The Malay Archipelago
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by Alfred Russell Wallace >> The Malay Archipelago
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The next morning we left early, and reached the mouth of the
little river in about au hour. It flows through a perfectly flat
alluvial plain, but there are hills which approach it near the
mouth. Towards the lower part, in a swamp where the salt-water
must enter at high tides, were a number of elegant tree-ferns
from eight to fifteen feet high. These are generally considered
to be mountain plants, and rarely to occur on the equator at an
elevation of less than one or two thousand feet. In Borneo, in
the Aru Islands, and on the banks of the Amazon, I have observed
them at the level of the sea, and think it probable that the
altitude supposed to be requisite for them may have been deduced
from facts observed in countries where the plains and lowlands
are largely cultivated, and most of the indigenous vegetation
destroyed. Such is the case in most parts of Java, India,
Jamaica, and Brazil, where the vegetation of the tropics has been
most fully explored.
Coming out to sea we turned northwards, and in about two hours'
sail reached a few huts, called Langundi, where some Galela men
had established themselves as collectors of gum-dammar, with
which they made torches for the supply of the Ternate market.
About a hundred yards back rises a rather steep hill, and a short
walk having shown me that there was a tolerable path up it, I
determined to stay here for a few days. Opposite us, and all
along this coast of Batchian, stretches a row of fine islands
completely uninhabited. Whenever I asked the reason why no one
goes to live in them, the answer always was, "For fear of the
Magindano pirates." Every year these scourges of the Archipelago
wander in one direction or another, making their rendezvous on
some uninhabited island, and carrying devastation to all the
small settlements around; robbing, destroying, killing, or taking
captive all they nee with. Their long well-manned praus escape
from the pursuit of any sailing vessel by pulling away right in
the wind's eye, and the warning smoke of a steamer generally
enables them to hide in some shallow bay, or narrow river, or
forest-covered inlet, till the danger is passed. The only
effectual way to put a stop to their depredations would be to
attack them in their strongholds and villages, and compel them to
give up piracy, and submit to strict surveillance. Sir James
Brooke did this with the pirates of the north-west coast of
Borneo, and deserves the thanks of the whole population of the
Archipelago for having rid them of half their enemies.
All along the beach here, and in the adjacent strip of sandy
lowland, is a remarkable display of Pandanaceae or Screw-pines.
Some are like huge branching candelabra, forty or fifty feet
high, and bearing at the end of each branch a tuft of immense
sword-shaped leaves, six or eight inches wide, and as many feet
long. Others have a single unbranched stem, six or seven feet
high, the upper part clothed with the spirally arranged leaves,
and bearing a single terminal fruit ac large as a swan's egg.
Others of intermediate size have irregular clusters of rough red
fruits, and all have more or less spiny-edged leaves and ringed
stems. The young plants of the larger species have smooth glossy
thick leaves, sometimes ten feet long and eight inches wide,
which are used all over the Moluccas and New Guinea, to make
"cocoyas" or sleeping mats, which are often very prettily
ornamented with coloured patterns. Higher up on the bill is a
forest of immense trees, among which those producing the resin
called dammar (Dammara sp.) are abundant. The inhabitants of
several small villages in Batchian are entirely engaged in
searching for this product, and making it into torches by
pounding it and filling it into tubes of palm leaves about a yard
long, which are the only lights used by many of the natives.
Sometimes the dammar accumulates in large masses of ten or twenty
pounds weight, either attached to the trunk, or found buried in
the ground at the foot of the trees. The most extraordinary trees
of the forest are, however, a kind of fig, the aerial roots of
which form a pyramid near a hundred feet high, terminating just
where the tree branches out above, so that there is no real
trunk. This pyramid or cone is formed of roots of every size,
mostly descending in straight lines, but more or less obliquely-
and so crossing each other, and connected by cross branches,
which grow from one to another; as to form a dense and
complicated network, to which nothing but a photograph could do
justice (see illustration at Vol. I. page 130). The Kanary is
also abundant in this forest, the nut of which has a very
agreeable flavour, and produces an excellent oil. The fleshy
outer covering of the nut is the favourite food of the great
green pigeons of these islands (Carpophaga, perspicillata), and
their hoarse copings and heavy flutterings among the branches can
be almost continually heard.
