The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Reclus Elisée, Vol 17.oceania

THE
EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS
OOEANIOA.
BY
ELISEE RECLUS.
EDITED BY
A. H. KEANE, B. A.,
VICE-PRESIDENT ANTHROP. INSTITUTE ;
COR. MKMH. ITALIAN AND WASHINGTON ANTHROP. SOC. J PROFESSOR OF
HINDUSTANI, UNIVERSITY COL. LONDON; AUTHOR OF "ASIA," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 8 BOND STREET.
1892.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I. THE OCEANIC HEMISPHERE ...........
Extent and Formation of the Oceanic Basins, p. 1. The Antarctic Lands, p. 4.
PACK
139
Oceanic Exploration, p. 5. Cook's Voyages, p. 10. Exploration of the Antarctic
Waters, p. 12. Bathyraetric Researches, p. 16. Atmospheric Currents, p. 20.
Marine Currents, p. 23. Drift Ice, Icebergs, and Floes, p. 25. Volcanic Agencies,
p. 28. Coralline Formations, Atolls, p. 30. Oceanic Flora, p. 34. Inhabitants
of the Oceanic Regions, p. 37.
II. THE MASCARENHAS REUNION, MAURITIUS, RODEIOUES 4063

Flora and Fauna, p. 41. Inhabitants, p. 42.
Mauritius, p. 43. Reunion, p. 46.
Rodrigues, p. 62. The Keeling Islands, p. 54. Christmas, Amsterdam, and St.
Paul, p. 56. The Austral Islands, p. 59. Marion, Prince Edward, the Crozets,
and Kerguelen, p 60. Macdonald and Heard, p. 63.
III. INDONESIA (THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO)

General Survey, p. 64. Historjj^Betiaapeet,
.........
p. 67. Progress of Exploration, p. 69.
04242
Climate, p. 70. Flora, p. il. 73 Inhabitants, p 76. Sumatra and

F^jjnft, p
Neighbouring IsfaB8BJ"pT79. ^PhysicalFeauSeiîSnmatra, p. 80. Krakatau,
p. 87. Rivers of Sumatra, p. 90. The West and East Sumatran Islands, p. 92.
Flora and Fauna, p. 94. Inhabitants, p. 95. The Battas, p. 96. The Menangkabaos
and other Sumatran Malays, p. 101. The Nias and Mentawey Islands, p. 103.
Topography of Sumatra, p. 106 Administration, p. 115. Sunda Islands between
Sumatra and Borneo, p. 115. Bangka, p 117. Billiton, p. 119. Borneo, p. 120.
Exploration, Political Divisions, p. 121. Physical Features, p. 123. Rivers,
p. 126. Climate, p. 130. Flora, p. 131. Fauna, Inhabitants, p. 132. Dutch
Borneo, p 137. Brunei and British Borneo, p. 142. Labuan, Sarawak, p. 144.
North Borneo, p. 146. Java and Madura, p. 149 Volcanoes, p. 150. Rivers,
p. 162.Climate, Flora, Fauna, p. 164-5. Inhabitants, p. 166. Topography, p. 182.
Administration, p. 193. Bali, p. 196. Lombok, p. 201. Samba wa, p. 203.
Flores. Solor, Allor, p. 206. Sumba, p. 208. Timor and Rotti, p 209. Serwatty,
p. 215. Tenimlxr and Kei, p. 216. Celebes and Adjacent Inlands, p. 219.
Climate. Flora, Fauna, p 224. Inhabitants, p. 224. The Southern Moluccas :
Burn, Ceram, Amboyna, Banda, p. 229. The Northern Moluccas OM, Batjan,
:
Tidor, Ternate, Halmahera. Morotai, p. 235.
IV. THE PHILIPPINES AND SULU ...-'... .... p 261.

243273
Climate. Flora, Fauna, p. 252. inhabitants, p. 253. Topography,
Administration, p. 270.
V. MICRONESIA 274292
The Mariana (Ladrone) Islands, p. 274. Pelew (Palaos), p. 277. The Caroline
Islands, p. 280.
iv CONTENTS.
OHiP. 'AO"
VI. NKW GUINEA AND ADJACENT ISLANDS (PAPUASIA) 293 317
Progress of Discovery, Physical Features, p. 297. Rivers und Islands,
p. 293.
p. 300. Climate, Flora, Fauna, p. 301. Inhabitants, p. SOS. Topography, p. S0(i.

British New Guinea, p. 311. German Possessions in New Guinea, p. 315.
VII. MELANESIA 318351

Admiralty Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, p. 318. Physical
Features, p. 319. Climate, Flora, Fauna, p 323. Inhabitants, p. 324. Santa
Cruz and the New Hebrides, p. 330. Inhabitants, p. 333. New Caledonia and the
Loyalty Islands, p. 337. Climate, Flora, Fauna, p. 341. Inhabitants, p. 343.
Topography, p. 347.
VIII. AUSTII.T.TA AND TASMANIA 352420

General Survey, p. 352. Progress of Discovery, p. 353. Physical Features,
p. 358. Rivers and Lakes, p. 365. Climate, p. 368. Flora, p. 371. Fauna, p. 374.
Inhabitants, p. 375. Economic Condition, p. 387. Western Australia, p. 395.
South Australia, p. 398. Queensland, p 403. New South Wales, p. 407.
Victoria, p. 414. Tasmania, p. 418.
IX. NEW ZEALAND AND NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS 421 456

Physical Features of South Island, p. 424. Physical Features of North Island,
p. 430. Climate, p. 437. Flora, p 438. Fauna, p. 439. Inhabitants, p 440.
Topography, p. 448.
X. THE FIJI ISLANDS 457 455

General Survey, p. 457. Flora, Fauna, p. 459.
Climate, Inhabitants, p. 460.
Topography anil Administration, p. 464.
XI. EQUATORIAL POLYNESIA 466 488

General Survey, p. 466. Climate, Flora, Fauna, p. 473 Inhabitants, p. 474.
Tonga, p. 483. Samoa, p. 483. Tahiti, p. 485. Tuamotu, the Marquesas, p. 487.
XII. HAWAII (THE SANDWICH ISLANDS)

General Survey, p. 489. Mauna-Loa,
..........
p. 490. Maui, p. 492. Flora, Fauna,
489 497
p. 494-5. Inhabitants, p. 495. Topography, p. 497.
APPENDIX 498
INDEX 505
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
MAPS PRINTED IN COLOURS.
Equatorial Africa
Sunda Strait
......
.......
PAGE
184
1 Sydney and Environs
New Zealand and the Smaller Polynesian
408
PAGE
Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand . . 352 Groups .450
PLATES.
Group of Natives, North Queensland of Koyari Chiefs, South-East New

frontispiece
View taken at Tasman Peninsula To face page
Port Moresby, South Coast of New Guinea
8
20
Group
Guinea . ... To face page
Tambu and Group of Santa-Ana Natives,
304
....
.
Louis-Philippe Land, Antarctic Ocean . . 34 Solomon Archipelago 324

Port Louis Statue of Bourdonnais
Piton D'Enchein, Reunion
Saint-Denis, Reunion
....
.....
. . 44
48
50
tillery
View taken in
Barracks .....
General View of Noumea, taken from the Ar-
the Blue Mountains, Australia .

346
300
Island of St. Paul View taken from the View taken at Middle -
Harbour, Sydney
"
North-East 58 Bay . 408

Dayak Dwellings on the Rejang, West Borneo 64 Victoria Scenery Forest near Fernshawe,
Palembaiig View taken near the Kraton in North-East of Melbourne . . .414
the Sacred Grove 112 General View of Sandhurst (Bendigo), Vic-
1'iyak Women, Borneo 136 toria 410
The Bromo Volcano, Dasar District, Java . 160 General View of Hobart, Tasmania .418 . .
Sti..t View in Batavia 182 General View of Launceston, Tasmania 420 . .
Village of Tjiiiiatjan, near Tjanjur, Java . 186 Sources of the Waimakariri, New Zealand 426 .
View taken from the Genting Bridge, Surabaya 192 The Pink Terrace of Roto-Mahana before the
'"n.rul View of Menado
Anilxiyna
Banda-Niera and Great Banda
....... . .
.
.
.
.228
.
232
234
Eruption of 1886
Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu
General View of Levuka, Fiji Archipelago
434
452
464
. . .
I '! lie nil View of Mount Mayon . . . 246 Landscape in the Tuamotu Archipelago . . 473
I'uoblo of Civilised Natives, Manilla District . 252 View taken at Moorea, under Mount Rutui,
Port of Manilla General View . . .262 Tahiti 486
Village of Saypan Mariana Islands . . 276 View of Waimea, Kauai Island, Hawaii . . 496
VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PIG.
AGE
1. The Groat Oceanic Hemisphere (Western
Sect'" . ....
2.
:;.
The
Section)
(ireat Oceanic
Meliorations of the Pacific

......
Hemisphere (Eastern
4. First Circumnavigation of the Globe from

West to East and East to West
5. Dates of the Chief Oceania
l>i>em-erirs in .
6. Explorations in the South Polar Waters .
7.
8.
Northern Promontory
Mainland
Depths of the Austral Seas
...... of the Antarctic
10.
9. Ice Field traced by Dumont D'Urville
Volcanoes of the Pacific ....
11.
12.
13.
Mauritius
Port Louis
.......
Zone of the Coralline Islands .
14. The Grand Brflle

15. The Three Cirques
16. Tim MABTNA OP ST. DENIS
17.
18.
St. Pierre
Rodrignes ......
.....
19.
20.
21. St.
Keeling Islands
Amsterdam
Paul
......
22. Kerguelen
23. Indonesian Submarine Plateau .
24. Comparative Areas of Holland and the

Dutch East Indies. ....
25. Parting Line of the Indonesian Faunas
26. Inhabitants of Indonesia
27. PTTLO BRASS LIGHTHOUSE, SUMATRA
.... .
28. The Herupi Volcanic Range

29. Krakatau and Neighbouring Islets before
the Eruption .
30.
31.
Krakatau and Neighbouring
Range
the Eruption ......
Krakatau Ashes
of Dispersion of the
Islets after
:'._'. Si KAMKIl BORNE ON THE KRAKATAU WAVE

ISLAND TO TELOKH-BETONO .
33. Alluvial Plains of the Musi Basin

34. A SUMATRAN JUNGLE VIEW TAKEN IN THE
STATE OF DELI
35. ORANO BATTA
am .Vr.n:it
Tuba and the Batta Country

17,
:;s.
I .a I,-.-
Inhabit. nit* nf Sumatra
ija and Oleh-leh

....
.
and Environment*
II.
42. Palemlianir
Mi
......
Highlands East nf 1'ailallg
i::.
44. Rioiiw
I"),
I
r>angkn
Archiplatro .....
.......
1 k Kina-l!a!ii
17. Harito I Mtu
48. SCENE IN BORNEO, NEAR SARAWAK .
^ I.
N'uvigable Streams and Chief Routes of
Explorers in Borneo ... .
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VII
FIG. PAGE
106. The
......
three Isthmuses of Indonesia
Philippines
....
and the
107. Southern Part of

10S. Central Part of
109. Lake Bombon
Luzon
Luzon ....
110.
111.
Earthquake of 1880
GEOUP OF NEGRITOES
112. Chief Inhabitants of the Philippines
....
. . . .
113 IFUGAO INDIAN . .
114. Manilla
115. Environs of Manilla . . .
116. Samar and Leyte . . . . .
117. Ho-Ilo and Strait of Guimaras . .
118. Sulu Archipelago .
119. Density of Population of the Philippines.

120. Provincial Divisions of the Philippines
121.
122.
Mariana Archipelago
Pelew Islands . .
....
...
.
123. GENERAL VIEW OF UALAN

121. Kuk Islands
125. Yap
126. Ponape
127. Arhno
128. Marshall Archipelago . . . .
129. Chief Explorations on the Coasts and in the

Interior of New Guinea
130. LACUSTRINE VILLAGE OF TUPUSELEI, MOTU
TERRITORY, NEW GUINEA
131. Mountains of New Guinea
132. MacCluer Inlet and Onin Peninsula
133. Waigeu, Batanta, and Salwaty
134. Dorei
135. Port Moresby ......
136.
NEW GUINEA
137. Astrolabe Bay
.....
KOYARI DWELLING, NEAR PORT MORESBY,
......
138. White Bay
139. San Cristobal
140.
141.
142.
Vanikoro
New Hebrides
......
Neu-Lanenburg (York) Island
143.
144.
GROUP OF
New
Caledonia
NEW
.....
145. NATIVE OF MARK? LOYALTY ISLES
HEBRIDES NATIVES
146. NATIVE OF MARE, LOYALTY ISLES .
117. NEW CALEDONIAN MAN . . . .
148.
149.
150.
NEW
Noumea
DWELLING
.......
CALEDONIAN
OF A NATIVE
WOHAN
NEW
CALEDONIA
151. Isleof Pine*
. ...... CHIEF,
152.
153. Chief
British Isles ......
Comparative Areas of Australia and the
Eoutes of Australian Explorers

154. MacDouall's Itineraries . . . .
155. Australian Alps . . . . .
156. Bass Strait

157. Torres Strait
158.
I.V.).
The Great Barrier Reef
fsothcrmals of Australia
....
.
160. Rainfall of East Australia

161. Inhabitants and Languages of Australia
about 1850
162. I, A u.i ROOKH, THE LAST TASMANIAN
EQUATORS
to
30
. AFRICA.
V
f. ^*"- - .-*--'
"*
*
/ K.UW , J.J
THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS,
AUSTRALASIA.
CHAPTER I.
THE OCEANIC HEMISPHERE.
OMPARED with the collective body of marine waters, the Atlantic

Ocean may be regarded as a mere " Mediterranean," or Inland
Sea. As the "boundless" expanse on which the Greek mariners
" closed
timidly ventured was found to be a
first sea," or simple
landlocked basin, according as seafarers gradually explored its
contracted seaboard between Europe and Africa, in the same way the more for-
midable Atlantic only four centuries ago still held to be limitless, has in its
itself,
turn proved to be a mere winding valley between the two halves of the con-
tinental lands constituting the Old and the New Worlds. Northwards this deep
trough separated by Greenland and Iceland from the cavities of the polar
is
waters; east and west the shores of Europe and North America, as well as those
of Africa and South America, roughly correspond in the contours and indentations
of their coastline, which at the narrowest point, between Carabane and Cape
St.Roque, are separated only by an interval of 1,800 miles. But southwards the
Atlantic spreads out broadly, here merging in the greater oceanic basin which
encompasses the whole periphery of the globe.
EXTENT AND FORMATION OF THE OCEANIC BASIN.
Excluding the Atlantic with its lateral inlets and the island- studded and ice-
obstructed Arctic waters encircled by the Asiatic and American seaboards, the
lo
2 AUSTRALASIA.
great oceanic depression covers about one half of the surface of the earth-* South
of the three continental extremities Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope, and
Tasmania the belt of waters stretches uninterruptedly in a circuit of 1-3,000 to
16,000 miles. Moreover, the marine depression extends far to the north beyond
the equator, developing to the east of Africa the vast basin of the Indian Ocean,
and east of Australia and Asia the still more extensive basin of the Pacific Ocean.
If the continental masses, taken collectively, be
compared whose
to a half crater,
contour, beginning at the Cape of Good Hope and terminating at Cape Horn,
" Great
comprises the Ethiopian highlands, the Himalayas, and the Andes, the
Fig. 1. THE GREAT OCEANIC HEMISPHERE (WESTERN SECTION).
Ocean," as Fleurieu calls the united Indian and Pacific waters, will be found to
completely flood this immense semicircle. The total sweep of this semicircle of inner
shores exceeds 24,000 miles, that is to
say, the length of the terrestrial circum-
ference at the equator. Edward Suess has brought into full relief the
striking
contrast presented
by the Atlantic and Paeific, the former presenting no lofty
coast range round its
periphery, while the latter washes with its abysmal waters
the very foot of the But is this writer not mistaken in
encircling escarpments.
* Total ocoanic
area, according' to Krummel
148.000,000 square miles.
Great ocean, with Atlantic and Arctic Seas .
112,000,000
Area of dry lam Is
57,000,000
THE OCEANIC BASIN. 3
comparing the formation of the Atlantic with that of the Indian Ocean, with its
elevated coastlines of Java and Sumatra, of the Arrakan
highlands, the submerged
chain of the Maldives and Laccadives, the
Ghats, the Persian and Madagascar
uplands ?
The vast oceanic basin

by no means a boundless expanse destitute of reefs,
is
islands, and insular groups.

Like the Atlantic it has its upheaved lands, not
only
such as, lying in the
vicinity of the continents, might be regarded as detached
fragments of the African, Asiatic, and American mainlands, but also archipelagoes
of all sizes strewn over the wide
expanse of waters at great distances from the
Fig. 2. THE GREAT OCEANIC HF.MTSPHEBE (EASTEEX SECTION).
surrounding coastlines. Some of the islands scattered over the oceanic hemi-
sphere of the globe are even so extensive that they have been regarded either as
the remains of a past or else the first corner-stones of a future continent. Mada-
gascar, the Comoros, and the Seychelles have been treated by many naturalists as
the surviving fragments of a vanished world, which from a typical branch of its
now dispersed fauna has received the name of " Lemuria." In the great Pacific
Ocean farther east, thousands of islands, cone-shaped or disposed in circular groups,
seem to form part either of a submerged continent or of a new world in process of
formation. The insular region which stretches south-east of Indo-China from
4 AUSTRALASIA.
Sumatra to Tasmania, also constitutes, notwithstanding its present fragmentary

character, a continental division somewhat analogous to Africa and South America.
The various divisions of the globe are disposed in twos along three parallel axes,
an arrangement best seen in the symmetrical disposition of North and South
America. But the same dual grouping may also be detected in the great divisions
of the Old World. Here Europe, formerly separated from Asia by the Caspian
and Aral Seas, and other lacustrine depressions, forms with Africa the western
group. The
eastern, more irregular in its general disposition, comprises the
still
vast Asiatic continent and all the innumerable islands which are crowded together
in the south-eastern waters between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. These
extensive lands are obviously a continent reduced to fragments, and forming an
extension of Further India into the southern hemisphere. Hence, not without
"
reason, some writershave suggested the expression " Insul-India for the
equatorial regions which form a southern continuation of Indo-China across the
Great Ocean. The vast island of Australia, with continental dimensions, together
with the surrounding lands, has similarly received the general designation of
"
Australasia," and this term itself has been extended by Wallace and others to
the whole of the insular world sometimes known as Oceania. Australasia thus
comprises the Eastern Archipelago, with the Philippines, Australia, and adjacent
islands, New Guinea, New Zealand, and all the South Sea Islands (Melanesia,
Micronesia, and Polynesia), and in this wide sense it is taken as the title of the
present volume.
THE ANTARCTIC LANDS.

Yet another continent probably exists in the immensity of the Southern Ocean.
The antarctic polar region, still unexplored for a space of about 6,500,000 square
miles, assuredly comprises vast stretches of dry land, which by many geographers
have already been traced on the maps as forming a continuous mainland
sweeping
round the south polar circle. Thus to the " open sea " supposed to encompass
the North Pole would correspond an ice-bound continent about the South Pole.
But, however this be, the vast masses of ice-floes met by navigators venturing into
the antarctic waters attest the existence of
high land stretching southwards.
Moreover, the sounding instruments have fished up fragments of granites, schists,
sandstones, and limestones recently broken off while at certain isolated points
;
explorers have really seen, or thought they have descried through the mists, the
outlines of long, ice-covered southern
ranges.
Without including the antarctic lands
lying beyond the sixtieth degree
south latitude, all the islands and half-continental lands in the Indian and Pacific
Oceans comprise a total superficial area far
greater than that of Europe. Of the
hundreds of scattered insular groups, some are
altogether uninhabited, while others
are very thinly the collective population of Australasia
peopled. Nevertheless,
exceeds that of South America, and its
average increase is rapid, notwithstanding
the depopulation of several oceanic The total area of all the dry
archipelagoes.
land has been estimated at about
4,600,000 square miles, with a probable popula-
OCEANIC EXPLORATION. 5
tion of forty-four millions, concentrated

chiefly in the Eastern Archipelago and
the Philippines.
PROGRESS OF OCEANIC EXPLORATION.
With the exception of the islands more contiguous to Asia, all the
regions of
the oceanic hemisphere remained till the
present century almost entirely severed
from the economic and commercial life of the civilised world. But the
rapid
colonisation of Australia and New Zealand, the occupation of the Polynesian
archipelagoes, the establishment of a regular system of steam navigation between
the chief centres of trade in the Pacific and Indian Oceans
have, so to say,
annexed this half of the planet to the other half, of which West Europe occupied
the central point.
Thus the world, hitherto incomplete, has as it were been
suddenly revealed in
its
entirety, and universal history, in the strict sense of the term, henceforth begins
for all the races and
peoples of the earth. Nothing is now to the vast
wanting
stage on which throbs the great heart of humanity, already awakening to self-
consciousness and henceforth united, at least in all its material relations. This
enlargement of the civilised world cannot fail to be attended by consequences of
far-reaching importance. The earliest national cultures, which had been cradled
in the great fluvial valleys of
Egypt and Mesopotamia, were followed by the more
comprehensive culture of the peoples dwelling round about the Mediterranean
basin. Then came, with the discovery of the New World, the era of Atlantic
"
exceeding that of the Mediterranean in the same ratio that the square
civilisation,
of the axis of the inland exceeds that of the oceanic basin." And now the whole
world becomes the theatre of busy life for the civilised peoples. Henceforth the
earth knows no limits, for its centre is everywhere or anywhere on the planetary
surface, and its circumference nowhere.
At the same time, in the complexity of known and habitable lands, some more
favoured regions stand out, which, thanks to the beauty of their scenery, the
mildness of their climate, or other physical advantages, have in a special manner
attracted the stream of human migration. Amongst these privileged lands can any
be named that excel certain Pacific islands in the marvellous harmony of their
outlines, the charm of the encompassing waters, the softness of the atmosphere,
the fecundity of the soil, the even course of their seasons, the rhythmical movement
of all their natural phenomena ? The eminent naturalist, Bates, has hazarded the
opinion that, if mankind has been
able to attain a high degree of culture through
its
struggle with the inclemency of the cold regions, in the equatorial lands alone
the perfect race of the future will enter on the complete fruition of its magnificent
inheritance.
For ages Egyptians, Arabs, and Phoenicians were acquainted with the Erythraean
Sea, that is, the Indian Ocean. Their ships had even already penetrated in the
direction of the coastlands, whence came frankincense, ivory, and gold, when in
their turn the Greeks, during the Alexandrian expedition, also found the highway
leading to those southern waters. At first following the coastline, and keeping
g AUSTRALASIA.
nevertheless advanced far towards the east. But

always within sight of land, they
tradition makes no reference to the
before the first century of the vulgar era,
movement of the trade winds and
great discovery of the" regularly alternating
first enabled boldly to venture on the
monsoons, by means of which mariners were
before the wind from the African and Arabian
high seas, running fearlessly
be little doubt that
seaboard to that of the Indian peninsula. There can, however,
these alternating aerial currents were already
well known to the Arab and
to the far
Phoenician navigators and utilised by them in their distant expeditions
east. But the merit of the discovery was attributed to Hippalos, the Greco-
Egyptian pilot,
whose name was even given to the two regular easterly and
westerly winds.
of the Indian
During the epoch the islands and the Asiatic peninsulas
Roman
Ocean were better known than twelve centuries later, that is, on the eve of Vasco
de Gama's expedition. The Western traders were well acquainted with Taprobana
(Ceylon), and the
Golden Chersonese (Malay peninsula), as well as the island of
"
Barley," the present Java.
Their commercial relations reached as far as the
Moluccas, for the clove had already made its appearance

on the tables of wealthy
Romans. During the night watch mariners beguiled the hours with narratives of
marvellous adventures, in which the flights of fancy became intermingled with

more or less truthful of
descriptions animals, and plants actually seen by
peoples,
the relaters on their travels. From the seafarers of diverse nations, who traded
in the service of Rome, these tales passed in a more or less modified form to the
Arab mariners of mediaeval times, and from this source, with its germ of truth,
were developed many of the marvellous stories embodied in the Thousand and Oiif
Nights.
The modern era of exploration for the oceanic regions coincides with that of
the New World. In 1498. Vasco de Gama, after rounding the Cape of Good
Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean straight to Calicut on the Malabar coast. Two
years afterwards Diego Dias, brother of the other Dias who had first doubled the
same cape, discovered Lourenco (Madagascar), while others, pushing still
S.
eastwards, reached the shores of Further India. In 1509 Malacca had already
become a centre of Portuguese dominion, and henceforth all the Asiatic vessels
the services of a Portuguese
calling at that emporium were obliged to accept
pilot.
The Eastern Archipelago, which Lad already been visited by the Italian,
Bartema, was soon embraced by the commercial empire of Lisbon but once ;
masters of the valuable Spice Islands, the Portuguese mariners seldom ventured
into the unknown waters farther east. To another nation, represented, however,
by the Portuguese, Magellan, fell the glory of first completing the circumnaviga-
tion of the globe, across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Following the
western route round South America, instead of the eastern taken by Vasco de
Gama, Magellan traversed in 1520 the strait that bears his name, and first of
Europeans penetrated into the South Pacific, sailing in search of the easternmost
Portuguese factories. By a strange accident his ships traversed an open space of
OCEANIC EXPLOBATION. 7
no less than ten thousand miles, touching

only at two uninhabited islets to the
east of the yet undiscovered Low Archipelago, thus avoiding all the innumerable
clusters strewn over the South Seas. The first group met by them was that of the
Ladrones, or Mariannas, in 1521, after which, continuing his
westerly course,
Magellan reached the Philippines, and perished in an encounter with the natives
on the island of Mactan, a small member of that The lands discovered
archipelago.
by him for a long time
justly bore the name of Magellania.
Fig. 3. EXPLORATIONS OP THE PACIFIC.

Scale 1 :
200,000,000.
10'
.
3,000 Miles.
The companions of the Portuguese navigator continued their voyage, at first

towards Borneo, then to the Moluccas, beyond which, on the homeward journey
across the Indian Ocean, the Basque, Sebastian el Canp, in command of the only
surviving vessel, discovered an by him
isletnamed San-Pablo, but at present
known as Amsterdam. Of the two hundred and thirty-seven men who had
started from Seville, eighteen only returned, amongst them Pigafetta, historian of
" I do not
the memorable voyage of circumnavigation. think," he wrote, "that
anyone will in future undertake a similar journey." Nevertheless, within six

months of Magellan's expedition, another Spanish squadron, commanded by
Loyasa, also penetrated through Tierra del Fuego into the Southern Ocean, and
B AUSTRALASIA.
on the long route to the Ladrones Archipelago met only a single island of insig-
nificant size. One of the ships, driven by a storm to the coast of Mexico, was the
first tocircumnavigate South America.
was traversed in the opposite
Many generations passed before the Pacific
of the globe in the reverse way,
direction, so as to achieve the circumnavigation
from west to east. had in vain attempted to beat up against the trade
Navigators
winds which although their efforts were attended by
set regularly in the Pacific,
archipelagoes, such as New Guinea,

numerous discoveries of islands and the
Carolines, the Marshall, Pelew, and Bonin groups.

