The Malay Archipelago Volume 1

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The natives say they find it in the bed of a ravine, and many years
ago a captain of a vessel is said to have got some hundreds-weight of
it. Now, however, it is evidently very 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 of the
larger Australian nuggets, but of pure copper instead of gold. The
natives and the Portuguese have very naturally imagined that where
these fragments come from there must be more; and they have a report
or tradition, that a mountain at the head of the ravine is almost pure
copper, and of course of immense value.

After much difficulty a company was at length formed to work the
copper mountain, a Portuguese merchant of Singapore supplying most of
the capital. So confident were they of the existence of the copper,
that they thought it would be waste of time and money to have any
exploration made first; and accordingly, sent to England 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, in order 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, where they 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 as interpreter. The Governor, the Commandante, the Judge, and
all the chief people of the place went in state to the mountain, with
Mr. Geach's assistant and some of the workmen. As they went up the
valley Mr. Leach examined the rocks, but saw no signs of copper. They
went on and on, but still nothing except a few mere traces of very
poor ore. At length they stood on the copper mountain itself. The
Governor stopped, the officials formed a circle, and he then addressed
them, saying, that at length the day had arrived they had all been so
long expecting, when the treasures of the soil of Timor would be
brought to light, and much more in very graandiloquent Portuguese;
and concluded by turning to Mr. Leach, and requesting him to point out
the best spot for them to begin work at once, and uncover the mass of
virgin copper. As the ravines and precipices among which they had
passed, and which had been carefully examined, revealed very clearly
the nature and mineral constitution of the country, Mr. Geach simply
told them that there was not a trace of copper there, and that it was
perfectly useless to begin work. The audience were thunderstruck! The
Governor could not believe his ears. At length, when Mr. Geach had
repeated his statement, the Governor told him severely that he was
mistaken; that they all knew there was copper there in abundance, and
all they wanted him to tell them, as a mining-engineer, was how best
to get at it; and that at all events he was to begin work somewhere.
This Mr. Geach refused to do, trying to explain that the ravines had
cut far deeper into the hill than he could do in years, and that he
would not throw away money or time on any such useless attempt. After
this speech had been interpreted to him, the Governor saw it was no
use, and without saying a word turned his horse and rode away, leaving
my friends alone on the mountain. They all believed there was some
conspiracy that the Englishman 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 was arranged that he should send the mechanics home again, and
himself explore the country for minerals. At first the Government
threw obstacles in his way and entirely prevented his moving; but at
length he was allowed to travel about, and for more than a year he and
his assistant explored the eastern part of Timor, crossing it in
several places from sea to sea, and ascending every important valley,
without finding any minerals that would pay the expense of working.
Copper ore exists in several places, but always too poor in quality.
The best would pay well if situated in England; but in the interior of
an utterly barren country, with roads to make, and all skilled labour
and materials to import, it would have been a losing concern. Gold
also occurs, but very sparingly and of 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 a
dreadful disappointment to the Portuguese Government, who had
considered it such a certain thing that they had contracted for the
Dutch mail steamers to stop at Delli and several vessels from
Australia were induced to come with miscellaneous cargoes, for which
they expected to find a ready sale among the population at the newly-
opened mines. The lumps of native copper are still, however, a
mystery. Mr. Geach has examined the country in every direction without
being able to trace their origin; so that it seems probable that they
result from the debris of old copper-bearing strata, and are not
really more abundant than gold nuggets are in Australia or California.
A high reward was offered to any native who should find a piece and
show the exact spot where he obtained it, but without effect.

The mountaineers of Timor are a people of Papuan type, having rather
slender forms, bushy frizzled hair, and the skin of a dusky brown
colour. They have the long nose with overhanging apex which is so
characteristic of the Papuan, and so absolutely unknown among races of
Malayan origin. On the coast there has been much admixture of some of
the Malay races, and perhaps of Hindu, as well as of Portuguese. The
general stature there is lower, the hair wavy instead of frizzled, and
the features less prominent. The houses are built on the ground, while
the mountaineers raise theirs on posts three or four feet high. The
common dress is a long cloth, twisted around the waist and hanging to
the knee, as shown in the illustration (page 305), copied from a
photograph. Both men carry the national umbrella, made of an entire
fan-shaped palm leaf, 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 is made from an
entire unopened leaf of the same palm, and the covered bamboo probably
contains honey for sale. A curious wallet is generally carried,
consisting of a square of strongly woven cloth, the four corners of
which are connected by cords, and often much ornamented with beads and
tassels. Leaning against the house behind the figure on the right are
bamboos, used instead of water jars.