After ten days at Langundi, finding it impossible to get the bird
I was particularly in search of (the Nicobar pigeon, or a new
species allied to it), and finding no new birds, and very few
insects, I left early on the morning of April 1st, and in the
evening entered a river on the main island of Batchian (Langundi,
like Kasserota, being on a distinct island), where some Malays
and Galela men have a small village, and have made extensive
rice-fields and plantain grounds. Here we found a good house near
the river bank, where the water was fresh and clear, and the
owner, a respectable Batchian Malay, offered me sleeping room and
the use of the verandah if I liked to stay. Seeing forest all
round within a short distance, I accepted his offer, and the next
morning before breakfast walked out to explore, and on the skirts
of the forest captured a few interesting insects.
Afterwards, I found a path which led for a mile or more through a
very fine forest, richer in palms than any I had seen in the
Moluccas. One of these especially attracted my attention from its
elegance. The stein was not thicker than my wrist, yet it was
very lofty, and bore clusters of bright red fruit. It was
apparently a species of Areca. Another of immense height closely
resembled in appearance the Euterpes of South America. Here also
grew the fan-leafed palm, whose small, nearly entire leaves are
used to make the dammar torches, and to form the water-buckets in
universal use. During this walk I saw near a dozen species of
palms, as well as two or three Pandani different from those of
Langundi. There were also some very fine climbing ferns and true
wild Plantains (Musa), bearing an edible fruit not so large as
one's thumb, and consisting of a mass of seeds just covered with
pulp and skin. The people assured me they had tried the
experiment of sowing and cultivating this species, but could not
improve it. They probably did not grow it in sufficient quantity,
and did not persevere sufficiently long.
Batchian is an island that would perhaps repay the researches of
a botanist better than any other in the whole Archipelago. It
contains a great variety of surface and of soil, abundance of
large and small streams, many of which are navigable for some
distance, and there being no savage inhabitants, every part of it
can be visited with perfect safety. It possesses gold, copper,
and coal, hot springs and geysers, sedimentary and volcanic rocks
and coralline limestone, alluvial plains, abrupt hills and lofty
mountains, a moist climate, and a grand and luxuriant forest
vegetation.
The few days I stayed here produced me several new insects, but
scarcely any birds. Butterflies and birds are in fact remarkably
scarce in these forests. One may walk a whole day and not see
more than two or three species of either. In everything but
beetles, these eastern islands are very deficient compared with
the western (Java, Borneo, &c.), and much more so if compared
with the forests of South America, where twenty or thirty species
of butterflies may be caught every day, and on very good days a
hundred, a number we can hardly reach here in months of
unremitting search. In birds there is the same difference. In
most parts of tropical America we may always find some species of
woodpecker tanager, bush shrike, chatterer, trogon, toucan,
cuckoo, and tyrant-flycatcher; and a few days' active search will
produce more variety than can be here met with in as many months.
Yet, along with this poverty of individuals and of species, there
are in almost every class and order, some one, or two species of
such extreme beauty or singularity, as to vie with, or even
surpass, anything that even South America can produce.
One afternoon when I was arranging my insects, and surrounded by
a crowd of wondering spectators, I showed one of them how to look
at a small insect with a hand-lens, which caused such evident
wonder that all the rest wanted to see it too. I therefore fixed
the glass firmly to a piece of soft wood at the proper focus, and
put under it a little spiny beetle of the genus Hispa, and then
passed it round for examination. The excitement was immense. Some
declared it was a yard long; others were frightened, and
instantly dropped it, and all were as much astonished, and made
as much shouting and gesticulation, as children at a pantomime,
or at a Christmas exhibition of the oxyhydrogen microscope. And
all this excitement was produced by a little pocket lens, an inch
and a half focus, and therefore magnifying only four or five
times, but which to their unaccustomed eyes appeared to enlarge a
hundred fold.
On the last day of my stay here, one of my hunters succeeded in
finding and shooting the beautiful Nicobar pigeon, of which I had
been so long in search. None of the residents had ever seen it,
which shows that it is rare and slay. My specimen was a female in
beautiful condition, and the glassy coppery and green of its
plumage, the snow-white tail and beautiful pendent feathers of
the neck, were greatly admired. I subsequently obtained a
specimen in New Guinea; and once saw it in the Kaiķa islands. It
is found also in some small islands near Macassar, in others near
Borneo; and in the Nicobar islands, whence it receives its name.