But after struggling for
weeks and months the marine and aerial currents, the explorers one after
against
the other confessed themselves baffled, and put back to the Philippines or the
Moluccas. At last the friar, Andres de Urdaneta, found, or rather
Augustinian
guessed, the eastward route across
the Pacific. Reasoning by analogy, he con-
cluded that the atmospheric laws must b3 the same in the Atlantic and Pacific
basins consequently, that the south-west
;
winds of West Europe must be balanced
currents setting in the same direction in the temperate latitudes comprised
by
between Japan and California. The meteorological anticipation was completely
justified in 1565,
when Urdaneta himself, nearly half a century after Magellan's
as far as the forty-
voyage sailed from the Philippines and Ladrones northwards
1
third degree of latitude in the Japanese waters, then turning to the south-east, at
last the Mexican port of Acapulco.
gained The voyage lasted altogether one
hundred and twenty-five days.
Henceforth, regular communication was established across the Pacific between
Mexico and the Philippines. The route was carefully determined by pilots, and
for two hundred years was strictly followed by the Spanish galleons. After
leaving Acapulco, skippers were able to spread sail and run before the wind
without tacking all the way to the Philippines. But on the return voyage they
first made for the Japanese waters about 35 north latitude, keeping under this
parallel within sigtt of the California coast, and then following the seaboard
till
to the starting-point. So closely was this beaten track adhered to, that scarely
any discoveries were made to the right or the left. Nevertheless, indications of
land are figured on the Spanish charts in the region occupied by the Sandwich
Islands.
The very stillness of the atmosphere, combined with the infrequency of storms,
may perhaps have been one of the causes of the long-prevailing ignorance
regarding the oceanic lands of the northern hemisphere. The great ocean well
"
deserves the name of " Pacific given to it The expression " South
by Magellan.
Sea," applied in a more general way to all the waters comprised between Asia and
America, was at first restricted to the regions lying to the south-west of Mexico
and Central America. In this sense it was used by way of contrast with the
" North
Sea," whence the Spanish explorers had penetrated southwards. The
"
now forgotten term, Sea of Our Lady of Loretto," was adopted by the Franciscan
missionaries, in the belief that the vast ocean bathed lands which were all destined
one day to be peopled only by Christian neophytes.
OCEANIC EXPLOEATION. 9
Beyond the zone of navigation utilised by the Acapulco galleons, nearly all the
equatorial archipelagoes of the South Sea were at least sighted by the Spanish
mariners during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1567 Mendana de
Neyra saw the groups at present known by the name of the Ellice and Solomon
Islands; in 1595 Hurtado de Mendoza discovered the Marquesas in 1606 Queiros ;
sailed through the Low Archipelago, visited the New Hebrides, and skirted the
Australian seaboard, which he claimed to have first observed, although his

vovage
to these shores had been anticipated by the Portuguese pilot Godinho de Eredia,
and in 1531 even by the Provencal Guillaume le Testu.* Lastly, Torres, who had
accompanied the Queiros expedition, successfully navigated the dangerous laby-

rinth of reefs and islets separating Australia from New Guinea. His name has
been justly given to the strait which, with rare boldness and seainanship, he
traversed from sea to sea in the space of two months.
But Spaniards and Portuguese had no longer the monopoly of these oceanic
regions, which had been shared between them by the famous Bull of Alexander VI.
The English seafarer, Francis Drake, repeated fifty-seven years later
illustrious
the exploit of Magellan, first circumnavigator of the globe, and after him the
routes of the Pacific were further surveyed by Cavendish and some Dutch
mariners. the close of the sixteenth century Dutch traders had even already
By
founded factories in Java, whence their power gradually spread from island to
island, everywhere displacing that of the Portuguese. In their turn the Dutch
sailors tookup the work of discovery in the southern waters, Tasman especially
enlarging our knowledge of the Austral lands. Thus were revealed to the
western world the west coast of Australia as far as Torres Strait, Tasmania with
its basalt headland, New Zealand and its active volcanoes. But such was at that
time the intensity of international rivalries between the chief trading peoples,
that the discoveries already made by the Spanish or Portuguese pioneers remained
unknown to or overlooked by the Netherlandish Although Torres had
explorers.
actually demonstrated the existence of a passage separating Australia from New
Guinea, Tasman maintained forty years later that both lands belonged to the
same continent.
The second half of the eighteenth century was the decisive epoch in the scientific
exploration of the Henceforth exploring expeditions were no

South Sea Islands.
longer undertaken in the interests of a single nation, or of some powerful trading
company, but rather for the benefit of the whole of the civilised world. At
the same time the more accurate observations now made imparted far greater
authority to the reports of the explorers themselves. The longitudes in the
southern waters were for the first time determined by the method of lunar dis-
tances by Thenceforth the enormous errors of the early seafarers,
Wallis in 1766.
with discrepancies of from one thousand to two thousand miles, became impossible,
and mariners were no longer doomed to beat about for weeks and months together in
search of large archipelagoes already reported by their predecessors. Owing to this
uncertainty, numerous explorers had to

abandon the attempt to sight the Solomon
*
Major, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1872.
10 AUSTBALASIA.
Its very existence was questioned, and

group discovered by Mendana de Neyra.
the Spanish sailor's account was attributed to fantastic apparitions, clouds on the
horizon simulating the outlines of reefs, coastlands, forests, or villages. On the
other hand, other groups became decomposed, and the same island was sighted in
apparently different places, thus receiving several

names from successive observers.
At last the application of astronomical processes put an end to this bewildering
fluctuation in the oceanic insular regions.
COOK'S VOYAGES.
The epoch ofmethodic exploration in the South Sea, begun l>y "Wallis, may be
said to have closed in 1827 with the discovery of the two great Fijian islands by
Fig. 4. FlBST ClBCUlCNAVIOATION OF THE GLOBE FROM WEST TO EAST AND EAST TO WEST.
Scale 1 : 460,000,000.
ISO' 40'
.
ti,000 Miles.
Dumont d'Urville. During the intervening sixty years, rendered memorable by

the voyages of Carteret, de
Bougainville, Cook, Vancouver, and Laperouse, the
geographical work of oceanic research was completed in all its main features.
Thenceforth nothing remained and nothing still remains to be done, except to fix
more accurately the position of the island groups, to trace their outlines more
carefully, indicate all the reefs, survey the doubtful landmarks, and efface those
that had been inserted on the official charts.
erroneously
Amongst the explorers of the last century, the first place belongs unquestion-
ably to Cook. The year 1769, when the illustrious navigator began his net-
work of researches in the Pacific, be said to rank next to 1521, date of
may
Magellan's voyage, as the chief turning-point in the history of oceanic discovery.
Lauding at Tahiti, Cook his
began labours with his memorable observa-
gigantic
COOK'S VOYAGES. 11
tions on the transit of Venus, thus determining a precise longitude in the centre
of the Pacific. He then completely circumnavigated the two great islands of
New Zealand, surveyed the east coast of Australia, and rediscovered Torres
Strait.
In his second voyage he explored more especially the Austral seas on both
sides of the polar circle, but advancing in the opposite direction from that taken
Fig. 5. DATES OF THE CHIKF DISCOVEKIES IN OCEANIA.
~ "
*
A N^M.,55-
.*''
^T/Ji"' vi5 3
? -5..-?-
B4
?.W*-
^
.e^
S.I559 '
LMJ618 '.
f'ô./7685 Mdi567"'"
f 4r-->r
î/W '
:;, J5 95-
'...
-*^
V
.:
Meridian of Greenwich ISO' 190
M. 1521. Magellan, Guohnn, Philippines. T. 1643. Tasman, Tonga, Fiji, New Britain-
Me. 1526. Menezes, yew Guinea. T. 1644. Tasman, Tasmaitland, Carpentaria.

S. 1528. A. dc Saavedra, Carolines. V. 1699. Dampier, New Guinea.
S. 1529. A. de Saaredra, Marshall. B. 1766. Byron, Gilbert Island.
Q. 16!1. Guillaume le Testu, Australia. Wa. 1767. Wallis, Tahiti.
V. 1.143. Villalobos, Carolines, Ptlem. Ca. 1767. Carteret, Pitcairn, Carteret, Low Inlands.
Md. 1507. Mendana, Ellice, Solomon, Sandwich. Bo 176^. Bougainville, Samoa, Solomon.
Md. 1595. Mendana, Marquesas, 8ta. Cruz. C. 1769. Cook, Austral Islandl.
Q. 1GOC. Queiros, Low Islands, Fakaofo, Xew Hebrides. C. 1770. Cook, A'ew Ztaland, Australia.
T. 16*16. Tones, Torres Straits, Louisiades. C. 1773. Cook, Henr.y Islands.
L. M. 1616. Lemaire, Siuafu, Aew Ireland. C. 1774. Cook, Savage Island, Hew Caledonia.
H. 1616. Hartog, Endrachtsland. La. 1787. Iîp^rouKe, Sawaii.
.1619. Edel, Edelsland. Br. 1791. Broughton, Chatham Island.
L. 1622. Leeuwins, l.eemcinsland. Ba. 1798. Bass, Bass's Strait.
N. 1627. Nuyts, Suytslaid. Ha. 1810. Hazelburg, Macquarie.
W lli-J8. Witts, Wittlland. Wk. 1811. Walker, Campbell.
T. 1642. 1'asinan, Tasmania, Xew Zealand. D. V. 1827. Dumont D'Urville, Fiji.
all He was thus the first to make the circuit of

by previous circumnavigators.
the globe from west to east, according to the rotation round its axis. This event
took place over two hundred and fifty years after Magellan's circumnavigation
from east to west, following the regular course of the trade winds.
Cook's third expedition was directed towards the northern waters, where
he penetrated through the strait separating the two continents of Asia and
America. He then rediscovered the Sandwich Islands, where he was first received
12 AUSTRALASIA.
murdered under circumstances that have never teen

as a god, but soon after
satisfactorily explained.
Cook's researches had the effect of once for ali exploding the theoretic fancy
that on the surface of the globe the dry land should occupy exactly the same space
as the oceanic basins. Since the time of Hipparchus the most eminent geo-
between laud
graphers accepted as an established dogma the perfect equilibrium
and water and it was under the influence of this idea that Ptolemy had traced
;
across the southern part of the Indian Ocean a continental coastline connecting
Africa with India. This shadowy seaboard, continually receding from the eager
eye of navigators, was successively identified by them with New Guinea, New
Holland, and New Zealand; and later, every island sighted in more southern
latitudes was supposed to be some headland of the long-sought-for continent.
Cook, who himself firmly believed in the existence of this Austral world, placed
its shores far to the south of the waters reached by his predecessors but in any
;
case we now know that the Antarctic continent, or insular group, must be of
slight extent compared with the boundless waste of circumpolar waters. When at
last convinced of the absence of continental lands in the regions traversed by
Cook, his companion Forster advanced the hypothesis that nature had readjusted the
equilibrium between the two hemispheres of the planetory orb by depositing on
the bed of the Antarctic Ocean rocky masses of greater density than elsewhere.
EXPLORATION OF THE ANTARCTIC WATERS.
Although in the pride of his immense triumphs, Cook placed limits to the
genius of man, declaring that no future navigator would penetrate farther south-
wards, his record has already been beaten, and since his time the known surface
of the ocean has been enlarged in the direction of the South Pole. The lands
discovered in some places are sufficiently contiguous to each other to be
regarded
as very probably forming a continuous seaboard.
They would thus collectively
constitute one of the largest islands on the surface of the
globe.
The most extensive mass of dry land in the Antarctic Zone occurs to the south
of Australia. In 1839, Ballenyhad already discovered an
archipelago of volcanoes
in the immediate neighbourhood of the
polar circle. According to his estimate
the insular cone of Young Island, which is
completely snowclad, would appear to
attain an elevation of at least 12,000 feet. Another much lower island was seen
to eject two columns of But the valleys and ravines between the peaks
vapour.
are everywhere filled with ice or
glaciers, so that the bare rock is visible only
where the action of the waves has revealed the black lavas of the cliffs and
headlands surmounted by a covering of white snow. No creeks occur, nor even
any strand, except here and there a narrow beach strewn with ashes and shingly
scoriae. Sailing to the west of this archipelago, mainly about the sixty-fifth degree
south latitude, Balleny thought he
sighted land in two places, and even gave the
name of Sabrina Land to some high ground seen from a distance.
dimly
The following year the French
navigator, Dumont d'Urville, and the American
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. IB
Wilkes, were attracted to these waters in the hope of here fixing the exact position
of the south magnetic pole. They again visited the seas explored by Balleny,
and both unhesitatingly asserted that they sighted true land, and not merely
continuous bands of floating ice. D'Urville gave the name of Adelia to the
rugged from
coast 3,000 to 4,000 feet high, which he observed to the south and
followed westwards across some ten degrees of the meridian, without, however,
landing at any point. Farther west Wilkes also sighted land in four places, and
Fig. 6. EXPLORATIONS IN THE SOUTH POLAB WATEBS.

Scale 1 : 100,000,000.
Supposed Coutinent.
1,200 Miles.
all the elevated ground, whether scattered islands or continuous^nnd, has received
the general designation of Wilkes Land.
Nevertheless James Boss, who followed a different track, threw some doubts
on the reports of the three navigators who had followed each other in this oceanic
horizons of these
region. Nothing, in fact, is more deceptive than the hazy
southern waters, where the rays of a low sun are refracted on the ice, and where
the most practised eye is needed to distinguish between a real rocky crag and a
"
crystalline mountain detached from some distant glacier." Except at one point,
14 AUSTRALASIA.
where he came Wilkes kept everywhere

close to the black rocks of a line of cliffs,
at a distance of about twelve miles from the ice-fringed land, which appeared
to be everywhere covered with hoar-frost. East of the Balleny Islands, he also
the very spot where James Boss, sailing in an open
reported a mountain mass on
sea, afterwards failed to touch the
bottom with a sounding-line 1,000 fathoms long.
But whatever view be taken of the true character of Wilkes Land, it is certain
that east of the Balleny Archipelago the sea extends much farther southwards.
James Ross explored these waters in 1841 and 1842, each time penetrating nearer
to the South Pole than any previous or subsequent navigator. In 1842, the
the ice floes reached 78 9' 30", which,
expedition specially equipped for piercing
or nearly 400
however, is still over 800 miles in a bee-line from the South Pole,
miles short of the corresponding point reached in the Arctic Zone. During his first
the east coast of a region which he named
voyage, Ross followed southwards
Victoria Land, and which is lined by imposing mountains such as the glittering
ice-capped peak of Sabrina (10,000 feet),

and the still loftier Melbourne, rising to
an altitude of considerably over 13,000 feet.
At the point where the expedition was compelled to turn back, there towered
above the ice-bound waters the twin volcanoes of Erebus (12,000 feet) and Terror
(11,000 feet), the former of which emitted volumes of smoke, murky during the
day and ruddy at night. The navigators, who had succeeded in getting ashore at
two places on this Austral continent, were prevented from landing near the
volcanoes by a wall of ice nearly 350 feet high, which formed the escarpment
of a vast plain at least 300 miles broad.
. East of Victoria Land the expeditions of Cook and Bellingshausen have revealed
the existence of no Antarctic mainland south of the East Pacific waters, or of any
land at except a doubtful islet reported by Cook, and by him named Stone
all,
Island. But in the region south of America, facing Cape Horn and the neigh-
bouring archipelagoes, the islands or perhaps the coasts of a great Antarctic land
have been seen at several points in the neighbourhood of the polar circle. Here
Bellingshausen discovered Alexander Land, which is probably continuous with the
hilly coast of Graham's Land observed by Biscoe in 1832, and more carefully
indicated by Dallman in 1874. Then to the north-east of this elevated ground
stretch parallel chains of numerous islands, comprising Louis-Philippe and de Join-
ville Lands, discovered by Dumont d'Urville, the Shetland Isles and Southern
Orkneys, already sighted by the English and American whalers, and perhaps even
by the Dutch vessel Van Gccritz in 1598. All these are mountainous masses
encircled by deep^waters where the sounding-line records hundreds of fathoms
within a few cable-lengths of the shore.
But immediately to the east of these archipelagoes, Captain "Weddell, in
command of a whaler, forced a passage in 1823 through the floating ice and
entered a perfectly open sea, where he penetrated southwards beyond the seventy-
fourth degree of latitude. This is the southernmost point yet reached in the waters
stretching south of the Atlantic. Farther east that is, in the direction of Wilkes
Land the only dry land yet seen are the coasts of Enderby and Kemp, extending
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. 15
to the south of the polar circle. Biscoe, who discovered Enderby in 1831, in vain
attempted to land on the island, being everywhere prevented by the masses of
ice at a distance of 18 or 20 miles from the shore.
Nevertheless, a whaler subse-
quently succeeded in reaching this point. TheVictoria and Louis-Philippe mountains,
which of all the Antarctic regions advance farthest
northwards, are situated, the
Fig- 7. NOBTHEEN PBOMONTOEY OP THE ANTABCTIC MAINLAND.

Scale 1 :
3,300,000.
58' 54'
Depths.
n to 250 260 to 1,000 1,000Fathom*

fathoms Fathoms. ami upwards.
60 Miles.
former over against New Zealand, the latter opposite the southern extremity of
America. Thus mountain ranges and volcanic chains face each other on either
side of the Antarctic waters.
Since the voyages of Ross that is to say, for nearly half a century no scientific
In 1874 the Challenger
expedition has penetrated beyond the polar
circle.
that in these days of daring

ai>proachd without crossing it. It is surprising
10 AUSTRALASIA.
of the work of exploration should have been

enterprise the serious prosecution
more especially as research has been greatly
suspended for so many years,
facilitated theprogress of maritime enterprise and the thousand resources
by
with a certain feeling of shame that
offered by modern appliances. Hence it is
the enormous gaps still occurring along the line of
geographers have to record
antarctic and well may ask for volunteers to resume the work of
navigation,
At one .time
hopedit was
Cook, Ross, d'Urville and other illustrious navigators.
that the next expedition might have been fitted out in Australia, which lies
nearest to the south polar lands, and whose inhabitants are most interested in
investigating the meteorological

and glacial phenomena of those frigid regions.
Between the southernmost point of Tasmania and the coast of Wilkes Land the
distance is not more than 1,600 miles. But a scheme advocated in 1888 came to
which refused to
nothing owing to the parsimony of the British Government,
to meet the preliminary expenses. The
grant the modest sum of 5,000 required
question, however, has now been taken up by the Germans, and there are some
prospects that the influence of Dr. Neumayer may induce the Reichstag to grant
defray the expenses of a German

a sufficient sum to antarctic expedition.
BATHYMETRIC RESEARCHES.
In the part of the ocean whose surface has already been surveyed, the
of the marine
exploration of its depths has long been begun, and the density
waters may even be said to be ascertained, at least in a general way. The Indian
Ocean presents whole a tolerably regular bed, with a somewhat uniform depth
as a
of over 2,000 fathoms. As revealed by the soundings of the Challenger and

other more recent expeditions, the submarine escarpments of the continent and
large islands enclosing this basin on three sides fall rapidly down to the oceanic
abysses, so that almost everywhere a depth of 1,000 fathoms occurs within 120
miles of the coasts. Towards 40
south latitude a body of equal depth floods the
sill which forms the southern limit of the Indian Ocean, properly so called.
Within this normal bathymetric curve of 1,000 fathoms, which is disposed
nearly parallel with the continental seaboards, the line of 2,000 fathoms describes
a large number of sinuosities, at least to the west and north round about
Madagascar, the Mascarenhas, the Seychelles, and the Laccadives. The Chagos
archipelago also rises in the midst of abysses flooded by from 2,000 to 2,500
fathoms of water. The mean for the whole Indian Ocean is estimated
by
John Murray at about 2,100 fathoms, or 450 more than Otto Krummel's
calculation.
The greatest cavities hitherto revealed by the sounding line in this basin occur
in the regions lying between the north-west coast of Australia and the islands of
Java and Sumatra. Here the vessels engaged in laying the submarine cable have
recorded depths of from 2,600 to 2,800 fathoms, and to this
abyss Kriimmel proposes
to give the name of the "
Lemurian Depression." It is a remarkable fact that the
deepest chasms in the Indian Ocean have been found at relatively short distances
OCEANIC SOUNDINGS. 17
from the shore,and in the vicinity of the most active volcanic area in the Sunda
Islands. Along nearly the whole coastline of the Antarctic lands south of the
Indian and Pacific Oceans the waters appear to be much shallower, judging at
leastfrom the results of the few soundings that have hitherto been taken. It
would almost seem as if the greater cavities had been
gradually filled in by the
from the austral regions.
ice -borne debris Nevertheless, an enormous abyss does
apparently occur under the Antarctic polar circle to the south-east of the Southern
Tfig. 8. DEPTHS OP THE AUSTRAL SEAS.

Scale 1 : 100,000,000.
Depths.
to 1,000 1,000 to 2,000 2.000 to Jl.noO 3,000 to 4,000 4,000Fathoms

Fathoms. Fathoms. Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwards.
1,200 Miles.
Orknevs, where James Ross failed to touch the bottom with a sounding line
over 4,200 fathoms long. This solitary record, however, will have to be verified
by fresh observations.
more
Compared with the Indian Ocean, which is destitute of islands in its
central parts, the Pacific, everywhere studded with archipelagoes, presents an
extremely irregular bed. In many places occur elevated submarine banks, which
would be transformed to islands or peninsulas were the sea-level to be lowered a
2o
18 AUSTRALASIA.
The three great Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, and

few hundred fathoms.
on a vast flooded plateau,
peninsula, all rest
Borneo, together with the Malay
where the water is scarcely anywhere more than forty fathoms deep. The two
oceanic basins are here separated by a sill some 900 miles broad. Australia
great
and New
Guinea may in the same way be regarded as forming upheaved portions
of a common submarine bank, which also comprises Tasmania in the south,
and in
the north several insular groups contiguous to Papuasia.
But the two regions of the Eastern Archipelago and Australia are separated by
a trough over 500 fathoms deep skirting the east side of Timor, while depths of
over 2,000 fathoms have been recorded to the south of Ceram.
In the Pacific properly so called most of the archipelagoes with their dependent
chains of reefs also rest on elevated banks, which like that of Central America are
all disposed in the direction from north-west to south-east. In the vast
nearly
semicircle of continental lands sweeping round from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape
Horn, the archipelagoes of the Pacific, would thus appear to be the scattered frag-
ments of a circle resting eastwards on the American seaboard. The disposition of
these outer and inner curves may be compared to that of many large breached
which have been developed regular craters of smaller dimensions.
craters, within
The deep cavities limited on either side by the elevated banks have received
from the English and American explorers names which recall either the vessels
employed in the hydrographic surveys of the South Seas, or else the naturalists who
have laboured with the greatest zeal in these bathymetric operations. Thus the
circular cavity to the west of Tasmania over 2,000 fathoms deep has been named
" Here the line recorded at one spot a depth of no less than
Jeffrey's Trough."
2,600 fathoms. On the east side of Tasmania in the direction of New Zealand
occurs another chasm of larger size and equal depth (Thomson's), which is con-
tinued in the north towards Queensland by that of Patterson, thirty or forty
fathoms deeper. Those of the Gazrlle, running parallel with the general axis
of the oceanic islands, that is, in the direction from the north-west to south-east,
are somewhat shallower, nowhere exceeding 2,300 fathoms. At their western

extremity they are connected with those of Carpenter, which begin at Torres Strait
and Papuasia, and terminate between New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. At
plummet here recorded 2,6-30 fathoms, or about three miles,
the deepest point the
and an equal depth occurs in the Nares pit to the north of New Guinea and New
Britain. The cavities are still deeper towards the east, where those of Hildgard
and Miller have 3,080 and 3,305 fathoms respectively.
North of the Carolines the Pacific waters are far less obstructed by insular
groups, and, as might have been expected, are proportionately deeper than those of
Polynesia properly so called. The cavities named from the Challenger, to which
we are indebted for so many important researches in oceanic physiography, offer
the enormous depth of 4,575 fathoms between the Carolines and the Marianne
group, while farther east in the direction of the Marshall Islands other chasms
have disclosed depths of considerably over 3,000 fathoms.
Lastly, the whole of
the North Pacific region between and California
Japan presents a vast elliptical
OCEANIC SOUNDINGS. jg
trough encircling a shallower central area, whose axis is formed by the Sandwich
Islands and the reefs continuing them towards the north-west. The pits named
fromWyman (3,300), east of Hawaii, as well as those of Belknap (3,100) and
Ammen (3,094), south and west of the same
group, belong to this circular depres-
sion, which farther west towards Japan takes the name of the
Tuscarora, the
American ship which here revealed the greatest
depth yet recorded in oceanic any
basin. This chasm of 4,650 fathoms,
sinking nearly as low as the highest moun-
tain rises above sea-level, is situated about 240 miles to the east of
the southern
extremity of the Kurile Archipelago.
As in the Indian Ocean, the
greatest depths would thus seem to occur also in
the Pacific in the neighbourhood of
igneous areas, that is, along the line of active
volcanoes which curves round from
Japan to the peninsula of Alaska. These
chains of burning mountains thus be said to represent the true coastline of
may
the North Pacific basin. them the waters are
Beyond comparatively very
shallow, except in one part of the Bering Sea, where depths of 500 and even
.1,000 fathoms have been recorded. The projecting mainlands of North-east Asia
and North-west America rest on a common submarine
base, which approaches very
near to the surface. In Bering Strait itself the mean depth is little over 20
fathoms, and nowhere exceeds 30 fathoms. Between these shallows, here
scarcely
separating the two continents, and the profound abysses of the North Pacific the
transition is
very sudden. At some point the soundings have revealed precipitous
inclines which would be regarded as steep slopes even in Continental
Alpine regions.
Except in the
neighbourhood of California the Eastern Pacific waters have been
less
carefully surveyed than the Australasian seas. The whole space, some
12,000,000 square miles in extent, comprised between the Polynesian archi-
pelagoes and the American seaboard from Mexico to Chili, was still unsounded
before the expedition of the Italian vessel, the Vettor Pisani, in 1885.
Now,
however, we possess a series of thirteen soundings between the coast of New
Grenada and (he Sandwich Islands, where 3,140 fathoms was the greatest depth
recorded by this expedition. Allowing for the irregularity of the intervals
between these soundings, the mean depth of the marine bed in this part of the
East Pacific Ocean would appear to be about 2,300 fathoms. Before the Vettor
Pisani expedition the velocity of the waves caused by great seaquakes was the
only available means for determining the depth of the waters in this section of
the oceanic basin.
The specimens brought during the various exploring expeditions
to the surface
present on the whole a remarkable uniformity. In the vicinity of the land, and
especially about the great fluvial estuaries, the mud and clays of the marine bed
are formed by deposits of terrestrial origin mingled with fragments of shells and
corals. Farther seaward, in depths ranging from 500 to 1,500 fathoms, the sedi-
mentary matter consists of triturated shells and the calcareous remains of animal-
culae. The mud dredged in these waters contains from ninety to ninety-five per
cent, of carbonate of lime. But according as the depths increase this proportion
diminishes, and in abysses of 2,000 to 2,500 fathoms the prevailing formation is

20 AUSTRALASIA.
of foraminifera, radiolaria, diatoms, and other remains

everywhere a clay formed
of minute organisms mixed with particles of pumice and various decomposed
of volcanic origin. Neither gravel nor the bare rock has anywhere been
products
discovered on the deep bed of the Indian Ocean.
The slight proportion of carbonate of lime in clays lying at great depths is
due to the carbonic ncid present in the water. The countless calcareous organisms
falling as dustfrom the upper marine waters become completely dissolved before
reaching the bottom. But sharks' teeth and the skeletons of cetaceans occur
from which the remains of extinct and
abundantly in the argillaceous deposits,
living animals are often fished up together. Nodules of iron of cosmic origin are
also found interspersed in the same clays.
ATMOSPHERIC CURRENTS.
"
As attested by the very name of Pacific," given to the great ocean by its first
in
discoverers, storms frequent in this basin than in the Atlantic, at least
are less
the tropical latitudes with low tides. This is due to the vast uniform surface
presented by an immense extent of the South Sea far from the neighbourhood
of
continental seaboards, which owing to the great differences in their reliefs give
rise to abrupt changes in the climate and the course of the winds. The waters are
usually the least ruffled and navigation safest in the Eastern Pacific regions,
where vessels sail for thousands of miles without meeting a single island. Here
also the trade winds blow with the greatest uniformity. Those from the north-
east prevail with great constancy in the tropical zonesome 7,000 miles broad
comprised between the Revilla-Gigedo and the Marianne groups. The south -
eas,tern trades have a less extensive range of about 3,000 miles between the
Galapagos and the Marquesas.

