fell into the water exhausted beforeit could reach the shore. A boat was sent to pick it up, and it was found to be a Nicobarpigeon, which must have come from New Guinea, and flown a hundred miles, since nosuch bird previously inhabited the island. This is certainly a very curious case of adaptation to an unusual and exceptionalnecessity. The bird does not ordinarily require great powers of flight, since it lives inthe forest, feeds on fallen fruits, and roosts in low trees like other ground pigeons. Themajority of the individuals, therefore, can never make full use of their enormouslypowerful 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 ofscarcity of food. A modification exactly opposite to that which produced the winglessbirds (the Apteryx, Cassowary, and Dodo), appears to have here taken place; and it iscurious that in both cases an insular habitat should have been the moving cause. Theexplanation is probably the same as that applied by Mr. Darwin to the case of theMadeira beetles, many of which are wingless, while some of the winged ones have thewings better developed than the same species on the continent. It was advantageous tothese insects either never to fly at all, and thus not run the risk of being blown out tosea, or to fly so well as to he able either to return to land, or to migrate safely to thecontinent. Pad flying was worse than not flying at all. So, while in such islands as NewZealand and Mauritius far from all land, it vas safer for a ground-feeding bird not to flyat all, and the short-winged individuals continually surviving, prepared the way for awingless group of birds; in a vast Archipelago thickly strewn with islands and islets itwas advantageous to be able occasionally to migrate, arid thus the long and strong-winged varieties maintained their existence longest, and ultimately supplanted allothers, 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 theMoluccas. Among my insects the best were the rare Pieris arum, of a rich chromeyellow colour, with a black border and remarkable white antenna--perhaps the veryfinest butterfly of the genus; and a large black wasp- like insect, with immense jaws

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like a stag-beetle, which has been named Megachile Pluto by Mr. B. Smith. I collectedabout a hundred species of beetles quite new to me, but mostly very minute, and alsomany rare and handsome ones which I had already found in Batchian. On the whole Iwas tolerably satisfied with my seventeen days' excursion, which was a very agreeableone, and enabled me to sea a good deal of the island. I had hired a roomy boat, andbrought 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 alwaysdrawn 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 returnto Ternate. When I first came I had sent back my boat by the pilot, with two or threeother men who had been glad of the opportunity. I now took advantage of aGovernment boat which had just arrived with rice for the troops, and obtainedpermission to return in her, and accordingly started on the 13th of April, having residedonly a week short of six months on the island of Batchian. The boat was one of thekind called "Kora- kora," quite open, very low, and about four tons burthen. It hadoutriggers of bamboo about five feet off each side, which supported a bamboo platformextending the whole length of the vessel. On the extreme outside of this sit the twentyrowers, while within was a convenient passage fore and aft. The middle portion of theboat 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 sideweight, and general clumsiness, these boats are dangerous in heavy weather, and arenot unfrequently lost. A triangle mast and mat sail carried us on when the wind wasfavourable,--which (as usual) it never was, although, according to the monsoon, itought to have been. Our water, carried in bamboos, would only last two days, and asthe voyage occupied seven, we had to touch at a great many places. The captain wasnot very energetic, and the men rowed as little as they pleased, or we might havereached 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, twoconvicts whose time had expired (one, curiously enough, being the man who had stolenmy cash-box and keys), the schoolmaster's wife and a servant going on a visit toTernate, and a Chinese trader going to buy goods. We had to sleep all together in thecabin, packed pretty close; but they very civilly allowed me plenty of room for mymattrass, 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 hisown provisions, and arranging his meal-times as he found most convenient. Thepassage would have been agreeable enough but for the dreadful "tom-toms," or woodendrums, which are beaten incessantly while the men are rowing. Two men were engagedconstantly at them, making a fearful din the whole voyage. The rowers are men sent bythe 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 sleepin their places, covered with their mat, which keeps out the rain pretty well. They chewbetel or smoke cigarettes incessantly; eat dry sago and a little salt fish; seldom singwhile rowing, except when excited and wanting to reach a stopping-place, and do nottalk a great deal. They are mostly Malays, with a sprinkling of Alfuros from Gilolo, andPapuans from Guebe or Waigiou. One afternoon we stayed at Makian; many of the men went on shore, and a greatdeal of plantains, bananas, and other fruits were brought on board. We then went on alittle way, and in the evening anchored again. When going to bed for the night, I putout my candle, there being still a glimmering lamp burning, and, missing myhandkerchief, thought I saw it on a box which formed one side of my bed, and put outmy 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

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there he was, sure enough, nicely coiled up, with his head just raised to inquire whohad disturbed him. It was now necessary to catch or kill him neatly, or he would escapeamong 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 Iwould mot allow him to make the attempt. I them got a chopping-knife, and carefullymoving my insect nets, which hung just over the snake and prevented me getting a freeblow, I cut him quietly across the back, holding him down while my boy with anotherknife crushed his head. On examination, I found he had large poison fangs, and it is awonder 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, Iturned in and went to sleep; but having all the time a vague dreamy idea that I mightput 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 ensconcedmyself in my comfortable house, to examine all my treasures, and pack them securelyfor 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 ofOctober 29th, after having been delayed several days by the boat's crew, who could notbe got together. Captain Van der Beck, who gave me a passage in his boat, had beenrunning after them all day, and at midnight we had to search for two of my men whohad disappeared at the last moment. One we found at supper in his own house, andrather 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 nearthe east end of Amboyna, at one of which we had to discharge some wood for themissionaries' house, and on the third afternoon reached Captain Van der Beck'splantation, situated at Hatosua, in that part of Ceram opposite to the island ofAmboyna. This was a clearing in flat and rather swampy forest, about twenty acres inextent, and mostly planted with cacao and tobacco. Besides a small cottage occupied bythe workmen, there was a large shed for tobacco drying, a corner of which was offeredme; and thinking from the look of the place that I should find- good collecting groundhere, I fitted up temporary tables, benches, and beds, and made all preparations forsome 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 Anthribidaeand pretty Longicorns, but they were mostly the same species as I had found during myfirst short visit to Amboyna. There were very few paths in the forest; which seemedpoor in birds and butterflies, and day after day my men brought me nothing worthnotice. I was therefore soon obliged to think about changing my locality, as I couldevidently obtain no proper notion of the productions of the almost entirely unexploredisland of Ceram by staying in this place. I rather regretted leaving, because my host was one of the most remarkable menand 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 ayouth he had accompanied a Government official who was sent to report on the tradeand commerce of the Mediterranean, and had acquired the colloquial language of every

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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 outto the past, where he had been for some years trading and speculating in the variousislands. He now spoke Dutch, French, Malay, and Javanese, all equally well; Englishwith a very slight accent, but with perfect fluency, axed a most complete knowledge ofidiom, in which I often tried to puzzle him in vain. German and Italian were also quitefamiliar 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 maymention that he had made a voyage to the out-of- the-way island of Salibaboo, and hadstayed there trading a few weeks. As I was collecting vocabularies, he told me hethought he could remember some words, and dictated considerable number. Some timeafter I met with a short list of words taken down in those islands, and in every casethey 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, andastonished by joining in their conversation, and had a never-ending fund of tale andanecdote 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 thereare European missionaries; but there is little or no external difference between theChristian and Alfuro villages, nor, as far as I have seen, in their inhabitants. The peopleseem more decidedly Papuan than those of Gilolo. They are darker in colour, and anumber of them have the frizzly Papuan hair; their features also are harsh andprominent, and the women in particular are far less engaging than those of the Malayrace. Captain Van der Beck was never tired of abusing the inhabitants of these Christianvillages as thieves, liars, and drunkards, besides being incorrigibly lazy. In the city ofAmboyna my friends Doctors Mohnike and Doleschall, as well as most of theEuropean residents and traders, made exactly the same complaint, and would ratherhave Mahometans for servants, even if convicts, than any of the native Christians. Onegreat cause of this is the fact, that with the Mahometans temperance is a part of theirreligion, 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 thuspresent with the one class, but absent in the other; but besides this the Christians lookupon 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 besaid that with people in this low state of civilization religion is almost whollyceremonial, and that neither are the doctrines of Christianity comprehended, nor itsmoral precepts obeyed. At the same time, as far as my own experience goes, I havefound the better class of "Orang Sirani" as civil, obliging, and industrious as theMalays, and only inferior to them from their tendency to get intoxicated. Having written to the Assistant Resident of Saparua (who has jurisdiction over theopposite part of the coast of Ceram) for a boat to pursue my journey, I received onerather larger than necessary with a crew of twenty men. I therefore bade adieu to mykind friend Captain Van der Beck, and left on the evening after its arrival for thevillage of Elpiputi, which we reached in two days. I had intended to stay here, but notliking the appearance of the place, which seemed to have no virgin forest near it, Idetermined to proceed about twelve miles further up the bay of Amahay, to a villagerecently formed, and inhabited by indigenes from the interior, and where someextensive cacao plantations were being made by some gentlemen of Amboyna. Ireached 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, gotall my things on shore, and paid and discharged my twenty boatmen, two of whom hadalmost 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.

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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'sfinger, 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 wearsimilar ornaments, but have their hair loose. All are tall, with a dark brown skin, andwell 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 ashave become Christians may be known by their wearing their hair loose, and adoptingto some extent the native Christian dress-trousers and a loose shirt. Very few speakMalay, all these coast villages having been recently formed by inducing natives to leavethe inaccessible interior. In all the central part of Ceram there new remains only onepopulous village in the mountains. Towards the east and the extreme west are a fewothers, with which exceptions all the inhabitants of Ceram are collected on the coast. Inthe northern and eastern districts they are mostly Mahometans, while on the southwestcoast, nearest Amboyna, they are nominal Christians. In all this part of the Archipelagothe Dutch make very praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of the aborigines byestablishing schoolmasters in every village (who are mostly natives of Amboyna orSaparua, who have; been instructed by the resident missionaries), and by employingnative vaccinators to prevent the ravages of smallpox. They also encourage thesettlement of Europeans, and the formation of new plantations of cacao and coffee, oneof the best means of raising the condition of the natives, who thus obtain work at fairwages, 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, exceptthat butterflies were a little more plentiful, and some very fine species were to be foundin the morning on the sea-beach, sitting so quietly on the wet sand that they could becaught with the fingers. In this way I had many fine specimens of Papilios brought meby the children. Beetles, however, were scarce, and birds still more so, and I began tothink that the handsome species which I had so often heard were found in Ceram mustbe 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 villageof Makariki, from whence there is a native path quite across the island to the northcoast. My friend Mr. Rosenberg, whose acquaintance I had made at New Guinea, andwho was now the Government superintendent of all this part of Ceram, returned fromWahai, on the north coast, after I had been three weeks at Awaiya, and showed mesome fine butterflies he had obtained on the mountain streams in the interior. Heindicated a spot about the centre of the island where he thought I might advantageouslystay a few days. I accordingly visited Makariki with him the next day, and he instructedthe chief of the village to furnish me with men to carry my baggage, and accompanyme 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 beready 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 themorning of December 18th we left Makariki, with six men carrying my baggage andtheir own provisions, and a lad from Awaiya, who was accustomed to catch butterfliesfor me. My two Amboyna hunters I left behind to shoot and skin what birds they couldwhile I was away. Quitting the village, we first walked briskly for an hour through adense tangled undergrowth, dripping wet from a storm of the previous night, and fullof mud holes. After crossing several small streams we reached one of the largest riversin 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 waterreaching nearly up to their armpits, and then two men returned to assist me. The waterwas above my waist, and so strong that I should certainly have been carried off my feethad I attempted to cross alone; and it was a matter of astonishment to me how the mencould give me any assistance, since I found the greatest difficulty in getting my foot

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down again when I had once moved it off the bottom. The greater strength andgrasping power of their feet, from going always barefoot, no doubt gave them a surerfooting in the rapid water. After well wringing out our wet clothes and putting them on, we again proceededalong 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 broughtus to a smaller stream flowing in a wide gravelly bed, up which our road lay. Here w estayed half an hour to breakfast, and then went on, continually crossing the stream, orwalking on its stony and gravelly banks, till about noon, when it became rocky andenclosed by low hills. A little further we entered a regular mountain-gorge, and had toclamber over rocks, and every moment cross and recross the water, or take short cutsthrough the forest. This was fatiguing work; and about three in the afternoon, the skybeing overcast, and thunder in the mountains indicating an approaching storm, we hadto loon out for a camping place, and soon after reached one of Mr. Rosenberg's oldones. The skeleton of his little sleeping-hut remained, and my men cut leaves and madea 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 aflood came down the river, which effectually stopped our further march, even had wewished to proceed. We then lighted fires; I made some coffee, and my men roastedtheir fish and plantains, and as soon as it was dark, we made ourselves comfortable forthe 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 beinggenerally knee-deep. This brought us to a place where the road left the stream, andhere we stopped to breakfast. We then had a long walk over the mountain, by atolerable 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 stembeing scarcely thicker than my thumb, yet reaching a height of fifteen or twenty feet. Ialso caught a new butterfly of the genus Pieris, and a magnificent female specimen ofPapilio gambrisius, of which I had hitherto only found the males, which are smallerand very different in colour. Descending the other side of the ridge, by a very steeppath, we reached another river at a spot which is about the centre of the island, andwhich was to be our resting place for two or three days. In a couple of hour my menhad built a little sleeping-shed for me, about eight feet by four, with a bench of splitpoles, they themselves occupying two or three smaller ones, which had been put up byformer passengers. The river here was about twenty yards wide, running over a pebbly and sometimesa rocky bed, and bordered by steep hills with occasionally flat swampy spots betweentheir base and the stream. The whole country was one dense, Unbroken, and very dampand gloomy virgin forest. Just at our resting-place there was a little bush-covered islandin the middle of the channel, so that the opening in the forest made by the river waswider than usual, and allowed a few gleams of sunshine to penetrate. Here there wereseveral 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 remainedhere, I wandered almost all day up and down the stream, searching after butterflies, ofwhich I got, in all, fifty or sixty specimens, with several species quite new to me. Therewere many others which I saw only once, and did not capture, causing me to regret thatthere was no village in these interior valleys where I could stay a month. In the earlypart of each morning I went out with my gun in search of birds, and two of my menwere out almost all day after deer; but we were all equally unsuccessful, gettingabsolutely nothing the whole time we were in the forest. The only good bird seen wasthe fine Amboyna lory, but these were always too high to shoot; besides this, the greatMoluccan hornbill, which I did not want, was almost the only bird met with. I saw nota single ground-thrush, or kingfisher, or pigeon; and, in fact, have never been in a

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forest so utterly desert of animal life as this appeared to be. Even in all other groups ofinsects, except butterflies, there was the same poverty. I bad hoped to find some raretiger beetles, as I had done in similar situations in Celebes; but, though I searchedclosely in forest, river-bed, and mountain-brook, I could find nothing but the twocommon Amboyna species. Other beetles there were absolutely none. The constant walking in water, and over rocks and pebbles, quite destroyed the twopair of shoes I brought with me, so that, on my return, they actually fell to pieces, andthe 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, andourselves thoroughly uncomfortable. All the time I had been in Ceram I had sufferedmuch 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 lastjourney 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 fornearly two months, a not very pleasant memento of my first visit to Ceram, whichterminated with the year 1859. It was not till the 24th of February, 1860, that I started again, intending to passfrom village to village along the coast, staying where I found a suitable locality. I had aletter from the Governor of the Moluccas, requesting all the chiefs to supply me withboats and men to carry me on my journey. The first boat took me in two days toAmahay, 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 tocarry me on, put my baggage on hoard, set up mast and sails after dark, and had themen ready that nigh; so that we were actually on our way at five the next morning,--adisplay of energy and activity I scarcely ever saw before in a native chief on such anoccasion. We touched at Cepa, and stayed for the night at Tamilan, the first twoMahometan villages on the south coast of Ceram. The next day, about noon, we reachedHoya, which was as Far as my present boat and crew were going to take me. Theanchorage is about a mile east of the village, which is faced by coral reefs, and we hadto wait for the evening tide to move up and unload the boat into the strange rottenwooden pavilion kept for visitors. There was no boat here large enough to take my baggage; and although two wouldhave done very well, the Rajah insisted upon sending four. The reason of this I foundwas, that there were four small villages under his rule, and by sending a boat from eachhe would avoid the difficult task of choosing two and letting off the others. I was toldthat at the next village of Teluti there were plenty of Alfuros, and that I could getabundance of Tories and other birds. The Rajah declared that black and yellow Toriesand black cockatoos were found there; but I am inclined to think he knew very well hewas telling me lies, and that it was only a scheme to satisfy me with his plan of takingme to that village, instead of a day's journey further on, as I desired. Here, as at most ofthe villages, I was asked for spirits, the people being mere nominal Mahometans, whoconfine their religion almost entirely to a disgust at pork, and a few other forbiddenarticles of food. The next morning, after much trouble, we got our cargoes loaded, andhad a delightful row across the deep bay of Teluti, with a view of the grand centralmountain-range of Ceram. Our four boats were rowed by sixty men, with flags flyingand tom-toms beating, as well as very vigorous shouting and singing to keep up theirspirits. 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, werewaiting to receive us, and conducted me to a house prepared for my reception, where Idetermined 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 satisfactoryinformation. The only kinds known were the ring-necked lory and the common red andgreen lorikeet, both common at Amboyna. Black Tories and cockatoos were quite

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unknown. The Alfuros resided in the mountains five or six days' journey away, andthere were only one or two live birds to be found in the village, and these wereworthless. My hunters could get nothing but a few common birds; and notwithstandingfine mountains, luxuriant forests, and a locality a hundred miles eastward, I could findno new insects, and extremely few even of the common species of Amboyna and WestCeram. It was evidently no use stopping at such a place, and I was determined to moveon as soon as possible. The village of Teluti is populous, but straggling and very dirty. Sago trees herecover the mountain side, instead of growing as usual in low swamps; but a closerexamination shows that they grow in swampy patches, which have formed among theloose rocks that cover the ground, and which are kept constantly full of moisture by therains, and by the abundance of rills which trickle down among them. This sago formsalmost the whole subsistence of the inhabitants, who appear to cultivate nothing but afew small patches of maize and sweet potatoes. Hence, as before explained, the scarcityof insects. The Orang-kaya has fine clothes, handsome lamps, and other expensiveEuropean 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 twoboats of the same size as those which had brought me to Teluti. With some difficulty Ihad obtained permission to take these boats on to Tobo, where I intended to stay awhile, and therefore got on pretty quickly, changing men at the village of Laiemu, andarriving in a heavy rain at Ahtiago. As there was a good deal of surf here, and likely tobe 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 thelanguage of the Alfuros, who live in the mountains inland, I returned to sleep in theboat. Next morning we proceeded, changing men at Warenama, and again atHatometen, at both of which places there was much surf and no harbour, so that themen had to go on shore and come on board by swimming. Arriving in the evening ofMarch 7th at Batuassa, the first village belonging to the Rajah of Tobo, and under thegovernment of Banda, the surf was very heavy, owing to a strong westward swell. Wetherefore rounded the rocky point on which the village was situated, but found it verylittle better on the other side. We were obliged, however, to go on shore here; andwaiting till the people on the beach had made preparations, by placing a row of logsfrom the water's edge on which to pull up our boats, we rowed as quickly as we couldstraight on to them, after watching till the heaviest surfs had passed. The moment wetouched ground our men all jumped out, and, assisted by those on shore, attempted tohaul up the boat high and dry, but not having sufficient hands, the surf repeatedly brokeinto 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 fromshore, and we had to watch for a smooth moment after bringing the boats to the water'sedge, and so got safely out to sea. At the two next villages, Tobo and Ossong, we alsotook in fresh men, who came swimming through the surf; and at the latter place theRajah came on board and accompanied me to Kissalaut, where he has a house whichhe lent me during my stay. Here again was a heavy surf, and it was with great difficultywe got the boats safely hauled up. At Amboyna I had been promised at this season acalm sea and the wind off shore, but in this case, as in every other, I had been unable toobtain any reliable information as to the winds and seasons of places distant two orthree days' journey. It appears, however, that owing to the general direction of theisland of Ceram (E.S.E. and W.N.W.), there is a heavy surf and scarcely any shelter onthe south coast during the west monsoon, when alone a journey to the eastward can besafely made; while during the east monsoon, when I proposed to return along the northcoast to Wahai, I should probably find that equally exposed and dangerous. Butalthough the general direction of the west monsoon in the Banda sea causes a heavyswell, with bad surf on the coast, yet we had little advantage of the wind; for, owing I

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suppose to the numerous bays and headlands, we had contrary south-east or even dueeast winds all the way, and had to make almost the whole distance from Amboyna byforce of rowing. We had therefore all the disadvantages, and none of the advantages, ofthis 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 sawthat it would be quite useless for me to stay, and begged the Rajah to give me a prauand men to carry me on to Goram. But instead of getting one close at hand, he insistedon sending several miles off; and when after many delays it at length arrived, it wasaltogether unsuitable and too small to carry my baggage. Another was then ordered tobe brought immediately, and was promised in three days, but doable that time elapsedand 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 caulkingand covering over, and quarrels between the owner and the Rajah's men, whichoccupied more than another ten days, during all which time I was getting absolutelynothing, finding this part of Ceram a perfect desert in zoology. although a mostbeautiful country, and with a very luxuriant vegetation. It was a complete puzzle, whichto this day I have not been able to understand; the only thing I obtained worth noticeduring 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 aboutfour tons burthen, in which my numerous boxes were with difficulty packed so as toleave sleeping and cooling room. The craft could not boast an ounce of iron or a foot ofrope in any part of its construction, nor a morsel of pitch or paint in its decoration. Theplanks were fastened together in the usual ingenious way with pegs and rattans. Themast was a bamboo triangle, requiring no shrouds, and carrying a long mat sail; tworudders were hung on the quarters by rattans, the anchor was of wood, and a long andthick rattan; served as a cable. Our crew consisted of four men, whose poleaccommodation was about three feet by four in the bows and stern, with the slopingthatch roof to stretch themselves upon for a change. We had nearly a hundred miles togo, 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 comparativecomfort. On the second day we passed the eastern extremity of Ceram, formed of a group ofhummocky limestone hills; and, sailing by the islands of Kwammer and Keffing, boththickly inhabited, came in sight of the little town of Kilwaru, which appears to rise outof 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 largevillage seems to float upon the water. There is of course a small island of several acresin extent; but the houses are built so closely all round it upon piles in the water, that itis completely hidden. It is a place of great traffic, being the emporium for much of theproduce of these Eastern seas, and is the residence of many Bugis and Ceramesetraders, and appears to have been chosen on account of its being close to the only deepchannel between the extensive shoals of Ceram-laut and those bordering the east end ofCeram. We now had contrary east winds, and were obliged to pole over the shallowcoral reefs of Ceram-laut for nearly thirty miles. The only danger of our voyage wasjust at its termination, for as we were rowing towards Manowolko, the largest of theGoram group, we were carried out so rapidly by a strong westerly current, that I wasalmost certain at one time we should pass clear of the island; in which case oursituation would have been both disagreeable and dangerous, as, with the east windwhich had just set in, we might have been unable to return for many days, and we hadnot a day's water on board. At the critical moment I served out some strong spirits tomy men, which put fresh vigour into their arms, and carried us out of the influence ofthe current before it was too late.

MANOWOLKO, GORAM GROUP

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On arriving at Manowolko, we found the Rajah was at the opposite island ofGoram; but he was immediately sent for, and in the meantime a large shed was givenfor our accommodation. At night the Rajah came, and the next day I had a visit fromhim, and found, as I expected, that I had already made his acquaintance three yearsbefore at Aru. He was very friendly, and we had a long talk; but when I begged for aboat and men to take me on to Ke, he made a host of difficulties. There were no praus,as all had gone to Ké or Aim; and even if one were found, there were no men, as it wasthe season when all were away trading. But he promised to see about it, and I wasobliged to wait. For the next two or three days there was more talking and moredifficulties were raised, and I had time to make an examination of the island and thepeople. Manowolko is about fifteen miles long, and is a mere; upraised coral-reef. Two orthree hundred yards inland rise cliffs of coral rock, in many parts perpendicular, andone or two hundred feet high; and this, I was informed, is characteristic of the wholeisland, in which there is no other kind of rock, and no stream of water. A few cracksand chasms furnish paths to the top of these cliffs, where there is an open undulatingcountry, 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 theMahometans of the mainland of Ceram, which is perhaps due to there having been noindigenes on these small islands when the first settlers arrived. In Ceram, the Alfuros ofPapuan race are the predominant type, the Malay physiognomy being seldom wellmarked; whereas here the reverse is the case, and a slight infusion of Papuan on amixture of Malay and Bugis has produced a very good-looking set of people. The lowerclass 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 browncomplexions. The Goram language is spoken also at the east end of Ceram, and in theadjacent islands. It has a general resemblance to the languages of Ceram, but possessesa 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, amiserable boat and five men were found, and with some difficulty I stowed away in itsuch baggage as it was absolutely necessary for me to take, leaving scarcely sitting orsleeping room. The sailing qualities of the boat were highly vaunted, and I was assuredthat at this season a small one was much more likely to succeed in making the journey.

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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 layacross to the Matabello Islands, a distance little short of twenty miles. I did not muchlike the look of the heavy sky and rather rough sea, and my men were very unwillingto make the attempt; but as we could scarcely hope for a better chance, I insisted upontrying. The pitching and jerking of our little boat, soon reduced me to a state ofmiserable helplessness, and I lay down, resigned to whatever might happen. After threeor four hours, I was told we were nearly over; but when I got up, two hours later, justas the sun was setting, I found we were still a good distance from the point, owing to astrong current which had been for some time against us. Night closed in, and the winddrew more ahead, so we had to take in sail. Then came a calm, and we rowed andsailed as occasion offered; and it was four in the morning when we reached the villageof 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 reefabout two hundred yards from shore, and perfectly secure in every wind. Having eatennothing since the previous morning, we cooked our breakfast comfortably on shore, andleft 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 extendsall along them at varying distances from the shore, This reef is sometimes only markedby a. line of breakers when there is a little swell on the sea; in other places there is aridge of dead coral above the water, which is here and there high enough to support afew low bushes. This was the first example I had met with of a true barrier reef due tosubsidence, as has been so clearly shown by Mr. Darwin. In a sheltered archipelagothey will seldom be distinguishable, from the absence of those huge rolling waves andbreakers which in the wide ocean throw up a barrier of broken coral far above the usualhigh-water mark, while here they rarely rise to the surface. On reaching the end of the southern island, called Uta, we were kept waiting twodays for a wind that would enable us to pass over to the next island, Teor, and I beganto 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 thehopes that this was the commencement of a few days' favourable weather. We sailed onvery well in the direction of Teor for about an hour, after which the wind shifted toWSW., and we were driven much out of our course, and at nightfall found ourselves inthe open sea, and full ten miles to leeward of our destination. My men were now allvery much frightened, for if we went on we might be a. week at sea in our little openboat, 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 theseprobabilities, 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 18thw e reached our first anchorage in Matabello, where I resolved to stay a few days, andthen return to Goram. It way with much regret that I gave up my trip to Ké and theintervening islands, which I had looked forward to as likely to make up for mydisappointment in Ceram, since my short visit on my voyage to Aru had produced meso 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

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the year round. Along with it are great numbers of the areca or betel-nut palm, the nutsof 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 runalone, carried between their lips a mass of the nasty- looking red paste, which is evenmore disgusting than to see them at the same age smoking cigars, which is verycommon even before they are weaned. Cocoa-nuts, sweet potatoes, an occasional sagocake, and the refuse nut after the oil has been extracted by boiling, form the chiefsustenance of these people; and the effect of this poor and unwholesome diet is seen inthe frequency of eruptions and scurfy skin diseases, and the numerous sores thatdisfigure the faces of the children. The villages are situated on high and rugged coral peaks, only accessible by steepnarrow paths, with ladders and bridges over yawning chasms. They are filthy withrotten husks and oil refuse, and the huts are dark, greasy, and dirty in the extreme. Thepeople are wretched ugly dirty savages, clothed in unchanged rags, and living in themost miserable manner, and as every drop of fresh water has to be brought up from thebeach, washing is never thought of; yet they are actually wealthy, and have the meansof purchasing all the necessaries and luxuries of life. Fowls are abundant, and eggswere given me whenever I visited the villages, but these are never eaten, being lookedupon 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 £10 a piece. The chief men of eachvillage came to visit me, clothed in robes of silk and flowered satin, though theirhouses and their daily fare are no better than those of the ether inhabitants. What acontrast between these people and such savages as the best tribes of bill. Dyaks inBorneo, or the Indians of the Uaupes in South America, living on the banks of clearstreams, 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 infact almost as much difference: between the various races of savage as of civilizedpeoples, and we may safely affirm that the better specimens of the former are muchsuperior to the lower examples of the latter class. One of the few luxuries of Matabello is the palm wine; which is the fermented sapfrom the flower stains of the cocoa-net. It is really a very mice drink, more like cyderthan beer, though quite as intoxicating as the latter. Young cocoa-nuts are also veryabundant, so that anywhere in the island it is only necessary to go a few yards to find adelicious beverage by climbing up a tree for it. It is the water of the young fruit that isdrunk, 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 incomparison with that of the old dry nuts which alone we obtain in this country. Thecocoa-nut pulp I did not like at first; but fruits are so scarce, except at particularseasons, that one soon learns to appreciate anything of a fruity nature. Many persons in Europe are under the impression that fruits of delicious flavourabound in the tropical forests, and they will no doubt be surprised to learn that the trulywild fruits of this brand and luxuriant archipelago, the vegetation of which will vie withthat of any part of the world, are in almost every island inferior in abundance andduality 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 nothingto compare with our blackberries and whortleberries. The kanary-nut may beconsidered 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 esteemedby 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 oruneatable.

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The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan villages of EastCeram 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, butwere absolutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism! And they can hardly beconvinced that such is not the case, and that had it not been for the assistance of Franceand England, the poor Sultan world have fared ill. Another of their motions is, that theTurks are the largest and strongest people in the world--in fact a race of giants; thatthey 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 mayhave heard of the ancient prowess of the Turkish armies when they made all Europetremble, and suppose that their character and warlike capacity must be the same at thepresent time.

GORAM A steady south-east wind having set in, we returned to Manowolko on the 25th ofApril, 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 aquarter of a mile from the shore, visible as a stripe of pale green water, but only at verylowest ebb-tides showing any rock above the surface. There are several deep entrancesthrough this reef, and inside it there is hood anchorage in all weathers. The land risesgradually to a moderate height, and numerous small streams descend on all sides. Themere 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 atManowolko and Matabello; but we have more positive proof in the pebbles and stonesof their beds, which exhibit a variety of stratified crystalline rocks. About a hundredyards from the beach rises a wall of coral rock, ten or twenty feet high, above which isan undulating surface of rugged coral, which slopes downward towards the interior, andthen after a slight ascent is bounded by a second wall of coral. Similar walls occurhigher 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 inthis 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 thenrose to above its present elevation, and is now again sinking. We infer this, becauseencircling reefs are a proof of subsidence; and if the island were again elevated about ahundred feet, what is now the reef and the shallow sea within it would form a wall ofcoral rock, and an undulating coralline plain, exactly similar to those that still exist atvarious altitudes up to the summit of the island. We learn also that these changes havetaken place at a comparatively recent epoch, for the surface of the coral has scarcelysuffered from the action of the weather, and hundreds of sea-shells, exactly resemblingthose still found upon the beach, and many of them retaining their gloss and even theircolour, 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 isscarcely possible to determine, and its productions will throw little light upon thequestion, if, as I suppose, the islands have been entirely submerged within the epoch ofexisting species of animals, as in that case it must owe its present fauna and flora torecent immigration from surrounding lands; and with this view its poverty in speciesvery well agrees. It possesses much in common with East Ceram, but at the same timehas a good deal of resemblance to the Ké Islands and Banda. The fine pigeon,Carpophaga concinna, inhabits Ke, Banda, 11-Iatabello, and Goram, and is replaced bya distinct species, C. neglecta, in Ceram. The insects of these four islands have also acommon facies--facts which seem to indicate that some more extensive land hasrecently disappeared from the area they now occupy, and has supplied them with a fewof its peculiar productions.

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The Goram people (among whom I stayed a month) are a race of traders. Everyyear they visit the Tenimber, Ke, and Aru Islands, the whole north-west coast of NewGuinea from Oetanata to Salwatty, and the island of Waigiou and Mysol. They alsoextend their voyages to Tidore and Ternate, as well as to Banda and Amboyna, Theirpraus are all made by that wonderful race of boatbuilders, the Ke. islanders, whoannually turn out some hundreds of boats, large and small, which can hardly besurpassed for beauty of form and goodness of workmanship, They trade chiefly intripang, the medicinal mussoi bark, wild nutmegs, and tortoiseshell, which they sell tothe Bugis traders at Ceram-laut or Aru, few of them caring to take their products to anyother market. In other respects they are a lazy race, living very poorly, and much givento 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 dozenRajahs, scarcely better off than the rest of the inhabitants, and exercising a merenominal 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 theRajah 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 onso peaceably as at present, rival praus often fighting when on the way to the samelocality, or trafficking in the same village. Now such a thing is never thought of-one ofthe good effects of the superintendence of a civilized government. Disputes betweenvillages are still, however, sometimes settled by fighting, and I one day saw about fiftymen, carrying long guns and heavy cartridge-belts, march through the village. They hadcome from the other side of the island on some question of trespass or boundary, andwere prepared for war if peaceable negotiations should fail. While at Manowolko I had purchased for 100 florins £9.) a small prau, which wasbrought over the next day, as I was informed it was more easy to have the necessaryalterations made in Goram, where several Ké workmen were settled. As soon as we began getting my prau ready I was obliged to give up collecting, asI 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 upconveniently, and was obliged to do all the inside work myself, assisted by my twoAmboynese boys. I had plenty of visitors, surprised to see a white man at work, andmuch 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, andthese were now severely tried, cutting and fitting heavy iron-wood planks for theflooring 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 tohave finished my boat with half the neatness, or in double the time. I had a Kéworkman 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 boreall 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 toMysol, Waigiou, and Ternate. Their ideas of work were, however, very different frommine, and I had immense difficulty with them; seldom more than two or three comingtogether, and a hundred excuses being given for working only half a day when they didcome. Yet they were constantly begging advances of money, saying they had nothing toeat. When I gave it them they were sure to stay away the next day, and when I refusedany further advances some of them declined working any more. As the boat approachedcompletion my difficulties with the men increased. The uncle of one had commenced awar, or sort of faction fight, and wanted his assistance; another's wife was ill, andwould 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. Theyhad all received a month's wages in advance; and though the amount was not large, it

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was necessary to make them pay it back, or I should get ago men at a11. I thereforesent the village constable after two, and kept them in custody a day, when they returnedabout three- fourths of what they owed me. The sick man also paid, and the steersmanfound a substitute who was willing to take his debt, and receive only the balance of hiswages. About this time we had a striking proof of the dangers of New Guinea trading. Sixmen arrived at the village in a small boat almost starved, having escaped out of twopraus, the remainder of whose crews (fourteen in number) had been murdered by thenatives of New Guinea. The praus had left this village a few months before, and amongthe murdered men were the Rajah's son, and the relation or slaves of many of theinhabitants. The cry of lamentation that arose when the news arrived was mostdistressing. A score of women, who had lost husbands, brothers, sons, or more distantrelatives, set up at once the most dismal shrieks and groans and wailings, whichcontinued at intervals till late at night; and as the chief houses in the village werecrowded together round that which I occupied, our situation was anything butagreeable. It seems that the village where the attack took place (nearly opposite the smallisland of Lakahia) is known to be dangerous, and the vessels had only gone there a fewdays before to buy some tripang. The crew were living on shore, the praus being in asmall river close by, and they were attacked and murdered in the day-time whilebargaining with the Papuans. The six men who survived were on board the praus, andescaped 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 "PapuaKowiyee" and "Papua Onen," is inhabited by the most treacherous and bloodthirstytribes. It is in these districts that the commanders and portions of the crews of many ofthe early discovery ships were murdered, and scarcely a year now passes but some livesare lost. The Goram and Ceram traders are themselves generally inoffensive; they arewell acquainted with the character of these natives, and are not likely to provoke anattack by any insults or open attempt at robbery or imposition. They are accustomed tovisit the same places every year, and the natives can have no fear of them, as may bealleged in excuse for their attacks on Europeans. In other extensive districts inhabitedby the same Papuan races, such as Mysol, Salwatty, Waigiou, and some parts of theadjacent coast, the people have taken the first step in civilization, owing probably to thesettlement of traders of mixed breed among them, and for many years no such attackshave 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 andmurder,--a habit which is confirmed by the impunity they experience, owing to the vastextent of wild mountain and forest country forbidding all pursuit or attempt atpunishment. In the very same village, four years before, more than fifty Goram menwere murdered; and as these savages obtain an immense booty in the praus and all theirappurtenances, it is to be feared that such attacks will continue to be made at intervalsas long as traders visit the same spots and attempt no retaliation. Punishment could onlybe inflicted on these people by very arbitrary measures, such as by obtaining possessionof some of the chiefs by stratagem, and rendering them responsible for the capture ofthe murderers at the peril of their own heads. But anything of this kind would be donecontrary 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, andactually set sail the next day (May 27th), much to the astonishment of the Gorampeople, 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 fewif obliged to row much. The next day was very wet, with squalls, calms, and contrarywinds, and with some difficulty we reached Kilwaru, the metropolis of the Bugis

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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, andhandkerchiefs for barter, which with the choppers, cloth, and beads I had brought withme, made a pretty good assortment. I also bought two tower muskets to satisfy mycrew, who insisted on the necessity of being armed against attacks of pirates; and withspices 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 asmall village, and situated between the islands of Ceram-laut, and Kissa--straits about athird of a mile wide separating it from each of them. It is surrounded by coral reefs, andoffers good anchorage in both monsoons. Though not more than fifty yards across, andnot elevated more than three or four feet above the highest tides, it has wells ofexcellent drinking water--a singular phenomenon, which would seem to imply deep-seated subterranean channels connecting it with other islands. These advantages, withits situation in the centre of the Papuan trading district, lead to its being so muchfrequented by the Bugis traders. Here the Goram men bring the produce of their littlevoyages, which they exchange for cloth, sago cakes, and opium; and the inhabitants ofall the surrounding islands visit it with the game object. It is the rendezvous of thepraus 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 ofproduce brought here, with wild nutmegs, tortoiseshell, pearls, and birds of Paradise; insmaller quantities. The villagers of the mainland of Ceram bring their sago, which isthus distributed to the islands farther east, while rice from Bali and Macassar can alsobe purchased at a moderate price. The Goram men come here for their supplies ofopium, both for their own consumption and for barter in Mysol and Waigiou, wherethey have introduced it, and where the chiefs and wealthy men are passionately fond ofit. Schooners from Bali come to buy Papuan slaves, while the sea-wandering Bugisarrive from distant Singapore in their lumbering praus, bringing thence the produce ofthe Chinamen's workshops and Kling's bazaar, as well as of the looms of Lancashireand Massachusetts. One of the Bugis traders who had arrived a few days before from Mysol, broughtme 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 notobtained any birds of Paradise; Silinta, where he was staying, not being a good placefor them. This was on the whole satisfactory, and I was anxious to reach him as soon aspossible. Leaving Kilwaru early in the morning of June 1st, with a strong east wind wedoubled the point of Ceram about noon, the heavy sea causing my prau to roll abort agood deal, to the damage of our crockery. As bad weather seemed coming on, we gotinside 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 jerkeduneasily; but in the morning I had greater cause for uneasiness in the discovery that ourentire Goram crew had decamped, taking with them all they possessed and a littlemore, and leaving us without any small boat in which to land. I immediately told myAmboyna men to load and fire the muskets as a signal of distress, which was soonanswered by the village chief sending off a boat, which took me on shore. I requestedthat messengers should be immediately sent to the neighbouring villages in quest of thefugitives, which was promptly done. My prau was brought into a small creek, where itcould securely rest in the mud at low water, and part of a house was given me in whichT could stay for a while. I now found my progress again suddenly checked, just when Ithought I had overcome my chief difficulties. As I had treated my men with the greatestkindness, and had given them almost everything they had asked for, I can impute theirrunning away only to their being totally unaccustomed to the restraint of a Europeanmaster, and to some undefined dread of my ultimate intentions regarding them. The

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SAGO CLUB

oldest man was an opium smoker, and a reputed thief, but I had been obliged to takehim at the last moment as a substitute for another. I feel sure it was he who induced theothers to run away, and as they knew the country well, and had several hours' start ofus, there was little chance of catching them. We were here in the great sago district of East Ceram which supplies most of thesurrounding islands with their daily bread, and during our week's delay I had anopportunity of seeing the whole process of making it, and obtaining some interestingstatistics. The sago tree is a palm, thicker and larger than the cocoa-nut tree, althoughrarely so tall, and having immense pinnate spiny leaves, which completely cover thetrunk till it is many years old. It has a creeping root-stem like the Nipa palm, and whenabout ten or fifteen years of age sends up an immense terminal spike of flowers, afterwhich the tree dies. It grows in swamps, or in swampy hollows on the rocky slopes ofhills, where it seems to thrive equally well as when exposed to the influx of salt orbrackish water. The midribs of the immense leaves form one of the most useful articlesin these lands, supplying the place of bamboo, to which for many purposes they aresuperior. They are twelve or fifteen feet long, and, when very fine, as thick in the lowerpart as a man's leg. They are very light, consisting entirely of a firm pith covered with ahard 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 ofequal size, and pegged together side by side to fill up the panels of framed woodenhorses, they have a very neat appearance, and make better walls and partitions thanboards, as they do not shrink, require no paint or varnish, and are not a quarter theexpense. When carefully split and shaved smooth they are formed into light boardswith 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 whencovered with stout paper inside and out, are strong, light, and secure the insect-pinsremarkably well. The leaflet of the sago folded and tied side by side on the smallermidribs form the "atap "or thatch in universal use, while the product of the trunk is thestaple food of some= hundred thousands of men. When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just before it is going toflower. It is cut down close to the ground, the leaves and leafstalks cleared away, and abroad strip of the bark taken off the upper side of the trunk. This exposes the pithymatter, 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 orbroken down into a coarse powderby means of a tool constructed forthe purpose--a club of hard andheavy wood, having a piece of sharpquartz rock firmly imbedded into itsblunt end, and projecting about halfan 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, thewhole trunk is cleared out, leaving a skin not more than half an inch in thickness. Thismaterial is carried away (in baskets made of the sheathing bases of the leaves) to thenearest water, where a washing-machine is put up, which is composed almost entirelyof the saga tree itself. The large sheathing bases of the leaves form the troughs, and thefibrous covering from the leaf-stalks of the young cocoa-nut the strainer. Water ispoured on the mass of pith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till thestarch 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 atrough, with a depression in the centre, where the sediment is deposited, the surpluswater trickling off by a shallow outlet. When the trough is nearly full, the mass of

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SAGO OVEN

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.

