Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
XV
Celebes
(
MACASSAR. SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER
, 1856)
I left Lombock on the 30th of August, and reached Macassar in three days. It was with great
satisfaction that I stepped on a shore which I had been vainly trying to reach since February,
and where I expected to meet with so much that was new and interesting.
The coast of this part of Celebes is low and flat, lined with trees and villages so as to con-
ceal the interior, except at occasional openings which show a wide extent of bare and marshy
rice-fields. A few hills, of no great height, were visible in the background; but owing to the
perpetual haze over the land at this time of the year, I could nowhere discern the high central
range of the peninsula, or the celebrated peak of Bontyne at its southern extremity. In the
roadstead of Macassar there was a fine 42-gun frigate, the guardship of the place, as well as a
small war steamer and three or four little cutters used for cruising after the pirates which in-
fest these seas. There were also a few square-rigged trading-vessels, and twenty or thirty nat-
ive praus of various sizes. I brought letters of introduction to a Dutch gentleman, Mr. Mes-
man, and also to a Danish shopkeeper, who could both speak English, and who promised to
assist me in finding a place to stay at, suitable for my pursuits. In the meantime, I went to a
kind of club-house, in default of any hotel in the place.
Macassar was the first Dutch town I had visited, and I found it prettier and cleaner than
any I had yet seen in the East. The Dutch have some admirable local regulations. All
European houses must be kept well white-washed, and every person must, at four in the after-
noon, water the road in front of his house. The streets are kept clear of refuse, and covered
drains carry away all impurities into large open sewers, into which the tide is admitted at
high-water and allowed to flow out when it has ebbed, carrying all the sewage with it into the
sea. The town consists chiefly of one long narrow street, along the sea-side, devoted to busi-
ness, and principally occupied by the Dutch and Chinese merchants' offices and warehouses,
and the native shops or bazaars. This extends northwards for more than a mile, gradually