But the course of the atmospheric currents is
interrupted and frequently turned
backwards by the thousand independent centres of attraction formed by the insular
groups, some mountainous, others scarcely rising above the surface, which
are scattered over the West Pacific equatorial waters. The normal trades are here
often replaced by the alternating winds, which follow in the track of the sun.
Ituring the winter of the southern hemisphere the south-east trades are most
regular but in
;
summer their ascendency is contested by northern and north-
eastern breezes. Frequently also diad calms set in, while occasionally the con-
flicting currents give rise to cyclonic movements.
A remarkably mild temperature usually prevails in the oceanic archipelagoes,
surrounded by waters which are subject to less vicissitudes of heat and cold even
than the atmosphere itself. Between the hottest and coldest month on either side
of the equator within the tropics the mean temperature of 72 to 77 F. has an
extreme range limited to from four to eight degrees. Nevertheless, the oscilla-
tions for the whole year range from
twenty-eight to thirty-six degrees according
to the position of the insular groups.
The rainf all also shows discrepancies of as much as tenfold and upwards, accord-
OCEANIC AERIAL CURRENTS. 21
ing as the slopes of the islands are exposed to the moist or dry winds. Thus while
certain valleys enjoy a copious and even an excessive annual
supply of moisture,
certain low-lying islands in the neighbourhood of the equator receive
scarcely a
single shower except at long intervals.
West and south-west of the Polynesian islands properly so called, the
vicinity
of the great insular masses, such as New Guinea, Australia, Celebes, and Borneo,
attracts the aerial currents more powerfully in the hot seasons than at other times.
Hence are developed here, not merely gentle breezes, as in Eastern Oceania, but
regular monsoons of longer or shorter duration, according to the diverse conditions

of the environment, the extent of dry land, the altitude of the highlands, the super-
ficial area of spaces destitute of vegetation. In these regions the south-east trades
prevail during the winter season of the southern hemisphere ;
but in summer the
normal currents from the west or north-west, and are usually accompanied by
set
moisture- bearing clouds and heavy downpours. Thus the normal meteorological
system is regulated by two uniformly alternating currents setting in contrary
directions, and of essentially different character, one bringing fair the other foul
weather. Nevertheless, the endless intricacies of creeks, bays, inlets, straits, and
channels cause numerous irregularities and local breezes, by which the whole
system is in many places greatly modified.

Onthe very verge of the range of the monsoons the atmospheric currents are
deflected from their regular path. The waters of Torres Strait between New
Guinea and Australia, obstructed by innumerable shoals and reefs, and averaging
not more than some 10 or 12 fathoms in depth, are heated by the tropical suns to
a much higher degree than the deep oceanic basins to the east and west. The
consequence is a considerable increase of temperature in the circumambient
atmosphere, which thus becomes a focus of attraction for all the surrounding
currents. The north-east trades veer round so as to set directly up the strait, where
they blow with great violence during the winter months. On the other hand,
the summer monsoons, which prevail especially in December, January, and Feb-
ruary, cease to set in the direction of

the south-east and are deflected towards the
strait about Port- thus depriving the York peninsula of its due share of
Moresby,
moisture.
In the centre of the labyrinth of islands between New Guinea and Borneo the
aerial system is so disturbed by the various modifying conditions of the environ-
true character
ment, that it is not always possible to determine with certainty the
of the current, whether a trade-wind or a monsoon, or to decide to which should
be attributed the clouds.

moisture-bearing Here the annual rainfall is generally
some islands, such as Sumatra, exceeding 160
inches. The aver-
very copious, in
to the aspect of the seaboard) is also
age temperature (78 to 82 F., according
also more uniform, varying not more
higher than in the South Sea Islands
it is ;
than four or five degrees between the hottest and coldest months. The yearly
variation between the morning and afternoon.
range is, in fact, less than the daily
has been called the
Owing to this equable regime the Eastern Archipelago
" hothouse " of the great terrestrial botanical garden.
22 AUSTRALASIA.
West Borneo and the Philippines the meteorological conditions are again
of
modified by the differences in the outlines and elevations of the great insular
masses. Here mariners no longer speak of trade winds, and recognise the
monsoons alone. That of the south-west, sweeping over the Sunda Strait and
to the middle of
Sumatra, prevails somewhat regularly from the middle of April
October, in the more open waters stretching away to Formosa.
But it is occasion-
insular and continental
ally interrupted by the south-eastern winds, and on the
seaboards its course is fringed by lateral breezes, eddies, and back- currents, which
enable sailing craft to beat up against the monsoon.
This south-west wind which prevails in summer followed in winter by the
is
north-east monsoon, which is in fact the normal polar current. Like the south-
west monsoon it blows throughout half the year, although most intensely in
December and January. Both seasons are accompanied by rains, as well as by
sudden gales and storms. But the terrific cyclonic movements of the China Sea,
"
here known fang, or
as typhoons, that is, great winds," occur chiefly during
tai
the south-west monsoon in June or July, or else towards the September equinox
when the normal annual currents are reversed. These fierce whirlwinds, which
are generally developed in the east, move with spiral action in the direction
of the
west or north-west. They are usually more intense in the vicinity of the land
than on the high seas, and fall off rapidly towards the south. Hence the
typhoons rarely extend their range towards the equatorial regions in the waters
stretching south of Lucon, largest of the Philippine Islands.

Beyond the Sunda Archipelago, that is, in the open space presented by the
Indian Ocean as far as the Mascarenhas and Madagascar, the winds are less
influenced by insular or continental seaboards, and consequently here acquire a far
more regular course. The zone, of the south-east trades, which occupies the
between Australia, Madagascar, and the equator, is
section of the ocean comprised
uniformly displaced northwards and southwards according to the alternation of the

seasons themselves. Thus it is shifted to the north of the equator with the
movement of the sun towards the northern hemisphere, while at other times its
range seldom extends much beyond the 5 of south latitude.

But round about the central part of the ocean, dominated by the regular
system of the south-east trades, there stretches the vast semicircle of lands between
South Africa and Australia, which are fringed by a zone of alternating monsoons
setting landwards during the hot and seawards during the cold season. In no
region of the globe have the monsoons a more regular course than in the northern
section of the Indian Ocean between Somaliland and Sumatra. The south-we.st
monsoon with its escort of thunderstorms and rains prevails from the middle of
April to the middle of September throughout the Arabian Sea and the Bay of
Bengal. It is followed by that of the north-east, that is, the polar current, which
lasts from the middle October to the middle of March. But in the southern
of
hemisphere the atmospheric system is less regular on the coasts of Australia,

Madagascar, and the African mainland; nor is the contrast between land and
water so sharply marked in this region. Here also, as in the China Sea, the clash
MARINE CURRENTS. 28
of the conflicting winds at times gives rise to tremendous

hurricanes, especially at
the change of the monsoons and during the summer heats. These
disturbances
are most disastrous in the neighbourhood of the
Mascarenhas, although they
also occasionally spread havoc over the waters of the Gulf of Aden and
the of Bay
Bengal.
On their outer borders in the direction of the
poles the region of the trade
winds isskirted by zones of variable currents, the mean result of which
generally
takes the direction from west to east.
Being enclosed towards the north, the
Indian Ocean has naturally one only of these zones
comprised mainly between 28
and 60 south latitude. But the Pacific, as well as the Atlantic, has its two
systems of variable winds, one in the northern the other in the southern hemi-
sphere, the latter merging westwards in that of the Indian Ocean, eastwards in
that of the Atlantic, and thus completing the circuit of the globe. The
discovery
of these oceanic regions dominated by the western currents, that is the counter
by
trade winds, 'has been of paramount importance in the
history of maritime research.
Guided by his knowledge of the Atlantic winds, TIrdaneta was thus enabled to
direct vessels across the Pacific towards the shores of the New World, while by fol-
lowing the corresponding zone of variable winds in the southern hemisphere Cook
successfully accomplished the circumnavigation of the planet in the contrary
direction to that followed by Magellan.
MAKINE CURRENTS.
The movement of the marine corresponds to that of the aerial currents in the
great oceanic basin, but the former, belonging to a more stable element, are
naturally of a more constant character than the latter. They represent, so to say,
the fly-wheel of the great terrestrial mechanism. Hence the rythmical displace-
ments of the waters across the boundless oceanic spaces have been of even greater
moment than those of the atmosphere in the history of human progress. If the
trades and counter-trades have enabled European navigators the more easily to
traverse the ocean between the Old and the New World, and thus hastened the
work of exploration amongst the oceanic islands and austral lands, to the marine
currents was largely due the dispersion of mankind and gradual peopling of half
the globe.
The prominent feature in the vast system of oceanic movements is the great
stream which in the equatorial seas sets in the same direction as the apparent
course of the sun between the shores of the New World and those of New Guinea
and the Philippine*. The liquid volume which thus trends from east to west has
a mean breadth of probably over 3,000 miles, for it is occasionally observed
ranging from 26 south to 24 north latitude, but with a reflux or a zone of calm
waters in its central parts. The whole body of equatorial seas moves with a
velocity varying from 20 to 40 miles a day according to the seasons and
the
surroundings, and to a depth which certainly exceeds 750 fathoms

in the axis of
the stream. And this prodigious mass traverses nearly one-half of the
moving
24 AUSTRALASIA.
circumference of the planet, Compared with such an oceanic current all the
rivers flowing from the continental regions seawards sink into insignificance.
The discharge is at least 70,000 millions of cubic feet per second.
This vast central current, main branch of the system of secondary streams
rise to two great lateral backwaters, one
developed in the rest of the ocean, gives
in the North Pacific, the other in the Southern Ocean. Taking the same course
as the monsoons of the Caroline Archipelago, the waters of the equatorial stream
are deflected towards the north-west in the direction of Japan ;
then on approaching
the Chinese seaboard they follow the coast towards the north-ejst, and under the
name of Kuro-Sivo, or " Black Stream," expand into a vast curve across the North
Pacific. Although gradually losing the character of a current in the strict sense
of the term, it sets slowly along the coasts of British North America, the United
States, and Lower California, ultimately rejoining the equatorial current.

To this great stream in the northern corresponds another in. the southern
hemisphere. South of the equatorial seas a liquid mass passing east and west of
New Zealand turns south to the austral waters, and by a curve symmetrical with
that of the Kuro-Sivo merges west of Chili in a littoral current, which skirts the
American coast till it becomes again absorbed in the equatorial stream. An
analogous movement takes place in the Indian Ocean, where the waters
of the hot
zone also set slowly in the direction of the west. At Madagascar they ramify into
two branches, which flow southwards, and in the Antarctic regions form a junction
with a return current, which after coasting the West Australian seaboard rejoin
the equatorial waters.
But although analogous in their main features these three great movements
present many striking differences in their details, according as they are affected
by the course of the winds, the depths of the seas, the form and disposition of
the neighbouring lands. In many places the more sluggish waters quicken their
speed,and in the very heart of the sea is thus developed a sort of river, whose
water is distinguished from that on either side both by its colour and velocity.
The friction against its liquid banks causes it to oscillate in short waves like those
of a fluvial rapid, while the conflict of waters of varying temperature gives rise to
fogs spreading over vast spaces. Such phenomena are observed chiefly about the
Kuro-Sivo of Japan and its eastern extension across the North Pacific.
Each counter current has which penetrate into the
also its lateral streams,
straits and inlets, as well as its tributaries of cold
water flowing from the polar seas.
An incessant interchange goes on between the tepid floods of the
equatorial regions
and those of low temperature coining from the frigid zone. These polar waters
move bodily in the direction of the equator, in order to replace the losses caused by
evaporation under the tropical latitudes. According to the course of the winds,
the form of the marine bed and of the seaboards, this collective
displacement
becomes decomposed in secondary and more rapid streams, some of which flow bv
the side of thoê setting in the
contrary direction from the equator, while others
passing underneath them continue their course at lower depths.
At first sight it might be supposed that all the polar streams,
being colder and
MARINE CURRENTS. 25
consequently relatively denser than the equatorial, should in all cases plunge
beneath the more tepid waters with which
they come in contact. But some, being
less saline,
owing either to their slighter evaporation or to their mingling with
the fresh water of the melting icebergs, are in fact
lighter than the surroundin
warmer masses, and consequently rise to the surface. Naturalists in engaged
exploring the oceanic depths endeavour to detect the course of these
super-
imposed currents setting in opposite directions by ascertaining the temperature at
certain intervals along the line of soundings. This is one of the most delicate of
marine operations, the full significance of the recorded phenomena being itself at
times very difficult to appreciate. But by
carefully comparing the results of
observations taken in different places they are able
gradually to arrive at trust-
worthy conclusions.
The normal sequence of temperatures from the surface to the bottom has
already
been determined. The upper layer being in contact with the
atmosphere, its tem-
perature coincides with that of the local isothermals, while the deeper waters are
scarcely above freezing-point, the intermediate spaces showing a regular transition
between the two extremes. All anomalies in this gradual transition, all abrupt
changes are assumed to indicate the presence of disturbing currents. Thus in the
austral seas, between 34 and 66 south latitude, the gradation of
temperature is
modified by the neighbourhood of floating ice. At from 500 to 1,100 feet below
the surface a cold layer intervenes between the upper strata heated by the summer
suns and the lower waters whose temperature decreases
normally downwards.
This cold layer, which oscillates about the freezing point, is
evidently due to the
melting of the enormous icebergs always present in these latitudes.
Of the special cold currents either setting from the poles or rising from the
lower depths, the most remarkable for its influence on the climate of the coastlands
is the stream named from Humboldt, and known also as the Peruvian Current,
which skirts the western shores of South America, and which is from 20 to
22 F. colder than the neighbouring waters. The North American seaboard is
also washed by a frigid stream, which flows southward to the equatorial seas.
A small part of this stream may perhaps in Bering Strait intersect a branch
of the tepid water setting towards the Arctic Ocean ; but the great mass of the
cold water trending southwards comes from the Alaska seas and other inlets of the
North Pacific.
The marine watersare thus being everywhere constantly displaced, and in this
way the southern floods with their corresponding flora and fauna are carried
northwards, while the regions of the torrid zone are tempered by contact with
the polar currents. The climates of the two different zones blend in a new
climate, thanks to the intermingling streams, or else flow side by side in opposite
directions, since to every displacement corresponds an opposite movement. Even

the great equatorial stream has its counter-stream, which answers to the atmo-
spheric zone of calms, and which, especially from June to October, sets in the
direction from west to east, that is, from New Guinea to Equador. It is precisely
of the line, that this

in the axis of -th
equatorial stream, and especially south
26 AUSTRALASIA.
movement of the oceanic waters makes itself felt. It has an

general backward
but it follows a somewhat
estimated mean breadth of three hundred miles;
irregular course,
and in many places merges in lateral backwaters.
The Indian Ocean has also its counter equatorial stream skirting the north side
of the current which sets towards the west.
Students of historical migrations
in opposite direc-
attach the greatest importance to these parallel currents flowing
tions, and thus facilitating the
movement of peoples from continent to continent.
DRIFT ICE ICEBERGS AND FLOES.
Round about the Antarctic ice-cap the approach to the islands and mainland is
obstructed by continuous streams of drift ice and floes, which are constantly drifting
Kg. 9. ICE FIELD TRACED BY DUMONT D'UETILLE.

Scale 1 :
1,330,000.
,,T> ;>*
* ') t ;V'. $ :^.
' '
. .
'
.
. 21 Maes.
about, in one place grouped together in the form of gulfs or marine inlets, in
another disposed like projecting headlands, elsewhere developing long narrow
passages into which navigators cannot venture to penetrate without extreme cau-
tion. Ranging in height from 10 to 14 feet, but here and there interspersed with
"
irregular groups or bunches," resembling erratic boulders, these masses no longer
present an insurmountable obstacle to mariners provided with the powerful appli-
ances of modern mechanics, and with vessels specially constructed to resist the
impact or pressure of floating ice.
Beyond these shifting barriers stretch comparatively open spaces which are
occupied only by great icebergs, either isolated or accompanied by a cortege of
lesser blocks. Explorers who have penetrated into these Antarctic seas about the
polar circle, or even beyond 70 south latitude, have observed that these icebergs
DRIFT ICE. 27
drifting northwards with the current differ both in their form and origin. Some,
which break away from steep upland valleys, present a
great diversity of outline
and appearance. According to the lines of fracture or the tilt of the
glaciers
shooting them seawards, they rise above the surface in the form of domes, peaks,
or needles. Others again, which are usually of vast size, take the
shape of rect-
angular blocks with almost level upper surface. These are not of glacier origin,
but have been detached from the icy barrier
skirting the flat coastlands at varying
distances. They do not melt even in summer. During the fine seasons of 1841,
1842, and 1843, Ross found that only on eighteen days the temperature rose three
or four degrees above freezing point. Some were fringed with transparent stalac-
tites, which this explorer was unable to explain, as he had never observed the ice
melting.
As
far as can be judged from the few observations hitherto
made, the frozen
masses, 1(50 to 180 feet high, are simply the land ice seawards
gradually impelled
1
y the pressure of the more or less inclined masses covering the interior of the
continent. Owing to their specific
gravity they project for distances of even
10 or 20 miles beyond the coastline, while still adhering to the
rocky bed. In the
neighbourhood of the barrier Ross found a depth of 250 fathoms, which is precisely
the depth at which icebergs rising 180 or 200 feet above the surface must, so to
" lose their
say, footing," and float away freely. The weight of the icebergs being
about nine-tenths of that of marine water, nine-tenths of their volume must neces-
sarilyremain submerged but the mass being generally broader at the base than
;
the summit, the depth of the submerged walls must be estimated at seven or
eight
times the height of the exposed cliffs.
Once detached from the continental sheet of ice by some rectilinear form of
breakage, the huge flotsam sets out on long journey towards the equatorial seas.
its
Some of the blocks present a regular wall 5 or 6 miles long with arched openings
at the base. They look almost like some street frontage gone adrift, at times
sparkling in the sun, but more frequently wrapped in vapour, like seme misty
phantom of the brain. A
nearer view reveals a frowning stronghold faced by
mighty bastions embattled ramparts or gloomy recesses where the angry waters
;
disappear amid the flanking towers overhanging cornices with snowy draperies
;
pendent from the summit. The icy cliffs, standing out at a distance with even surface
of uniform dull colour, are now resolved into an endless variety of tints and outlines.
Throughout the whole thickness of the walls follow the parallel parting lines of the
successive snowy layers crystallized by pressure and the weather, drawing continu-
ally closer with the superincumbent weight, here and there warped to serpentine
curves or else fractured with sharp fissures. The prominent parts are of a dazzling
whiteness, others shaded in blue, each slope, each crystal aperture the loveliest azure,
and at night the floating mass is all aglow with an opal phosphorescence.
It drifts
slowly with the current, incessantly lashed by the waves breaking against it, as
against some rocky shoal. The crews of passing vessels often hear the continuous
thunder of the waters rushing through its cavernous recesses and dashing against
the inner walls. Then the sustaining pillars at last give way,
the arched vaults
28 AUSTRALASIA.
break with a crash, and the scattered fragments of the crystalline mountains lose
that tabular form which is so characteristic of the southern as compared with the
debris floats away
northern icebergs. Gradually breaking into smaller pieces, the
in long convoys, where it is no longer possible to distinguish those of marine from
those of glacier origin.
According to the quantity of the drifting ice and the velocity of the currents
the fragments advance to a greater or lesser distance northwards, as a rule,
however, seldom penetrating much beyond the 55 of south latitude. Yet they
have not unfrequently been met much nearer the equator, especially to the
west of New Zealand and in the South Atlantic, where they have been seen as
far north as Tristao da Cunha, and off the Cape of Good Hope under the thirty-
fourth parallel. On an average the austral advance 240 miles nearer to the
equator than the northern icebergs. The largest observed by the Challenger
was about 250 high but Cook recorded one over 330 feet, while several
feet ;
fully one-third higher were measured by Wilkes. They range as a rule from
1,500 to 3,000 feet in breadth, yet none of those seen by the naturalists of the
Challenger carried any fragments detached from the rocky mountain slopes,
although such cases were frequently observed by Ross, Dumont d'Urville, and
other explorers. A
sketch by John MacNab, who accompanied Balleny's ex-
pedition of 1839, represents an iceberg bearing a black rock embedded between

two cr\ stal nippers. Another huge mass seen by Weddell was so covered with
blackish clay that at a distance it would certainly have been taken for a cliff.
VOLCANIC AGENCIES.
Drift ice thus contributes in some measure to modify the form of the continents
by transporting debris of all kinds to the islands scattered for thousands of miles
over the ocean, or depositing them on the marine bed and in this way perhaps
laying the foundation for future barrier reefs. But other agencies are also at
work, in one place enlarging, in another diminishing the contours of the oceanic
lands. The researches of naturalists have shown
that during the course of long
ages these agencies have accomplished considerable changes in the geography of

the Pacific islands. In the work of modification the chief part has been played
submarine " island
by the igneous forces, and the coralline builders," which strew
the seas with their marvellous structures.
Volcanoes are far more numerous and energetic in the Pacific basin and sur-
rounding continental seaboards than on the opposite shores of the Old and New
World washed by the Atlantic. The fires of Iceland, the Azores, the Canaries, the
Cape Verd Islands and West Indies, pale before those which follow at intervals
around the vast semicircle formed by the coasts of the mainlands
sweeping round
from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope. The craters are reckoned
by hundreds
"
in this "fiery circle some 20,000 miles in extent, which reaches from the northern
island of New Zealand to the southern shores of Chili. Here the chain of burn-
ing mountains, occasionally interrupted by wide intervals, especially north of New
VOLCANIC AGENCIES. 29
Zealand, comprises the active cones of the New Hebrides, the Santa-Cruz and Solo-
mon groups, the chain of the Philippines, and of Japan, where Milne reckons 129,
of which thirty-five are active, the Kurile
Archipelago with sixteen, the Aleutian
Islands with thirty-four, of which ten are active.
Through the Alaskan peninsula
the series is connected with those of the west coast of
America, which are continued
southwards to the Bridgeman and other cones and westwards to the New Shet-
land Islands. Here rises the breached crater of Deception Island with its circular
haven 18 or 20 miles round and 500 feet deep, whose flanks
consisting of alternate
Fig. 10. VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC.

Scale 1 :
20j,000,000.
.
3.000 Miles.
strata of ice and ashes discharge rivulets of thermal waters. Lastly, this focus of
activity isconnected by by the south pole with the three

the arc of a circle passing
lofty cones of Erebus, Terror, and Melbourne, the first

of which still casts a lurid
light over the dreary waste of snow. Between these giants and New Zealand the
vast circuit is completed by a succession of islands and headlands, partly at least
composed of lavas.
Within the circuit itself occur the lines of faults, through which have been
vomited mountains of scoriaj or ashes, and most of these cones run in parallel lines
80 AUSTRALASIA.
or are disposed in curves. The Mariunnas, the Tonga and Samoan archipelagoes
have all their volcanoes, and towards the centre of the circuit of North Pacific
burning mountains rises the group of stupendous Hawaiian craters.
Beyond the circuit towards the Indian Ocean, a formidable igneous chain,
beginning to the west of New Guinea, comprises a
line of islands west of Timor,
Flores, Sumbawa, Sombok, and Buli, together with Java with its forty-five cones,
of which twenty-eight are still active. West of Java the volcanic chain no longer
runs westwards, but is intersected at a sharp angle by another line of fracture
traversing Sumatra with its sixty-seven cones, of which five are still active. On
the opposite side of the Indian Ocean rise the insular cones of the Mascarenhas
and Comoro group, while Madagascar itself is studded with hundreds of extinct
craters. Others, such as those of St. Paul and Amsterdam, follow in the austral
waters, here rising amid the surrounding ice floes.
New Zealand, the Sunda Islands, Japan, the Kuriles and Hawaii are amongst
the regions that have been most profoundly modified by igneous agencies, at least
during the historic period. But the most active centre on the surface of the globe
isprobably the Sunda Strait, which marks the precise spot where the two volcanic
axes of Java and Sumatra intersect each other on the edge of the submarine bank
separating the Sunda plateau from the deep abysses of the Indian Ocean. Here
is situated the famous island of Krakatau, which lost two-thirds of its area during
the eruption of 1883, when other islands rose to the surface, and the atmosphere
became charged with volcanic dust wafted by the winds round the periphery of
the globe.
CORALLINE FORMATIONS. ATOLLS.
The changes caused by the coral builders, although accomplished at a much

slower rate and without any sudden convulsion of nature, are none the less even
more important than those due to igneous agency. In the Pacific alone Dana
enumerates two hundred and ninety coralline islands, which with the inner lagoons
cover a total area of no less than 20,000 square miles.* If to these be added
surfaces large enough to afford space for a
village or clump of cocoanut palms,
the islands and islets must be reckoned thousands which have been
by many
constructed by the polypi in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and
especially in
the central and western parts of the South Sea. These organisms are unable
to carry on their operations in waters whose winter temperature is less than 68 or
70 F. But the zone where they find the necessary thermal conditions offers on
either side of the equator a variable breadth, in some places exceeding 3,500
miles.
Everywhere within these wide limits, living colonies are able to establish them-
selves on the shores and shallows flooded to
depths of 130 to 150, and under certain
conditions of from 300 to 320 feet. But they are unable to live in waters too
highly charged with sedimentary or alluvial matter, and the barrier reefs are con-
* United States
Exploring Expedition, vol. x.
CORALLINE FORMATIONS. 31
sequently interrupted by large fluvial estuaries. Nor can they secure a footing on
too rapidly shelving rocks. Hence certain coasts which we should expect to be formed
" " "
of " living coral are found to consist only of dead matter. The work is also
hindered or arrested altogether in certain storm-tossed seas, where the deeper and
colder waters are churned up and driven landwards. Thus may perhaps be
explained the absence of corals along a great part of the arid and parched seaboard
of Somaliland.
But apart from these few interruptions, the shores and islands of the equatorial
zone are everywhere fringed or encircled by coral Besides the polypi, or
reefs.
true coral builders, of which there are numerous species, other organisms also
secrete calcareous matter, and thus contribute towards the enlargement of the dry
land. Account must also be taken of the seaweeds, algae, nullipores, and the like,
Fig. 11. ZONE or THE COBALLINE ISLANDS.

