In A Suburb Of Amboyna There Is A Village Of
Aboriginal Malays Who Are Mahometans, And Who Speak A Peculiar
Language Allied To Those Of Ceram, As Well As Malay.
They are
chiefly fishermen, and are said to be both more industrious and
more honest than the native Christians.
I went on Sunday, by invitation, to see a collection of shells
and fish made by a gentleman of Amboyna. The fishes are perhaps
unrivalled for variety and beauty by those of any one spot on the
earth. The celebrated Dutch ichthyologist, Dr. Blecker, has given
a catalogue of seven hundred and eighty species found at Amboyna,
a number almost equal to those of all the seas and rivers of
Europe. A large proportion of them are of the most brilliant
colours, being marked with bands and spots of the purest yellows,
reds, and blues; while their forms present all that strange and
endless variety so characteristic of the inhabitants of the
ocean. The shells are also very numerous, and comprise a number
of the finest species in the world. The Mactras and Ostreas in
particular struck me by the variety and beauty of their colours.
Shells have long been an object of traffic in Amboyna; many of
the natives get their living by collecting and cleaning them, and
almost every visitor takes away a small collection. The result is
that many of the commoner-sorts have lost all value in the eyes
of the amateur, numbers of the handsome but very common cones,
cowries, and olives sold in the streets of London for a penny
each, being natives of the distant isle of Amboyna, where they
cannot be bought so cheaply.
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