The Malay Archipelago, Volume I

THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER II. SINGAPORE.
CHAPTER III. MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR.
CHAPTER IV. BORNEO--THE ORANGUTAN.
CHAPTER V. BORNEO--JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR.
CHAPTER VI. BORNEO--THE DYAKS.
CHAPTER VII. JAVA.
CHAPTER VIII. SUMATRA.
CHAPTER IX. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS.
CHAPTER X. BALI AND LOMBOCK.
CHAPTER XI. LOMBOCK: MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE.
CHAPTER XII. LOMBOCK: HOW THE RAJAH TOOK THE CENSUS.
CHAPTER XIII. TIMOR.
CHAPTER XIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TIMOR GROUP.
CHAPTER XV. CELEBES.
CHAPTER XVI. CELEBES.
CHAPTER XVII. CELEBES.
CHAPTER XVIII. NATURAL HISTORY OF CELEBES.
CHAPTER XIX. BANDA.
CHAPTER XX. AMBOYNA.


THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.



CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

From a look at a globe or a map of the Eastern hemisphere, we shall
perceive between Asia and Australia a number of large and small islands
forming a connected group distinct from those great masses of land, and
having little connection with either of them. Situated upon the Equator,
and bathed by the tepid water of the great tropical oceans, this region
enjoys a climate more uniformly hot and moist than almost any other part
of the globe, and teems with natural productions which are elsewhere
unknown. The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are
Indigenous here. It produces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia, the
great green-winged Ornithoptera (princes among the butterfly tribes),
the man-like Orangutan, and the gorgeous Birds of Paradise. It is
inhabited by a peculiar and interesting race of mankind--the Malay,
found nowhere beyond the limits of this insular tract, which has hence
been named the Malay Archipelago.

To the ordinary Englishman this is perhaps the least known part of the
globe. Our possessions in it are few and scanty; scarcely any of our
travellers go to explore it; and in many collections of maps it is
almost ignored, being divided between Asia and the Pacific Islands. It
thus happens that few persons realize that, as a whole, it is comparable
with the primary divisions of the globe, and that some of its separate
islands are larger than France or the Austrian Empire. The traveller,
however, soon acquires different ideas. He sails for days or even weeks
along the shores of one of these great islands, often so great that its
inhabitants believe it to be a vast continent. He finds that voyages
among these islands are commonly reckoned by weeks and months, and that
their several inhabitants are often as little known to each other as are
the native races of the northern to those of the southern continent of
America. He soon comes to look upon this region as one apart from the
rest of the world, with its own races of men and its own aspects of
nature; with its own ideas, feelings, customs, and modes of speech, and
with a climate, vegetation, and animated life altogether peculiar to
itself.