Scale 1 : 120.000.000.
20"
Atolls. Barrier Eeefc. Upheaved Lands.
___^_ 1.800 Miles.
some of which develop a on the rocky surfaces, like the lichens in

solid crust
northern latitudes, while others accumulate in thick deposits on the beach. Being
thus gradually raised by the petrification of successive generations, the reefs con-
tinue to grow with the new life destined to disappear and become fossilised in its
turn. This of the
growth rock proceeds as a rule at an extremely slow rate,
living
not more than 38 or 40 inches in two hundred or three hundred years but the ;
field of operation is limited only by the boundless extent of the marine waters, and
the yearly result consequently represents hundreds of millions of cubic yards added
by all these zoophytes to the solid crust of the globe.
Even islands situated in an area of depression and slowly subsiding when com-
pared with the surrounding sea-level may be fringed by a band of reefs growing at
a more rapid rate, and thus gradually rising above the surface of the water. The
82 AUSTRALASIA.
best as a rule on the outer rim of the reefs, where they are exposed
polypi flourish
to the fresh currents and wash of the tides, and
here their buildings most rapidly
rise tohigh-water level. Then their further growth above the surface and trans-
the work of storms. Huge blocks
formation to islands or continental seaboards is
detached from the encircling reef are thrown together in rude heaps, and gradually
consolidated fresh additions.
by Then the dry surface is weathered and prepared
for the reception of the seeds brought by wind and water. Here the seafowl build
their nests, the germs strike root, grasses and shrubs spring up on the new land
thus born of the tempest.
The form and appearance of the upheaved coral structures differ greatly accord-
have been constructed. The least noteworthy are
ing to the regions where they
the barrier reefs which fringe the insular and continental shore lines, and which
rest on a foundation of shelving rocks. But in many places the reefs are not in
contact with the coasts around which they have grown up, but are developed at
some distance seawards, leaving here and there a navigable passage, or at least
a flooded channel between their inner edge and the mainland. Some of these
formations extend for hundreds, and in the case of the Great Barrier Reef of
Australia for over 1,000 miles along the coast. Others, such as the annular reef
of New Caledonia, completely encircle the island, which remains as a central
nucleus to the system. A
slight upheaval would change to dry land the inter-
mediate space between the island and the ring, thus doubling or trebling the
extent of the raised surface.
Lastly, there are thousands

of systems which have no central nucleus, and
which consist of nothing but a perfect or fragmentary ring enclosing an inner
lagoon either still communicating with or separated from the sea and gradually
siltingup with the accumulating sands and organic debris. Some of these lagoons
have even been transformed to freshwater basins by the slow action of the rains.
To all annular reefs has been extended the term atoll from those of the Mai-
dive Archipelago, the most regular and numerous group found in the whole
ocean.
Every possible transitional form occurs between the barrier reef skirting the
mainland and the perfectly circular atoll lashed on its outer rim by the stormy
seas,and enclosing an inner lagoon of smooth water. Most of the forty thousand
rocks and islets in the Maldive Archipelago are so disposed as to form atolls
within atolls, that is to
say, each fragment of a ring is itself a ring.
The study of the coralline reefs led the illustrious Darwin to form some bold
general! ations on the slow oscillations of the terrestrial crust. Finding that the
barrier reefs and outer walls of the atolls rise in
many places above deep waters,
he concludes that these rocks were entirely built by the same polypi who are still
piling up similar structures. But as they can work only in the surface waters
where the ceaseless ebb and flow brings them the materials of their edifices, the
great elevation of so many coralline rocks would seem to attest a gradual subsi-
dence of the marine level. The first colonies began their operations within about
120 feet of the surface ;
but according as the structures rose the ground sank, and
CORAL FORMATIONS. 88
so the reef continually subsiding at the base and rising at the summit, grew to a
far greater thickness than 120 feet.
Thus was explained the formation of barrier reefs at great distances from the
shore. At one time they fringed the coast, which slowly sank with the general
movement of subsidence, while the reefs continued awash, thanks to the incessant
labour of their coralline inhabitants. The mainland, which formerly served to
support the superstructure, gradually sank deeper and deeper, thus continually
retiring from the outer barrier of the steadily rising coral reefs. The passage
also became gradually enlarged, and by the disappearance of the central nucleus
itself the inner waters were at last transformed to a lagoon. Certain archi-
pelagoes, such as the Low Islands, are compared by Dana to a vast cemetery,
where every atoll marks the site of an engulfed land.
According to this theory it would therefore be easy to determine the character
of the oscillating movements to which the oceanic islands are subjected. The
reefs raised to great heights above the sea would thus indicate an area of upheaval,
the fringing coralline rocks would imply a state of comparative stability on the
seaboards, while the barriers and the atolls might be likened to floats placed on the
submerged lands. Most of the Pacific islands that is to say, all those that
sites of
follow from Pitcairn in the Low Archipelago to the Philippines along a line
passing north of Tahiti and Samoa would thus belong to a zone of depression, and
these scattered groups might be regarded as fragments of a vanished continent,
stretching across the south side of the North Pacific Ocean.
Such is Darwin's theory, which, however, can scarcely be applied with any
probability to all the oceanic lands girdled by coral reefs. Wherever the rock}'
pedestals supporting the superstructures of living polypi themselves consist of
calcareous secretions to any great depth, there can be no doubt that subsidence has
really taken place. But verifications have hitherto been made only at a limited
number of points, and in the absence of direct observations it would be rash to do
more than regard subsidence as very probable wherever the outer walls of the
coralline islands however, they rarely do into abysmal depths.
plunge rapidly as,
Thus near Enderbury, in the Phojnix Archipelago, the soundings reveal 1,800
fathoms within 3 miles of the shore, 900 fathoms at 1,400 yards from Danger
Island, near Vanikoro, while one of the reefs at Tahiti indicates a seaward slope of
72 degrees.
On
the other hand, observations made in the vicinity of certain coralline islands
show that at the foot of an escarpment less than 200 feet high, there stretch vast
platforms where fr-gments of volcanic origin have
been found scattered amongst
blocks of coral. In this case it is quite possible that eruptive cones
crumbling
eroded by the waves to a slight depth below the marine surface may have served
as foundations for the coral-builders, or else that their structures have been raised
on rocks entirely formed by other organisms working at considerable depths. But

many protracted observations must still be made before the diverse
coralline islands
Several groups, such as

can be classifiedaccording to their origin and history.
Low and Tonga Islands, supposed by
the Archipelago, Fiji, the Pelew, Solomon,
30
34 AUSTRALASIA.
on the contrary now known to belong

Darwin to occupy a zone of subsidence, are
to an area of upheaval.
OCEANIC FLORA.
An oceanic basin covering over half of the planetary surface from Behring
Strait to the Antarctic regions must naturally present every gradation of climate,
and consequently also a great diversity of animal and vegetable life. In the
of the continents the oceanic islands partake more or less of the
neighbourhood
Nevertheless the Eastern Archipelago is the only
adjacent floras and faunas.
insular group which can be regarded as forming part of the Old World from the
standpoint of its natural history.

The Indian flora, scarcely arrested by the inter-
vening shallow waters, continued to advance
from island to island towards the
south-east. In this insular region it has even developed a marvellous wealth of
forms, rivalled only in some few privileged districts of the neighbouring
main-
land.
Thanks to the periodical return of the monsoons, the currents and counter-
currents, the Indian flora has also spread to the clusters of small equatorial groups,
some of which contain an extremely limited number of endemic plants. On the
surprising resemblance presented by the native vegetation of remote

islands
certain naturalists base a strong argument in favour of a former vast expansion

of oceanic lands,which are at present broken into a thousand scattered fragments.
But while widely separated lands offer a great analogy in their plant life,
others again lying in close proximity often present the most startling contrasts.
Thus Madagascar possesses an independent flora, and in this respect is by no means
an African island, as might be supposed from its geographical position. More
than half of the local species hitherto discovered are absolutely indigenous. The
volcanic Mascarenhas group also possess such a large number of peculiar forms,
that these islands may be regarded as so many distinct botanical stations.
In the Pacific Ocean the Hawaiian Archipelago also constitutes a separate
vegetable zone ;
of all tropical insular groups it possesses the relatively largest
number of endemic plants. In the Galapagos group also more than half of the
species are of local origin. Although this archipelago lies near the American
mainland, and exposed to the direct influence of the equatorial current setting
is
from the coast of Ecuador, each of its six islands to some extent even constitutes a
special centre. Thickets of plants belonging to a single genus and
growing on
soils are nevertheless formed of different
analogous species in the different
members of this remarkable group.
The flora of the Australian continent is one of the most characteristic on the
globe, although northern and north-western shores approach close to the islands
its
forming part of the Indian vegetable zone. The contrast is very marked between
York peninsula in north Australia and the south coast of New Guinea,
yet the
shallow intervening strait is studded with
islands, by which plants might with
apparent ease have migrated to and fro. Nor is Australia altogether destitute of
species of Indian origin, for in the forests of the north-western regions no less
OCEANIC FLOHA. 85
than a hundred different trees are found which have come from the Asiatic
continent. But the typical forms are the same throughout the whole of Australia,
where the vegetation everywhere presents a great uniformity of aspect. In
the woodlands the prevailing types are those of the eucalyptus, acacias, casuarinas,
and trees with slightly developed foliage or leaves pointing downwards.
vertically
The open steppes are overgrown chiefly with diverse kinds of scrub and brush-
wood.
The Australian indigenous flora is
extremely rich in forms, in this respect
yielding only to that of the Cape regions. New Caledonia, although lying 800
miles from the coast of Queensland, offers in its vegetation a surprising resem-
blance to that of Australia yet the distance is too great to assume any consider-
;
able interchange of species. On the other hand the New Hebrides, lying
immediately to the east and north-east of New Caledonia, are connected with the
Indian zone by their luxuriant tropical flora.
Norfolk Island, also in the East Australian seas, is distinguished by its endemic
vegetation, which includes one of the finest species of araucaria, a palm, some
thistles and tree-ferns. It forms a transition between Australia and New Zealand,
which differ altogether in the character of their respective floras. According to
Grisebach, that of New Zealand shows more affinity with the Araucanian of South
America than with that of the neighbouring continent. Its evergreen woodlands
are the richest in the world in tree-ferns, and consequently give a better idea
than any others of the aspect of nature in the geological epochs when the great
cryptogamous plants prevailed. But on the whole this flora is comparatively poor,
which doubtless due to the isolated position of the archipelago in the South Sea.
is
Notwithstanding its proximity to the Chilian seaboard, the island of Juan-Fernandez

is connected with the New Zealand zone through the h'gh proportion of its tree-
ferns.
The impoverished floras of the oceanic islands south of the forty-fifth degree of
latitude scarcely deserve mention when compared with those of the corresponding
latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Although lying as far from the south as do
Havre and Cherbourg from the north pole, Kerguelen Island possesses only eighteen
flowering plants, or about five times less than Spitzbergen.
This poverty is due
also perhaps to the extreme
partly to its arid soil and isolated position, partly
of the annual climate and to the deficient sunlight in those foggy
uniformity
Austral regions. The lands lying nearer the antarctic snows still possess a few
stunted growths, although passing navigators might suppose their rockbound
shores absolutelydestitute of vegetation. The first explorers who ventured into
the antarctic seas speak with a sort of awe and horror of these dreary wastes, and
endless succession of bare cliffs, sands, and snows with peaks lit up by watery sun-
beams or wrapped in mists, according as the clouds gathered or were dispersed
" " " abode of
by the boisterous winds. Cursed lands they exclaimed,
! everlasting
"
gloom !
36 AUSTRALASIA.
OCEANIC FAUNA.
The oceanic world lias also its their distribution presents

special faunas, although
the greatest contrast, according to the direction of the atmospheric and marine
of the insular groups. The
currents, the greater or less isolation and accessibility
waters for hundreds
Reabirds of strong wing and keen vision, who sweep over the
of miles at a stretch, have a very wide range, limited north

and south only by
as easily as the fish,
the climatic conditions. They accomplish long migrations
and are able to spread from island to island, like the plants whose germs resist
for
months the action of the marine water. But apart from these aquatic fowl, who
dominate the aerial spaces, most of the local animals are confined to their respective
insular domains,their from one region to another being mainly due to
migration
the conscious or unwilling intervention of man, or else to the facilities occasionally
in the distribution of land and water. In no
presented by geological changes
otherway does it seem possible to explain the existence of species common to
lands and the neighbouring continents.
many remote islands as well as to these
On the other hand, forms peculiar to a single island or archipelago must be
or development. However they may have
regarded as of strictly local origin
reached their present habitation, here their evolution into distinct forms has been
accomplished. But such characteristic types are chiefly confined to the lower
members of the animal kingdom.
Madagascar, which almost ranks as a conlinent in virtue of its is
peculiar flora,
no less original in its fauna, which with one or two exceptions appears to be almost
entirely local. The Mascarenhas also constitute an independent centre, which till
for the vital struggle, and conse-
recently comprised some birds badly equipped
quently destined soon to disappear after the arrival of man.
Notwithstanding its proximity to the Indian and Indo-Chinese peninsulas, the
Eastern Archipelago cannot be regarded as a simple zoological dependency of the
mainland. On the contrary, it appears to be itself the centre of dispersion for
numerous forms, the Malay peninsula and Indo-China having apparently received
from the archipelago as many immigrants as they have sent thither. If the
elephant, rhinoceros, and tiger have reached Sumatra from the continent, Borneo,
or at least the region of which this island is a fragment, has given in exchange
the orang-utan and several other peculiar insular forms. So rich is Malaysia in
large mammals that this region should be regarded as still forming part of the
Asiatic world.
The parting line between the Malaysian and Australian zoological zones
passes to the east of Celebes, which island forms a little centre of its own, very
distinct in many respects from all its neighbours.
Australia, the home of the marsupials, presents in its fauna, as in its flora, a
character of antiquity which has led some geologists to regard it as one of those
regions whose surfaces have never been re-moulded or seriously modified by

natural agencies. Nevertheless, comparatively recent Tertiary formations are now
known to occupy a large extent of the continent. The marsupials, unknown in the
OCEANIC FAUNA. 37
Old World except in the Indo-Chinese lands, which in this respect

may be
considered a dependency of Australasia, are here represented by no less than
thirteen genera and over a hundred species. On the other hand, there is a total
absence of apes, pachyderms, and ruminants, while the camivora, rodents, and
i dentata are far from numerous.
In its lower fauna Australia is no less original, its birds and lizards being quite
distinct from those of the Asiatic continent. New Zealand also forms a separate
zone, which has long been destitute of any characteristic mammals except a rat,
and perhaps one species of otter. On the other hand,
possessed two remarkable
it
families of birds, the apteryx and dinornis, which, like the dodo of Mauritius, have
perished since the arrival of man. New Zealand had no less than fifteen species
which belong to the ostrich family.
of these birds,
Farther east the Polynesian islands are completely destitute of mammals, beyond
some small species of bats and rodents. Reptiles are also rare; while birds, thanks
to their power and natation, have been distributed in considerable numbers
of night
throughout the archipelagoes. In the same way man himself, passing in his light
outriggers beyond the straits and broader marine channels, has gradually colonised
nearly all the islands of Polynesia.
INHABITANTS OF THE OCEANIC REGIONS.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the oceanic islanders had already estab-
lished communication with each other, and long migrations had taken place, in
one direction towards Madagascar, in the other towards the remote eastern islands
of the Pacific. The populations of diverse origin occupying the Eastern Archipelago,
who are connected either by affinity or by commercial relations with the people of
South-east Asia, have long played the part of agents in promoting the intercourse
that has been maintained from one extremity of the ocean to the other. The
natives of Madagascar are at least partly related to the Malays of the Eastern
Archipelago, who have gradually spread their domain from island to island east-
wards, everywhere intermingling with the aborigines, or else colonising unoccupied
lands. Nearly all the idioms spoken throughout this vast domain, from Madagascar
to Easter Island, from the African to the American waters, are regarded as more or
less
closely related members of the one great Malayo-Polynesian linguistic family.
Nevertheless the extreme branches of this widespread family present profound
differences, while from the connection must be altogether excluded all the
Australian and extinct Tasmanian languages, and many also current amongst the
Papuan and Negrito inhabitants of New Guinea, the Philippines, the Andaman,
Nicobar, and a few other groups.
But while their common speech attests a general movement of migration
throughout the whole extent of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the marked contrast
in their physical appearance indicates such a great diversity of origin, that many
writers have grouped the oceanic populations in fundamentally distinct brown or

dark races. But however this be, such physical differences between the inhabitants
38 AUSTRALASIA.
of the various Insular groups, or of uplands and lowlands, may be largely explained
the intermingling of the two streams of ethnical migration. While one great
by
wave gradually advance;! along the line of the equator between Africa and America,
another stream set in the transverse direction, between the south-east extremity
of Asia and the Australian continent. Like the marine currents themselves,
these waves of human migration intermingled or intersected each other in their
onward movement across the oceanic lands. To the stream which followed the
direction of the equator was due the diffusion of a common form of speech, while
the transverse current passing from hemisphere to hemisphere across the narrow
marine gulfs and inlets brought from the Asiatic mainland the populations differing
in appearance and usages, and gradually displaced the different cultures.
The various dark populations at present scattered over the oceanic islands
followed the route of the Malay peninsula, possibly also that of lands
originally
now vanished or flooded by the shallow waters of the Java Sea. But the same
kindred people, by whom
highway was afterwards taken by the Malays and other
the dark races were displaced, absorbed, or driven to remote islands and upland
Sakais of the Malay peninsula, the
regions of difficult access. The Samangs and
Andamanese Islanders, the Negritos of the Philippines, the New Guinea Pupiums,
and the Australians, although for the most part greatly differing amongst them-
selves, are generally regarded as belonging originnlly
to the same group as the
black populations of India Santhals, Gonds, Kohls, Mundahs, and others. But how
profoundly the primitive type must have become modified in this wide area during
the course of ages, when the emigrants advancing southwards dwelt under diverse
climates, exposed compelled to modify their manner

to difficulties of diverse nature,
of life in a thousand ways, brought into friendly or hostile contact with distinct
peoples, and intermingling in different proportions with all these new elements.
We are separated only by a period of two thousand years from the dawn of
historic times in the Eastern Archipelago ; yet this comparatively short period
suffices toshow the profound influence exercised on the southern maritime peoples
by the civilisation introduced from Asia. At the beginning of this era the Hindus
were the teachers of the populations of Java, Bali and Sumatra. Their influence is
known to have even reached Borneo, and their far-reaching activity is well attested
by numerous monuments, loc.il names, writing systems, religious legends, and

social usages. The Arabs who succeeded the Hindus, both as instructors and
promoters of commercial intercourse, also commanded a large measure of success
in this insular region, where
many millions at present profess the Mohammedan
religion, and where even Arabic family names are current from the Comoros to
Borneo.
On the other hand, the action of the Chinese has been less direct and of more
limited extent. They keep more aloof from the natives, and have never attempted
any religious propaganda like the missionaries from India and Arabia yet in
;
several districts the Chinese constitute the substratum of the The race
population.
has been incessantly renewed
by the constant stream of immigration maintained
for many generations from the Celestial Empire.
INHABITANTS OP THE OCEANIC REGIONS. 89
At
present the preponderating influence has passed to the peoples of Western
Europe. All these lands inhabited by Malays, Negritos, Papuans, Maoris, and other
Polynesians, belong politically to one or another European power, or are already
regarded as coming within their legitimate sphere of action or that of the United
States. Thus like Africa, the oceanic world is almost entirely parcelled out amongst
the Western nations. Commanding a thousand marine highways, including that
through the Isthmus of Suez created by themselves, these nations have far out-
stripped their Hindu, Arab, and Chinese forerunners in rapidity of action, material
strength, and dominant civilising influences, while still increasing their hold of
these regions at the very antipodes of the European world.

In this political, commercial, and ethnical expansion of the cultured peoples of
the West, the foremost place belongs unquestionably to the Anglo-Saxon race, the
British and American branches of which seem destined jointly to absorb the whole
of the Pacific insular lands. The young but vigorous colonies of Australia and
New Zealandmay be said already to constitute an oceanic Britain, forming a sort
of equilibrium with that of the Northern hemisphere, and serving as a sure founda-
English language, social and political institutions,

tion for the future spread of the
throughout the Eastern seas, from Auckland Island to the Sandwich Archipelago,
from Torres Strait to Easter Island.
The great ethnical divisions oJ the people occupying the oceanic region
correspond in a general way with the geographical distribution of the insular
groups themselves. Madagascar forms a little world of its own, where the Malay
immigrants, and the aborigines of African descent have alieady been merged in a
single nationality with absolute uniformity of speech.
The Eastern Arc/ii/ielago and
the Philippines are mainly inhabited by the Malays, closely related to those of the
Asiatic peninsula to which they give their name. But amongst them still survive
isolated communities of different dark and dwarfish peoples by many
origin,
supposed to be of Dravidian or Kolarian stock. The Pelew, Marianne, Caroline,

and Marshall groups stretching north of the equator and of the Melanesian lands,
and which the collective term Micronesia has been fittingly applied, offer a
to
mixture of races constituting an ethnical transition between the Malays, the Papuans,
and the natives of the smaller insular dependencies of Japan. Farther south the
of the great bulk of the
expression Melanesia, indicating the black complexion
inhabitants, has been similarly applied to Papuasia, or New Guinea, with the adjoin-
ing groups of New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, and
the New Hebrides.
belonged to an aboriginal dark race
Till recently the Australian continent also
of homogeneous type, with scarcely a truce of Malay blood except here and there on
from Hawaii
the north and north-west coastlands. Lastly all the eastern islands,
to New Zealand, constitute the watery dom .in of the large brown Polynesian race,
which also preserves a remarkable uniformity of type, except in Fiji and a few
other places, where it has been modified by intermixture with the aboriginal
Melanesian element.
CHAPTER II.
THE MASCARENHAS.
REUNION MAURITIUS RODRIGUES.
HE term Matcareuhas, originally applied in 1513 by the Portuguese

navigator, Pedro de Mascareukas, to the single island of Reunion,
has gradually been extended to the whole group, which although
geologically distinct, presents great uniformity in its outlines,

climate, productions, and history. Long united politically under
the sovereignty of France, the different members of the archipelago still remain
sister islands, at least in the homogeneous character of their white populations.
After the conquest, however, Reunion alone was restored to France, England
retaining possession of Mauritius, the most important if not the largest, together
with its natural dependency, Rodrigues. They have jointly a superficial area of
1,600 square miles, and a population in 1888 of nearly 560,000. This gives a
density of 3-30 to the square mile, although the hilly districts are mostly unin-
habited.
The two chief islands, of nearly equal size and configuration, are irregular
oval cones of volcanic origin rising from great depths to considerable elevations
above the surface. Reunion, the larger and higher, has alone a still active crater ;
but in economic importance it is far surpassed by Mauritius, the north-eastern

island, which has the advantage of a natural haven serving as a convenient
harbour of refuge in those stormy waters. This port has consequently become
the centre of an active export trade, and the headquarters of various industrial
enterprises in Madagascar and other parts of the Indian Ocean.

Being exposed to the same regular south-east trade winds and land breezes, and
equally well watered on the windward side, both islands are subject to the same
climatic conditions. Thus the mean annual rainfall in Mauritius is about 150 inches,
in Reunion 160 165 inches, while both are frequently devastated by the same
to
destructive cyclones. These tremendous hurricanes, which are developed between

5 and 10 sweep over the Indian Ocean in an oblique direction towards
S. latitude,
the south-west. In the Mascarenhas waters, or farther west near Madagascar,

they are deflected to the south and again to the south-east, thus taking the opposite
direction to the regular trades. Although occurring at every season, they are rare
THE MASCAEENHAS. 41
in winter, and most frequent between December and

April, but especially to be
dreaded in February, when the waters are churned
up, giving to the seas the
appearance of a boiling caldrou. During the storm of February 26th, 1860,
many and cargoes to the value of 120,000 were swallowed
vessels foundered,
up
by the waves, while twenty-three thousand native huts were swept away
by the
still more terrific
gale of 1868. Occasionally huge blocks of coral are torn from
the reefs and borne by the
raging waters far into the interior, looking as if hurled
across the land by some tremendous submarine
explosion.
FLORA AND FAUNA.
Owing to their oceanic origin the Mascarenhas have an independent flora and
fauna, differing not only from those of the Asiatic and African continents, but also
from those of Madagascar and neighbouring islands. It is no
longer possible to
determine the exact nature of the local flora before the arrival of the first settlers,
as since that time most of the forests have been cleared and cultivated plants intro-
duced, while some three hundred wild species have supplanted the indigenous
forms. Except the citron, Reunion appears to possess no fruit-tree to peculiar
itself. Nevertheless botanists still enumerate over five hundred 'endemic plants
in the Mascarenhas and Seychelles. Of the forms common to other
regions, the
more numerous than those of African origin. Of twenty-two varieties
Asiatic are
of the pandanus, these islands possess as
many as twenty, and of these nine
are peculiar to Mauritius, four to Reunion, three to the
Seychelles, and two to
Rodrigues. The large proportion of ferns and orchids imparts to the vegetation
of the Mascarenhas a distinct place among insular floras.
Most naturalists admit that all the mammals at present found in the island a
Madagascar lemurian and centetes, a wild cat, a hare, some rats and mice have
been introduced by the colonists. Some lizards, snakes, and frogs also occur ;
while the land turtles, formerly so numerous that they "paved" the beach, have
been exterminated by the fishermen. The deer, still met in Mauritius but extinct
in Reunion, were introduced by the Portuguese, and efforts have recently been
made to acclimatise the ostrich. Strange to say, the islet of Ronde, about 16
miles north of Mauritius, forms a separate biological kingdom, possessing one
peculiar species of cabbage-palm, some lizards, two snakes, and relatively more
monocotyledonous plants than any other region in the world.
These islands were formerly noted for their large wingless birds, such as the
dodo and the aphanapterix, the "solitary" (pezophaps loKtariei), the giant water-
fowl larger than a man, a species of lori, as well as many others, the non-fossilised
remains of which have recently been discovered by Clarke in Mauritius. But a
few decades after the arrival of the Europeans all these helpless birds, apparently
dating from the Miocene epoch, had already disappeared, falling an easy prey to
the rats, dogs, cats, and pigs of the settlers. Quite recently the a/cctorceiws nitidis-
sima, a species of pigeon, has become extinct in Mauritius, just as the akctorcena*
rodcricana, another variety of the same genus, had already died out in Rodrigues.
42 AUSTRALASIA.
INHABITANTS.
Like the Seychellt s and neighbouring insular groups, the Mascarenaas were
the year 1G16, when Pronis, governor of Fort Dauphin
completely uninhabited till
in Madagascar, transported twelve mutineers to Reunion. But these, as well as
a few French and Malagasy who established themselves at St. Paul in 1655, soon
of two Frenchmen and a
disappeared and the first permanent settlement, consisting
;
few was delayed to the year1663. Living a free life in the midst of
Negro slaves,
governors to oppress them, the

with no enemies to or little settle-
abundance, fight
ment prospered, villages were founded in the midst of plantations, and trade was
opened with the mother country. Then came the French East India Company,
which monopolised the commerce of Bourbon (Reunion), while Cerne was seized
But the Dutch settlement
by the Dutch and by them renamed Mauritius in 1598.
of Bourbon in 1715.
having been abandoned, Mauritius was occupied by the French
These early mostly from Noimandy, Brittany, and Santonge, were the
settlers,
ancestors of most of the white populations which now inhabit the Mascarenhas and
Seychelles to the number of about eighty thousand.

These islands of the Indian Ocean offer a remarkable instance of tropical lands
where the European race has succeeded in establishing itself, although later
intermixture makes it impossible now to determine the real proportion of whites
amongst the present miscellaneous elements. But the French Creole families are
known to be very fruitful, averaging about two hundred and fifty children to one
thousand married women, or one-third more than in France.
But the Europeans, including some English since the occupation of Mauritius,
Rodrigues, and the Seychelles by Great Britain, constitute only a minority of the
present population, which comprises the descendants of Malagasy, Kafir, and other
African slaves emancipated by the French Republic. This measure, however, was
successfully resisted by the planters, and the blacks did not acquire their indepen-
dence about the middle of the present century. Although they are greatly
till
inferior in number to the rest of the inhabitants, their French Creole jargon has
become the common medium of intercourse for all French, English, Chinese,
Arabs, Malays, and Hindus.
The abolition of slavery obliged the planters to introduce coolies from China,
" "
Malaysia, India, and especially Malabar, the term Malabar being now commonly
applied to all the Hindus of whatever origin. Every precaution was taken to
protect the freedom of these coolies, but on most of the plantations the old treat-
ment of the Negro slaves continued to be applied to the hirelings. The immigra-
tion of the Indians, now more numerous in Mauritius than all the other elements
combined, has also been carried out in violation of the natural laws. Owing to
the scarcity of women but few families could be established, and
polyandria became
the rule on the plantations. The few children of these households were greatly
neglected, and the excessive infant mortality had to be compensated by continuous
fresh importations from China and India. To the Chinese was due the introduc-
tion of leprosy, to the Hindus the so-called " Bombay fever," which in 1866-8
MAUBITIUS. 43
swept away seventy-two thousand souls, or one-fourth of the population of Mauritius.

And although these epidemics have decreased, the general poverty is greater than
ever, owing chiefly to the rapid growth of the population, in which the Hindus are
steadily acquiring the predominance over all other sections of the community, in
wealth and influence as well as in numbers.
MAURITIUS.
Although forming a link in the great semicircular chain of islands, Mauritius

appears never to have been connected with any other land, but to have been
independently upheaved. Consisting entirely of basaltic rocks, it is probably older
than Reunion, its coasts being much more indented, its hills more eroded, and its
craters more The great central mass is encircled by plains of reddish
obliterated.
clay formerly clothed with dense forests, but now laid out in plantations and gardens
and studded with villages. The central plateau is dominated by the Piton du
Midi (2,000 disposed columnar basalt,
feet), consisting exclusively of horizontally
but exceeded in altitude by the Black River peak, culminating point of the island
(2,730 feet). Above the picturesque hills in the northern district rises the remark-
able obelisk- shaped Pieter Both (2,700 feet) surmounted by an enormous globular
block, which adventurous climbers have occasionally scaled by means of ropes and
ladders.
The periphery is encircled by fringing reefs and islets with here and there a
few navigable channels giving access to the harbours. Cliffs of marine origin
now rising above the surface, show that Mauritius has undergone a change of level
since its first upheaval. La Ronde, La Plate, Le Coin_de Mire, and other islets
near the north coast are covered with refuse which attest the former existence of
an active volcano in these waters.
Mauritius has become almost completely disafforested, all the magnificent
timber, matted together with a network of creepers, as described by Bernardin
de
Saint-Pierre, having entirely disappeared. These clearances have had the usual
which are alternately flooded and
result of disturbing the discharge of the streams,
nearly dry watercourses.