SAGO WASHING

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, bybaking it into cakes in a small clay oven containing six or eight slits side by side, eachabout three-quarters of an inch wide, and six or eight inches square. The raw sago isbroken up, dried in the sun,powdered, and finely sifted. Theoven is heated over a clear fire ofembers, and is lightly filled with thesago-powder. The openings are thencovered with a flat piece of sagobark, and in about five minutes thecakes are turned out sufficientlybaked. The hot cakes are very nicewith butter, and when made with theaddition of a little sugar and gratedcocoa-nut are quite a delicacy. Theyare soft, and something like corn-flour cakes, but leave a slightcharacteristic flavour which is lostin the refined sago we use in this country. When not wanted for immediate use, theyare dried for several days in the sun, and tied up in bundles of twenty. They will thenkeep for years; they are very hard, and very rough and dry, but the people are used tothem from infancy, and little children may be seen gnawing at them as contentedly asours with their bread-and-butter. If dipped in water and then toasted, they becomealmost as good as when fresh baked; and thus treated they were my daily substitute forbread 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

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long and four or five in circumference, converted into food with so little labour andpreparation. A good-sized tree will produce thirty tomans or bundles of thirty poundseach, and each toman will make sixty cakes of three to the pound. Two of these cakesare as much as a man can eat at one meal, and five are considered a full day'sallowance; so that, reckoning a tree to produce 1,800 cakes, weighing 600 pounds, itwill supply a man with food for a whole year. The labour to produce this is verymoderate. Two men will finish a tree in five days, and two women will bake the wholeinto cakes in five days more; but the raw sago will keep very well, and can be baked aswanted, so that we may estimate that in ten days a man may produce food for thewhole year. This is on the supposition that he possesses sago trees of his own, for theyare now all private property. If he does not, he has to pay about seven and sixpence forone; and as labour here is five pence a day, the total cost of a year's food for one manis 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 iscultivated. Many of the people here have neither vegetables nor fruit, but live almostentirely on sago and a little fish. Having few occupations at home, they wander abouton petty trading or fishing expeditions to the neighbouring islands; and as far as thecomforts of life are concerned, are much inferior to the wild hill-Dyaks of Borneo, orto many of the more barbarous tribes of the Archipelago. The country round Warus-warus is low and swampy, and owing to the absence ofcultivation there were scarcely any paths leading into the forest. I was therefore unableto collect much during my enforced stay, and found no rare birds or insects to improvemy opinion of Ceram as a collecting ground. Finding it quite impossible to get menhere to accompany me on the whole voyage, I was obliged to be content with a crew totake me as far as Wahai, on the middle of the north coast of Ceram, and the chief Dutchstation 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 asingle addition to my collections worth naming. At Wahai, which I reached on the 15thof June, I was hospitably received by the Commandant and my old friend HerrRosenberg, who was now on an official visit here. He lent me some money to pay mymen, and I was lucky enough to obtain three others willing to make the voyage with meto 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, anxiouslyexpecting 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 thePapuan race, and was an eventful and disastrous one, I will narrate its chief incidents ina separate chapter in that division of my work devoted to the Papuan Islands. I nowhave to pass over a year spent in Waigiou and Timor, in order to describe my visit tothe 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 ofCeram, and of which scarcely anything appeared to be known to naturalists, except thatit contained a babirusa very like that of Celebes. I therefore made arrangements for

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staying there two months after leaving Timor Delli in 1861. This I could convenientlydo by means of the Dutch mail-steamers, which make a monthly round of theMoluccas. We arrived at the harbour of Cajeli on the 4th of May; a gun was fired, theCommandant of the fort came alongside in a native boat to receive the post-packet, andtook me and my baggage on shore, the steamer going off again without coming to ananchor. 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 appearanceof the village was very far superior to that of Delli, which possesses "His Excellencythe Governor," and the little fort, in perfect order, surrounded by neat brass- plots andstraight walks, although manned by only a dozen Javanese soldiers with an Adjutant forcommander, was a very Sebastopol in comparison with the miserable mud enclosure atDelli, with its numerous staff of Lieutenants, Captain, and Major. Yet this, as well asmost 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 aguide in search of a horse. The whole place was dreadfully damp and muddy, beingbuilt in a swamp with not a spot of ground raised a foot above it, and surrounded byswamps on every side. The houses were mostly well built, of wooden framework filledin with gaba-gaba (leaf-stems of the sago-palm), but as they had no whitewash, andthe floors were of bare black earth like the roads, and generally on the same level, theywere extremely damp and gloomy. At length I found one with the floor raised about afoot, and succeeded in making a bargain with the owner to turn out immediately, so thatby night I had installed myself comfortably. The chairs and tables were left for me; andas the whole of the remaining furniture in the house consisted of a little crockery and afew clothes-boxes, it was not much trouble for the owners to move into the house ofsome relatives, and thus obtain a few silver rupees very easily. Every foot of groundbetween the homes throughout the village is crammed with fruit trees, so that the sunand air have no chance of penetrating. This must be very cool and pleasant in the dryseason, but makes it damp and unhealthy at other times of the year. Unfortunately I hadcome two months too soon, for the rains were not yet over, and mud and water werethe prominent features of the country. About a mile behind and to the east of the village the hills commence, but they arevery barren, being covered with scanty coarse grass and scattered trees of the Melaleucacajuputi, from the leaves of which the celebrated cajeput oil is made. Such districts areabsolutely destitute of interest for the zoologist. A few miles further on rose highermountains, apparently well covered with forest, but they were entirely uninhabited andtrackless, and practically inaccessible to a traveller with limited time and means. Itbecame 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 wherehe said there were hills and forest, I sent my boy Ali with him to explore and report onthe capabilities of the district. At the same time I arranged to go myself on a littleexcursion up a river which flows into the bay about five miles north of the town, to avillage of the Alfuros, or indigenes, where I thought I might perhaps find a goodcollecting ground. The Rajah of Cajeli, a good-tempered old man, offered to accompany me, as thevillage was under his government; and we started one morning early, in a long narrowboat with eight rowers. In about two hours we entered the river, and commenced ourinland journey against a very powerful current. The stream was about a hundred yardswide, 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 andshrubs. At every bend we crossed the river to avoid the strength of the current, andarrived at our landing-place about four o'clock in a torrent of rain. Here we waited foran hour, crouching under a leaky mat till the Alfuros arrived who had been sent for

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from the village to carry my baggage, when we set off along a path of whose extrememuddiness I had been warned before starting. I turned up my trousers as high as possible, grasped a stoat stick to preventawkward falls, and then boldly plunged into the first mud-hole, which was immediatelysucceeded by another and another. The marl or mud and water was knee-deep withlittle intervals of firmer ground between, making progression exceedingly difficult. Thepath 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 gofloundering on, never knowing where our feet would rest, as the mud was now a fewinches, now two feet deep, and the bottom very uneven, so that the foot slid down tothe lowest part, and made it difficult to keep one's balance. One step would be upon aconcealed stick or log, almost dislocating the ankle, while the next would plunge intosoft mud above the knee. It rained all the way, and the long grass, six feet high, metover the path; so that we could not see a step of the way ahead, and received a doubledrenching. Before we got to the village it was dark, and we had to cross over a smallbut deep and swollen stream by a narrow log of wood, which was more than a footunder water. There was a slender shaking stick for a handrail, and it was nervous workfeeling in the dark in the rushing water for a safe place on which to place the advancedfoot. 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 lesssoaked. 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 theneighbourhood. The village had evidently been newly formed, and consisted of a singlestraight street of very miserable huts totally deficient in every comfort, and as bare andcheerless 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 andswampy ground. I made one attempt along the only path I could find, but soon cameupon a deep mud-hole, and found that I must walk barefoot if at all; so I returned anddeferred further exploration till after breakfast. I then went on into the jungle and foundpatches of sago-palms and a low forest vegetation, but the paths were everywhere fullof mud-holes, and intersected by muddy streams and tracts of swamp, so that walkingwas not pleasurable, and too much attention to one's steps was not favourable to insectcatching, which requires above everything freedom of motion. I shot a few birds, andcaught 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 formany miles in every direction, and I at once decided that Wayapo was not a suitableplace to stay at. The next morning early we waded back again through the mud andlong wet grass to our boat, and by mid-day reached Cajeli, where I waited Ali's returnto decide on my future movements. He came the following day, and gave a very badaccount of Pelah, where he had been. There was a little brush and trees along thebeach, and hills inland covered with high grass and cajuputi trees--my dread andabhorrence. On inquiring who could give me trustworthy information, I was referred tothe Lieutenant of the Burghers, who had travelled all round the island, and was a veryintelligent fellow. I asked him to tell me if he knew of any part of Bouru where therewas no "kusu-kusu," as the coarse grass of the country is called. He assured me that agood deal of the south coast was forest land, while along the north was almost entirelyswamp and grassy hills. After minute inquiries, I found that the forest countrycommenced at a place called Waypoti, only a few miles beyond Pelah, but that, as thecoast beyond that place was exposed to the east monsoon and dangerous for praus, itwas 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, toPelah, whence I was to proceed on foot, the Orang-kaya going the day before to call theAlfuros to carry my baggage.

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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 thesea, with occasional plunges of a mile or two into the interior. We found no village, butscattered houses and plantations, with hilly country pretty well covered with forest, andlooking rather promising. A low hut with a very rotten roof, showing the sky through inseveral places, was the only one I could obtain. Luckily it did not rain that night, andthe next day we pulled down some of the walls to repair the roof, which was ofimmediate importance, especially over our beds and table. About half a mile from the house was a fine mountain stream, running swiftly overa bed of rocks and pebbles, and beyond this was a hill covered with fine forest. Bycarefully picking my way I could wade across this river without getting much above myknees, 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. Unfortunatelythere were no paths here of any extent, and it did not prove very productive either ininsects or birds. To add to my difficulties I had stupidly left my only pair of stronghoots on board the steamer, and my others were by this time all dropping to pieces, sothat 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 manyof the best kinds of insects, I determined to make one myself, and with much difficultyengaged two men to clear a patch of forest, from which I hoped to obtain many finebeetles before I left. During the whole of my stay, however, insects never became plentiful. My clearingproduced me a few fine, longicorns and Buprestidae, different from any I had beforeseen, 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 210different kinds of beetles during my two months' stay at Bourn, while in three weeks atAmboyna, in 1857, I found more than 300 species: One of the finest insects found atBouru was a large Cerambyx, of a deep shining chestnut colour, and with very longantennae. It varied greatly in size, the largest specimens being three inches long, whilethe 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 walkingthrough some high grass, and stepped on something which he took for a small fallentree, but it felt cold and yielding to his feet, and far to the right and left there was awaving 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 treebeing dragged along through the grass. As he lead several times already shot largesnakes, which he declared were all as nothing compared with this, I am inclined tobelieve it must really have been a monster. Such creatures are rather plentiful here, fora man living close by showed me on his thigh the marks where he bad been seized byone close to his house. It was big enough to take the man's thigh in its mouth, and hewould probably have been killed and devoured by it had not his cries brought out hisneighbours, who destroyed it with their choppers. As far as I could make out it wasabout twenty feet long, but Ali's was probably much larger. It sometimes amuses me to observe how, a few days after I have taken possessionof it, a native hut seems quite a comfortable home. My house at Waypoti was a bareshed, with a large bamboo platform at one side. At one end of this platform, which waselevated about three feet, I fixed up my mosquito curtain, and partly enclosed it with alarge Scotch plaid, making a comfortable little sleeping apartment. I put up a rude tableon legs buried in the earthen floor, and had my comfortable rattan- chair for a seat. Aline across one corner carried my daily- washed cotton clothing, and on a bamboo shelfwas arranged my small stock of crockery and hardware: Boxes were ranged against thethatch walls, and hanging shelves, to preserve my collections from ants while drying,

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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 unsolvedmysteries to the native mind. Most of the people here had never seen a pin, and the better informed took a pridein teaching their more ignorant companions the peculiarities and uses of that strangeEuropean production--a needle with a head, but no eye! Even paper, which we throwaway hourly as rubbish, was to them a curiosity; and I often saw them picking up littlescraps which had been swept out of the house, and carefully putting them away in theirbetel-pouch. Then when I took my morning coffee and evening tea, how many werethe strange things displayed to them! Teapot, teacups, teaspoons, were all more or lesscurious in their eyes; tea, sugar, biscuit, and butter, were articles of humanconsumption 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-sugaror molasses of native manufacture; and the biscuit is considered a sort of Europeansago-cake, which the inhabitants of those remote regions are obliged to use in theabsence of the genuine article. My pursuit, were of course utterly beyond theircomprehension. They continually asked me what white people did with the birds andinsects I tools so much care to preserve. If I only kept what was beautiful, they mightperhaps comprehend it; but to see ants and files and small ugly insects put away socarefully was a great puzzle to them, and they were convinced that there must be somemedical or magical use for them which I kept a profound secret. These people were infact as completely unacquainted with civilized life as the Indians of the RockyMountains, or the savages of Central Africa- -yet a steamship, that highest triumph ofhuman ingenuity, with its little floating epitome of European civilization, touchesmonthly at Cajeli, twenty miles off; while at Amboyna, only sixty miles distant, aEuropean population and government have been established for more than threehundred years. Having seen a good many of the natives of Bouru from different villages, and fromdistant parts of the island, I feel convinced that they consist of two distinct races nowpartially amalgamated. The larger portion are Malays of the Celebes type, often exactlysimilar to the Tomóre people of East Celebes, whom I found settled in Batchian; whileothers altogether resemble the Alfuros of Ceram. The influx of two races can easily be accounted for. The Sula Islands, which areclosely connected with East Celebes, approach to within forty miles of the north coastof Bouru, while the island of Manipa offers an easy point of departure for the people ofCeram. I was confirmed in this view by finding that the languages of Bouru possesseddistinct 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 thegenus Pitta, which I was very anxious to obtain, as in almost every island the speciesare different, and none were yet known from Bourn. He and my other hunter continuedto see it two or three times a week, and to hear its peculiar note much oftener, but couldnever 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 itwould be difficult to avoid blowing the bird to pieces. Ali was very much annoyed thathe 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 ofhis own accord one evening to sleep at a little but in the forest some miles off, in orderto have a last try for it at daybreak, when many birds come out to feed, and are veryintent 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 thePitta celebensis, but ornamented with a square patch of bright red on the nape of theneck. The next day after securing this prize we returned to Cajeli, and packing up my

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collections left Bouru by the steamer. During our two days' stay at Ternate, I took onboard what baggage I had left there, and bade adieu to all my friends. We then crossedover 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; forout of sixty-six species of birds which I collected there, no less than seventeen werenew, or had not been previously found in any island of the Moluccas. Among thesewere two kingfishers, Tanysiptera acis and Ceyx Cajeli; a beautiful sunbird, Nectarinesproserpina; a handsome little black and white flycatcher, Monarcha loricata, whoseswelling throat was beautifully scaled with metallic blue; and several of less interest. Ialso obtained a skull of the babirusa, one specimen of which was killed by nativehunters 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 twoformer being each about two hundred miles long; and a great number of smaller islesand islets, the most important of which are Batchian, Morty, Obi, Ke, Timor-Laut, andAmboyna; and among the smaller ones, Ternate, Tidore, Kaióa, and Banda. Theyoccupy a space of ten degrees of latitude by eight of longitude, and they are connectedby 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 thesemain features of extent and geographical position, while we survey their animalproductions and discuss their relations to the countries which surround them on everyside in almost equal proximity. We will first consider the Mammalia or warm-blooded quadrupeds, which presentus 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 theother hand, are numerous--not less than twenty-five species being already known. Buteven this exceeding poverty of terrestrial mammals does not at all represent the realpoverty of the Moluccas in this class of animals; for, as we shall soon see, there is goodreason to believe that several of the species have been introduced by man, eitherpurposely 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 animalsof Celebes. This is found only in the island of Batchian; and it seems so much out ofplace there as it is difficult to imagine how it could have reached the island by anynatural means of dispersal, and yet not have passed by the same means over the narrowstrait to Gilolo--that it seems more likely to have originated from some individualswhich had escaped from confinement, these and similar animals being often kept aspets by the Malays, and carried about in their praus. Of all the carnivorous animals of the Archipelago the only one found in theMoluccas is the Viverra tangalunga, which inhabits both Batchian and Bouru, andprobably come of the other islands. I am inclined to think that this also may have beenintroduced accidentally, for it is often made captive by the Malays, who procure civetfrom 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 thecustom in the Philippines in 1602. He says that "the natives of Mindanao carry aboutcivet-cats in cages, and sell them in the islands; and they take the civet from them, and

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let them go again." The same species is common in the Philippines and in all the largeislands of the Indo-Malay region. The only Moluccan ruminant is a deer, which was once supposed to be a distinctspecies, but is now generally considered to be a slight variety of the Rusa hippelaphusof Java. Deer are often tamed and petted, and their flesh is so much esteemed by allMalays, that it is very natural they should endeavour to introduce them into the remoteislands in which they settled, and whose luxuriant forests seem so well adapted for theirsubsistence. The strange babirusa of Celebes is also found in Bouru; but in no other Moluccanisland, and it is somewhat difficult to imagine how it got there. It is true that there issome approximation between the birds of the Sula Islands (where the babirusa is alsofound) and those of Bouru, which seems to indicate that these islands have recentlybeen closer together, or that some intervening land has disappeared. At this time thebabirusa 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 inmany cases the species are peculiar. It is evident, therefore, that they have some naturalmeans of dispersal. There is a popular idea that pigs cannot swim, but Sir Charles Lyellhas 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 ableto swim with great ease and swiftness. I have myself seen a wild pig swimming acrossthe arm of the sea that separates Singapore from the Peninsula of Malacca, and we thushave explained the curious fact, that of all the large mammals of the Indian region, pigsalone extend beyond the Moluccas and as far as New Guinea, although it is somewhatcurious 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 beenaccidentally conveyed in native praus. This completes the list of the placental mammals which are so characteristic of theIndian region; and we see that, with the single exception of the pig, all may veryprobably have been introduced by man, since all except the pig are of species identicalwith 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 nativesof the Moluccas, since they are either of peculiar species, or if found elsewhere arenatives 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 inappearance, but belonging to the marsupial order. The other three are species of thecurious genus Cuscus, which is peculiar to the Austro-Malayan region. These areopossum-like animals, with a long prehensile tail, of which the terminal half isgenerally 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 ashybrown with or without white spots. They live in trees, feeding upon the leaves, of whichthey devour large quantities, they move about slowly, and are difficult to kill, owing tothe thickness of their fur, and their tenacity of life. A heavy charge of shot will oftenlodge in the slain and do them no harm, and even breaking the spine or piercing thebrain will not kill them for some hours. The natives everywhere eat their flesh, and astheir motions are so slow, easily catch them by climbing; so that it is wonderful theyhave not been exterminated. It may be, however, that their dense woolly fur protectsthem from birds of prey, and the islands they live in are too thinly inhabited for man tobe able to exterminate them. The figure represents Cuscus ornatus, a new speciesdiscovered by me in Batchian, and which also inhabits Ternate. It is peculiar to theMoluccas, while the two other species which inhabit Ceram are found also in NewGuinea and Waigiou.

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CUSCUS ORNATUS

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 atpresent known from the various islands of the Molluccan group is 265, but of theseonly 70 belong to the usually abundant tribes of the waders and swimmers, indicatingthat these are very imperfectly known. As they are also pre-eminently wanderers, andare 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 195land birds. When we consider that all Europe, with its varied climate and vegetation, withevery mile of its surface explored, and with the immense extent of temperate Asia andAfrica, which serve as storehouses, from which it is continually recruited, only supports25l species of land birds as residents or regular immigrants, we must look upon thenumbers already procured in the small and comparatively unknown islands of theMoluccas as indicating a fauna of fully average richness in this department. But whenwe come to examine the family groups which go to make up this number, we find themost 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 toonly _one- twentieth_ in the latter country. On the other hand, such wide- spreadgroups 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

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almost entirely derived from that of New Guinea, in which country the same deficiencyand the same luxuriance is to be observed. Out of the seventy-eight genera in which theMoluccan land-birds may be classed, no less than seventy are characteristic of YewGuinea, while only six belong specially to the Indo-Malay islands. But this closeresemblance to New Guinea genera does not extend to the species, for no less than 140out of the 195 land-birds are peculiar to the Moluccan islands, while 32 are found alsoin New Guinea, and 15 in the Indo-Malay islands. [footnote: A few species have beenadded in Bouru, Obi, Batchian, and other of the less known islands, by Mr. H.O.Forbes, Dr. Guillemard, and the Dutch and German naturalists, but they only slightlyalter the figures, and do not at all affect the conclusions here drawn.] These facts teachus, that though the birds of this group have evidently been derived mainly from NewGuinea, yet the immigration has not been a recent one, since there has been time forthe greater portion of the species to have become changed. We find, also, that manyvery characteristic New Guinea forms lave not entered the Moluccas at all, while othersfound 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 theconclusion that these islands are not fragments which have been separated from NewGuinea, but form a distinct insular region, which has been upheaved independently at arather remote epoch, and during all the mutations it has undergone has been constantlyreceiving immigrants from that great and productive island. The considerable length oftime the Moluccas have remained isolated is further indicated by the occurrence of twopeculiar 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 ofCeram, including also Bouru. Amboyna, Banda, and Ke; and that of Gilolo, includingMorty, Batchian, Obi, Ternate, and other small islands. These divisions have each aconsiderable number of peculiar species, no less than fifty-five being found in theCeram group only; and besides this, most of the separate islands have some speciespeculiar to themselves. Thus Morty island has a peculiar kingfisher, honeysucker, andstarling; Ternate has a ground-thrush (Pitta) and a flycatcher; Banda has a pigeon, ashrike, and a Pitta; Ké has two flycatchers, a Zosterops, a shrike, a king-crow and acuckoo; and the remote Timor-Laut, which should probably come into the Moluccangroup, has a cockatoo and lory as its only known birds, and both are of peculiarspecies. [footnote: Mr. H.O. Forbes visited these islands in 1882, and obtained a finecollection of birds which now amount to eighty species. Of these sixty-two are land-birds, and twenty-six of these are peculiar to the island. Their affinities are chiefly withthe Moluccas and New Guinea, but to some extent also with Timor and Australia. (SeeForbes' Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, p.355.) The butterfliescollected by Mr. Forbes show similar affinities, but tending tmore towards Timor andAustralia, due probably to the more immediate dependence of butterflies on vegetation. The Moluccas are especially rich in the parrot tribe, no less than twenty-twospecies, belonging to ten genera, inhabiting them. Among these is the large red-crestedcockatoo, so commonly seen alive in Europe, two handsome red parrots of the genusEclectus, and five of the beautiful crimson lories, which are almost exclusivelyconfined to these islands and the New Guinea group. The pigeons are hardly lessabundant or beautiful, twenty- one species being known, including twelve of thebeautiful green fruit pigeons, the smaller kinds of which are ornamented with the mostbrilliant patches of colour on the head and the under- surface. Next to these come thekingfishers, including sixteen species, almost all of which are beautiful, end many areamong the most brilliantly-coloured birds that exist. One of the most curious groups of birds, the Megapodii, or mound- makers, is veryabundant 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 andstrong feet and long claws. They are allied to the "Maleo" of Celebes, of which anaccount has already been given, but they differ in habits, most of these birds

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frequenting the scrubby jungles along the sea-shore, where the soil is sandy, and thereis a considerable quantity of debris, consisting of sticks, shells, seaweed, leaves, &c. Ofthis rubbish the Megapodius forms immense mounds, often six or eight feet high andtwenty 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 quantityof material. In the centre of this mound, at a depth of two or three feet, the eggs aredeposited, and are hatched by the gentle heat produced by the fermentation of thevegetable matter of the mound. When I first saw these mounds in the island ofLombock, I could hardly believe that they were made by such small birds, but Iafterwards met with them frequently, and have once or twice come upon the birdsengaged in making them. They run a few steps backwards, grasping a quantity of loosematerial in one foot, and throw it a long way behind them. When once properly buriedthe eggs seem to be no more cared for, the young birds working their way up throughthe heap of rubbish, and running off at once into the forest. They come out of the eggcovered with thick downy feathers, and have no tail, although the wings are fulldeveloped. I was so fortunate as to discover a new species (Megapodius wallacei), whichinhibits Gilolo, Ternate, and Bouru. It is the handsomest bird of the genus, being richlybanded with reddish brown on the back and wings; and it differs from the other speciesin its habits. It frequents the forests of the interior, and comes down to the sea-beach todeposit its eggs, but instead of making a mound, or scratching a hole to receive them, itburrows into the sand to the depth of about three feet obliquely downwards, anddeposits its eggs at the bottom. It then loosely covers up the mouth of the hole, and issaid by the natives to obliterate and disguise its own footmarks leading to and from thehole, by making many other tracks and scratches in the neighbourhood. It lays its eggsonly at night, and at Bouru a bird was caught early one morning as it was coming out ofits 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 beforedaybreak in the morning. The eggs are all of a rusty red colour, and very large for thesize of the bird, being generally three or three and a quarter inches long, by two or twoand a quarter wide. They are very good eating, and are much sought after by thenatives. Another large and extraordinary bird is the Cassowary, which inhabits the island ofCeram only. It is a stout and strong bird, standing five or six feet high, and coveredwith long coarse black hair-like feathers. The head is ornamented with a large hornycalque or helmet, and the bare skin of the neck is conspicuous with bright blue and redcolours. The wings are quite absent, and are replaced by a group of horny black spineslike blunt porcupine quills. These birds wander about the vast mountainous forests that cover the island ofCeram, feeding chiefly on fallen fruits, and on insects or crustacea. The female laysfrom three to five large and beautifully shagreened green eggs upon a bed of leaves, themale and female sitting upon them alternately for about a month. This bird is thehelmeted cassowary (Casuarius galeatus) of naturalists, and was for a long time theonly 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" amongbirds, 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 ofthe first volume of this work, I have described a butterfly which, when at rest, soclosely resembles a dead leaf, that it thereby escape the attacks of its enemies. This istermed a "protective resemblance." If however the butterfly, being itself savoury morselto birds, had closely resembled another butterfly which was disagreeable to birds, andtherefore 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

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the object of these curious external imitations of one insect by another belonging to adistinct genus or family, and sometimes even to a distinct order. The clear- wingedmoth which resemble wasps and hornets are the best examples of "mimicry" in ourown country. For a long time all the known cases of exact resemblance of one creature to quite adifferent one were confined to insects, and it was therefore with great pleasure that Idiscovered 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 ahoneysucker named Tropidorhynchus bouruensis, and the other a kind of oriole, whichhas been called Mimeta bouruensis. The oriole resembles the honeysucker in thefollowing particulars: the upper and under surfaces of the two birds are exactly of thesame tints of dark and light brown; the Tropidorhynchus has a large bare black patchround the eyes; this is copied in the Mimeta by a patch of black feathers. The top of thehead of the Tropidorhynchus has a scaly appearance from the narrow scale-formedfeathers, which are imitated by the broader feathers of the Mimeta having a dusky linedown each. The Tropidorhynchus has a pale ruff formed of curious recurved featherson the nape (which has given the whole genus the name of Friar birds); this isrepresented in the Mimeta by a pale band in the same position. Lastly, the bill of theTropidorhynchus is raised into a protuberant keel at the base, and the Mimeta has thesame character, although it is not a common one in the genus. The result is, that on asuperficial examination the birds are identical, although they leave important structuraldifferences, 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 TheTropidorhynchus subcornutus is of an earthy brown colour, washed with ochreishyellow, with bare orbits, dusky: cheeks, and the usual recurved nape-ruff: The Mimetaforsteni which accompanies it, is absolutely identical in the tints of every part of thebody, 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, andwhich the copy. The honeysuckers are coloured in a manner which is very general inthe whole family to which they belong, while the orioles seem to have departed fromthe gay yellow tints so common among their allies. We should therefore conclude that itis the latter who mimic the former. If so, however, they must derive some advantagefrom the imitation, and as they are certainly weak birds, with small feet and claws, theymay require it. Now the Tropidorhynchi are very strong and active birds, havingpowerful grasping claws, and long, curved, sharp beaks. They assemble together ingroups and small flocks, and they haw a very loud bawling note which can be heard ata great distance, and serves to collect a number together in time of danger. They arevery 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 bemistaken 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 supposingany 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 wholeprocess. The insects of the Moluccas are pre-eminently beautiful, even when compared withthe varied and beautiful productions of other parts of the Archipelago. The grand bird-winged butterflies (Ornithoptera) here reach their maximum of size and beauty, andmany 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 grandinsects 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,

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and gambrisius; one of the handsomest Pieridae, Iphias leucippe; the largest of theDanaidae, Hestia idea; and two unusually large and handsome Nymphalidae--Diademapandarus, and Charaxes euryalus. Among its beetles are the extraordinary Euchiruslongimanus, whose enormous legs spread over a space of eight inches, and an unusualnumber of large and handsome Longicorns, Anthribidae, and Buprestidae.

MOLUCCAN BEATLESXenocerus semiluctuosus, fem. - - Arachnobas - - Eupholus (new species).

Xenocerus (new species), male - - (new species) - - Euchirus longimanus, male.

The beetles figured on the plate as characteristic of the Moluccas are: 1. A smallspecimen of the Euchirus longimanus, or Long-armed Chafer, which has been alreadymentioned in the account of my residence at Amboyna (Chapter XX.). The female hasthe fore legs of moderate length. 2. A fine weevil, (an undescribed species ofEupholus,) of rich blue and emerald green colours, banded with black. It is a native ofCeram 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 onfallen trunks and stumps in Ceram and Amboyna. 4. An undescribed species ofXenocerus; a male, with very long and curious antenna, and elegant black and whitemarkings. It is found on fallen trunks in Batchian. 5. An undescribed species ofArachnobas, a curious genus of weevils peculiar to the Moluccas and New Guinea, andremarkable for their long legs, and their habit of often sitting on leaves, and turningrapidly round the edge to the under-surface when disturbed. It was found in Gilolo. Allthese insects are represented of the natural size. Like the birds, the insects of the Moluccas show a decided affinity with those ofNew Guinea rather than with the productions of the great western islands of theArchipelago, but the difference in form and structure between the productions of theeast and west is not nearly so marked here as in birds. This is probably due to the moreimmediate dependence of insects on climate and vegetation, and the greater facilitiesfor their distribution in the varied stages of egg, pupa, and perfect insect. This has ledto a general uniformity in the insect-life of the whole Archipelago, in accordance withthe general uniformity of its climate and vegetation; while on the other hand the greatsusceptibility of the insect organization to the action of external conditions has led toinfinite detailed modifications of form and colour, which have in many cases given a

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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 mostgorgeous plumage, and to the numbers of very large and showy butterflies which arealmost everywhere to be met with, the forests of the Moluccas offer to the naturalist avery striking example of the luxuriance and beauty of animal life in the tropics. Yet thealmost entire absence of Mammalia, and of such wide-spread groups of birds aswoodpeckers, thrushes, jays, tits, and pheasants, must convince him that he is in a partof 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.

THE PAPUAN GROUP

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 setin. For nearly three months had beheld the sun rise daily above the palm-groves, mountto the zenith, and descend like a globe of fire into the ocean, unobscured for a singlemoment 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, warmand 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 forthree days and nights together; and the parched and fissured rice stubbles which duringthe dry weather had extended in every direction for miles around the town, werealready so flooded as to be only passable by boats, or by means of a labyrinth of pathson 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 Itherefore determined to seek some more favourable climate for collecting in during thatperiod, 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 thearchipelago. Rattans from Borneo, sandal-wood and bees'-was from Flores and Timor,tripang from the Gulf of Carpentaria, cajputi-oil from Bouru, wild nutmegs andmussoi-bark from New Guinea, are all to be found in the stores of the Chinese andBugis merchants of Macassar, along with the rice and coffee which are the chiefproducts of the surrounding country. More important than all these however is the tradeto Aru, a group of islands situated on the south-west coast of New Guinea, and ofwhich almost the whole produce comes to Macassar in native vessels. These islands arequite 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 gastronomicenjoyment of the Chinese. The trade to these islands has existed from very early times, and it is from themthat Birds of Paradise, of the two kinds known to Linnaeus were first brought The

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native vessels can only make the voyage once a year, owing to the monsoons. Theyleave Macassar in December or January at the beginning of the west monsoon, andreturn in July or August with the full strength of the east monsoon. Even by theMacassar people themselves, the voyage to the Aru Islands is looked upon as a ratherwild and romantic expedition, fall of novel sights and strange adventures. He who hasmade it is looked up to as an authority, and it remains with many the unachievedambition 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 butcourage to trust myself for a thousand miles' voyage in a Bugis prau, and for six orseven months among lawless traders and ferocious savages, I felt somewhat as I didwhen, a schoolboy, I was for the first time allowed to travel outside the stage-coach, tovisit 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 largepraus 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 wasgoing to leave behind during his absence. When we talked about passage money hewould fix no sum, but insisted on leaving it entirely to me to pay on my return exactlywhat I liked. "And then," said he, "whether you give me one dollar or a hundred, Ishall 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 theoutskirts of civilization. On the morning of December 13th, when we went on board atdaybreak, it was raining hard. We set sail and it came on to blow. Our boat was lostastern, 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 itimpossible to dry and repair the huge mat sails. All these dreary days I remained onboard, and during the rare intervals when it didn't rain, made myself acquainted withour outlandish craft, some of the peculiarities of which I will now endeavour todescribe. It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped something like a Chinesejunk. The deck sloped considerably downward to the bows, which are thus the lowestpart of the ship. There were two large rudders, but instead of being planed astern theywere hung on the quarters from strong cross beams, which projected out two or threefeet on each side, and to which extent the deck overhung the sides of the vesselamidships. The rudders were not hinged but hung with slings of rattan, the friction ofwhich keeps them in any position in which they are placed, and thus perhaps facilitatessteering. The tillers were not on deck, but entered the vessel through two squareopenings 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, whichforms the captain's cabin, its furniture consisting of boxes, mats, and pillows. In frontof the poop and mainmast was a little thatched house on deck, about four feet high tothe ridge; and one compartment of this, forming a cabin six and a half feet long by fiveand a half wide, I had all to myself, and it was the snuggest and most comfortable littleplace 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, pleasantlyelastic, raised six inches above the deck, so as to be quite dry. It was covered with finecane mats, for the manufacture of which Macassar is celebrated; against the furtherwall were arranged my guncase, insect-boxes, clothes, and books; my mattressoccupied the middle, and next the door were my canteen, lamp, and little store ofluxuries for the voyage; while guns, revolver, and hunting knife hung convenientlyfrom the roof. During these four miserable days I was quite jolly in this little snuggerymore so than I should have been if confined the same time to the gilded anduncomfortable saloon of a first-class steamer. Then, how comparatively sweet was

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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 andpalm thatch; pure vegetable fibres, which smell pleasantly if they smell at all, and recallquiet scenes in the green and shady forest. Our ship had two masts, if masts they can be called c which were great moveabletriangles. 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 ofyards and spars, mostly formed of bamboo. The mainyard, an immense affair nearly ahundred feet long, was formed of many pieces of wood and bamboo bound togetherwith 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 deckthe long end mounted high in the air, making up for the lowness of the mast itself. Theforesail was of the same shape, but smaller. Both these were of matting, and, with twojibs 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 adjacentcoasts 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 theywould 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 everysix hours. Then there was an old man, the "juragan," or captain, but who was reallywhat we should call the first mate; he occupied the other half of the little house ondeck. There were about ten respectable men, Chinese or Bugis, whom our owner usedto call "his own people." He treated them very well, shared his meals with them, andspoke to them always with perfect politeness; yet they were most of them a kind ofslave debtors, bound over by the police magistrate to work for him at mere nominalwages for a term of years till their debts were liquidated. This is a Dutch institution inthis part of the world, and seems to work well. It is a great boon to traders, who can donothing in these thinly- populated regions without trusting goods to agents and pettydealers, who frequently squander them away in gambling and debauchery. The lowerclasses are almost all in a chronic state of debt. The merchant trusts them again andagain, till the amount is something serious, when he brings them to court and has theirservices 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 positionunder 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 onethan that which we adopt, of effectually preventing a man from earning anythingtowards 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 upin Borneo, was my head man. He had already been with me a year, could turn his handto anything, and was quite attentive and trustworthy. He was a good shot, and fond ofshooting, 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 ofbuying 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 dollarof it. He had come on board with no clothes, no betel, or tobacco, or salt fish, all whichnecessary articles I was obliged to send Ali to buy for him. These two lads were aboutsixteen, I should suppose; the third was younger, a sharp little rascal named Baso, whohad been with me a month or two, and had learnt to cook tolerably. He was to fulfil theimportant office of cook and housekeeper, for I could not get any regular servants to goto such a terribly remote country; one might as well ask a chef de cuisine to go toPatagonia. On the fifth day that I had spent on board (Dec. 15th) the rain ceased, and final

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preparations were made for starting. Sails were dried and furled, boats were constantlycoming 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 friendsand relations, and at parting there was a general noserubbing (the Malay kiss), andsome tears shed. These were promising symptoms for our getting off the next day; andaccordingly, at three in the morning, the owner came on board, the anchor wasimmediately weighed, and by four we set sail. Just as we were fairly off and clear ofthe 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 allwishing 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 athousand miles to the far-famed Aru Islands. The wind continued light and variable all day, with a calm in the evening beforethe 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, andas I was standing by the bulwarks, I happened to spit over the side; one of the menbegged I would not do so just now, but spit on deck, as they were much afraid of thisplace. Not quite comprehending, I made him repeat his request, when, seeing he was inearnest, 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 bydoing it." Upon which I promised to be very careful. At sunset the good Mahometanson board all repeated a few words of prayer with a general chorus, reminding me of thepleasing and impressive "Ave. Maria" of Catholic countries. Dec. 20th. - At sunrise we were opposite the Bontyne mountain, said to be one ofthe highest in Celebes. In the afternoon we passed the Salayer Straits and had a littlesquall, which obliged us to lower our huge mast, sails, and heavy yards. The rest of theevening we had a fine west wind, which carried us on at near five knots an hour, asmuch as our lumbering old tub can possibly go. Dec. 21st. - A heavy swell from the south-west rolling us about mostuncomfortably. A steady wind was blowing however, and we got on very well. Dec. 22cd. - 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 returningfrom Bali to the, island of Goram overtook us. The nakoda (captain) was known to ourowner. They had been two years away, but were full of people, with several blackPapuans on board. At 6 P.M. we passed Wangiwangi, low but not flat, inhabited andsubject to Boutong. We had now fairly entered the Molucca Sea. After dark it was abeautiful sight to look down on our rudders, from which rushed eddying streams ofphosphoric light gemmed with whirling sparks of fire. It resembled (more nearly thananything 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-changingform and dancing motion. Dec. 23rd. - Fine red sunrise; the island we left last evening barely visible behindus. The Goram prau about a mile south of us. They have no compass, yet they havekept a very true course during the night. Our owner tells me they do it by the swell ofthe sea, the direction of which they notice at sunset, and sail by it during the night. Inthese seas they are never (in fine weather) more than two days without seeing land. Ofcourse adverse winds or currents sometimes carry them away, but they soon fall in withsome island, and there are always some old sailors on board who know it, and thencetake a new course. Last night a shark about five feet long was caught, and this morningit was cut up and cooked. In the afternoon they got another, and I had a little fried, andfound it firm and dry, but very palatable. In the evening the sun set in a heavy bank ofclouds, which, as darkness came on, assumed a fearfully black appearance. Accordingto custom, when strong wind or rain is expected, our large sails -were furled, and withtheir yards let down on deck, and a small square foresail alone kept up. The great mat

