Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The forest which surrounded me was open and free from underwood, consisting of large
trees, widely scattered with a great quantity of palm-trees (Arenga saccharifera), from which
palm wine and sugar are made. There were also great numbers of a wild Jack-fruit tree (Ar-
tocarpus), which bore abundance of large reticulated fruit, serving as an excellent vegetable.
The ground was as thickly covered with dry leaves as it is in an English wood in November;
the little rocky streams were all dry, and scarcely a drop of water or even a damp place was
anywhere to be seen. About fifty yards below my house, at the foot of the hill, was a deep
hole in a watercourse where good water was to be had, and where I went daily to bathe, by
having buckets of water taken out and pouring it over my body.
My host Mr. M. enjoyed a thoroughly country life, depending almost entirely on his gun
and dogs to supply his table. Wild pigs of large size were very plentiful and he generally got
one or two a week, besides deer occasionally, and abundance of jungle-fowl, hornbills, and
great fruit pigeons. His buffaloes supplied plenty of milk, from which he made his own but-
ter; he grew his own rice and coffee, and had ducks, fowls, and their eggs in profusion. His
palm-trees supplied him all the year round with 'sagueir,' which takes the place of beer; and
the sugar made from them is an excellent sweetmeat. All the fine tropical vegetables and
fruits were abundant in their season, and his cigars were made from tobacco of his own rais-
ing. He kindly sent me a bamboo of buffalo-milk every morning; it was as thick as cream,
and required diluting with water to keep it fluid during the day. It mixes very well with tea
and coffee, although it has a slight peculiar flavour, which after a time is not disagreeable. I
also got as much sweet 'sagueir' as I liked to drink, and Mr. M. always sent me a piece of
each pig he killed, which with fowls, eggs, and the birds we shot ourselves, and buffalo beef
about once a fortnight, kept my larder sufficiently well supplied.
Every bit of flat land was cleared and used as rice-fields, and on the lower slopes of many
of the hills tobacco and vegetables were grown. Most of the slopes are covered with huge
blocks of rock, very fatiguing to scramble over, while a number of the hills are so precipit-
ous as to be quite inaccessible. These circumstances, combined with the excessive drought,
were very unfavourable for my pursuits. Birds were scarce, and I got but few new to me. In-
sects were tolerably plentiful, but unequal. Beetles, usually so numerous and interesting,
were exceedingly scarce, some of the families being quite absent and others only represen-
ted by very minute species. The Flies and Bees, on the other hand, were abundant, and of
these I daily obtained new and interesting species. The rare and beautiful Butterflies of
Celebes were the chief object of my search, and I found many species altogether new to me,
but they were generally so active and shy as to render their capture a matter of great diffi-
culty. Almost the only good place for them was in the dry beds of the streams in the forest,