At the foot of the hills are also formed temporary
meres, whose deadly exhalations are diffused far and
wide. The droughts are
more sudden, more copious and and extensive tracts
longer, the rains irregular,
formerly under cultivation are now

barren wastes.
The only large town is the capital, Port Louis, on the east or leeward side,
with haven sheltered by coral reefs, and defended by forts

a and batteries.
Founded by Made" de la Bourdonnais in 1735, to replace an older port on the

south-east Port Louis has
coast, graduallymonopolised the whole trade of the
island. a pleasant aspect towards the sea, it lacks the
But although presenting
to find in one of the chief commercial
splendour and elegance one would expect
thousand. Many
centres in the Indian Ocean, with a population of over seventy
the Hindus
of the suburbs, and even some of the busy quarters, being occupied by
and Malagasy, have a and neglected appearance, while much of
poverty-stricken
44 AUSTRALASIA.
of the Suez Canal.

itsformer trade has been diverted elsewhere by the opening
over 5,500,000 yearly the
Nevertheless, the exchanges still average considerably
;
port is always
crowded with shipping, and connected by regular steam service
and Reunion.
with Europe through the Suez Canal, as well as with Madagascar
Fig. 12. MAURITIUS.
Scale 1 : 760,000.
Depths.
tii 8) 80 to B40 640 tn s.200 s.200 Feet

Fe-t. Feet. Feet. and upwards.
IS Miles.
The and exports are sugar and rum, the island

staple produce possessing over
two hundred and fifty sugar mills, and forty distilleries, yielding on an average
from fifty to eighty thousand tons of sugar, and five thousand gallons of rum,
worth altogether from 160,000 to 200,000. Other articles of export are vanilla,
r ..;..-
!cS
fill; ;>.
U'
,
:, y Ui
! :
;fi
MAUEITIUS. 45
aloe fibre, and cocoanut oil, the imports being European wares, rice from
Bombay,
maize and cattle from Madagascar.
The whole island is intersected by railways connecting the capital with the
chief groups of plantations and residences of the
wealthy classes. On the north -
east line, six miles from the capital, lie the
sugar works of Pamplcmousse, and close
by the famous garden, founded in 1768 by Poivre, for the cultivation of tropical
plants. Here are some of the finest avenues in the world, and the place is still better
Fig. 13. POET Loms.

Scale 1 : 125,000.
5753"
Sand* and reefs exposed 0*o32 32 to 640 640 i eet and

at low water. Feet. Feet. upwards.
. 3 Miles.
" Paul and To the

known as the scene of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Virginia."
north-east lies the reef- fringed isle of Amber, where was wrecked the Saint-Gtran,
as related charming writer.
tbis Such also isthe power of the popular imagina-
by
tion, that travellers are shown the very graves of the two lovers.
The railway running from Saint-Louis towards the south-east traverses the
Wilhelm's Plains, where Curepipe, lying about the geometrical centre of the island
and 1,800 feet above the sea, has become the chief health resort in Mauritius.
The tea plantation of this district contained in 1887 over twelve
experimental
46 AUSTRALASIA.
thousand plants in good condition. The south-east line terminates on the east
coast at Mtiltt'bour/j, marking the site of one of the earliest Dutch settlements.
Mauritius is a crown colony, whose governor, as well as the five members of the
executive council, is named by the Queen. According to the modified constitution
of 1884-5, eight of the twenty-seven members of the legislative council are cx-officio
members, nine are appointed by the governor, and ten elected by citizens enjoying
a certain income. The defensive forces consisted in 1887 of four hundred and
men, and half of the military expenditure is defrayed by the home
forty- three
Government. The legislation, partly French and partly English, is extremely
to the great benefit of the
complicated, affording ample scope for endless litigation,
Although there is no State religion, both the Catholic and Anglican
lawyers.
Churches receive State aid, the latter out of proportion to its numbers. Grants are
also given to a certain number of schools, which, however, are scarcely numerous
enough to afford primary instruction to one-fourth of the children. Mauritius
possesses several scientific and literary institutions, and a considerable number of
periodicals, as many as six daily papers appearing in the capital. The revenue,
although exceeding 700,000, scarcely covers the expenditure, and there is a public
debt of over 800,000. The official currency is the Indian rupee of ten to the
pound and the metrical system is obligatory since 1878.

sterling,
Withthe exception of Sokotra, all the English islands in the Indian Ocean,
including even the Chagos and other groups belonging geographically to India,
depend administratively on Mauritius.
REUNION.
The " lie de la

largest of the Mascarenhas, officially designated as Reunion,"
but also still known by its old name of Bourbon, presents a smaller extent of
arable land and is
consequently less densely peopled than Mauritius. The surface
and steeply escarped plateaux, fringed by a narrow belt of
consists chiefly of hills
plains and gently inclined slopes. Hence most of the central parts are nearly
uninhabited, the population being confined mainly to a restricted zone of const-
lands. But although it has preserved its romantic aspect, Reunion, like Mauritius,
has lostits primeval woodlands, which
formerly descended to the water's edge, and
earned for the island the title of " Eden."
The main axis is disposed, not north-east and south-west like that of Mauritius,
but north-west and south-east, and in this direction are
disposed all the higher
crests. At the entrance of the gorges occur a few narrow alluvial or shingly plains,
but elsewhere the escarpments rise everywhere abruptly from the water's to edge
the plateaux occupying the interior of the island. In the central where the
parts,
land has been eroded by the running waters, the
upland plains exceed 5,000 feet
in moan height, the parting line between the two in some even to
slopes rising places
an altitude of over 6,500 feet, and culminating in the Piton des
Neiges, about
10,000 feet. Mount Cimandef ("Bonnet Pointu"), a regular pyramid forming a
northern shoulder of this piton, although only 7,300 feet, srems to be the
EEUN10X. 47
highest point of the island when seen from the north-west between St. Denis
and St. Paul.
Towards the eastern extremity tbe eruptive lavas have developed two masses,
whose crests exceed 7,600 and 8,000 feet. Here is situated the semicircular
Grand Enclos, whose two outer ramparts stretching seawards completely enclose
tbe Grand Brule volcano. The cirque, averaging from 800 to 1,000 feet, is
perhaps the most regular formation of this kind in the whole world. It encloses a
f-pace of about 40 square miles in extent, the encircling walls having a total
length of 28 or 30 miles. Farther west occur similar formations, and in recent
Fig. 14. THE GBAND BK<JL.

Scale 1 : 190,000.
55 Vo- Easb oF Greenwich bb" so-
. 6 Miles.
years a second "enclosure" has been developed within the first round about the
central crater.
Here eruptions are still frequent ;
towards the end of the last century they
occurred at least twice a year, and between 1800 and 1860 as many as twenty
outbursts are at times
copious discharges were recorded by M. Maillard. The
such as those slender
accompanied by showers of ashes and other igneous matter,
threads of obsidian which the Hawaii islanders call the "hair of the goddess
Tele." In many parts of the Grand Brule roofs of hardened scoriae conceal the
hollow passigos through which the liquid lava streams were formerly discharged,
and these incrustations, which easily give way, are a source of great danger to
unguarded wayfarers on the flanks of the volcano.
Indications of upheaval to a height of 250 feet have been observed on the

48 AUSTRALASIA.
south-west side of Reunion, where old coralline beaches ai'e seen rising above the
present coastline. But owing to the great depth of the surrounding waters, coral
are somewhat rare on the
reefs, such as those that completely encircle Mauritius,
shores of the sister island.
is also remarkable for the
Besidessymmetrical volcanic formations, Reunion
its
wonderful cirques formed by the erosive action of the tropical rains. On the west
side occur three of these vast funnel-shaped basins with intervening narrow
ridges radiating from the central

mass of the Gros Morne, the whole being thus
" like a three-leaved shamrock." These deep chasms Cilaos, Mafute,
disposed
and Salazie sources respective!}' of the rivers St. Etienne, Galets, and Mat,
have each their thermal waters, of which the most efficacious is that of Mufute,
which abounds in sulphur. In the neighbourhood rises the isolated mountain
mass of the Piton d'Enchein, with a romantic lakelet at its foot.
In their general disposition the insular streams present the character of Alpine
upper courses, and farther down depositing the debris

torrents, destructive in their
produced by their erosive action. The vastness of these erosions may be judged
from the fact that the Salazie cirque alone has been excavated to the extent of no
less than 3,000,000 cubic feet. The process of denudation is still going on, and
even increasing, owing to the destruction of the forests on the mountain slopes, the
hand of man thus tending to transform a naturally fertile island into a barren
rock.
The dwarf bamboo (batnbitsa alpina), locally known by the name of "calumet,"
forms on the hillsides a sharply defined vegetable zone between the altitudes of
4,500 and 5,000 feet. Farther up the plateaux and higher summits are partlv
clothed with the Inil.etiin, a large shrub with gnarled twisted stem, which throws
off numerous smooth branches bearing large clusters of yellow blossom.
As in Mauritius, the chief industry is the cultivation of the sugar-cane, combined
with sugar refining and the distillation of rum. Since the wars of the Empire
the sugar plantations have gradually supplanted all other cultivated plants on the
coastland up to an altitude of from 2,800 to over 3,000 feet, yielding an average
yearly crop of thirty thousand to forty thousand tons. Formerly the annual crop
was estimated at sixty thousand tons, but this industry has suffered much from
various forms of blight as well as from the competition of beetroot
sugar. During
the last century coffee was the staple product in Bourbon, where a native
variety
(cojf'ca Manriciana) had been discovered, but at present the only important coffee
plantations are those of St. Leu and St. Pierre. The clove, which formerly
contributed to enrich the island, has ceased to be
grown, bat on the other hand
vanilla has become one of the chief articles of
export, the yield amounting in 1887
to about a hundred and thousand pounds more than that of any other
fifty colony,
and alone supply the whole of Europe. Neither tea, the vine, nor
sufficient to
cotton are grown, but cinchona has

lately been acclimatised, and in 1888 as many
as 26,700 of this valuable plant were already flourishing in the island.
But, as in Mauritius, the

development of these plantations has been attended
by a corresponding reduction in the growth of alimentary plants, and notwith-
KEUNION. 49
standing its
fertility, the soil no longer yields
sufficient com, vegetables, or fruits
for the local demand. Consequently these provisions, as well as cattle and other
live stock, have now to be imported, chiefly from Madagascar, and rice for the
coolies from Bengal. The extension of the plantations, owned
by a few great
proprietors, has also had the effect of driving the old settlers
from their small
holdings, which can no longer be worked profitably, and compelling them to swell
the number of idle hands in the large towns. The great landowners have thus
Fig. 15. THE THESE CIRQUES.
Scale 1 : 260,000.
. 3 Miles.
gradually absorbed everything except a few lleftes or isolated plots in the upland
valleys.
The competition of European wares has hitherto prevented the development of
any local manufacturing industries. No
attempt has even been made to utilise
the inexhaustible deposits of titanic iron thrown up by the waves on the beach at
St. Leu,
although these sands contain a mean proportion of over fifty per cent,
of pure metal. Reunion has a small commercial fleet, but nearly all the foreign
4-o
50 AUSTRALASIA.
trade is carried on under the French flag, and especially by the steamers plying
and Madagascar.
regularly between the Mascarenhas
TOPOGRAPHY OF REUNION.
St. Denis, present capital of the island, is not the oldest French settlement,
from Fort Dauphin
having been preceded by St. Paul, founded by pioneers
(Madagascar), on the north-west coast. It occupies
the northern extremity of the
island between two small rivers, and is a fine European city of some forty thousand
inhabitants, well laid out with regular streets and some handsome public buildings
Fig. 16. THE MABINA OF ST. DENIS.
!!
such as the governor's palace, town hall, barracks, hospital, lyceum, and museum.
A large space in the very heart of the town is occupied by a beautiful botanic
garden. But St. Denis, lying on the windward side of the island, is exposed to
the full fury of the cyclonic gales, and as it possesses no large sheltered harbour,
the shipping, on the approach of these hurricanes, is obliged to quit the open road-
stead and take refuge on the high seas. Nevertheless a brisk trade is carried on,
especially in sugar, of which nearly twenty thousand tons were exported in 1886.
Till recently the safest, or rather the least dreaded, seaport on the west side of
"
the island was St. Paul, lying " under the wind some 28 miles from the
capital, on a semicircular bay protected on the north by the triangular peninsula
EEUNION. 51
of Pointe des Galets. But few facilities for trade, and is moreover
this place offers
"
frequently exposed to the so-called vent de St. Gilles," a sort of back-current
from the regular monsoon, sweeping round from the east to the west side of the
island. A harbour of refuge, however, has lately been constructed at a cost of no
less than 2,700,000, to the north of St. Paul, under the shelter of the Pointe
des Galets. The basin, which is accessible to the largest vessels frequenting these
waters, has an extent of over forty acres, with a depth of 26 feet. This port is
Fig. 17. -Si. PIEEBE.

. Scale 1 : 12,000.
Depths.
Oto32 32 Feet and

Feet. upwards.
.
550 Yards.
conveniently situated towards the centre of gravity of the productive parts of the
island, where it is least exposed to the violence of the cyclones. Some of the
blocks used in constructing the sea-walls weigh as much as a hundred and twenty
tons.
South of St. Paul follow the half-deserted towns of St. Leu and St. Louis,
and beyond them the prosperous seaport of St. Pierre, with a well-constructed
harbour and solid breakwater enclosing an outer basin 30 to 50 feet deep.
Here the terminal station of the coast railway, which describes a curve of 75
is
miles round half the periphery of the island through St. Paul, the Pointe des
52 AUSTRALASIA.
Galets, St. Denis, to St. Benott. This line is a remarkable piece of engineering
work, abounding in deep cuttings, bridges, embankments, and tunnels.

Beyond the village's of St. Joseph and St. Philippe on the south coast, the
zone of inhabitable and fertile lands is interrupted by the eruptive rocks discharged
from the Grand Brute and several secondary craters. But after passing St.
Rose the main highway round the coast leads to St. Benott, which may claim the
title of a town, approached by a handsome bridge here crossing the
and which is
River des Marsouins. The railway from St. Benoit to St. Denis passes by
Bran-Penon, one of the few places in the island which is not under the protection
of some patron saint.
ADMINISTRATION-.
Reunion is represented in France by a senator and two deputies, while the
local administration is entrusted to a governor, assisted by a council, which is
composed of the chief officials and two of the leading citizens. There is also
a general council of thirty-six members elected by the cantons, and judicial
matters are controlled by a procureur-general. The mother country votes a
yearly subsidy for the support of the officials
and of the garrison, numbering from
three thousand to four thousand men. But public works and instruction are pro-
vided for the direct
by and indirect taxes, constituting a considerable local burden.
The island is divided administratively into eight cantons and sixteen communes,
tabulated in the Appendix.
RODRIGTJES.
Within a recent period Rodrigues, the Diego Ra'is of the Portuguese, was
supposed to be of different origin from other members of the Mascareuhas group.
Although it had been classed by Bory de Saint- Vincent and other naturalists
amongst volcanic lands, Higgiti* had described it as a mass of red and
grey granite
underlying sandstones and limestones, and this erroneous description had sufficed
"
to cause this island to be regarded as a remnant of the " Lemurian continent.
Rodigues, however, is not formed of granite rocks, but like Mauritius and Reunion,
consists of lavas ejected from the depths of the Here are even seen superb
sea.
columnar basalts, amongst others those of Thunder Mountain, which rises on the
north above the banks of Oyster River.
side, The shafts of the columns in this
place exceed 200 feet in height.
The lava formations are continued seawards by plateaux of cavernous reefs,
which more than double the extent of the and which render Rodrigues
island,
inaccessible to shipping, except through narrow and dangerous passages. But on
Ihe other hand, the surrounding waters are exempt from cyclonic storms the ;
south-east trade winds blow with great regularity, while the island is of too small
extent to give rise to shifting currents.
*
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1849.
EODEIGUES. 58
Rodrigues, which is administered by a commissioner dependent on the governor

of Mauritius, had in 1886 a population of less than two
thousand, a number
relatively ten times less than that of the neighbouring island. Formed of
disintegrated volcanic rocks, naturally fertile, and abounding in water and fruits,
the island was formerly covered with forests, which have been
destroyed by
conflagrations. Nothing is now seen except brushwood and here and there a few
Fig. 18. RODBIOUES.

ScaJe 1 : 136,000.
F=T ffr. : '..xia^.- ..-: :

\fe===y~
63" 20- Easb oP Greenwich 6530-
Uep'hs.
Beefs exposed at Oto80 80 to 160 160 to 320 320 Feet and

low water. Feet. Feet. Ft. upwards.
.
3J Miles.
clumps otpandanus vakoa. But although it no longer deserves the name of the
" "
earthly paradise given to it by Le Guat in the seventeenth century, Rodrigues
might easily support large numbers of settlers. It even still exports considerable
quantities of maize, haricot beans, fruits, fish, and cattle to Mauritius. The outlet
for this trade is the little town oi Port Mathurin, on the north coast.
The turtles which down to the beginning of the eighteenth century swarmed
54 AUSTRALASIA.
on the banks of Rodrigues, have completely disappeared, driven away or exter-

minated by the reckless way the fishery was conducted. About the year 1760, as
manv as thirty thousand were conveyed in eighteen months to Mauritius.
and Dutch, Rodrigues

Although visited from time to time by the Portuguese
was not permanently occupied till 1691, when the Protestant refugee, Le Guat,
resided here for over two years with seven companions. Before the abolition of
slavery, a considerable Negro population

was employed on the plantations but ;
since then numbers of the emancipated hands have withdrawn to Mauritius,

large
distant about 380 miles. In 1843 the population had thus fallen to about two
hundred and fifty souls, but since then it has again increased, mainly by the
arrival of blacks, who find employment in clearing and reclaiming the land on
the slopes of the hills.

There are only two small centres of population, Port Mathurin on the coast,
and Gabriel in the interior, near Mount Limon (1,320 feet), culminating point of
the island. On the southern slope are seen, at various elevations, old coralline
beaches pierced with caves. In one of these grottoes were discovered the remains
or " and of other birds to extinct
of the pezophas, solitary," belonging species.
During the Napoleonic wars, Rodrigues enjoyed considerable strategic import-

ance. After its seizure by the English, it was made the rallying-point of the
expeditions organised in India against Mauritius, and thus contributed to the

reduction of all the Mascarenhas Islands.
THE KEELING ISLANDS.
Beyond Rodrigues no lands are met in the direction of the Eastern Archipelago
fora distance of some 2,300 miles, the expanse of waters being first broken by
the small circular group of the Keeling Islands, so named from the English
navigator who discovered them in 16u9. They are also known as the Cocos
Islands, from the cocoanut palms lending a fringe of bright verdure to these
low-lying islets.
Although lying about 600 miles from the Sunda Strait, the Keeling Archi-
pelago had its origin, probably, in the same terrestrial movements that gave rise
to the Asiatic islands, for it
exactly faces the fissure now separating Java from
Sumatra, and is disposed in a line with the volcanic islets in the middle of the
strait.
Hence it
may be assumed that the Keelings rest on an igneous foundation
upheaved from the bed of the ocean. At little over a mile from the entrance to
the atoll, Fitzroy failed to touch the bottom with a line over 1,000 fathoms
long, so that the submerged slopes of the plateau must be inclined at an angle
of little less than This atoll, visited by Darwin during the
forty-five degrees.
voyage of the Beagle, in 1836, has become in geographical literature one of the
most frequently quoted examples in favour of the
great naturalist's ingenious
theory of subsidence and upheaval of the marine bed. According to this view,
the circular group of islets be regarded as the embatllements of the lofty
may
THE KEELING ISLANDS.
55
coralline tower, slowly built

up by the polyps as the base of the structure slowly
subsided. Since the preparation of the first chart of the
group, indications of
upheaval have been observed The beach has been raised and
enlarged, some of
Kg. 19. KEELINO ISLANDS.

Scale 1 : 135,000.
Depths.
Pands ;ind reefs ex- Oto64 64 to 6,400 6,410 Feet and

posed at low water. Feet. Feet. upwards.
3 Miles.
the channels have been closed, and lagoons formerly communicating with the open
sea are now inaccessible to shipping.
The atoll, which is interrupted by numerous breaches, and which opens out
broadly towards the north, consists of some twenty elongated islets occupying at
high water a total space of about six square miles. The only spontaneous growths
56 AUSTBALASIA.
are the cocoanut palms and about thirty other species, the germs of which have
drifted with the current from Java, sweeping round by Australia. But numerous
alimentary plants, as well as domestic animals and rats,
now a formidable scourge,
have been introduced by man. Hare, the first colonist, settled on the islands with
about a hundred slaves. But at present the archipelago has become one large
whose owner, who is also the governor, employs some five hundred
plantation,
All the inhabitants men, pigs,
Malays in working his vast palm-groves.
poultry, and the very crabs live mainly on cocoanuts. Water, of pluvial origin,
is procured from wells, which are sunk in the sands and which rise and fall with
the tides.
Formerly the group was considered a Dutch possession but it was occupied
;
by the English in 1856, and attached to the government of Ceylon. Since 1886,
however, it depends on Singapore.
CHRISTMAS ISLAND.
The triangular island of Christmas, lying 240 miles south of the coast of
Java, appears also to have risen like Keeling from the marine bed. Depths of
over 3,000 fathoms have been recorded ia the waters flowing between it and
Java. But although also covered with cocoanut palms, Christmas is not an atoll.
Almost completely encircled by fringing reefs, it is entirely of calcareous
coralline origin. Three distinct shore lines at the respective elevations of 40,
140, and 170 feet above the present sea-level seem to indicate three succes-
sive periods of upheaval.
AMSTERDAM AND ST. PAUL.
Both of these islets, lying in the southern region of the Indian Ocean, about
midway between the Cape of
. Good Hope and Adelaide in South Australia, are
masses of eruptive rocks ejected from the abysmal depths and unconnected with
any other lands. Neither plants, animals, nor fossils indicate any former
connection with the Mascarenhas or Madagascar. Within five miles of St.
Paul depths have been recorded of 1,200 fathoms, so precipitous are the sub-
marine escarpments. Although only forty-six miles apart, the two islands
themselves present great differences in their geological constitution, so that
they most probably never at any time formed continuous land. They are
considered to belong politically to Great Britain nevertheless fishermen from
;
Reunion have often endeavoured to make them French territory, and in 1843
a trading company landed some troops to take possession of these waifs in the
name of France.
On his return voyage after the death of Magellan, El Cano passed not far from
"a
very high island, situated under the thirty-seventh degree of latitude, which
seemed uninhabited, without any trees and with a circumference of about six
leagues," a description answering very well to the island afterwards named New
Amsterdam, or simply Amsterdam.
AMSTERDAM AND ST. PAUL. 57
The discoverer of St. Paul unknown, although the name already occurs in
is
a geographical document of the sixteenth At the beginning of the

century.
following century both islands were well known to the Dutch navigators, and Van
Vlaming was the first to land on them in the year 1696. Since that time they
have been frequently visited, too often unwillingly,
by shipwrecked crews, and
since 1841 St. Paul has been
permanently occupied by a community engaged in
Fig. 20. AMSTEBDAJf.

Scale 1 : 90,000.
77'3,' 773-*' Easb op Greenwich
Depths.
to 124 124 Feet and

Feet. upward).
2 Miles.
fishing and otter-hunting. Recently, also, they have been the object of scientific
expeditions, notably in 1874, when the French naturalists stationed at St. Paul
to observe the transit of Venus utilised the occasion to study the geological
structure and prepare charts of both volcanic masses.
It has often been proposed to establish a port of call at St. Paul on the route
to Australia. But under this latitude, although corresponding to that of Palermo
58 AUSTRALASIA.
and Athens in the northern hemisphere, the climate is so inclement, the west
winds blow at times with such fury, and the islands offer so few resources beyond
fish, that a residence on themalways regarded as a painful exile.
is
Amsterdam, which is much

the larger of the two, attains an altitude of 3,000
feet in its highest summit, which is nearly always wrapped in fogs. It has the
Fig. 21. ST. PAUL.
Scale 1 : 45 000.
77-53 77-38-
Depths.
otoie 16 to 160 160 Feet and

Fet. Feet. upwards.
2,200 Yards.
form of a somewhat regular rectangle, whose

longest axis is disposed in the
direction from south-east to north-west. On the west side have occurred extensive
landslips resulting in precipitous cliffs over 2,500 feet high, against which the
waves beat with great fury, so that it is seldom
possible to land on this side.
The summit, which has
rarely been ascended, presents a boggy surface dotted
AMSTERDAM AND ST. PAUL. 59
over with cones from which lavas have heen discharged. In 1792, at the time of
d'Entrecasteaux's visit, the island was in flames, caused either
by .the burning
of the dense mass of reeds growing on the plateaux, or
hy the craters, possibly
at that time in full activity. At present they are perfectly quiescent.
St. Paul, which is five or six times smaller than
Amsterdam, presents a
typical instance of a breached marine volcano of perfectly regular form. The
circular crater, now flooded by the sea, opens towards the north-east, and is
enclosed by escarpments and taluses from 760 to 900 feet high. Thus is formed
an extensive harbour of refuge completely sheltered and 240 feet deep, but
barred at the entrance by two projecting peninsulas of debris, which shift
their form with the waves, and which have at times been joined in a continuous
rampart, preventing all access to shipping. Thermal springs abound on the margin
of this basin, where by merely brushing aside the surface sands enough hot water
may be collected to boil the fish captured close by.
A comparison modern explorers would
of the early descriptions with those of
seem show that the underground energies have greatly diminished since the
to
discovery of the island. The thermal springs are apparently cooler, the gas jets
less abundant, the hot spaces less extensive. Moreover the island is itself
diminishing through the rapid destruction of its shores. Everywhere the coast
is carved into cliffs, and on both sides of the entrance to the flooded crater
huge
fragments have broken away from the flanks of the volcano. Towards the north-
east the coast is fringed by several rocky islets, of which the most
striking are
La Quille, a horizontally stratified pyramidal mass, and North Island, a basaltic
colonnade aifecting the form of a circular temple.
The flora comprises from thirty-five to forty species of mosses and lichens, and
about fifteen of herbaceous growths. The trees planted by the fishermen and the
botanists of various expeditions have not succeeded, while the vegetables, such as
potatoes, sorrel, and carrots, have much degenerated. The cabbage alone thrives
to a surprising degree, tending even to acquire arborescent proportions. A few

butterflies, and even a bee, have been found, but no land-shells. The pigs let loose
on the island survived only a few years, but the cats, mice, and rats have become
" Thrown common
acclimatised. together by a fate, they dwell peacefully in the
same retreats."
Amsterdam, less studied because less accessible than St. Paul, appears to
have a richer flora and fauna. It is even said to possess one or more small
Here the French expedition of 1874 discovered
quadrupeds, including a weasel.
about fifty plants, of which as many as twenty-three were indigenous species.
Amongst the larger growths is the phylica arborea, a shrub which had not previously
been met beyond the Atlantic bas-in.
THE ArstRAL ISLANDS.
Several insular groups follow eastwards in the regions of the Indian Ocean
Strewn with floating ice. But these cold lands, girdled round by breakers and
CO AUSTRALASIA.
buffeted by fierce gales, are too inhospitable to afford a permanent home to man.
Here shipwrecked mariners have often passed an anxious time daily sweeping the
horizon in search of a friendly sail. Whalers have also established more or less
on the
permanent stations in the neighbourhood of the fishing- grounds. Lying
ocean highway between Great Britain and Australia, in the track of the western
trade winds, these islands are fortunately well known, and have even been
carefully studied, especially by the naturalists of the Challenger expedition of 1874.
All are of volcanic origin, rising above the surface of waters over 1,500 fathoms
deep.
MARION, PRINCE EDWARD, AND THE CROZETS.
Marion, so named from the navigator who discovered it in 1771, is the highest
of the western group, lying over 720 miles to the south-east of the Cape of Good
Hope. It is exclusively of igneous formation, its central cone rising to a height

of over 4,000 feet, and even in summer covered with a snowy mantle down to
1,000 feet above sea-level. The periphery of this central cone is studded with
secondary craters presenting the appearance of excrescences on its flanks, while

heaps of red scorise, here and there moss-grown, descend to the water's edge.
Prince Edward, so named by Cook, attains an altitude of 2,000 feet. The
Crozets, also discovered by Marion, form an archipelago of several islands, one of
which, Possession Island, exceeds 5,000 feet. Hog Island takes its name from the
animals here by an English captain to supply the whalers and shipwrecked
let loose
crews but Rabbit Island would now be a more appropriate name, for the swine
;
have been replaced by thousands of coneys, which make their burrows in the
heaps of scoriae.
KERGUELEN.
Kerguelen, by far the largest of all these groups, was discovered in 1772 by
the French captain whose name it
bears, and who again the next year,
visited it
when he found it to be an island, and not a peninsula of the great southern

continent sought for by all navigators in the Austral seas. It was again explored
in 1776 by Cook, who proposed to call it Desolation Land, a name which it
certainly merits, to judge from the reports of the whalers, the naturalists of the
Challenger expedition, and of those sent the following year from England, America,
and the United States to observe the transit of Yenus.
Kerguelen, which lies near the fiftieth degree of south latitude, and which is
surrounded by some three hundred islets, rocks, and reefs of all sizes, was
formerly almost inaccessible to sailing A-essels. Nevertheless it offers, especially

on its east side, a large number of deep bays, creeks, and islets, affording shelter to
ships that have succeeded in threading the maze of outer channels and passages.
These indentations on the seaboard present the same fjord-like formations as
those observed on the shores of the north polar
regions, which were at one time
completely covered by an ice-cap.
KEEGUELEN. 61
The Kerguelen mountains, all of igneous origin and either of columnar or

terrace formation, are not disposed in
any regular system, although the main axis
runs on the whole in the direction from north-west to south-east.
According to
the reports of the whalers, the underground forces are still and a
active,
mountain in the south-west is said to emit vapours. Mount Ross, the highest
summit hitherto measured (6,100 feet), lies near the southern of the
extremity
island, while the eastern and south-eastern peninsulas are
respectively occupied
by Mounts Crozier (3,300 feet) and Wyville Thomson (3,200 feet). Glaciers
Fig. 22. KEROUELEN.