A prevalent custom is the "pomali," exactly equivalent to the "taboo"
of the Pacific islanders, and equally respected. It is used on the
commonest occasions, and a few palm leaves stuck outside a garden as a
sign of the "pomali" will preserve its produce from thieves as
effectually as the threatening notice of man-traps, spring guns, or a
savage dog would do with us. The dead are placed on a stage, raised
six or eight feet above the ground, sometimes open and sometimes
covered with a roof. Here the body remains until the relatives can
afford to make a feast, when it is buried. The Timorese are generally
great thieves, but are not bloodthirsty. They fight continually among
themselves, and take every opportunity of kidnapping unprotected
people of other tribes for slaves; but Europeans may pass anywhere
through the country in safety. Except for a few half-breeds in the town,
there are no native Christians in the island of Timor. The people
retain their independence in a great measure, and both dislike and
despise their would-be rulers, whether Portuguese or Dutch.

The Portuguese government in Timor is a most miserable one. Nobody
seems to care the least about the improvement of the country, and at
this time, after three hundred 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 the Government
officials oppress and rob the natives as much as they can, and yet
there is no care taken to render the town defensible should the
Timorese attempt to attack it. So ignorant 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 the
natives (while I was at Delli) the officer who expected to be sent
against the insurgents was instantly taken ill! And they were allowed
to get possession of an important pass within three miles of the town,
where they could defend themselves against ten times the force. The
result was that no provisions were brought down from the hills; a
famine was imminent; and the Governor had to send off to beg for
supplies from the Dutch Governor of Amboyna.

In its present state Timor is more trouble than profit to its Dutch
and Portuguese rulers, and it will continue to be so unless a
different system is pursued. A few good roads into the elevated
districts of the interior; a conciliatory policy and strict justice
towards the natives, and the introduction of a good system of
cultivation as in Java and northern Celebes, might yet make Timor a
productive and valuable island. Rice grows well on the marshy flats,
which often fringe the coast, and maize thrives in all the lowlands,
and is the common food of the natives as it was when Dampier visited
the island in 1699. The small quantity of coffee now grown is of very
superior quality, and it might be increased to any extent. Sheep
thrive, and would always be valuable as fresh food for whalers and to
supply the adjacent islands with mutton, if not for their wool;
although it is probable that on the mountains this product might soon
be obtained by judicious breeding. Horses thrive amazingly; and enough
wheat might be grown to supply the whole Archipelago if there were
sufficient inducements to the natives to extend its cultivation, and
good roads by which it could be cheaply transported to the coast.

Under such a system the natives would soon perceive that European
government was advantageous to them. They would begin to save money,
and property being rendered secure they would rapidly acquire new
wants and new tastes, and become large consumers of European goods.
This would be a far surer source of profit to their rulers than
imposts and extortion, and would be at the same time more likely to
produce peace and obedience than the mock-military rule which has
hitherto proved most ineffective. To inaugurate such a system would
however require an immediate outlay of capital, which neither Dutch
nor Portuguese seem inclined to make, and a number of honest 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 its present state of chronic insurrection and
misgovernment.

Morality at Delli is at as low an ebb as in the far interior of
Brazil, and crimes are connived at which would entail infamy and
criminal prosecution in Europe. While I was there it was generally
asserted and believed in the place, that two officers had poisoned the
husbands of women with whom they were carrying on intrigues, and with
whom they immediately cohabited on the death of their rivals. Yet no
one ever thought for a moment of showing disapprobation of the crime,
or even of considering it a crime at all, the husbands in question
being low half-castes, who of course ought to make way for the
pleasures of their superiors.

