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

xxv-iii.] MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS. 309gathered over the whole heavens, and seemed to have renderedliim permanently invisible. The strong east winds, warmand dry and dust-laden, which had liitherto blown as certainlyas the sun had risen, were now replaced by variablegusty breezes and heavy I'ains, often continuous for three daysand nights togetlier ;and tlie parched and fissured rice stubbleswhich during the dry weather had extended in every directionfor miles around the town, were ali-eady so flooded as tobe only passable by boats, or by means of a labyrinth of pathson the top of the narrow banks which divided the separateproperties.Five months of this kind of weather might be expected inSouthern Celebes, and I therefore determined to seek some morefavourable climate for collecting in during that period, and toreturn in the next dry season to complete my exploration of thedistrict. Fortunately for me I was in one of the great emporiumsof the native trade of the ArcliiiDelago. Eattans fromBorneo, sandal-wood and bees'-wax from Flores and Timor,tripang from the Gulf of Carpentaria, cajuputi-oil from Bouru,wild nutmegs and mussoi-bark from New Guinea, are all to befound in the stores of the Chinese and Bugis merchants ofMacassar, along with the rice aiid coffee which are the chiefproducts of the surrounding country. More important than allthese however is the trade to Aru, a gi'oup of islands situatedon the south-west coast of New Guinea, and of which almostthe whole produce comes to Macassar in native vessels. Theseislands are quite out of the track of all European trade, and areinhabited only by black moiD-headed savages, who yet conti'ibuteto the luxurious tastes of the most civilized races. Pearls,mother-of-pearl, and tortoise-shell, find their way to Europe,while edible birds' nests and " tripang " or sea-slug are obtainedby shiploads for the gastronomic enjoyment of the Chinese.The trade to tliese islands has existed from very early times,and it is from them that Birds of Paradise, of the two kindsknown to Linnjeus, were first brought. The native vessels canonly make the voj^age once a year, owing to the monsoons. Theyleave Macassar in December or January, at tlie beginning ofthe west monsoon, and return in July or August with the fullstrength of tae east monsoon. Even by tlie Macassar peoplethemselves, the voyage to the Aru Islands is looked upon as arather wild and I'omantic expedition, full of novel siglits andstrange adventures. He who has made it is looked np to as anauthority, and it remains with many the unacliieved ambitionof their lives. I myself had hoped rather than expected ever toreach this " Ultima Thule " of the East ; and when I found thatI really could do so now, had I but courage to trust myself fora thousand miles' voyage in a Bugis prau, and for six or sevenmontlis among lawless traders and fei'ocious savages— I feltsomewhat as I did when, a schoolboy, I was for the first timeallowed to travel outside the stage-coach, to visit that scene of