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sails are most awkward things to manage in rough weather. The yards which supportthem are seventy feet long, and of course very heavy, and the only way to furl thembeing to roll up the sail on the boom, it is a very dangerous thing to have them standingwhen overtaken by a squall. Our crew; though numerous enough for a vessel of 700instead of one of 70 tons, have it very much their own way, and there seems to beseldom 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 givetheir opinion, and half a dozen voices are heard giving orders, and there is such ashrieking 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 oreducation, we get on wonderfully well. There is no fighting or quarrelling, as therewould certainly be among the same number of Europeans with as little restraint upontheir actions, and there is scarcely any of that noise and excitement which might beexpected. 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, anotheris 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 byturns to watch in the bows and see after the braces and halyards of the great sails; thetwo 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 oftwo or three on the poop look after the trimming of the sails and call out the hours bythe water-clock. This is a very ingenious contrivance, which measures time well inboth rough weather and fine. It is simply a bucket half filled with water, in which floatsthe half of a well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. In the bottom of this shell is a very smallhole, 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 ofthe vessel that, exactly at the end of an hour, plump it goes to the bottom. The watchthen 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 hardlyvaried a minute from one hour to another, nor did the motion of the vessel have anyeffect upon it, as the water in the bucket of course kept level. It has a great advantagefor a rude people in being easily understood, in being rather bulky and easy to see, andin the final submergence being accompanied with a little bubbling and commotion ofthe water, which calls the attention to it. It is also quickly replaced if lost while inharbour. Our captain and owner I find to be a quiet, good-tempered man, who seems to geton very well with all about him. When at sea he drinks no wine or spirits, but indulgesonly in coffee and cakes, morning and afternoon, in company with his supercargo andassistants. He is a man of some little education, can read and write well both Dutch andMalay, 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 leftMacassar. 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 variousgay 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 thanthree or four feet above the surface of the water, which thus has a free entrance into thevessel. I of course had imagined that this open space from one side to the other wasseparated from the hold by a water-tight bulkhead, so that a sea entering might washout at the further side, and do no more harm than give the steersmen a drenching. Tomy surprise end dismay, however, I find that it is completely open to the hold, so thathalf-a-dozen seas rolling in on a stormy night would nearly, or quite, swamp us. Think

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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 ourcaptain says all praus are so; and though he acknowledges the danger, "he does notknow how to alter it--the people are used to it; he does not understand praus so well asthey do, and if such a great alteration were made, he should be sure to have difficultyin getting a crew!" This proves at all events that praus must be good sea-boats, for thecaptain has been continually making voyages in them for the last ten years, and says hehas 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 pitchand roll very uncomfortably. About nine o'clock, however, it cleared up, and we thensaw ahead of us the fine island of Bouru, perhaps forty or fifty miles distant, itsmountains wreathed with clouds, while its lower lands were still invisible. Theafternoon was fine, and the wind got round again to the west; but although this is reallythe west monsoon, there is no regularity or steadiness about it, calms and breezes fromevery point of the compass continually occurring. The captain, though nominally aProtestant, seemed to have no idea of Christmas-day as a festival. Our dinner was ofrice 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 approachedconsiderably. Our crew seem rather a clumsy lot. They do not walk the deck with theeasy swing of English sailors, but hesitate and stagger like landsmen. In the night thelower boom of our mainsail broke, and they were all the morning repairing it. Itconsisted of two bamboos lashed together, thick end to thin, and was about seventy feetlong. The rigging and arrangement of these praus contrasts strangely with that ofEuropean 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 quitedifferent; for though there are no shrouds or stays to complicate the matter, yet scarcelyanything can be done without first clearing something else out of the way. The largesails 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 toperform the same operation. Then there are always a lot of ropes foul of each other, andall the sails can never be set (though they are so few) without a good part of theirsurface having the wind kept out of them by others. Yet praus are much liked even bythose who have had European vessels, because of their cheapness both in first cost andin keeping up; almost all repairs can be done by the crew, and very few Europeanstores are required. Dec. 28th. - This day we saw the Banda group, the volcano first appearing,--aperfect cone, having very much the outline of the Egyptian pyramids, and lookingalmost as regular. In the evening the smoke rested over its summit like a smallstationary cloud. This was my first view of an active volcano, but pictures andpanoramas have so impressed such things on one's mind, that when we at length beholdthem they seem nothing extraordinary. Dec. 30th. - Passed the island of Teor, and a group near it, which are veryincorrectly marked on the charts. Flying-fish were numerous to-day. It is a smallerspecies than that of the Atlantic, and more active and elegant in its motions. As theyskim 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 candoubt that they really do fly, not merely descend in an oblique direction from the heightthey gain by their first spring. In the evening an aquatic bird, a species of booby (Sulafiber.) rested on our hen-coop, and was caught by the neck by one of my boys. Dec. 31st. - At daybreak the Ké Islands (pronounced Kay) were in sight, where weare to stay a few days. About noon we rounded the northern point, and endeavoured tocoast along to the anchorage; but being now on the leeward side of the island, the wind

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came in violent irregular gusts, and then leaving us altogether, we were carried back bya strong current. Just then two boats-load of natives appeared, and our owner havingagreed 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 placeon a rocky bottom, and we were engaged till nearly dark getting hawsers secured tosome rocks under water. The coast of Ké along which we had passed was verypicturesque. Light coloured limestone rocks rose abruptly from the water to the heightof several hundred feet, everywhere broken into jutting peaks and pinnacles, weather-worn into sharp points and honeycombed surfaces, and clothed throughout with a mostvaried 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 littlebays and inlets presented beaches of dazzling whiteness. The water was transparent ascrystal, and tinged the rock-strewn slope which plunged steeply into its unfathomabledepths 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 wasto me inexpressibly delightful. I was in a new world, and could dream of the wonderfulproductions hid in those rocky forests, and in those azure abysses. But few Europeanfeet had ever trodden the shores I gazed upon its plants, and animals, and men werealike almost unknown, and I could not help speculating on what my wanderings therefor a few days might bring to light.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE KÉ 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 nightfeet high, decorated with shells and waving plumes of cassowaries hair. I now had myfirst view of Papuans in their own country, and in less than five minutes was convincedthat the opinion already arrived at by the examination of a few Timor and New Guineaslaves was substantially correct, and that the people I now had an opportunity ofcomparing side by side belonged to two of the most distinct and strongly marked racesthat the earth contains. Had I been blind, I could have been certain that these islanderswere not Malays. The loud, rapid, eager tones, the incessant motion, the intense vitalactivity manifested in speech and action, are the very antipodes of the quiet,unimpulsive, unanimated Malay These Ké men came up singing and shouting, dippingtheir paddles deep in the water and throwing up clouds of spray; as they approachednearer they stood up in their canoes and increased their noise and gesticulations; and oncoming alongside, without asking leave, and without a moment's hesitation, the greaterpart of them scrambled up on our deck just as if they were come to take possession of acaptured vessel. Then commenced a scene of indescribable confusion. These fortyblack, naked, mop-headed savages seemed intoxicated with joy and excitement. Notone of them could remain still for a moment. Every individual of our crew was in turnsurrounded and examined, asked for tobacco or arrack, grinned at and deserted foranother. 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 inadvance. A few presents of tobacco made their eyes glisten; they would express their

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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 theycame 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 anyapproach be made to business. One would speak at a time, with a low voice and greatdeliberation, and the mode of making a bargain would be by quietly refusing all youroffers, or even going away without saying another word about the matter, unlessadvanced your price to what they were willing to accept. Our crew, many of whom hadnot made the voyage before, seemed quite scandalized at such unprecedented badmanners, and only very gradually made any approach to fraternization with the blackfellows. They reminded me of a party of demure and well-behaved children suddenlybroken in upon by a lot of wild romping, riotous boys, whose conduct seems mostextraordinary and very naughty. These moral features are more striking and moreconclusive of absolute diversity than oven the physical contrast presented by the tworaces, 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 ofquite a different type from that of the Malay, are what we cannot believe to result frommere climatal or other modifying influences on one and the same race. The Malay faceis of the Mongolian type, broad and somewhat flat. The brows are depressed, the mouthwide, but not projecting, and the nose small and well formed but for the great dilatationof the nostrils. The face is smooth, and rarely develops the trace of a beard; the hairblack, coarse, and perfectly straight. The Papuan, on the other hand, has a face whichwe 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 elongateddownwards, the ridge thick, and the nostrils large. It is an obtrusive and remarkablefeature in the countenance, the very reverse of what obtains in the Malay face. Thetwisted beard and frizzly hair complete this remarkable contrast. Hero then I hadreached 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 Ihad now entered, we may fairly say that there is as much difference, both moral andphysical, as between the red Indians of South America and the negroes of Guinea onthe opposite side of the Atlantic. Jan. 1st, 1857. - This has been a day of thorough enjoyment. I have wandered inthe forests of an island rarely seen by Europeans. Before daybreak we left ouranchorage, and in an hour reached the village of Har, where we were to stay three orfour days. The range of hills here receded so as to form a small bay, and they werebroken up into peaks and hummocks with intervening flats and hollows. A broad beachof the whitest sand lined the inner part of the bay, backed by a mass of cocoa-nutpalms, among which the huts were concealed, and surmounted by a dense and variedgrowth of timber. Canoes and boats of various sizes were drawn up on the beach andone or two idlers, with a few children and a dog, gazed at our prau as we came to ananchor. 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 variousstages of completion were placed at intervals along the beach. Our captain, who wantedtwo of moderate size for the trade among the islands at Aru, immediately beganbargaining 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 togive 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 anirregular rocky piece of ground overshadowed with cocoa-nuts, palms, bananas, andother fruit trees. The houses were very rude, black, and half rotten, raised a few feet on

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posts with low sides of bamboo or planks, and high thatched roofs. They had smalldoors and no windows, an opening under the projecting gables letting the smoke outand a little light in. The floors were of strips of bamboo, thin, slippery, and elastic, andso weak that my feet were in danger of plunging through at every step. Native boxes ofpandanus-leaves and slabs of palm pith, very neatly constructed, mats of the same, jarsand cooking pots of native pottery, and a few European plates and basins, were thewhole furniture, and the interior was throughout dark and smoke-blackened, and dismalin 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. Themost trodden path from the beach led us into a shady hollow, where the trees were ofimmense height and the undergrowth scanty. From the summits of these trees came atintervals a deep booming sound, which at first puzzled us, but which we soon found toproceed 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 whitecolour, with the back wings and tail intense metallic green, with golden, blue, andviolet 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 iscalled the nutmeg-pigeon, from its habit of devouring the fruits, the seed or nutmegbeing thrown up entire and uninjured. Though these pigeons have a narrow beak, yettheir jaws and throat are so extensible that they can swallow fruits of very large size. Ihad before shot a species much smaller than this one, which had a number of hardglobular 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 acrossmangrove and sago swamps the other rising to cultivated grounds. We thereforereturned, and taking a fresh departure from the village, endeavoured to ascend the hillsand penetrate into the interior. The path, however, was a most trying one. Where therewas earth, it was a deposit of reddish clay overlying the rock, and was worn so smoothby 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 andbroken, and so honeycombed and weatherworn into sharp points and angles, that myboys, who had gone barefooted all their lives, could not stand it. Their feet began tobleed, and I saw that if I did not want them completely lamed it would be wise to turnlack. My own shoes, which were rather thin, were but a poor protection, and wouldsoon have been cut to pieces; yet our little naked guides tripped along with the greatestease and unconcern, and seemed much astonished at our effeminacy in not being ableto take a walk which to them was a perfectly agreeable one. During the rest of our stayin the island we were obliged to confine ourselves to the vicinity of the shore and thecultivated grounds, and those more level portions of the forest where a little soil hadaccumulated and the rock had been less exposed to atmospheric action. The island of Ké (pronounced exactly as the letter K, but erroneously spelt in ourmaps Key or Ki) is long and narrow, running in a north and south direction, andconsists almost entirely of rock and mountain. It is everywhere covered with luxuriantforests, and in its bays and inlets the sand is of dazzling whiteness, resulting from thedecomposition of the coralline limestone of which it is entirely composed. In all thelittle swampy inlets and valleys sago trees abound, and these supply the mainsubsistence of the natives, who grow no rice, and have scarcely any other cultivatedproducts but cocoa-nuts, plantains, and yams. From the cocoa-nuts, which surroundevery hut, and which thrive exceedingly on the porous limestone soil and under theinfluence 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 andnative crockery. Wooden bowls, pans, and trays are also largely made here, hewn outof solid blocks of wood with knife and adze; and these are carried to all parts of the

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Moluccas. But the art in which the natives of Ké pre-eminently excel is that of boatbuilding. Their forests supply abundance of fine timber, though, probably not more sothan many other islands, and from some unknown causes these remote savages havecome to excel in what seems a very difficult art. Their small canoes are beautifullyformed, broad and low in the centre, but rising at each end, where they terminate inhigh-pointed beaks more or less carved, and ornamented with a plume of feathers. Theyare not hollowed out of a tree, but are regularly built of planks running from ego toend, and so accurately fitted that it is often difficult to find a place where a knife-bladecan be inserted between the joints. The larger ones are from 20 to 30 tons burthen, andare finished ready for sea without a nail or particle of iron being used, and with noother tools than axe, adze, and auger. These vessels are handsome to look at, goodsailers, and admirable sea-boats, and will make long voyages with perfect safety,traversing the whole Archipelago from New Guinea to Singapore in seas which, asevery one who has sailed much in them can testify, are not so smooth and tempest-freeas word- painting travellers love to represent them. The forests of Ké produce magnificent timber, tall, straight, and durable, of variousqualities, some of which are said to be superior to the best Indian teak. To make eachpair of planks used in the construction of the larger boats an entire tree is consumed. Itis felled, often miles away from the shore, cut across to the proper length, and thenhewn longitudinally into two equal portions. Each of these forms a plank by cuttingdown with the axe to a uniform thickness of three or four inches, leaving at first a solidblock at each end to prevent splitting. Along the centre of each plank a series ofprojecting pieces are left, standing up three or four inches, about the same width, and afoot long; these are of great importance in the construction of the vessel. When asufficient number of planks have been made, they are laboriously dragged through theforest by three or four men each to the beach, where the boat is to be built. Afoundation piece, broad in the middle and rising considerably at each end, is first laidon blocks and properly shored up. The edges of this are worked true and smooth withthe adze, and a plank, properly curved and tapering at each end, is held firmly upagainst it, while a line is struck along it which allows it to be cut so as to fit exactly. Aseries of auger holes, about as large as one's finger, are then bored along the oppositeedges, and pins of very hard wood are fitted to these, so that the two planks are heldfirmly, and can be driven into the closest contact; and difficult as this seems to dowithout any other aid than rude practical skill in forming each edge to the truecorresponding curves, and in poring the holes so as exactly to match both in positionand direction, yet so well is it done that the best European shipwright cannot producesounder or closer- fitting joints. The boat is built up in this way by fitting plank toplank till the proper height and width are obtained. We have now a skin held togetherentirely by the hardwood pins connecting the edges of the planks, very strong andelastic, 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 aresprung into slight notches cut to receive them, and are further secured to the projectingpieces of the plank below by a strong lashing of rattan. Ribs are now formed of singlepieces of tough wood chosen and trimmed so as exactly to fit on to the projectionsfrom each plank, being slightly notched to receive them, and securely bound to them byrattans 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 withpegs 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 ofthe principle of this mode of construction, and allowing for the strength and bindingqualities of rattan (which resembles in these respects wire rather than cordage), makesme believe that a vessel carefully built in this manner is actually stronger and safer thanone fastened in the ordinary way with nails. During our stay here we were all very busy. Our captain was daily superintending

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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 hisown account, till all available and most unavailable space of our vessel was occupiedwith these miscellaneous articles: for every man on board a prau considers himself atliberty 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 onlymedium of exchange, with tobacco for small coin. Every transaction is the subject of aspecial bargain, and the cause of much talking. It is absolutely necessary to offer verylittle, as the natives are never satisfied till you add a little more. They are then far betterpleased 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 collectinsects for me; and when they really found that I gave them most fragrant tobacco forworthless black and green beetles, I soon had scores of visitors, men, women, andchildren, bringing bamboos full of creeping things, which, alas! too frequently hadeaten each other into fragments during the tedium of a day's confinement. Of one grandnew beetle, glittering with ruby and emerald tints, I got a large quantity, having firstdetected one of its wing-cases ornamenting the outside of a native's tobacco pouch. Itwas quite a new species, and had not been found elsewhere than on this little island. Itis one of the Buprestidae, and has been named Cyphogastra calepyga. Each morning after an early breakfast I wandered by myself into the forest, where Ifound delightful occupation in capturing the large and handsome butterflies, whichwere tolerably abundant, and most of them new to me; for I was now upon the confinesof the Moluccas and New Guinea,--a region the productions of which were then amongthe most precious and rare in the cabinets of Europe. Here my eyes were feasted for thefirst time with splendid scarlet lories on the wing, as well as by the sight of that mostimperial butterfly, the "Priamus "of collectors, or a closely allied species, but flying sohigh that I did not succeed in capturing a specimen. One of them was brought me in abamboo, bored up with a lot of beetles, and of course torn to pieces. The principaldrawback of the place for a collector is the want of good paths, and the dreadfullyrugged character of the surface, requiring the attention to be so continually directed tosecuring a footing, as to make it very difficult to capture active winged things, whopass out of reach while one is glancing to see that the next step may not plunge oneinto a chasm or over a precipice. Another inconvenience is that there are no runningstreams, the rock being of so porous a nature that the surface- water everywherepenetrates its fissures; at least such is the character of the neighbourhood we visited, theonly water being small springs trickling out close to the sea-beach. In the forests of Ke, arboreal Liliaceae and Pandanaceae abound, and give acharacter to the vegetation in the more exposed rocky places. Flowers were scarce, andthere were not many orchids, but I noticed the fine white butterfly-orchis, Phalaenopsisgrandiflora, or a species closely allied to it. The freshness and vigour of the vegetationwas very pleasing, and on such an arid rocky surface was a sure indication of aperpetually humid climate. Tall clean trunks, many of them buttressed, and immensetrees of the fig family, with aerial roots stretching out and interlacing and mattedtogether 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 madethese wilds very pleasant to roam in, had it not been for the sharp honeycombed rocksalready alluded to. In damp places a fine undergrowth of broadleaved herbaceous plantswas found, about which swarmed little green lizards, with tails of the most "heavenlyblue," twisting in and out among the stalks and foliage so actively that I often caughtglimpses 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 redlories, who utter shrill screams like most of the parrot tribe, and the large greennutmeg-pigeon, whose voice is either a loud and deep boom, like two notes struck upon

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a very large gong, or sometimes a harsh toad-like croak, altogether peculiar andremarkable. Only two quadrupeds are said by the natives to inhabit the island--a wildpig 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 Europeancollections. Among them was the fine yellow and black Papilio euchenor, of which butfew specimens had been previously captured, and several other handsome butterflies oflarge 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. Onthe leaves of a slender shrub in an old clearing I found several fine blue and blackbeetles of the genus Eupholus, which almost rival in beauty- the diamond beetles ofSouth America. Some cocoa-nut palms in blossom on the beach were frequented by afine green floral beetle (Lomaptera which, when the flowers were shaken, flew off likea small swarm of bees. I got one of our crew to climb up the tree, and he brought me agood number in his hand; and seeing they were valuable, I sent him up again with mynet 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 havingbeen obtained from the natives, who told me they found it in rotten trees in themountains. In the forest itself the only common and conspicuous coleoptera were two tigerbeetles. One, Therates labiata, was much larger than our green tiger beetle, of a purpleblack colour, with green metallic glosses, and the broad upper lip of a bright yellow. Itwas always found upon foliage, generally of broad-leaned herbaceous plants, and indamp and gloomy situations, taking frequent short flights from leaf to leaf, andpreserving an alert attitude, as if always looking out for its prey. Its vicinity could beimmediately ascertained, often before it was seen, by a very pleasant odour, like otto ofroses, which it seems to emit continually, and which may probably be attractive to thesmall insects on which it feeds. The other, Tricondyla aptera, is one of the most curiousforms in the family of the Cicindelidae, and is almost exclusively confined to the Malayislands. In shape it resembles a very large ant, more than an inch long, and of a purpleblack 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, sothat it requires a sudden run and active fingers to secure a specimen. This species emitsthe usual fetid odour of the ground beetles. My collections during our four days' stay atKé 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 thePapuan characters strongly marked, and who are pagans; and a mixed race, who arenominally Mahometans, and wear cotton clothing, while the former use only a waistcloth of cotton or bark. These Mahometans are said to have been driven out of Bandaby the early European settlers. They were probably a brown race, more allied to theMalays, and their mixed descendants here exhibit great variations of colour, hair, andfeatures, graduating between the Malay and Papuan types. It is interesting to observethe influence of the early Portuguese trade with these countries in the words of theirlanguage, 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 theproper Malay terms. The Portuguese and Spaniards were truly wonderful conquerorsand colonizers. They effected more rapid changes in the countries they conquered thanany other nations of modern times, resembling the Romans in their power ofimpressing their own language, religion, and manners on rode and barbarous tribes. The striking contrast of character between these people and the Malays isexemplified in many little traits. One day when I was rambling in the forest, an old manstopped to look at me catching an insect. He stood very quiet till I had pinned and put itaway in my collecting box, when he could contain himself no longer, but bent almostdouble, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter. Every one will recognise this as a true

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negro trait. A Malay would have stared, and asked with a tone of bewilderment what Iwas doing, for it is but little in his nature to laugh, never heartily, and still less at or inthe presence of a stranger, to whom, however, his disdainful glances or whisperedremarks are less agreeable than the most boisterous open expression of merriment. Thewomen here were not so much frightened at strangers, or made to keep themselves somuch 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 theirexcitement on very ordinary occasions, are altogether removed from the generaltaciturnity and reserve of the Malay. The language of the Ké people consists of words of one, two, or three syllables inabout equal proportions, and has many aspirated and a few guttural sounds. Thedifferent villages have slight differences of dialect, but they are mutually intelligible,and, except in words that have evidently been introduced during a long-continuedcommercial 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 weleft the shores of Ké had a line view of its rugged and mountainous character; ranges ofhills, three or four thousand feet high, stretching southwards as far as the eye couldreach, everywhere covered with a lofty, dense, and unbroken forest. We had very lightwinds, and it therefore took us thirty hours to make the passage of sixty miles to thelow, or flat, but equally forest-covered Aru Islands, where we anchored in the harbourof Dobbo at nine in the evening of the next day. My first voyage in a prau being thus satisfactorily terminated, I must, before takingleave 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 othercraft, 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, tohaving my own servants to wait upon me, and to the absence of all those marine-storesmells 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 mymeals with him, but whenever I wished it I had them in my own berth, and at whathours I felt inclined. The crew were all civil and good-tempered, and with very littlediscipline everything went on smoothly, and the vessel was kept very clean and inpretty good order, so that on the whole I was much delighted with the trip, and wasinclined to rate the luxuries of the semi-barbarous prau as surpassing those of the mostmagnificent screw-steamer, that highest result of our civilisation.

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NATIVES OF ARU SHOOTING THE GREAT BIRD OF PARADISE

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 Bugisand Chinese, who annually visit the Aru Islands. It is situated on the small island ofWamma, upon a spit of sand which projects out to the north, and is just wide enough tocontain three rows of houses. Though at first sight a most strange and desolate-lookingplace to build a village on, it has many advantages. There is a clear entrance from thewest 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 fullyexposed to the sea-breezes in three directions it is healthy, and the soft sandy heathoffers great facilities for hauling up the praus, in order to secure them from sea-wormsand prepare them for the homeward voyage. At its southern extremity the sand-bankmerges 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 largethatched sheds, a small portion of which, next the entrance, is used as a dwelling, while

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the rest is parted oft; and often divided by one or two floors, in order better to stowaway merchandise and native produce. As we had arrived early in the season, most of the houses were empty, and theplace looked desolate in the extreme--the whole of the inhabitants who received us onour landing amounting to about half-a-dozen Bugis and Chinese. Our captain, HerrWarzbergen, had promised to obtain a house for me, but unforeseen difficultiespresented themselves. One which was to let had no roof; and the owner, who wasbuilding 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 possessionof as the first comer, wanted considerable repairs, and no one could be found to do thework, 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 ownerwas not expected for some weeks; and as I was anxious to be on shore, I immediatelyhad it cleared out, and by evening had all my things housed, and was regularly installedas 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 assofa 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 asmiserable and gloomy a shed as could be imagined, I felt as contented as if I hadobtained a well-furnished mansion, and looked forward to a month's residence in itwith unmixed satisfaction. The next morning, after an early breakfast, I set off to explore the virgin forests ofAru, anxious to set my mind at rest as to the treasures they were likely to yield, and theprobable 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 boyBaderoon brought his chopper to clear the path if necessary. We had to walk about half a mile along the beach, the ground behind the villagebeing mostly swampy, and then turned into the forest along a path which leads to thenative village of Wamma, about three miles off on the other side of the island. The pathwas a narrow one, and very little used, often swampy and obstructed by fallen trees, sothat after about a mile we lost it altogether, our guide having turned back, and we wereobliged to follow his example. In the meantime, however, I had not been idle, and myday'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 daysince leaving the prolific banks of the Amazon, and among them were many most rareand beautiful insects, hitherto only known by a few specimens from New Guinea. Thelarge and handsome spectre butterfly, Hestia durvillei; the pale-winged peacockbutterfly, Drusilla catops; and the most brilliant and wonderful of the clear-wingedmoths, Cocytia durvillei, were especially interesting, as well, as several little "blues,"equalling in brilliancy and beauty anything the butterfly world can produce. In the othergroups of insects I was not so successful, but this was not to be wondered at in a mereexploring 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 Ireturned 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 thesucceeding one the sun shone brightly, and I had the good fortune to capture one of themost magnificent insects the world contains, the great bird-winged butterfly,Ornithoptera Poseidon. I trembled with excitement as I saw it coming majesticallytowards me, and could hardly believe I had really succeeded in my stroke till I hadtaken it out of the net and was gazing, lost in admiration, at the velvet black andbrilliant green of its wings, seven inches across, its bolder body, and crimson breast. Itis true I had seen similar insects in cabinets at home, but it is quite another thing tocapture such oneself-to feel it struggling between one's fingers, and to gaze upon itsfresh and living beauty, a bright gem shirring out amid the silent gloom of a dark and

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tangled forest. The village of Dobbo held that evening at least one contented man.

DOBBO, IN THE TRADING SEASON

Jan. 26th. -- Having now been here a fortnight, I began to understand a little of theplace and its peculiarities. Praus continually arrived, and the merchant populationincreased almost daily. Every two or three days a fresh house was opened, and thenecessary 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 arrivalswere Macassar men or Bugis, but more from the small island of Goram, at the east endof Ceram, whose inhabitants are the petty traders of the far East. Then the natives ofAru come in from the other side of the islands (called here "blakang tana," or "back ofthe 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 theirown eyes the unheard-of phenomenon of a person come to stay at Dobbo who does nottrade! They have their own ideas of the uses that may possibly be made of stuffedbirds, beetles, and shells which are not the right shells--that is, "mother-of-pearl." Theyevery day bring me dead and broken shells, such as l can pick up by hundreds on thebeach, and seem quite puzzled and distressed when I decline them. If, however, thereare any snail shells among a lot, I take them, and ask for more--a principle of selectionso utterly unintelligible to them, that they give it up in despair, or solve the problem byimputing 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 chefingredient, 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- ridgedprominent 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-desertedstreets 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 beenrolled in mud and then thrown up the chimney; dried sharks' fins, mother-of-pearlshells, as well as birds of Paradise, which, however, are so dirty and so badly preservedthat I have as yet found no specimens worth purchasing. When I hardly look at the

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articles, and make no offer for them, they seem incredulous, and, as if fearing they havemisunderstood me, again offer them, and declare what they want in return--knives, ortobacco, or sago, or handkerchiefs. I then have to endeavour to explain, through anyinterpreter who may be at hand, that neither tripang nor pearl oyster shells have anycharms for me, and that I even decline to speculate in tortoiseshell, but that anythingeatable 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 goodquality, and to supply our daily wants it is absolutely necessary to be always providedwith four articles--tobacco, knives, sago-cakes, and Dutch copper doits-- because whenthe particular thing asked for is not forthcoming, the fish pass on to the next house, andwe may go that day without a dinner. It is curious to see the baskets and buckets usedhere. 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, formthe vessels in which fresh water is daily carried past my door. It is painful to anaturalist to see these splendid shells with their inner whorls ruthlessly broken away tofit them for their ignoble use. My collections, however, got on but slowly, owing to the unexpectedly badweather, violent winds with heavy showers having been so continuous as only to giveme four good collecting days out of the first sixteen I spent here. Yet enough had beencollected to show me that with time and fine weather I might expect to do somethinggood. 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 Guineaspecies, and therefore certainly rare in European collections, while the remainder wereprobably new. In one respect my hopes seemed doomed to be disappointed. I hadanticipated 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 inSeptember and October that they have the long plumes of yellow silky feathers in fullperfection. As all the praus return in July, I should not be able to spend that season inAru without remaining another whole year, which was out of the question. I wasinformed, however, that the small red species, the "King Bird of Paradise," retains itsplumage 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 possesssome 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- forgottenimpressions of the forests of Equatorial America. For example, the palms were muchmore abundant than I had generally found them in the East, more generally mingledwith the other vegetation, more varied in form and aspect, and presenting some of thoselofty 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 theMalayan islands. In animal life the immense number and variety of spiders and of lizards werecircumstances that recalled the prolific regions of south America, more especially theabundance and varied colours of the little jumping spiders which abound on flowersand foliage, and are often perfect gems of beauty. The web-spinning species were alsomore numerous than I had ever seen them, and were a great annoyance, stretching theirnets across the footpaths just about the height of my face; and the threads composingthese 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, andlegs in proportion, are not pleasant to o run one's nose against while pursuing somegorgeous butterfly, or gazing aloft in search of some strange-voiced bird. I soon foundit 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 insectshad spread their nets again in the very same places. The lizards were equally striking by their numbers, variety, and the situations in

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which they were found. The beautiful blue- tailed species so abundant in Ké was notseen here. The Aru lizards are more varied but more sombre in their colours--shades ofgreen, grey, brown, and even black, being very frequently seen. Every shrub andherbaceous plant was alive with them, every rotten trunk or dead branch served as astation for some of these active little insect-hunters, who, I fear, to satisfy their grossappetites, destroy many gems of the insect world, which would feast the eyes anddelight the heart of our more discriminating entomologists. Another curious feature ofthe jungle here was the multitude of sea-shells everywhere met with on the ground andhigh up on the branches and foliage, all inhabited by hermit- crabs, who forsake thebeach to wander in the forest. I lave actually seen a spider carrying away a good-sizedshell and devouring its (probably juvenile) tenant. On the beach, which I had to wallsalong every morning to reach the forest, these creatures swarmed by thousands. Everydead shell, from the largest to the most minute, was appropriated by them. They formedsmall social parties of ten or twenty around bits of stick or seaweed, but dispersedhurriedly at the sound of approaching footsteps. After a windy night, that nasty-lookingChinese delicacy the sea-slug was sometimes thrown up on the beach, which was atsuch times thickly strewn with some of the most beautiful shells that adorn ourcabinets, along with fragments and masses of coral and strange sponges, of which Ipicked up more than twenty different sorts. In many cases sponge and coral are somuch alike that it is only on touching them that they can be distinguished. Quantities ofseaweed, too, are thrown up; but strange as it may seem, these are far less beautiful andless 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 morereserved and taciturn than those of Ke. This is probably because I only saw them as yetamong strangers and in small parties, One must see the savage at home to know whathe really is. Even here, however, the Papuan character sometimes breaks out. Littleboys sing cheerfully as they walk along, or talk aloud to themselves (quite a negrocharacteristic); and try all they can, the men cannot conceal their emotions in the trueMalay fashion. A number of them were one day in my house, and having a fancy to trywhat sort of eating tripang would be, I bought a couple, paying for them with such anextravagant quantity of tobacco that the seller saw I was a green customer. He couldnot, however, conceal his delight, but as he smelt the fragrant weed, and exhibited thelarge handful to his companions, he grinned and twisted and gave silent chuckles in amost expressive pantomime. I had often before made the same mistake in paying aMalay 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 exhibitedexactly in the same way whether he was over or under paid. These little moral traits areof the greatest interest when taken in connexion with physical features. They do notadmit of the same ready explanation by external causes which is so frequently appliedto the latter. Writers on the races of mankind have too often to trust to the informationof travellers who pass rapidly from country to country, and thus have few opportunitiesof becoming acquainted with peculiarities of national character, or even of ascertainingwhat is really the average physical conformation of the people. Such are exceedinglyapt to be deceived in places where two races have long, intermingled, by looking onintermediate forms and mixed habits as evidences of a natural transition from one raceto the other, instead of an artificial mixture of two distinct peoples; and they will be themore readily led into this error if, as in the present case, writers on the subject shouldhave been in the habit of classing these races as mere varieties of one stock, as closelyrelated in physical conformation as from their geographical proximity one mightsuppose they ought to be. So far as I have yet seen, the Malay and Papuan appear to beas 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 ofWokan, which is about a mile from us, and forms part of the "canna busar," or

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mainland of Aru. This is a large island, extending from north to south about a hundredmiles, but so low in many parts as to be intersected by several creeks, which runcompletely 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 theprincipal; but on the east coast are a great number of islands, extending some milesbeyond 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 mainlandmany of the birds and animals of the country are altogether confined; the Birds ofparadise, the black cockatoo, the great brush- turkey, and the cassowary, are none ofthem found on Wamma or any of the detached islands. I did not, however, expect inthis excursion to see any decided difference in the forest or its productions, and wastherefore agreeably surprised. The beach was overhung with the drooping branches oflame trees, loaded with Orchideae, ferns, and other epiphytal plants. In the forest therewas more variety, some parts being dry, and with trees of a lower growth, while inothers there were some of the most beautiful palms I have ever seen, with a perfectlystraight, smooth, slender stem, a hundred feet high, and a crown of handsome droopingleaves. 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 firsttime. 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 elegantheads of fronds more than thirty feet in the air, like those which were plentifullyscattered 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'sshooting in Wamma. Two were very pretty flycatchers, already known from NewGuinea; one of them (Monarcha chrysomela), of brilliant black and bright orangecolours, is by some authors considered to be the most beautiful of all flycatchers; theother is pure white and velvety black, with a broad fleshy ring round the eye of areazure blue colour; it is named the "spectacled flycatcher" (Monarcha telescopthalma),and was first found in New Guinea, along with the other, by the French naturalistsduring the voyage of the discovery-ship Coquille. Feb. 18th. -- Before leaving Macassar, I had written to the Governor of Amboynarequesting him to assist me with the native chiefs of Aru. I now received by a vesselwhich had arrived from Amboyna a very polite answer informing me that orders hadbeen sent to give me every assistance that I might require; and I was just congratulatingmyself on being at length able to get a boat and men to go to the mainland and explorethe interior, when a sudden check carne in the form of a piratical incursion. A smallprau arrived which had been attacked by pirates and had a man wounded. They weresaid to have five boats, but more were expected to be behind and the traders were all inconsternation, fearing that their small vessels sent trading to the "blakang tana" wouldbe plundered. The Aru natives were of course dreadfully alarmed, as these maraudersattack 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 inDobbo. The Governor of Amboyna, out of pure kindness, has told the chiefs that theyare to be responsible for my safety, so that they have au excellent excuse for refusing tostir. Several praus went out in search of the pirates, sentinels were appointed, andwatch-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 ofthe Eastern seas were really among us. One of Herr Warzbergen's small praus alsoarrived 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 thecargo of mother-of- pearl shell, which was too bulky for them. All the clothes and

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boxes of the men, and the sails and cordage of the prau, were cleared off. They hadfour large war boats, and fired a volley of musketry as they came up, and sent off theirsmall boats to the attack. After they had left, our men observed from their concealmentthat three had stayed behind with a small boat; and being driven to desperation by thesight of the plundering, one brave fellow swam off armed only with his parang, orchopping- knife, and coming on them unawares made a desperate attack, killing oneand wounding the other two, receiving himself numbers of slight wounds, and thenswimming off again when almost exhausted. Two other prams were also plundered, andthe crew of one of them murdered to a man. They are said to be Sooloo pirates, buthave Bugis among them. On their way here they have devastated one of the smallislands east of Ceram. It is now eleven years since they have visited Aru, and by thusmaking their attacks at long and uncertain intervals the alarm dies away, and they finda population for the most part unarmed and unsuspicious of danger. None of the smalltrading vessels now carry arms, though they did so for a year or two after the lastattack, which was just the time when there was the least occasion for it. A week laterone of the smaller pirate boats was captured in the "blakang tana." Seven men werekilled and three taken prisoners. The larger vessels have been often seen but cannot becaught, as they have very strong crews, and can always escape by rowing out to sea inthe eye of the wind, returning at night. They will thus remain among the innumerableislands 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, withoccasional 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 believethe "Orang-kaya," or head man of Wamma, will accompany me to see that I don't runinto danger. Having become quite an old inhabitant of Dobbo, I will endeavour to sketch thesights and sounds that pervade it, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants. Theplace is now pretty full, and the streets present a far more cheerful aspect than when wefirst arrived. Every house is a store, where the natives barter their produce for whatthey are most in need of. Knives, choppers, swords, guns, tobacco, gambier, plates,basins, handkerchiefs, sarongs, calicoes, and arrack, are the principal articles wanted bythe 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 thewealthier natives. Every fine day mats are spread before the doors and the tripang is putout to dry, as well as sugar, salt, biscuit, tea, cloths, and other things that get injured byan excessively moist atmosphere. In the morning and evening, spruce Chinamen strollabout or chat at each other's doors, in blue trousers, white jacket, and a queue intowhich red silk is plaited till it reaches almost to their heels. An old Bugis hadjiregularly takes an evening stroll in all the dignity of flowing green silk robe and gayturban, 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 littlecooking-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 existsix months without one feast of pig? Here and there are stalls where bananas are sold, and every morning two little boysgo 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 mustbe a Spanish or Portuguese cry, handed down for centuries, while its meaning has beenlost. 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 Ihad discovered the origin of this, but I found afterwards they used the same cry when

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heaving anchor, and often chanted it to "hela," which is so much an universalexpression of exertion and hard breathing that it is most probably a mere interjectionalcry. I daresay there are now near five hundred people in Dobbo of various races, all metin this remote corner of the East, as they express it, "to look for their fortune;" to getmoney any way they can. They are most of them people who have the very worstreputation 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 nopolice, no courts, and no lawyers; yet they do not cut each other's throats, do notplunder each other day and night, do not fall into the anarchy such a state of thingsmight be supposed to lead to. It is very extraordinary! It puts strange thoughts intoone'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 ofParliament annually enacted to prevent us, the people of England, from cutting eachother's throats, or from doing to our neighbour as we would not be done by. Think ofthe thousands of lawyers and barristers whose whole lives are spent in telling us whatthe hundred Acts of Parliament mean, and one would be led to infer that if Dobbo hastoo little law England has too much. Here we may behold in its simplest form the genius of Commerce at the work ofCivilization. Trade is the magic that keeps all at peace, and unites these discordantelements into a well-behaved community. All are traders, and know that peace andorder are essential to successful trade, and thus a public opinion is created which putsdown all lawlessness. Often in former year, when strolling along the Campong Glam inSingapore, I have thought how wild and ferocious the Bugis sailors looked, and howlittle 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 themcontinually; I sleep in a palm-leaf hut, which any one may enter, with as little fear andas little danger of thieves or murder as if I were under the protection of theMetropolitan police. It is true the Dutch influence is felt here. The islands are nominallyunder the government of the Moluccas, which the native chiefs acknowledge; and inmost years a commissioner arrives from Amboyna, who makes the tour of the islands,hears complaints, settle disputes, and carries away prisoner any heinous offender. Thisyear 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 wascaught in the act of stealing a piece of iron from Herr Warzbergen's house, which hehad entered by making a hole through the thatch wall. In the evening the chief tradersof 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 rattanin the middle of the street, not very severely, the executioner appeared to sympathise alittle with the culprit. The disgrace seemed to be thought as much of as the pain; forthough 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 THEINTERIOR

(MARCH TO MAY 1857)

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MY boat was at length ready, and having obtained two men besides my ownservants, after an enormous amount of talk and trouble, we left Dobbo on the morningof March 13th, for the mainland of Aru. By noon we reached the mouth of a small riveror creek, which we ascended, winding among mangrove, swamps, with here and there aglimpse of dry land. In two hours we reached a house, or rather small shed, of the mostmiserable description, which our steersman, the "Orang-kaya" of Wamma, said was theplace we were to stay at, and where he had assured me we could get every kind of birdand 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 ofmy obtaining any accommodation. I however deferred inquiry till I had seen theneighbouring forest, and immediately started off with two men, net, and guns, along apath at the back of the house. In an hour's walk I saw enough to make me determine togive 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 housefor the use of a slip at one end of it about five feet wide, for a week, and agreed to payas rent one "parang," or chopping-knife. I then immediately got my boxes and beddingout of the boat, hung up a shelf for my bird-skins and insects, and got all ready forwork next morning. My own boys slept in the boat to guard the remainder of myproperty; 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 shootthe Paradise birds. They lived at some distance in the jungle, and a man was sent to callthem. 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 thebirds with a bow and arrow, the arrow having a conical wooden cap fitted to the end aslarge as a teacup, so as to kill the bird by the violence of the blow without making anywound or shedding any blood. The trees frequented by the birds are very lofty; it istherefore necessary to erect a small leafy covering or hut among the branches, to whichthe hunter mounts before daylight in the morning and remains the whole day, andwhenever a bird alights they are almost sure of securing it. (See Frontispiece.) Theyreturned 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.