Scale 1 : 1,500,000.
Depths.
in., n; 160 to o20 820 Feet and

Feet. Feet. upwards.
. SO Miles.
descend from the upper valleys of these highlands, and at least at one point on the
west side reach the seacoast. ,
Towards the west the snows and covering the interior, and easily confused
ice
at a distance with the overhanging banks of white clouds, render an accurate
survey of the craters, crevasses, and lava streams almost impossible.

But near
the seaboard are seen numerous volcanoes, whose craters are now filled with snow
or water. The east side, where weather prevails, receives less moisture, and
fair
here the snow line is arrested at a mean elevation of 1,000 feet above the sea.
62 AUSTRALASIA.
Formerly the island enjoyed a very different and much milder climate, for in
the valleys the argillaceous schists here and there overlie fossil wood at every
in another half petrified,
stage of transformation, in one place almost still fresh,
or even changed to pure silica. In the cavities of the b isalt rocks are also
found layers of coal varying from a few inches to over a yard in thickness, and
overlying more recent eruptive rocks. So numerous are these deposits that it has
been proposed to convert Kerguelen into a coaling station on the ocean highway
between England and Australia. Were the project realised, this now useless
French possession might acquire a certain commercial value. There can be no
doubt that cattle might also be reared on the island, where the sheep landed by
the expedition under Captain Ross throve well. Sheep-farming has succeeded
excellently on the Falkland Islands, which have the same climate as Kerguelen,
and an analogous fauna and flora.

The present climate of Kerguelen is very equable, varying little from winter
to summer. According to Studer, the difference of temperature throughout the
year only 18 F., ranging from 32 in winter to 50 in summer, with a mean of
is
39 or 40. But there is an excess of moisture, and high gales are always blowing
either from the north or west, and are often accompanied by hail, snow, or rain,
though at times also

by clear, bright skies. Sometimes these gales are displaced
by north-easterly winds bearing copious rains, fogs, and a higher temperature ;
but the normal direction of the atmospheric currents is from the north-west. To
these incessant storms the naturalist, Studer, attributes the fact that the local
insects, especially the flies and wings, which could lead

butterflies, are destitute of
only to their destruction,

by exposing them to the risk of being blown seawards
with no hope of return. Even the strong-winged albatross never builds on the
north-west side of the island, which bears the brunt of the tempest and is
wrapped in eternal fogs. His home is on the shores facing the clear blue skies.
The Kerguelen flora is extremely poor, resembling that rather of an antarctic
land than of an island situated in the temperate zone and corresponding in latitude
to the valley of the Somme in the northern hemisphere. Hooker, who spent a
winter on the island, failed to discover more than eighteen flowering plants, to
which further researches have only added three, making twenty-one altogether
in a total of about a hundred and fifty species.
Nearly two- thirds of the vegetation
consists in fuel of alga? and mosses, and even of the phanerogams about one-third
are monocotyledons, a proportion occurring nowhere else in the whole world.
After traversing the zone of large alga? (macrocystis pyrifera), some of whose rc.pe-
like stalks are 200 feet
long, the observer comes upon a narrow zone of grass,
followed by plants of the saxifrage type, mosses, and a few
graminaceae sprouting
in the cavities of the rocks. On the slopes of the hills azorella selago develops
extensive beds saturated with water, where the
explorer sinks to his knees at
every step. The only plant producing any effect on the landscape is a gigantic
species of cabbage, whose botanical name (pringlea antiscorbutica) sufficiently

indicates its value to seafarers condemned long periods of a coarse salt meat
to
diet. This species is peculiar to Kerguelen, being found nowhere else in the
KERGUELEN. HEARD. 63
Indian Ocean. The another flowering plant, resembles an Andean growth,

lyellia,
and three species also supposed to be indigenous in Kerguelen are so like their
congeners in Tierra del Fuego, that botanists are inclined to regard them as simple
varieties lastly, one of the local growths is of Australian origin.
; But on the
whole, the Kerguelen flora is most akin to the Fuegian, a fact doubtless due to the
marine currents setting steadily eastwards.
The only bird peculiar to Kerguelen and the Marion and Crozet groups is the
chionis minor, about the size of a pigeon, and not unlike an allied species common
to the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego. There are no land mammals,
reptiles, or batrachians, and the fur-bearing seals and other cetaceans still swarm-
ing in the Kerguelen waters at the beginning of the century have already become
rare. In 1843 over five hundred whalers found occupation in. these seas, but in
1874 not more than five or six were employed in the capture of whales. The
otters are also threatened with extermination, and have already become so scarce
that they are .no longer regularly hunted. But a number of vessels are still
engaged in the capture of the huge sea-lions, one of whom yields as much as a
ton of oil. These and other seals still find some shelter from their human enemies
in the bays along the west coast, whither the fury of the elements pi-events the
fishersfrom following them. Some of these fishers, who had collected a vast
quantity of oil on the south-west point of Kerguelen, had to wait for years before
a single ship ventured through the breakers to take in a cargo, and growing
impatient they at last set fire to their whole stock, whence the name of Bonfire
Beach given to this part of the coast.
The most frequented haven is Chrintmas Harbour, at the north-west extremity of
the island, the position of which is indicated at a distance by a basalt rock
assuming the appearance of an imposing triumphal arch.
MACDONALD AND HEARD ISLANDS.
MacDonald, lying to the south-east of Kerguelen, is a mere rock fringed by

breakers and inaccessible to fishers. But Heard is visited both by whalers and
seal-hunters. Except at the black lava headlands, this island is entirely covered
by white mantle, two vast snow-fields concealing the hills round about Big Ben,
a
the chief summit, which is said to be loftier than Mount Boss in Kerguelen. But
the
although supposed to be over 6,000 feet high it was completely invisible at
time of the Challenger expedition, all the heights above 1,000 feet being wrapped
in dense The climate of Heard is even more inclement and stormy than that
fog.
of Kerguelen. The fierce south-east polar winds prevail very generally in these
southern latitudes, and are much dreadtd by mariners.
CHAPTER III.
THE EASTERN AKCHIPELAGO (INDONESIA).
GENERAL SURVEY.
" Insular
INDONESIA or Insulindia, that is, India," as the Dutch
have rightly named this region, is better known to English readers
as the Eastern, Asiatic, Malay, or East Indian Archipelago, and
sometimes by the simpler and somewhat more convenient expression,
Malaysia. It constitutes, if not a political, certainly a well-defined

geographical area. The submarine bank on which stand the two great islands of
Java and Sumatra terminates abruptly towards the Indian Ocean in steep escarp-
ments plunging into the very deepest abysses of the whole basin. Java is continued
eastwards by a chain of smaller islands extending to the north-east of Timor, and
evidently forming part of the same region the volcanoes traversing this long
;
line
of islands attest the action of the same geological forces. South of Papuasia the
narrow igneous zone is deflected northwards, as if to mark the eastern limits
of Indonesia proper. One of the lines of volcanic forces traverses the island of
Halmahera (Jilolo),
while another touches the north-east extremity of Celebes,
thus enclosing this great island within the fiery semicircle sweeping round from
Sumatra.
Borneo, largest of all the Sunda Islands, and of almost continental proportions,
iseven more closely connected with the same group than Sumatra and Java, for it
stands entirely on the same scarcely submerged marine plateau. The three great
islands are separated by shallow waters less than 50 fathoms deep, where vessels
can everywhere ride at anchor. Thus an upheaval of about 40 fathoms would
suffice to enlarge the Asiatic continent by an extent of nearly 1,500,000 square
miles.
In many respects the Philippines might also be regarded as forming part of the
same natural region as Indonesia, for the semicircle of volcanoes is continued across
this archipelago, while two chief members, Mindanao and Luzon, are both
its
attached to Borneo by chains of islands, islets, and shoals. But the Philippines
already belong to a different climate, and they are almost everywhere washed by
deep waters. The Sulu waters, flowing between Borneo and the Philippines,
present abysses of over 2,200 fathoms.
INDONESIA. 65
IXDO-MALAYA AND AUSTRO-MALAYA.
But Malaysia its3lf, as has long been shown by Wallace,* forms two perfectly
distinct physical regions, the Indo-Malayan,
comprising the three great islands of
Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, connected by a shallow marine bid, and the Austro-
Malayan, the twof chief members of which are Celebes and Jilolo, both rising
above oceanic waters of great depth. Striking contrasts of climate, floras and
faunas, as well as of human
populations, are presented by these two main divisions
of the Eastern Archipelago. Nevertheless both are characterised by certain
common features, in virtue of which they may be regarded as collectively forming
Fig. 23. INDONESIAN SUBMARINE PLATEAU.

Scale 1 :
48,000,000.
Lasb or ureenw.c
Depths.
OtoBi 2ato500 600 to 2,000 2.000 Fathoms

Fathoms. Fathoms. Fathoms. aud upwards.
. 600 Miles.
an oceanic world distinct from Asia, of which they constitute a south-eastern

continuation.
All these Indonesian lands have a total estimated extent of nearly 700,000
area of the British Isles. But
square miles, or nearly six times the superficial
the oceanic region over which these lands are scattered is far more extensive.
From the northernmost extremity of Sumatra to the last of the Tenimber islets,
the distance across the Indian Ocean is no less than 2,800 miles while between ;
Lombok and the north point of Borneo, Indonesia develops an extreme breadth of
about 700 miles. Within this vast expanse are comptised one island larger than
* The edition of which appeared in 1868.

Malay Archipelago, the first
t Excluding New Guima, which is not here considered.

66 AUSTRALASIA.
France, another exceeding Great Britain in size, two surpassing Ireland, seven
more extensive than Corsica, and dozens bigger than Malta. The seas are every-
where studded with countless tanahs, pulos, or nusas, as the smaller islands and
islets are variously called, some settled, others uncultivated, or thinly if at all
inhabited. To the traveller lost in the maze of these innumerable insular groups,
Indonesia seems a boundless oceanic world. Coasting the larger islands for days
and weeks t"gether in some native prau, he is bewildered by the constantly shifting
variety of lands and of peoples at all stages

the endless of culture,
tropical scenes,
and whose very names are unknown to him. Headlands with extinct or still
smoking volcanoes, coral banks, or insular forests, which seem to spring from the
surface of the water, are landmarks that indicate his progress through these inter-
minable island-studded seas.
As a region of transition between the Asiatic and Australian continents,

of
Malaycia presents a strange contrast with the corresponding transitional region
the arid Arabian peninsula between Asia and Africa. In the richness of its
insular development, the infinite variety of its landscapes, its brilliant vegetation,
the number of animal species, the diversity of its populations and abun-
its
dant resources, the East Indian surpasses even the West Indian insular world
itself. The Central American archipelago yields also to the Asiatic in historic
importance, as well as in the economic value of the relations that have been
developed between these two regions and the rest of the world. The relatively
small island of Java alone has a larger population and more abundant products
than the whole of Central America and the Antilles ;
while numerous straits
between the islands offer to interoceanic traffic more extensive and commodious
highways than the future Panama and Nicaraguan Canals can ever hope to
become.
Traversed in
its entire length
by the equinoxial line, Indonesia might well be
called the garden of the world, not only, like the interior of Africa, because of its
high annual temperature, but also and especially thanks to its fertile and
copiously watered soil, its exuberant vegetation, and the costly and varied
nature of its products. The very energy displayed by the igneous forces under
the Sunda Islands and adjacent lands contributes to make this region one of the
centres of terrestrial activity. Here the land quakes and is rent asunder even
more frequently than in the Central American and West Indian areas of volcanic
disturbance. Java, the most densely peopled and one of the best cultivated and
most productive islands in the world, is also the most
violently agitated by under-
ground convulsions as well as the scene of the most numerous active craters.
These remarkable lands are not inhabited by independent native populations.
A few unreduced tribes still find a refuge on the Sumatran plateaux, in the
forests of Borneo and other islands ;

but numerically they represent but a very
small fraction of the Indonesian peoples. The more or less civilised Malayan
populations, who have commercially exercised so much influence throughout the
oceanic domain, and whose colonies have spread over an enormous
expanse from
Madagascar to Polynesia, have never been fused into a compact national body,
INDONESIA. 67
and their conquests have been the work of one or another isolated
group.
Numerous petty Malay states have thus been founded, but the race has created
no great empires. The diversity presented by their domain, divided into a
thousand little insular mother countries, is thus reflected in their historic evo-
lution.
But the political unity, which has failed to be spontaneously developed, is
being accomplished under foreign supremacy. The Europeans, who have occu-
pied the whole of America, two-thirds of Asia, and one-half of Africa, have
also made themselves masters of the Eastern Archipelago. A single European
power, and one of the least importance in a military sense, dominates almost
exclusively in this vast insular world comprised between Iiido-China and Aus-
tralia.
HISTORIC RETKOSPECT.
Tinder the guidance of Arab pilots, the Portuguese navigators and Italian
travellers appeared early in the sixteenth century in the Sunda waters, and in
1511, Albuquerque, already master of the great city of Malacca, secured for his
nation the political preponderance in the Malay world. The very next year the
first
consignment of nutmegs was shipped, in the Banda group, direct for Lisbon.
In order more rapidly to explore every part of their new domain, the Portuguese
resolved that all whether Malay, Chinese, or Javanese, trading with
vessels,
Malacca, should henceforth be commanded by a European captain. In this way

the European mariners in a few years became familiar with the labyrinth of
Indonesian maritime routes, thus securing for themselves the monopoly of the spice
trade between the Moluccas and Lisbon.
Doubtless the Spaniards, led by Magellan, soon appeared on the scene, in their
"
turn claiming the exclusive right to the possession of the coveted Spice Islands."
In virtue of Alexander VI.'s famous bull, dividing the world recently dis-
covered, or yet to be discovered, between the two Iberian powers, to Portugal
fell all the lands situated in the far East. But Spain on her part claimed these
same lands, as lying in the far West beyond theNew World, and to put an end
to these conflicts the Portuguese were fain to redeem by purchase the islands in
dispute.
Of these they remained peaceful possessors for nearly a century but in 1596 ;
the Dutch flag, which had been excluded by Philip II. from the direct trade with
Lisbon, had discovered the road to the East. The broad-beamed Dutch
already
vessels made their appearance before Malacca and helped themselves to the spices
of the native factories. Such was the commercial enterprise inspired by the two
brothers Houtman, bore the Portuguese a grudge for their imprisonment in
who
Lisbon, that within seven years the Amsterdam and Antwerp shippers
had
equipped fifteen fleets for the Eastern Archipelago, comprising altogether sixty-
five vessels. In 1600 the new arrivals secured a strip of territory in Sumatra, and
in 1610 they obtained a footing in Java, where they erected a fort, afterwards
68 AUSTRALASIA.
the English, by that of Batavia, the central point of their future

replaced, despite
this period the Portuguese had become too enfeebled to continue
At
conquests.
the struggle with Holland, which in 1609 had already wrested the Moluccas from
them. At present, of their former vast empire in the Eastern seas, there remains
nothing but the eastern half of Timor with contiguous
a islet.
Holland thus became a great political and military state, ruling over many
with redoubtable admirals and brave
kingdom*, disposing of considerable forces,
captainsat her service. Nevertheless, the trading company, to which the Nether-
lands Government had in 1602 granted a commerce with Indonesia,
monopoly of the
found itself powerless to defend its vast possessions when its English rivals had
b come masters of the sea. At the end of the eighteenth century the Spice
Islands, regarded as the most valuable of all colonial possessions, had fallen into
the hands of England, and in order to prevent her from seizing the whole of the
Malay Archipelago, the privileges of the company were purchased by the Dutch
Fig. 24. COMPABATIVE AKEAS OF HOLLAND AND THE DUTCH EAST INDIES.
Scale 1 : 48,000,000.
East op Greenwich 130'
000 Miles.
States, then known as the Batavian Republic. But Java and its dependencies
none the the power of the English, by whom
passed, less, into they were not
restored till after the
1816, Napoleonic wars.
Since that time Holland, notwithstanding her
insignificant size compared with
its Eastern possessions, has remained undisputed mistress of all the insular
groups
which she had acquired at the close of the last She has even extended
century.
her sway over several islands not
previously claimed by her, while her effective
control has been enlarged and
strengthened in the interior of Sumatra, Borneo,
and Celebes.
The northern part of Borneo alone had hitherto remained
beyond the influence
of the Dutch, and this circumstance has enabled a British
company recently to
acquire a considerable portion of the great island. This new English domain,
with the neighbouring of Sarawak, acquired by a British soldier of
principality
INDONESIA, 69
fortune * some years ago, and the adjacent Sultanate of Brunei, together with the
Portuguese section of Timor, are the only regions in Indonesia which are not
regarded as officially dependent on the Netherlands. Nevertheless in the vast
archipelago there still remain some unreduced tribes, and even nations, such as that
of Atjeh, in the north of Sumatra.
Since Germany has in her turn become a colonial power, she has acquired or
claimed territories on the African continent even more extensive than Indonesia.
But their economic value may be estimated at zero compared with the Dutch East
Indies, which many far-seeing politicians already regard as a not very remote
inheritance of the German Empire.
Possibly in anticipation of this future
acquisition, the has occupied a large part of New Guinea
German Government
and neighbouring archipelagoes, with the view of extending eastwards this vast
insular domain.
PROGRESS OF EXPLORATION.
The already extensive historical and geographical literature relating to

Indonesia is being constantly increased by new works. Explorers, either acting
independently or grouped in learned societies, are ceaselessly at work, investigating

the material and moral conditions in the Malay world. Amongst the documents
already published some are of the highest scientific value, for the Eastern Archi-
pelago is one of those regions which most abound in interesting facts bearing on
physical phenomena, the distribution of animal and vegetable species, human
migrations, the evolution of mankind, and other problems connected with political
and social economy.
But what this encyclopaedic labour still lacks is the co-operation of the natives
themselves. For the most part savage hunters, or toiling under hard taskmasters,
they have but few representatives in the republic of letters, and those who do take
part in the current of contemporary studies are not sufficiently unbiassed to judge
of things as they really are.
Thanks to the facilities of locomotion and free intercourse, the time has
passed when their commercial

privileged companies and Governments, jealous of
monopolies, prevented geographers from publishing the charts and other results of
their surveys. In the sixteenth century the Dutch and Spaniards made it a
capital offence for any writer to publish the logs of their navigators. Copies of
charts andmaps acquired at great expense were entrusted by the Netherlands
Government to their skippers, to be returned to the Admiralty archives after each
reserved for
voyage, the punishment of the lash, branding, or banishment being
the traitors who disclosed them to strangers. Even in dangerous waters, where
the perils of the deep were exaggerated by legendary reports, pilots were refused
to ships in distress.
But all this has changed, and at present certain parts of Indonesia are better
* Sir from the Sultan of
James Brooke, better known as Rajah Brooke, who purchased this territory
Brunei in 1841.
70 AUSTRALASIA.
of Eastern Europe.
known, at least in their outward aspects, than many regions
But on the other hand the interior of several islands is delineated on our maps,
not from accurate surveys, but from incomplete itineraries or vague native reports.
Nevertheless, the network is gradually spreading from island to island
geodetic
across the Malay lands, whole of the archipelago will be
and sooner or later the
represented with the same accuracy

and minuteness of detail as Java and some
parts of Sumatra
and even of Celebes, which are already figured on excellent
topographical and geological charts. Meanwhile, as to the population, it is still

estimate of the actual numbers for the whole area.
impossible to give even a rough
the number of inhabitants
The distinguish for the different islands
official statistics
returned by the regular census, a systematic calculation or a more or less plausible

for which not even a conjecture can be hazarded.
estimate. Lastly, there are regions
CLIMATE OF INDONESIA.
The Sunda Islands lie within the zone of the alternating trade winds and
monsoons. But the normal course of the aerial currents is constantly modified by
the shifting of the centres of attraction due to the returning seasons and to local
phenomena. At Batavia, taken as the headquarters of the hundred and fifty-one

"
meteorological stations scattered over the Archipelago, the good monsoon," that
is, the south-east trade wind, prevails during the northern summer months,
and
especially from June to September. At this time the atmosphere is usually drier
" bad
than during the monsoon," which mainly comprises the period from
December to March, when a much larger quantity of moisture is precipitated.
Nevertheless, this contrast of the seasons is not always very sharply defined,
especially in the interior of the large islands. No month is altogether rainless,
and even during the so-called dry season the atmosphere along the seaboard is
charged with 80 per cent, of relative humidity, while during the rainy season
it is nearly at the point of saturation. For the whole of Indonesia the mean
rainfall, according to Voye'ikov, exceeds 120 inches. But in many regions it
is very difficult to distinguishthe true alternation of the seasons, and form a
correct idea of the normal succession of wet and fine weather. Even to the east
of Celebes the moisture is brought chiefly by the south-east trades, while the west
monsoon accompanied by clear skies. In a shifting and uncertain zone between
is
Sumatra and Timor the two opposing currents are, as a rule, ac ;ompanied by about
an equal quantity of moisture. On the other hand, in the endless labyrinth of
islands, the normal direction of the lower winds and marine breezes is modified by
every strait and streamlet.

In a vertical direction also ascending from the sea-level to the
that is,
mountain tops considerable changes are observed in the general course of the
winds. The western monsoon affects the lower atmospheric masses only, its
thickness never exceeding 6,500 feet. Hence its force is mainly felt about the
foot and lower slopes of the hills, as for instance at Buitenzorg (920 feet) in the
western part of Java. In this district, one of the most abundantly watered in the
FLORA OF INDONESIA. 71
whole of Malaysia, it often thunders every day for months together. So

accustomed does cue grow to the continual peals echoing from height to height,
that the stillness of cloudless evening skies causes a But the
feeling of surprise.
higher aerial spaces belong entirely to the zone of tfce south-eastern trades, which
sometimes rise, sometimes fall, and by clashing with the western monsoon
occasionally produce extremely violent local cyclones. But in the higher regions
they always predominate, as shown by the smoke from the lofty craters, which
invariably sets towards the west. No spectacle is more impressive than that of a
western monsoon driving hard towards the east, while the long streak of volcanic
vapours is seen through a break in the clouds to be setting in the opposite

direction across a background of blue skies. In these upper regions the
atmosphere is much drier and far less frequently disturbed than lower down.
Analogous climatic changes take place in the direction from west to east. The
western parts of Java are more humid than the eastern, and these receive more
rain than Timor still farther east. The summer and winter temperatures also
become equable in the same direction. In the Sunda Islands the variation
less
from month month is less than 2 F., the extremes being greater between day
to
and night than between the hot and cool seasons. If the nights are colder and
the days warmer in the dry months, compensation is afforded by the rainy months,
when the temperature varies throughout the twenty-four hours.
little At
Batavia the rise and fall of the glass rarely exceeds 18 F. during the course of
the year but in Timor the discrepancy is much greater, the eastern islands of
;
Indonesia already coming within the influence of the Australian climate.*
FLORA.
The Indonesian comprising over nine thousand flowering plants described

flora,
by Miguel, belongs to the same zone as that of India. But going eastwards
it
becomes gradually modified, approaching more and more towards the Australian
drier and the climate less equable.
types according as the atmosphere becomes
In Timor, for instance, the character of the vegetation is already far more
Australian than Indian. Here the eucalyptus, casuarina, and acacia predominate,
as on the
but instead of large forests they grow in open thickets,
developing
neighbouring continent.
In the western regions of the archipelago vegetable life is extremely vigorous.
incessant struggle of the peasants againsi;
Despite the constant clearings and
of Indonesia according to observations varying from

Temppratures and rainfall in various parts
five to thirteen years :
Padam (Sumatra)
Palembang ,, . .
Banjermassin (Borneo)
Batavia (Java) . .
Buitenzorg , , . .
Banjuwangie . .
'
Amboyna 3
72 AUSTRALASIA.
still maintain their ground, rivalling

spontaneous growths, certain Javanese forests
in splendour those of Brazil and Columbia. Vast districts in Java, probably
one-fourth of the whole area, are no doubt covered with savannahs,
occupying
where nothing flourishes except the alang (imperata arundinacea), in which horse
and rider disappear together. In the midst of these boundless seas of a light-
green herbaceous growth, seen except a few scattered clumps of trees.

little is
But these savannahs are due to the action of man destroying the forests, either to
clear the land or to destroy the tigers and snakes, and in any case the large
timber, when left to itself, never fails to recover its lost ground. Forests of
acacias and mimosas, which give little shade, also flourish on the slopes of the
limestone hills. But on the moist and fertile coastlands and well- watered heights
the surface overgrown with a surprisingly vigorous vegetation. Here every
is
stem is covered with epiphytes, their branches are matted together by the creepers ;
while the tall palms, seeking light and air, burst through the surrounding foliage,
forming, as it were, a forest above a forest.

