The Malay Archipelago Volume 1

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The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly of the Dutch
Government; but since leaving the country I believe that this
monopoly has been partially or wholly discontinued, a proceeding
which appears exceedingly injudicious and quite unnecessary.
There are cases in which monopolies are perfectly justifiable,
and I believe this to be one of them. A small country like
Holland cannot afford to keep distant and expensive colonies at
a loss; and having possession of a very small island where a
valuable product, not a necessity of life, can be obtained at
little cost, it is almost the duty of the state to monopolise
it. No injury is done thereby to anyone, but a great benefit is
conferred upon the whole population of Holland and its
dependencies, since the produce of the state monopolies saves
them from the weight of a heavy taxation. Had the Government not
kept the nutmeg trade of Banda in its own hands, it is probable
that the whole of the islands would long ago have become the
property of one or more large capitalists. The monopoly would
have been almost the same, since no known spot on the globe can
produce nutmegs so cheaply as Banda, but the profits of the
monopoly world have gone to a few individuals instead of to the
nation.

As an illustration of how a state monopoly may become a state duty,
let us suppose that no gold existed in Australia, but that it had
been found in immense quantities by one of our ships in some small
and barren island. In this case it would plainly become the duty of
the state to keep and work the mines for the public benefit, since
by doing so, the gain would be fairly divided among the whole population
by decrease of taxation; whereas by leaving it open to free trade
while merely keeping the government of the island; we should certainly
produce enormous evils during the first struggle for the precious
metal, and should ultimately subside into the monopoly of some wealthy
individual or great company, whose enormous revenue would not
equally benefit the community. The nutmegs of Banda and the tin
of Banca are to some extent parallel cases to this supposititious
one, and I believe the Dutch Government will act most unwisely if
they give up their monopoly.

Even the destruction of the nutmeg and clove trees in many
islands, in order to restrict their cultivation to one or two
where the monopoly could be easily guarded, usually made the
theme of so much virtuous indignation against the Dutch, may be
defended on similar principles, and is certainly not nearly so
bad as many monopolies we ourselves have until very recently
maintained. Nutmegs and cloves arc not necessaries of life; they
are not even used as spices by the natives of the Moluccas, and
no one was materially or permanently injured by the destruction
of the trees, since there are a hundred other products that can
be grown in the same islands, equally valuable and far more
beneficial in a social point of view. It is a case exactly
parallel to our prohibition of the growth of tobacco in England,
for fiscal purposes, and is, morally and economically, neither
better nor worse. The salt monopoly which we so long maintained
in India was in much worse. As long as we keep up a system of
excise and customs on articles of daily use, which requires an
elaborate array of officers and coastguards to carry into effect,
and which creates a number of purely legal crimes, it is the
height of absurdity for us to affect indignation at the conduct
of the Dutch, who carried out a much more justifiable, less
hurtful, and more profitable system in their Eastern possessions.

I challenge objectors to point out any physical or moral evils
that have actually resulted from the action of the Dutch
Government in this matter; whereas such evils are the admitted
results of every one of our monopolies and restrictions. The
conditions of the two experiments are totally different. The true
"political economy" of a higher race, when governing a lower race,
has never yet been worked out. The application of our "political
economy" to such cases invariably results in the extinction or
degradation of the lower race; whence, we may consider it probable
that one of the necessary conditions of its truth is the
approximate mental and social unity of the society in which it is
applied. I shall again refer to this subject in my chapter on
Ternate, one of the most celebrated of the old spice-islands.

The natives of Banda are very much mixed, and it is probable that
at least three-fourths of the population are mongrels, in various
degrees of Malay, Papuan, Arab, Portuguese, and Dutch. The first
two form the bases of the larger portion, and the dark skins,
pronounced features, and more or less frizzly hair of the Papuans
preponderates. There seems little doubt that the aborigines of
Banda were Papuans, and a portion of them still exists in the Ke
islands, where they emigrated when the Portuguese first took
possession of their native island. It is such people as these
that are often looked upon as transitional forms between two very
distinct races, like the Malays and Papuans, whereas they are
only examples of intermixture.