It is a ground feeder, only going upon trees to roost, and is a
very heavy fleshy bird. This may account far the fact of its
being found chiefly on very small islands, while in the western
half of the Archipelago, it seems entirely absent from the larger
ones. Being a ground feeder it is subject to the attacks of
carnivorous quadrupeds, which are not found in the very small
islands. Its wide distribution over the whole length of the
Archipelago; from extreme west to east, is however very
extraordinary, since, with the exception of a few of the birds of
prey, not a single land bird has so wide a range. Ground-feeding
birds are generally deficient in power of extended flight, and
this species is so bulky and heavy that it appears at first sight
quite unable to fly a mile. A closer examination shows, however,
that its wings are remarkably large, perhaps in proportion to its
size larger than those of any other pigeon, and its pectoral
muscles are immense. A fact communicated to me by the son of my
friend Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate, would show that, in accordance
with these peculiarities of structure, it possesses the power of
flying long distances. Mr. D. established an oil factory on a
small coral island, a hundred miles north of New Guinea, with no
intervening land. After the island had been settled a year, and
traversed in every direction, his son paid it a visit; and just
as the schooner was coming to an anchor, a bird was seen flying
from seaward which fell into the water exhausted before it could
reach the shore. A boat was sent to pick it up, and it was found
to be a Nicobar pigeon, which must have come from New Guinea, and
flown a hundred miles, since no such bird previously inhabited
the island.
This is certainly a very curious case of adaptation to an unusual
and exceptional necessity. The bird does not ordinarily require
great powers of flight, since it lives in the forest, feeds on
fallen fruits, and roosts in low trees like other ground pigeons.
The majority of the individuals, therefore, can never make full
use of their enormously powerful wings, till the exceptional case
occurs of an individual being blown out to sea, or driven to
emigrate by the incursion of some carnivorous animal, or the
pressure of scarcity of food. A modification exactly opposite to
that which produced the wingless birds (the Apteryx, Cassowary,
and Dodo), appears to have here taken place; and it is curious
that in both cases an insular habitat should have been the moving
cause. The explanation is probably the same as that applied by
Mr. Darwin to the case of the Madeira beetles, many of which are
wingless, while some of the winged ones have the wings better
developed than the same species on the continent. It was
advantageous to these insects either never to fly at all, and
thus not run the risk of being blown out to sea, or to fly so
well as to he able either to return to land, or to migrate safely
to the continent. Pad flying was worse than not flying at all.
So, while in such islands as New Zealand and Mauritius far from
all land, it vas safer for a ground-feeding bird not to fly at
all, and the short-winged individuals continually surviving,
prepared the way for a wingless group of birds; in a vast
Archipelago thickly strewn with islands and islets it was
advantageous to be able occasionally to migrate, arid thus the
long and strong-winged varieties maintained their existence
longest, and ultimately supplanted all others, and spread the
race over the whole Archipelago.
Besides this pigeon, the only new bird I obtained during the trip
was a rare goat-sucker (Batrachostomus crinifrons), the only
species of the genus yet found in the Moluccas. Among my insects
the best were the rare Pieris arum, of a rich chrome yellow
colour, with a black border and remarkable white antenna--perhaps
the very finest butterfly of the genus; and a large black wasp-
like insect, with immense jaws like a stag-beetle, which has been
named Megachile Pluto by Mr. B. Smith. I collected about a
hundred species of beetles quite new to me, but mostly very
minute, and also many rare and handsome ones which I had already
found in Batchian. On the whole I was tolerably satisfied with my
seventeen days' excursion, which was a very agreeable one, and
enabled me to sea a good deal of the island. I had hired a roomy
boat, and brought with me a small table and my rattan chair.
These were great comforts, as, wherever there was a roof, I could
immediately instal myself, and work and eat at ease. When I could
not find accommodation on shore I slept in the boat, which was
always drawn up on the beach if we stayed for a few days at one
spot.
