The Malay Archipelago

b >> by Alfred Russell Wallace >> The Malay Archipelago

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After great delay, considering the importance of every day at
this time of year, a miserable boat and five men were found, and
with some difficulty I stowed away in it such baggage as it was
absolutely necessary for me to take, leaving scarcely sitting or
sleeping room. The sailing qualities of the boat were highly
vaunted, and I was assured that at this season a small one was
much more likely to succeed in making the journey. We first
coasted along the island, reaching its eastern extremity the
following morning (April 11th), and found a strong W. S.W. wind
blowing, which just allowed us to lay across to the Matabello
Islands, a distance little short of twenty miles. I did not much
like the look of the heavy sky and rather rough sea, and my men
were very unwilling to make the attempt; but as we could scarcely
hope for a better chance, I insisted upon trying. The pitching
and jerking of our little boat, soon reduced me to a state of
miserable helplessness, and I lay down, resigned to whatever
might happen. After three or four hours, I was told we were
nearly over; but when I got up, two hours later, just as the sun
was setting, I found we were still a good distance from the
point, owing to a strong current which had been for some time
against us. Night closed in, and the wind drew more ahead, so we
had to take in sail. Then came a calm, and we rowed and sailed as
occasion offered; and it was four in the morning when we reached
the village of Kisslwoi, not having made more than three miles in
the last twelve hours.

MATABELLO ISLANDS.

At daylight I found we were; in a beautiful little harbour,
formed by a coral reef about two hundred yards from shore, and
perfectly secure in every wind. Having eaten nothing since the
previous morning, we cooked our breakfast comfortably on shore,
and left about noon, coasting along the two islands of this
group, which lie in the same line, and are separated by a narrow
channel. Both seem entirely formed of raised coral rock; but them
has been a subsequent subsidence, as shaven by the barrier reef
which extends all along them at varying distances from the shore,
This reef is sometimes only marked by a. line of breakers when
there is a little swell on the sea; in other places there is a
ridge of dead coral above the water, which is here and there high
enough to support a few low bushes. This was the first example I
had met with of a true barrier reef due to subsidence, as has
been so clearly shown by Mr. Darwin. In a sheltered archipelago
they will seldom be distinguishable, from the absence of those
huge rolling waves and breakers which in the wide ocean throw up
a barrier of broken coral far above the usual high-water mark,
while here they rarely rise to the surface.

On reaching the end of the southern island, called Uta, we were
kept waiting two days for a wind that would enable us to pass
over to the next island, Teor, and I began to despair of ever
reaching Ke, and determined on returning. We left with a south
wind, which suddenly changed to north-east, and induced me to
turn again southward in the hopes that this was the commencement
of a few days' favourable weather. We sailed on very well in the
direction of Teor for about an hour, after which the wind shifted
to WSW., and we were driven much out of our course, and at
nightfall found ourselves in the open sea, and full ten miles to
leeward of our destination. My men were now all very much
frightened, for if we went on we might be a. week at sea in our
little open boat, laden almost to the water's edge; or we might
drift on to the coast of New Guinea, in which case we should most
likely all be murdered. I could not deny these probabilities, and
although I showed them that we could not get back to our
starting-point with the wind as it was, they insisted upon
returning. We accordingly put about, and found that we could lay
no nearer to Uta than to Teor; however, by great good luck, about
ten o'clock we hit upon a little coral island, and lay under its
lee till morning, when a favourable change of wind brought us
back to Uta, and by evening (April 18th w e reached our first
anchorage in Matabello, where I resolved to stay a few days, and
then return to Goram. It way with much regret that I gave up my
trip to Ke and the intervening islands, which I had looked
forward to as likely to make up for my disappointment in Ceram,
since my short visit on my voyage to Aru had produced me so many
rare and beautiful insects.