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The first two or three days of our stay here were very wet, and I obtained but fewinsects or birds, but at length, when I was beginning to despair, my boy Baderoonreturned one day with a specimen which repaid me for months of delay andexpectation. It was a small bird a little less than a thrush. The greater part of itsplumage was of an intense cinnabar red, with a gloss as of spun glass. On the head thefeathers became short and velvety, and shaded into rich orange. Beneath, from thebreast downwards, was pure white, with the softness and gloss of silk, and across thebreast 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, andthe feet and legs were of a fine cobalt ó111e, strikingly contrasting with all the otherparts of the body. Merely in arrangement of colours and texture of plumage this littlebird 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 abroad 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 notthe only ornament. The two middle feathers of the tail are in the form of slender wiresabout five inches long, and which diverge in a beautiful double curve. About half aninch of the end of this wire is webbed on the outer side only, awe coloured of a finemetallic green, and being curled spirally inwards form a pair of elegant glitteringbuttons, hanging five inches below the body, and the same distance apart. These twoornaments, the breast fans and the spiral tipped tail wires, are altogether unique, notoccurring on any other species of the eight thousand different birds that are known toexist upon the earth; and, combined with the most exquisite beauty of plumage, renderthis one of the most perfectly lovely of the many lovely productions of nature. Mytransports of admiration and delight quite amused my Aru hosts, who saw nothing more

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in the "Burong raja" than we do in the robin of the goldfinch. [footnote: See the upperfigure on Plate at commencement of Chapter XXXVIII.] Thus one of my objects in coming to the far fast was accomplished. I had obtaineda specimen of the King Bird of Paradise (Paradisea regia), which had been describedby Linnaeus from skins preserved in a mutilated state by the natives. I knew how fewEuropeans had ever beheld the perfect little organism I now gazed upon, and how veryimperfectly it was still known in Europe. The emotions excited in the minds of anaturalist, who has long desired to see the actual thing which he has hitherto knownonly by description, drawing, or badly-preserved external covering--especially whenthat thing is of surpassing rarity and beauty, require the poetic faculty fully to expressthem. 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 gatheredround me,-- all had their influence in determining the emotions with which I gazedupon this "thing of beauty." I thought of the long ages of the past, during which thesuccessive generations of this little creature had run their course--year by year beingborn, and living and dying amid these dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eyeto gaze upon their loveliness; to all appearance such a wanton waste of beauty. Suchideas excite a feeling of melancholy. It seems sad, that on the one hand such exquisitecreatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms only in these wildinhospitable regions, doomed for ages yet to come to hopeless barbarism; while on theother 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 surethat he will so disturb the nicely-balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature asto cause the disappearance, and finally the extinction, of these very beings whosewonderful structure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy. Thisconsideration must surely tell us that all living things were _not_ made for man. Manyof them have no relation to him. The cycle of their existence has gone on independentlyof 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 ownwell-being and perpetuation alone, limited only by the equal well-being andperpetuation of the numberless other organisms with which each is more or lessintimately connected. After the first king-bird was obtained, I went with my men into the forest, and wewere not only rewarded with another in equally perfect plumage, but I was enabled tosee a little of the habits of both it and the larger species. It frequents the lower trees ofthe less dense forests: and is very active, flying strongly with a whirring sound, andcontinually hopping or flying from branch to branch. It eats hard stone-bearing fruits aslarge as a gooseberry, and often flutters its wings after the manner of the SouthAmerican manakins, at which time it elevates and expands the beautiful fans withwhich 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 wereassembled, but they were high up in the thickest of the foliage, and flying and jumpingabout so continually that I could get no good view of them. At length I shot one, but itwas a young specimen, and was entirely of a rich chocolate-brown colour, withouteither the metallic green throat or yellow plumes of the full-grown bird. All that I hadyet seen resembled this, and the natives told me that it would be about two monthsbefore any would be found in full plumage. I still hoped, therefore, to get some. Theirvoice is most extraordinary. At early morn, before the sun has risen, we hear a loud cryof "Wawk-wawk-wawk, wók-wók-wók," which resounds through the forest, changingits 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

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morning song. As I lie listening to these interesting sounds, I realize my position as thefirst European who has ever lived for months together in the Aru islands, a place whichI had hoped rather than expected ever to visit. I think how many besides my self havelonged to reach these almost fairy realms, and to see with their own eyes the manywonderful and beautiful things which I am daily encountering. But now Ali andBaderoon are up and getting ready their guns and ammunition, and little Brio has hisfire lighted and is boiling my coffee, and I remember that I had a black cockatoobrought in late last night, which I must skin immediately, and so I jump up and beginmy day's work very happily.

HEAD OF BLACK COCKATOO

This cockatoo is the first I have seen, and is a great prize. It has a rather small andweak body, long weak legs, large wings, and an enormously developed head,ornamented with a magnificent crest, and armed with a sharp-pointed hoofed bill ofimmense size and strength. The plumage is entirely black, but has all over it the curiouspowdery white secretion characteristic of cockatoo. The cheeks are bare, and of anintense blood-red colour. Instead of the harsh scream of the white cockatoos, its voiceis a somewhat plaintive whistle. The tongue is a curious organ, being a slender fleshycylinder of a deep red colour, terminated by a horny black plate, furrowed across andsomewhat prehensile. The whole tongue has a considerable extensile power. I will hererelate 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 threetogether. It flies slowly and noiselessly, and may be killed by a comparatively slightwound. It eats various fruits arid seeds, but seems more particularly attached to the

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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 atthese 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 aheavy 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 inits bill and keeping it firm by a pressure of the tongue, it cuts a transverse notch by alateral sawing motion of the sharp-edged lower mandible. This done, it takes hold ofthe nut with its foot, and biting off a piece of leaf retains it in the deep notch of theupper mandible, and again seizing the nut, which is prevented from slipping by theelastic tissue of the leaf, fixes the edge of the lower mandible in the notch, and by apowerful nip breaks of a piece of the shell. again taking the nut in its claws, it insertsthe very long and sharp point of the bill and picks out the kernel, which is seized holdof, morsel by morsel, by the extensible tongue. Thus every detail of form. and structurein the extraordinary bill of this bird seems to have its use, and we may easily conceivethat the black cockatoos have maintained themselves in competition with their moreactive and more numerous white allies, by their power of existing on a kind of foodwhich no other bird is able to extract from its stony shell. The species is theMicroglossum aterrimum of naturalists. During the two weeks which I spent in this little settlement, I had goodopportunities of observing the natives at their own home, and living in their usualmanner. There is a great monotony and uniformity in everyday savage life, and itseemed to me a more miserable existence than when it had the charm of novelty. Tobegin 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; andthey 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, theyonly go to the sea occasionally, and then bring home cockles and other shell-fish by theboatload. Now and then they get wild pig or kangaroo, but too rarely to form anythinglike a regular part of their diet, which is essentially vegetable; and what is of moreimportance, as affecting their health, green, watery vegetables, imperfectly cooked, andeven these in varying and often in sufficient quantities. To this diet may be attributedthe prevalence of skin diseases, and ulcers on the legs and joints. The scurfy skindisease so common among savages has a close connexion with the poorness andirregularity of their living. The Malays, who are never without their daily rice, aregenerally free from it; the hill-Dyaks of Borneo, who grow rice and live well, are cleanskinned while the less industrious and less cleanly tribes, who live for a portion of theyear on fruits and vegetables only, are very subject to this malady. It seems clear that inthis, 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 themorrow. To maintain his health and beauty he must labour to prepare some farinaceousproduct capable of being stored and accumulated, so as to give him a regular supply ofwholesome food. When this is obtained, he may add vegetables, fruits, and meat withadvantage. 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 rattancutting will purchase at least a half-gallon bottle; and when the tripang or birds' nestscollected during a season are sold, they get whole boxes, each containing fifteen suchbottles, which the inmates of a house will sit round day and night till they havefinished. They themselves tell me that at such bouts they often tear to pieces the housethey are in, break and destroy everything they can lay their hands on, and make such aninfernal riot as is alarming to behold.

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The houses and furniture are on a par with the food. A rude shed, supported onrough and slender sticks rather than posts, no walls, but the floor raised to within a footof the eaves, is the style of architecture they usually adopt. Inside there are partitionwalls of thatch, forming little boxes or sleeping places, to accommodate the two orthree separate families that usually live together. A few mats, baskets, and cookingvessels, with plates and basins purchased from the Macassar traders, constitute theirwhole furniture; spears and bows are their weapons; a sarong or mat forms the clothingof the women, a waistcloth of the men. For hours or even for days they sit idle in theirhouses, 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 toenjoy pure idleness, and work as little as they can. They have little to vary themonotony 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 Iunderstand not a word of it, I go on with my book or work undisturbed. Now and thenthey scream and shout, or laugh frantically for variety; and this goes on alternately withvociferous talking of men, women, and children, till long after I am in my mosquitocurtain 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 equallydark with the others, have little of the Papuan physiognomy, but have more delicatefeatures of the European type, with more glossy, curling hair: These at first quitepuzzled me, for they have no more resemblance to Malay than to Papuan, and thedarkness of skin and hair would forbid the idea of Dutch intermixture. Listening totheir 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 inMalay what "accabó" meant, and was told it meant "done or finished," a truePortuguese word, with its meaning retained. Again, I heard the word "jafui" oftenrepeated, and could see, without inquiry, that its meaning was "he's gone," as inPortuguese. "Porco," too, seems a common name, though the people have no idea of itsEuropean meaning. This cleared up the difficulty. I at once understood that some earlyPortuguese traders had penetrated to these islands, and mixed with the natives,influencing their language, and leaving in their descendants for many generations thevisible 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 thecurious varieties of form and feature occasionally to be met with in Aru. In this veryhouse there was a Macassar man, with an Aru wife and a family of mixed children. InDobbo I saw a Javanese and an Amboyna man, each with an Aru wife and family; andas this kind of mixture has been going on for at least three hundred years, and probablymuch longer, it has produced a decided effect on the physical characteristics of aconsiderable portion of the population of the islands, more especially in Dobbo and theparts 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 waspronounced unsafe to go further than the next small river. This world not suit me, as Ihad determined to traverse the channel called Watelai to the "blakang-tana;" but myguide was firm in his dread of pirates, of which I knew there was now no danger, asseveral vessels had gone in search of them, as well as a Dutch gunboat which hadarrived 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 gowith me immediately, I would appeal to the authorities, and he would certainly beobliged to gig a back the cloth which the "Orang- kaya" had transferred to him inprepayment. This had the desired effect; matters were soon arranged, and we started thenext morning. The wind, however, was dead against us, and after rowing hard till

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midday we put in to a small river where there were few huts, to cook our dinners. Theplace did not look very promising, but as we could not reach our destination, theWatelai river, owing to the contrary wind, I thought we might as well wait here a dayor two. I therefore paid a chopper for the use of a small shed, and got my bed and someboxes 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 tothe beach; we got hold of our guns and prepared for action, but in a few minutes allcame back laughing and chattering, for it had proved to be only a small boat and someof 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, whichmade 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 ofinterest, so we made another attempt to get on. As soon as we got a little away from theland we had a fair wind, and in six hours' sailing reached the entrance of the Watelaichannel, which divides the most northerly from the middle portion of Aru. At its mouththis was about half a mile wide, but soon narrowed, and a mile or two on it assumedentirely the aspect of a river about the width of the Thames at London, winding amonglow but undulating and often hilly country. The scene was exactly such as might beexpected in the interior of a continent. The channel continued of a uniform averagewidth, with reaches and sinuous bends, one bank being often precipitous, or evenforming vertical cliffs, while the other was flat and apparently alluvial; and it was onlythe pure salt-water, and the absence of any stream but the slight flux and reflux of thetide, 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, tillabout three in the afternoon, when we landed where a little brook formed two or threebasins 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, whenwe pursued our way for two hours snore, and then moored our little vessel to anoverhanging tree for the night. At five the next morning we started again, and in an hour overtook four large prauscontaining the "Commissie," who had come from Dobbo to make their official tourround the islands, and had passed us in the eight. I paid a visit to the Dutchmen, one ofwhom spoke a little English, but we found that we could get on much better withMalay. They told me that they had been delayed going after the pirates to one of thenorthern islands, and had seen three of their vessels but could not catch them, becauseon being pursued they rowed out in the wind's eye, which they are enabled to do byhaving about fifty oars to each boat. Having had some tea with thorn, I bade themadieu, and turned up a narrow channel which our pilot said would take us to the villageof Watelai, on the west side- of Are. After going some miles we found the channelnearly blocked up with coral, so that our boat grated along the bottom, crunching whatmay truly be called the living rock. Sometimes all hands had to get out and wade, tolighten the vessel and lift it over the shallowest places; but at length we overcame allobstacles and reached a wide bay or estuary studded with little rocks and islets, andopening to the western sea and the numerous islands of the "blakang-tuna." I nowfound that the village we were going to was miles away; that we should have to go outto sea, and round a rocky point. A squall seemed coming on, and as I have a horror ofsmall 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 Ihad heard of up a tributary of the Watelai river, and situated nearly in the centre of themainland of Aru. The people there were said to be good, and to be accustomed tohunting and bird-catching, being too far inland to get any part of their food from thesea. While I was deciding this point the squall burst upon us, and soon raised a rollingsea in the shallow water, which upset an oil bottle and a lamp, broke some of my

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crockery, and threw us all into confusion. Rowing hard we managed to get back intothe main river by dusk, and looked out for a place to cook our suppers. It happened tobe 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 wediscovered a little sloping piece of rock about two feet square on which to make a fireand cook some rice. The next day we continued our way back, and on the followingday entered a stream on the south side of the Watelai river, and ascending to wherenavigation ceased found the little village of Wanumbai, consisting of two large housessurrounded 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 mypilot to try and make a bargain for house accommodation. The owner and chief man ofthe place made many excuses. First, be was afraid I would not like his house, and thenwas doubtful whether his son, who was away, would like his admitting me. I had a longtalk with him myself, and tried to explain what I was doing, and how many things Iwould buy of them, and showed him my stock of heads, and knives, and cloth, andtobacco, all of which I would spend with his family and friends if he would give mehouse-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 carneback, I again sent my pilot, saying that I would go away if he would not dive me part ofhis house. In about half an hour he returned with a demand for about half the cost ofbuilding a house, for the rent of a small portion of it for a few weeks. As the onlydifficulty now was a pecuniary one, I got out about ten yards of cloth, an axe, with afew beads and some tobacco, and sent them as my final offer for the part of the housewhich I had before pointed out. This was accepted after a little more talk, and Iimmediately proceeded to take possession. The house was a good large one, raised as usual about seven feet on posts, thewalls about three or four feet more, with a high- pitched roof. The floor was of bamboolaths, and in the sloping roof way an immense shutter, which could be lifted andpropped up to admit light and air. At the end where this was situated the floor wasraised about a foot, and this piece, about ten feet wide by twenty long, quite open to therest of the house, was the portion I was to occupy. At one end of this piece, separatedby 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 arrangedmy boxes and other stores, fated up a table and seat, and with a little cleaning anddusting 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 fordrying my specimens erected outside the house and another inside, and my boys wereset to clean their gnus and get ail ready for beginning work. The next day I occupied myself in exploring the paths in the immediateneighbourhood. The small river up which we had ascended ceases to be navigable atthis 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 inand partly by the side of the water, promised well for insects, as I here saw themagnificent blue butterfly, Papilio ulysses, as well as several other fine species,flopping lazily along, sometimes resting high up on the foliage which drooped over thewater, at others settling down on the damp rock or on the edges of muddy pools. Alittle way on several paths branched off through patches of second-growth forest tocane-fields, gardens, and scattered houses, beyond which again the dark wall of verdurestriped with tree-trunks, marked out the limits of the primeval forests. The voices ofmany birds promised good shooting, and on my return I found that my boy s hadalready obtained two or three kinds I had not seen before; and in the evening a nativebrought me a rare and beautiful species of ground-thrush (Pitta novaeguinaeae) hithertoonly known from New Guinea. As I improved my acquaintance with them I became much interested in these

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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 fivefamilies, and there were generally from six to a dozen visitors besides. They kept up acontinual row from morning till night--talking, laughing, shouting, withoutintermission--not very pleasant, but interesting as a study of national character. My boyAli said to me, "Banyak quot bitchara Orang Aru "(The Aru people are very strongtalkers), never having been accustomed to such eloquence either in his own or anyother country he had hitherto visited. Of an evening the men, having got over their firstshyness, began to talk to me a little, asking about my country, &c., and in return Iquestioned them about any traditions they had of their own origin. I had, however, verylittle success, for I could not possibly make them understand the simple question ofwhere the Aru people first came from. I put it in every possible way to them, but it wasa subject quite beyond their speculations; they had evidently never thought of anythingof the kind, and were unable to conceive a thing so remote and so unnecessary to bethought about, as their own origin. Finding this hopeless, I asked if they knew when thetrade with Aru first began, when the Bugis and Chinese and Macassar men first came intheir 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 aslong as they or their fathers recollected, but that this was the first time a real white manhad come among them, and, said they, "You see how the people come every day fromall the villages round to look at you." This was very flattering, and accounted for thegreat concourse of visitors which I had at first imagined was accidental. A few yearsbefore I had been one of the gazers at the Zoolus, and the Aztecs in London. Now thetables were turned upon me, for I was to these people a new and strange variety ofman, and had the honour of affording to them, in my own person, an attractiveexhibition, gratis. All the men and boys of Aru are expert archers, never stirring without their bowsand 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 ofthis 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 mauledthem terribly, notwithstanding my repeated instructions. When they got a bird alivethey would often tie a string to its leg, and keep it a day or two, till its plumage was sodraggled and dirtied as to be almost worthless. One of the first things I got from therewas a living specimen of the curious and beautiful racquet-tailed kingfisher. Seeinghow much I admired it, they afterwards brought me several more, which wore allcaught before daybreak, sleeping in cavities of the rocky banks of the stream. Myhunters also shot a few specimens, and almost all of them had the red bill more or lessclogged with mud and earth. This indicates the habits of the bird, which, thoughpopularly 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 lowbranch. The genus Tanysiptera, to which this bird belongs, is remarkable for theenormously lengthened tail, which in all other kingfishers is small and short. Linnaeusnamed the species known to him "the goddess kingfisher" (Alcedo dea), from itsextreme 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 withinthe very limited area which comprises the Moluccas, New Guinea, and the extremeNorth of Australia. They resemble each other so closely that several of them can onlybe distinguished by careful comparison. One of the rarest, however, which inhabitsNew 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 Tanysipterahydrocharis, but in general form and coloration it is exactly similar to the larger speciesfound 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

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by the natives, and at the end of a week Ali arrived triumphant one afternoon with afine specimen of the Great Bird of Paradise. The ornamental plumes had not yetattained their full growth, but the richness of their glossy orange colouring, and theexquisite delicacy of the loosely waving feathers, were unsurpassable. At the same timea great black cockatoo was brought in, as well as a fine fruit-pigeon and several smallbirds, so that we were all kept hard at work skinning till sunset. Just as we had clearedaway and packed up for the night, a strange beast was brought, which had been shot bythe natives. It resembled in size, and in its white woolly covering, a small fat lamb, buthad short legs, hand-like feet with large claws, and a long prehensile tail. It was aCuscus (C. maculatus), one of the curious marsupial animals of the Papuan region, andI 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, therewas grout hesitation. Suspecting the reason, I offered, though it was night, to set towork immediately and get out the body for them, to which they agreed. The creaturewas much hacked about, and the two hind feet almost cut off; but it was the largest andfinest specimen of the kind I had seen; and after an hour's hard work I handed over thebody 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 supplyof ammunition and provisions. They started on the 10th of April, and the house wascrowded with about a hundred men, boys, women, and girls, bringing their loads ofsugar-cane, plantains, sirih-leaf, yams, &c.; one lad going from each house to sell theproduce and make purchases. The noise was indescribable. At least fifty of the hundredwere always talking at once, and that not in the low measured tones of the apatheticallypolite Malay, but with loud voices, shouts, and screaming laughter, in which thewomen and children were even more conspicuous than the men. It was only whilegazing at me that their tongues were moderately quiet, because their eyes were fullyoccupied. The black vegetable soil here overlying the coral rock is very rich, and thesugar-cane was finer than any I had ever seen. The canes brought to the boat wereoften ten and even twelve feet long, and thick in proportion, with short jointsthroughout, swelling between the knots with the, abundance of the rich juice. At Dobbothey get a high price for it, 1d. to 3d. a stick, and there is an insatiable demand amongthe crews of the praus and the Baba fishermen. Here they eat it continually. They halflive on it, and sometimes feed their pigs with it. Near every house are great heaps of therefuse cane; and large wicker-baskets to contain this refuse as it is produced form aregular part of the furniture of a house. Whatever time of the day you enter, you aresure 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 apersevering assiduity which reminds one of a hungry cow grazing, or of a caterpillareating up a leaf. After five days absence the boats returned from Dobbo, bringing Ali and all thethings I had sent for quite safe. A large party had assembled to be ready to carry homethe goods brought, among which were a good many cocoa-nut, which are a greatluxury here. It seems strange that they should never plant them; but the reason simplyis, that they cannot bring their hearts to bury a good nut for the prospective advantageof a crop twelve years hence. There is also the chance of the fruits being dug up andeaten unless watched night and day. Among the things I had sent for was a box ofarrack, and I was now of course besieged with requests for a little drop. I gave them aflask (about two bottles, which was very soon finished, and I was assured that therewere many present who had not had a taste. As I feared my box would very soon beemptied if I supplied all their demands, I told them I had given them one, but thesecond they must pay for, and that afterwards I must have a Paradise bird for eachflask. They immediately sent round to all the neighbouring houses, and mustered up arupee in Dutch copper money, got their second flask, and drunk it as quickly as the

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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 themthe name of my country. Then, as they could not pronounce it satisfactorily, theyinsisted that I was deceiving them, and that it was a name of my own invention. Onefunny old man, who bore a ludicrous resemblance, to a friend of mine at home, wasalmost 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 hetried to give a convincing illustration. "My country is Wanumbai--anybody can sayWanumbai. 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 knowhow to talk about you." To this luminous argument and remonstrance I could opposenothing but assertion, and the whole party remained firmly convinced that I was forsome reason or other deceiving them. They then attacked me on another point--what allthe animals and birds and insects and shells were preserved so carefully for. They hadoften asked me this before, and I had tried to explain to them that they would bestuffed, and made to look as if alive, and people in my country would go to look atthem. But this was not satisfying; in my country there must be many better things tolook at, and they could not believe I would take so much trouble with their birds andbeasts just for people to look at. They did not want to look at them; and we, who madecalico and glass and knives, and all sorts of wonderful things, could not want thingsfrom Aru to look at. They had evidently been thinking about it, and had at length gotwhat 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 areall packed up in boxes," said I "What did you think became of them?" "They all cometo life again, don't they?" said he; and though I tried to joke it off, and said if they didwe should have plenty to eat at sea, he stuck to his opinion, and kept repeating, with anair of deep conviction, "Yes, they all come to life again, that's what they do--they allcome 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 repelthe charge. But the conjurer was completely puzzled by the next question: "What," saidthe old man, "is the great ship, where the Bugis and Chinamen go to sell their things? Itis always in the great sea--its name is Jong; tell us all about it." In vain I inquired whatthey knew about it; they knew nothing but that it was called "Jong," and was always inthe 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 moreregrets that I would not tell them the real name of my country; and then a long string ofcompliments, to the effect that I was a much better sort of a person than the Bugis andChinese, 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, andI 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 Bugismen, and the Macassar men, and the Java men, and the China men; only you, we don'tknow from what country you come. Ung-lung! it can't be; I know that is not the nameof your country." Seeing no end to this long talk, I said I was tired, and wanted to go tosleep; so after begging-- one a little bit of dry fish for his supper, and another a littlesalt to eat with his sago--they went off very quietly, and I went outside and took astroll round the house by moonlight, thinking of the simple people and the strangeproductions of Aru, and then turned in under my mosquito curtain; to sleep with a senseof perfect security in the midst of these good-natured savages.

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We now had seven or eight days of hot and dry weather, which reduced the littleriver to a succession of shallow pools connected by the smallest possible thread oftrickling water. If there were a dry season like that of Macassar, the Aru Islands wouldbe uninhabitable, as there is no part of them much above a hundred feet high; and thewhole 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, andthere is then an excessive scarcity of water, so that sometimes hundreds of birds andother animals die of drought. The natives then remove to houses near the sources of thesmall streams, where, in the shady depths of the forest, a small quantity of water stillremains. Even then many of them have to go miles for their water, which they keep inlarge bamboos and use very sparingly. They assure me that they catch and kill game ofall kinds, by watching at the water holes or setting snares around them. That would bethe time for me to make my collections; but the want of water would be a terribleannoyance, and the impossibility of getting away before another whole year had passedmade it out of the question. Ever since leaving Dobbo I had suffered terribly from insects, who seemed herebent 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, andproducing a more lasting irritation than mosquitoes. My feet and ankles especiallysuffered, and were completely covered with little red swollen specks, which tormentedme horribly. On arriving here we were delighted to find the house free from sand- fliesor mosquitoes, but in the plantations where my daily walks led me, the day-bitingmosquitoes swarmed, and seemed especially to delight in attaching my poor feet. Aftera month's incessant punishment, those useful members rebelled against such treatmentand broke into open insurrection, throwing out numerous inflamed ulcers, which werevery 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 especiallydifficult to heal in hot climates, and I therefore dreaded them more than any otherillness. The confinement was very annoying, as the fine hot weather was excellent forinsects, of which I had every promise of obtaining a fine collection; and it is only bydaily and unremitting search that the smaller kinds, and the rarer and more interestingspecimens, can be obtained. When I crawled down to the river-side to bathe, I oftensaw 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, orwhatever other work I had indoors. The stings and bites and ceaseless irritation causedby these pests of the tropical forests, would be borne uncomplainingly; but to be keptprisoner by them in so rich and unexplored a country where rare and beautiful creaturesare to be met with in every forest ramble--a country reached by such a long and tediousvoyage, and which might not in the present century be again visited for the samepurpose--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, moreespecially the Paradiseas, which they at length obtained in full plumage. It was quite arelief to my mind to get these, for I could hardly have torn myself away from Aru had Inot obtained specimens. But what I valued almost as much as the birds themselves was the knowledge oftheir habits, which I was daily obtaining both from the accounts of my hunters, andfrom the conversation of the natives. The birds had now commenced what the peoplehere call their "sacaleli," or dancing-parties, in certain trees in the forest, which are notfruit trees as I at first imagined, but which have an immense tread of spreadingbranches and large but scattered leaves, giving a clear space for the birds to play andexhibit their plumes. On one of these trees a dozen or twenty full-plumaged male birdsassemble together, raise up their wings, stretch out their necks, and elevate theirexquisite plumes, keeping them in a continual vibration. Between whiles they fly acrossfrom branch to branch in great excitement, so that the whole tree is filled with waving

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plumes in every variety of attitude and motion. (See Frontispiece.) The bird itself isnearly as large as a crow, and is of a rich coffee brown colour. The head and neck is ofa pure straw yellow above and rich metallic green beneath. The long plumy tufts ofgolden orange feathers spring from the sides beneath each wing, and when the bird is inrepose are partly concealed by them. At the time of its excitement, however, the wingsare raised vertically over tile back, the head is bent down and stretched out, and thelong 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 finelydivided and softly waving points. The whole bird is then overshadowed by them, thecrouching body, yellow head, and emerald green throat forming but the foundation andsetting to the golden glory which waves above. When seen in this attitude, the Bird ofParadise really deserves its name, and must be ranked as one of the most beautiful andmost wonderful of living things. I continued also to get specimens of the lovely littleking-bird occasionally, as well as numbers of brilliant pigeons, sweet little parroquets,and many curious small birds, most nearly resembling those of Australia and NewGuinea. Here, as among most savage people I have dwelt among, I was delighted with thebeauty of the human form-a beauty of which stay-at-home civilized people canscarcely 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 ashe goes about his daily occupations, or lounges at his ease, must be seen to beunderstood; and a youth bending his bow is the perfection of manly beauty. Thewomen, however, except in extreme youth, are by no means so pleasant to look at asthe men. Their strongly-marked features are very unfeminine, and hard work,privations, and very early marriages soon destroy whatever of beauty or grace they mayfor a short time possess. Their toilet is very simple, but also, I am sorry to say, verycoarse, and disgusting. It consists solely of a mat of plaited strips of palm leaves, worntight round the body, and reaching from the hips to the knees. It seems not to bechanged till worn out, is seldom washed, and is generally very dirty. This is theuniversal dress, except in a few cases where Malay "sarongs" have come into use. Theirfrizzly hair is tied in a bench at the back of the head. They delight in combing, or ratherforking it, using for that purpose a large wooden fork with four diverging prongs, whichanswers the purpose of separating and arranging the long tangled, frizzly mass ofcranial vegetation much better than any comb could do. The only ornaments of thewomen are earrings and necklaces, which they arrange in various tasteful ways. Theends 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 oneach side of the head, and by establishing a connexion with the earrings give anappearance of utility to those barbarous ornaments. We recommend this style to theconsideration of those of the fair sex who still bore holes in their ears and hang ringsthereto. Another style of necklace among these Papuan belles is to wear two, eachhanging 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 orkangaroo teeth of which they are composed with the dark glossy skin. The earringsthemselves are formed of a bar of copper or silver, twisted so that the ends cross. Themen, as usual among savages, adorn themselves more than the women. They wearnecklaces, earrings, and finger rings, and delight in a band of plaited grass tight roundthe arm just below the shoulder, to which they attach a bunch of hair or bright colouredfeathers by way of ornament. The teeth of small animals, either alone, or alternatelywith black or white beads, form their necklaces, and sometimes bracelets also. Forthese latter, however, they prefer brass wire, or the black, horny, wing-spines of thecassowary, which they consider a charm. Anklets of brass or shell, and tight plaitedgarters below the knee, complete their ordinary decorations. Some natives of Kobror from further south, and who are reckoned the worst and

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least civilized of the Aru tribes, came one day to visit us. They have a rather more thanusually savage appearance, owing to the greater amount of ornaments they use--themost conspicuous being a large horseshoe-shaped comb which they wear over theforehead, the ends resting on the temples. The back of the comb is fastened into a pieceof wood, which is plated with tin in front, and above is attached a plume of feathersfrom a cock's tail. In other respects they scarcely differed from the people I was livingwith. They brought me a couple of birds, some shells and insects; showing that thereport of the white man and his doing had reached their country. There was probablyhardly a man in Aru who had not by this time heard of me. Besides the domestic utensils already mentioned, the moveable property of a nativeis very scanty. He has a good supply of spears and bows and arrows for hunting, aparang, or chopping- knife, and an axe-for the stone age has passed away here, owingto the commercial enterprise of the Bugis and other Malay races. Attached to a belt, orhung 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 isgenerally stuck between his waist-cloth of bark and his bare shin. Each man alsopossesses a °cadjan," or sleeping-mat, made of the broad leaves of a pandanus neatlysewn together in- three layers. This mat is abort four feet square, and when folded hasone end sewn up, so that it forms a kind of sack open at one side. In the closed cornerthe head or feet can be placed, or by carrying it on the head in a shower it forms bothcoat and umbrella. It doubles up ix a small compass for convenient carriage, and thenforms 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 theBird of Paradise, cassowary, and domestic fowl. The spears, shields, knife-handles, andother utensils are more or less carved in fanciful designs, and the mats and leaf boxesare painted or plaited in neat patterns of red, black, and yellow colours. I must notforget these boxes, which are most ingeniously made of the pith of a balm leaf peggedtogether, lined inside with pandanus leaves, and outside with the same, or with plaitedgrass. 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 isimpervious to water, and the whole box is neat, strong, and well finished. They aremade from a few inches to two or three feet long, and being much esteemed by theMalay as clothes-boxes, are a regular article of export from Aru. The natives use thesmaller ones for tobacco or betel-nut, but seldom have clothes enough to require thelarger ones, which are only made for sale. Among the domestic animals which may generally be seen in native houses, aregaudy parrots, green, red, and blue, a few domestic fowls, which have baskets hung forthem to lay in under the eaves, and who sleep on the ridge, and several half-starvedwolfish-baking dogs. Instead of rats and mice there are curious little marsupial animalsabout the same size, which run about at night and nibble anything eatable that may beleft uncovered. Four or five different kinds of ants attack everything not isolated bywater, and one kind even swims across that; great spiders lurk in baskets and boxes, orhide in the folds of my mosquito curtain; centipedes and millepedes are foundeverywhere. 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 aresure to be found snugly ensconced, with their formidable tails quickly turned up readyfor attack or defence. Such companions seem very alarming and dangerous, but allcombined are not so bad as the irritation of mosquitoes, or of the insect pests oftenfound 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 andvenomous though they are, and get no harm from them. After living twelve years in thetropics, I have never yet been bitten or stung by either.

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The lean and hungry dogs before mentioned were my greatest enemies, and keptme 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 outof 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 famishedrace had seized upon it, and he only succeeded in rescuing it from its fangs after it wastorn to tatters. Two skins of the large Paradisea, which were quite dry and ready topack away, were incautiously left on my table for the night, wrapped up in paper. Thenext morning they were gone, and only a few scattered feathers indicated their fate. Myhanging shelf was out of their reach; but having stupidly left a box which served as astep, a full-plumaged Paradise bird was next morning missing; and a dog below thehouse was to be seen still mumbling over the fragments, with the fine golden plumes alltrampled in the mud. Every night, as soon as I was in bed, I could hear them searchingabout 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 mightincautiously have been left within their read. They would drink the oil of my floatinglamp and eat the wick, and upset or break my crockery if my lazy boys had neglectedto wash away even the smell of anything eatable. Bad, however, as they are here, theywere worse in a Dyak's house in Borneo where I was once staying, for there theygnawed off the tops of my waterproof boots, ate a large piece out of an old leathergame-bag, besides devouring a portion of my mosquito curtain! April 28th. -- Last evening we had a grand consultation, which had evidently beenarranged and discussed beforehand. A number of the natives gathered round me, andsaid they wanted to talk. Two of the best Malay scholars helped each other, the restputting 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 ignoranceof local terms, and partly through the incoherence of their narrative, I could not make itout very clearly. It was, however, a tradition, and I was glad to find they had anythingof the kind. A long time ago, they said, some strangers came to Aru, and came here toWanumbai, and the chief of the Wanumbai people did not like them, and wanted themto go away, but they would not go, and so it came to fighting, and many Aru men werekilled, and some, along with the chief, were taken prisoners, and carried away by thestrangers. Some of the speakers, however, said that he was not carried away, but wentaway in his own boat to escape from the foreigners, and went to the sea and nevercame back again. But they all believe that the chief and the people that went with himstill live in some foreign country; and if they could but find out where, they would sendfor them to come back again. Now having some vague idea that white men must knowevery country beyond the sea, they wanted to know if I had met their people in mycountry or in the sea. They thought they must be there, for they could not imaginewhere else they could be. They had sought for them everywhere, they said--on the landand in the sea, in the forest and on the mountains, in the air and in the sky, and couldnot 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 themthat their friends could not have reached my country in small boats; and that there wereplenty 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 laughedat this idea, and said they were sure they were alive, for they had proof of it. And thenthey told me that a good many years ago, when the speakers were boys, some Wokanmen who were out fishing met these lost people in the sea, and spoke to them; and thechief gave the Wokan men a hundred fathoms of cloth to bring to the men ofWanumbai, to show that they were alive and would soon come back to them, but theWokan men were thieves, and kept the cloth, and they only heard of it afterwards; andwhen they spoke about it, the Wokan men denied it, and pretended they had notreceived the cloth;--so they were quite sure their friends were at that time alive and

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somewhere in the sea. And again, not many years ago, a report came to them that someBu0gis traders had brought some children of their lost people; so they went to Dobboto see about it, and the owner of the house, who was now speaking to me, was one whowent; but the Bugis roan would not let them see the children, and threatened to killthem if they came into his house. He kept the children shut up in a large box, and whenhe went away he took them with him. And at the end of each of these stories, theybegged me in an imploring tone to tell them if I knew where their chief and theirpeople now were. By dint of questioning, I got some account of the strangers who had taken awaytheir people. They said they were wonderfully strong, and each one could kill a greatmany 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 entangledtheir prisoners in it, and sunk them in the water; and the next day, when they pulled thenet 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 amanner that I could make nothing out of it, till I inquired how long ago it was that allthis happened, when they told me that after their people were taken away the Bugiscame in their praus to trade in Aru, and to buy tripang and birds' nests. It is notimpossible that something similar to what they related to me really happened when theearly Portuguese discoverers first carne to Aru, and has formed the foundation for acontinually increasing accumulation of legend and fable. I have no doubt that to thenext generation, or even before, I myself shall be transformed into a magician or ademigod, a worker of miracles, and a being of supernatural knowledge. They alreadybelieve that all the animals I preserve will come to life again; and to their children itwill be related that they actually did so. An unusual spell of fine weather setting in justat my arrival has made them believe I can control the seasons; and the simplecircumstance of my always walking alone in the forest is a wonder and a mystery tothem, as well as my asking them about birds and animals I have not yet seen, andshowing an acquaintance with their form, colours, and habits. These facts are broughtagainst me when I disclaim knowledge of what they wish me to tell them. "You mustknow," say they; "you know everything: you make the fine weather for your men toshoot, and you know all about our birds and our animals as well as we do; and you goalone into the forest and are not afraid." Therefore every confession of ignorance on mypart is thought to be a blind, a mere excuse to avoid telling them too much. My verywriting materials and books are to them weird things; and were I to choose to mystifythem by a few simple experiments with lens and magnet, miracles without end would ina few years cluster about me; and future travellers, penetrating to Wanumbai, world hhardly believe that a poor English naturalist, who had resided a few months amongthem, could have been the original of the supernatural being to whom so many marvelswere attributed. Far some days I had noticed a good deal of excitement, and many strangers cameand went armed with spears and cutlasses, bows and shields. I now found there was warnear us--two neighbouring villages having a quarrel about some matter of local politicsthat I could not understand. They told me it was quite a common thing, and that theyare rarely without fighting somewhere near. Individual quarrels are taken up by villagesand tribes, and the nonpayment of the stipulated price for a wife is one of the mostfrequent causes of bitterness and bloodshed. One of the war shields was brought me tolook 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 themiddle there was au arm-hole with a shutter or flap over it. This enables the arm to beput through and the bow drawn, while the body and face, up to the eyes, remainprotected, which cannot be done if the shield is carried on the arm by loops attached atthe back in the ordinary way. A few of the young men from our house went to helptheir friends, but I could not bear that any of them were hurt, or that there was much

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hard fighting. May 8th. - I had now been six weeks at Wanumbai, but for more than half the timewas laid up in the house with ulcerated feet. My stores being nearly exhausted, and mybird and insect boxes full, and having no immediate prospect of getting the use of mylegs 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 theywould 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 andfrom 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 toaccumulate a stock of beads and coppers for future expenses. The owner of the housewas supplied gratis with a little rice, fish, or salt, whenever he asked for it, which Imust say was not very often. On parting, I distributed among them my remnant stock ofsalt and tobacco, and gave my host a flask of arrack, and believe that on the whole mystay with these simple and good-natured people was productive of pleasure and profitto both parties. I fully intended to come back; and had I known that circumstanceswould have prevented my doing so, shoed have felt some sorrow in leaving a placewhere I had first seen so many rare and beautiful living things, and bad so fullyenjoyed the pleasure which fills the heart of the naturalist when he is so fortunate as todiscover a district hitherto unexplored, and where every day brings forth new andunexpected treasures. We loaded our boat in the afternoon, and, starting beforedaybreak, 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-housewhere the Commissioners hold their sittings. They had now left the island, and I foundthe situation agreeable, as it was at the end of the village, with a view down theprincipal street. It was a mere shed, but half of it had a roughly boarded floor, and byputting up a partition and opening a window I made it a very pleasant abode. In one ofthe boxes I had left in charge of Herr Warzbergen, a colony of small ants had settledand deposited millions of eggs. It was luckily a fine hot day, and by carrying the boxsome distance from the house, and placing every article in the sunshine for an hour ortwo, 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 beenadded 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 athick white lime-plaster for the homeward voyage, making them the brightest andcleanest 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 carpenterswere busy at work; mother-of-pearl shell was being tied up in bundles, and the blackand ugly smoked tripang was having a last exposure to the sun before loading. Thespare portion of the crews were employed cutting and squaring timber, and boats fromCeram 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 refusefood of a dense population, and the Chinamen's pigs were in a state of obesity that

