Travels in the East Indian archipelago

by Albert S. Bickmore

CHAPTER IV.
CELEBES AND TIMUR.

June 18th.—We anchored this evening close in to the coast of Celebes on a shallow plateau, which is really only a slightly-submerged part of the island itself. This word Celebes is not of native origin, and was probably introduced by the Portuguese, who were the earliest Europeans that visited this island. It first appears in the historical and descriptive writings of De Barros,[14] who informs us that it was not discovered until 1525, fourteen years after the Portuguese first came to the Moluccas; but at that time they were only anxious to find the regions where the clove and the nutmeg grew. Afterward they were induced to search for this island from the rumors that came of the gold found here; and, indeed, to this day, gold is obtained in the northern and southwestern peninsulas. At first, Celebes was supposed to consist of many islands, and this belief appears to have given it a name in a plural form. It consists of a small, irregular, central area and four long limbs or peninsulas, and De Cauto[15] very aptly describes it as “resembling in form a huge grasshopper.” Two of these peninsulas extend to the south, and are separated from each other by the Gulf of Boni: one takes an easterly direction, and the other stretches away six degrees to the north and northeast. In the southwest peninsula, which is the only one that has been completely explored, two languages are spoken—the Mangkasara, in the native tongue, or Mangkasa, in the Malay (of which word, “Macassar,” the name of the Dutch capital, is only a corruption), and the Wugi or Bugi, which was originally more particularly limited to the coast of the Gulf of Boni. North of Macassar, in the most western part of the island, is another people—the Mandhar—who speak another language. On the island of Buton, which ought to be considered a part of the peninsula east of the Gulf of Boni, another language is spoken. The eastern peninsula is unexplored. The northern contains the people speaking the Gorontalo and the Menado languages.

The primitive religion of most of these natives is supposed to have been some form of Hinduism. De Cauto says: “They have no temples, but pray looking up to the skies with their heads raised,” which he regards as conclusive evidence that “they had a knowledge of the true God.” According to the records of the Macassar people,[16] the Mohammedan religion was first taught them by a native of Menangkabau, a province on the plateau in the interior of Sumatra, north of the present city of Padang. This occurred just before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1525, and the native annals say that the doctrine of the false Prophet and of Christianity were presented to the prince of Macassar at the same time, and that his advisers pressed him to accept Mohammedanism, because “God would not allow error to arrive before truth.”

In the interior live a people called by the coast tribes Turaju, who are represented as head-hunters, and even cannibals. Barbosa[17] makes a similar statement in regard to all the natives of this island in his time. He says, when they came to the Moluccas to trade, they were accustomed to ask the king of those islands to kindly deliver up to them the persons he had condemned to death, that they might gratify their palates on the bodies of such unfortunates, “as if asking for a hog.”

As we steamed up the coast to Macassar, the mountains in the interior came grandly into view. They appear much more connected into chains than in Java. One of them, Lompo-batung, rises to a height of eight thousand two hundred feet above the sea, and is probably the loftiest peak on the whole island.

The harbor of Macassar is formed by a long, curving coral reef, with its convex side from the shore. At a few places this reef rises above the surface of the water and forms low islands; but, in the heavy gales of the western monsoon, the sea frequently breaks over it into the road with such violence as to drive most of the native praus on shore. Near it were fleets of fishing-boats, and this was the first place in these tropical seas where I found a fish that, according to my taste, was as nice as those which come from the cold waters that bathe our New-England shores.