The Sunda Islands have their peculiar species of palms, amongst others, two
varieties of the sago (metroxyfon Rumphii or sagus) and the coryplui (gebang), which
grows in a narrow zone at an elevation of about 450 feet, immediately above the
coast forests. The liana-palms (rattan or rotang] twine round the other trees,
hanging in festoons from top to top sometimes for a space of three or four
hundred feet, and thus binding together whole forests in a compact mass into which
it is impossible to penetrate without the aid of the axe or fire. Some species of
bamboo also acquire the trailing habits of the lianas, occasionally growing to a
length of 130 feet ;
others are armed with thorns and form dense thickets shunned
even by the wild beasts themselves. The marvellous development of the parasitic
plants in the Sunda Islands is well seen in the blossom of Rafflesia, which grows
on the roots and branches of a species of cissus. In Sumatra one variety bears
enormous flowers over seven feet round.
Onthe slopes of the mountains the various growths are disposed vertically
according to the climate, ranging from the tropical zone of the coastlands to the
temperate region of the topmost crests. Nevertheless, curious associations are
sometimes observed amongst plants belonging naturally to different areas. Thus
in Sumatra, the oak is found in company with the camphor-tree. On the same
seaboard there are also met certain teaks, which in Java occur only at considerable
altitudes on the flanks of the mountains. On
the northern uplands of Sumatra
are found certain pines intermingled with casuarinas. Here is the southern limit
of those conifers, whose true home are the
Himalayas.
Amid this endless variety of forms each island of the archipelago has its own
share of endemic growths. Thus in the Sumatran flora, comprising over two
thousand six hundred known phanerogams, Miguel enumerates a thousand and
forty-nine which are not met in Java, although separated from the larger island
only by a narrow strait. Even the western and eastern divisions of Java itself,
differing but slightly in their climates, present considerable contrasts in their
local floras. Not only the Moluccas, long famous for their valuable spices, but all
FAUNA OF INDONESIA. 78
the other islands in the archipelago, possess plants which occur nowhere else on
the surface of the globe. In three years the botanist Beccari discovered over two
hundred absolutely new species in the single district of Sarawak, on the north-
west coast of Borneo. In the same island the summits of the mountains form so
many secondary islands, with independent growths recalling the types of remote
lands in more temperate climates. At an elevation of 8,500 feet, on the flanks of
Kina-Balu, in North Borneo, are met certain forms belonging to genera which
elsewhere occur only in New Zealand.
FAUNA.
Going eastwards the flora is gradually modified

with the changing climatic
conditions, whereas the transition from fauna to fauna are for the most part of an
abrupt character. While the species in the western islands as far as Bali are of
the Indim type, those of the eastern regions, beginning with Lombok, present the
characteristics of Australian zoological life. Two worlds as different as Europe
and America here lie side by side, separated only by a strait less than 20 miles
broad. But the two islands of Bali and Lombok, composed largely of igneous
rocks, are probably for the most part of comparatively recent origin. Henca
what is now a narrow channel was formerly a wide branch of the sea.
Nevertheless the striking contrast between two faunas on the same chain of
islands presenting such great uniformity in their physical constitutions must still
be regarded as a most remarkable phenomenon. One of the salient features of
the terrestrial crustis this
very range of volcanic inlands evidently springing
from the same fault in the submarine bed and stretching from the islet of Krak-
atau to that of Nila for a distance of 2,200 miles. Yet this line of eruptive rocks
is intersected precisely in the middle by an abrupt parting-line between two

distinct faunas. The inference is irresistible that the formation of the Sundanese
volcanoes is of relatively recent date. The sudden contrast of the Indian and
Australian animal forms shows that here the distribution of land and water, as
well as the planetary life itself, has greatly changed during the course of the later
geological epochs.
Between Borneo and Celebes which however are separated by a much wider
straitthan that of Lombok, the contrast between the animal species is no less
remarkable, nearly all the forms of the two regions belonging to distinct families.
We must therefore conclude that here also the lands characterised by different
faunas have remained disconnected since extremely remote geological times. But
Celebes, unlike Lombok, formed no part of the Australian world. On all sides its
isolation appears to be complete, dating evidently from a period of vast antiquity.
On the other hand both their fauna and their flora attest the ancient con-
tinuity of the three great Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, which are
islands of
separated only by shallow waters from the Asiatic mainland.

Wallace enumerates
of mammals common to the continental and neighbouring
forty-eight species
insular Malay lands. Sumatra, with its long mountain range disposed parallel
74 AUSTRALASIA.
with the Malay peninsula, has a fauna which may be regarded as almost identical
with that of the mainland. Borneo, being farther removed, already presents a
certain in its animal forms. Still more marked characteristics are offered
originality
proximity to Sumatra, with which
its it is farther
by Java, notwithstanding
connected by intervening islets affording resting-places passage. to birds of
From the fact that Java possesses more endemic birds and insects than either
Borneo or Sumatra, it be inferred that it was the first to be detached from
may
the mainland. Borneo doubtless still formed continuous land with Iiido-China at
a time when Java was already surrounded on

all sides by the marine waters.
Fig. 25. PABTINO LINE OF THE INDONESIAN FAUNAS.
Scale 1 :
32,600,000.
Lasb or Greenwich 120"
Depths.
Oto640 640 Feet and

leet. upwards.
. 000 Miles.
Hence the zoological data formally contradict the Javanese tradition to the effect
that the physical rupture between Sumatra and Java was quite a recent event,
dating only from about the year 1000 of the new era.
But the zoological exploration of Indonesia is still far from being concluded.
The region best known to naturalists is the western section of Java, although
much attention has also been bestowed on the district of Padang in Sumatra,
those of Sarawak and Banjermassin in Borneo, the island of Bangka, and certain
peninsulas in Celebes. But all this forms but a small fraction of the vast
Indonesian domain, and the future doubtless reserves many surprises for the
naturalist.
FAUNA OF INDONESIA. 75
At the same time the explorations already made suffice to give some idea of the
animal life in the western parts of the
teeming archipelago. During six years of
research, Wallace alone collected over a hundred and twenty-five thousand zoolo-
gical specimens. The Indonesian mammals comprise over one hundred and seventy
species, amongst which twenty-four belong to the ape family. In Sumatra and
Borneo occur two species of the orang-utan, that " wild man " who has been so
often described, and who, by his intelligence and moral qualities seems to approach
nearest to civilised man. The si-amang, nearly as tall as the orang-utan, has his
home in Sumatra ;
while all the western islands have thur long-armed gibbons
and long-mouthed lemuroids.
Sumatra and Borneo are still the refuge of a species of elephant, apparently in
no way differing from the Indian variety, as well as of a tapir, which is also met
on the adjacent mainland. Both islands have their rhinoceroses, and Borneo and
Java their wild cattle resembling those of Siam and Burmah. The Sunda group
has no less than thirty-three species of carnivora, amongst which are the royal tiger
und the almost equally formidable leopard. There are also as many as fifty different
kinds of the bat family, and a great number of rodents, the squirrels alone being
represented by twenty-five species, nearly all distinct from those of the mainland,
but outwardly not unlike the tupa'ias, or insectivora, of which about ten varieties
have been observed, mostly peculiar to the archipelago.
Besides those recently introduced by man, there are about three hundred and
fifty species of birds, some

of which, notably the parrakeets, are distinguished by
their gorgeous plumage. The ophidians and other reptiles, somewhat rare in most
oceanic lands, are, on the contiary, very numerous in Indonesia, where the estu-
aries are infested by crocodiles, and the forests inhabited by pythons over thirty-
feet long, and by the much-dreaded spectacled snake. Hundreds of species of

fishes swarm in all the rivers, while thousands and thousands of the insect order
have already been collected and European museums.

classified in the Such is the
multitude of the butterflies, that Wallace speaks of them as forming a characteristic
feature of the insular scenery. The "ornithoptera," which, thanks to their size,
majestic flight, and brilliant colours, make a greater show than most birds, are met
in swarms about the verge of the forests and cultivated lands. A morning stroll
in the more fertile districts of Malaysia is almost sure to reveal three or four, and
often many as eight species of papilio, of which naturalists have already
as
enumerated about one hundred and thirty kinds. Borneo alone possesses thirty,
the largest number yet found in any single island. The diversity of these species,
in the
however, diminishes gradually going eastwards, while their size increases
same direction.
Such the poverty of the fauna as we approach the Australian continent, that
is
Timor offers no more than seven species of land mammals apart from fifteen kinds
of bats. Passingfrom Borneo to Celebes, the naturalist is less struck by the
reduced number of species than by their new forms. Celebes, having been longer
in the aspect of
isolated than the neighbouring lands, presents greater originality
its fauna. about the parting-line between the Sundanese and Australian
Lying
76 AUSTRALASIA.
domains, it forms in some respects a connecting link between both ;

but most of its
so that this great island constitutes an independent

species are altogether peculiar,
zoological world. Of the three hundred and fifty kinds of birds inhabiting the
Sunda ten
group, have reached Celebes, where there are no .less than eighty
only
found nowhere else. twenty-one mammals, including seven bats, eleven are
Of its
also peculiar to the island, while the local butterflies are distinguished from all
their congeners elsewhere by the outward form of their wings.

The Moluccas, lying at the eastern extremity of Indonesia, resemble Timor
and Celebes in the poverty of their mammals, of which they have only ten, not
counting the ubiquitous bats, and of this number
there is reason to believe that
about half, amongst others the cynopithek, confined to the island of Batjau, have
been introduced by man. The typical forms of this insular group approach those
of Australia, being of the marsupial order, and comprising amongst others the beli-
deus ariel,which outwardly resembles a flying squirrel.

On the other hand, the Moluccas have a marvellous wealth of birds, their avi-
fauna being richer than that of the whole of Europe. Although the' exploration
of this region from completed, naturalists have already discovered two
is still far
hundred and sixty-five kinds of birds, of which one hundred and ninety-five are
terrestrial, and most of which, such as the parrakeets, pigeons, and kingfishers,
rival in beauty of form and gorgeous plumage those elsewhere found in the
tropical zone. The numerous insects also, and especially the butterflies, form the
admiration of explorers by their size and the metallic lustre of their wings. The
Amboyna alone contains more remarkable varieties of lepidoptera

little island of
than manyvast continental regions. Here, in fact, these animal forms may be
said to have reached the highest possible pitch of development. Most of the
species are peculiar to the Moluccas, while the genera and types connect this
insular fauna with that of New Guinea. Although the Asiatic continent seems to
be continued from island to island far into the Pacific Ocean, both Celebes and the
Moluccas already belong zoologically to another region of the globe.
INHABITANTS OF INDONESIA.
The Eastern Archipelago is shared as well by different races of mankind as by

different faunas, but the parting-lines do not coincide for the human and animal
forms. While the
zoological domains are separated by the Lombok Strait and the
broad Macassar Channel, the limits of the Malayan and Papuan races, with the
allied populations, have been shifted much farther towards the east : this line
traverses the islands of Jilolo
and Buru, and then trends south-westwards in the
direction of Timor and Sumbawa. The inhabitants of the islands lying on either
side of these limits
again present considerable differences amongst themselves,
either offering various shades of transition between the true Malays and intruders
of other races, or else
belonging to a really original type, the possible survivors of
some primitive stock. At least fifty languages are current in the archipelago, and
each insular group requires to be studied
apart with the territory occupied by it.
INHABITANTS OF INDONESIA. - 77
In the Sunda Islands and Celebes, as well as in a part of the Moluccas, the
dominant, if not the exclusive race,

the Malayan, which constitutes the bulk of
is
the population, or which at least has absorbed and assimilated most of the other
ethnical elements. But whatever resemblances they may present to each other
throughout the archipelago, these Malayan peoples are everywhere divided into
natural groups, according to the geographical environment, their diverse inter-
minglings, their diet and different degrees of barbarism or culture.

The Malays, properly so called, who closely resemble those of the neighbouring
peninsula, and who have given their name to the whole race, occupy the coastlands
of Sumatra and Borneo, with the intermediate islands. The Javanese, as indicated
by their name, inhabit the greater part of Java, and have also spread farther east
Fig. 26. INHABITANTS OP INDONESIA.
Scale 1 :
46,000,000.
ICO' Easb orGreenwich 120'
Malays of divers Indonesians 1 Annamites. Papuans. Kegrltos.

nationalities. Batta, Dyak,
Mill ilia SNI, Alfuru.
. 600 Miles.
to the two islands of Bali and Lombok. The Sundanese dwell in the western
districts of Java, on the shores of the Sunda Strait separating that island from
Sumatra. The Bughis hold the south-western peninsula of Celebes as well as the
north coast, and all the adjacent islands. Lastly, each separate
land has its more
or less pure or mixed populations, bearing an endless variety of tribal names. The
term " Alfuru," however, collectively applied in Celebes and
farther east to ail
the wild tribes driven from the coastlands to the interior, has no racial significance.
the populations which have kept aloof
It simply indicates the social condition of
from the Mohammedan Malays, some of which are of lighter complexion even
than the while others resemble in colour and aspect the dark Papuans
Javanese,
of New Guinea.
78 AUSTRALASIA.
the Indonesians arc found savage peoples, such as the Battas of

still
Amongst
" " Free " or "
Sumatra, the Boraean Dyaks, the Alfurus," that is Wild," of
and most are inclined to regard them as a primitive
Celebes, anthropologists
population of light colour who occupied
the archipelago before the arrival of the
"
Malays. To them is in a special manner applied the term Indonesian," as if they
were the representatives of the original masters of this oceanic region.
But in the north-eastern islands near New Guinea and the Philippines, there
occurs yet another ethnical element quite distinct both from the Papuans and
skin and crisp hair. These natives,
Malays, characterised by black or blackish
who resemble the Andamanese and the Negritos of the Philippines, would appear
to be the true autochthones, still older than the fair Indonesians of Sumatra, Borneo
and Celebes. In the western islands they have been exterminated, in the eastern
driven to the uplands of the interior, just as the Indonesians themselves have been
encroached upon in the large Sundanese islands.
This remarkable phenomenon of distinct human as well as animal species
dwelling in contiguous islands, under the same or analogous physical conditions,

finds its explanation in the history of the planet itself. Such contrasts are the
outcome of different epochs, which are here placed, as it were, in juxtaposition.
But during the course of ages all these heterogeneous elements must have long
been subjected to like influences, for all, or nearly all, the current Malay, Papuan,
Indonesian, and Negrito languages seem to constitute a single linguistic family,

and this family itself has been affiliated by Hodgson and Caldwell to the Dravidian
of Southern India.
"
As commonly understood, the term " Malay is practically synonymous with
" Mohammedan." The Indonesian, whether black, bronze, or fair, who accepts
the Moslem faith and acquires a knowledge of the Arabic letters, becomes ipso
" the great bulk of the population belongs probably to the
facto a Malay." Still,
same stock. Without prejudging the question of the origin of the Malay race
now dominant in the archipelago, it may be asked where was its home in the
Did the Malays reach this region through
times anterior to the historic period ?
the peninsula named from them, or had they any other centre of dispersion, as
for instance, the plateaux in the interior of Sumatra ? According to Van der
"
Tunk, their very name, interpreted by him in the sense of "wanderers," vaga-
bonds," would indicate their foreign origin. In all the lands occupied by them
the banks of the rivers are "
" "
right and " left not according to the course of
the stream seawards, but in the reverse way, as if the colonists had in all cases
penetrated from the sea against the current into the interior. Marked resem-
blances have also been observed between the Malay houses and their praus, so
much so that in many places their villages present the appearance of stranded
fleets.
The Malays, although short, or at most

insular as well as the continental
of average height, are of robust constitution, with a ruddy brown, at times olive,
complexion, and in the women, who are less exposed to the sun, approaching
nearer to a decided yellow. The hair of the head for all are nearly beardless is
INHABITANTS OP INDONESIA. 79
black, hard, and coarse to the touch ;

the face rather round than oval and somewhat
flat, with small nose but wide nostrils, thick lips, prominent cheek bones, and
black eyes. But for their complexion and dress they might often be taken for
Chinese. TLe resemblmce is even closer to the Khmers (Cambojans), with
whose language the Malay presents a great analogy even in its grammatical
structure.* Physically the Malays are distinguished by their well-balanced frames,
delicate articulations, small hands and feet.
Like the members of all other human families, the Malays of the different
islands present marked diversities according to their

pursuits or professions. The
corsair or the trader cannot be judged by the same standard as the mechanic or
the peasant. But the great bulk of the natives, occupied with husbandry, are
sociable if somewhat taciturn, of a kindly disposition, ever ready to render each
other mutual aid, extremely courteous and considerate for the privileges and
feelings of others. The labourer is careful not to awake his fellow workman by a
touch of the hand; the creditor hesitates to remind the debtor of his obligations;
altogether the demeanour and conversation of the Malays are certainly superior to
those of their white rulers and pretended " civilisers."
But although in some respects highly cultured and for centuries possessing a
written literature, the Malays do not appear to be as richly endowed intellectually
as other nations, notably the Papuans, who are at present greatly their inferiors
in civilisation.According to those travellers who have associated most intimately
with them, their chief mental defect is a certain feebleness of understanding, a
lack of boldness or vigour of apprehension. They are timid, without power of
independent action, submit unresistingly to foreign influences.
hence disposed to
Thus they formerly accepted Buddhism and Brahmanism at the hands of a few
Hindu missionaries. Then came the Arab traders, who soon persuaded most of
the populations to adopt Islam and now a handful of Dutch officials, supported
;
to hold thirty millions of human beings in

only by a few mercenary troop?, suffices
a btate of subjection little removed from slavery.
SUMATRA AND NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS.
Apart even from the adjacent archipelagoes geologically dependent on Sumatra,

this island is one of the largest in the world, being exceeded in extent only by
Netv Guinea, Borneo, Madagascar, Australia, and the polar regions of Greenland
and the antarctic land*. Its surface, which has not yet been regularly surveyed,
isestimated at over 175,000 square miles, or thirteen times the area of Holland,
to which it is politically attached, if not yet completely reduced. In the northern
highlands and forests it is still occupied by independent populations, and the
interminable war with Atjeh, begun in 1873, has taught the Dutch people what it
costs to attempt the subjugation of a brave nation determined to defend its
autonomy against all odds.

" "
Until the island is it will be impossible to obtain
completely pacified
Fontaine, Aymonnier, Keane (Australasia);

80 AUSTRALASIA.
accurate returns for the whole population. But from the partial statistics already
taken in the conquered provinces, combined with the systematic estimates made
for the independent districts, it may be inferred that the number of inhabitants,
although still comparatively slight, has considerably increased since the middle of
the present century. According to Veth, the population of Sumatra and the
western islands in 1869 was somewhat less than two and a half millions; at
present it certainly exceeds three and a half millions, and possibly even four millions.
Were peopled as densely as Java, which its fertile soil and abundant resources
it
might enable it even to surpass, Sumatra would have a population of not less than
seventy millions.
Sumatra presents some features in common with Madagascar. Both are nearly
of the same extent and outward form, that of an elongated oval both have one ;
nearly rectilineal coast, that facing towards the high sea, and another, washed by
shallower waters, of irregular outline and indented with creeks and inlets. These
two seas encircling Sumatra, the boundless ocean to the west, tb.e shallow island-
studded waters to the east, are said by some etymologists to have earned for the
" "
island its Sanskrit name of Samantara, that is, placed between two ;
but there
can be little doubt that its name
really derived from Samudra, which in Sanskrit
is
" which was the designation of an ancient kingdom on
simply means the sea," but
the north coast.
During the predominance of Hindu

Sumatra shared with the adajcent
influences
island the name of Java, being distinguished from its neighbour by the epithet of
" " Great
Little," not as being thought smaller than the Java," but because of
ils inferior commercial importance. The native names of Sumatra are Pertjch
and Andalas. It remained unknown to Europeans till the first years of the
sixteenth century. Ludovico di Barthema visited the north coast in 1505, and
four years later a Portuguese fleet made its appearance in these waters. The
Dutch, present masters of Sumatra, did not present themselves till the close of the
century, in 1598.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SUMATRA.
As in Madagascar, the highlands and mountain ranges, largely composed of

stratified rocks resting on a granitic foundation, are developed not in the centre
of the island, but for the most part in the vicinity of the western or oceanic coast.
The orographic system, however, is of far more
regular formation than in
Madagascar, running from one extremity to the other along a scarcely deflected
axis,presenting in some places only a single main range, in others breaking into
two or three parallel chains. These ranges are connected by secondary transverse
ridges enclosing verdant plateaux and cirques diversified by tranquil lakes and
winding streams. In these upland regions, at a mean altitude of about 3,000 feet,
are grouped the largest villages, and here the fertile soil is turned to best account.
Here also the climate, far cooler^ than on the coastlands, is suitable even for
Europeans, so that the elevated Sumatran tablelands would seem to combine all
the advantages destined to render a

country populous, rich, and prosperous.
SUMATRA.. 81
The Siimatran mountain system

certainly forms a southern and more regul;ar
do
extension of the Arrakanese, which, terminating on the mainland in the headland

of Cape Negrais, east of the Irrawaddi, afterwards describes the
elongated curve of
60
82 AUSTRALASIA.
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Barisan Mountains, as the Sumatran
north of Atjeh with the islet of Pulo
to the
ranges are collectively called, begin
Brass (2,300 feet), on which has been erected the beacon known to mariners as the
"Sumatra Lighthouse." Eastwards stands the insular mass of Pulo "Wai (1,370
feet), beyond
which on the mainland rises the volcanic Selawa Janteu (5,650 feet),
"
known to the Dutch as the Goudberg, or Gold Mountain." This imposing and
almost completely isolated cone followed along the north coast by other crests,
is
for the most part less elevated, and indicating the border of the still unexplored
Achinese plateau. Tb% range terminates near Diamond Cape (Jambu Ajer) in a
Tafelberg, or Table Mountain, whose highest terrace stands at an altitude
of 5,300
feet above the sea. Beyond the hills on the coast is seen the summit, 4,000 feet
high, of the still unvisited Samalanga volcano.
But the main range, which has its origin to the west of the Goudberg and of
the Atjeh valley, develops a much loftier series of crests along the oceanic
seaboard. Here the Abong-Abong and Luseh, said to be volcanoes but not yet
explored, are reported to attain the respective elevations of 11,300 and 12,200
feet.
South of these lofty summits, whose cones rest on a crystalline formation some
3,000 or 4,000 feet high, the mean altitude of the highlands is considerably
reduced, and here the system branches .into parallel chains enclosing the Toba
plateau,and or "
tao, of like name.
sea," This called also forms a
basin, Silalahi,
lake of clear water 500 square miles in extent, whose shores are studded with
hundreds of Batta villages. In its waters are mirrored the cones of extinct or
still active volcanoes, one of which, the Dolok Simanabum, emitted dense vapours
in 1881. On its flanks, as well as on those of a neighbouring volcano, may be
distinguished from below a broad belt of a golden colour, consisting probably of

crystallised sulphur. The Pusuk Bukit, another cone on the western margin of
the lake, also possesses extensive sulphur deposits, whence the Battas draw their
supplies. The island rising in the centre of the basin was itself a volcano, which
has been attached by eruptive scoriae to the mainland and to the Pusuk Bukit.
Lake Toba stretches in the direction from north-west to south-east, parallel with
the main Sumatran axis. Its overflow is
discharged to the south-east, towards
the strait of Malacca.
The amphitheatre of hills, whose spurs branch
towards the east coast, again
off
converges south of the Toba plateau in a single main range, which resumes its
normal direction parallel with the west Sumatran seaboard. In this part of the
Barisan highlands some volcanic or other peaks exceed 5,000 feet in height.
From one of the cones are emitted wreaths of sulphurous vapours, and another
is pierced by a crater whose wulls are lined with a yellow incrustation of
sulphur.
The range is flunked on the west by superb lateral spurs, which from a
distance seem to be the dominant summits. Such are the Malintang (5,000 feet),
and the Pasomau, which European geographers have named Mount Ophir, not on
account of its gold mines, which have no existence, but in allusion to the natural
SUMATRAN HIGHLANDS. 83
wealth of the great tropical island. Being completely isolated in appearance, and
rising just five miles north of the equator, about the exact centre of the oceanic
coast of Sumatra, Ophir stands out as the most conspicuous insular landmark for
mariners navigating the neighbouring waters. Hence till recently it was
supposed to be the culminating point of the island, and a far greater altitude
was assigned than the 9,600 feet to which modern explorers have reduced
to it
it. Mount Ophir has two chief summits besides several partly obliterated craters.
Farther on the main range proper is interrupted by the broad of the valley
Fig. 28.
-
THE MEEAPI VOLCANIC RANGE.
Scale 1 :
Depths.
to 160 160 to 320 320 Feet and

Fee'. Feet. upwards.
12 Miles.
east on
river Masang, south of which a transverse volcanic ridge trends west and
the border of the The westernmost volcano of this system has
Padang uplands.
lost itsmountainous aspect, nothing remaining except the vast periphery of the
base, which now forms a wooded enclosure. The crest has disappeared, doubtless
blown away by some tremendous explosion, and about half of the old crater
(1,520 feet) is now flooded with the oval-shaped Lake Maninju, called also Danau,
or the " Sea." This basin, which discharges westwards to the Indian Ocean,
is fed by a few slightly thermal and alkaline springs much frequented by the
84 AUSTRALASIA.
natives. Gaseous eruptions take place from time to time in the depths of the
lake, and then the atmosphere becomes charged with sulphurous exhalations, while
the fish perish in thousands.
East of this lacustrine basin, which greatly resembles the Italian Lake Bolsena,
rises the still perfect Singalang volcano (8,800 feet), scarcely less imposing than
its eastern neighbour Merapi, whose highest peak attains an elevation of 9,400
"
feet. This volcano, as indicated by its very name (Moro Api, destroying fire "),
is the most restless of the seven or eight still active burning mountains in Sumatra.
None other has discharged such copious lava streams over the surrounding
plains, and even during the present century it has been the centre of numerous
disturbances. Its summit, of a red colour and destitute of vegetation, terminates
in a group of three craters, each encircled by recent lavas. The local Malay legend
has converted Merapi into a sort of Ararat, whence their first parents descended as
the flood-waters subsided.
The Sago volcano (7,450 feet) stands out like a bold landmark at the north-east
corner of the Padang uplands. This region is throughout its whole extent a
mountainous terrace- land somewhat clearly marked off by two longitudinal ridges,
on the west the main Barisan range, en the east that of Ngalau Saribu. The
plateau is likewise skirted on the south by another transverse chain, which like
the northern ridge has also its "corner stone," the Talang or Sulasi volcano
(8,440 feet), rising immediately above the west side of the city of Padang.
Thermal waters and sulphurous vapours escape in abundance from crevasses of this
mountain, which, however, does not terminate in a crater properly so called.