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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 orwhite fruit-pigeons which cooed musically at noon and eventide. Young cassowaries,strangely striped with black and brown, wandered about the houses or gambolled withthe 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 formerresidence. Tom-toms, jews'-harps, and even fiddles were to be heard, and themelancholy Malay songs sounded not unpleasantly far into the night. Almost every daythere was a cock-fight in the street. The spectators make a ring, and after the long steelspurs are tied on, and the poor animals are set down to gash and kill each other, theexcitement is immense. Those who lave made bets scream and yell and jumpfrantically, if they think they are going to win or lose, but in a very few minutes it is allover; there is a hurrah from the winners, the owners seize their cocks, the winning birdis caressed and admired, the loser is generally dead or very badly wounded, and hismaster may often be seen plucking out his feathers as he walks away, preparing him forthe cooking pot while the poor bird is still alive. A game at foot-ball, which generally took place at sunset, was, however, muchmore 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, thenoccasionally on his arm or thigh, till suddenly he gives it a good blow with the hollowof the foot, and sends it flying high in the air. Another player runs to meet it, and at itsfirst bound catches it on his foot and plays in his turn. The ball must never be touchedwith 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 theplace was too confined to show off the game to advantage. One evening a quarrel arosefrom some dispute in the game, and there was a great row, and it was feared therewould be a fight about it--not two men only, but a party of a dozen or twenty on eachside, a regular battle with knives and krisses; but after a large amount of talk it passedoff quietly, and we heard nothing about it afterwards. Most Europeans being gifted by nature with a luxuriant growth of hair upon theirfaces, think it disfigures them, and keep up a continual struggle against her by mowingdown every morning the crop which has sprouted up flaring the preceding twenty-fourhours. 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. Butshaving seems an instinct of the human race; for many of these people, having no hairto take off their faces, shave their heads. Others, however, set resolutely to work toforce nature to give them a beard. One of the chief cock-fighters at Dobbo was aJavanese, a sort of master of the ceremonies of the ring, who tied on the spars and actedas backer-up to one of the combatants. This man had succeeded, by assiduouscultivation, in raising a pair of moustaches which were a triumph of art, for they eachcontained about a dozen hairs more than three inches long, and which, being wellgreased and twisted, were distinctly visible (when not too far off) as a black threadhanging down on each side of his mouth. But the beard to match was the difficulty, fornature had cruelly refused to give him a rudiment of hair on his chin, and the mosttalented gardener could not do much if he had nothing to cultivate. But true geniustriumphs over difficulties. Although there was no hair proper on the chin; therehappened to be, rather on one side of it, a small mole or freckle which contained (assuch things frequently do) a few stray hairs. These had been made the most of. Theyhad reached four or five inches in length, and formed another black thread danglingfrom the left angle of the chin. The owner carried this as if it were somethingremarkable (as it certainly was); he often felt it affectionately, passed it between hisfingers, and was evidently extremely proud of his moustaches and beard! One of the most surprising things connected with Aru was the excessive cheapness

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of all articles of European or native manufacture. We were here two thousand milesbeyond Singapore and Batavia, which are themselves emporiums of the "far east," in aplace unvisited by, and almost unknown to, European traders; everything reached usthrough at least two or three hands, often many more; yet English calicoes andAmerican cotton cloths could be bought for 8s. the piece, muskets for 15s., commonscissors 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 countrycan, in fact, buy all these things at about the same money price as our workmen athome, but in reality very much cheaper, for the produce of a few hours' labour enablesthe savage to purchase in abundance what are to him luxuries, while to the Europeanthey are necessaries of life. The barbarian is no happier and no better off for thischeapness. On the contrary, it has a most injurious effect on him. He wants the stimulusof necessity to force him to labour; and if iron were as dear as silver, and calico ascostly 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 morefrequently and more thoroughly; for your Aru man scorns to get half drunk-a tumblerfull of arrack is but a slight stimulus, and nothing less than half a gallon of spirit willmake him tipsy to his own satisfaction. It is not agreeable to reflect on this state of things. At least half of the vastmultitudes of uncivilized peoples, on whom our gigantic manufacturing system,enormous capital, and intense competition force the produce of our looms andworkshops, would be not a whit worse off physically, and would certainly be improvedmorally, if all the articles with which w e supply them were double or treble theirpresent prices. If at the same time the difference of cost, or a large portion of it, couldfind its way into the pockets of the manufacturing workmen, thousands would be raisedfrom want to comfort, from starvation to health, and would be removed from one ofthe chief incentives to crime. It is difficult for an Englishman to avoid contemplatingwith pride our gigantic and ever-increasing manufactures and commerce, and thinkingeverything good that renders their progress still more rapid, either by lowering the priceat which the articles can be produced, or by discovering new markets to which theymay be sent. If, however, the question that is so frequently asked of the votaries of theless popular sciences were put here--"Cui bono?"--it would be found more difficult toanswer than had been imagined. The advantages, even to the few who reap them, wouldbe seen to be mostly physical, while the wide-spread moral and intellectual evilsresulting from unceasing labour, low wages, crowded dwellings, and monotonousoccupations, to perhaps as large a number as those who gain any real advantage, mightbe held to show a balance of evil so great, as to lead the greatest admirers of ourmanufactures and commerce to doubt the advisability of their further development. Itwill be said: "We cannot stop it; capital must be employed; our population must bekept at work; if we hesitate a moment, other nations now hard pressing us will getahead, and national ruin will follow." Some of this is true, some fallacious. It isundoubtedly a difficult problem which we have to solve; and I am inclined to think it isthis difficulty that makes men conclude that what seems a necessary and unalterablestate of things must be good-that its benefits must he greater than its evils. This wasthe 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 fairconsideration of the matter in all its hearings shows that a preponderance of evil arisesfrom the immensity of our manufactures and commerce-evil which must go onincreasing with their increase-there is enough both of political wisdom and truephilanthropy in Englishmen, to induce them to turn their superabundant wealth intoother channels. The fact that has led to these remarks is surely a striking one: that inone of the most remote corners of the earth savages can buy clothing cheaper than thepeople of the country where it is made; that the weaver's child should shiver in thewintry wind, unable to purchase articles attainable by the wild natives of a tropical

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climate, where clothing is mere ornament or luxury, should make us pause ere weregard with unmixed admiration the system which has led to such a result, and cause usto look with some suspicion on the further extension of that system. It must beremembered too that our commerce is not a purely natural growth. It has been everfostered by the legislature, and forced to an unnatural luxuriance by the protection ofour fleets and armies. The wisdom and the justice of this policy have been alreadydoubted. So soon, therefore, as it is seen that the further extension of our manufacturesand 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 resumemy daily walks in the forest. I did not, however, find it so productive as when I hadfirst arrived at Dobbo. There was a damp stagnation about the paths, and insects werevery 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 addsomething daily to my extensive collections. I one day met with a curious example offailure of instinct, which, by showing it to be fallible, renders it very doubtful whetherit is anything more than hereditary habit, dependent on delicate modifications ofsensation. Some sailors cut down a good-sized tree, and, as is always my practice, Ivisited it daily for some time in search of insects. Among other beetles came swarms ofthe little cylindrical woodborers (Platypus, Tesserocerus, &c.), and commenced makingholes in the bark. After a day or two I was surprised to find hundreds of them stickingin the holes they had bored, and on examination discovered that the milky sap of thetree was of the nature of gutta-percha, hardening rapidly on exposure to the air, andglueing the little animals in self-dug graves. The habit of boring holes in trees in whichto deposit their eggs, was not accompanied by a sufficient instinctive knowledge ofwhich trees were suitable, and which destructive to them. If, as is very probable, thesetrees have an attractive odour to certain species of borers, it might very likely lead totheir becoming extinct; while other species, to whom the same odour was disagreeable,and who therefore avoided the dangerous trees, would survive, and would be creditedby 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. Thefemales have a pointed rostrum, with which they bore deep holes in the bark of deadtrees, 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 sometimesterminating in a good-sized pair of jaws. I once saw two males fighting together; eachhad a fore-leg laid across the neck of the other, and the rostrum bent quite in an attitudeof 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, andclawed and thumped, apparently in the greatest rage, although their coats of mail musthave saved both from injury. The small one, however, soon ran away, acknowledginghimself vanquished. In most Coleoptera the female is larger than the male, and it istherefore interesting, as bearing on the question of sexual selection, that in this case, asin 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 flowersscattered here and there about the forest. Could it have been seen from an elevation, itwould have had a fine effect; from below I could only catch sight of masses ofgorgeous colour in clusters and festoons overhead, about which flocks of blue andorange lories were fluttering and screaming.

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MALE BRENTHIDAE (Leptorhynchus angustasus) FIGHTING

A good many people died at Dobbo this season; I believe about twenty. They wereburied 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 bodywas wrapped up in new white cotton cloth, and was carried on a bier to the grave. Allthe spectators sat down on the ground, and the priest chanted some verses from theKoran. The graves were fenced round with a slight bamboo railing, and a little carvedwooden head-post was put to mark the spot. There was also in the village a smallmosque, where every Friday the faithful went to pray. This is probably more remotefrom Mecca than any other mosque in the world, and marks the farthest easternextension of the Mahometan religion. The Chinese here, as elsewhere, showed theirsuperior 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 thisstrange, ubiquitous, money-getting people. Soon after we had returned to Dobbo, my Macassar boy, Baderoon, took his wagesand 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 hisluck turned; he lost everything, borrowed money and lost that, and was obliged tobecome the slave of his creditor till he had worked out the debt. He was a quick andactive lad when he pleased, but was apt to be idle, and had such an incorrigiblepropensity 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 inanother week or two Dobbo would be deserted. Preparations for departure wereeverywhere visible, and every sunny day (rather rare now) the streets were as crowdedand 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 longbeing 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. Almostevery day groups of natives arrived from the most distant parts of the islands, withcargoes of bananas and sugar- cane to exchange for tobacco, sago, bread, and otherluxuries, before the general departure. The Chinamen killed their fat pig and made theirparting feast, and kindly sent me some pork, and a basin of birds' nest stew, which hadvery 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

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ague might have obtained twice the number. He had lived with the people whose houseI had occupied, and it is a proof of their goodness, if fairly treated, that although hetook with him a quantity of silver dollars to pay for the birds they caught, no attemptwas made to rob him, which might have been done with the most perfect impunity. Hewas kindly treated when ill, and was brought back to me with the balance of the dollarshe had not spent. The Wanumbai people, like almost all the inhabitants of the Aru Islands, areperfect savages, and I saw no signs of any religion. There are, however, three or fourvillages on the coast where schoolmasters from Amboyna reside, and the people arenominally Christians, and are to some extent educated and civilized. I could not getmuch real knowledge of the customs of the Aru people during the short time I wasamong them, but they have evidently been considerably influenced by their longassociation with Mahometan traders. They often bury their dead, although the nationalcustom is to expose the body an a raised stage till it decomposes. Though there is nolimit to the number of wives a man may have, they seldom exceed one or two. A wifeis 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 killthe old men and women when they can no longer work, but I saw many very old anddecrepid people, who seemed pretty well attended to. No doubt all who have muchintercourse with the Bugis and Ceramese traders gradually lose many of their nativecustoms, especially as these people often settle in their villages and marry nativewomen. The trade carried on at Dobbo is very considerable. This year there were fifteenlarge praus from Macassar, and perhaps a hundred small boats from Ceram, Goram,and Ke. The Macassar cargoes are worth about £1,000. each, and the other boats takeaway perhaps about £3,000, worth, so that the whole exports may be estimated at£18,000. 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 ofgoods. Of arrack, about equal in strength to ordinary West India rum, 3,000 boxes, eachcontaining fifteen half-gallon bottles, are consumed annually. Native cloth fromCelebes is much esteemed for its durability, and large quantities are sold, as well aswhite English calico and American unbleached cottons, common crockery, coarsecutlery, muskets, gunpowder, gongs, small brass cannon, and elephants' tusks. Thesethree last articles constitute the wealth of the Aru people, with which they pay for theirwives, or which they hoard up as "real property." Tobacco is in immense demand forchewing, and it must be very strong, or an Aru man will not look at it. Knowing howlittle these people generally work, the mass of produce obtained annually shows that theislands must be pretty thickly inhabited, especially along the coasts, as nine-tenths ofthe whole are marine productions. It was on the 2d of July that we left Aru, followed by all the Macassar praus, fifteenin number, who had agreed to sail in company. We passed south of Banda, and thensteered due west, not seeing land for three days, till we sighted some low islands westof Bouton. We had a strong and steady south-east wind day and night, which carried uson at about five knots an hour, where a clipper ship would have made twelve. The skywas continually cloudy, dark, and threatening, with occasional drizzling showers, till wewere west of Bouru, when it cleared up and we enjoyed the bright sunny skies of thedry season for the rest of our voyage. It is about here, therefore that the seasons of theeastern and western regions of the Archipelago are divided. West of this line from Juneto December is generally fine, and often very dry, the rest of the year being the wetseason. East of it the weather is exceedingly uncertain, each island, and each side of anisland, having its own peculiarities. The difference seems to consist not so much in thedistribution 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

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weather was gloomy; while in January, February, and March, when we had the hottestsunshine and the finest days, they were always flowing. The driest time of all the yearin Aru occurs in September and October, just as it does in Java and Celebes. The rainyseasons agree, therefore, with those of the western islands, although the weather is verydifferent. The Molucca sea is of a very deep blue colour, quite distinct from the clearlight blue of the Atlantic. In cloudy and dull weather it looks absolutely black, andwhen crested with foam has a stern and angry aspect. The wind continued fair andstrong during our whole voyage, and we reached Macassar in perfect safety on theevening of the 11th of July, having made the passage from Aru (more than a thousandmiles) in nine and a half days. My expedition to the Aru Islands had been eminently successful. Although I hadbeen for months confined to the house by illness, and had lost much time by the wantof the means of locomotion, and by missing the right season at the right place, Ibrought away with me more than nine thousand specimens of natural objects, of aboutsixteen 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 hadrevelled in the delights of exploring a new fauna and flora, one of the most remarkableand most beautiful and least-known in the world; and I had succeeded in the mainobject for which I had undertaken the journey-namely, to obtain fine specimens of themagnificent 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 NewGuinea for nearly five years longer, and it is still the portion of my travels to which Ilook back with the most complete satisfaction.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE ARU ISLANDS - PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ASPECTSOF NATURE

IN this chapter I propose to give a general sketch of the physical geography of theAru Islands, and of their relation to the surrounding countries; and shall thus be able toincorporate the information obtained from traders, and from the works of othernaturalists with my own observations in these exceedingly interesting and little-knownregions. The Aru group may be said to consist of one very large central island with anumber of small ones scattered round it. The great island is called by the natives andtraders "Tang-busar" (great or mainland), to distinguish it as a whole from Dobbo, orany of the detached islands. It is of an irregular oblong form, about eighty miles fromnorth to south, and forty or fifty from east to west, in which direction it is traversed bythree narrow channels, dividing it into four portions. These channels are always calledrivers by the traders, which puzzled me much till I passed through one of them, andsaw how exceedingly applicable the name was. The northern channel, called the riverof Watelai, is about a quarter of a mile wide at its entrance, but soon narrows to abortthe eighth of a mile, which width it retains, with little variation, during its whole, lengthof nearly fifty miles, till it again widens at its eastern mouth. Its course is moderatelywinding, and the hanks are generally dry and somewhat elevated. In many places thereare 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 littleinland. A few small streams enter it from right and left, at the mouths of which aresome 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

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current. The other two rivers, whose names are Vorkai and Maykor, are said to be verysimilar in general character; but they are rather near together, and have a number ofcross channels intersecting the flat tract between them. On the south side of Maykor thebanks are very rocky, and from thence to the southern extremity of Aru is anuninterrupted extent of rather elevated and very rocky country, penetrated by numeroussmall streams, in the high limestone cliffs bordering which the edible birds' nests ofAru are chiefly obtained. All my informants stated that the two southern rivers arelarger than Watelai. The whole of Aru is low, but by no means so flat as it has been represented, or as itappears from the sea. Most of it is dry rocky ground, with a somewhat undulatingsurface, 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 smallrivers, there is no absolutely level ground, although the greatest elevation is probablynot more than two hundred feet. The rock which everywhere appears in the ravines andbrooks is a coralline limestone, in some places soft and pliable, in others so hard andcrystalline as to resemble our mountain limestone. The small islands which surround the central mass are very numerous; but most ofthem are on the east side, where they form a fringe, often extending ten or fifteen milesfrom the main islands. On the west there are very few, Wamma and Palo Pabi being thechief, with Ougia, and Wassia at the north-west extremity. On the east side the sea iseverywhere shallow, and full of coral; and it is here that the pearl-shells are foundwhich form one of the chief staples of Aru trade. All the islands are covered with adense and very lofty forest. The physical features here described are of peculiar interest, and, as far as I amaware, are to some extent unique; for I have been unable to find any other record of anisland of the size of Aru crossed by channels which exactly resemble true rivers. Howthese channels originated were a complete puzzle to me, till, after a long considerationof the whole of the natural phenomena presented by these islands, I arrived at aconclusion which I will now endeavour to explain. There are three ways in which wemay conceive islands which are not volcanic to have been formed, or to have beenreduced to their present condition, by elevation, by subsidence, or by separation from acontinent 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 encirclingreefs, have suffered subsidence; while our own islands, whose productions are entirelythose of the adjacent continent, have been separated from it. Now the Aru Islands areall coral rock, and the adjacent sea is shallow and full of coral, it is therefore evidentthat they have been elevated from beneath the ocean at a not very distant epoch. But ifwe suppose that elevation to be the first and only cause of their present condition, weshall find ourselves quite unable to explain the curious river-channels which dividethem. 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 currentsduring 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 havebeen one of subsidence, reducing the size of the islands, these channels are quite asinexplicable; for subsidence would necessarily lead to the flooding of all low tracts onthe banks of the old rivers, and thus obliterate their courses; whereas these remainperfect, and of nearly uniform width from end to end. Now if these channels have ever been rivers they must have flowed from somehigher regions, and this must have been to the east, because on the north and west thesea-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 quiteacross to New Guinea, a distance of about a hundred and fifty miles. An elevation ofonly 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

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mouths at Utanata and Wamuka, might then have flowed on across Aru, in the channelswhich are now occupied by salt water. Then the intervening land sunk down, we mustsuppose the land that now constitutes Aru to have remained nearly stationary, a notvery improbable supposition, when we consider the great extent of the shallow sea, andthe 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 doesnot rest on this evidence alone. There is such a striking resemblance between theproductions of the two countries as only- exists between portions of a commonterritory. I collected one hundred species of land-birds in the Aru Islands, and abouteighty of them, have been found on the mainland of New Guinea. Among these are thegreat wingless cassowary, two species of heavy brush turkeys, and two of short wingedthrushes; which could certainly not have passed over the 150 miles of open sea to thecoast of New Guinea. This barrier is equally effectual in the case of many other birdswhich live only in the depths of the forest, as the kinghunters (Dacelo gaudichaudi), thefly-catching wrens (Todopsis), the great crown pigeon (Goura coronata), and the smallwood doves (Ptilonopus perlatus, P. aurantiifrons, and P. coronulatus). Now, to showthe real effect of such barrier, let us take the island of Ceram, which is exactly the samedistance from New Guinea, but separated from it by a deep sea. Cut of about seventyland-birds inhabiting Ceram, only fifteen are found in New Guinea, and none of theseare terrestrial or forest-haunting species. The cassowary is distinct; the kingfishers,parrots, pigeons, flycatchers, honeysuckers, thrushes, and cuckoos, are almost alwaysquite distinct species. More than this, at least twenty genera, which are common toNew Guinea and Aru, do not extend into Ceram, indicating with a force which everynaturalist will appreciate, that the two latter countries have received their faunas in aradically different manner. Again, a true kangaroo is found in Aru, and the samespecies occurs in Mysol, which is equally Papuan in its productions, while either thesame, or one closely allied to it, inhabits New Guinea; but no such animal is found inCeram, which is only sixty miles from Mysol. Another small marsupial animal(Perameles doreyanus) is common to Aru and New Guinea. The insects show exactlythe same results. The butterflies of Aru are all either New Guinea species, or veryslightly modified forms; whereas those of Ceram are more distinct than are the birds ofthe 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 downwardmovements 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 landswhich have entirely disappeared beneath the ocean. Here physical geography and thedistribution of animals and plants are of the greatest service. By ascertaining the depthof the seas separating one country from another, we can form some judgment of thechanges which are taking place. If there are other evidences of subsidence, a shallowsea implies a former connexion of the adjacent lands; but i£ this evidence is wanting,or if there is reason to suspect a rising of the land, then the shallow sea may be theresult of that rising, and may indicate that the two countries will be joined at somefuture time, but not that they have previously been so. The nature of the animals andplants inhabiting these countries will, however, almost always enable us to determinethis 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 thepresence or absence of terrestrial Mammalia and reptiles. What he terms "oceanicislands "possess neither of these groups of animals, though they may have a luxuriantvegetation, and a fair number of birds, insects, and landshells; and we thereforeconclude that they have originated in mid-ocean, and have never been connected withthe nearest masses of land. St. Helena, Madeira, and New Zealand are examples ofoceanic islands. They possess all other classes of life, because these have means ofdispersion over wide spaces of sea, which terrestrial mammals and birds have not, as is

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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 actuallyconnected with the adjacent continents or islands, and yet may possess representativesof all classes of animals, because many terrestrial mammals and some reptiles have themeans of passing over short distances of sea. But in these cases the number of speciesthat have thus migrated will be very small, and there will be great deficiencies even inbirds and flying insects, which we should imagine could easily cross over. The islandof Timor (as I have already shown in Chapter XIII) bears this relation to Australia; forwhile it contains several birds and insects of Australian forms, no Australian mammalor reptile is found in it, and a great number of the most abundant and characteristicforms of Australian birds and insects are entirely absent. Contrast this with the BritishIslands, in, which a large proportion of the plants, insects, reptiles, and Mammalia ofthe adjacent parts of the continent are fully represented, while there are no remarkabledeficiencies of extensive groups, such as always occur when there is reason to believethere has been no such connexion. The case of Sumatra, Borneo, and Java, and theAsiatic continent is equally clear; many large Mammalia, terrestrial birds, and reptilesbeing 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 localityimplies lapse of time, and we therefore infer that in Great Britain, where almost everyspecies is absolutely identical with those on the Continent, the separation has been veryrecent; while in Sumatra and Java, where a considerable number of the continentalspecies are represented by allied forms, the separation was more remote. From these examples we may see how important a supplement to geologicalevidence is the study of the geographical distribution of animals and plants, indetermining the former condition of the earth's surface; and how impossible it is tounderstand the former without taking the latter into account. The productions of the AruIslands offer the strangest evidence, that at no very distant epoch they formed a part ofNew Guinea; and the peculiar physical features which I have described, indicate thatthey must have stood at very nearly the same level then as they do now, having beenseparated 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 whopicture to themselves the abundance and brilliancy of the flowers, and the magnificentappearance of hundreds of forest trees covered with masses of coloured blossoms, willbe surprised to hear, that though vegetation in Aru is highly luxuriant and varied, andwould afford abundance of fine and curious plants to adorn our hothouses, yet brightand showy flowers are, as a general rule, altogether absent, or so very scarce as toproduce no effect whatever on the general scenery. To give particulars: I have visitedfive distinct localities in the islands, I have wandered daily in the forests, and havepassed along upwards of a hundred miles of coast and river during a period of sixmonths, much of it very fine weather, and till just as I was about to leave, I never saw asingle plant of striking brilliancy or beauty, hardly a shrub equal to a hawthorn, or aclimber equal to a honeysuckle! It cannot be said that the flowering season had notarrived, for I saw many herbs, shrubs, and forest trees in flower, but all had blossomsof a green or greenish-white tint, not superior to our lime-trees. Here and there on theriver 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, butso 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 treeferns, the lofty palms, and the variety of beautiful and curious plants which everywheremeet 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 anexaggeration of a general tropical feature; for my whole experience in the equatorialregions of the west and the east has convinced me, that in the most luxuriant parts ofthe tropics, flowers are less abundant, on the average less showy, and are far less

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effective in adding colour to the landscape than in temperate climates. I have neverseen in the tropics such brilliant masses of colour as even England can show in herfurze-clad commons, her heathery mountain-sides, her glades of wild hyacinths, herfields 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 smallermasses of colour in our hawthorn and crab trees, our holly and mountain-ash, ourboom; foxgloves, primroses, and purple vetches, which clothe with gay colours thewhole length and breadth of our land, These beauties are all common. They arecharacteristic of the country and the climate; they have not to be sought for, but theygladden the eye at every step. In the regions of the equator, on the other hand, whetherit be forest or savannah, a sombre green clothes universal nature. You may journey forhours, and even for days, and meet with nothing to break the monotony. Flowers areeverywhere rare, and anything at all striking is only to be met with at very distantintervals. The idea that nature exhibits gay colours in the tropics, and that the general aspectof nature is there more bright and varied in hue than with us, has even been made thefoundation of theories of art, and we have been forbidden to use bright colours in ourgarments, and in the decorations of our dwellings, because it was supposed that weshould be thereby acting in opposition to the teachings of nature. The argument itself isa very poor one, since it might with equal justice be maintained, that as we possessfaculties for the appreciation of colours, we should make up for the deficiencies ofnature and use the gayest tints in those regions where the landscape is mostmonotonous. But the assumption on which the argument is founded is totally false, sothat even if the reasoning were valid, we need not be afraid of outraging nature, bydecorating our houses and our persons with all those gay hues which are so lavishlyspread 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 tropicalvegetation. In our hothouses and at our flower-shows we gather together the finestflowering plants from the most distant regions of the earth, and exhibit them in aproximity to each other which never occurs in nature. A hundred distinct plants, allwith bright, or strange, or gorgeous flowers, make a wonderful show when broughttogether; but perhaps no two of these plants could ever be seen together in a state ofnature, each inhabiting a distant region or a different station. Again, all moderatelywarm extra-European countries are mixed up with the tropics in general estimation, anda vague idea is formed that whatever is preeminently beautiful must come from thehottest parts of the earth. But the fact is quite the contrary. Rhododendrons and azaleasare plants of temperate regions, the grandest lilies are from temperate Japan, and alarge proportion of our most showy flowering plants are natives of the Himalayas, ofthe 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 theproportion they bear to the mass of the vegetation is exceedingly small; so that whatappears an anomaly is nevertheless a fact, and the effect of flowers on the generalaspect 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

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my long-wished-for voyage to the mainland of New Guinea, where I anticipated thatmy collections would surpass those which I had formed at the Aru Islands. The povertyof Ternate in articles used by Europeans was shown, by my searching in vain throughall 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 fourservants: 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, aJavanese cook. As I knew I should have to build a house at Dorey, where I was going, Itook with me eighty cadjans, or waterproof mats, made of pandanus leaves, to coverover 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 myfriend Mr. Duivenboden, and bound on a trading voyage along the north coast of NewGuinea. Having calms and light airs, we were three days reaching Gane, near the southend 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 voyageto Dorey harbour. We found it, however, by no means easy to get along; for so near tothe equator the monsoons entirely fail of their regularity, and after passing the southernpoint of Gilolo we had calms, light puffs of wind, and contrary currents, which kept usfor five days in sight of the same islands between it and Poppa. A squall them broughtus on to the entrance of Dampier's Straits, where we were again becalmed, and werethree more days creeping through them. Several native canoes now came off to us fromWaigiou 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 willpurchase anything at ten times its value. My only purchases were a float belonging to aturtle-spear, carved to resemble a bird, and a very well made palm-leaf box, for whicharticles I gave a copper ring and a yard of calico. The canoes were very narrow andfurnished with an outrigger, and in some of them there was only one man, who seemedto think nothing of coming out alone eight or ten miles from shore. The people werePapuans, much resembling the natives of Aru. When we had got out of the Straits, and were fairly in the great Pacific Ocean, wehad a steady wind for the first time since leaving Ternate, but unfortunately it was deadahead, and we had to beat against it, tacking on and off the coast of New Guinea. Ilooked with intense interest on those rugged mountains, retreating ridge behind ridgeinto the interior, where the foot of civilized man had never trod. There was the countryof the cassowary and the tree-kangaroo, and those dark forests produced the mostextraordinary and the most beautiful of the feathered inhabitants of the earth--thevaried species of Birds of Paradise. A few days more and I hoped to be in pursuit ofthese, 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 l0thof April that a fine westerly breeze set in, followed by a squally night, which kept usoff the entrance of Dorey harbour. The next morning we entered, and came to anchoroff 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, andinvited us to go on shore and breakfast with him. We were then introduced to hiscompanion who was suffering dreadfully from an abscess on the heel, which hadconfined 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 orEnglish, and had to guess at our compliments on her excellent breakfast by the justicewe did to it. These missionaries were working men, and had been sent out, as being more usefulamong savages than persons of a higher class. They had been here about two years, andMr. Otto had already learnt to speak the Papuan language with fluency, and had begun

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translating some portions of the Bible. The language, however, is so poor that aconsiderable number of Malay words have to be used; and it is very questionablewhether it is possible to convey any idea of such a book, to a people in so low a stateof civilization. The only nominal converts yet made are a few of the women; and somefew of the children attend school, and are being taught to read, but they make littleprogress. There is one feature of this mission which I believe will materially interferewith its moral effect. The missionaries are allowed to trade to eke out the very smallsalaries granted them from Europe, and of course are obliged to carry out the tradeprinciple of buying cheap and selling dear, in order to make a profit. Like all savagesthe natives are quite careless of the future, and when their small rice crops are gatheredthey 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 ratethan it was bought, as is perfectly fair and just -- and the operation is on the wholethoroughly beneficial to the natives, who would otherwise consume and waste theirfood when it was abundant, and then starve -- yet I cannot imagine that the natives seeit in this light. They must look upon the trading missionaries with some suspicion, andcannot feel so sure of their teachings being disinterested, as would be the case if theyacted like the Jesuits in Singapore. The first thing to be done by the missionary inattempting to improve savages, is to convince them by his actions that he comes amongthem for their benefit only, and not for any private ends of his own. To do this he mustact in a different way from other men, not trading and taking advantage of thenecessities of those who want to sell, but rather giving to those who are in distress. Itwould he well if he conformed himself in some degree to native customs, and thenendeavoured to show how these customs might be gradually modified, so as to be morehealthful and more agreeable. A few energetic and devoted men acting in this waymight probably effect a decided moral improvement on the lowest savage tribes,whereas trading missionaries, teaching what Jesus said, but not doing as He did, canscarcely be expected to do more than give them a very little of the superficial varnishof religion. Dorey harbour is in a fine bay, at one extremity of which an elevated point jutsout, and, with two or three small islands, forms a sheltered anchorage. The only vesselit 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 NewGuinea, for the purpose of fixing on a locality for a colony. In the evening we paid it avisit, and landed at the village of Dorey, to look out for a place where I could build myhouse. Mr. Otto also made arrangements for me with some of the native chiefs, to sendmen to cut wood, rattans, and bamboo the next day. The villages of Mansinam and Dorey presented some features quite new to me. Thehouses all stand completely in the water, and are reached by long rude bridges. Theyare very low, with the roof shaped like a large boat, bottom upwards. The posts whichsupport the houses, bridges, and platforms are small crooked sticks, placed without anyregularity, and looking as if they were tumbling down. The floors are also formed ofsticks, equally irregular, and so loose and far apart that I found it almost impossible towalls on them. The walls consist of bits of boards, old boats, rotten mats, attaps, andpalm-leaves, stuck in anyhow here and there, and having altogether the most wretchedand dilapidated appearance it is possible to conceive. Under the eaves of many of thehouses hang human skulls, the trophies of their battles with the savage Arfaks of theinterior, who often come to attack them. A large boat-shaped council-house issupported on larger posts, each of which is grossly carved to represent a naked male orfemale human figure, and other carvings still more revolting are placed upon theplatform before the entrance. The view of an ancient lake-dweller's village, given asthe frontispiece of Sir Charles Lyell's "Antiquity of Man," is chiefly founded on a

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sketch of this very village of Dorey; but the extreme regularity of the structures theredepicted has no place in the original, any more than it probably had in the actual lake-villages.

PAPUAN, NEW GUINEA

The people who inhabit these miserable huts are very similar to the Ké and Aruislanders, 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 approachingclosely to black, and the fine mop-like heads of frizzly hair appear to be more commonthan elsewhere, and are considered a great ornament, a long six-pronged bamboo forkbeing kept stuck in them to serve the purpose of a comb; and this is assiduously used atidle 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 equallyluxuriant development. A growth of hair somewhat similar to this, and almost asabundant, is found among the half-breeds between the Indian and Negro in SouthAmerica. 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 nightbuilding a house, with the assistance of a dozen Papuans and my own men. It wasimmense trouble to get our labourers to work, as scarcely one of them could speak aword of Malay; and it was only by the most energetic gesticulations, and going througha regular pantomime of what was wanted, that we could get them to do anything. If wemade them understand that a few more poles were required, which two could haveeasily cut, six or eight would insist upon going together, although we needed theirassistance in other things. One morning ten of them came to work, bringing only one

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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, bythe side of the chief path from the village of Dorey to the provision-grounds and theforest. Within twenty yards was a little stream; which furnished us with excellent waterand a nice place to bathe. There was only low underwood to clear away, while somefine forest trees stood at a short distance, and we cut down the wood for about twentyyards round to give us light and air. The house, about twenty feet by fifteen; was builtentirely 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 alittle partition. I bought a number of very large palm-leaf mats of the natives, whichmade excellent walls; while the mats I had brought myself were used on the roof, andwere covered over with attaps as soon as we could get them made. Outside, and ratherbehind, was a little hut, used for cooking, and a bench, roofed over, where my mencould sit to skin birds and animals. When all was finished, I had my goods and storesbrought up, arranged them conveniently inside, and then paid my Papuans with knivesand choppers, and sent them away. The next day our schooner left for the more easternislands, and I found myself fairly established as the only European inhabitant of thevast island of New Guinea. As we had some doubt about the natives, we slept at first with loaded guns besideus and a watch set; but after a few days, finding the people friendly, and feeling surethat they would not venture to attack five well-armed men, we took no furtherprecautions. 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 thepath 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 amonth, according to her contract; and on the same day my hunters went out to shoot forthe 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 aBird 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 (Dacelogaudichaudi), a racquet-tailed kingfisher (Tanysiptera galatea), and two or three otherbirds of less beauty. I went myself to visit the native village on the hill behind Dorey, and took with mea small present of cloth, knives, and beads, to secure the good-will of the chief, and gethim to send some men to catch or shoot birds for me. The houses were scattered aboutamong 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 whichwas a house accommodating a separate family. They were elevated at least fifteen feetabove the ground, on a complete forest of poles, and were so rude and dilapidated thatsome of the small passages had openings in the floor of loose sticks, through which achild might fall. The inhabitants seemed rather uglier than those at Dorey village. Theyare, no doubt, the true indigenes of this part of New Guinea, living in the interior, andsubsisting 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 colonywho have migrated from another district. These hillmen or "Arfaks "differed much inphysical features. They were generally black, but some were brown like Malays. Theirhair, though always more or less frizzly, was sometimes short and matted, instead ofbeing long, loose, and woolly; and this seemed to be a constitutional difference, not theeffect 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 aninterpreter I brought with me) to protect my men when they came there shooting, andalso to procure me some birds and animals. While conversing, they smoked tobacco oftheir 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

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PAPUAN PIPE

the wet season, when the whole country wassoaked with moisture The native paths were soneglected as to be often mere tunnels closed overwith vegetation, and in such places there wasalways a fearful accumulation of mud. To thenaked Papuan this is no obstruction. He wadesthrough it, and the next watercourse makes himclean again; but to myself, wearing boots andtrousers, it was a most disagreeable thing to haveto go up to my knees in a mud-hole everymorning. The man I brought with me to cutwood fell ill soon after we arrived, or I wouldhave set him to clear fresh paths in the worstplaces. For the first ten days it generally rainedevery afternoon and all night r but by going outevery hour of fine weather, I managed to get ontolerably with my collections of birds andinsects, finding most of those collected byLesson during his visit in the Coquille, as well asmany 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 broughtfrom 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 formedby recently raised coral reef's, and are much strewn with masses of coral but littlealtered. The ridge behind my house, which runs out to the point, is also entirely coralrock, although there are signs of a stratified foundation in the ravines, and the rockitself is more compact and crystalline. It is therefore, probably older, a more recentelevation having exposed the low grounds and islands. On the other side of the bay risethe great mass of the Arfak mountains, said by the French navigators to be about tenthousand feet high, and inhabited by savage tribes. These are held in great dread by theDorey people, who have often been attacked and plundered by them, and have some oftheir skulls hanging outside their houses. If I was seem going into the forest anywherein 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 hadgone, it was obliged to stay till they came back. The captain knew when the coalshipwas to arrive, and how long it was chartered to stay at Dorey, and could have beenback in time, but supposed it would wait for him, and so did not hurry himself. Thesteamer lay at anchor just opposite my house, and I had the advantage of hearing thehalf-hourly bells struck, which was very pleasant after the monotonous silence of theforest. The captain, doctor, engineer, and some other of the officers paid me visits; theservants came to the brook to wash clothes, and the son of the Prince of Tidore, withone or two companions, to bathe; otherwise I saw little of them, and was not disturbedby visitors so much as I had expected to be. About this time the weather set in prettyfine, but neither birds nor insects became much more abundant, and new birds -werevery 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 hadobtained here. Insects were tolerably abundant, but were not on the average so fine asthose of Amboyna, and I reluctantly came to the conclusion that Dorey was not a goodcollecting locality. Butterflies were very scarce, arid were mostly the same as thosewhich I had obtained at Aru.