The natives of Matabello are almost entirely occupied in making
cocoanut oil, which they sell to the Bugis and Goram traders, who
carry it to Banda and Amboyna. The rugged coral rock seems very
favourable to the growth of the cocoa-nut palm, which abounds
over the whole island to the very highest points, and produces
fruit all the year round. Along with it are great numbers of the
areca or betel-nut palm, the nuts of which are sliced, dried, and
ground into a paste, which is much used by the betel-chewing
Malays and Papuans. A11 the little children here even such as can
just run alone, carried between their lips a mass of the nasty-
looking red paste, which is even more disgusting than to see them
at the same age smoking cigars, which is very common even before
they are weaned. Cocoa-nuts, sweet potatoes, an occasional sago
cake, and the refuse nut after the oil has been extracted by
boiling, form the chief sustenance of these people; and the
effect of this poor and unwholesome diet is seen in the frequency
of eruptions and scurfy skin diseases, and the numerous sores
that disfigure the faces of the children.

The villages are situated on high and rugged coral peaks, only
accessible by steep narrow paths, with ladders and bridges over
yawning chasms. They are filthy with rotten husks and oil refuse,
and the huts are dark, greasy, and dirty in the extreme. The
people are wretched ugly dirty savages, clothed in unchanged
rags, and living in the most miserable manner, and as every drop
of fresh water has to be brought up from the beach, washing is
never thought of; yet they are actually wealthy, and have the
means of purchasing all the necessaries and luxuries of life.
Fowls are abundant, and eggs were given me whenever I visited the
villages, but these are never eaten, being looked upon as pets or
as merchandise. Almost all of the women wear massive gold
earrings, and in every village there are dozens of small bronze
cannon lying about on the ground, although they have cost on the
average perhaps £10 a piece. The chief men of each village came
to visit me, clothed in robes of silk and flowered satin, though
their houses and their daily fare are no better than those of the
ether inhabitants. What a contrast between these people and such
savages as the best tribes of bill. Dyaks in Borneo, or the
Indians of the Uaupes in South America, living on the banks of
clear streams, clean in their persons and their houses, with
abundance of wholesome food, and exhibiting its effect in healthy
shins and beauty of form and feature! There is in fact almost as
much difference: between the various races of savage as of
civilized peoples, and we may safely affirm that the better
specimens of the former are much superior to the lower examples
of the latter class.

One of the few luxuries of Matabello is the palm wine; which is
the fermented sap from the flower stains of the cocoa-net. It is
really a very mice drink, more like cyder than beer, though quite
as intoxicating as the latter. Young cocoa-nuts are also very
abundant, so that anywhere in the island it is only necessary to
go a few yards to find a delicious beverage by climbing up a tree
for it. It is the water of the young fruit that is drunk, before
the pulp has hardened; it is then more abundant, clear, and
refreshing, and the thin coating of gelatinous pulp is thought a
treat luxury. The water of full-brown cocoa-nuts is always thrown
away as undrinkable, although it is delicious in comparison with
that of the old dry nuts which alone we obtain in this country.
The cocoa-nut pulp I did not like at first; but fruits are so
scarce, except at particular seasons, that one soon learns to
appreciate anything of a fruity nature.

Many persons in Europe are under the impression that fruits of
delicious flavour abound in the tropical forests, and they will
no doubt be surprised to learn that the truly wild fruits of this
brand and luxuriant archipelago, the vegetation of which will vie
with that of any part of the world, are in almost every island
inferior in abundance and duality to those of Britain. Wild
strawberries and raspberries are found in some places, but they
arc such poor tasteless things as to be hardly worth eating, and
there is nothing to compare with our blackberries and
whortleberries. The kanary-nut may be considered equal to a
hazel-nut, but I have met with nothing else superior to our
crabs, oar haws, beech-nuts, wild plums, and acorns; fruits
which would be highly esteemed by the natives of these islands,
and would form an important part of their sustenance. All the
fine tropical fruits are as much cultivated productions as our
apples, peaches, and plums, and their wild prototypes, when
found, are generally either tasteless or uneatable.

The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan
villages of East Ceram and Goram, amused me much by their strange
ideas concerning the Russian war. They believe that the Russians
were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were
absolutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism! And they can
hardly be convinced that such is not the case, and that had it
not been for the assistance of France and England, the poor
Sultan world have fared ill. Another of their motions is, that
the Turks are the largest and strongest people in the world--in
fact a race of giants; that they eat enormous quantities of meat,
and are a most ferocious and irresistible nation. Whence such
strangely incorrect opinions could have arisen it is difficult to
understand, unless they are derived from Arab priests, or hadjis
returned from Mecca, who may have heard of the ancient prowess of
the Turkish armies when they made all Europe tremble, and suppose
that their character and warlike capacity must be the same at the
present time.

