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 Watakena, 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 Matahena; 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 everyday 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.
End of V1 The Malay Archipelago by Alfred R. Wallace
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