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HORNED FLIESElaphomia cervicornis - - - - - - Elaphomia wallecia

E. brevicornis - - - - - - - - - - E. alcicornis

Among the insects of other orders, the most curious and novel were a group ofhorned flies, of which I obtained four distinct species, settling on fallen trees anddecaying 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 aninch long, slender-bodied, and with very long legs, which they draw together so as toelevate their bodies high above the surface they are standing upon. The front pair oflegs are much shorter, and these are often stretched directly forwards, so as to resembleantenna. The horns spring from beneath the eye, and seem to be a prolongation of thelower part of the orbit. In the largest and most singular species, named Elaphomiacervicornis 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 thehorns of a stag. They are black, with the tips pale, while the body and legs areyellowish 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. Thehorns are about one- third the length of the insect, broad, flat, and of an elongatedtriangular foam. They are of a beautiful pink colour, edged with black, and with a palecentral stripe. The front part of the head is also pink, and the eyes violet pink, with agreen stripe across them, giving the insect a very elegant and singular appearance. Thethird species (Elaphomia alcicornis, the elk- horned deer-fly) is a little smaller than thetwo already described, but resembling in colour Elaphomia wallacei. The horns arevery remarkable, being suddenly dilated into a flat plate, strongly toothed round theouter margin, and strikingly resembling the horns of the elk, after which it has beennamed. They are of a yellowish colour, margined with brown, and tipped with black onthe 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 thehead is compressed and dilated laterally, with very small flat horns; which are blackwith a pale centre, and look exactly like the rudiment of the horns of the two precedingspecies. None of the females have any trace of the horns, ane Mr. Saunders places inthe same genus a species which has no horns in either sex (Elaphomia polita). It is of ashining black colour, and resembles Elaphomia cervicornis in form, size, and generalappearance. The figures above given represent these insects of their natural size and incharacteristic attitudes. The natives seldom brought me anything. They are poor creatures, and, rarely shoota bird, pig, or kangaroo, or even the sluggish opossum-like Cuscus. The tree-kangaroos

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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 commonbirds. Even pigeons were scarce, and in little variety, although we occasionally got thefine crown pigeon, which was always welcome as an addition to our scantily furnishedlarder. Just before the steamer arrived I had wounded my ankle by clambering among thetrunks 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, keepingme in the house for several days. When it healed up it was followed by an internalinflammation of the foot, which by the doctor's advice I poulticed incessantly for fouror five days, bringing out a severe inflamed swelling on the tendon above the heel. Thishad to be leeched, and lanced, and doctored with ointments and poultices for severalweeks, till I was almost driven to despair,--for the weather was at length fine, and I wastantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, and thinking of the twenty orthirty new species of insects that I ought to be getting every day. And this, too, in NewGuinea--a country which I might never visit again,--a country which no naturalist hadever resided in before,--a country which contained more strange and new and beautifulnatural objects than any other part of the globe. The naturalist will be able to appreciatemy feelings, sitting from morning to night in my little hut, unable to move without acrutch, and my only solace the birds my hunters brought in every afternoon, and thefew 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 tomy troubles all my men were more or less ill, some with fever, others with dysentery orague; at one time there were three of them besides myself all helpless, the coon alonebeing well, and having enough to do to wait upon us. The Prince of Tidore and theResident 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 evennative skins of the rarer kinds; and any birds, insects, or animals the Dorey people hadto 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 alittle, and about the same time I succeeded in getting a boat and six natives to take Aliand Lahagi to Amberbaki, and to bring them back at the end of a month. Ali wascharged to buy all the Birds of Paradise he could get, and to shoot and skin all otherrare or new birds; and Lahagi was to collect insects, which I hoped might be moreabundant than at Dorey. When I recommenced my daily walks in search of insects, Ifound a great change in the neighbourhood, and one very agreeable to me. All the timeI had been laid up the ship's crew and the Javanese soldiers who had been brought in atender (a sailing ship which had arrived soon after the Etna), had been employedcutting down, sawing, and splitting large trees for firewood, to enable the steamer to getback to Amboyna if the coal-ship did not return; and they had also cleared a number ofwide, straight paths through the forest in various directions, greatly to the astonishmentof 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 theseadvantages, they were not nearly so plentiful as I had found them at Sarawak, orAmboyna, or Batchian, confirming my opinion that Dorey was not a good locality. It isquite probable, however, that at a station a few miles in the interior, away from therecently elevated coralline rocks and the influence of the sea air, a much more abundantharvest might be obtained. One afternoon I went on board the steamer to return the captain's visit, and wasshown 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 andthe captain's description, it appeared that the people of Arfak were similar to those ofDorey, and I could hear nothing of the straight-haired race which Lesson says inhabits

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the interior, but which no one has ever seen, and the account of which I suspect hasoriginated in some mistake. The captain told me he had made a detailed survey of partof the south coast, and if the coal arrived should go away at once to Humboldt Pay, inlongitude 141° east, which is the line up to which the Dutch claim New Guinea. Onboard the tender I found a brother naturalist, a German named Rosenberg, who wasdraughtsman to the surveying staff. He had brought two men with him to shoot andskin birds, and had been able to purchase a few rare skins from the natives. Amongthese 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 itcertainly is of the rarer species of crown pigeon (Goura steursii), one of which wasbrought alive and sold on board. Jobie, however, is a very dangerous place, and sailorsare often murdered there when on shore; sometimes the vessels themselves beingattacked. Wandammen, on the mainland opposite Jobie, inhere there are said to beplenty of birds, is even worse, and at either of these places my life would not have beenworth a week's purchase had I ventured to live alone and unprotected as at Dorey. Onboard the steamer they had a pair of tree kangaroos alive. They differ chiefly from theground-kangaroo in having a more hairy tail, not thickened at the base, and not used asa prop; and by the powerful claws on the fore-feet, by which they grasp the bark andbranches, and seize the leaves on which they feed. They move along by short jumps ontheir hind-feet, which do not seem particularly well adapted for climbing trees. It hasbeen 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 isadapted 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 ofNew Guinea, which is entirely composed of hills and mountains with very little flatland, while the kangaroo of the low flat Aru Islands (Dorcopsis asiaticus) is a groundspecies. A more probable supposition seems to lie, that the tree-kangaroo has beenmodified to enable it to feed on foliage in the vast forests of New Guinea, as these formthe great natural feature which distinguishes that country from Australia. On June 5th, the coal-ship arrived, having been sent back from Amboyna, with theaddition of some fresh stores for the steamer. The wood, which had been almost alltaken on board, was now unladen again, the coal taken in, and on the 17th both steamerand tender left for Humboldt Bay. We were then a little quiet again, and got somethingto 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 returnedfrom Amberbaki, but, alas brought me almost nothing. They had visited severalvillages, and even went two days' journey into the interior, but could find no skins ofBirds 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 nativesanywhere near the coast shoot or prepare Birds of Paradise, which come from far in theinterior over two or three ranges of mountains, passing by barter from village to villagetill they reach the sea. There the natives of Dorey buy them, and on their return homesell them .to the Bugis or Ternate traders. It is therefore hopeless for a traveller to go toany particular place on the coast of New Guinea where rare Paradise birds may havebeen bought, in hopes of obtaining freshly killed specimens from the natives; and italso shows the scarcity of these birds in any one locality, since from the Amberbakidistrict, a celebrated place, where at least five or six species have been procured, notone of the rarer ones has been obtained this year. The Prince of Tidore, who wouldcertainly have got them if any were to be had, was obliged to put up with a few of thecommon yellow ones. I think it probable that a longer residence at Dorey, a little fartherin the interior, might show that several of the rarer kinds were found there, as Iobtained a single female of the fine scale-breasted Ptiloris magnificus. I was told atTernate 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

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the plumage glossy black. The people of Dorey knew nothing about this, although theyrecognised by description most of the otter species. When the steamer left, I was suffering from a severe attack of fever. In about aweek I got over this, but it was followed by such a soreness of the whole inside of themouth, tongue, and gums, that for many days I could put nothing solid between mylips, 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 abouteighteen 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 allMahometans, I let them bury him in their own fashion, giving them some new cottoncloth for a shroud. On July 6th the steamer returned from the eastward. The weather was still terriblywet, when, according to rule, it should have been fine and dry. We had scarcelyanything to eat, and were all of us ill. Fevers, colds, and dysentery were continuallyattacking us, and made me long I-o get away from New Guinea, as much as ever I hadlonged to come there. The captain of the Etna paid me a visit, and gave me a veryinteresting account of his trip. They had stayed at Humboldt Bay several days, andfound it a much more beautiful and more interesting place than Dorey, as well as abetter harbour. The natives were quite unsophisticated, being rarely visited except bystray 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, andwere all neatly and well built; their fields were well cultivated, and the paths to themkept clear and open, in which respects Dorey is abominable. They were shy at first, andopposed the boats with hostile demonstrations, beading their bows, and intimating thatthey would shoot if an attempt was made to land. Very judiciously the captain gaveway, but threw on shore a few presents, and after two or three trials they werepermitted to land, and to go about and see the country, and were supplied with fruitsand vegetables. All communication was carried on with them by signs--the Doreyinterpreter, who accompanied the steamer, being unable to understand a word of theirlanguage. No new birds or animals were obtained, but in their ornaments the feathers ofParadise birds were seen, showing, as might be expected, that these birds range far inthis direction, and probably all over New Guinea. It is curious that a rudimental love of art should co-exist with such a very low stateof civilization. The people of Dorey are great carvers and painters. The outsides of thehouses, wherever there is a plank, are covered with rude yet characteristic figures. Thehigh-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, orpinnacle, there is often a human figure, with a head of cassowary feathers to imitate thePapuan "mop." The floats of their fishing-lines, the wooden beatersused in tempering the clay for their pottery, their tobacco-boxes, andother household articles, are covered with carving of tasteful andoften elegant design. Did we not already know that such taste andskill are compatible with utter barbarism, we could hardly believethat the same people are, in other matters, utterly wanting in allsense of order, comfort, or decency. Yet such is the case. They livein the most miserable, crazy, and filthy hovels, which are utterlydestitute of anything that can be called furniture; not a stool, orbench, or board is seen in them, no brush seems to be known, andthe clothes they wear are often filthy bark, or rags, or sacking.Along the paths where they daily pass to and from their provisiongrounds, not an overhanging bough or straggling briar ever seems tohe cut, so that you have to brush through a rank vegetation, creep

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CARVED TOOLFOR MAKING

POTTERY

under fallen trees and spiny creepers, and wade through pools ofmud and mire, which cannot dry up because the sun is not allowedto penetrate. Their food is almost wholly roots and vegetables, withfish or game only as an occasional luxury, and they areconsequently very subject to various skin diseases, the childrenespecially being often miserable-looking objects, blotched all overwith eruptions and sores. If these people are not savages, whereshall we find any? Yet they have all a decided love for the fine arts,and spend their leisure time in executing works whose good tasteand elegance would often be admired in our schools of design! During the latter part of my stay in New Guinea the weatherwas very wet, my only shooter was ill, and birds became scarce, sothat my only resource was insect-hunting. I worked very hard everyhour of fine weather, and daily obtained a number of new species.Every dead tree and fallen log was searched and searched again; andamong the dry and rotting leaves, which still hung on certain treeswhich had been cut down, I found an abundant harvest of minuteColeoptera. Although I never afterwards found so many large andhandsome beetles as in Borneo, yet I obtained here a great variety ofspecies. For the first two or three weeks, while I was searching out the best localities, Itook about 30 different kinds of beetles n day, besides about half that number ofbutterflies, and a few of the other orders. But afterwards, up to the very last week, Iaveraged 49 species a day. On the 31st of May, I took 78 distinct sorts, a larger numberthan I had ever captured before, principally obtained among dead trees and under rottenbark. 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 60species; but on the last day of June I brought home no less than 95 distinct kinds ofbeetles, a larger number than I ever obtained in one day before or since. It was a finehot day, and I devoted it to a search among dead leaves, beating foliage, and huntingunder rotten bark, in all the best stations I had discovered during my walks. I was outfrom ten in the morning till three in the afternoon, and it took me six hours' work athome to pin and set out all the specimens, and to separate the species. Although T hadalready been working this shot daily for two months and a half, and had obtained over800 species of Coleoptera, this day's work added 32 new ones. Among these were 4Longicorns, 2 Caribidae, 7 Staphylinidae, 7 Curculionidae, 2 Copridae, 4Chrysomelidae, 3 Heteromera, 1 Elates, and 1 Buprestis. Even on the last day I wentout, I obtained 10 new species; so that although I collected over a thousand distinctsorts of beetles in a space not much exceeding a square mile during the three months ofmy residence at Dorey, I cannot believe that this represents one half the species reallyinhabiting the same spot, or a fourth of what might be obtained in an area extendingtwenty miles in each direction. On the 22cd of July the schooner Hester Helena arrived, and five days afterwardswe bade adieu to Dorey, without much regret, for in no place which I have visited haveI encountered more privations and annoyances. Continual rain, continual sickness, littlewholesome food, with a plague of ants and files, surpassing anything I had before metwith, required all a naturalist's ardour to encounter; and when they were uncompensatedby great success in collecting, became all the more insupportable. This long thought-ofand 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 muchworse. Instead of producing several of the rarer Paradise birds, I had not even seen oneof 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 excessivelyabundant. Almost every shrub and tree was more or less infested with it, and its largepapery nests were everywhere to be seen. They immediately took possession of my

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house, building a large nest in the roof, and forming papery tunnels down almost everypost. They swarmed on my table as I was at work setting out my insects, carrying themoff from under my very nose, and even tearing them from the cards on which they weregummed 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 muchinconvenience till they began to bite, which they would do on meeting with anyobstruction to their passage, and with a sharpness which made me jump again and rushto undress and turn out the offender. They visited my bed also, so that night brought norelief from their persecutions; and I verily believe that during my three and a halfmonths' residence at Dorey I was never for a single hour entirely free from them. Theywere not nearly so voracious as many other kinds, but their numbers and ubiquityrendered 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. Thesesettled in swarms on my bird skins when first put out to dry, filling their plumage withmasses of eggs, which, if neglected, the next day produced maggots. They would getunder the wings or under the body where it rested on the drying-board, sometimesactually raising it up half an inch by the mass of eggs deposited in a few hours; andevery egg was so firmly glued to the fibres of the feathers, as to make it a work ofmuch time and patience to get them off without injuring the bird. In no other localityhave 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 timeof year when we ought to have had steady southerly and easterly winds. Instead ofthese, however, we had calms and westerly breezes, and it was seventeen days beforewe 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 againin 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 Idetermined to stay and recruit before I commenced any fresh expeditions. Mysucceeding journeys to Gilolo and Batchian have already been narrated, and if; nowonly remains for me to give an account of my residence in Waigiou, the last Papuanterritory 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 toMysol and Waigiou, islands which belong to the Papuan district, and the account ofwhich naturally follows after that of my visit to the mainland of New Guinea. I nowtake up my narrative at my departure from Wahai, with the intention of carryingvarious necessary stores to my assistant, Mr. Allen, at Silinta, in Mysol, and thencontinuing my journey to Waigiou. It will be remembered that I was travelling in asmall prau, which I had purchased and fitted up in Goram, and that, having beendeserted by my crew on the coast of Ceram, I had obtained four men at Wahai, who,with my Amboynese hunter, constituted my crew.

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Between Ceram and Mysol there are sixty miles of open sea, and along this widechannel the east monsoon blows strongly; so that with native praus, which will not layup to the wind, it requires some care in crossing. In order to give ourselves sufficientleeway, 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. Mypilot, an old and experienced sailor, named Gurulampoko, assured me there was acurrent 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 hadnot got halfway across, but could see Mysol distinctly. All night we went alonguneasily, and at daybreak, on looking out anxiously, I found that we had fallen much tothe westward during the night, owing, no doubt, to the pilot being sleepy and notkeeping 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 gettingto the extreme westward point of the island. The sea was now very boisterous, and ourprau was continually beaten to leeward by the waves, and after another weary day wefound w e could not get to Mysol at all, but might perhaps reach the island called PuloKanary, about ten miles to the north-west. Thence we might await a favourable wind toreach Waigamma, on the north side of the island, and visit Allen by means of a smallboat. About nine o'clock at night, greatly to my satisfaction, we got under the lea of thisisland, into quite smooth water--for I had been very sick and uncomfortable, and hadeaten scarcely anything since the preceding morning. We were slowly nearing theshore, which the smooth dark water told us we could safely approach; and were

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congratulating ourselves on soon being at anchor, with the prospect of hot coffee, agood supper, and a sound sleep, when the wind completely dropped, and we had to getout the oars to row. We were not more than two hundred yards from the shore, when Inoticed that we seemed to get no nearer although the men were rowing hard, but driftedto the westward, and the prau would not obey the helm, but continually fell off, andgave us much trouble to bring her up again. Soon a laud ripple of water told us wewere seized by one of those treacherous currents which so frequently frustrate all theefforts of the voyager in these seas; the men threw down the oars in despair, and in afew minutes we drifted to leeward of the island fairly out to sea again, and lost our lastchance of ever reaching Mysol! Hoisting our jib, we lay to, and in the morning foundourselves only a few miles from the island, but wit, such a steady wind blowing fromits 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 inthe direction of Salwatty, which I hoped to reach, as I could there easily get a boat totake provisions and stores to my companion in Mysol. This wind did not, however, lastlong, but died away into a calm; and a light west wind springing up, with a dark bankof clouds, again gave us hopes of reaching Mysol. We were soon, however, againdisappointed. The E.S.E. wind began to blow again with violence, and continued allnight in irregular gusts, and with a short cross sea tossed us about unmercifully, and socontinually took our sails aback, that we were at length forced to run before it with ourjib only, to escape being swamped by our heavy mainsail. After another miserable andanxious night, we found that we had drifted westward of the island of Poppa, and thewind being again a little southerly, we made all sail in order to reach it. This we did notsucceed in doing, passing to the north-west, when the wind again blew hard from theE.S.E., and our last hope of finding a refuge till better weather was frustrated. This wasa very serious matter to me, as I could not tell how Charles Allen might act, if, afterwaiting in vain for me, he should return to Wahai, and find that I had left there longbefore, and had not since been heard of. Such an event as our missing an island fortymiles long would hardly occur to him, and he would conclude either that our boat hadfoundered, or that my crew had murdered me and run away with her. However, as itwas physically impossible now for me to reach him, the only thing to be done was tomake the best of my way to Waigiou, and trust to our meeting some traders, who mightconvey to him the news of my safety. Finding on my map a group of three small islands, twenty-five miles north ofPoppa, I resolved, if possible, to rest there a day or two. We could lay our boat's headN.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 toreach them. It was a delicate point to keep our head in the best direction, neither soclose to the wind as to stop our way, or so free as to carry us too far to leeward. Icontinually directed the steersman myself, and by incessant vigilance succeeded, just atsunset, in bringing our boat to an anchor under the lee of the southern point of one ofthe islands. The anchorage was, however, by no means good, there being a fringingcoral 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 inour small undecked boat, with constant disappointments and anxiety, and it was a greatcomfort to have a night of quiet and comparative safety. My old pilot had never left thehelm for more than an hour at a time, when one of the others would relieve him for alittle sleep; so I determined the next morning to look out for a secure and convenientharbour, and rest on shore for a day. In the morning, finding it would be necessary for us to get round a rocky point, Iwanted my men to go on shore and cut jungle- rope, by which to secure us from beingagain 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

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easiest thing possible, and that they would row the boat round the point in a fewminutes. They accordingly got up the anchor, set the jib, and began rowing; but, just asI 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 aboutan hour our anchor loosed hold, and began to drag. This alarmed me greatly, and we letgo 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 ourmuskets to recall them, when we observed them on the beach, some way off, andalmost immediately our anchors again slipped, and we drifted slowly away into deepwater. We instantly seized the oars, but found we could not counteract the wind andcurrent, 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, theystared at us, and in a few minutes seemed to comprehend their situation; for theyrushed down into the water, as if to swim off, but again returned on shore, as if afraidto make the attempt. We had drawn up our anchors at first not to check our rowing; butnow, finding we could do nothing, we let them both hang down by the full length of thecables. This stopped our way very much, and we drifted from shore very slowly, andhoped 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 thebeach, then going unto the forest; and just when we thought they had prepared somemode of making an attempt to reach us, we saw the smoke of a fire they had made tocook their shell-fish! They had evidently given up all idea of coming after us, and wewere 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 yetsaving the men was to reach the opposite shore. We therefore sot our jib and rowedhard; but the wind failed, and we drifted out so rapidly that we had some difficulty inreaching the extreme westerly point of the island. Our only sailor left, then swamashore with a rope, and helped to tow us round the point into a tolerably safe andsecure anchorage, well sheltered from the wind, but exposed to a little swell whichjerked our anchor and made us rather uneasy. We were now in a sad plight, having lostour two best men, and being doubtful if we had strength left to hoist our mainsail. Wehad only two days' water on board, and the small, rocky, volcanic island did notpromise us much chance of finding any. The conduct of the men on shore was such asto render it doubtful if they would make any serious attempt to reach us, though theymight easily do so, having two good choppers, with which in a day they could male asmall outrigger raft on which they could safely cross the two miles of smooth sea withthe wind right aft, if they started from the east end of the island, so as to allow for thecurrent. I could only hope they would be sensible enough to make the attempt, anddetermined 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. Inthe morning (23rd), finding all secure, I waded on shore with my two men, leaving theold steersman and the cook on board, with a loaded musketto recall us if needed. Wefirst walked along the beach, till stopped by the vertical cliffs at the east end of theisland, finding a place where meat had been smoked, a turtle-shell still greasy, andsome cut wood, the leaves of which were still green, showing that some boat had beenhere 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 spotwhere some sago -trees were growing; when, just as we were going to begin, Hoi, theWahai man, called out to say he had found water. It was a deep hole among the Sagotrees, in stiff black clay, full of water, which was fresh, but smelt horribly from the

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quantity of dead leaves and sago refuse that had fallen in. Hastily concluding that itwas a spring, or that the water had filtered in, we baled it all out as well as a dozen ortwenty buckets of mud and rubbish, hoping by night to have a good supply of cleanwater. I then went on board to breakfast, leaving my two men to make a bamboo raft tocarry us on shore and back without wading. I had scarcely finished when our cablebroke, and we bumped against the rocks. Luckily it was smooth and calm, and nodamage was done. We searched for and got up our anchor, and found teat the cable hadbeen cut by grating all night upon the coral. Had it given way in the night, we mighthave drifted out to sea without our anchor, or been seriously damaged. In the eveningwe went to fetch water from the well, when, greatly to our dismay, we found nothingbut a little liquid mud at the bottom, and it then became evident that the hole was onewhich had been made to collect rain water, and would never fill again as long as thepresent drought continued. As we did not know what we might suffer for want ofwater, we filled our jar with this muddy stuff so that it might settle. In the afternoon Icrossed over to the other side of the island, and made a large fire, in order that our menmight see we were still there. The next day (24th) I determined to have another search for water; and when thetide was out rounded a rocky point and went to the extremity of the island withoutfinding any sign of the smallest stream. On our way back, noticing a very small drybed of a watercourse, I went up it to explore, although everything was so dry that mymen loudly declared it was useless to expect water there; but a little way up I wasrewarded by finding a few pints in a small pool. We searched higher up in every holeand channel where water marks appeared, but could find not a drop more. Sending oneof my men for a large jar and teacup, we searched along the beach till we found signsof another dry watercourse, and on ascending this were so fortunate as to discover twodeep sheltered rock-holes containing several gallons of water, enough to fill all ourjars. When the cup came we enjoyed a good drink of the cool pure water, and beforewe left had carried away, I believe, every drop on the island. In the evening a good-sized prau appeared in sight, making apparently for theisland where our men were left, and we had some hopes they might be seen and pickedup, but it passed along mid-channel, and did not notice the signals we tried to make. Iwas now, however, pretty easy as to the fate of the men. There was plenty of sago onour 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 likelyfind sufficient water by digging. Shell-fish were abundant, and they would be able tomanage 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 wecould find, and making ready to sail in the evening. I shot a small lory closelyresembling a common species at Ternate, and a glossy starling which differed from theallied birds of Ceram and Matabello. Large wood-pigeons and crows were the onlyother 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 atwork we could just haul up our mainsail. We had a fair wind during the night andsailed north-east, finding ourselves in the morning about twenty miles west of theextremity of Waigiou with a number of islands intervening. About ten o'clock we ranfull 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 closealongside of it, when the wind suddenly dropped, and we drifted on to it before wecould get in our heavy mainsail, which we were obliged to let run down and fall partlyoverboard. 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 noone on board could tell where we were or what dangers might surround us, the onlyone of our crew who was acquainted with the coast of Waigiou having been. left on theisland. We therefore took in all sail and allowed ourselves to drift, as we were some

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miles from the nearest land. A light breeze, however, sprang up, and about midnight wefound ourselves again bumping over a coral reef. As it was very dark, and we knewnothing of our position, we could only guess how to get off again, and had there been alittle more wind we might have been knocked to pieces. However, in about half an hourwe 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 onwith uncertain winds and squalls, threading our way among islands and reefs, andguided only by a small map, which was very incorrect and quite useless, and by ageneral notion of the direction we ought to take. In the afternoon we found a tolerableanchorage under a small island and stayed for the night, and I shot a large fruit-pigeonnew to me, which I have since named Carpophaga tumida. I also saw and shot at therare white-headed kingfisher (Halcyon saurophaga), but did not kill it. The nextmorning we sailed on, and having a fair wind reached the shores of the large island ofWaigiou. 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 wemanaged get safely off. We now had to search for the narrow channel among islands, which we knew wassomewhere 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 thendusk, so we anchored for the night, and having just finished all our water could cook norice for supper. Next morning early (29th) we went on shore among the mangroves, anda little way inland found some water, which relieved our anxiety considerably, and leftus free to go along the coast in search of the opening, or of some one who could directus to it. During the three days we had now been among the reefs and islands, we hadonly 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 wecould only go on the course that the ever-changing wind would allow us (our handsbeing too few to row any distance), our prospects of getting to our destination seemedrather remote and precarious. Having gone to the eastward extremity of the deep baywe had entered, without finding any sign of an opening, we turned westward; andtowards evening were so fortunate as to find a small village of seven miserable housesbuilt 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 hadexamined, but that it was not to be seen except when- close inshore. He said the straitwas often very narrow, and wound among lakes and rocks and islands, and that itwould take two days to reach the large village of Muka, and three more to get toWaigiou. I succeeded in hiring two men to go with us to Muka, bringing a small boatin which to return; but we had to wait a day for our guides, so I took my gun and madea little excursion info the forest. The day was wet and drizzly, and I only succeeded inshooting two small birds, but I saw the great black cockatoo, and had a glimpse of oneor two Birds of Paradise, whose loud screams we had heard on first approaching thecoast. Leaving the village the next morning (July 1st) with a light wind, it took us allday to reach the entrance to the channel, which resembled a small river, and wasconcealed by a projecting point, so that it was no wonder we did not discover it amidthe 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 amongwhich for about two miles, we emerged into what seemed a lake, but which was in facta deep gulf having a narrow entrance on the south coast. This gulf was studded alongits shores with numbers of rocky islets, mostly mushroom shaped, from the `eaterhaving worn away the lower part of the soluble coralline limestone, leaving themoverhanging from ten to twenty feet. Every islet was covered will strange-loopingshrubs and trees, and was generally crowned by lofty and elegant palms, which alsostudded the ridges of the mountainous shores, forming one of the most singular and

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picturesque landscapes I have ever seen. The current which had brought us through thenarrow strait now ceased, and we were obliged to row, which with our short and heavyprau 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 thicketwith which they were everywhere clothed. It took us three days to get to the entranceof the gulf, and then the wind was such as to prevent our going any further, and wemight 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 mysteriousmanner heard I was on my way, and had come to my assistance, bringing a present ofcocoa-nuts and vegetables. Being thoroughly acquainted with the coast, and havingseveral extra men to assist us, he managed to get the prau along by rowing, poling, orsailing, and by night had brought us safely into harbour, a great relief after our tediousand unhappy voyage. We had been already eight days among the reefs and islands ofWaigiou, coming a distance of about fifty miles, and it was just forty days since we hadsailed from Goram. Immediately on our arrival at Muka, I engaged a small boat and three natives to goin search of my lost men, and sent one of my own men with them to make sure of theirgoing to the right island. In ten days they returned, but to my great regret anddisappointment, without the men. The weather had been very bad, and though they hadreached 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 (bya liberal payment of knives, handkerchiefs, and tobacco, with plenty of provisions)persuaded them to start back immediately, and make another attempt. They did notreturn again till the 29th of July, having stayed a few days at their own village of Bessiron 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 islandhad found water, and had subsisted on the roots and tender flower-stalks of a species ofBromelia, on shell-fish. and on a few turtles' eggs. Having swum to the island, they hadonly 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 theopposite island, but had been afraid to cross, lest the current should have carried themout to sea, when they would have been inevitably lost. They had felt sure I would sendfor them on the first opportunity, and appeared more grateful than natives usually arefor my having done so; while I felt much relieved that my voyage, though sufficientlyunfortunate, 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 poorhuts, partly in the water and partly on shore, and scattered irregularly over a space ofabout half a mile in a shallow bay. Around it are a few cultivated patches, and a gooddeal of second-growth woody vegetation; while behind, at the distance of about half amile, rises the virgin forest, through which are a few paths to some houses andplantations a mile or two inland. The country round is rather flat, and in placesswampy, and there are one or two small streams which run behind the village into the

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sea below it. Finding that no house could be had suitable to my purpose, and hawing sooften experienced the advantages of living close to or just within the forest, I obtainedthe assistance of half-a-dozen men; and having selected a spot near the path and thestream, and close to a fine fig- tree, which stood just within the forest, we cleared theground and set to building a house. As I did not expect to stay here so long as I haddone at Dorey, I built a long, low, narrow shed, about seven feet high on one side andfour on the other, which required but little wood, and was put up very rapidly. Oursails, with a few old attaps from a deserted but in the village, formed the walls, and aquantity of "cadjans," or palm-leaf mats, covered in the roof. On the third day myhouse 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 nicesituation. It had been so far fine weather, but in the night it rained hard, and we found ourmat roof would not keep out water. It first began to drop, and then to stream overeverything. 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 andsleepless night. In the morning the sun shone brightly, and everything was put out todry. We tried to find out why the mats leaked, and thought we had discovered that theyhad been laid on upside down. Having shifted there all, and got everything dry andcomfortable by the evening, we again went to bed, and before midnight were againawaked by torrent of rain and leaks streaming in upon us as bad as ever. There was nomore sleep for us that night, and the next day our roof was again taken to pieces, andwe came to the conclusion that the fault was a want of slope enough in the roof formats, although it would be sufficient for the usual attap thatch. I therefore purchased afew new and some old attaps, and in the parts these would not cover we put the matsdouble, 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 firstarrived 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 andprepared the skins. I assured the people I had heard the cry of these birds close to thevillage, but they world not believe that I could know their cry. However, the very firsttime I went into the forest I not only heard but saw them, and was convinced there wereplenty about; but they were very shy, and it was some time before we got any. Myhunter first shot a female, and I one day got very close to a fine male. He was, as Iexpected, the rare red species, Paradisea rubra, which alone inhabits this island, and isfound nowhere else. He was quite low down, running along a bough searching forinsects, almost like a woodpecker, and the long black riband-like filaments in his tailhung 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 numbereight shot, so as not to injure his plumage, but the gun missed fire, and he was off in aninstant among the thickest jungle. Another day we saw no less than eight fine males atdifferent times, and fired four times at them; but though other birds at the same distancealmost always dropped, these all got away, and I began to think we were not to get thismagnificent species. At length the fruit ripened on the fig-tree close by my house, andmany birds came to feed on it; and one morning, as I was taking my coffee, a maleParadise 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 andanother there, and then, before I could get a sufficient aim to shoot at such a height (forit was one of the loftiest trees of the tropics), it was away into the forest. They nowvisited the tree every morning; but they stayed so short a time, their motions were sorapid, and it was so difficult to see them, owing to the lower trees, which impeded theview, that it was only after several days' watching, and one or two misses, that Ibrought down my bird--a male in the most magnificent plumage.

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This bird differs very much from the two large species which I had alreadyobtained, and, although it wants the grace imparted by their long golden trains, is inmany respects more remarkable and more beautiful. The head, back, and shoulders areclothed with a richer yellow, the deep metallic green colour of the throat extendsfurther over the head, and the feathers are elongated on the forehead into two littleerectile crests. The side plumes are shorter, but are of a rich red colour, terminating indelicate white points, and the middle tail- feathers are represented by two long rigidglossy ribands, which are black, thin, and semi-cylindrical, and droop gracefully in aspiral curve. Several other interesting birds were obtained, and about half-a-dozen quitenew ones; but none of any remarkable beauty, except the lovely little dove, Ptilonopuspulchellus, which with several other pigeons I shot on the same fig-tree close to myhouse. 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.

THE RED BIRD OF PARADISE (Paradisea rubra.)

On the evening of our arrival at Muka I observed what appeared like a display ofAurora Borealis, though I could hardly believe that this was possible at a point a littlesouth of the equator. The night was clear and calm, and the northern sky presented adiffused 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 thatthe weather was unprecedentedly bad, considering that it ought to have been the drymonsoon. For near a month we had wet weather; the sun either not appearing at all, oronly for an hour or two about noon. Morning and evening, as well as nearly all night, itrained or drizzled, and boisterous winds, with dark clouds, formed the daily

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programme. With the exception that it was never cold, it was just such weather as avery bad English November or February. The people of Waigiou are not truly indigenes of the island, which possesses no"Alfuros," or aboriginal inhabitants. [footnote: Dr. Guillemard met with some peoplewho, he was told, were true indigenes. But it would be difficult to determine the pointwithout a tolerably complete knowledge of all the surrounding islands and theirlanguages.] They appear to be a mixed race, partly from Gilolo, partly from NewGuinea. Malays and Alfuros from the former island have probably settled here, andmany of them have taken Papuan wives from Salwatty or Dorey, while the influx ofpeople from those places, and of slaves, has led to the formation of a tribe exhibitingalmost all the transitions from a nearly pure Malayan to an entirely Papuan type. Thelanguage spoken by them is entirely Papuan, being that which is used on all the coastsof Mysol, Salwatty, the north-west of New Guinea, and the islands in the greatGeelvink Bay,--a fact which indicates the way in which the coast settlements have beenformed. 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 peninsulasof Gilolo--possess no aboriginal tribes, but are inhabited by people who are evidentlymongrels and wanderers, is a remarkable corroborative proof of the distinctness of theMalayan and Papuan races, and the separation of the geographical areas they inhabit. Ifthese two great races were direct modifications, the one of the other, we should expectto find in the intervening region some homogeneous indigenous race presentingintermediate characters. For example, between the whitest inhabitants of Europe andthe black Klings of South India, there are in the intervening districts homogeneous raceswhich form a gradual transition from one to the other; while in America, although thereis a perfect transition from the Anglo- Saxon to the negro, and from the Spaniard to theIndian, 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 distinctraces, which appear to have approached each other, and intermingled in an unoccupiedterritory at a very recent epoch in the history of man; and I feel satisfied that nounprejudiced person could study them on the spot without being convinced that this isthe true solution of the problem, rather than the almost universally accepted view thatthey are but modifications of one and the same race. The people of Muka live in that abject state of poverty that is almost always foundwhere the sago-tree is abundant. Very few of them take the trouble to plant anyvegetables or fruit, but live almost entirely on sago and fish, selling a little tripang ortortoiseshell 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 absoluteidleness, just going out on little fishing or trading excursions, as an excitement in theirmonotonous existence. They are under the rule of the Sultan of Tidore, and every yearhave 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, andgetting a few goods on credit from some Ceram or Bugis trader, make hard bargainswith the natives, and gain enough to pay their tribute, and leave a little profit forthemselves. 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 residingthere during my stay, who had a small vegetable garden, and whose men occasionallygot a few spare fish, I should often have had nothing to eat. Fowls, fruit, and vegetablesare luxuries very rarely to be purchased at Muka; and even cocoa-nuts, soindispensable for eastern cookery, are not to be obtained; for though there are somehundreds of trees in the village, all the fruit is eaten green, to supply the place of thevegetables 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

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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, eitherowing to the fruit becoming scarce, or that they were wise enough to know there wasdanger. We continued to hear and see them in the forest, but after a month had notsucceeded in shooting any more; and as my chief object in visiting Waigiou was to getthese birds, I determined to go to Bessir, where there are a number of Papuans whocatch and preserve them. I hired a small outrigger boat for this journey, and left one ofmy 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 anddisagreeable passage. The village of Bessir was built in the water at the point of a smallisland. The chief food of the people was evidently shell-fish, since great heaps of theshells had accumulated in the shallow water between the houses and the land, forminga regular "kitchen-midden "for the exploration of some future archeologist. We spentthe night in the chief's house, and the next morning went over to the mainland to lookout for a place where I could reside. This part of Waigiou is really another island to thesouth of the narrow channel we had passed through in coming to Muka. It appears toconsist almost entirely of raised coral, whereas the northern island contains hardcrystalline rocks. The shores were a range of low limestone cliffs, worn out by thewater, so that the upper part generally overhung. At distant intervals were little covesand openings, where small streams came down from the interior; and in one of thesewe landed, pulling our boat up on a patch of white sandy beach. Immediately abovewas a large newly-made plantation of yams and plantains, and a small hot, which thechief 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 theground, and the highest part of the ridge only five feet above the flour. As I am six feetand an inch in my stockings, I looked at this with some dismay; but finding that theother houses were much further from water, were dreadfully dirty, and were crowdedwith people, I at once accepted the little one, and determined to make the best of it. Atfirst I thought of taking out the floor, which would leave it high enough to walk in andout without stooping; but then there would not be room enough, so I left it just as itwas, had it thoroughly cleaned out, and brought up my baggage.

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MY HOUSE AT BESSIR, IN WAIGIOU

The upper story I used for sleeping in, and for a store-room. In the lower part (whichwas 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 onthe windward side, and then found that, by bending double and carefully creeping in, Icould sit on my chair with my head just clear of the ceiling. Here I lived prettycomfortably 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 toaccommodate 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 littleloft, they spread their mats on the, floor below, and we none of us grumbled at ourlodgings. My first business was to send for the men who were accustomed to catch the Birdsof Paradise. Several came, and I showed them my hatchets, beads, knives, andhandkerchiefs; and explained to them, as well as I could by signs, the price I wouldgive for fresh-killed specimens. It is the universal custom to pay for everything inadvance; but only one man ventured on this occasion to take goods to the value of twobirds. The rest were suspicious, and wanted to see the result of the first bargain with thestrange 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 asmall bag, and consequently its tail and wing feathers very much crushed and injured. Itried to explain to him, and to the others that came with him, that I wanted them asperfect as possible, and that they should either kill them, or keep them on a perch witha string to their leg. As they were now apparently satisfied that all was fair, and that I

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had no ulterior designs upon them, six others took away goods; some for one bird, somefor 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 daysor a week, some of them would return, bringing me one or more birds; but though theydid not bring any more in bags, there was not much improvement in their condition. Asthey 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, orhang suspended by the leg till the limb was swollen and half-putrefied, and sometimesdie of starvation and worry. One had its beautiful head all defiled by pitch from adammar 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 theybear washing and cleaning better than almost any other sort; and I was generally able toclean 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 anopportunity of examining them in all their beauty and vivacity. As soon as I found theywere generally brought alive, I set one of my men to make a large bamboo cage withtroughs for food and water, hoping to be able to keep some of them. I got the natives tobring me branches of a fruit they were very fond of, and I was pleased to find they ateit greedily, and would also take any number of live grasshoppers I gave them, strippingoff the legs and wings, and then swallowing them. They drank plenty of water, andwere in constant motion, jumping about the cage from perch to perch, clinging on thetop and sides, and rarely resting a moment the first day till nightfall. The second daythey were always less active, although they would eat as freely as before; and on themorning of the third day they were almost always found dead at the bottom of thecage, without any apparent cause. Some of them ate boiled rice as well as fruit andinsects; but after trying many in succession, not one out of ten lived more than threedays. The second or third day they would be dull, and in several cases they were seizedwith convulsions, and fell off the perch, dying a few hours afterwards. I tried immatureas well as full-plumaged birds, but with no better success, and at length gave it up as ahopeless task, and confined my attention to preserving specimens in as good acondition as possible. The Red Birds of Paradise are not shot with blunt arrows, as in the Aru Islands andsome parts of New Guinea, but are snared in a very ingenious manner. A largeclimbing Arum bears a red reticulated fruit, of which the birds are very fond. Thehunters fasten this fruit on a stout forked stick, and provide themselves with a fine butstrong cord. They then seep out some tree in the forest on which these birds areaccustomed to perch, and climbing up it fasten the stick to a branch and arrange thecord in a noose so ingeniously, that when the bird comes to eat the fruit its legs arecaught, and by pulling the end of the cord, which hangs down to the ground, it comesfree from the branch and brings down the bird. Sometimes, when food is abundantelsewhere, the hunter sits from morning till night under his tree with the cord in hishand, 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. Thereare only eight or ten men at Bessir who practise this art, which is unknown anywhereelse in the island. I determined, therefore, to stay as long as possible, as my onlychance of getting a good series of specimens; and although I was nearly starved,everything eatable by civilized man being scarce or altogether absent, I finallysucceeded. The vegetables and fruit in the plantations around us did not suffice for the wantsof the inhabitants, and were almost always dug up or gathered before they were ripe. Itwas very rarely we could purchase a little fish; fowls there were none; and we werereduced to live upon tough pigeons and cockatoos, with our rice and sago, andsometimes we could not get these. Having been already eight months on this voyage,

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my stock of all condiments, spices and butter, was exhausted, and I found it impossibleto eat sufficient of my tasteless and unpalatable food to support health. I got very thinand weak, and had a curious disease known (I have since heard) as brow-ague. Directlyafter 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, whichleft me so weak and so unable to eat our regular food, that I feel sure my life was savedby a couple of tins of soup which I had long reserved for some such extremity. I usedoften to go out searching after vegetables, and found a great treasure in a lot of tomatoplants run wild, and bearing little fruits about the size of gooseberries. I also boiled upthe tops of pumpkin plants and of ferns, by way of greens, and occasionally got a fewgreen papaws. The natives, when hard up for food, live upon a fleshy seaweed, whichthey 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, inorder to make our homeward voyage before the end of the east monsoon. Most of themen who had taken payment from me had brought the birds they had agreed for. Onepoor fellow had been so unfortunate as not to get one, and he very honestly broughtback the axe he had received in advance; another, who had agreed for six, brought methe fifth two days before I was to start, and went off immediately to the forest again toget the other. He did not return, however, and we loaded our boat, and were just on thepoint of starting, when he came running down after us holding up a bird, which hehanded to me, saying with great satisfaction, "Now I owe you nothing." These wereremarkable and quite unexpected instances of honesty among savages, where it wouldhave been very easy for them to have been dishonest without fear of detection orpunishment. The country round about Bessir was very hilly and rugged, bristling with jaggedand honey-combed coralline rocks, and with curious little chasms and ravines. Thepaths often passed through these rocky clefts, which in the depths of the forest weregloomy and dark in the extreme, and often full of fine-leaved herbaceous plants andcurious blue-foliaged Lycopodiaceae. It was in such places as these that I obtainedmany 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 theplantations I found the handsome blue Deudorix despoena, and in the shady woods thelovely Lycaena wallacei. Here, too, I obtained the beautiful Thyca aruna, of the richestorange on the upper side; while below it is intense crimson and glossy black; and asuperb specimen of a green Ornithoptera, absolutely fresh and perfect, and which stillremains one of the glories of my cabinet. My collection of birds, though not very rich in number of species, was yet veryinteresting. I got another specimen of the rare New Guinea kite (Henicopernislongicauda), a large new goatsucker (Podargus superciliaris), and a most curiousground- 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 fineseries of a large fruit-pigeon with a protuberance on the bill (Carpophaga tumida), andto ascertain that this was not, as had been hitherto supposed, a sexual character, but wasfound equally in male and female birds. I collected only seventy-three species of birdsin Waigiou, but twelve of them were entirely new, and many others very rare; and as Ibrought away with me twenty-four fine specimens of the Paradisea rubra, I did notregret my visit to the island, although it had by no means answered my expectations.