Judging from what I saw myself and by the descriptions of Mr. Geach,
the indigenous vegetation of Timor is poor and monotonous. The lower
ranges of the hills are everywhere covered with scrubby Eucalypti,
which only occasionally grow into lofty forest trees. Mingled with
these in smaller quantities are acacias and the fragrant sandalwood,
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 a variety 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 among the
bushes, and displaying its magnificent blossoms in great profusion. A
wild vine also occurs, bearing great irregular bunches of hairy grapes
of a coarse but very luscious flavour. In some of the valleys where
the vegetation is richer, thorny shrubs and climbers are so abundant
as to make the thickets quite impenetrable.

The soil seems very poor, consisting chiefly of decomposing clayey
shales; and the bare earth and rock is almost everywhere visible. The
drought of the hot season is so severe 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 as in our
winter. On the mountains from two to four thousand feet elevation
there is a much moister atmosphere, so that potatoes and other
European products can be grown all the year round. Besides ponies,
almost the only exports of Timor are sandalwood and beeswax. The
sandalwood (Santalum sp.) is the produce of a small tree, which grows
sparingly in the mountains of Timor and many of the other islands in
the far East. The wood is of a fine yellow colour, and possesses a
well-known delightful fragrance 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 in the houses of
the wealthy.

The beeswax is a still more important and valuable product, formed
by the wild bees (Apis dorsata), which build huge honeycombs,
suspended in the open air from the underside 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 a very interesting sight it was. In the valley where I used to
collect insects, I one day saw three or four Timorese men and boys
under a high tree, and, looking up, saw on a very lofty 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 out the limb which the bees had chosen for their home.
As the men were evidently looking after the bees, I waited to watch
their operations. One of them first produced a long piece of wood
apparently the stem of a small tree or creeper, which he had brought
with him, and began splitting it through in several directions, which
showed that it was very tough and stringy. He then wrapped it in palm-
leaves, which were secured by twisting a slender creeper round them.
He then fastened his cloth tightly round his loins, and producing
another cloth wrapped it around his head, neck, and body, and tied it
firmly around his neck, leaving his face, arms, and legs completely
bare. Slung to his girdle he carried a long thin coil of cord; and
while he had been making these preparations, one of his companions had
cut a strong creeper or bush-rope eight or ten yards long, to one end
of which the wood-torch was fastened, and lighted at the bottom,
emitting a steady stream of smoke. Just above the torch a chopping-
knife was fastened by a short cord.

The bee-hunter now took hold of the bush-rope just above the torch and
passed the other end around the trunk of the tree, holding one end in
each hand. Jerking it up the tree a little above his head he set his
foot against the trunk, and leaning back began walking up it. It was
wonderful to see the skill with which he took advantage of the
slightest irregularities of the bark or obliquity of the stem to aid
his ascent, jerking the stiff creeper a few feet higher when he had
found a firm hold for his bare foot. It almost made me giddy to look
at him as he rapidly got up--thirty, forty, fifty feet above the
ground; and I kept wondering how he could possibly mount the next few
feet of straight smooth trunk. Still, however, he kept on with as much
coolness and apparent certainty as if he were going up a ladder, until
he got within ten or fifteen feet of the bees. Then he stopped a
moment, and took care to swing the torch (which hung just at his feet)
a little towards these dangerous insects, so as to send up the stream
of smoke between him 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 in supporting himself by
the creeper, managed to get upon it.

By this time the bees began to be alarmed, and formed a dense buzzing
swarm just over him, but he brought the torch up closer to him, and
coolly brushed away those that settled on his arms or legs. Then
stretching himself along the limb, he crept towards the nearest comb
and swung the torch just under it. The moment the smoke touched it,
its colour changed in a most curious manner from black to white, the
myriads of bees that had covered it flying off and forming a dense
cloud above and around. The man then lay at full length along the
limb, and brushed off the remaining bees with his hand, and then
drawing his knife cut off the comb at one slice close to the tree, and
attaching the thin cord to it, let it down to his companions below. He
was all this time enveloped in a crowd of angry bees, and how he bore
their stings so coolly, and went on with his work at that giddy height
so deliberately, was more than I could understand. The bees were
evidently not stupified by the smoke or driven away far by it, and it
was impossible that the small stream from the torch could protect his
whole body when at work. There were three other combs on the same
tree, and all were successively taken, and furnished the whole party
with a luscious feast of honey and young bees, as well as a valuable
lot of wax.

