The Malay Archipelago

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

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Like the birds, the insects of the Moluccas show a decided
affinity with those of New Guinea rather than with the
productions of the great western islands of the Archipelago, but
the difference in form and structure between the productions of
the east and west is not nearly so marked here as in birds. This
is probably due to the more immediate dependence of insects on
climate and vegetation, and the greater facilities for their
distribution in the varied stages of egg, pupa, and perfect
insect. This has led to a general uniformity in the insect-life
of the whole Archipelago, in accordance with the general
uniformity of its climate and vegetation; while on the other hand
the great susceptibility of the insect organization to the action
of external conditions has led to infinite detailed modifications
of form and colour, which have in many cases given a considerable
diversity to the productions of adjacent islands.

Owing to the great preponderance among the birds, of parrots,
pigeons, kingfishers, and sunbirds, almost all of gay or delicate
colours, and many adorned with the most gorgeous plumage, and to
the numbers of very large and showy butterflies which are almost
everywhere to be met with, the forests of the Moluccas offer to
the naturalist a very striking example of the luxuriance and
beauty of animal life in the tropics. Yet the almost entire
absence of Mammalia, and of such wide-spread groups of birds as
woodpeckers, thrushes, jays, tits, and pheasants, must convince
him that he is in a part of the world which has, in reality but
little in common with the great Asiatic continent, although an
unbroken chain of islands seems to link them to it.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS IN A NATIVE PRAU.

(DECEMBER, 1856.)

IT was the beginning of December, and the rainy season at
Macassar had just set in. For nearly three months had beheld the
sun rise daily above the palm-groves, mount to the zenith, and
descend like a globe of fire into the ocean, unobscured for a
single moment of his course. Now dark leaden clouds had gathered
over the whole heavens, and seemed to have rendered him
permanently invisible. The strong east winds, warm and dry and
dust-laden, which had hitherto blown as certainly as the sun had
risen, were now replaced by variable gusty breezes and heavy
rains, often continuous for three days and nights together; and
the parched and fissured rice stubbles which during the dry
weather had extended in every direction for miles around the
town, were already so flooded as to be only passable by boats, or
by means of a labyrinth of paths on the top of the narrow banks
which divided the separate properties.

Five months of this kind of weather might be expected in Southern
Celebes, and I therefore determined to seek some more favourable
climate for collecting in during that period, and to return in
the next dry season to complete my exploration of the district.
Fortunately for me I was in one of the treat emporiums of the
native trade of the archipelago. Rattans from Borneo, sandal-wood
and bees'-was from Flores and Timor, tripang from the Gulf of
Carpentaria, cajputi-oil from Bouru, wild nutmegs and mussoi-bark
from New Guinea, are all to be found in the stores of the Chinese
and Bugis merchants of Macassar, along with the rice and coffee
which are the chief products of the surrounding country. More
important than all these however is the trade to Aru, a group of
islands situated on the south-west coast of New Guinea, and of
which almost the whole produce comes to Macassar in native
vessels. These islands are quite out of the track of all European
trade, and are inhabited only by black mop-headed savages, who
yet contribute to the luxurious tastes of the most civilized
races. Pearls, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell find their way
to Europe, while edible birds' nests and "tripang" or sea-slug
are obtained by shiploads for the gastronomic enjoyment of the
Chinese.

The trade to these islands has existed from very early times, and
it is from them that Birds of Paradise, of the two kinds known to
Linnaeus were first brought The native vessels can only make the
voyage once a year, owing to the monsoons. They leave Macassar in
December or January at the beginning of the west monsoon, and
return in July or August with the full strength of the east
monsoon. Even by the Macassar people themselves, the voyage to
the Aru Islands is looked upon as a rather wild and romantic
expedition, fall of novel sights and strange adventures. He who
has made it is looked up to as an authority, and it remains with
many the unachieved ambition of their lives. I myself had hoped
rather than expected ever to reach this "Ultima Thule" of the
East: and when I found that I really could do so now, had I but
courage to trust myself for a thousand miles' voyage in a Bugis
prau, and for six or seven months among lawless traders and
ferocious savages, I felt somewhat as I did when, a schoolboy, I
was for the first time allowed to travel outside the stage-coach,
to visit that scene of all that is strange and new and wonderful
to young imaginations-London!

