I have to describe are not much visited or
written about, and their social and physical conditions are not
liable to rapid change, I believe and hope that my readers will
gain much more than they will lose by not having read my book six
years ago, and by this time perhaps forgotten all about it.
I must now say a few words on the plan of my work.
My journeys to the various islands were regulated by the seasons
and the means of conveyance. I visited some islands two or three
times at distant intervals, and in some cases had to make the
same voyage four times over. A chronological arrangement would
have puzzled my readers. They would never have known where they
were, and my frequent references to the groups of islands,
classed in accordance with the peculiarities of their animal
productions and of their human inhabitants, would have been
hardly intelligible. I have adopted, therefore, a geographical,
zoological, and ethnological arrangement, passing from island to
island in what seems the most natural succession, while I
transgress the order in which I myself visited them, as little as
possible.
I divide the Archipelago into five groups of islands, as follows:
I. THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS: comprising the Malay Peninsula and
Singapore, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra.
II. THE TIMOR GROUP: comprising the islands of Timor, Flores,
Sumbawa, and Lombock, with several smaller ones.
III. CELEBES: comprising also the Sula Islands and Bouton.
IV. THE MOLUCCAN GROUP: comprising Bouru, Ceram, Batchian,
Gilolo, and Morty; with the smaller islands of Ternate, Tidore,
Makian, Kaiķa, Amboyna, Banda, Goram, and Matabello.
V. THE PAPUAN GROUP: comprising the great island of New Guinea,
with the Aru Islands, Mysol, Salwatty, Waigiou, and several
others. The Ke Islands are described with this group on account
of their ethnology, though zoologically and geographically they
belong to the Moluccas.
The chapters relating to the separate islands of each of these
groups are followed by one on the Natural History of that group;
and the work may thus be divided into five parts, each treating
one of the natural divisions of the Archipelago.
The first chapter is an introductory one, on the Physical
Geography of the whole region; and the last is a general sketch
of the paces of man in the Archipelago and the surrounding
countries. With this explanation, and a reference to the maps
which illustrate the work, I trust that my readers will always
know where they are, and in what direction they are going.
I am well aware that my book is far too small for the extent of
the subjects it touches upon. It is a mere sketch; but so far as
it goes, I have endeavoured to make it an accurate one.