After two of the combs had been let down, the bees became rather
numerous below, flying about wildly and stinging viciously. Several
got about me, and I was soon stung, and had to run away, beating them
off with my net and capturing them for specimens. Several of them
followed me for at least half a mile, getting into my hair and
persecuting me most pertinaciously, so that I was more astonished than
ever at the immunity of the natives. I am inclined to think that slow
and deliberate motion, and no attempt at escape, are perhaps the best
safeguards. A bee settling on a passive native probably behaves as it
would on a tree or other inanimate substance, which it does not
attempt to sting. Still they must often suffer, but they are used to
the pain and learn to bear 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 the closely connected chain of islands from Java to Timor
should differ materially in their natural productions. There are, it
is true, certain differences of climate and of physical geography, but
these do not correspond with the division the naturalist is obliged to
make. Between the two ends of the chain there is a great contrast of
climate, the west being exceedingly moist and leaving only a short and
irregular dry season, the east being 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 strongly marked
seasons as Lombock and Timor. There is also a difference in physical
geography; but this occurs at the eastern termination of the chain
where the volcanoes which are the marked feature of Java, Bali,
Lombock, Sumbawa, and Flores, turn northwards through Gunong Api to
Banda, leaving Timor with only one volcanic peak near 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 natural productions which occurs at the Straits
of Lombock, separating the island of that name from 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 is not 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 the
yellow-headed weaver (Ploceus hypoxantha), the black grasshopper
thrush (Copsychus amoenus), the rosy barbet (Megalaema rosea), the
Malay oriole (Oriolus horsfieldi), the Java ground starling
(Sturnopastor jalla), and the Javanese three-toed woodpecker
(Chrysonotus tiga). On crossing over to Lombock, separated from Bali
by a strait less than 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 totally different set of
species, most of which were utterly unknown not only in Java, but also
in Borneo, Sumatra, and Malacca. For example, among the commonest
birds in Lombock were white cockatoos and three species of
Meliphagidae or honeysuckers, belonging to family groups which are
entirely absent from the western or Indo-Malayan region of the
Archipelago. On passing to Flores and Timor the distinctness from the
Javanese productions increases, and we find that these islands form a
natural group, 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 a good collection in
Flores; and these, with a few species obtained by the Dutch
naturalists, enable us to form a very good idea of the natural history
of this group of islands, and to derive therefrom some very
interesting results.

The number of birds known from these islands up to this date is: 63
from Lombock, 86 from Flores, and 118 from Timor; and from the whole
group, 188 species. With the exception of two or three species which
appear to have been derived from the Moluccas, all these birds can be
traced, either directly or by close allies, to Java on the one side or
to Australia on the other; although no less than 82 of them are found
nowhere out of this small group of islands. There is not, however, a
single genus peculiar 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 origin
does not go back beyond one of the most recent geological epochs. Of
course there are a 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 a large part
of the Archipelago that it is impossible to trace them as having come
from any 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 have nearly a
hundred birds left whose relations with those of other countries we
will now consider.

If we first take those species which, as far as we yet know, are
absolutely confined to 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 all accurately determined, since the rapidly increasing
numbers evidently depend upon the more extensive collections made in
Timor than in Flores, and in Flores than in Lombock; but what we can
depend more upon, and what is of more special interest, is the
greatly increased proportion of Australian forms and decreased
proportion of Indian forms, as we go from west to east. We shall show
this in a yet more striking manner by counting the number of species
identical with those of Java and Australia respectively in 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 for hundreds or thousands of years, and is still going on at the
present day. Birds entering from Java are most numerous in the island
nearest Java; each strait of the sea to be crossed to reach another
island offers an obstacle, and thus a smaller number get over to the
next island. [The names of all the birds inhabiting these islands are
to be 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 Australia is much less than those which
have come from Java; and we may at first sight suppose that this is
due to the wide sea that separates Australia from Timor. But this
would be a hasty and, as we shall soon see, an unwarranted
supposition. Besides these birds identical with species inhabiting
Java and Australia, there are a considerable number of others very
closely allied to species peculiar to those countries, and we must
take these also into account before we form any conclusion on the
matter. It will be as well to combine these with the former table thus:

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