Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The next morning we left early, and reached the mouth of the little river in about an hour.
It flows through a perfectly flat alluvial plain, but there are hills which approach it near the
mouth. Towards the lower part, in a swamp where the salt water must enter at high tides,
were a number of elegant tree-ferns from eight to fifteen feet high. These are generally con-
sidered to be mountain plants, and rarely to occur on the equator at an elevation of less than
one or two thousand feet. In Borneo, in the Aru Islands, and on the banks of the Amazon, I
have observed them at the level of the sea, and think it probable that the altitude supposed to
be requisite for them may have been deduced from facts observed in countries where the
plains and lowlands are largely cultivated, and most of the indigenous vegetation destroyed.
Such is the case in most parts of Java, India, Jamaica, and Brazil, where the vegetation of
the tropics has been most fully explored.
Coming out to sea we turned northwards, and in about two hours' sail reached a few huts,
called Langundi, where some Galela men had established themselves as collectors of gum-
dammar, with which they made torches for the supply of the Ternate market. About a hun-
dred yards back rises a rather steep hill, and a short walk having shown me that there was a
tolerable path up it, I determined to stay here for a few days. Opposite us, and all along this
coast of Batchian, stretches a row of fine islands completely uninhabited. Whenever I asked
the reason why no one goes to live in them, the answer always was, 'For fear of the Ma-
gindano pirates.' Every year these scourges of the Archipelago wander in one direction or
another, making their rendezvous on some uninhabited island, and carrying devastation to
all the small settlements around; robbing, destroying, killing, or taking captive all they meet
with. Their long well-manned praus escape from the pursuit of any sailing vessel by pulling
away right in the wind's eye, and the warning smoke of a steamer generally enables them to
hide in some shallow bay, or narrow river, or forest-covered inlet, till the danger is passed.
The only effectual way to put a stop to their depredations would be to attack them in their
strongholds and villages, and compel them to give up piracy, and submit to strict surveil-
lance. Sir James Brooke did this with the pirates of the north-west coast of Borneo, and de-
serves the thanks of the whole population of the Archipelago for having rid them of half
their enemies.
All along the beach here, and in the adjacent strip of sandy lowland, is a remarkable dis-
play of Pandanaceæ or Screw-pines. Some are like huge branching candelabra, forty or fifty
feet high, and bearing at the end of each branch a tuft of immense sword-shaped leaves, six
or eight inches wide, and as many feet long. Others have a single unbranched stem, six or
seven feet high, the upper part clothed with the spirally arranged leaves, and bearing a single
terminal fruit as large as a swan's egg. Others of intermediate size have irregular clusters of
