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

en. XXV.] CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS. 269Captain Van der Beck's plantation, .situated at Hatosua, inthat part of Ceram opposite to the island of Amboyna. Thiswas a cleaving in flat and rather swampy forest, about twentyacres in extent, and mostly planted with cacao and tobacco.Besides a small cottage occupied by the workmen, there was alarge shed for tobacco drying, a corner of wliich was offered me ;and tliinking from the look of the place that I should find goodcollecting ground here, I fitted up temporary tables, benches,and beds, and made all preparations for sortie weeks' stay. Afew days, however, served to show that I should be disappointed.Beetles were tolerably abundant, and I obtained plenty of finelong-horned Anthribidiu and pretty Longicorns, but they weremostly the same species as I had found during my first shortvisit to Amboyna. There were very few paths in the forest,wliich seemed poor in birds and buttei'flies, and day after daymy men brought me nothing worth notice. I was therefore soonobliged to think about changing my locality, as I could evidentlyobtain no proper notion of the productions of the almost entirelyunexplored island of Ceram by staying in this place.I rather regretted leaving, because my host was one of themost remarkable men and most entertaining companions I hadever met with. He was a Fleming by birth, and, like so manyof his countrymen, had a wonderful talent for languages.When quite a youth he had accompanied a Government officialwho was sent to report on the trade and commerce of theMediterranean, and had acquired tlie colloquial language ofevery place they stayed a few weeks at. He had afterwardsmade voyages to St. Petersburg, and to other parts of Europe,including a few weeks in London, and had then come out to theEast, where he had been for some years trading and si:)eculatingin the "various islands. He now spoke Dutch, French, Malay,and Javanese, all equally well ; English with a very slightaccent, but with perfect fluency, and a most complete knowledgeof idiom, in which I often tried to puzzle him in vain.German and Italian were also quite familiar to him, and hisacquaintance with European languages included Modern Greek,Turkish, Russian, and colloquial Hebrew and Latin. As a testof his power, I may mention that he had made a voyage to theout-of-the-way island of Salibaboo, and had stayed tliere tradinga few weeks. As I was collecting vocabularies, he told me hetliought he could remember some words, and dictated a considerablenumber. Some time after I met with a short list ofwords taken down in those islands, and in every case theyagreed with those he liad given me. He used to sing a Hebrewdrinking-song, wliich he had learned from some Jews with whomhe had once travelled, and astonished by joining in their conversation; and he had a never-ending fund of tale and anecdoteabout the people he had met and the places he had visited.In most of the villages of this part of Ceram are schools andnative schoolmasters, and the inhabitants have been long con-