By the help of some kind friends I was introduced to the owner of
one of the large praus which was to sail in a few days. He was a
Javanese half-caste, intelligent, mild, and gentlemanly in his
manners, and had a young and pretty Dutch wife, whom he was going
to leave behind during his absence. When we talked about passage
money he would fix no sum, but insisted on leaving it entirely to
me to pay on my return exactly what I liked. "And then," said he,
"whether you give me one dollar or a hundred, I shall he
satisfied, and shall ask no more."

The remainder of my stay was fully occupied in laying in stores,
engaging servants, and making every other preparation for an
absence of seven months from even the outskirts of civilization.
On the morning of December 13th, when we went on board at
daybreak, it was raining hard. We set sail and it came on to
blow. Our boat was lost astern, our sails damaged, and the
evening found us hack again in Macassar harbour. We remained
there four days longer, owing to its raining all the time, thus
rendering it impossible to dry and repair the huge mat sails. All
these dreary days I remained on board, and during the rare
intervals when it didn't rain, made myself acquainted with our
outlandish craft, some of the peculiarities of which I will now
endeavour to describe.

It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped
something like a Chinese junk. The deck sloped considerably
downward to the bows, which are thus the lowest part of the ship.
There were two large rudders, but instead of being planed astern
they were hung on the quarters from strong cross beams, which
projected out two or three feet on each side, and to which extent
the deck overhung the sides of the vessel amidships. The rudders
were not hinged but hung with slings of rattan, the friction of
which keeps them in any position in which they are placed, and
thus perhaps facilitates steering. The tillers were not on deck,
but entered the vessel through two square openings into a lower
or half deck about three feet high, in which sit the two
steersmen. In the after part of the vessel was a low poop, about
three and a half feet high, which forms the captain's cabin, its
furniture consisting of boxes, mats, and pillows. In front of the
poop and mainmast was a little thatched house on deck, about four
feet high to the ridge; and one compartment of this, forming a
cabin six and a half feet long by five and a half wide, I had all
to myself, and it was the snuggest and most comfortable little
place I ever enjoyed at sea. It was entered by a low sliding door
of thatch on one side, and had a very small window on the other.
The floor was of split bamboo, pleasantly elastic, raised six
inches above the deck, so as to be quite dry. It was covered with
fine cane mats, for the manufacture of which Macassar is
celebrated; against the further wall were arranged my guncase,
insect-boxes, clothes, and books; my mattress occupied the
middle, and next the door were my canteen, lamp, and little store
of luxuries for the voyage; while guns, revolver, and hunting
knife hung conveniently from the roof. During these four
miserable days I was quite jolly in this little snuggery more so
than I should have been if confined the same time to the gilded
and uncomfortable saloon of a first-class steamer. Then, how
comparatively sweet was everything on board--no paint, no tar, no
new rope, (vilest of smells to the qualmish!) no grease, or oil,
or varnish; but instead of these, bamboo and rattan, and coir
rope and palm thatch; pure vegetable fibres, which smell
pleasantly if they smell at all, and recall quiet scenes in the
green and shady forest.

Our ship had two masts, if masts they can be called c which were
great moveable triangles. If in an ordinary ship you replace the
shrouds and backstay by strong timbers, and take away the mast
altogether, you have the arrangement adopted on board a prau.
Above my cabin, and resting on cross-beams attached to the masts,
was a wilderness of yards and spars, mostly formed of bamboo. The
mainyard, an immense affair nearly a hundred feet long, was
formed of many pieces of wood and bamboo bound together with
rattans in an ingenious manner. The sail carried by this was of
an oblong shape, and was hung out of the centre, so that when the
short end was hauled down on deck the long end mounted high in
the air, making up for the lowness of the mast itself. The
foresail was of the same shape, but smaller. Both these were of
matting, and, with two jibs and a fore and aft sail astern of
cotton canvas, completed our rig.

