(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
entomologist. 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 1797 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, actiniae, 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 medusae
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
Bouru 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
anything 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.
On the 4th of January I left Amboyna for Ternate; but two years later,
in October 1859, I again visited it after my residence in Menado, and
stayed a month in the town in a small house which I hired for the sake
of assorting and packing up a large and varied collection which I had
brought with me from North Celebes, Ternate, and Gilolo. I was obliged
to do this because the mail steamer would have come the following month
by way of Amboyna to Ternate, and I should have been delayed two months
before I could have reached the former place. I then paid my first
visit to Ceram, and on returning to prepare for my second more complete
exploration of that island, I stayed (much against my will) two months
at Paso, on the isthmus which connects the two portions of the island of
Amboyna. This village is situated on the eastern side of the isthmus,
on sandy ground, with a very pleasant view over the sea to the island of
Harúka. On the Amboyna side of the isthmus there is a small river
which has been continued by a shallow canal to within thirty yards of
high-water mark on the other side. Across this small space, which is
sandy and but slightly elevated, all small boats and praus can be easily
dragged, and all the smaller traffic from Ceram and the islands of
Saparúa and Harúka, passes through Paso. The canal is not continued
quite through, merely because every spring-tide would throw up just such
a sand-bank as now exists.
I had been informed that the fine butterfly Ornithoptera priamus
was plentiful here, as well as the racquet-tailed kingfisher and the
ring-necked lory. I found, however, that I had missed the time for the
former, and birds of all kinds were very scarce, although I obtained a
few good ones, including one or two of the above-mentioned rarities.
I was much pleased to get here the fine long-armed chafer, Euchirus
longimanus. This extraordinary insect is rarely or never captured except
when it comes to drink the sap of the sugar palms, where it is found by
the natives when they go early in the morning to take away the bamboos
which have been filled during the night. For some time one or two were
brought me every day, generally alive. They are sluggish insects, and
pull themselves lazily along by means of their immense forelegs. A
figure of this and other Moluccan beetles is given in the 27th CHAPTER
of this work.
I was kept at Paso by an inflammatory eruption, brought on by the
constant attacks of small acari-like harvest-bugs, for which the forests
of Ceram are famous, and also by the want of nourishing food while in
that island. At one time I was covered with severe boils. I had them on
my eye, cheek, armpits, elbows, back, thighs, knees, and ankles, so that
I was unable to sit or walk, and had great difficulty in finding a side
to lie upon without pain. These continued for some weeks, fresh ones
coming out as fast as others got well; but good living and sea baths
ultimately cured them.
About the end of January Charles Allen, who had been my assistant in
Malacca and Borneo, again joined me on agreement for three years; and as
soon as I got tolerably well, we had plenty to do laying in stores and
making arrangements for our ensuing campaign. Our greatest difficulty
was in obtaining men, but at last we succeeded in getting two each. An
Amboyna Christian named Theodorus Matakena, who had been some time with
me and had learned to skin birds very well, agreed to go with Allen,
as well as a very quiet and industrious lad named Cornelius, whom I
had brought from Menado. I had two Amboynese, named Petrus Rehatta, and
Mesach Matakena; the latter of whom had two brothers, named respectively
Shadrach and Abednego, in accordance with the usual custom among these
people of giving only Scripture names to their children.
During the time I resided in this place, I enjoyed a luxury I have never
met with either before or since--the true bread-fruit. A good deal of it
has been planted about here and in the surrounding villages, and almost
every day we had opportunities of purchasing some, as all the boats
going to Amboyna were unloaded just opposite my door to be dragged
across the isthmus. Though it grows in several other parts of the
Archipelago, it is nowhere abundant, and the season for it only lasts a
short time. It is baked entire in the hot embers, and the inside scooped
out with a spoon. I compared it to Yorkshire pudding; Charles Allen said
it was like mashed potatoes and milk. It is generally about the size of
a melon, a little fibrous towards the centre, but everywhere else quite
smooth and puddingy, something in consistence between yeast-dumplings
and batter-pudding. We sometimes made curry or stew of it, or fried it
in slices; but it is no way so good as simply baked. It may be eaten
sweet or savory. With meat and gravy it is a vegetable superior to any
I know, either in temperate or tropical countries. With sugar, milk,
butter, or treacle, it is a delicious pudding, having a very slight and
delicate but characteristic flavour, which, like that of good bread and
potatoes, one never gets tired of. The reason why it is comparatively
scarce is that it is a fruit of which the seeds are entirely aborted by
cultivation, and the tree can therefore only be propagated by cuttings.
The seed-bearing variety is common all over the tropics, and though the
seeds are very good eating, resembling chestnuts, the fruit is quite
worthless as a vegetable. Now that steam and Ward's cases render the
transport of young plants so easy, it is much to be wished that the best
varieties of this unequalled vegetable should be introduced into our
West India islands, and largely propagated there. As the fruit will keep
some time after being gathered, we might then be able to obtain this
tropical luxury in Covent Garden Market.
Although the few months I at various times spent in Amboyna were not
altogether very profitable to me in the way of collections, it will
always remain as a bright spot in the review of my Eastern travels,
since it was there that I first made the acquaintance of those glorious
birds and insects which render the Moluccas classic ground in the
eyes of the naturalist, and characterise its fauna as one of the most
remarkable and beautiful upon the globe. On the 20th of February I
finally quitted Amboyna for Ceram and Waigiou, leaving Charles Allen to
go by a Government boat to Wahai on the north coast of Ceram, and thence
to the unexplored island of Mysol.
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