GORAM

A steady south-east wind having set in, we returned to Manowolko
on the 25th of April, and the day after crossed over to Ondor,
the chief village of Goram.

Around this island extends, with few interruptions, an encircling
coral reef about a quarter of a mile from the shore, visible as a
stripe of pale green water, but only at very lowest ebb-tides
showing any rock above the surface. There are several deep
entrances through this reef, and inside it there is hood
anchorage in all weathers. The land rises gradually to a moderate
height, and numerous small streams descend on all sides. The mere
existence of these streams would prove that the island was not
entirely coralline, as in that case all the water would sink
through the porous rock as it does at Manowolko and Matabello;
but we have more positive proof in the pebbles and stones of
their beds, which exhibit a variety of stratified crystalline
rocks. About a hundred yards from the beach rises a wall of coral
rock, ten or twenty feet high, above which is an undulating
surface of rugged coral, which slopes downward towards the
interior, and then after a slight ascent is bounded by a second
wall of coral. Similar walls occur higher up, and coral is found
on the highest part of the island.

This peculiar structure teaches us that before the coral was
formed land existed in this spot; that this land sunk gradually
beneath the waters, but with intervals of rest, during which
encircling reef's were formed around it at different elevations;
that it then rose to above its present elevation, and is now
again sinking. We infer this, because encircling reefs are a
proof of subsidence; and if the island were again elevated about
a hundred feet, what is now the reef and the shallow sea within
it would form a wall of coral rock, and an undulating coralline
plain, exactly similar to those that still exist at various
altitudes up to the summit of the island. We learn also that
these changes have taken place at a comparatively recent epoch,
for the surface of the coral has scarcely suffered from the
action of the weather, and hundreds of sea-shells, exactly
resembling those still found upon the beach, and many of them
retaining their gloss and even their colour, are scattered over
the surface of the island to near its summit.

Whether the Goram group formed originally part of New Guinea or
of Ceram it is scarcely possible to determine, and its
productions will throw little light upon the question, if, as I
suppose, the islands have been entirely submerged within the
epoch of existing species of animals, as in that case it must owe
its present fauna and flora to recent immigration from
surrounding lands; and with this view its poverty in species very
well agrees. It possesses much in common with East Ceram, but at
the same time has a good deal of resemblance to the Ke Islands
and Banda. The fine pigeon, Carpophaga concinna, inhabits Ke,
Banda, 11-Iatabello, and Goram, and is replaced by a distinct
species, C. neglecta, in Ceram. The insects of these four islands
have also a common facies--facts which seem to indicate that some
more extensive land has recently disappeared from the area they
now occupy, and has supplied them with a few of its peculiar
productions.

The Goram people (among whom I stayed a month) are a race of
traders. Every year they visit the Tenimber, Ke, and Aru Islands,
the whole north-west coast of New Guinea from Oetanata to
Salwatty, and the island of Waigiou and Mysol. They also extend
their voyages to Tidore and Ternate, as well as to Banda and
Amboyna, Their praus are all made by that wonderful race of
boatbuilders, the Ke. islanders, who annually turn out some
hundreds of boats, large and small, which can hardly be surpassed
for beauty of form and goodness of workmanship, They trade
chiefly in tripang, the medicinal mussoi bark, wild nutmegs, and
tortoiseshell, which they sell to the Bugis traders at Ceram-laut
or Aru, few of them caring to take their products to any other
market. In other respects they are a lazy race, living very
poorly, and much given to opium smoking. The only native
manufactures are sail-matting, coarse cotton cloth, and pandanus-
leaf boxes, prettily stained and ornamented with shell-work.