The crew consisted of about thirty men, natives of Macassar and
the adjacent coasts and islands. They were mostly young, and
were short, broad-faced, good-humoured looking fellows. Their
dress consisted generally of a pair of trousers only, when at
work, and a handkerchief twisted round the head, to which in the
evening they would add a thin cotton jacket. Four of the elder
men were "jurumudis," or steersmen, who had to squat (two at a
time) in the little steerage before described, changing every six
hours. Then there was an old man, the "juragan," or captain, but
who was really what we should call the first mate; he occupied
the other half of the little house on deck. There were about ten
respectable men, Chinese or Bugis, whom our owner used to call
"his own people." He treated them very well, shared his meals
with them, and spoke to them always with perfect politeness; yet
they were most of them a kind of slave debtors, bound over by the
police magistrate to work for him at mere nominal wages for a
term of years till their debts were liquidated. This is a Dutch
institution in this part of the world, and seems to work well. It
is a great boon to traders, who can do nothing in these thinly-
populated regions without trusting goods to agents and petty
dealers, who frequently squander them away in gambling and
debauchery. The lower classes are almost all in a chronic state
of debt. The merchant trusts them again and again, till the
amount is something serious, when he brings them to court and has
their services allotted to him for its liquidation. The debtors
seem to think this no disgrace, but rather enjoy their freedom
from responsibility, and the dignity of their position under a
wealthy and well-known merchant. They trade a little on their own
account, and both parties seem to get on very well together. The
plan seems a more sensible one than that which we adopt, of
effectually preventing a man from earning anything towards paying
his debts by shutting him up in a jail.

My own servants were three in number. Ali, the Malay boy whom I
had picked up in Borneo, was my head man. He had already been
with me a year, could turn his hand to anything, and was quite
attentive and trustworthy. He was a good shot, and fond of
shooting, and I had taught him to skin birds very well. The
second, named Baderoon, was a Macassar lad; also a pretty good
boy, but a desperate gambler. Under pretence of buying a house
for his mother, and clothes, for himself, he had received four
months' wages about a week before we sailed, and in a day or two
gambled away every dollar of it. He had come on board with no
clothes, no betel, or tobacco, or salt fish, all which necessary
articles I was obliged to send Ali to buy for him. These two lads
were about sixteen, I should suppose; the third was younger, a
sharp little rascal named Baso, who had been with me a month or
two, and had learnt to cook tolerably. He was to fulfil the
important office of cook and housekeeper, for I could not get any
regular servants to go to such a terribly remote country; one
might as well ask a chef de cuisine to go to Patagonia.

On the fifth day that I had spent on board (Dec. 15th) the rain
ceased, and final preparations were made for starting. Sails were
dried and furled, boats were constantly coming and going, and
stores for the voyage, fruit, vegetables, fish, and palm sugar,
were taken on board. In the afternoon two women arrived with a
large party of friends and relations, and at parting there was a
general noserubbing (the Malay kiss), and some tears shed. These
were promising symptoms for our getting off the next day; and
accordingly, at three in the morning, the owner came on board,
the anchor was immediately weighed, and by four we set sail. Just
as we were fairly off and clear of the other praus, the old
juragan repeated some prayers, all around responding with "Allah
il Allah," and a few strokes on a gong as an accompaniment,
concluding with all wishing each other "Salaamat jalan," a safe
and happy journey. We had a light breeze, a calm sea, and a fine
morning, a prosperous commencement of our voyage of about a
thousand miles to the far-famed Aru Islands.

The wind continued light and variable all day, with a calm in the
evening before the land breeze sprang up, were then passing the
island of "Tanakaki "(foot of the land), at the extreme south of
this part of Celebes. There are some dangerous rocks here, and as
I was standing by the bulwarks, I happened to spit over the side;
one of the men begged I would not do so just now, but spit on
deck, as they were much afraid of this place. Not quite
comprehending, I made him repeat his request, when, seeing he was
in earnest, I said, "Very well, I suppose there are 'hantus'
(spirits) here." "Yes," said he, "and they don't like anything to
be thrown overboard; many a prau has been lost by doing it." Upon
which I promised to be very careful. At sunset the good
Mahometans on board all repeated a few words of prayer with a
general chorus, reminding me of the pleasing and impressive "Ave.
Maria" of Catholic countries.

Dec. 20th.-At sunrise we were opposite the Bontyne mountain, said
to be one of the highest in Celebes. In the afternoon we passed
the Salayer Straits and had a little squall, which obliged us to
lower our huge mast, sails, and heavy yards. The rest of the
evening we had a fine west wind, which carried us on at near five
knots an hour, as much as our lumbering old tub can possibly go.

