The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XVII.] CELEBES. 185CHAPTER XVII.CELEBES.(MENADO. JUNE TO SEPTEMBER, 1859.)It was after my residence at Timor-Coupang that I visitedthe north-eastern extremity of Celebes, touching on my way atBanda, Amboyna, and Ternate. I reached Menado on the 10thof June, 1859, and was very kindly received by Mr. Tower, anEnglishman, but a very old resident in Menado, where he carrieson a general business. He introduced me to Mr. L. Duivenboden(whose father had been my friend at Ternate), who had muchtaste for natural history ; and to Mr. Neys, a native of Menado,but who was educated at Calcutta, and to whom Dutch, English,and Malay were equally mother-tongues. All these gentlemenshowed me the greatest kindness, accompanied me in my earliestwalks about the country, and assisted me by every means intheir power. I spent a week in the town very pleasantly,making explorations and inquiries after a good collectingstation, which I had much difficulty in finding, owing to thewide cultivation of coffee and cacao, which has led to the clearingaway of the forests for many miles round the town, and overextensive districts far into the interior.The little town of Menado is one of the prettiest in the East.It has the appearance of a large garden containing rows ofrustic villas, with broad paths between, forming streets generallyat right angles with each other. Good roads branch off inseveral directions towards the interior, with a succession ofpretty cottages, neat gardens, and thriving plantations, interspersedwith wildernesses of fruit trees. To the west and souththe country is mountainous, with groups of fine volcanic peaks6,000 or 7,000 feet high, forming grand and picturesque backgroundsto the landscape.The inhabitants of Minahasa (as this part of Celebes is called)differ much from those of all the rest of the island, and in factfrom any other people in the Archipelago. They are of a liglitbrownor yellow tint, often approaching the fairness of aEuropean ; of a rather short stature, stout and well-made ; ofan open and pleasing countenance, more or less disfigured as ageincreases by projecting cheek-bones ; and with the usual long,straight, jet-black hair of the Malayan races. In some of theinland villages where tliey may be supposed to be of the jjurestrace, both men and women are remarkably handsome ; whilenearer the coasts where the purity of their blood has been destroyedby the intermixture of other races, they approach to