In
This However I Was Much Disappointed, As The Whole Road Lies
Through Grass And Scrubby Thickets, And It Was
Only after
reaching the village of Sahoe that some high forest land was
perceived stretching towards the mountains to the
North of it.
About half-way we dad to pass a deep river on a bamboo raft,
which almost sunk beneath us. This stream was said to rise a long
way off to the northward.
Although Sahoe did not at all appear what I expected, I
determined to give it a trial, and a few days afterwards obtained
a boat to carry my things by sea while I walked overland. A large
house on the beach belonging to the Sultan was given me. It stood
alone, and was quite open on every side, so that little privacy
could be had, but as I only intended to stay a short time I made
it do. Avery, few days dispelled all hopes I might have
entertained of making good collections in this place. Nothing was
to be found in every direction but interminable tracts of reedy
grass, eight or ten feet high, traversed by narrow baths, often
almost impassable. Here and there were clumps of fruit trees,
patches of low wood, and abundance of plantations and rice
grounds, all of which are, in tropical regions, a very desert for
the entomologist. The virgin forest that I was in search of,
existed only on the summits and on the steep rocky sides of the
mountains a long way off, and in inaccessible situations. In the
suburbs of the village I found a fair number of bees and wasps,
and some small but interesting beetles. Two or three new birds
were obtained by my hunters, and by incessant inquiries and
promises Í succeeded in getting the natives to bring me some land
shells, among which was a very fine and handsome one, Helix
pyrostoma. I was, however, completely wasting my time here
compared with what I might be doing in a good locality, and after
a week returned to Ternate, quite disappointed with my first
attempts at collecting in Gilolo.
In the country round about Sahoe, and in the interior, there is a
large population of indigenes, numbers of whom came daily into
the village, bringing their produce for sale, while others were
engaged as labourers by the Chinese and Ternate traders. A
careful examination convinced me that these people are radically
distinct from all the Malay races. Their stature and their
features, as well as their disposition and habits, are almost the
same as those of the Papuans; their hair is semi-Papuan-neither
straight, smooth, and glossy, like all true Malays', nor so
frizzly and woolly as the perfect Papuan type, but always crisp,
waved, and rough, such as often occurs among the true Papuans,
but never among the Malays. Their colour alone is often exactly
that of the Malay, or even lighter. Of course there has been
intermixture, and there occur occasionally individuals which it
is difficult to classify; but in most cases the large, somewhat
aquiline nose, with elongated apex, the tall stature, the waved
hair, the bearded face, and hairy body, as well as the less
reserved manner and louder voice, unmistakeably proclaim the
Papuan type. Here then I had discovered the exact boundary lice
between the Malay and Papuan races, and at a spot where no other
writer had expected it. I was very much pleased at this
determination, as it gave me a clue to one of the most difficult
problems in Ethnology, and enabled me in many other places to
separate the two races, and to unravel their intermixtures.
On my return from Waigiou in 1860, I stayed some days on the
southern extremity of Gilolo; but, beyond seeing something more
of its structure and general character, obtained very little
additional information. It is only in the northern peninsula that
there are any indígenes, the whole of the rest of the island,
with Batchian and the other islands westward, being exclusively
inhabited by Malay tribes, allied to those of Ternate and Tidore.
This would seem to indicate that the Alfuros were a comparatively
recent immigration, and that they lead come from the north or
east, perhaps from some of the islands of the Pacific. It is
otherwise difficult to understand how so many fertile districts
should possess no true indigenes.
Gilolo, or Halmaheira as it is called by the Malays and Dutch,
seems to have been recently modified by upheaval and subsidence.
In 1673, a mountain is said to stave been upheaved at Gamokonora
on the northern peninsula. All the parts that I have seen have
either been volcanic or coralline, and along the coast there are
fringing coral reefs very dangerous to navigation. At the same
time, the character of its natural history proves it to be a
rather ancient land, since it possesses a number of animals
peculiar to itself or common to the small islands around it, but
almost always distinct from those of New Guinea on the east, of
Ceram on the south, and of Celebes and the Sula islands on the
west.
The island of Morty, close to the north-eastern extremity of
Gilolo, was visited by my assistant Charles Allen, as well as by
Dr. Bernstein; and the collections obtained there present some
curious differences from those of the main island. About fifty-
six species of land-birds are known to inhabit this island, and
of these, a kingfisher (Tanysiptera Boris), a honey-sucker
(Tropidorhynchus fuscicapillus), and a large crow-like starling
(Lycocorax morotensis), are quite distinct from allied species
found in Gilolo. The island is coralline and sandy, and we must
therefore believe it to have been separated from Gilolo at a
somewhat remote epoch; while we learn from its natural history
that an arm of the sea twenty-five miles wide serves to limit the
range even of birds of considerable powers of flight.
CHAPTER XXIII.
TERNATE TO THE KAIOA ISLANDS AND BATCHIAN.
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