Dec. 21st.-A heavy swell from the south-west rolling us about
most uncomfortably. A steady wind was blowing however, and we got
on very well.

Dec. 22d.-The swell had gone down. We passed Boutong, a large
island, high, woody, and populous, the native place of some of
our crew. A small prau returning from Bali to the, island of
Goram overtook us. The nakoda (captain) was known to our owner.
They had been two years away, but were full of people, with
several black Papuans on board. At 6 P.M. we passed Wangiwangi,
low but not flat, inhabited and subject to Boutong. We had now
fairly entered the Molucca Sea. After dark it was a beautiful
sight to look down on our rudders, from which rushed eddying
streams of phosphoric light gemmed with whirling sparks of fire.
It resembled (more nearly than anything else to which I can
compare it) one of the large irregular nebulous star-clusters
seen through a good telescope, with the additional attraction of
ever-changing form and dancing motion.

Dec. 23d.-Fine red sunrise; the island we left last evening
barely visible behind us. The Goram prau about a mile south of
us. They have no compass, yet they have kept a very true course
during the night. Our owner tells me they do it by the swell of
the sea, the direction of which they notice at sunset, and sail
by it during the night. In these seas they are never (in fine
weather) more than two days without seeing land. Of course
adverse winds or currents sometimes carry them away, but they
soon fall in with some island, and there are always some old
sailors on board who know it, and thence take a new course. Last
night a shark about five feet long was caught, and this morning
it was cut up and cooked. In the afternoon they got another, and
I had a little fried, and found it firm and dry, but very
palatable. In the evening the sun set in a heavy bank of clouds,
which, as darkness came on, assumed a fearfully black appearance.
According to custom, when strong wind or rain is expected, our
large sails -were furled, and with their yards let down on deck,
and a small square foresail alone kept up. The great mat sails
are most awkward things to manage in rough weather. The yards
which support them are seventy feet long, and of course very
heavy, and the only way to furl them being to roll up the sail on
the boom, it is a very dangerous thing to have them standing when
overtaken by a squall. Our crew; though numerous enough for a
vessel of 700 instead of one of 70 tons, have it very much their
own way, and there seems to be seldom more than a dozen at work
at a time. When anything important is to be done, however, all
start up willingly enough, but then all think themselves at
liberty to give their opinion, and half a dozen voices are heard
giving orders, and there is such a shrieking and confusion that
it seems wonderful anything gets done at all.

Considering we have fifty men of several tribes and tongues
onboard, wild, half-savage looking fellows, and few of them
feeling any of the restraints of morality or education, we get on
wonderfully well. There is no fighting or quarrelling, as there
would certainly be among the same number of Europeans with as
little restraint upon their actions, and there is scarcely any of
that noise and excitement which might be expected. In fine
weather the greater part of them are quietly enjoying themselves-
-some are sleeping under the shadow of the sails; others, in
little groups of three or four, are talking or chewing betel; one
is making a new handle to his chopping-knife, another is
stitching away at a new pair of trousers or a shirt, and all are
as quiet and well-conducted as on board the best-ordered English
merchantman. Two or three take it by turns to watch in the bows
and see after the braces and halyards of the great sails; the two
steersmen are below in the steerage; our captain, or the juragan,
gives the course, guided partly by the compass and partly by the
direction of the wind, and a watch of two or three on the poop
look after the trimming of the sails and call out the hours by
the water-clock. This is a very ingenious contrivance, which
measures time well in both rough weather and fine. It is simply a
bucket half filled with water, in which floats the half of a
well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. In the bottom of this shell is a
very small hole, so that when placed to float in the bucket a
fine thread of water squirts up into it. This gradually fills the
shell, and the size of the hole is so adjusted to the capacity of
the vessel that, exactly at the end of an hour, plump it goes to
the bottom. The watch then cries out the number of hours from
sunrise and sets the shell afloat again empty. This is a very
good measurer of time. I tested it with my watch and found that
it hardly varied a minute from one hour to another, nor did the
motion of the vessel have any effect upon it, as the water in the
bucket of course kept level. It has a great advantage for a rude
people in being easily understood, in being rather bulky and easy
to see, and in the final submergence being accompanied with a
little bubbling and commotion of the water, which calls the
attention to it. It is also quickly replaced if lost while in
harbour.

