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

XX.] AMBOYNA. 223The conditions of the two experiments are totally different.The true " political economy " of a higlier, when governing alower race, has never yet been worked out. The application ofour " political economy " to such cases invariably results in theextinction or degradation of tlie lower race ; whence we mayconsider it probable that one of the necessary conditions of itstruth is, the approximate mental and social unity of the societyin which it is applied. I shall again refer to this subject in mychapter on Ternate, one of the most celebrated of the old spiceislands.The natives of Banda are very much mixed, and it is probablethat at least three-fourths of the population are mongrels, invarious degrees of Malay, Papuan, Arab, Portuguese, and Dutch.The first two form the basis of the larger portion, and the darkskins, pronounced features, and more or less frizzly hair of thePapuans preponderate. Thei'e seems little doubt that theaborigines of Banda were Papuans, and a portion of them stillexists in tlie Ke islands, where they emigrated when tlie Portuguesefirst took possession of tlieir native island. It is suchpeople as these that are often looked upon as transitional formsbetween two very distinct races, like the Malays and Papuans,whereas they are only examples of intermixture.The animal productions of Banda, though very few, areinteresting. The islands have perhaps no truly indigenousMammalia but bats. The deer of the ]\Ioluccas and the pighave probably been introduced. A species of Cuscus or Easternopossum is also found at Banda, and this may be truly indigenousin the sense of not having been intioduced by man.Of birds, during my three visits of one or two days each, Icollected eight kinds, and the Dutch collectors have added a fewothers. The most remarkable is a fine and very handsome fruitpigeon,Carpophaga concinna, which feeds upon the nutmegs,or rather on the mace, and whose loud booming note is to becontinually heard. This bird is found in the Ke and ]\Iatabelloislands as well as Banda, but not in Ceran or any of the largerislands, which are inhabited by allied but very distinct species.A beautiful small fruit-dove, Ptilonopus diadematus, is alsopeculiar to Banda.CHAPTEE, XX.AMBOYNA.(DECEMBER 1857, OCTOBER 1859, FEBRUARY 1860.)Twenty hours from Banda brought us to^ Amboyna, tliecapital of the Moluccas, and one of the oldest European settlementsin the East. The island consists of two peninsulas, sonearly divided by inlets of tlie sea, as to leave only a sandy