OF THE MOLUCCAS.
The Moluccas form a considerable archipelago, which extends in longitude from Java to New Guinea. On the coasts of Papua, and adjoining islands, are formed colonies of the inhabitants of New Guinea, and which are dependencies on the Moluccas. The Dutch have factories in all the islands of this archipelago, but at Amboyna and Banda they have forts, and considerable establishments[1]. In order to preserve the spice trade exclusively, they even went so far as to set fire to the adjacent islands which produced these shrubs; but such precautions are useless, for the whole of the Moluccas, with the coasts of Papua, and even all New Guinea, produce, and will continue to produce, them, while they exist. When the French were in the habit of procuring these productions, they did not go either to Banda or Amboyna in search of them, but to Guébi and Moar. Their vessels resorted to the port of Guébi, unquestionably the finest harbour in the Moluccas, and to which the Dutch were strangers, as the French found it uninhabited. They there established themselves during the time that the King of Maba and Patanie, and the Sultan of Tidor, went in search of the precious trees which furnished the spices: they took them to the Isle of France, where they succeeded remarkably well (as we have seen in the Chapter on the Isle of France), as well as at Cayenne, to which they were transported soon afterwards.
The inhabitants of the Moluccas are in general of a swarthy complexion, approaching to black, with a yellow stain: they partake much of the Malay character, and seem to derive their origin from that nation; they have their language, their manners, and, like them, with little personal strength, are nevertheless cruel and ferocious: perhaps the harshness of their manners may be traced to the wandering and solitary life they lead in the woods, to avoid becoming the slaves of the Dutch.
The islands they inhabit are fertile, but they do not practise any cultivation, and live on sago, which grows wild in great quantities in this archipelago.
The religion of the inhabitants of the Moluccas is a corruption of Mahometanism.
The only persons who go clothed are the women and the priests; the men only cover the head with a hat, painted in different colours, made of the leaves of the latanier; the rest of the body is naked, with the exception of a bit of narrow cloth, for the sake of decency.
The dress of the women consists of a long robe, without any folds, fastened in front: they wear hats of an enormous size, not less than seven or eight feet in circumference; these hats are flat on the upper surface, and loaded with ornaments of shell work and mother of pearl. On the under side, a circle of three inches in depth forms the crown, and retains it on the head. The women never go out; they are always confined to the house.
The priests, like the women, are clothed in a long robe, but they are recognized by their caps, which are pointed.
Both sexes wear on their arms rings of shell work, of a kind of porcelain, which they cut in this shape by rubbing on a stone.
Their arms are the bow and arrow, quiver and shield; the bow is constructed of a very light, fibrous, and elastic wood, ornamented with rings made of the rotin, which likewise, when prepared for the purpose, answers for the string. The arrows are made of a light elastic reed, and the point of wood jagged and very hard; sometimes this point is formed of the longest dorsal fin bone of a large fish, and which is prickly or barbed. The quiver is made of the bark of a tree, the shield of a black wood, very hard: they are covered with sketches in relief, executed with small shell work of a very beautiful white. These shields are long, and narrower in the middle than at both ends.
Their boats are of an ingenious and singular construction; they are not less than seventy to eighty feet in length; the two ends are extremely elevated, and rise even to twenty feet above the water; the rudder is nothing but a long oar, supported on a scaffold; the hull of the boat consists of planks, which are neither jointed or nailed, but simply put together, and retained by rope, made of the rotin. To the sides are fixed two horizonal wings, which serve to support it in stormy weather. Ten men, seated sideways on these wings, by means of paddles, give incredible velocity to it; the dexterity of the rowers consists in striking the water all at the same moment, and with perfect regularity. It is, doubtless, for this reason that during the time they row they excite each other by songs, or relieve their labour by the noise of a kind of tam tam, to the sound of which their movements keep time. The sails are made of several mats, of an oblong form, and are placed crossways on the masts.
The Papuans who inhabit New Guinea, and the islands on its coasts, are the immediate neighbours of the inhabitants of the Moluccas, yet have neither their manners, or possess one trait of the character of the latter: they approach nearer, and bear a closer analogy to the natives of Guinea, on the coast of Africa, and which has been the cause of the country they inhabit acquiring the name of New Guinea. They are little known, and their coasts seldom visited. They are of a robust make, and great stature, and though of a shining black, their skin is nevertheless rough and hard; their eyes are large, the nose flattened, and the mouth excessively wide; the lips, particularly the upper, very thick; the hair crisped, and of a brilliant black. The character of these savages corresponds with their exterior; they are fond of war, and to bravery they join cruelty to their enemies.
In the interior of the large island of Papua, or New Guinea, there exists a race of men called Haraforas, who live in trees, to which they mount by means of a notched piece of wood, which they draw after them, by way of guarding against surprize.
The principal commerce of the Papuans is with the Chinese, of whom they purchase their different instruments and utensils. They give in exchange ambergris, sea snails, tortoiseshell, small pearls, birds of Paradise, lories, and other birds, which they stuff with great dexterity. The women appear to be industrious; they fabricate mats and earthen pots, and handle the hatchet well.
The shores of Papua are bold, and covered with cocoa trees; the mountains of the interior adorned with wood; the nutmeg and clove tree flourish there, and nature has made it one of the finest countries on the surface of the globe. (Sonnini.)
The Moluccas, like the Philippines, contain many volcanos, which are, probably, only different mouths of the same furnace. That of Siao is one of the most considerable; in its most active eruptions it covers all the neighbouring islands with cinders.
[1] The English Admiral, Rainier, in 1796, took possession of the islands of Amboyna and Banda. The census made at that time of the first of these islands, and its dependencies, made the number of inhabitants 45,252, of whom 17,813 were Protestants, the rest Mahomedans, with the exception of an inconsiderable number of Chinese and Aborigines. (Sonnini.)