CHAPTER XXXVII

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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 prauinto sailing order--to caulk her bottom, and to look after the upper works, thatch, andringing. When I returned I found it nearly ready, and immediately began packing upand preparing for the voyage. Our mainsail had formed one side of our house, but thespanker and jib had been put away in the roof, and on opening them to see if anyrepairs 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 andmake new sails, and this delayed us till the 29th of September, when we at length leftWaigiou.

It took us four days before we could get clear of the land, having to pass alongnarrow straits beset with reefs and shoals, and full of strong currents, so that anunfavourable wind stopped us altogether. One day, when nearly clear, a contrary tideand head wind drove us ten miles back to our anchorage of the night before. This delaymade us afraid of running short of water if we should be becalmed at sea, and wetherefore 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 allwe could do was to reach the island of Gagie, where we came to an anchor bymoonlight under bare volcanic hills. In the morning we tried to enter a deep bay, at thehead of which some Galela fishermen told us there was water, but a head-windprevented us. For the reward of a handkerchief, however, they took us to the place intheir boat, and we filled up our jars and bamboos. We then went round to theircamping-place on the north coast of the island to try and buy something to eat, butcould only get smoked turtle meat as black and as hard as lumps of coal. A little furtheron there was a plantation belonging to Guebe people, but under the care of a Papuanslave, and the next morning we got some plantains and a few vegetables in exchangefor a handkerchief and some knives. On leaving this place our anchor had got foul insome rock or sunken log in very deep water, and after many unsuccessful attempts, wewere forced to cut our rattan cable and leave it behind us. We had now only one anchor

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left. Starting early, on the 4th of October, the same S.S.W wind continued, and webegan to fear that we should hardly clear the southern point of Gilolo. The night of the5th was squally, with thunder, but after midnight it got tolerably fair, and we weregoing along with a light wind arid looking out for the coast of Gilolo, which we thoughtwe 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, whichrapidly passed us without doing any harm, as our boat rose easily over the wave. Atshort intervals, ten or a dozen others overtook us with bleat rapidity, and then the seabecame perfectly smooth, as it was before. I concluded at once that these must beearthquake waves; and on reference to the old voyagers we find that these seas havebeen long subject to similar phenomena. Dampier encountered them near Mysol andNew Guinea, and describes them as follows: "We found here very strange tides, thatran in streams, making a great sea, and roaring so loud that we could hear them beforethey came within a mile of us. The sea round about them seemed all broken, and tossedthe ship so that she would not answer her helm. These ripplings commonly lasted ten ortwelve minutes, and then the sea became as still and smooth as a millpond. Wesounded often when in the midst of them, but found no ground, neither could weperceive that they drove us any way. We had in one night several of these tides, thatcame mostly from the west, and the wind being from that quarter we commonly heardthem a long time before they came, and sometimes lowered our topsails, thinking it wasa gust of wind. They were of great length, from north to south, but their breadth notexceeding 200 yards, and they drove a great pace. For though we had little wind tomove us, yet these world soon pass away, and leave the water very smooth, and justbefore we encountered them we met a great swell, but it did not break." Some timeafterwards, I learnt that an earthquake had been felt on the coast of Gilolo the very daywe had encountered these curious waves. When daylight came, we saw the land of Gilolo a few miles off, but the point wasunfortunately 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, whichcarried us so rapidly with it that we found it necessary to stand off again, in order to getout 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 sameposition as we had occupied in the morning, so we hung down our anchor with aboutfifteen fathoms of cable to prevent drifting. On the morning of the 7th we werehowever, a good way up the coast, and we now thought our only chance would be togot close in-shore, where there might be a return current, and we could then row. Theprau was heavy, and my men very poor creatures for work, so that it took us six hoursto get to the edge of the reef that fringed the shore; and as the wind might at anymoment blow on to it, our situation was a very dangerous one. Luckily, a short distanceoff there was a sandy bay, where a small stream stopped the growth of the coral; andby evening we reached this and anchored for the night. Here we found some Galelamen shooting deer and pigs; but they could not or would not speak Malay, and wecould get little information from them. We found out that along shore the currentchanged 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 nowdistant twenty miles. Next morning we found that the Galela men had left beforedaylight, having perhaps some vague fear of our intentions, anal very likely taking mefor a pirate. During the morning a boat passed, and the people informed us that, at ashort distance further towards the point, there was a much better harbour, where therewere 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 eddyand a gust of wind carried us away and out to sea. After sunset there was a land breeze,

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and we sailed a little to the south-east. It then became calm, and eve hung down ouranchor 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 ouranchorage of the day before, which we again reached by hard rowing. I gave the menthis day to rest and sleep; and the next day (Oct. 10th) we again started at two in themorning with a land breeze. After I had set them to their oars, and given instructions tokeep close in-shore, and on no account to get out to sea, I went below, being ratherunwell. 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 usout--none of them having the sense to take down the sail and row in-shore, or to callme. As soon as it was daylight, we saw that we had drifted back, and were againopposite our former anchorage, and, for the third time, had to row hard to get to it. Aswe approached the shore, I saw that the current was favourable to us, and we continueddown the coast till we were close to the entrance to the lower harbour. Just as we werecongratulating ourselves on having at last reached it, a strong south-east squall carneon, blowing us back, and rendering it impossible for us to enter. Not liking the idea ofagain returning, I determined on trying to anchor, and succeeded in doing so, in verydeep water and close to the reefs; but the prevailing winds were such that, should wenot hold, we should have no difficulty in getting out to sea. By the time the squall hadpassed, the current had turned against us, and we expected to have to wait till four inthe afternoon, when we intended to enter the harbour. Now, however, came the climax of our troubles. The swell produced by the squallmade us jerk our cable a good deal, and it suddenly snapped low down in the water. Wedrifted out to sea, and immediately set our mainsail, but we were now without anyanchor, and in a vessel so poorly manned that it could not be rowed against the mostfeeble current or the slightest wind, it word be madness to approach these dangerousshores except in the most perfect calm. We had also only three days' food left. It wastherefore out of the question making any further attempts to get round the point withoutassistance, and I at once determined to run to the village of Gani-diluar, about ten milesfurther north, where we understood there was a good harbour, and where we might getprovisions and a few more rowers. Hitherto winds and currents load invariably opposedour passage southward, and we might have expected them to be favourable to us nowwe had turned our bowsprit in an opposite direction. But it immediately fell calm, andthen after a time a westerly land breeze set in, which would not serve us, and we had torow again for hours, and when night came had not reached the village. We were sofortunate, 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. Thenext 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, wherewe found an excellent and well-protected anchorage. On inquiry, we found that the head men resided at the other Gani on the westernside of the peninsula, and it was necessary to send messengers across (about half aday's journey) to inform them of my arrival, and to beg them to assist me. I thensucceeded in buying a little sago, some dried deer-meat and cocoa-nuts, which at oncerelieved our immediate want of something to eat. At night we found our bag of atonesstill held us very well, and we slept tranquilly.

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MALAY ANCHOR

The next day (October 12th), my men set to work making anchors and oars. Thenative Malay anchor is ingeniously constructed of a piece of tough forked timber, thefluke being strengthened by twisted rattans binding it to the stem, while the cross-pieceis formed of a long flat stone, secured in the same manner. These anchors when wellmade, hold exceedingly arm, and, owing to the expense of iron, are still almostuniversally used on board the smaller praus. In the afternoon the head men arrived, andpromised me as many rowers as I could put on the prau, and also brought me a feweggs and a little rice, which were very acceptable. On the 14th there was a north windall day, which would have been invaluable to us a few days earlier, but which was nowonly tantalizing. On the 16th, all being ready, we started at daybreak with two newanchors and ten rowers, who understood their work. By evening we had come morethan half-way to the point, and anchored for the night in a small bay. At three the nextmorning I ordered the anchor up, but the rattan cable parted close to the bottom, havingbeen 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 haddelayed us eleven days, whereas the whole voyage during this monsoon should nothave occupied more than half that time. Having got round the point our course wasexactly in the opposite direction to what it had been, and now, as usual, the windchanged accordingly, coming from the north and north-west,--so that we still had torow every mile up to the village of Gani, which we did not reach till the evening of the18th. 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 ofsome vegetables, and the latter baking fresh sago cakes for my men; and giving rue acouple of fowls, a bottle of oil, and some pumpkins. As the weather was still veryuncertain, I got four extra men to accompany me to Ternate, for which place we startedon the afternoon of the 20th. We had to keep rowing all night, the land breezes being too weak to enable us tosail 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 mainsailget taken aback and nearly upset us, tearing the sail; and, what was worse, losing anhour's fair wind. The night was calm, and we made little progress. On the 22cd we had light head-winds. A little before noon we passed, with theassistance of our oars, the Paciencia Straits, the narrowest part of the channel betweenBatchian and Gilolo. These were well named by the early Portuguese navigators, as thecurrents are very strong, and there are so many eddies, that even with a fair windvessels are often quite unable to pass through them. In the afternoon a strong northwind (dead ahead) obliged us to anchor twice. At nigh it was calm, and we crept along

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slowly with our oars. On the 23rd we still had the wind ahead, or calms. We then crossed over again tothe mainland of Gilolo by the advice of our Gani men, who knew the coast well. Just aswe got across we had another northerly squall with rain, and had to anchor on the edgeof 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 afair breeze from the south, but it lasted only an hour. All the rest of the day we hadnothing 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 progressonward. In the afternoon we sailed and rowed to the south end of Kaióa, and bymidnight 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, andplenty 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, squallyweather, and there appeared a stagnation of insect life. We Staved five days, duringwhich time twelve persons died in the village, mostly from simple intermittent fever, ofthe treatment of which the natives are quite ignorant. During the whole of this voyage Ihad suffered greatly from sunburnt lips, owing to having exposed myself on deck allday to loon after our safety among the shoals and reefs near Waigiou. The salt in theair so affected them that they would not heal, but became excessively painful, and bledat 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 greatestcaution. I kept them constantly covered with ointment, which was itself verydisagreeable, and they caused me almost constant pain for more than a month, as theydid 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 thenext day, on account of bad weather. On the 31st we went out to the anchorage at themouth 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 startedwith the tide in our favour. Hitherto it had usually been calm at night, but on thisoccasion 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 windahead counteracted the current in our favour, and we advanced but little. Soon aftersunrise 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 asingle day of fair wind, was very remarkable. My men firmly believed there wassomething unlucky in the boat, and told me I ought to have had a certain ceremonygone through before starting, consisting of boring a hole in the bottom and pouringsome kind of holy oil through it. It must be remembered that this was the season of thesouth-east monsoon, and yet we had not had even half a day's south-east wind since weleft Waigiou. Contrary winds, squalls, and currents drifted us about the rest of the dayat their pleasure. The night was equally squally and changeable, and kept us hard atwork taking in and making sail, and rowing in the intervals. Sunrise on the 2cd found us in the middle of the ten-mile channel between Kaióaand Makian. Squalls and showers succeeded each other during the morning. At noonthere was a dead calm, after which a light westerly breeze enabled us to reach a villageon 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 3rd 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 informedme he had been at Ternate twenty days, and was anxiously waiting my arrival. Thiswas good news, as I was equally anxious about him, and it cheered up my spirits. A

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light southerly wind now sprung up, and we thought we were going to have fineweather. It soon changed, however, to its old quarter, the west; dense clouds gatheredover the sky, and in less than half an hour we had the severest squall we hadexperienced 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 myold Bugis steersman began shouting out to "Allah! il Allah!" to preserve us. We couldonly keep up our jib, which was almost blown to rags, but by careful handling it kept usbefore 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 nomore of it. In about an hour the fury of the wind abated a little, and in two more wewere able to hoist our mainsail, reefed and half-mast high. Towards evening it clearedup and fell calm, and the sea, which had been rather high, soon went down. Not beingmuch of a seaman myself I had been considerably alarmed, and even the old steersmanassured me he had never been in a worse squall all his life. He was now more than everconfirmed in his opinion of the unluckiness of the boat, and in the efficiency of theholy oil which all Bugis praus had poured through their bottoms. As it was, he imputedour safety and the quick termination of the squall entirely to his own prayers, sayingwith a laugh, "Yes, that's the way we always do on board our praus; when things are atthe worst we stand up and shout out our prayers as loud as we can, and then TuwanAllah 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 ouranchorage owing to violent gusts of wind just as we were close to the town. Looking atmy whole voyage in this vessel from the time when I left Goram in May, it will appearthat rely experiences of travel in a native prau have not been encouraging. My firstcrew ran away; two men were lost for a month on a desert island; we were ten timesaground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; the sails were devoured by rats; the smallboat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight days on the voyage home, which should nothave 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 Waigiouto Ternate, occupying in all seventy- eight days, or only twelve days short of threemonths (all in what was supposed to be the favourable season), we had not one singleday 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 thewind. Every seaman will admit that my first voyage in my own boat was a mostunlucky one. Charles Allen had obtained a tolerable collection of birds and insects at Mysol, butfar less than be would have done if I had not been so unfortunate as to miss visitinghim. After waiting another week or two till he was nearly starved, he returned to Wahaiin Ceram, and heard, much to his surprise, that I had left a fortnight before. He wasdelayed 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 ParadiseBirds; and before he had obtained more than a few of the common sort, the last prauwas ready to leave for Ternate, and he was obliged to take the opportunity, as heexpected I would be waiting there for him.

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THE "KING" AND THE "TWELVE WIRED" BIRDS OF PARADISE

This concludes the record of my wanderings. I next went to Timor, and afterwardsto Bourn, Java, and Sumatra, which places have already been described. Charles Allenmade a voyage to New Guinea, a short account of which will be given in my nextchapter on the Birds of Paradise. On his return he went to the Sula Islands, and made avery interesting collection which served to determine the limits of the zoological groupof Celebes, as already explained in my chapter on the natural history of that island. Hisnext 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. Heafterwards went to Coti on the east coast of Borneo, from which place I was veryanxious to obtain collections, as it is a quite new locality as far as possible fromSarawak, and I had heard very good accounts of it. On his return thence to Sourabayain 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 obtainedemployment in Singapore, and I lost his services as a collector. The three concluding chapters of my work will treat of the birds of Paradise, theNatural History of the Papuan Islands, and the Races of Man in the Malay Archipelago.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

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THE BIRDS OF PARADISE

AS many of my journeys were made with the express object of obtainingspecimens of the Birds of Paradise, and learning something of their habits anddistribution; and being (as far as I am aware) the only Englishman who has seen thesewonderful birds in their native forests, and obtained specimens of many of them, Ipropose 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 andnutmegs, which were then rare and precious spices, they were presented with the driedshins 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'sbirds; and the Portuguese, finding that they had no feet or wings, and not being able tolearn 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," orParadise Bird. John van Linschoten gives these names in 1598, and tells us that no onehas seen these birds alive, for they live in the air, always turning towards the sun, andnever lighting on the earth till they die; for they have neither feet nor wings, as, headds, may be seen by the birds carried to India, and sometimes to Holland, but beingvery 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, sawspecimens at Amboyna, and was told that they came to Banda to eat nutmegs, whichintoxicated 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 footlessParadise Bird), no perfect specimen had been seen in Europe, and absolutely nothingwas known about them. And even now, a hundred years later, most books state thatthey migrate annually to Ternate, Banda, and Amboyna; whereas the fact is, that theyare 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 ofwhich were first described from skins preserved by the savages of New Guinea, andgenerally 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 andhabits to crows, starlings, and to the Australian honeysuckers; but they arecharacterised by extraordinary developments of plumage, which are unequalled in anyother family of birds. In several species large tufts of delicate bright-coloured feathersspring 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 fantasticshapes, or adorned with the most brilliant metallic tints. In another set of species theseaccessory plumes spring from the head, the back, or the shoulders; while the intensityof colour and of metallic lustre displayed by their plumage, is not to be equalled by anyother birds, except, perhaps, the humming-birds, and is not surpassed even by these.They have been usually classified under two distinct families, Paradiseidae andEpimachidae, the latter characterised by long and slender beaks, and supposed to beallied to the Hoopoes; but the two groups are so closely allied in every essential pointof structure and habits, that I shall consider them as forming subdivisions of onefamily. I will now give a short description of each of the known species, and then addsome general remarks on their natural history. The Great Bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda of Linnaeus) is the largest speciesknown, 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 ablackish-violet or purple-brown. The whole top of the head and neck is of anexceedingly delicate straw-yellow, the feathers being short and close set, so as toresemble plush or velvet; the lower part of the throat up to the eye clothed with scaly

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feathers of an emerald, green colour, and with a rich metallic gloss, and velvety plumesof 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 largeand very strong and well formed, are of a pale ashy-pink. The two middle feathers ofthe 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 fromtwenty-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 themost intense golden-orange colour and very glossy, but changing towards the tips intoa pale brown. This tuft of plumage cam be elevated and spread out at pleasure, so asalmost to conceal the body of the bird. These splendid ornaments are entirely confined to the male sex, while the female isreally a very plain and ordinary-looking bird of a uniform coffee-brown colour whichnever changes, neither does she possess the long tail wires, nor a single yellow or greenfeather 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 acquisitionof the yellow and green colour on the head and throat, and at the same time the twomiddle tail feathers grow a few inches longer than the rest, but remain webbed on bothsides. At a later period these feathers arc replaced by the long bare shafts of the fulllength, 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 changesthere must be at least three successive moultings; and as the birds were found by me inall the stages about the same time, it is probable that they moult only once a year, andthat the full plumage is not acquired till the bird is four years old. It was long thoughtthat 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 Ibrought home with me, and which lived two years in this country, show that thecomplete plumage is retained during the whole year, except during a short period ofmoulting as with most other birds. The Great Bird of Paradise is very active and vigorous and seems to be in constantmotion all day long. It is very abundant, small flocks of females and young male beingconstantly met with; and though the full-plumaged birds are less plentiful, their loudcries, 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 greatdistance, and to form the most prominent and characteristic animal sound in the AruIslands. The mode of nidification is unknown; but the natives told me that the nest wasformed of leaves placed on an ant's nest, or on some projecting limb of a very loftytree, 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 oneby 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 toexhibit themselves in the singular manner already described at p. 252. This habitenables the natives to obtain specimens with comparative ease. As soon as they findthat the birds have fled upon a tree on which to assemble, they build a little shelter ofpalm leaves in a convenient place among the branches, and the hunter ensconceshimself in it before daylight, armed with his bow and a number of arrows terminating ina 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 shootswith his blunt arrow so strongly as to stun the bird, which drops down, and is securedand killed by the boy without its plumage being injured by a drop of blood. The resttake no notice, and fall one after another till some of them take the alarm. (SeeFrontispiece.) The native mode of preserving them is to cut off the wings and feet, and then skinthe body up to the beak, taking out the skull. A stout stick is then run up through the

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specimen coming out at the mouth. Round this some leaves are stuffed, and the wholeis 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 andshortened, and the greatest prominence is given to the flowing plumage. Some of thesenative skins are very clean, and often have wings and feet left on; others are dreadfullystained with smoke, and all hive a most erroneous idea of the proportions of the livingbird. The Paradisea apoda, as far as we have any certain knowledge, is confined to themainland of the Aru Islands, never being found in the smaller islands which surroundthe central mass. It is certainly not found in any of the parts of New Guinea visited bythe Malay and Bugis traders, nor in any of the other islands where Birds of Paradise areobtained. But this is by no means conclusive evidence, for it is only in certain localitiesthat the natives prepare skins, and in other places the same birds may be abundantwithout ever becoming known. It is therefore quite possible that this species mayinhabit 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- westernpeninsula. 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 toit. It differs in its lighter brown colour, not becoming darker or purpled on the breast; inthe extension of the yellow colour all over the upper part of the back and on the wingcoverts; 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 entirelywhite on the under surface of the body, and is thus a much handsomer bird. The youngmales are similarly coloured, and as they grow older they change to brown, and gothrough the same stages in acquiring the perfect plumage as has already been describedin 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 specieson 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, foundit at the Oetanata river in longitude 136° E. I obtained it myself at Dorey; and thecaptain of the Dutch steamer Etna informed me that he had seen the feathers among thenatives of Humboldt Bay, in 141° E. longitude. It is very probable, therefore, that itranges over the whole of the mainland of New Guinea. The true Paradise Birds are omnivorous, feeding on fruits and insects--of theformer preferring the small figs; of the latter, grasshoppers, locusts, and phasmas, aswell as cockroaches and caterpillars. When I returned home, in 1862, I was so fortunateas to find two adult males of this species in Singapore; and as they seemed healthy, andfed voraciously on rice, bananas, and cockroaches, I determined on giving the very highprice asked for them--£100.--and to bring them to England by the overland route undermy own care. On my way home I stayed a week at Bombay, to break the journey, andto lay in a fresh stock of bananas for my birds. I had great difficulty, however, insupplying them with insect food, for in the Peninsular and Oriental steamerscockroaches were scarce, and it was only by setting traps in the store-rooms, and byhunting an hour every night in the forecastle, that I could secure a few dozen of thesecreatures,-- scarcely enough for a single meal. At Malta, where I stayed a fortnight, Igot plenty of cockroaches from a bake-house, and when I left, took with me severalbiscuit-tins' full, as provision for the voyage home. We came through theMediterranean 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 currentof air down a hatchway which stood open day and night, yet the birds never seemed tofeel the cold. During the night journey from Marseilles to Paris it was a sharp frost; yet

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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 thespectators. It is evident, therefore, that the Paradise Birds are very hardy, and require airand exercise rather than heat; and I feel sure that if a good sized conservators` could bedevoted to them, or if they could be turned loose in the tropical department of theCrystal Palace or the Great Palm House at Kew, they would live in this country formany years. The Red Bird of Paradise (Paradisea rubra of Viellot), though allied to the twobirds 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 itin many particulars. The side plumes, instead of being yellow, are rich crimson, andonly extend about three or four inches beyond the end of the tail; they are somewhatrigid, and the ends are curved downwards and inwards, and are tipped with white. Thetwo 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 asplit quill, and resembling thin half cylinders of horn or whalebone. When a dead birdis laid on its back, it is seen that these ribands take a curve or set, which brings themround so as to meet in a double circle on the neck of the bird; but when they hangdownwards, during life, they assume a spiral twist, and form an exceedingly gracefuldouble curve. They are about twenty-two inches long, and always attract attention asthe most conspicuous and extraordinary feature of the species. The rich metallic greencolour of the throat extends over the front half of the head to behind the eyes, and onthe forehead forms a little double crest of scaly feathers, which adds much to thevivacity 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 ablackish head, and the nape neck, and shoulders yellow, indicating the position of thebrighter colours of the male. The changes of plumage follow the same order ofsuccession as in the other species, the bright colours of the head and neck being firstdeveloped, 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 extraordinaryblack tail ribands are developed, which is very remarkable. They first appear as twoordinary feathers, rather shorter than the rest of the tail; the second stage would nodoubt be that shown in a specimen of Paradisea apoda, in which the feathers aremoderately lengthened, and with the web narrowed in the middle; the third stage isshown by a specimen which has part of the midrib bare, and terminated by a spatulateweb; in another the bare midrib is a little dilated and semi-cylindrical, and the terminalweb very small; in a fifth, the perfect black horny riband is formed, but it bears at itsextremity a brown spatulate web, while in another a portion of the black riband itselfbears, for a portion of its length, a narrow brown web. It is only after these changes arefully completed that the red side plumes begin to appear. The successive stages of development of the colours and plumage of the Birds ofParadise are very interesting, from the striking manner in which they accord with thetheory of their having been produced by the simple action of variation, and thecumulative power of selection by the females, of those male birds which were morethan usually ornamental. [footnote: I have since arrived at the conclusion that femaleselection is not the cause of the development of the ornamental plumes in the males.See my Darwinism, Chap. X.] Variations of _colour_ are of all others the most frequentand the most striking, and are most easily modified and accumulated by man's selectionof them. We should expect, therefore, that the sexual differences of _colour_ would bethose most early accumulated and fixed, and would therefore appear soonest in theyoung birds; and this is exactly what occurs in the Paradise Birds. Of all variations inthe _form_ of birds' feathers, none are so frequent as those in the head and tail. Theseoccur more, or less in every family of birds, and are easily produced in many

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domesticated varieties, while unusual developments of the feathers of the body are rarein 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 crestsof the head, and the long cirrhi of the tail, all fully developed before the plumes whichspring 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 successivevariations, but have been as they are mow from the moment they first appeared uponthe earth, this succession becomes at the least unintelligible to us, for we can see noreason why the changes should not take place simultaneously, or in a reverse order tothat in which they actually occur. What is known of the habits of this bird, and the way in which it is captured by thenatives, have already been described at page 362. The Red Bird of Paradise offers a remarkable case of restricted range, beingentirely confined to the small island of Waigiou, off the north-west extremity of NewGuinea, where it replaces the allied species found in the other islands. [footnote: Thisspecies is said by Dr. Guillemard to be found also in the island of Batanta. (Cruise ofthe Marchesa, Vol II, p.225).] The three birds just described form a well-marked group, agreeing in every pointof 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 whichdistinguishes the male bird. The group ranges nearly over the whole area inhabited bythe family of the Paradiseidae, but each of the species has its own limited region, and isnever found in the same district with either of its close allies. To these three birdsproperly belongs the generic title Paradisea, or true Paradise Bird. [footnote: Three verydistinct new species of Paradisea have since been discovered in Southeastern NewGuinea, and two other less distinct local forms.] 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 genericname, 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 thevery 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 witha metallic or glassy lustre. The breast and belly are pure silky white, between whichcolour and the red of the throat there is a broad band of rich metallic green, and there isa small spot of the same colour close above each eye. From each side of the bodybeneath 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 anarrow line of buff: These plumes are concealed beneath the wing, but when the birdpleases, can be raised and spread out so as to form an elegant semicircular fan on eachshoulder. But another ornament still more extraordinary, and if possible more beautiful,adorns this little bird. The two middle tail feathers are modified into very slenderwirelike shafts, nearly six inches long, each of which bears at the extremity, on theinner side only, a web of an emerald green colour, which is coiled up into a perfectspiral disc, and produces a most singular and charming effect. The bill is orangeyellow, and the feet and legs of a fine cobalt blue. (See upper figure on the plate at thecommencement of this chapter.) The female of this little gem is such a plainly coloured bird, that it can at first sighthardly be believed to belong to the same species. The upper surface is of a dull earthybrown, 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 duskymarkings. The young males are exactly like the female, and they no doubt undergo a

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series of changes as singular as those of Paradisea rubra; but, unfortunately, I wasunable to obtain illustrative specimens. This exquisite little creature frequents the smaller trees in the thickest parts of theforest, feeding on various fruits; often of a very large size for so small a bird. It is veryactive both on its wings and feet, and makes a whirring sound while flying, somethinglike the South American manakins. It often flutters its wings and displays the beautifulfan which adorns its breast, while the star-bearing tail wires diverge in an elegantdouble curve. It is tolerably plentiful in the Aru Islands, which led to it, being broughtto Europe at an early period along with Paradisea apoda. It also occurs in the island ofMysol and in every part of New Guinea which has been visited by naturalists.

THE MAGNIFICENT BIRD OF PARADISE (Diphyllodes speciosa.)

We now come to the remarkable little bird called the "Magnificent," first figuredby 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 ofDiphyllodes, from the curious double mantle which clothes the back. The head is covered with short brown velvety feathers, which advance on the backso 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 upperpart of the back. Beneath this, and forming a band about one- third of an inch beyondit, is a second mantle of rich, glossy, reddish-brown fathers. The rest of the bath isorange-brown, the tail-coverts and tail dark bronzy, the wings light orange-buff: Thewhole under surface is covered with an abundance of plumage springing from themargins 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 tailspring two narrow feathers of a rich steel blue, and about ten inches long. These arewebbed 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 greatlydeveloped plumage of this bird is erected and displayed in some remarkable manner.

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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 verydifferent appearance from that which it presents in the dried and flattened skins of thenatives, 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, andin 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. Thesame bird was afterwards named "Diphyllodes respublica" by Prince Buonaparte, andstill later, "Schlegelia calva," by Dr. Bernstein, who was so fortunate as to obtain freshspecimens in Waigiou. In this species the upper mantle is sulphur yellow, the lower one and the wingspure red, the breast plumes dark green, and the lengthened middle tail feathers muchshorter than in the allied species. The most curious difference is, however, that the topof the head is bald, the bare skin being of a rich cobalt blue, crossed by several lines ofblack velvety feathers. It is about the same size as Diphyllodes speciosa, and is no doubt entirely confinedto the island of Waigiou. The female, as figured and described by Dr. Bernstein, is verylike that of Cicinnurus regius, being similarly banded beneath; and we may thereforeconclude that its near ally, the "Magnificent," is at least equally plain in this sex, ofwhich specimens have not yet been obtained. The Superb Bird of Paradise was first figured by Buffon, and was named byBoddaert, Paradisea atra, from the black ground colour of its plumage. It forms thegenus Lophorina of Viellot, and is one of the rarest and most brilliant of the wholegroup, being only known front mutilated native skins. This bird is a little larger thanthe Magnificent. The ground colour of the plumage is intense black, but with beautifulbronze reflections on the neck, and the whole head scaled with feathers of brilliantmetallic green and blue. Over its breast it bears a shield formed of narrow and ratherstiff feathers, much elongated towards the sides, of a pure bluish-green colour, and witha satiny gloss. But a still more extraordinary ornament is that which springs from theback of the neck,--a shield of a similar form to that on the breast, but much larger, andof a velvety black colour, glossed with bronze and purple. The outermost feathers ofthis shield are half an inch longer than the wing, and when it is elevated it must, inconjunction with the breast shield, completely change the form and whole appearanceof the bird. The bill is black, and the feet appear to be yellow.

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THE SUPERB BIRD OF PARADISE (Lophorina atra.)

This wonderful little bird inhabits the interior of the northern peninsula of NewGuinea only. Neither I nor Mr. Allen could hear anything of it in any of the islands oron 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 inthe interior. Owing to these "Black Birds of Paradise," as they are called, not being somuch valued as articles of merchandise, they now seem to be rarely preserved by thenatives, and it thus happened that during several years spent on the coasts of NewGuinea and in the Moluccas I was never able to obtain a skin. We are therefore quiteignorant of the habits of this bird, and also of its female, though the latter is no doubtas plain and inconspicuous as in all the other species of this family.

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THE SIX-SHAFTED BIRD OF PARADISE (Parotia sexpennis.)

The Golden, or Six-shafted, Paradise Bird, is another rare species, first figured byBuffon, and never yet obtained in perfect condition. It was named by Boddaert,Paradisea sexpennis, and forms the genus Parotia of Viellot. This wonderful bird isabout 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 arescaled with broad flat feathers of an intense golden hue, changing to green and bluetints 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 ratherthan 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 feathersfrom which the bird receives its name. These are slender wires, six inches long, with asmall oval web at the extremity. In addition to these ornaments, there is also animmense tuft of soft feathers on each side of the breast, which when elevated mustentirely 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 thenostrils, as in Cicinnurus regius. This singular and brilliant bird inhabits the sameregion as the Superb Bird of Paradise, and nothing whatever is known about it but whatwe can derive from an examination of the skins preserved by the natives of NewGuinea. The Standard Wing, named Semioptera wallacei by Mr. G. R. Gray, is an entirelynew form of Bird of Paradise, discovered by myself in the island of Batchian, andespecially distinguished by a pair of long narrow feathers of a white colour, whichspring from among the short plumes which clothe the bend of the wing, and are capable

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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 adelicate ashy violet with a metallic gloss, on the crown of the head. The feathers, whichcover 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 marginedwith rich metallic blue-green, which colour entirely covers the throat and sides of theneck, as well as the long pointed plumes which spring from the sides of the breast, andextend 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 longnarrow delicate feathers which spring from each wing close to the bend. On lifting thewing-coverts they are seen to arise from two tubular horny sheaths, which diverge fromnear the point of junction of the carpal bones. As already described at p. 41, they areerectile, and when the bird is excited are spread out at right angles to the wing andslightly divergent. They are from six to six and a half inches long, the upper oneslightly exceeding the lower. The total length of the bird is eleven inches. The bill ishorny 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; andthe young males exactly resemble her. (See figures at p. 41.) This bird, frequents the lower trees of the forests, and, like most Paradise Birds, isin constant motion--flying from branch to branch, clinging to the twigs and even to thesmooth and vertical trunks almost as easily as a woodpecker. It continually utters aharsh, creaking note, somewhat intermediate between that of Paradisea apoda, and themore musical cry of Cicinnurus regius. The males at short intervals open and fluttertheir wings, erect the long shoulder feathers, and spread out the elegant green breastshields. The Standard Wing is found in Gilolo as well as in Batchian, and all the specimensfrom the former island have the green breast shield rather longer, the crown of the headdarker 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 beingconfined to the Papuan Islands and North Australia. We now come to the Epimachidae, or Long-billed Birds of Paradise, which, asbefore stated, ought not to be separated from the Paradiseidae by the intervention ofany other birds. One of the most remarkable of these is the Twelve-wired ParadiseBird, 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 beakoccupies two inches. The colour of the breast and upper surface appears at first sightnearly black, but a close examination shows that no part of it is devoid of colour; andby holding it in various lights, the most rich and glowing tints become visible. Thehead, covered with short velvety feathers, which advance on the chic much further thanon the upper part of the beak, is of a purplish bronze colour; the whole of the back andshoulders is rich bronzy green, while the closed wings and tail are of the most brilliantviolet purple, all the plumage having a delicate silky gloss. The mass of feathers whichcover the breast is really almost black, with faint glosses of green and purple, but theirouter edges are margined with glittering bands of emerald green. The whole lower partof the body is rich buffy yellow, including the tuft of plumes which spring from thesides, and extend an inch and a half beyond the tail. When skins are exposed to thelight the yellow fades into dull white, from which circumstance it derived its specificname. About six of the innermost of these plumes on each side have the midribelongated into slender black wires, which bend at right angles, and curve somewhatbackwards to a length of about ten inches, forming one of those extraordinary andfantastic ornaments with which this group of birds abounds. The bill is jet black, andthe 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

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none of the gay colours or ornamental plumage of the male. The top of the head andback of the neck are black, the rest of the upper parts rich reddish brown; while theunder surface is entirely yellowish ashy, somewhat blackish on the breast, and crossedthroughout with narrow blackish wavy bands. The Seleucides alba is found in the island of Salwatty, and in the north-westernparts of New Guinea, where it frequents flowering trees, especially sago-palms andpandani, sucking the flowers, round and beneath which its unusually large and powerfulfeet enable it to cling. Its motions are very rapid. It seldom rests more than a fewmoments on one tree, after which it flies straight off, and with great swiftness, toanother. 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 fliesaway. The males are quite solitary in their habits, although, perhaps, they assemble atpertain times like the true Paradise Birds. All the specimens shot and opened by myassistant 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 theflowers on which they had been feeding. They certainly, however, eat both fruit andinsects, for a specimen which I saw alive on board a Dutch steamer ate cockroachesand papaya fruit voraciously. This bird had the curious habit of resting at noon with thebill pointing vertically upwards. It died on the passage to Batavia, and I secured thebody and formed a skeleton, which shows indisputably that it is really a Bird ofParadise. 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 sleepingplace of this bird, which they know by seeing its dung upon the ground. It is generallyin a low bushy tree. At night they climb up the trap, and either shoot the birds withblunt arrows, or even catch them alive with a cloth. In New Guinea they are caught byplacing snares on the trees frequented by them, in the same way as the Red Paradisebirds are caught in Waigiou, and which has already been described at page 362.

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THE LONG-TAILED BIRD OF PARADISE (Epimachus magnus.)

The great Epimaque, or Long-tailed Paradise Bird (Epimachus magnus), is anotherof these wonderful creatures, only known by the imperfect skins prepared by thenatives. In its dark velvety plumage, glowed with bronze and purple, it resembles theSeleucides alba, but it bears a magnificent tail more than two feet long, glossed on theupper 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, andwhich are dilated at the extremity, and banded with the most vivid metallic blue andgreen. The bill is long and curved, and the feet black, and similar to those of the alliedforms. 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 withthe Superb and the Six-shafted Paradise Birds, and I was informed is sometimes foundin the ranges near the coast. I was several times assured by different natives that thisbird makes its nest in a hole under ground, or under rocks, always choosing a placewith two apertures, so that it may enter at one and go out at the other. This is veryunlike what we should suppose to be the habits of the bird, but it is not easy toconceive how the story originated if it is not true; and all travellers know that nativeaccounts of the habits of animals, however strange they may seem, almost invariablyturn out to be correct. The Scale-breasted Paradise Bird (Epimachus magnificus of Cuvier) is nowgenerally placed with the Australian Rifle birds in the genus Ptiloris. Though verybeautiful, these birds are less strikingly decorated with accessory plumage than theother species we have been describing, their chief ornament being a more or lessdeveloped breastplate of stiff metallic green feathers, and a small tuft of somewhat

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hairy plumes on the sides of the breast. The back and wings of this species are of anintense velvety black, faintly glossed in certain lights with rich purple. The two broadmiddle tail feathers are opalescent green-blue with a velvety surface, and the top of thehead is covered with feathers resembling scales of burnished steel. A large triangularspace covering the chin, throat, and breast, is densely scaled with feathers, having asteel-blue or green lustre, and a silky feel. This is edged below with a narrow band ofblack, followed by shiny bronzy green, below which the body is covered with hairyfeathers of a rich claret colour, deepening to black at the tail. The tufts of side plumessomewhat resemble those of the true Birds of Paradise, but are scanty, about as long asthe tail, and of a black colour. The sides of the head are rich violet, and velvety feathersextend 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 nodoubt 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 bandedstripe 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 onlyabout ten inches, owing to the way in which the tail is pushed in, so as to give as muchprominence 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 beautifulRifle Birds of Australia, which much resemble those Paradise Birds, are named Ptilorisparadiseus and Ptiloris victories, The Scale-breasted Paradise Bird seems to beconfined to the mainland of New Guinea, and is less rare than several of the otherspecies. There are three other New Guinea birds which are by some authors classed withthe Birds of Paradise, and which, being almost equally remarkable for splendidplumage, deserve to be noticed here. The first is the Paradise pie (Astrapia nigra ofLesson), a bird of the size of Paradises rubra, but with a very long tail, glossed abovewith intense violet. The back is bronzy black, the lower parts green, the throat and neckbordered with loose broad feathers of an intense coppery hue, while on the top of thehead and neck they are glittering emerald green, All the plumage round the head islengthened and erectile, and when spread out by the living bird must lave an effecthardly 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 andEpimachidae. There is an allied species, having a bare carunculated head, which has been calledParadigalla 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 thePhiladelphia Museum. The Paradise Oriole is another beautiful bird, which is now sometimes classed withthe Birds of Paradise. It has been named Paradises aurea and Oriolus aureus by the oldnaturalists, and is now generally placed in the same genus as the Regent Bird ofAustralia (Sericulus chrysocephalus). But the form of the bill and the character of theplumage seem to me to be so different that it will have to form a distinct genus. Thisbird is almost entirely yellow, with the exception of the throat, the tail, and part of thewings and back, which are black; but it is chiefly characterised by a quantity of longfeathers of an intense glossy orange colour, which cover its neck down to the middle ofthe back, almost like the hackles of a game-cock. This beautiful bird inhabits the mainland of New Guinea, and is also found inSalwatty, but is so rare that I was only able to obtain one imperfect native skin, andnothing whatever is known of its habits. I will now give a list of all the Birds of Paradise yet known, with the places theyare believed to inhabit.

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1. PARADISEA APODA (The Great Paradise Bird). Aru Islands and Central New Guinea.2. PARADISEA PAPUANA (or P. minor). The Lesser Bird of Paradise. North-West New Guinea,

Mysol and Jobie Islands.3. PARADISEA RUBRA (or P. sanguinea). The Red Bird of Paradise. Waigiou and Batanta.4. Paradisea decora. D'Entrecasteaux Islands. This beautiful species has red plumes rather more

abundant than in P.rubra, having at the base a number of shorter plumes of a deeper red. The breastis a soft lilac tint, the head and throad nearly as in P.papuana.

5. Paradisea Raggiana. South-East New Guinea. This species is something like P.apoda, but with redplumes.

6. Paradisea Guilielmi II. German New Guinea. The head, neck, and throat are green, the back yellow.Adult males are not yet known.

7. Paradisea novoeguineoe. A form of P.apoda inhabiting Southern New Guinea.8. Paradisea Finschi. A form of P.papuana found in the south-east of New Guinea.9. CICINNURUS REGIUS. The King Paradise Bird. All New Guinea, Mysol, Aru Islands.