The animal productions of Banda, though very few, are
interesting. The islands have perhaps no truly indigenous
Mammalia but bats. The deer of the Moluccas and the pig have
probably been introduced. A species of Cuscus or Eastern opossum
is also found at Banda, and this may be truly indigenous in the
sense of not having been introduced by man. Of birds, during my
three visits of one or two days each, I collected eight kinds,
and the Dutch collectors have added a few others. The most
remarkable is a fine and very handsome fruit-pigeon, Carpophaga
concinna, which feeds upon the nutmegs, or rather on the mace,
and whose loud booming note is to be continually heard. This bird
is found in the Ke and Matabello islands as well as Banda, but
not in Ceram or any of the larger islands, which are inhabited by
allied but very distinct species. A beautiful small fruit-dove,
Ptilonopus diadematus, is also peculiar to Banda.

CHAPTER XX.

AMBOYNA

(DECEMBER 1857, OCTOBER 1859, FEBRUARY 1860.)

TWENTY hours from Banda brought us to Amboyna, the capital of the
Moluccas, and one of the oldest European settlements in the East.
The island consists of two peninsulas, so nearly divided by
inlets of the sea, as to leave only a sandy isthmus about a mile
wide near their eastern extremity. The western inlet is several
miles long and forms a fine harbour on the southern side of
which is situated the town of Amboyna. I had a letter of
introduction to Dr. Mohnike, the chief medical officer of the
Moluccas, a German and a naturalist. I found that he could write
and read English, but could not speak it, being like myself a bad
linguist; so we had to use French as a medium of communication.
He kindly offered me a room during my stay in Amboyna, and
introduced me to his junior, Dr. Doleschall, a Hungarian and also
an entomologïst. He was an intelligent and most amiable young man
but I was shocked to find that he was dying of consumption,
though still able to perform the duties of his office. In the
evening my host took me to the residence of the Governor, Mr.
Goldmann, who received me in a most kind and cordial manner, and
offered me every assistance. The town of Amboyna consists of a
few business streets, and a number of roads set out at right
angles to each other, bordered by hedges of flowering shrubs, and
enclosing country houses and huts embossed in palms and fruit
trees. Hills and mountains form the background in almost every
direction, and there are few places more enjoyable for a morning
or evening stroll than these sandy roads and shady lanes in the
suburbs of the ancient city of Amboyna.

There are no active volcanoes in the island, nor is it now
subject to frequent earthquakes, although very severe ones have
occurred and may be expected again. Mr. William Funnell, in his
voyage with Dampier to the South Seas in 1705, says: "Whilst we
were here, (at Amboyna) we had a great earthquake, which
continued two days, in which time it did a great deal of
mischief, for the ground burst open in many places, and swallowed
up several houses and whole families. Several of the people were
dug out again, but most of them dead, and many had their legs or
arms broken by the fall of the houses. The castle walls were rent
asunder in several places, and we thought that it and all the
houses would have fallen down. The ground where we were swelled
like a wave in the sea, but near us we had no hurt done." There
are also numerous records of eruptions of a volcano on the west
side of the island. In 1674 an eruption destroyed a village. In
1694 there was another eruption. In I797 much vapour and heat was
emitted. Other eruptions occurred in 1816 and 1820, and in 1824 a
new crater is said to have been formed. Yet so capricious is the
action of these subterranean fires, that since the last-named
epoch all eruptive symptoms have so completely ceased, that I was
assured by many of the most intelligent European inhabitants of
Amboyna, that they had never heard of any such thing as a volcano
on the island.

During the few days that elapsed before I could make arrangements
to visit the interior, I enjoyed myself much in the society of
the two doctors, both amiable and well-educated men, and both
enthusiastic entomologists, though obliged to increase their
collections almost entirely by means of native collectors.
Dr. Doleschall studied chiefly the flies and spiders, but also
collected butterflies and moths, and in his boxes I saw grand
specimens of the emerald Ornithoptera priamus and the azure
Papilio Ulysses, with many more of the superb butterflies of this
rich island. Dr. Mohnike confined himself chiefly to the beetles,
and had formed a magnificent collection during many years
residence in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Japan, and Amboyna. The
Japanese collection was especially interesting, containing both
the fine Carabi of northern countries, and the gorgeous
Buprestidae and Longicorns of the tropics. The doctor made the
voyage to Jeddo by land from Nagasaki, and is well acquainted
with the character, manners, and customs of the people of Japan,
and with the geology, physical features, and natural history of
the country. He showed me collections of cheap woodcuts printed
in colours, which are sold at less than a farthing each, and
comprise an endless variety of sketches of Japanese scenery and
manners. Though rude, they are very characteristic, and often
exhibit touches of great humour. He also possesses a large
collection of coloured sketches of the plants of Japan, made by a
Japanese lady, which are the most masterly things I have ever
seen. Every stem, twig, and leaf is produced by single touches of
the brush, the character and perspective of very complicated
plants being admirably given, and the articulations of stem and
leaves shown in a most scientific manner.