On my return to Batchian I packed up my collections, and prepared
for my return to Ternate. When I first came I had sent back my
boat by the pilot, with two or three other men who had been glad
of the opportunity. I now took advantage of a Government boat
which had just arrived with rice for the troops, and obtained
permission to return in her, and accordingly started on the 13th
of April, having resided only a week short of six months on the
island of Batchian. The boat was one of the kind called "Kora-
kora," quite open, very low, and about four tons burthen. It had
outriggers of bamboo about five feet off each side, which
supported a bamboo platform extending the whole length of the
vessel. On the extreme outside of this sit the twenty rowers,
while within was a convenient passage fore and aft. The middle
portion of the boat was covered with a thatch-house, in which
baggage and passengers are stowed; the gunwale was not more than
a foot above water, and from the great top and side weight, and
general clumsiness, these boats are dangerous in heavy weather,
and are not unfrequently lost. A triangle mast and mat sail
carried us on when the wind was favourable,--which (as usual) it
never was, although, according to the monsoon, it ought to have
been. Our water, carried in bamboos, would only last two days,
and as the voyage occupied seven, we had to touch at a great many
places. The captain was not very energetic, and the men rowed as
little as they pleased, or we might have reached Ternate in three
days, having had fine weather and little wind all the way.
There were several passengers besides myself: three or four
Javanese soldiers, two convicts whose time had expired (one,
curiously enough, being the man who had stolen my cash-box and
keys), the schoolmaster's wife and a servant going on a visit to
Ternate, and a Chinese trader going to buy goods. We had to sleep
all together in the cabin, packed pretty close; but they very
civilly allowed me plenty of room for my mattrass, and we got on
very well together. There was a little cookhouse in the bows,
where we could boil our rice and make our coffee, every one of
course bringing his own provisions, and arranging his meal-times
as he found most convenient. The passage would have been
agreeable enough but for the dreadful "tom-toms," or wooden
drums, which are beaten incessantly while the men are rowing. Two
men were engaged constantly at them, making a fearful din the
whole voyage. The rowers are men sent by the Sultan of Ternate.
They get about threepence a day, and find their own provisions.
Each man had a strong wooden "betel" box, on which he generally
sat, a sleeping-mat, and a change of clothes--rowing naked, with
only a sarong or a waistcloth. They sleep in their places,
covered with their mat, which keeps out the rain pretty well.
They chew betel or smoke cigarettes incessantly; eat dry sago and
a little salt fish; seldom sing while rowing, except when excited
and wanting to reach a stopping-place, and do not talk a great
deal. They are mostly Malays, with a sprinkling of Alfuros from
Gilolo, and Papuans from Guebe or Waigiou.
One afternoon we stayed at Makian; many of the men went on shore,
and a great deal of plantains, bananas, and other fruits were
brought on board. We then went on a little way, and in the
evening anchored again. When going to bed for the night, I put
out my candle, there being still a glimmering lamp burning, and,
missing my handkerchief, thought I saw it on a box which formed
one side of my bed, and put out my hand to take it. I quickly
drew back on feeling something cool and very smooth, which moved
as I touched it. "Bring the light, quick," I cried; "here's a
snake." And there he was, sure enough, nicely coiled up, with his
head just raised to inquire who had disturbed him. It was mow
necessary to catch or kill him neatly, or he would escape among
the piles of miscellaneous luggage, and we should hardly sleep
comfortably. One of the ex-convicts volunteered to catch him with
his hand wrapped up in a cloth, but from the way he went about it
I saw he was nervous and would let the thing go, so I would mot
allow him to make the attempt. I them got a chopping-knife, and
carefully moving my insect nets, which hung just over the snake
and prevented me getting a free blow, I cut him quietly across
the back, holding him down while my boy with another knife
crushed his head. On examination, I found he had large poison
fangs, and it is a wonder he did not bite me when I first touched
him.
Thinking it very unlikely that two snakes had got on board at the
same time, I turned in and went to sleep; but having all the time
a vague dreamy idea that I might put my hand on another one, I
lay wonderfully still, not turning over once all night, quite the
reverse of my usual habits. The next day we reached Ternate, and
I ensconced myself in my comfortable house, to examine all my
treasures, and pack them securely for the voyage home.
CHAPTER XXV.
CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS.
(OCTOBER 1859 To JUNE 1860.)
I LEFT Amboyna for my first visit to Ceram at three o'clock in
the morning of October 29th, after having been delayed several
days by the boat's crew, who could not be got together. Captain
Van der Beck, who gave me a passage in his boat, had been running
after them all day, and at midnight we had to search for two of
my men who had disappeared at the last moment. One we found at
supper in his own house, and rather tipsy with his parting
libations of arrack, but the other was gone across the bay, and
we were obliged to leave without him. We stayed some hours at two
villages near the east end of Amboyna, at one of which we had to
discharge some wood for the missionaries' house, and on the third
afternoon reached Captain Van der Beck's plantation, situated at
Hatosua, in that part of Ceram opposite to the island of Amboyna.