In the island of Goram, only eight or ten miles long, there are
about a dozen Rajahs, scarcely better off than the rest of the
inhabitants, and exercising a mere nominal sway, except when any
order is received from the Dutch Government, when, being backed
by a higher power, they show a little more strict authority. My
friend the Rajah of Ammer (commonly called Rajah of Goram) told
me that a few years ago, before the Dutch had interfered in the
affairs of the island, the trade was not carried on so peaceably
as at present, rival praus often fighting when on the way to the
same locality, or trafficking in the same village. Now such a
thing is never thought of-one of the good effects of the
superintendence of a civilized government. Disputes between
villages are still, however, sometimes settled by fighting, and I
one day saw about fifty men, carrying long guns and heavy
cartridge-belts, march through the village. They had come from
the other side of the island on some question of trespass or
boundary, and were prepared for war if peaceable negotiations
should fail.

While at Manowolko I had purchased for 100 florins £9.) a small
prau, which was brought over the next day, as I was informed it
was more easy to have the necessary alterations made in Goram,
where several Ke workmen were settled.

As soon as we began getting my prau ready I was obliged to give
up collecting, as I found that unless I was constantly on the
spot myself very little work would be clone. As I proposed making
some long voyages in this boat, I determined to fit it up
conveniently, and was obliged to do all the inside work myself,
assisted by my two Amboynese boys. I had plenty of visitors,
surprised to see a white man at work, and much astonished at the
novel arrangements I was making in one of their native vessels.
Luckily I had a few tools of my own, including a small saw and
some chisels, and these were now severely tried, cutting and
fitting heavy iron-wood planks for the flooring and the posts
that support the triangular mast. Being of the best London make,
they stood the work well, and without them it would have been
impossible for me to have finished my boat with half the
neatness, or in double the time. I had a Ke workman to put in new
ribs, for which I bought nails of a Bugis trader, at 8d. a pound.
My gimlets were, however, too small; and having no augers we were
obliged to bore all the holes with hot irons, a most tedious and
unsatisfactory operation.

Five men had engaged to work at the prau till finished, and then
go with me to Mysol, Waigiou, and Ternate. Their ideas of work
were, however, very different from mine, and I had immense
difficulty with them; seldom more than two or three coming
together, and a hundred excuses being given for working only half
a day when they did come. Yet they were constantly begging
advances of money, saying they had nothing to eat. When I gave it
them they were sure to stay away the next day, and when I refused
any further advances some of them declined working any more. As
the boat approached completion my difficulties with the men
increased. The uncle of one had commenced a war, or sort of
faction fight, and wanted his assistance; another's wife was ill,
and would not let him come; a third had fever and ague, and pains
in his head and back; and a fourth had an inexorable creditor who
would not let him go out of his sight. They had all received a
month's wages in advance; and though the amount was not large, it
was necessary to make them pay it back, or I should get ago men
at a11. I therefore sent the village constable after two, and
kept them in custody a day, when they returned about three-
fourths of what they owed me. The sick man also paid, and the
steersman found a substitute who was willing to take his debt,
and receive only the balance of his wages.

About this time we had a striking proof of the dangers of New
Guinea trading. Six men arrived at the village in a small boat
almost starved, having escaped out of two praus, the remainder of
whose crews (fourteen in number) had been murdered by the natives
of New Guinea. The praus had left this village a few months
before, and among the murdered men were the Rajah's son, and the
relation or slaves of many of the inhabitants. The cry of
lamentation that arose when the news arrived was most
distressing. A score of women, who had lost husbands, brothers,
sons, or more distant relatives, set up at once the most dismal
shrieks and groans and wailings, which continued at intervals
till late at night; and as the chief houses in the village were
crowded together round that which I occupied, our situation was
anything but agreeable.

It seems that the village where the attack took place (nearly
opposite the small island of Lakahia) is known to be dangerous,
and the vessels had only gone there a few days before to buy some
tripang. The crew were living on shore, the praus being in a
small river close by, and they were attacked and murdered in the
day-time while bargaining with the Papuans. The six men who
survived were on board the praus, and escaped by at once setting
into the small boat and rowing out to sea.