Having made arrangements to stay for three weeks at a small hut
on a newly cleared plantation in the interior of the northern
half of the island, I with some difficulty obtained a boat and
men to take me across the water--for the Amboynese are dreadfully
lazy. Passing up the harbour, in appearance like a fine river,
the clearness of the water afforded me one of the most
astonishing and beautiful sights I have ever beheld. The bottom
was absolutely hidden by a continuous series of corals, sponges,
actinic, and other marine productions of magnificent dimensions,
varied forms, and brilliant colours. The depth varied from about
twenty to fifty feet, and the bottom was very uneven, rocks and
chasms and little hills and valleys, offering a variety of
stations for the growth of these animal forests. In and out among
them, moved numbers of blue and red and yellow fishes, spotted
and banded and striped in the most striking manner, while great
orange or rosy transparent medusa floated along near the surface.
It was a sight to gaze at for hours, and no description can do
justice to its surpassing beauty and interest. For once, the
reality exceeded the most glowing accounts I had ever read of the
wonders of a coral sea. There is perhaps no spot in the world
richer in marine productions, corals, shells and fishes, than the
harbour of Amboyna.

From the north side of the harbour, a good broad path passes
through swamp clearing and forest, over hill and valley, to the
farther side of the island; the coralline rock constantly
protruding through the deep red earth which fills all the
hollows, and is more or less spread over the plains and hill-
sides. The forest vegetation is here of the most luxuriant
character; ferns and palms abound, and the climbing rattans were
more abundant than I had ever seen them, forming tangled festoons
over almost every large forest tree. The cottage I was to occupy
was situated in a large clearing of about a hundred acres, part
of which was already planted with young cacao-trees and plantains
to shade them, while the rest was covered with dead and half-
burned forest trees; and on one side there was a tract where the
trees had been recently felled and were not yet burned. The path
by which I had arrived continued along one side of this clearing,
and then again entering the virgin forest passed over hill and
dale to the northern aide of the island.

My abode was merely a little thatched hut, consisting of an open
verandah in front and a small dark sleeping room behind. It was
raised about five feet from the ground, and was reached by rude
steps to the centre of the verandah. The walls and floor were of
bamboo, and it contained a table, two bamboo chairs, and a couch.
Here I soon made myself comfortable, and set to work hunting for
insects among the more recently felled timber, which swarmed with
fine Curculionidae, Longicorns, and Buprestidae, most of them
remarkable for their elegant forms or brilliant colours, and
almost all entirely new to me. Only the entomologist can
appreciate the delight with which I hunted about for hours in the
hot sunshine, among the branches and twigs and bark of the fallen
trees, every few minutes securing insects which were at that time
almost all rare or new to European collections.

In the shady forest paths were many fine butterflies, most
conspicuous among which was the shining blue Papilio Ulysses, one
of the princes of the tribe, though at that time so rare in
Europe, I found it absolutely common in Amboyna, though not easy
to obtain in fine condition, a large number of the specimens
being found when captured to have the wings torn or broken. It
flies with a rather weak undulating motion, and from its large
size, its tailed wings and brilliant colour, is one of the most
tropical-looking insects the naturalist can gaze upon.

There is a remarkable contrast between the beetles of Amboyna and
those of Macassar, the latter generally small and obscure, the
former large and brilliant. On the whole, the insects here most
resemble those of the Aru islands, but they are almost always of
distinct species, and when they are most nearly allied to each
other, the species of Amboyna are of larger size and more
brilliant colours, so that one might be led to conclude that in
passing east and west into a less favourable soil and climate,
they had degenerated into less striking forms.