In the road were many praus of forty or fifty tons’ burden, and some even twice as large. In the beginning of the western monsoon they go in great numbers to the Arru Islands, the principal rendezvous[18] for the people of Ceram, Goram, the Ki Islands, Tenimber, Baba, and the adjacent coast of New Guinea. Mr. Wallace, who was particularly seeking the birds of paradise, went in one of these rude vessels to the Arrus, a distance of one thousand miles. When Mr. Jukes was at Port Essington, in January, 1845, two of these praus were there. One had made the passage from Macassar in ten, and another in fifteen days. But, on these long voyages, many never return. In the last of the month a third came into that port and reported that four others, more than had arrived safely, had just foundered during a heavy gale, and that the crew of only one was salved. Many go every year to the islands off the eastern end of Ceram and to the neighboring coast of Papua, and sometimes along its northern shores to Geelvink Bay. These long voyages indicate that the Bugis are now what the Malays were when the Portuguese first came to the East, namely, the great navigators and traders of the archipelago. They carry to all these localities English calicoes and cotton goods of their own manufacture, also Chinese gongs and large quantities of arrack. They bring in return tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl shell, pearls, birds of paradise, and tripang, which appears to be the common Malay name for all kinds of Holothurians, or “sea-cucumbers.” These latter animals abound on every coral reef throughout the archipelago, just above and below low-water level. As many as twenty different sorts are recognized of perhaps half as many species. That kind is considered the most valuable which is found on the banks of coral sand which are bare, or nearly bare, at low tide, and are covered with a short, green sea-weed. After the animals are collected, the intestines are removed, and they are boiled in sea-water, in some places with the leaves of the papaw, and in others with the bark of a mangrove-tree which gives them a bright-red color. After they have been boiled, they are buried in the ground till the next day, when they are spread out to dry in the sun. Sometimes they are not buried in the ground, but dried at once on a framework of bamboo-splints over a fire. They are now ready to be shipped to China, the only market for this disgusting article. There the Celestials make of them one of their many favorite soups. It is said that the Chinese cooks boil them some time with pieces of sugar-cane to partially neutralize their rank flavor. Many are also gathered in the Gulf of Siam and sent up the China Sea. Mr. Crawfurd has been unable to discover any mention of tripang by the Portuguese writers, and this he regards as one proof, among others, “that the Chinese, who chiefly carry on this trade, had not yet settled in the archipelago when the Portuguese first appeared in it.” There are yearly shipped from Macassar some fourteen thousand piculs of this article, of a value of nearly six hundred thousand dollars! A few cargoes, chiefly of coffee, from Menado and the interior, are exported each year directly to Europe, but ships usually have to go to China for a return-freight. In 1847 Macassar was made a free port, in imitation of Singapore.

Our steamer came alongside a well-built iron pier, the only one of any kind I had yet seen in the East. Though the mail then came but once a month, there seemed to be no great excitement. A small group of soldiers, with red and yellow epaulets, came down and looked on in a most unconcerned manner, while a number of coolies gathered and began carrying the cargo on shore—for trucks and drays are modern innovations that have not yet appeared in these distant regions, not even to any considerable degree in Batavia. The sea-water here is remarkably pure and clear. As we were hauling in to the pier, several boys kept swimming round and round the ship, and shouting out, “Képing tuam! képing tuan!” that is, “A small piece of money, sir! a small piece of money, sir!” and I found that when I threw a copper coin as large as a cent, so that it would strike the water edgewise, even at a distance of ten feet from them, some one would invariably catch it before it reached the bottom. This is quite as wonderful skill as is shown by any of the natives in the South Seas.

From the pier a street leads up to a large common, and on the right side is Fort Rotterdam, which was built soon after 1640, when the Dutch first formed a settlement on the island, though they had been trading with the natives since 1607. In 1660 they had driven away their rivals the Portuguese, had conquered the natives of Macassar, and fully established their authority over all this part of the island. Opposite the fort is the “Societeit,” or Club-House—for every place of any considerable size in the Netherlands India has one or two of these pleasant resorts, where newspapers and periodicals are received, and all the social Europeans gather in the cool evenings to enjoy a “pijt”—a small glass of gin with bitters—or “a potje van bier,” in just the way that Irving pictures the happy moments of Rip van Winkle. Any member may introduce a stranger, who is at once considered one of the fraternity; and I formed many pleasant acquaintances and passed many pleasant hours in this way. Beyond the club-house, on a street beautifully shaded with tamarind-trees, are the hotel and residence of the governor. I called on him, for, as I was travelling under the patronage of the government, it was expected that I should present myself before the highest official of each place that I might chance to visit, and thus express my sense of the kindness of the government toward me; and, at the same time, do what the etiquette of the land required. The governor here most kindly offered me post-horses free, if I would stop and travel in the territory under his immediate command. After the heat of the day was passed, two of my merchant-friends gave me a ride through the town, and a mile or two out into the adjoining country, to visit the tombs of the native princes who ruled that region before the arrival of Europeans. These tombs had, originally, been enclosed in a house, but the roof was already gone, and the walls were rapidly crumbling away. At the foot and head of each grave was a square pillar. Near by were the ruins of a building which may have been the residence of one of these princes. It was, like the house enclosing the tombs, about thirty feet square, with an entrance on one side. In the front, and right and left sides, were two ranges of holes, probably designed for windows. The upper ones were small, but the lower ones were a foot and a half in diameter. Its walls were eighteen inches thick, and of the common coral rock. Several steps led up to the entrance, and this and the windows were grotesquely ornamented. De Cauto informs us that these people were accustomed “to burn their dead, and collect the ashes in urns, which they inter in separate fields, where they erect chapels, and for a year the relatives bring food, which they place on their tombs, and which the dogs, cats, and birds carry off.”