Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
sistance of Mr. Peters (the manager of the plantations) and the native chief, obtained a small
house, got all my things on shore, and paid and discharged my twenty boatmen, two of
whom had almost driven me to distraction by beating tom-toms the whole voyage.
I found the people here very nearly in a state of nature, and going almost naked. The men
wear their frizzly hair gathered into a flat circular knot over the left temple, which has a
very knowing look, and in their ears cylinders of wood as thick as one's finger, and coloured
red at the ends. Armlets and anklets of woven grass or of silver, with necklaces of beads or
of small fruits, complete their attire. The women wear similar ornaments, but have their hair
loose. All are tall, with a dark brown skin, and well marked Papuan physiognomy. There is
an Amboyna schoolmaster in the village, and a good number of children attend school every
morning. Such of the inhabitants as have become Christians may be known by their wearing
their hair loose, and adopting to some extent the native Christian dress—trousers and a loose
shirt. Very few speak Malay, all these coast villages having been recently formed by indu-
cing natives to leave the inaccessible interior. In all the central part of Ceram there now re-
mains only one populous village in the mountains. Towards the east and the extreme west
are a few others, with which exceptions all the inhabitants of Ceram are collected on the
coast. In the northern and eastern districts they are mostly Mahometans, while on the south-
west coast, nearest Amboyna, they are nominal Christians.
In all this part of the Archipelago the Dutch make very praiseworthy efforts to improve
the condition of the aborigines by establishing schoolmasters in every village (who are
mostly natives of Amboyna or Saparua, who have been instructed by the resident missionar-
ies), and by employing native vaccinators to prevent the ravages of smallpox. They also en-
courage the settlement of Europeans, and the formation of new plantations of cacao and cof-
fee, one of the best means of raising the condition of the natives, who thus obtain work at
fair wages, and have the opportunity of acquiring something of European tastes and habits.
My collections here did not progress much better than at my former station, except that
butterflies were a little more plentiful, and some very fine species were to be found in the
morning on the sea-beach, sitting so quietly on the wet sand that they could be caught with
the fingers. In this way I had many fine specimens of Papilios brought me by the children.
Beetles, however, were scarce, and birds still more so, and I began to think that the hand-
some species which I had so often heard were found in Ceram must be entirely confined to
the eastern extremity of the island.
A few miles further north, at the head of the bay of Amahay, is situated the village of
Makariki, from whence there is a native path quite across the island to the north coast. My
friend Mr. Rosenberg, whose acquaintance I had made at New Guinea, and who was now