Of an evening I generally sat reading in the verandah, ready to
capture any insects that were attracted to the light. One night
about nine o'clock, I heard a curious noise and rustling
overhead, as if some heavy animal were crawling slowly over the
thatch. The noise soon ceased, and I thought no more about it and
went to bed soon afterwards. The next afternoon just before
dinner, being rather tired with my day's work, I was lying on the
couch with a book in my hand, when gazing upwards I saw a large
mass of something overhead which I had not noticed before.
Looking more carefully I could see yellow and black marks, and
thought it must be a tortoise-shell put up there out of the way
between the ridge-pole and the roof Continuing to gaze, it
suddenly resolved itself into a large snake, compactly coiled up
in a kind of knot; and I could detect his head and his bright
eyes in the very centre of the folds. The noise of the evening
before was now explained. A python had climbed up one of the
posts of the house, and had made his way under the thatch within
a yard of my head, and taken up a comfortable position in the
roof--and I had slept soundly all night directly under him.

I called to my two boys who were skinning birds below and said,
"Here's a big snake in the roof;" but as soon as I had shown it
to them they rushed out of the house and begged me to come out
directly. Finding they were too much afraid to do anything, we
called some of the labourers in the plantation, and soon had half
a dozen men in consultation outside. One of these, a native of
Bouru, where there are a great many snakes, said he would get him
out, and proceeded to work in a businesslike manner. He made a
strong noose of rattan, and with a long pole in the other hand
poked at the snake, who then began slowly to uncoil itself. He
then managed to slip the noose over its head, and getting it well
on to the body, dragged the animal down. There was a great
scuffle as the snake coiled round the chairs and posts to resist
his enemy, but at length the man caught hold of its tail, rushed
out of the house (running so quick that the creature seemed quite
confounded), and tried to strike its head against a tree. He
missed however, and let go, and the snake got under a dead trunk
close by. It was again poked out, and again the Bourn man caught
hold of its tail, and running away quickly dashed its head with a
swing against a tree, and it was then easily killed with a
hatchet. It was about twelve feet long and very thick, capable of
doing much mischief and of swallowing a dog or a child.

I did not get a great many birds here. The most remarkable were
the fine crimson lory, Eos rubra--a brush-tongued parroquet of a
vivid crimson colour, which was very abundant. Large flocks of
them came about the plantation, and formed a magnificent object
when they settled down upon some flowering tree, on the nectar of
which lories feed. I also obtained one or two specimens of the
fine racquet-tailed kingfisher of Amboyna, Tanysiptera nais, one
of the most singular and beautiful of that beautiful family.
These birds differ from all other kingfishers (which have usually
short tails) by having the two middle tail-feathers immensely
lengthened and very narrowly webbed, but terminated by a spoon-
shaped enlargement, as in the motmots and some of the humming-
birds. They belong to that division of the family termed king-
hunters, living chiefly on insects and small land-molluscs, which
they dart down upon and pick up from the ground, just as a
kingfisher picks a fish out of the water. They are confined to a
very limited area, comprising the Moluccas, New Guinea and
Northern Australia. About ten species of these birds are now
known, all much resembling each other, but yet sufficiently
distinguishable in every locality. The Amboynese species, of
which a very accurate representation is here given, is one of the
largest and handsomest. It is full seventeen inches long to the
tips of the tail-feathers; the bill is coral red, the under-
surface pure white, the back and wings deep purple, while the
shoulders, head and nape, and some spots on the upper part of the
back and wings, are pure azure blue; the tail is white, with the
feathers narrowly blue-edged, but the narrow part of the long
feathers is rich blue. This was an entirely new species, and has
been well named after an ocean goddess, by Mr. R. G. Gray.

On Christmas eve I returned to Amboyna, where I stayed about ten
days with my kind friend Dr. Mohnike. Considering that I had been
away only twenty days, and that on five or six of those I was
prevented doing any thing by wet weather and slight attacks of
fever, I had made a very nice collection of insects, comprising a
much larger proportion of large and brilliant species than I had
ever before obtained in so short a time. Of the beautiful
metallic Buprestidae I had about a dozen handsome species, yet in
the doctor's collection I observed four or five more very fine
ones, so that Amboyna is unusually rich in this elegant group.