10. DIPHYLLODES SPECIOSA (of D.magnifica). The Magnificent Bird of Paradise. North-West NewGuinea and Mysol.

11. DIPHYLLODES WILSONI (or D.republica). The Red Magnificent. Island of Waigiou.12. Diphyllodes chrysoptera. South-East New Guinea. Allied to the "Magnificent," but with richer and

more varied colours.13. Diphyllodes Jobiensis. An allied form from Jobie Island.14. Diphyllodes Hernsteini. Another species, with red wings and brown crown, from the Horseshoe

Mountains in South-East New Guinea.15. Diphyllodes Guilielmi III. A gorgeous species with orange and red back and a green-tipped fan like

the King bird, from the east of Waigiou.16. LOPHORINA ATRA (or Lophorina superba). The Superb Bird of Paradise. Arfak Mountains,

North-West New Guinea.17. Lophorina minor. A smaller species from the Astrolabe Mountains in South-East New Guinea;

differs in the form of the neck-collar, and somewhat in colour.18. PAROTIA SEXPENNIS. The Golden Bird of Paradise. The Arfak Mountains in North-West New

Guinea.19. Parotia Lamesi. A representative species from the Astrolabe Mountains in South-East New Guinea;

differs in the form of the neck-collar, and somewhat in colour.20. SEMIOPTERA WALLACEI. Wallace's Standard Wing. The Islands of Batchian and Gilolo.21. EPIMACHUS MAGNUS (or E.speciosus). The Long-tailed Paradise Bird. North-West New

Guinea.22. Epimachus Macleayi. A slightly different form, from the Astrolabe Mountains, South-East New

Guinea.23. Epimachus Meyeri. Another allied species from the Horseshoe Mountains, S.E. New Guinea. Female

only known.24. Epimachus Elliotti. A less brilliant species. Locality unknown.25. Seleucides alba (or S.nigricans). The Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise. North-West to South-East

New Guinea.26. PTILORIS (CRASPEDOPHORA) MAGNIFICA. The Scale-breasted Bird of Paradise. All New

Guinea.27. PTILORIS ALBERTI. Prince Albert's Paradise Bird. North Australia.28. PTILORIS PARADISEA. The Rifle Bird. East Australia.29. PTILORIS VICTORIAE. Queen Victoria's Rifle Bird. North-East Australia.30. Ptiloris (Craspedophora) intercedens. A species from South-East New Guinea, very closely allied

to P.magnifica.31. ASTRAPIA NIGRA. The Paradise Pie. Arfak Mountains, North-West New Guinea.32. PARADIGALLA CARUNCULATA. The Carunculated Paradise Pie. Arfak Mountains.

The following species are so distinct from any previously known as to require to be placed in New Genera:- 33. Drepanornis Albertisi. 34. Drepanornis cervinicauda. 35. Drepanornis Bruijni.

}}}

These are a group of rather small and not highly ornamentedbirds from various parts of New Guinea.

36. Astrarchia Stephanioe. A splendid bird from the Owen Stanley Mountains, allied to the Paradise Pie. 37. Paradisornis Rudolphi. Horseshoe Mountains in South-East New Guinea. It is small, but distinguishedby its bright blue side-plumes, and lengthened middle tail feathers with small blue spatulate tips.

In my Studies Scientific and Social, Vol.I, Chap.xx., I have given figures of thelast-named species, and of three other new Paradise-birds from the mountains of NewGuinea. One of these, Pteridophora Alberti, is perhaps the most extraordinary of this

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wonderful family, having long fern-like appendages of a fine blue colour springingfrom the corner of the eye. These, and other additions bring the number of the Birds of Paradise to fiftyspecies, of which about forty are known to inhavit the great island of New Guinea. Butif we consider those islands which are now united to New Guinea by a shallow sea toreally form a part of it, we shall find that twenty-three of the Paradise Birds belong tothat country, while three inhabit the northern and eastern parts of Australia, and one theMoluccas. All the more extraordinary and magnificent species are, however, entirelyconfined to the Papuan region. Although I devoted so much time to a search after these wonderful birds, I onlysucceeded myself in obtaining five species during a residence of many months in theAru Islands, New Guinea, and Waigiou. Mr. Allen's voyage to Mysol did not procure asingle additional species, but we both heard of a place called Sorong, on the mainlandof New Guinea, near Salwatty, where we were told that all the kinds we desired couldbe obtained. We therefore determined that he should visit this place, and endeavour topenetrate into the interior among the natives, who actually shoot and skin the Birds ofParadise. He went in the small prau I had fitted up at Goram, and through the kindassistance of the Dutch Resident at Ternate, a lieutenant and two soldiers were sent bythe Sultan of Tidore to accompany and protect him, and to assist him in getting menand in visiting the interior. Notwithstanding these precautions, Mr. Allen met with difficulties in this voyagewhich we had neither of us encountered before. To understand these, it is necessary toconsider that the Birds of Paradise are an article of commerce, and are the monopoly ofthe 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 theSultan of Tidore. The natives are therefore very jealous of a stranger, especially aEuropean, interfering in their trade, and above all of going into the interior to deal withthe mountaineers themselves. They of course think he will raise the prices in theinterior, and lessen the supply on the coast, greatly to their disadvantage; they alsothink 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 whiteman's coming at so much trouble and expense to their country only to get Birds ofParadise, of which they know he can buy plenty (of the common yellow ones whichalone they value) at Ternate, Macassar, or Singapore. It thus happened that when Mr. Allen arrived at Sorong, and explained his intentionof 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 themountaineers 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 daysspent in these discussions, as he still persisted in making the attempt, and showed themhis authority from the Sultan of Tidore to go where be pleased and receive everyassistance, they at length provided him with a boat to go the first part of the journey upa river; at the same time, however, they sent private orders to the interior villages torefuse to sell any provisions, so as to compel him to return. On arriving at the villagewhere they were to leave the river and strike inland, the coast people returned, leavingMr. 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, refusingto obey the imperious orders of the lieutenant, got out their knives and spears to attackhim and his soldiers; and Mr. Allen himself was obliged to interfere to protect thosewho had come to guard him. The respect due to a white man and the timely distributionof a few presents prevailed; and, on showing the knives, hatchets, and beads he waswilling 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

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mountaineers. Here Mr. Allen remained a month without any interpreter through whomhe could understand a word or communicate a want. However, by signs and presentsand a pretty liberal barter, he got on very well, some of them accompanying him everyday 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 oneadditional species was found, the Seleucides alba, of which be had already obtained aspecimen in Salwatty; but he learnt that the other kinds' of which be showed themdrawings, were found two or three days' journey farther in the interior. When I sent mymen from Dorey to Amberbaki, they heard exactly the same story--that the rarer sortswere only found several days' journey in the interior, among rugged mountains, andthat the skins were prepared by savage tribes who had never even been seen by any ofthe coast people. It seems as if Nature had taken precautions that these her choicest treasures shouldnot be made too common, and thus be undervalued. This northern coast of New Guineais exposed to the full swell of the Pacific Ocean, and is rugged and harbourless. Thecountry is all rocky and mountainous, covered everywhere with dense forests, offeringin its swamps and precipices and serrated ridges an almost impassable barrier to theunknown interior; and the people are dangerous savages, in the very lowest stage ofbarbarism. In such a country, and among such a people, are found these wonderfulproductions of Nature, the Birds of Paradise, whose exquisite beauty of form andcolour and strange developments of plumage are calculated to excite the wonder andadmiration of the most civilized and the most intellectual of mankind, and to furnishinexhaustible materials for study to the naturalist, and for speculation to thephilosopher. Thus ended my search after these beautiful birds. Five voyages to different parts ofthe district they inhabit, each occupying in its preparation and execution the larger partof a year, produced me only five species out of the fourteen known to exist in the NewGuinea district. The kinds obtained are those that inhabit the coasts of New Guinea andits islands, the remainder seeming to be strictly confined to the central mountain-rangesof the northern peninsula; and our researches at Dorey and Amberbaki, near one end ofthis peninsula, and at Salwatty and Sorong, near the other, enable me to decide withsome certainty on the native country of these rare and lovely birds, good specimens ofwhich have never yet been seen in Europe. It must be considered as somewhat extraordinary that, during five years' residenceand travel in Celebes, the Moluccas, and New Guinea, I should never have been able topurchase skins of half the species which Lesson, forty years ago, obtained during a fewweeks in the same countries. I believe that all, except the common species ofcommerce, are now much more difficult to obtain than they were even twenty yearsago; and I impute it principally to their having been sought after by the Dutch officialsthrough the Sultan of Tidore. The chiefs of the annual expeditions to collect tributehave had orders to get all the rare sorts of Paradise Birds; and as they pay little ornothing for them (it being sufficient to say they are for the Sultan), the head men of thecoast villages would for the future refuse to purchase them from the mountaineers, andconfine themselves instead to the commoner species, which are less sought after byamateurs, but are a more profitable merchandise. The same causes frequently lead theinhabitants of uncivilized countries to conceal minerals or other natural products withwhich they may become acquainted, from the fear of being obliged to pay increasedtribute, or of bringing upon themselves a new and oppressive labour.

CHAPTER XXXIX

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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PAPUAN ISLANDS

NEW GUINEA, with the islands joined to it by a shallow sea, constitute thePapuan 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, givensome details of the natural history of this district, I shall here confine myself to ageneral sketch of its animal productions, and of their relations to those of the rest of theworld. New Guinea is perhaps the largest island on the globe, being a little larger thanBorneo. It is nearly fourteen hundred miles long, and in the widest part four hundredbroad, and seems to be everywhere covered with luxuriant forests. Almost everythingthat is yet known of its natural productions comes from the north- western peninsula,and a few islands grouped around it. [footnote: This is no longer true, very extensivecollections having been made in German and British New Guinea (the south-easternportion) which have more than doubled the number of species of birds.] These do notconstitute a tenth part of the area of the whole island, and are so cut off from it, thattheir fauna may well he somewhat different; yet they have produced us (with a verypartial exploration) no less than two hundred and fifty species of land birds, almost allunknown elsewhere, and comprising some of the most curious and most beautiful ofthe feathered tribes. It is needless to say how much interest attaches to the far largerunknown portion of this great island, the greatest terra incognita that still remains forthe naturalist to explore, and the only region where altogether new and unimaginedforms of life may perhaps be found. There is now, I am happy to say, some chance thatthis great country will no longer remain absolutely unknown to us. The DutchGovernment 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 spendsome years in circumnavigating the island, ascending its large rivers a< far as possibleinto the interior, and making extensive collections of its natural productions. [footnote:The most important of all natural history travellers who have since visited New Guineare the Italians Beccari and D'Albertis, the Germans Meyer and Finsch, Mr. H.O.Forbes, and several English and German collectors.] The Mammalia of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, yet discovered, are onlyseventeen in number. Two of these are bats, one is a pig of a peculiar species (Suspapuensis), and the rest are all marsupials. The bats are, no doubt, much morenumerous, but there is every reason to believe that whatever new land Mammalia manbe discovered will belong to the marsupial order. One of these is a true kangaroo, verysimilar to some of middle- sized kangaroos of Australia, and it is remarkable as beingthe first animal of the kind ever seen by Europeans. It inhabits Mysol and the AruIslands (an allied species being found in New Guinea), and was seen and described byLe Brun in 1714, from living specimens at Batavia. A much more extraordinarycreature 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, andappear 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 powerof the muscular tail is lost, and powerful claws have been acquired to assist inclimbing, 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 NewGuinea, and no enemies of any kind from which these animals have to escape by rapidclimbing. Four species of Cuscus, and the small flying opossum, also inhabit NewGuinea; 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. [Among the moreinteresting Mammalia since discovered are a species of Echidna, allied to the spiny ant-eater of Australia.] The birds of New Guinea offer the greatest possible contrast to the Mammalia,

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since they are more numerous, more beautiful, and afford more new, curious, andelegant forms than those of any other island on the globe. Besides the Birds ofParadise, which we have already sufficiently considered, it possesses a number of othercurious birds, which in the eyes of the ornithologist almost serves to distinguish it asone of the primary divisions of the earth. Among its thirty species of parrots are theGreat Pluck Cockatoo, and the little rigid-tailed Nasiterna, the giant and the dwarf ofthe 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 distinctspecies, among which are the magnificent crowned pigeons, now so well known in ouraviaries, and pre-eminent both for size and beauty; the curious Trugon terrestris, whichapproaches 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. [footnote: Nearly ninety species of pigeons arenow known to inhabit New Guinea and adjacent Papuan Islands, while the parrot tribein the same area has increased to about eighty species. Nearly 800 species of Papuanbirds are now known.] Among its sixteen kingfishers, it possesses the carious hook-billed Macrorhina, and a red and blue Tanysiptera, the most beautiful of that beautifulgenus. Among its perching birds are the fine genus of crow-like starlings, with brilliantplumage (Manucodia); the carious pale- coloured crow (Gymnocorvus senex); theabnormal red and black flycatcher (Peltops blainvillii); the curious little boat-billedflycatchers (Machaerirhynchus); and the elegant blue flycatcher- wrens (Todopsis). The naturalist will obtain a clearer idea of the variety and interest of theproductions 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 areawhich includes the Moluccas and North Australia, and whose species of these generahave been entirely derived from New Guinea. About one-half of the New Guineagenera 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 pureMalay element in the birds of New Guinea. We find two species of Eupetes, a curiousMalayan genus allied to the forked-tail water-chats; two of Alcippe, an Indian andMalay wren-like form; an Arachnothera, quite resembling the spider- catchinghoneysuckers of Malacca; two species of Gracula, the Mynahs of India; and a curiouslittle black Prionochilus, a saw- billed fruit pecker, undoubtedly allied to the Malayanform, although perhaps a distinct genus. Now not one of these birds, or anything alliedto them, occurs in the Moluccas, or (with one exception) in Celebes or Australia; andas they are most of them birds of short flight, it is very difficult to conceive how orwhen they could have crossed the space of more than a thousand miles, which nowseparates them from their nearest allies. Such facts point to changes of land and sea ona large scale, and at a rate which, measured by the time required for a change ofspecies, must be termed rapid. By speculating on such changes, we may easily see howpartial waves of immigration may have entered New Guinea, and how all trace of theirpassage may have been obliterated by the subsequent disappearance of the interveningland. There is nothing that the study of geology teaches us that is more certain or moreimpressive than the extreme instability of the earth's surface. Everywhere beneath ourfeet we find proofs that what is land has been sea, and that where oceans now spreadout has once been land; and that this change from sea to land, and from land to sea, hastaken place, not once or twice only, but again and again, during countless ages of pasttime. Now the study of the distribution of animal life upon the present surface of theearth, causes us to look upon this constant interchange of land and sea--this makingand unmaking of continents, this elevation and disappearance of islands--as a potentreality, which has always and everywhere been in progress, and has been the mainagent in determining the manner in which living things are now grouped and scattered

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over the earth's surface. And when we continually come upon such little anomalies ofdistribution as that just now described, we find the only rational explanation of them, inthose 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 almostequally remarkable for fine forms and brilliant colours. The magnificent green andyellow Ornithopterae are abundant, and have most probably spread westward from thispoint as far as India. Among the smaller butterflies are several peculiar genera ofNymphalidae and Lycaenidae, remarkable for their large size, singular markings, orbrilliant coloration. The largest and most beautiful of the clear-winged moths (Cocytiad'urvillei) is found here, as well as the large and handsome green moth (Nyctalemonorontes). The beetles furnish us with many species of large size, and of the mostbrilliant metallic lustre, among which the Tmesisternus mirabilis, a longicorn beetle ofa golden green colour; the excessively brilliant rose-chafers, Lomaptera wallacei andAnacamptorhina 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 curioushorned flies have already been mentioned; and among the Orthoptera the great shieldedgrasshoppers 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 asvery closely to resemble a leaf. The glossy wing-coverts (when fully expanded, morethan nine inches across) are of a fine green colour and so beautifully veined as toimitate closely some of the large shining tropical leaves. The body is short, andterminated 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 theirmotions, depending for safety on their resemblance to foliage, their horny shield andwing-coverts, and their spiny legs.

THE GREAT-SHIELDED GRASSHOPPER

The large islands to the east of New Guinea are very little known, but theoccurrence of crimson lories, which are quite absent from Australia, and of cockatoosallied to those of New Guinea and the Moluccas, shows that they belong to the Papuan

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group; and we are thus able to define the Malay Archipelago as extending eastward tothe Solomon's Islands. New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, on the other hand, seemmore nearly allied to Australia; and the rest of the islands of the Pacific, though verypoor in all forms of life, possess a few peculiarities which compel us to class them as aseparate group. Although as a matter of convenience I have always separated theMoluccas as a distinct zoological group from New Guinea, I have at the same timepointed out that its fauna was chiefly derived from that island, just as that of Timor waschiefly derived from Australia. If we were dividing the Australian region for zoologicalpurposes alone, we should form three great groups: one comprising Australia, Timor,and Tasmania; another New Guinea, with the islands from Bouru to the Solomon'sgroup; 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 bestmarked in the Mammalia by the abundance of marsupials, and the almost completeabsence 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 sofrom the other, such as Pheasants, Grouse, Vultures, and Woodpeckers; whileCockatoos, Broad-tailed Parrots, Podargi, and the great families of the Honeysuckersand Brush-turkeys, with many others, comprising no less than twenty-four genera ofland-birds, are common to both countries, and are entirely confined to them. When we consider the wonderful dissimilarity of the two regions in all thosephysical 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 greatsimilarity in their productions is almost astounding, and unmistakeably points to acommon origin. The resemblance is not nearly so strongly marked in insects, the reasonobviously being, that this class of animals are much more immediately dependent onvegetation and climate than are the more highly organized birds and Mammalia. Insectsalso have far more effective means of distribution, and have spread widely into everydistrict favourable to their development and increase. The giant Ornithopterae have thusspread from New Guinea over the whole Archipelago, and as far as the base of theHimalayas; while the elegant long-horned Anthribidae have spread in the oppositedirection from Malacca to New Guinea, but owing to unfavourable conditions have notbeen able to establish themselves in Australia. That country, on the other hand, hasdeveloped a variety of flower-haunting Chafers and Buprestidae, and numbers of largeand curious terrestrial Weevils, scarcely any of which are adapted to the damp gloomyforests 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 theancient population of the equatorial parts of the Australian region, which are stillalmost entirely confined to it. Such are the interesting sub-family of Longicorncoleoptera-- Tmesisternitae; one of the best-marked genera of Buprestidae--Cyphogastra; and the beautiful weevils forming the genus Eupholus. Among butterflieswe have the genera Mynes, Hypocista, and Elodina, and the curious eye-spottedDrusilla, of which last a single species is found in Java, but in no other of the westernislands. 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 bemarked out in botany as in zoology. The causes which tend to diffusion are here mostpowerful, and have led to such intermingling of the floras of adjacent regions that nonebut broad and general divisions can now be detected. These remarks have an importantbearing on the problem of dividing the surface of the earth into great regions,distinguished by the radical difference of their natural productions. Such difference wenow know to be the direct result of long-continued separation by more or lessimpassable barriers; and as wide oceans and great contrast: of temperature are the mostcomplete barriers to the dispersal of all terrestrial forms of life, the primary divisions of

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the earth should in the main serve for all terrestrial organisms. However various may bethe effects of climate, however unequal the means of distribution; these will neveraltogether obliterate the radical effects of long-continued isolation; and it is my firmconviction, that when the botany and the entomology of New Guinea and thesurrounding islands become as well known as are their mammals and birds, thesedepartments 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

I PROPOSE to conclude this account of my Eastern travels, with a short statementof 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 withsurrounding 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, whoseheadquarters are New Guinea and several of the adjacent islands. Between these inlocality, are found tribes who are also intermediate in their chief characteristics, and itis sometimes a nice point to determine whether they belong to one or the other race, orhave been formed by a mixture of the two. The Malay is undoubtedly the most important of these two races, as it is the onewhich is the most civilized, which has come most into contact with Europeans, andwhich alone has any place in history. What may be called the true Malay races, asdistinguished from others who have merely a Malay element in their language, presenta considerable uniformity of physical and mental characteristics, while there are verygreat differences of civilization and of language. They consist of four great, and a fewminor semi-civilized tribes, and a number of others who may be termed savages. TheMalays proper inhabit the Malay peninsula, and almost all the coast regions of Borneoand Sumatra. They all speak the Malay language, or dialects of it; they write in theArabic character, and are Mahometans in religion. The Javanese inhabit Java, part ofSumatra, Madura, Bali, and Bart of Lombock. They speak the Javanese and Kawilanguages, 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 partsof Celebes, and there seems to be an allied people in Sumbawa. They speak the Bugisand Macassar languages, with dialects, and have two different native characters inwhich they write these. They are all Mahometans. The fourth great race is that of theTagalas in the Philippine Islands, about whom, as I did not visit those Islands, I shallsay little. Many of them are now Christians, and speak Spanish as well as their nativetongue, 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 seemcompounded of Bugis and Javanese, with the languages of the savage tribes of theMoluccas. The savage Malays are the Dyaks of Borneo; the Battaks and other wild tribes ofSumatra; the Jakuns of the Malay Peninsula; the aborigines of Northern Celebes, of theSula island, and of part of Bouru. The colour of all these varied tribes is a light reddish brown, with more or less ofan olive tinge, not varying in any important degree over an extent of country as large asall Southern Europe. The hair is equally constant, being invariably black and straight,

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and of a rather coarse texture, so that any lighter tint, or any wave or curl in it, is analmost certain proof of the admixture of some foreign blood. The face is nearlydestitute of beard, and the breast and limbs are free from hair. The stature is tolerablyequal, and is always considerably below that of the average European; the body isrobust, the breast well developed, the feet small, thick, and short, the hands small andrather delicate. The face is a little broad, and inclined to be flat; the forehead is ratherrounded, the brows low, the eyes black and very slightly oblique; the nose is rathersmall, not prominent, but straight and well-shaped, the apex a little rounded, thenostrils broad and slightly exposed; the cheek-bones are rather prominent, the mouthlarge, 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 onthe whole the Malays are certainly not handsome. In youth, however, they are oftenvery good-looking, and many of the boys and girls up to twelve or fifteen years of ageare very pleasing, and some have countenances which are in their way almost perfect. Iam inclined to think they lose much of their good looks by bad habits and irregularliving. At a very early age. they chew betel and tobacco almost incessantly; they suffermuch want and exposure in their fishing and other excursions; their lives are oftenpassed in alternate starvation and feasting, idleness and excessive labour,--and thisnaturally produces premature old age and harshness of features. In character the Malay is impassive. He exhibits a reserve, diffidence, and evenbashfulness, which is in some degree attractive, and leads the observer to thinly that theferocious and bloodthirsty character imputed to the race must be grossly exaggerated.He is not demonstrative. His feelings of surprise, admiration, or fear, are never openlymanifested, and are probably not strongly felt. He is slow and deliberate in speech, andcircuitous in introducing the subject he has come expressly to discuss. These are themain 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 aEuropean. 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 severalare paddling in a canoe, they occasionally chant a monotonous and plaintive song. Heis cautious of giving offence to his equals. He does not quarrel easily about moneymatters; dislikes asking too frequently even for payment of his just debts, and will oftengive them up altogether rather than quarrel with his debtor. Practical joking is utterlyrepugnant to his disposition; for he is particularly sensitive to breaches of etiquette, orany interference with the personal liberty of himself or another. As an example, I maymention that I have often found it very difficult to get one Malay servant to wakenanother. He will call as loud as he can, but will hardly touch, much less shake hiscomrade. I have frequently had to waken a hard sleeper myself when on a land or seajourney. The higher classes of Malays are exceedingly polite, and have all the quiet easeand dignity of the best-bred Europeans. Yet this is compatible with a reckless crueltyand contempt of human life, which is the dark side of their character. It is not to bewondered at, therefore, that different persons give totally opposite accounts of them--one praising them for their soberness, civility, and good-nature; another abusing themfor 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. Theyregard killing a man as a mere jest; nor is any punishment allotted for such a deed. Ifany one purchase a new sword, and wish to try it, he will thrust it into the breast of thefirst person he meets. The passers-by examine the wound, and praise the skill of theperson who inflicted it, if he thrust in the weapon direct." Yet Drake says of the southof Java: "The people (as are their kings) are a very loving, true, and just-dealingpeople;" and Mr. Crawfurd says that the Javanese, whom he knew thoroughly, are "apeaceable, 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

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PAPUAN CHARM

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 ofanything beyond the simplest combinations of ideas, and have little taste or energy forthe acquirement of knowledge. Their civilization, such as it is, does not seem to beindigenous, as it is entirely confined to those nations who have been converted to theMahometan or Brahminical religions. I will now give an equally brief sketch of the other great race of the MalayArchipelago, the Papuan. The typical Papuan race is in many respects the very opposite of the Malay, and ithas 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 ofsome negro races. It varies in tint, however, more than that of the Malay, and issometimes 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, butafterwards grow out to a, considerable length, forming the compact frizzled mop whichis the Papuans' pride and glory. The face is adorned with a beard of the same frizzlynature as the hair of the head. The arms, legs, and breast are also more or less clothedwith hair of a similar nature. In stature the Papuan decidedlysurpasses the Malay, and is perhaps equal,or even superior, to the average ofEuropeans. The legs are long and thin, andthe hands and feet larger than in the Malays.The face is somewhat elongated, theforehead flatfish, the brows very prominent;the nose is large, rather arched and high, thebase thick, the nostrils broad, with theaperture hidden, owing to the tip of the nosebeing elongated; the mouth is large, the lipsthick and protuberant. The face has thus analtogether more European aspect than in theMalay, owing to the large nose; and thepeculiar form of this organ, with the moreprominent brows and the character of thehair on the head, face, and body, enable usat a glance to distinguish the two races. Ihave observed that most of thesecharacteristic features are as distinctlyvisible in children of ten or twelve years oldas in adults, and the peculiar form of thenose is always shown in the figures whichthey carve for ornaments to their houses, oras charms to wear round their necks. The moral characteristics of the Papuanappear to me to separate him as distinctlyfrom the Malay as do his form and features.He is impulsive and demonstrative inspeech and action. His emotions andpassions express themselves in shouts andlaughter, in yells and frantic leapings. Women and children take their share in everydiscussion, 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 itsomewhat higher than that of the Malays, notwithstanding the fact that the Papuans

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have never yet made any advance towards civilization. It must be remembered,however, that for centuries the Malays have been influenced by Hindoo, Chinese, andArabic immigration, whereas the Papuan race has only been subjected to the verypartial and local influence of Malay traders. The Papuan has much more vital energy,which would certainly greatly assist his intellectual development. Papuan slaves showno inferiority of intellect. compared with Malays, but rather the contrary; and in theMoluccas they are often promoted to places of considerable trust. The Papuan has agreater feeling for art than the Malay. He decorates his canoe, his house, and almostevery domestic utensil with elaborate carving, a habit which is rarely found amongtribes of the Malay race. In the affections and moral sentiments, on the other hand, the Papuans seem verydeficient. In the treatment of their children they are often violent and cruel; whereas theMalays are almost invariably kind and gentle, hardly ever interfering at all with theirchildren's pursuits and amusements, and giving them perfect liberty at whatever agethey wish to claim it. But these very peaceful relations between parents and childrenare 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 theharsher discipline of the Papuans may be chiefly due to that greater vigour and energyof mind which always, sooner or later, leads to the rebellion of the weaker against thestronger,--the people against their rulers, the slave against his master, or the childagainst its parent. It appears, therefore, that, whether we consider their physical conformation, theirmoral characteristics, or their intellectual capacities, the Malay and Papuan races offerremarkable 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 asmall 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; thePapuan is bold, impetuous, excitable, and noisy. The former is grave and seldomlaughs; the latter is joyous arid laughter-loving,--the one conceals his emotions, theother displays them. Having thus described in some detail, the great physical, intellectual, and moraldifferences between the Malays and Papuans, we have to consider the inhabitants ofthe numerous islands which do not agree very closely with either of these races. Theislands of Obi, Batchian, and the three southern peninsulas of Gilolo, possess no trueindigenous 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 Papuanfeatures, and curly hair; they are bearded and hairy-limbed, but quite as light in colouras the Malays. They are an industrious and enterprising race, cultivating rice andvegetables, and indefatigable in their search after game, fish, tripang, pearls, andtortoiseshell. In the great island of Ceram there is also an indigenous race very similar to that ofNorthern Gilolo. Bourn seems to contain two distinct races,--a shorter, round-facedpeople, with a Malay physiognomy, who may probably have come from Celebes byway 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 nearerto 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. Theuniversal dress is a long cloth twisted round the waist, the fringed ends of which hangbelow the knee. The people are said to be great thieves, and the tribes are always at warwith 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

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all kinds being protected from depredation by this ceremony, the reverence for which isvery great. A palm branch stuck across an open door, showing that the house istabooed, 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 allroof, the thatch overhanging the low walls and reaching the ground, except where it iscut away for an entrance. In some parts of the west end of Timor, and on the littleisland 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 excitabledisposition, loud voices, and fearless demeanour, the Timorese closely resemble thepeople of New Guinea. In the islands west of Timor, as far as Flores and Sandalwood Island, a verysimilar race is found, which also extends eastward to Timor-laut, where the true Papuanrace begins to appear. The small islands of Savu and Rotti, however, to the west ofTimor, are very remarkable in possessing a different and, in some respects, peculiarrace. These people are very handsome, with good features, resembling in manycharacteristics 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 inthe western rather than the eastern ethnological division of the Archipelago. The whole of the great island of New Guinea, the Ké arid Aru Islands, with Mysol,Salwatty, and Waigiou, are inhabited almost exclusively by the typical Papuans. I foundno trace of any other tribes inhabiting the interior of New Guinea, but the coast peopleare in some places mixed with the browner races of the Moluccas. The same Papuanrace seems to extend over the islands east of New Guinea as far as the Fijis. [footnote:In the south-east peninsula of New Guinea are found some undoubtedly Polynesiantribes, called Motu. These have probably settled here at an early period, and havemixed more or less with the native Papuans.] There remain to be noticed the black woolly-haired races of the Philippines and theMalay peninsula, the former called "Negritos," and the latter "Semangs." I have neverseen these people myself, but from the numerous accurate descriptions of them thathave been published, I have had no difficulty in satisfying myself that they have littleaffinity 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 theMalay. They are dwarfs in stature, only averaging four feet six inches to four feet eightinches high, or eight inches less than the Malays; whereas the Papuans are decidedlytaller than the Malays. The nose is invariably represented as small, flattened, or turnedup at the apex, whereas the most universal character of the Papuan race is to have thenose prominent and large, with the apex produced downwards, as it is invariablyrepresented in their own rude idols. The hair of these dwarfish races agrees with that ofthe Papuans, but so it does with that of the negroes of Africa. The Negritos and theSemangs agree very closely in physical characteristics with each other and with theAndaman 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 asto their origin and affinities. If we draw a line (see Physical Map, Vol. 1. p. 14), commencing to the east of thePhilippine Islands, thence along the western coast of Gilolo, through the island ofBouru, and curving round the west end of Mores, then bending back by SandalwoodIsland to take in Rotti, we shall divide the Archipelago into two portions, the races ofwhich have strongly marked distinctive peculiarities. This line will separate theMalayan and all the Asiatic races, from the Papuans and all that inhabit the Pacific; andthough along the line of junction intermigration and commixture have taken place, yetthe division is on the whole almost as well defined and strongly contrasted, as is thecorresponding zoological division of the Archipelago, into an Indo-Malayan and

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Austro-Malayan region. I must briefly explain the reasons that have led me to consider this division of theOceanic races to be a true and natural one. The Malayan race, as a whole, undoubtedlyvery closely resembles the East Asian populations, from Siam to Mandchouria. I wasmuch struck with this, when in the island of Bali I saw Chinese traders who hadadopted the costume of that country, and who could then hardly be distinguished fromMalays; and, on the other hand, I have seen natives of Java who, as far as physiognomywas concerned, would pass very well for Chinese. Then, again, we have the mosttypical of the Malayan tribes inhabiting a portion of the Asiatic continent itself,together with those great islands which, possessing the same species of large Mammaliawith the adjacent parts of the continent, have in all probability formed a connectedportion of Asia during the human period. The Negritos are, no doubt, quite a distinctrace from the Malay; but yet, as some of them inhabit a portion of the continent, andothers 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 ownobservations with those of the most trustworthy travellers and missionaries, that a raceidentical in all its chief features with the Papuan, is found in all the islands as far eastas the Fijis; beyond this the brown Polynesian race, or some intermediate type, isspread everywhere over the Pacific. The descriptions of these latter often agree exactlywith the characters of the brown indigenes of Gilolo and Ceram. It is to be especially remarked that the brown and the black Polynesian racesclosely resemble each other. Their features are almost identical, so that portraits of aNew Zealander or Otaheitan will often serve accurately to represent a Papuan orTimorese, the darker colour and more frizzly hair of the latter being the onlydifferences. They are both tall races. They agree in their love of art and the style oftheir decorations. They are energetic, demonstrative, joyous, and laughter-loving, andin all these particulars they differ widely from the Malay. I believe, therefore, that the numerous intermediate forms that occur among thecountless 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 theblack, the Papuan, the natives of Gilolo and Ceram, the Fijian, the inhabitants of theSandwich Islands and those of New Zealand, are all varying forms of one greatOceanic or Polynesian race. It is, however, quite possible, and perhaps probable, that the brown Polynesianswere originally the produce of a mixture of Malays, or some lighter coloured Mongolrace with the dark Papuans; but if so, the intermingling took place at such a remoteepoch, and has been so assisted by the continued influence of physical conditions andof natural selection, leading to the preservation of a special type suited to thoseconditions, that it has become a fixed and stable race with no signs of mongrelism, andshowing such a decided preponderance of Papuan character, that it can best beclassified as a modification of the Papuan type. The occurrence of a decided Malayelement in the Polynesian languages, has evidently nothing to do with any such ancientphysical connexion. It is altogether a recent phenomenon, originating in the roaminghabits of the chief Malay tribes; and this is proved by the fact that we find actualmodern words of the Malay and Javanese languages in use in Polynesia, so littledisguised by peculiarities of pronunciation as to be easily recognisable--not mereMalay roots only to be detected by the elaborate researches of the philologist, as wouldcertainly have been the case had their introduction been as remote as the origin of avery distinct race--a race as different from the Malay in mental and moral, as it is inphysical 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 theanimal productions of the same country, which I have already so fully explained and

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illustrated. The dividing lines do not, it is true, exactly agree; but I think it is aremarkable fact, and something more than a mere coincidence, that they should traversethe same district and approach each other so closely as they do. If, however, I am rightin my supposition that the region where the dividing line of the Indo-Malayan andAustro-Malayan regions of zoology can now be drawn, was formerly occupied by amuch wider sea than at present, and if man existed on the earth at that period, we shallsee good reason why the races inhabiting the Asiatic and Pacific areas should now meetand partially intermingle in the vicinity of that dividing line. It has recently been maintained by Professor Huxley, that the Papuans are moreclosely allied to the negroes of Africa than to any other race. The resemblance both inphysical and mental characteristics had often struck myself, but the difficulties in theway of accepting it as probable or possible, have hitherto prevented me front giving fullweight to those resemblances. Geographical, zoological, and ethnologicalconsiderations render it almost certain, that if these two races ever had a commonorigin, it could only have been at a period far more remote than any which has yet beenassigned to the antiquity of the human race. And even if their lenity could be proved, itwould in no way affect my argument for the close affinity of the Papuan andPolynesian races, and the radical distinctness of both from the Malay. Polynesia is pre-eminently an area of subsidence, and its goat widespread groupsof coral-reefs mark out tile position of former continents and islands. The rich andvaried, yet strangely isolated productions of Australia and New Guinea, also indicate anextensive continent where such specialized forms were developed. The races of mennow inhabiting these countries are, therefore, most probably the descendants of theraces which inhabited these continents and islands. This is the most simple and naturalsupposition to make. And if we find any signs of direct affinity between the inhabitantsof any other part of the world and those of Polynesia, it by no means follows that thelatter were derived from the former. For as, when a Pacific continent existed, the wholegeography 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 wereformed at a subsequent epoch, may have derived some of their inhabitants from thePolynesian area itself. It is undoubtedly true that there are proofs of extensivemigrations among the Pacific islands, which have led to community of language fromthe sandwich group to New Zealand; but there are no proofs whatever of recentmigration from any surrounding country to Polynesia, since there is no people to befound elsewhere sufficiently resembling the Polynesian race in their chief physical andmental characteristics. If the past history of these varied races is obscure and uncertain, the future is noless so. The true Polynesians, inhabiting the farthest isles of the Pacific, are no doubtdoomed to an early extinction. But the more numerous Malay race seems well adaptedto survive as the cultivator of the soil, even when his country and government havepassed into the hands of Europeans. If the tide of colonization should be turned to NewGuinea, there can be little doubt of the early extinction of the Papuan race. A warlikeand 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 myeight years' wanderings among the largest and the most luxuriant islands which adornour 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 atsome 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 ofyet higher interest and deeper importance, which the contemplation of savage life hassuggested, and on which I believe that the civilized can learn something from thesavage man. We most of us believe that we, the higher races have progressed and are

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progressing. If so, there must be some state of perfection, some ultimate goal, which wemay never reach, but to which all true progress must bring nearer. What is this ideallyperfect social state towards which mankind ever has been, and still is tending? Our bestthinkers maintain, that it is a state of individual freedom and self-government, renderedpossible by the equal development and just balance of the intellectual, moral, andphysical parts of our nature,--a state in which we shall each be so perfectly fitted for asocial existence, by knowing what is right, and at the same time feeling an irresistibleimpulse to do what we know to be right., that all laws and all punishments shall beunnecessary. In such a state every man would have a sufficiently well-balancedintellectual organization, to understand the moral law in all its details, and wouldrequire 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 ofsavages in South America and in the East, who have no laws or law courts but thepublic opinion of the village freely expressed. Each man scrupulously respects therights of his fellow, and any infraction of those rights rarely or never takes place. Insuch a community, all are nearly equal. There are cone of those wide distinctions, ofeducation and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant, which are the productof our civilization; there is none of that wide-spread division of labour, which, while itincreases wealth, products also conflicting interests; there is not that severe competitionand struggle for existence, or for wealth, which the dense population of civilizedcountries inevitably creates. All incitements to great crimes are thus wanting, and pettyones are repressed, partly by the influence of public opinion, but chiefly by that naturalsense 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 intellectualachievements, we have not advanced equally in morals. It is true that among thoseclasses who have no wants that cannot be easily supplied, and among whom publicopinion has great influence; the rights of others are fully respected. It is true, also, thatwe have vastly extended the sphere of those rights, and include within them all thebrotherhood of man. But it is not too much to say, that the mass of our populationshave not at all advanced beyond the savage code of morals, and have in many casessunk below it. A deficient morality is the great blot of modern civilization, and thegreatest hindrance to true progress. During the last century, and especially in the last thirty years, our intellectual andmaterial 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 avast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such au amount ofpoverty and crime, and have fostered the growth of so much sordid feeling and somany fierce passions, that it may well be questioned, whether the mental and moralstatus of our population has not on the average been lowered, and whether the evil hasnot overbalanced the good. Compared with our wondrous progress in physical scienceand its practical applications, our system of government, of administering justice, ofnational education, and our whole social and moral organization, remains in a state ofbarbarism. [See note next page.] And if we continue to devote our chief energies to theutilizing of our knowledge the laws of nature with the view of still further extendingour commerce and our wealth, the evils which necessarily accompany these when tooeagerly pursued, may increase to such gigantic dimensions as to be beyond cur powerto alleviate. We should now clearly recognise the fact, that the wealth and knowledge andculture of the few do not constitute civilization, and do not of themselves advance ustowards the "perfect social state." Our vast manufacturing system, our giganticcommerce, our crowded towns and cities, support and continually renew a mass ofhuman misery and crime absolutely greater than has ever existed before. They create

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and maintain in life-long labour an ever- increasing army, whose lot is the more hard tobear, by contrast with the pleasures, the comforts, and the luxury which they seeeverywhere around them, but which they can never hope to enjoy; and who, in thisrespect, 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 moregeneral recognition of this failure of our civilization--resulting mainly from our neglectto train and develop more thoroughly the sympathetic feelings and moral faculties ofour nature, and to allow them a larger share of influence in our legislation, ourcommerce, and our whole social organization--we shall never, as regards the wholecommunity, 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 nowbid my readers--Farewell!

NOTE THOSE who believe that our social condition approaches perfection, will think the above word harshand exaggerated, but it seems to me the only word that can be truly applied to us. We are the richest countryin the world, and yet one-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 in London alone,) and we may besure that more than ONE-TENTH of our population are actually Paupers and Criminals. Both these classeswe keep idle or at unproductive labour, and each criminal costs us annually in our prisons more than thewages of an honest agricultural labourer. We allow over a hundred thousand persons known to have nomeans of subsistence but by crime, to remain at large and prey upon the community, and many thousandchildren to grow up before our eyes in ignorance and vice, to supply trained criminals for the nextgeneration. This, in a country which boasts of its rapid increase in wealth, of its enormous commerce andgigantic manufactures, of its mechanical skill and scientific knowledge, of its high civilization and its pureChristianity,--I can but term a state of social barbarism. We also boast of our love of justice, and that thelaw protects rich and. poor alike, yet we retain money fines as a punishment, and male the very first steps toobtain 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 andintention, a man's property may all go to a stranger, and his own children be left destitute. Such cases havehappened through the operation of the laws of inheritance of landed property; and that such unnaturalinjustice is possible among us, shows that we are in a state of social barbarism. Ono more example to justifymy use of the term, and I have done. We permit absolute possession of the soil of our country, with no legalrights of existence on the soil, to the vast majority who do not possess it. A great landholder may legallyconvert his whole property into a forest or a hunting- ground, and expel every human being who has hithertolived 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 beexercised by individuals, in however small a degree, indicates that, as regards true social science, we arestill in a state of barbarism.

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