This was a clearing in flat and rather swampy forest, about
twenty acres in extent, and mostly planted with cacao and
tobacco. Besides a small cottage occupied by the workmen, there
was a large shed for tobacco drying, a corner of which was
offered me; and thinking from the look of the place that I should
find- good collecting ground here, I fitted up temporary tables,
benches, and beds, and made all preparations for some weeks'
stay. A few days, however, served to show that I should be
disappointed. Beetles were tolerably abundant, and I obtained
plenty of fine long-horned Anthribidae and pretty Longicorns, but
they were mostly the same species as I had found during my first
short visit to Amboyna. There were very few paths in the forest;
which seemed poor in birds and butterflies, and day after day my
men brought me nothing worth notice. I was therefore soon obliged
to think about changing my locality, as I could evidently obtain
no proper notion of the productions of the almost entirely
unexplored island of Ceram by staying in this place.
I rather regretted leaving, because my host was one of the most
remarkable men and most entertaining companions I had ever met
with. He was a Fleeting by birth, and, like so many of his
countrymen, had a wonderful talent for languages. When quite a
youth he had accompanied a Government official who was sent to
report on the trade and commerce of the Mediterranean, and had
acquired the colloquial language of every place they stayed a few
weeks at. He had afterwards made voyages to St. Petersburg, and
to other parts of Europe, including a few weeks in London, and
had then come out to the past, where he had been for some years
trading and speculating in the various islands. He now spoke
Dutch, French, Malay, and Javanese, all equally well; English
with a very slight accent, but with perfect fluency, axed a most
complete knowledge of idiom, in which I often tried to puzzle him
in vain. German and Italian were also quite familiar to him, and
his acquaintance with European languages included Modern Greek,
Turkish, Russian, and colloquial Hebrew and Latin. As a test of
his power, I may mention that he had made a voyage to the out-of-
the-way island of Salibaboo, and had stayed there trading a few
weeks. As I was collecting vocabularies, he told me he thought he
could remember some words, and dictated considerable number. Some
time after I met with a short list of words taken down in those
islands, and in every case they agreed with those he had given
me. He used to sing a Hebrew drinking-song, which he had learned
from some Jews with whom he had once travelled, and astonished by
joining in their conversation, and had a never-ending fund of
tale and anecdote about the people he had met and the places he
had visited.
In most of the villages of this part of Ceram are schools and
native schoolmasters, and the inhabitants have been long
converted to Christianity. In the larger villages there are
European missionaries; but there is little or no external
difference between the Christian and Alfuro villages, nor, as far
as I have seen, in their inhabitants. The people seem more
decidedly Papuan than those of Gilolo. They are darker in colour,
and a number of them have the frizzly Papuan hair; their features
also are harsh and prominent, and the women in particular are far
less engaging than those of the Malay race. Captain Van der Beck
was never tired of abusing the inhabitants of these Christian
villages as thieves, liars, and drunkards, besides being
incorrigibly lazy. In the city of Amboyna my friends Doctors
Mohnike and Doleschall, as well as most of the European residents
and traders, made exactly the same complaint, and would rather
have Mahometans for servants, even if convicts, than any of the
native Christians. One great cause of this is the fact, that with
the Mahometans temperance is a part of their religion, and has
become so much a habit that practically the rule is never
transgressed. One fertile source of want, arid one great
incentive to idleness and crime, is thus present with the one
class, but absent in the other; but besides this the Christians
look upon themselves as nearly the equals of the Europeans, who
profess the same religion, and as far superior to the followers
of Islam, and are therefore prone to despise work, and to
endeavour to live by trade, or by cultivating their own land. It
need hardly be said that with people in this low state of
civilization religion is almost wholly ceremonial, and that
neither are the doctrines of Christianity comprehended, nor its
moral precepts obeyed. At the same time, as far as my own
experience goes, I have found the better class of "Orang Sirani"
as civil, obliging, and industrious as the Malays, and only
inferior to them from their tendency to get intoxicated.
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