During my stay here I had a good opportunity of seeing how
Europeans live in the Dutch colonies, and where they have adopted
customs far more in accordance with the climate than we have done
in our tropical possessions. Almost all business is transacted in
the morning between the hours of seven and twelve, the afternoon
being given up to repose, and the evening to visiting. When in
the house during the heat of the day, and even at dinner, they
use a loose cotton dress, only putting on a suit of thin
European-made clothes for out of doors and evening wear. They
often walk about after sunset bareheaded, reserving the black hat
for visits of ceremony. Life is thus made far more agreeable, and
the fatigue and discomfort incident to the climate greatly
diminished. Christmas day is not made much of, but on New Year's
day official and complimentary visits are paid, and about sunset
we went to the Governor's, where a large party of ladies and
gentlemen were assembled. Tea and coffee were handed around, as is
almost universal during a visit, as well as cigars, for on no
occasion is smoking prohibited in Dutch colonies, cigars being
generally lighted before the cloth is withdrawn at dinner, even
though half the company are ladies. I here saw for the first time
the rare black lory from New Guinea, Chalcopsitta atra. The
plumage is rather glossy, and slightly tinged with yellowish and
purple, the bill and feet being entirely black.

The native Amboynese who reside in the city are a strange half-
civilized, half-savage lazy people, who seem to be a mixture of at
least three races--Portuguese, Malay, and Papuan or Ceramese,
with an occasional cross of Chinese or Dutch. The Portuguese
element decidedly predominates in the old Christian population,
as indicated by features, habits, and the retention of many
Portuguese words in the Malay, which is now their language. They
have a peculiar style of dress which they wear among themselves,
a close-fitting white shirt with black trousers, and a black
frock or upper shirt. The women seem to prefer a dress entirely
black. On festivals and state occasions they adopt the swallow-
tail coat, chimneypot hat, and their accompaniments, displaying
all the absurdity of our European fashionable dress. Though now
Protestants, they preserve at feasts and weddings the processions
and music of the Catholic Church, curiously mixed up with the
gongs and dances of the aborigines of the country. Their language
has still much more Portuguese than Dutch in it, although they
have been in close communication with the latter nation for more
than two hundred and fifty years; even many names of birds, trees
and other natural objects, as well as many domestic terms, being
plainly Portuguese. [The following are a few of the Portuguese
words in common use by the Malay-speaking natives of Amboyna and
the other Molucca islands: Pombo (pigeon); milo (maize); testa
(forehead); horas (hours); alfinete (pin); cadeira (chair); lenco
(handkerchief); fresco (cool); trigo (flour); sono (sloop);
familia (family); histori (talk); vosse (you); mesmo (even);
cunhado (brother-in-law); senhor (sir); nyora for signora
(madam). None of them, however, have the least notion that these
words belong to a European language.] This people seems to have
had a marvellous power of colonization, and a capacity for
impressing their national characteristics on every country they
conquered, or in which they effected a merely temporary
settlement. In a suburb of Amboyna there is a village of
aboriginal Malays who are Mahometans, and who speak a peculiar
language allied to those of Ceram, as well as Malay. They are
chiefly fishermen, and are said to be both more industrious and
more honest than the native Christians.

I went on Sunday, by invitation, to see a collection of shells
and fish made by a gentleman of Amboyna. The fishes are perhaps
unrivalled for variety and beauty by those of any one spot on the
earth. The celebrated Dutch ichthyologist, Dr. Blecker, has given
a catalogue of seven hundred and eighty species found at Amboyna,
a number almost equal to those of all the seas and rivers of
Europe. A large proportion of them are of the most brilliant
colours, being marked with bands and spots of the purest yellows,
reds, and blues; while their forms present all that strange and
endless variety so characteristic of the inhabitants of the
ocean. The shells are also very numerous, and comprise a number
of the finest species in the world. The Mactras and Ostreas in
particular struck me by the variety and beauty of their colours.
Shells have long been an object of traffic in Amboyna; many of
the natives get their living by collecting and cleaning them, and
almost every visitor takes away a small collection. The result is
that many of the commoner-sorts have lost all value in the eyes
of the amateur, numbers of the handsome but very common cones,
cowries, and olives sold in the streets of London for a penny
each, being natives of the distant isle of Amboyna, where they
cannot be bought so cheaply. The fishes in the collection were
all well preserved in clear spirit in hundreds of glass jars, and
the shells were arranged in large shallow pith boxes lined with
paper, every specimen being fastened down with thread. I roughly
estimated that there were nearly a thousand different kinds of
shells, and perhaps ten thousand specimens, while the collection
of Amboyna fishes was nearly perfect.

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