This south-west part of New Guinea, known to the native traders
as "Papua Kowiyee" and "Papua Onen," is inhabited by the most
treacherous and bloodthirsty tribes. It is in these districts
that the commanders and portions of the crews of many of the
early discovery ships were murdered, and scarcely a year now
passes but some lives are lost. The Goram and Ceram traders are
themselves generally inoffensive; they are well acquainted with
the character of these natives, and are not likely to provoke an
attack by any insults or open attempt at robbery or imposition.
They are accustomed to visit the same places every year, and the
natives can have no fear of them, as may be alleged in excuse for
their attacks on Europeans. In other extensive districts
inhabited by the same Papuan races, such as Mysol, Salwatty,
Waigiou, and some parts of the adjacent coast, the people have
taken the first step in civilization, owing probably to the
settlement of traders of mixed breed among them, and for many
years no such attacks have taken place. On the south-west coast,
and in the large island of Jobie, however, the natives are in a
very barbarous condition, and tale every opportunity of robbery
and murder,--a habit which is confirmed by the impunity they
experience, owing to the vast extent of wild mountain and forest
country forbidding all pursuit or attempt at punishment. In the
very same village, four years before, more than fifty Goram men
were murdered; and as these savages obtain an immense booty in
the praus and all their appurtenances, it is to be feared that
such attacks will continue to be made at intervals as long as
traders visit the same spots and attempt no retaliation.
Punishment could only be inflicted on these people by very
arbitrary measures, such as by obtaining possession of some of
the chiefs by stratagem, and rendering them responsible for the
capture of the murderers at the peril of their own heads. But
anything of this kind would be done contrary to the system
adopted by the Dutch Government in its dealings with natives.

GORAM TO WAHAI IN CERAM.

When my boat was at length launched and loaded, I got my men
together, and actually set sail the next day (May 27th), much to
the astonishment of the Goram people, to whom such punctuality
was a novelty. I had a crew of three men and a boy, besides my
two Amboyna lads; which was sufficient for sailing, though rather
too few if obliged to row much. The next day was very wet, with
squalls, calms, and contrary winds, and with some difficulty we
reached Kilwaru, the metropolis of the Bugis traders in the far
East. As I wanted to make some purchases, I stayed here two days,
and sent two of my boxes of specimens by a Macassar prau to be
forwarded to Ternate, thus relieving myself of a considerable
incumbrance. I bought knives, basins, and handkerchiefs for
barter, which with the choppers, cloth, and beads I had brought
with me, made a pretty good assortment. I also bought two tower
muskets to satisfy my crew, who insisted on the necessity of
being armed against attacks of pirates; and with spices and a few
articles of food for the voyage nearly my last doit was expended.

The little island of Kilwaru is a mere sandbank, just large
enough to contain a small village, and situated between the
islands of Ceram-laut, and Kissa--straits about a third of a mile
wide separating it from each of them. It is surrounded by coral
reefs, and offers good anchorage in both monsoons. Though not
more than fifty yards across, and not elevated more than three or
four feet above the highest tides, it has wells of excellent
drinking water--a singular phenomenon, which would seem to imply
deep-seated subterranean channels connecting it with other
islands. These advantages, with its situation in the centre of
the Papuan trading district, lead to its being so much frequented
by the Bugis traders. Here the Goram men bring the produce of
their little voyages, which they exchange for cloth, sago cakes,
and opium; and the inhabitants of all the surrounding islands
visit it with the game object. It is the rendezvous of the praus
trading to various parts of New Guinea, which here assort and dry
their cargoes, and refit for the voyage home. Tripang and mussoi
bark are the most bulky articles of produce brought here, with
wild nutmegs, tortoiseshell, pearls, and birds of Paradise; in
smaller quantities. The villagers of the mainland of Ceram bring
their sago, which is thus distributed to the islands farther
east, while rice from Bali and Macassar can also be purchased at
a moderate price. The Goram men come here for their supplies of
opium, both for their own consumption and for barter in Mysol and
Waigiou, where they have introduced it, and where the chiefs and
wealthy men are passionately fond of it. Schooners from Bali come
to buy Papuan slaves, while the sea-wandering Bugis arrive from
distant Singapore in their lumbering praus, bringing thence the
produce of the Chinamen's workshops and Kling's bazaar, as well
as of the looms of Lancashire and Massachusetts.

One of the Bugis traders who had arrived a few days before from
Mysol, brought me news of my assistant Charles Allen, with whom
he was well acquainted, and who, he assured me; was making large
collections of birds and insects, although he had not obtained
any birds of Paradise; Silinta, where he was staying, not being a
good place for them. This was on the whole satisfactory, and I
was anxious to reach him as soon as possible.

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