Our captain and owner I find to be a quiet, good-tempered man,
who seems to get on very well with all about him. When at sea he
drinks no wine or spirits, but indulges only in coffee and cakes,
morning and afternoon, in company with his supercargo and
assistants. He is a man of some little education, can read and
write well both Dutch and Malay, uses a compass, and has a chart.
He has been a trader to Aru for many years, and is well known to
both Europeans and natives in this part of the world.

Dec. 24th.-Fine, and little wind. No land in sight for the first
time since we left Macassar. At noon calm, with heavy showers, in
which our crew wash their clothes, anti in the afternoon the prau
is covered with shirts, trousers, and sarongs of various gay
colours. I made a discovery to-day which at first rather alarmed
me. The two ports, or openings, through which the tillers enter
from the lateral rudders are not more than three or four feet
above the surface of the water, which thus has a free entrance
into the vessel. I of course had imagined that this open space
from one side to the other was separated from the hold by a
water-tight bulkhead, so that a sea entering might wash out at
the further side, and do no more harm than give the steersmen a
drenching. To my surprise end dismay, however, I find that it is
completely open to the hold, so that half-a-dozen seas rolling in
on a stormy night would nearly, or quite, swamp us. Think of a
vessel going to sea for a month with two holes, each a yard
square, into the hold, at three feet above the water-line,-holes,
too, which cannot possibly be closed! But our captain says all
praus are so; and though he acknowledges the danger, "he does not
know how to alter it--the people are used to it; he does not
understand praus so well as they do, and if such a great
alteration were made, he should be sure to have difficulty in
getting a crew!" This proves at all events that praus must be
good sea-boats, for the captain has been continually making
voyages in them for the last ten years, and says he has never
known water enough enter to do any harm.

Dec.25th.-Christmas-day dawned upon us with gusts of wind,
driving rain, thunder and lightning, added to which a short
confused sea made our queer vessel pitch and roll very
uncomfortably. About nine o'clock, however, it cleared up, and we
then saw ahead of us the fine island of Bouru, perhaps forty or
fifty miles distant, its mountains wreathed with clouds, while
its lower lands were still invisible. The afternoon was fine, and
the wind got round again to the west; but although this is really
the west monsoon, there is no regularity or steadiness about it,
calms and breezes from every point of the compass continually
occurring. The captain, though nominally a Protestant, seemed to
have no idea of Christmas-day as a festival. Our dinner was of
rice and curry as usual, and an extra glass of wine was all I
could do to celebrate it.

Dec. 26th.--Fine view of the mountains of Bouru, which we have
now approached considerably. Our crew seem rather a clumsy lot.
They do not walk the deck with the easy swing of English sailors,
but hesitate and stagger like landsmen. In the night the lower
boom of our mainsail broke, and they were all the morning
repairing it. It consisted of two bamboos lashed together, thick
end to thin, and was about seventy feet long. The rigging and
arrangement of these praus contrasts strangely with that of
European vessels, in which the various ropes and spars, though
much more numerous, are placed so as not to interfere with each
other's action. Here the case is quite different; for though
there are no shrouds or stays to complicate the matter, yet
scarcely anything can be done without first clearing something
else out of the way. The large sails cannot be shifted round to
go on the other tack without first hauling down the jibs, and the
booms of the fore and aft sails have to be lowered and completely
detached to perform the same operation. Then there are always a
lot of ropes foul of each other, and all the sails can never be
set (though they are so few) without a good part of their surface
having the wind kept out of them by others. Yet praus are much
liked even by those who have had European vessels, because of
their cheapness both in first cost and in keeping up; almost all
repairs can be done by the crew, and very few European stores are
required.

Dec. 28th.--This day we saw the Banda group, the volcano first
appearing,--a perfect cone, having very much the outline of the
Egyptian pyramids, and looking almost as regular. In the evening
the smoke rested over its summit like a small stationary cloud.
This was my first view of an active volcano, but pictures and
panoramas have so impressed such things on one's mind, that when
we at length behold them they seem nothing extraordinary.

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