On its flanks are rich sulphur beds extensively utilised by the natives.
The lowest depression of the quadrilateral of outer ridges enclosing the Padang
uplands is floodedby a lake, whose long axis is disposed in the same direction as
Sumatra itself and its mountain system. The Singkarah Sea, as this basin is
called, teems with fish, yielding an abundant supply for a large number of the
surrounding populations. Its level has been lowered some three feet by the
destruction of a rocky barrier at the head of its emissary, the river Umbilien,
which one of the main branches of the Indragiri.
is Three other lakes, one a
tributary of Singkarah, are disposed in terraces on the south-east slopes of Mount
Talang.*
South of Talang the Barisan chain presents only a single ridge skirting
the seaboard at a mean distance of fifteen, miles from the ocean. In this section
of the system, but to the east of the normal line of crests, rises the isolated
" "
Korintji (12,200 feet), known also by the name of Indrapura, or City of Indra ;
for this peak, which contends with Luseh for the first rank amongst the Sumatran
summits, was supposed, like the great mountains of India, to be the everlasting
abode of the gods. Vapours are almost constantly emitted from its crater, a
Lakes of the Padang plateau :
Ai ea in Greatest
Altitude. Square Miles. Depth.
Maninju 520 feet 40 510 feet
Singkarah 1,100 45 890
SUMATRAN HIGHLANDS. 85
chasm visited by Veth and Van Hasselt, and by them described as developing a
vast circumference and several hundred yards deep.
Like the Padaiig volcanoes, this majestic mountain has also its little lacustrine
system in the valleys excavated at its base. Here rises a torrent, which after
skirting the east slope of the volcanic chain falls into the c/miati or "sea" of
Korintji, whence an emissary escapes towards the river Jambi. Farther south
follow other volcanoes disposed in a line with the general axis of the
island, but
for the most part extinct. Kaba and Dempo, however, are still the theatre of
frequent and violent convulsions. Kaba (5,500 feet), which is visible thirty
miles to the north-east of Benkulen, towering above the Suikerbrood
(" Sugar-
loaf"), terminates in two craters, one inaccessible, and both rent by crevasses, whence
is-ue jets of vapour. In 1875 Kaba entered on a period of activity, the eruptions
lusting three years, and covering the surrounding hills and valleys with sand mixed
with chemical substances fatal to plants and animals alike. Even now, whenever
the sandy banks of the neighbouring streams give way the fish die in thousands.
Dempo (10,560 feet), which rises some sixty miles to the south-east of
Benkulen, is also the scene of constant disturbances. But Sawah, one of the old
craters, no longer bursts into flames, so that the natives are able to approach
without danger and offer their sacrifices in the midst of the heaths and rhododen-
drons. The new crater, named Merapi like the great Padang volcano, stands 830
feet higher up, and is the abode of the tfeta for whom the offerings are intended.
Some sixty feet below the circular rim is seen a lakelet sparkling like a sheet of
quicksilver presently a black speck in the centre of the glittering surface begins
;
to expand and assume the form of a funnel, in which the water suddenly dis-
appears. In a few minutes the rocks resound as with the rumbling of thunder ;
the din grows nearer, followed by a flash as of lightning, and the water, trans-
formed to vapour, issues in a dense jet from the crater, into which it again soon
subsides. Thus every fifteen or twenty minutes the lake vanishes and reappears
in the form of a magnificent geyser some hundred
feet high.
"
Farther south another ranau* or sea," floods an elevated cirque (1,720 feet),
which seems to have been an old crater, and which u encircled on three sides by
extinct volcanoes. It is extremely deep in the centre, and in one place thermal
springs from the neighbouring Mount Siminung raise the temperature too high
for animal life.
Southwards the Barisan system again bifurcates, one branch continuing in the
normal direction south-eastwards to Cape Tjina (China), where it merges in low
hills over against Princes Island and the south-west extremity of Java. The
other or volcanic branch trends more to the ea>t, where it is indicated from afar
by the summits of Mounts Besagi, Sekinjau, Tebah, and Tangkamus (7,520

lofty
feet). This last, better known as the Keizers Pick, or "Emperor's Peak," rises
near the southern extremity of Sumatra, on the Bay of Samangka, and is probably
connected by a submarine fault with the islet of Tabuan. On the mainland the vol-
Sanaa, daitau, too are various dialectic forma of the same word, meaning tea, or any large expanse of
water.
85 AUSTRALASIA.
canic chain continued by Mount Tangka (3,460 feet), round Lampong Bay to the
is
south-eastern headland of Sumatra, and thence through a line of islets and reefs
across the Sunda Strait, here only sixteen miles wide, to the opposite coast of Java.
The extinct cone ofRaja Bassa (4,460 feet), southernmost
member of the chain
of sixty-sixSumatran volcanoes, does not lie in the normal direction of the main
axis, and seems to have originally stood on an island afterwards
attached to the
miinland, either by upheaval or more probably by a shower of scoriae and ashes.

whose axis intersects that of
Raja Bassa forms part of a transverse volcanic ridge,
Eg. 29. KRAKATAU AND NEIGHBOURING ISLETS BEFOEE THE EBUPTION.
Scale 1 : 150.000.
I05S2 I0527'
Eepths.
Oto 160 160 to 320 820 Feet and

31 Miles.
the Sumatran system, for it runs in the direction from north-east to south-west.
To this scarcely perceptible ridge belong the two islands of Sebesi and Krakatau
in the Sunda Strait, and the system is also perhaps continued under the Indian
Ocean for some six hundred miles to the Keeling Islands, which lie in a direct line
with Raja Bassa and Krakatau.
But yet another volcanic fault intersects that of Sumatra and Krakatau in the
Sunda Strait. This is the great Javanese system, running due west and east, and
marked by so many formidable igneous cones. Thus at this focus of underground
forces the terrestrial crust is, so to say, starred with tremendous fissures, and here
the destructive agencies have at times, and even quite recently, assumed a character
of stupendous grandeur.
KRAKATAU. 87
KRAKATAU.
Till recently Krakatau,
rising to a height of 2,270 feet, was hailed with
joy hy
mariners crossing the strait, and vessels
confidently rode at anchor under its
shelter in depths of from 25 to 30 fathoms. The last recorded outburst, that of
1680, had already long been forgotten by the natives. But in the month of
May,
1883, the fiery demon again awoke on one of the northern shoulders the
:
ground
was rent asunder, flames burst forth, detonations and
discharges of vapours and
ashes followed in rapid succession.
But so far the display differed in no
respect from similar manifestations
Fig. 30. KRAKATAU AND NEIOHBOUBINO ISLETS AFTEB THE EEUPTION.

Scale 1 : 160,000.
Depths.
OtoSO 80 to 320 320 to 960 960 teetand

Feet Feet. Feet. upwards.
.
:!] Miles.
observed in so many parts of Indonesia, and excursionists from Batavia even

landed on the island and approached the crater. But after three months of
groanings and rumblings the volcano put forth all its strength, and in a few
hours the whole topography of the Sunda Strait was changed. At Batavia,
90 miles distant, the uproar was so terrific that an eruption was supposed
vicinity, and every moment the ground was

to have occurred in the immediate
expected to open. In all the surrounding waters, as far as the China Sea, in
the Bay of Bengal, throughout half of the Indian Ocean as far as Rodrigues,
the detonations were clearly heard, and everywhere the people wondered
88 AUSTRALASIA.
whut mighty fleets were engaged in deadly combat in the neighbouring seas.
The commotion shook the atmosphere for a vast space, estimated at the four-
teenth part of the planetary surface ;
the underground muttermgs heard in the
American island Caiman Brae, almost at the antipodes of Krakatau, may

of
even have proceeded from the same source. The clouds of ashes ejected to a
to one report twenty-one miles, fell in dense
height of sixteen, or according
Fig. 31. EANOEOF DISPERSION OF THE KKAKATAU ASHES.

Scale 1 : 15,'XX>,000.
. SCO Miles.
masses over a vast space round about the island, which had been blown to pieces.
Within a range of nine miles the bed thus formed was over three feet thick in ;
the interior of Sumatra, ninety miles off, some places were covered two or three
inches deep, and the surface of the water was still powdered in the Indian Ocean
beyond the Keeling Islands, a distance of 720 miles. The debris was wafted as
far as the shores of Madagascar, and the displacement of rocks in the form of
KRAKATAU. 89
ashes and pumice was estimated at as much as 030 billions of cubic feet. The
whole atmosphere would even appear to have been charged with the
terrestrial
impalpable volcanic dust as far as the upper limits of the aerial

spaces, at least
according to Norman Lockyer's theory, attributing the marvellous of
afterglows
the following autumn months to the
igneous particles ejected by Krakatau on
August 26th, 1883.* The seas
also were agitated around the whole
circumference
of the globe, as attested
by the readings of the mareographs at various oceanic
stations, and in the Indian Ocean
by the great marine wave which in thirteen
hours was propagated as far as the
Cape of Good Hope.
The reports of the fugitives from the threatened
villages and of the crews of
Fig. 32. STEAMEB BORNE ON THE KEAKATAU WAVE ISLAND TO TELOKH-BETOXO.
vessels near the scene of the disturbance created an impression that the field of
destruction had even been still more widespread. But after the ashes were
dispersed, and skippers could again venture into the Sunda Strait, the spectacle
revealed to them seemed none the less harrowing and bewildering. The coast
towns of Anjer and Tjaringi on the Javanese side, Beneawang and Telokh-Betong
on that of Sumatra, had disappeared, while no trace remained of the numerous
villages lately dotted along both shores. The cocoanut forests which fringed the
seaboard to the foot of the hills had been swept clean away a huge wave 100 to ;
120 feet high, caused by the sinking of the volcano, had dashed against the coast,
* Times. December 8th, 1883.
90 AUSTRALASIA.
carrying away headlands and excavating

new inlets. All the works of man were
the terrible morning,
destroyed, and over forty thousand persons, overtaken during
" blacker than the
night," were overwhelmed in the deluge of waters rolling in
from the sea, or in the showers of mud and ashes fulling from above. Within the
limits of the strait one man alone, a solitary lighthouse-keeper perched on his
watch-tower 130 feet above an isolated rock, escaped scatheless in the midst of the
surrounding pother. So dense was the darkness that he failed to notice the
mighty wave that submerged the lighthouse all but his lantern.
Of Krakatau itself nothing remained but the southern volcano all the ;
northern heights, or about two-thirds of the island, some eight or ten miles in
circumference, had been blown to pieces, giving place to an abyss where the
sounding-line a thousand feet long failed to touch the bottom. From the
breached wall of the southern volcano rolled a continual avalanche of stones, while
the dust from the crumbling remains rose in clouds to the sky. But if some lands
had vanished, others, formed by vast heaps of pumice and ashes, were raised from
the bed of the sea. The island of Verlaten was more than doubled in size, and
heights appeared where the plummet had lately revealed depths of 230 feet. Other
islands, such as Sebesi, which had recently been covered with forests and human
habitations, now presented to the view nothing but a bare surface of whitish rock.
To the new islands were added the floating masses of pumice, forming bars at
the entrance of the bays and for weeks and months blocking the passage to the
shipping. Gradually the action of the waves and marine currents swept the strait
clear of these floating islands and heaps of emerged scoriae but the submarine ;
crater which was opened to the north of Krakatau had held its ground. The
geological studies made on the spot show that this crater had previously existed,
and that the northern part of Krakatau was on the contrary of recent formation.
What remains of the volcano and adjacent islets of Verlaten and Lang are the
three outer fragments the tripod, so to say of a mountain over 6,500 feet high,
which at some former time rose above the present eruptive crater.
RIVERS OF SUMATRA.
Although slower than the underground forces in their geological work, the
Sumatran rivers have been more powerful agents in modifying the aspect of the
land. The territory shown by its horizontal alluvial formation to be the creation
of therunning waters may be estimated at nearly one-half of the whole island.
The sedimentary rocks are seen disposed like strands along the base of the
coralline limestone cliffs, which formed the primitive coastline on the eastern
slope of the Barisan uplands. Over two-thirds of the eastern seaboard is of quite
recent geological formation, and is still
continually growing by the addition of
fresh deposits.
On the west side of the island the action of the streams is far less considerable.
The catchment basins are not here of sufficient extent convoy seawards any
to
great quantity of sedimentary matter. Nevertheless, even on this slope the

SUMATKAN RIVERS. 91
alluvial lands are also of great extent. The enormous volume of rain water
precipitated on both slopes of Sumatra explains the exceptional importance of this
fluvial action. On an average Padang receives a mean annual rainfall of about
150 inches ; Palembang, on the opposite side, is still more copiously watered, and
all the heaviest downpours fall on the advanced
slopes of the mountains, so
that little is lust
by evaporation or infiltration before the streams reach the
plains.
The Asahan, which
receives the overflow of Lake Toba,
belongs to the eastern
slope. Farther south follows the Rokau, which enters the strait of Malacca
through two muddy estuaries. It has a course of about 120 miles, nearly half of
which winds through low-lying lands created and levelled itself. Both the
by
Siak and the Kampar disembogue in the labyrinth of marine channels washing the
muddy shores of the archipelago lying to the west of Singapore.
Although
navigable for over 60 miles from their mouth, these two streams wind through
almost uninhabited plains, whose climate is fatal to
strangers.
Beyond the Kampar follows the Indragiri, which like it rises near the west
coast on the Padang plateau. After traversing Lake Singkarah it flows under
the name of the Umbilien through early
Tertiary formations rich in carboniferous
beds. Farther on escapes from a region of plateaux through a series of falls and
it
rapids, and after running for some distance parallel with the
Kampar, mingles its
waters with those of Amphitrite Bay. Near its mouth the southern and much
smaller basin of the Reteh also contains some carboniferous rocks. Vessels ascend
the Indragiri for many miles inland, but not us far as the neighbourhood of the
coalfields.
The Jambi, whosefarthest headstreams rise north and south of Indrapura,
culminating point of the island, has the largest area of drainage and rolls down
the greatest volume of water. At the town of Jambi, CO miles above its mouth, it
is
nearly 500 yards broad and over 16 low water, and during the
feet deep, at
floods its volume is more than doubled.Steamers drawing three feet ascend the
Jambi and its main branch, the Hari, for 360 miles from the sea, while small
canoes penetrate 100 miles higher up.
The Musi, or Palembang river, which also rises on the uplands near the west
coast, collects the waters of the eastern slope for a space of about 200 miles before
Here it divides below the city of Palembang into
entering the low-lying plains.
which ramify into endless channels and backwaters amid the
several branches,
surrounding swamps. The Susang, or main branch, which falls into the Bangka
Strait near its north entrance, preserves sufficient water to give access to large vessels
during the floods, and to smaller craft throughout the rest of the year. But the
other branches all merge in other streams to the right and
developing shallow
left,
lagoons, expanding into broad morasses, or mingling with marine waters through the
dense mangrove forests. These half submerged, uninhabited and, for the most
some 5,000 square-miles.
part, almost uninhabitable tracts cover a total area of
According to the local traditions, which however may have been inspired by
the undeniably rapid encroachments of the land on the sea, the whole of this
AUSTRALASIA.
has been formed during the historic period. Even the

region of the Musi delta
of Palembung, now lying in the interior far above
the estuary, is said to have
city
The man-
been originally founded on the coast itself at the mouth of the
river.
these low-lying tracts are overgrown, contribute to the enlarge-

groves, by which
ment of the dry land by arresting the sedimentary matter amid their branches,
Fig. 33. ALLUVIAL PLAINS OP THE Musi BASIN.

Scale I : 4,000,000.
103' 06'
Depths.
Old Shore -line. Oto16 16 Feet snd Recent formations.

Feet. upwards.
. CO Miles.
and by shedding their fruits beyond the river banks in the muddy waters, where
they take root.
THE WEST AND EAST SUMATRAX ISLANDS.
West
of Sumatra runs a chain of islands disposed parallel with the west coast.
Abysses over 1,000 fathoms deep separate this chain from the Nicobar Archipelago ;
but with Sumatra it is connected by the incline of the now submerged intervening
slopes. These islands form, so to say, an advanced coastline of the neighbouring

mainland, and consist of the same Tertiary formations as those of the adjacent
shores. Lying on a marine bed at a mean depth of not more than 50 fathoms,
they stand on the very edge of the submarine Indonesian plateaux. Immediately
SUMATRAN ISLANDS.
to the west the oceanic bed nks rapidly, and within 60 miles of the islands the
sounding line reveals depths of over 2,500 fathoms.
Beginning in the north-west with the island of Bubi, the chain terminates in
the south-east with Engano,* over 720 miles distant. The isolated islet of Christ-
mas, 300 miles farther on, might also perhaps be regjrded as belonging to the
same system, lying as it does in a line with its axis, but this point is rendered
somewhat doubtful by the distance and the great depths of the intervening waters.
Excluding this rock, the western islands, which beyond doubt depend geographi-
total superficial area of about 6,000
cally and geologically on Sumatra, have a
*
Telanjanir of the Malays, Taigoeka of the natives,
and probably the Engano, or "Deception
Island," of the Spaniards.
94 AUSTRALASIA.
estimated at three hundred thousand.

square miles, with a collective population
On the other hand, the islands of the east coast, resting on the common Indo-
nesian submarine plateau, are for the most part distinct from Sumatra, and
require to be studied apart.

The low-lying alluvial lands separated by shallow
scarcely emerged plains which have been
channels from the created by the
Sumatran rivers, arc certainly natural dependencies of the great island. Such
are Rupat, Bengkalis, Padang, Rangsang, Rantau, and others lying about the
mouths of the rivers. But those situated farther seaward, and of a hilly and even
mountainous character, are of different origin, belonging physically to the Malay
Peninsula. Like that region, they are of granitic structure, with surrounding
laterite beds. Moreover they lie exactly in a line with the main axis of the
peninsula, of which they constitute a southern extension now broken into frag-
ments by marine erosions.
But while the sea destroys in one direction, the rivers reconstruct in another.
debris of the Sumatran highlands, depositing the
in solution the
They carry
sediment to the right and left in beds steadily advancing seawards, and thus
gradually enlarging the great island towards the

east. Unless the marine
currents undo this work and keep the straits open by their scouring action, these
must at last be silted up, and then the eastern archipelagoes of Riouw and
Lingga, with Bangka and its satellites, will become attached to the Sumatran coast,
lost as its were, like erratic boulders, amid the sands and clays of recent formation.
FLORA AND FAUNA OF SUMATRA.
Like the rest of Indonesia, Sumatra lies within the zone of alternating mon-
soons, the south-eastern or regular trade wind from May to September, and the north-
western, bringing most of the moisture, and prevailing from November to March.
The Sumitran flora and fauna are distinguished from those of the adjacent
lands by a large number of curious species. Such are the great rajflpsiw, the
gigantic arum (amorphophaUua titmiium^, growing to a height of over 16 feet ;
and those astonishing fig-trees, whose branches bury themselves in the ground,
and then throw off their fruit, like so many small mushrooms. The character of
the flora changes gradually southward. Thus, while the Merkus pine prevails in
certain highland districts north of the Equator, no conifers at all are met farther
south. Nevertheless, certain contrasts between Sumatran and Javanese floras on
either side of the SundaStraits are still striking enough to have attracted the
attention of botanists. Characteristic of Sumatra, as compared with Java, is the
great relative extent of the tracts overgrown with along and ghf/a, grasses over
three feet high, which stifle the young arboreal growths, and exhaust the soil
wherever they become predominant. In Java they are arrested at about 3,000 feet,
but in Sumatra they descend to within 800 feet of sea-level, and during the
historic period their
range has been much increased by careless husbandry.
Of the Indonesian lands, this island abounds most in graminiferous species
all
possessing great economic value. Here flourishes the majestic dryabalanops

INHABITANTS OF SUMATRA. 95
camphor, for the produce of which the Chinese formerly paid its weight in gold ;
from this region Europe also received its first consignments of

gutta-percha (geta
which family there are several varieties. Sumatra was also
of
jH'iija), probably the
centre of dispersion of the cinnamon plant, of which it possesses ten
species, a
larger number than occurs in any other region.
The Sumatran fauna differs even more than its flora from that of the neigh-
bouring island. It possesses the orang-utan, confined however to a district on
the north-east coast, besides other remarkable apes, such as the
galeopithecus, or
flying lemur. The elephant, exterminated in Java, is still common in the
northern jungle, where, according to the natives, two quite distinct species are
found. The small species of rhinoceros met in the Sumatran forests also differs
from the large Javanese variety ; but, notwithstanding the statement of Marsden,
the hippopotamus does not appear to be a member of the Sumatran fauna, which,
including domestic animals, comprises, according to Hagen, sixty species of

mammals and one hundred and twenty of birds.
INHABITANTS OF SUMATRA.
The Malay populations of Sumatra arc diversely intermingled with other

elements presenting considerable contrasts in the different provinces in their
social usages and degrees of culture. Thus the Achinese, or people
of Atjeh, in
the extreme north, regard themselves as a nation quite distinct from the other
islanders. Their nobles claim Arab descent, and really seem to be of mixed origin.
For the centuries preceding the arrival of the Portuguese, the trade of
five
Indonesia was largely in the hands of the Arabs, who intermarried with the native
women. By the end of the twelfth century the kingdom of Atjeh had embraced
Islam, and later became a centre of Moslem activity, with its theologians, who
cultivated Arabic letters, and its sectaries, who preached a new pantheistic creed,
dying for their faith like the martyrs of the western world.
Although in recent times Arab influence has much diminished, the Achinese
have preserved numerous usages introduced by their instructors and their Malay ;
dialect, written in the Arabic character, has been by many foreignaffected
elements. nobles wear the flowing robe and turban, like the merchants of
The
Jeddah, although the women do not go veiled.
The Achinese, to whom the virtues of courage and industry are not denied,
are stigmatised as cruel and treacherous, like all peoples who dare to defend their
liberties. Skilful agriculturists, they raise heavy crops of rice and sweet potatoes,
deriving from the soil the resources which have enabled

them to maintain the
struggle against the Dutch for fifteen years. Like the Hindus and Indo-Chinese,
they are said to have succeeded in the elephant, employing him as a beast
taming
of burden. They also display much skill in working the precious metals, and as
silk and cotton weavers, and construct solid vessels with which they carry on an
extensive with the surrounding lands, and occasionally scour the seas as
traffic
dreaded corsairs. The chief centres of their trade beyond Sumatra are Penang
9G AUSTRALASIA.
and Singapore, whence they import the opium, of which they have become
inveterate smokers.
THE BAIT AS.
South of Atjeh the hilly plateau is occupied by still independent peoples

partly converted to Islam, such as the Gayus, of
whom little is known beyond the
name, and who are said to dwell on the banks of the freshwater lake Laut Tawar.
Beyond them are the mysterious Alas, and the Batta or Battak* people, centred
about the Lake Toba
Fie:. 35. ORANO BATTA. basin. According to
the missionary Nom-

mensen, they num-
ber altogether about
three hundred thou-
sand, divided into two

distinct groups, the
northern Battas, who
trade with the Achin-
ese,and the southern,

whose relations are
mainly with Deli and
Sibogha. Beyond the
lacustrine region,
which they regard as
the cradle of their race,
they are widely spread,

as far south as Mount
Ophir and eastwards

to the mouth of the
Bila. The natives of
the Tapanuli district on
the western slope are
also Battas, reduced
by the so-called Pndri

"
or Fathers," fana-
tical Mussulmans, who gave them the choice of the sword or the Koran.
Altogether the pure or mixed Battas of the mainland, and exclusive of the Nias
islanders, said also to belong to the same stock, are estimated at about a million.
The pure Batta typo resembles " Alfurus " of
that of the Bornean Dyaks and
Celebes, affiliated by most anthropologists to the primitive races allied to the
Polynesians, who formerly peopled Indonesia, and who, after expelling or exter-
minating the Negritos, were in their turn driven out or partly absorbed by the
Malays. The Battas of the plateau are much fairer and taller, with more abun-
*
Batta, singular ; Battak, plural.
dant hair and beard than the

Malays of the coastlands, while the intervening
populations present every shade of transition between the two extremes.
Although
the national name has been referred to the Sanskrit
Bhata, or "Savage," they
must nevertheless be regarded as a civilised
people, bearing even some resemblance
in their carriage and features to their former Hindu
instructors. But Indian
influences, still active in mediaeval times,
have been for the most part
gradually
replaced by those of the Mohammedan Malays, and especially of the northern
Achinese. Some Christian missionaries, have also been at
especially Germans,
work amongst them,
but with little result Fig. 36. OEANO ATJEH.
beyond the spread of

scepticism at the spec-
tacle of so many con-
flicting religions.
In 1867 the Euro-
peans first penetrated
to Lake Toba, the
heart of the Batta
country. But when
their visit was re-
newed six years later,
a national council was
held to discuss the
question whether the
punishment of death
should not be inflicttd
on the strangers by
whom their "
holy
"
land had been dese-
crated. Now, however,
they have grown ac-
customed to the ap-
pearance of the whites,
and no longer throw
any obstacles in the
way of their explorations. In 1883 the communities dwelling on the south side
of Lake Toba were even obliged to yield submission to the Dutch arms.
Despite these foreign Hindu, Moslem, and Christian influences, the Batta
some remarkable original features. Although engaged,
civilisation still preserves
like their
neighbours, with tillage, cultivating both rice
and maize, they are specially
distinguished as stockbreeders, and possess numerous herds of horses and buffaloes,
besides goats and swine. These are fattened for the national feasts, the ordinary
diet being limited to fruits, corn, and roots. The islanders eschew the use of
betel, so dear to the other Malays, but they are great tobacco-smokers, and masti-
7o
98 AUSTRALASIA.
cate a mixture of lime and gambir leaves (uncaria gamlii-}. They neither tattoo
the body nor practise circumcision, but mark the arrival of the youth at the state
of manhood by filing their teeth.

The industries are well developed, the men being skilful workers in iron and
jewellers, the women weavers
and potters. They build elegant houses, some of
which resemble Swiss chalets, with two stories rising above a ground floor reserved
for the domestic animals. In some districts, when a man wants a house the whole
community lends a hand to build one, and in several places a number of families
Fig. 37. LAKE TOBA AND THE BATTA COUOTBY.

Scale 1 : 925,000.
99 Last oF Greenwich
18 Miles.
reside together under one roof, a sort of stronghold surrounded by palisades to

Each "
prevent surprises. village possesses a sort of town-hall," where all valu-
able objects are kept and where strangers are publicly entertained. Amongst the
most carefully preserved treasures are books and other records, carved on wood, or
inscribed on bark or leaves, for most of the Battas can read and write. But unlike
the coast Malays, who have adopted the Arabic characters, they still preserve the
old alphabet introduced by the Hindus, but written from right to left on smooth
bark, or from bottom to top on the bundles of reeds that constitute their archives.
The language, which contains many Sanskrit words, differs

considerably from
the coast Malay, and possesses a richer It moreover comprises special
vocabulary.
forms, such as the jargons of the women, magicians, and thieves. The
young men
and women correspond by letters written on foliage, and forwarded
through a
postal system which utilises as letter-boxes the hollow trunks of trees at the
crossings of the highways.
The Batta commune constitutes an autonomous group represented rather than
administered by a rajah or pamuwk, and
deliberating in common. Village groups
have also been developed, forming so many little republics connected
together by
a federal union ; lastly, traces of an ancient kingdom seem to have survived in the
expressions of almost religious veneration till lately lavished on a prince resident
at Bakara, a large village at the south-west end of Lake Toba,
recently conquered
by the Dutch.
All the members of each community are supposed to be connected
by the ties
of kindred, although not holding equal social rank, and
although the lower classes
may even be pledged or sold by order of council for debts, crimes, or offences.
The penal code is severe, beheading being till
lately, and possibly still, the sentence
pronounced for grave crimes, such as treason and armed revolt, but not simple
murder or homicide. An
extraordinary and altogether unique provision of the
written code was that the outraged community should avenge itself by
eating the
criminal, who in some cases was even devoured alive. His nearest kin, as mem-
bers of the commonwealth, had to share in the feast, and even supply the salt,
lime-juice, and other condiments. But except as acts of justice, cannibalism was
not practised, nor were women ever subjected to this tâtment. At present the
Battas assert that the custom has fallen into complete abeyance, but on this point
their veracity is open to suspicion. There is reason to think that slaves are also des-
patched, to attend their masters beyond the grave, and that they are obliged first to
masquerade at the pit's mouth. According to Junghahn and other writers, anthro-
pophagy is of relatively recent introduction, a statement, however, which is at
variance with the testimony of the old writers. Arab tradition and the first Euro-
pean visitors describe the Sumatran highlanders as cannibals devouring the infirm
"
and aged. As soon as they felt themselves incapable of work, the " grandfathers
hung by their arms from the branch of a tree, while the family and neighbours
danced round about, shouting, " When the fruit is ripe it falls." And when it
" mincemeat." Such feasts were
did fall they fell upon it, chopping it into
usually held in the season when the limes ripened.

" rebellion
The least mercy is shown to prisoners of war, regarded as guilty of
against the conqueror." Most wars are, moreover, of a very sanguinary nature.
The Batta jurisprudence not permitting a commune to be enslaved or deprived
of its land, the only way of being revenged on it is by killing off a large number ;
and the festoons of human heads decorating the rajahs' residences sufficiently
attest the zeal with which the work of extermination is carried out. In several
districts this internecine strife checks the growth of the population, which is
farther reduced by the prevalent practice of abortion. Late marriages are the
100 AUSTRALASIA.
rule, owing high price of the bride, although another form of union, of
to the
matriarchal origin, also exists, according to which the husband is purchased by

the wife. Being regarded as merely so much movable property, he may even be
seized for debt, and bequeathed as a legacy to the testator's heirs.
Traces survive of the Hindu religions, for the Battas recognise a triune diety,
Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer and also admit the existence of other divinities
;
and genii, to whom they give the slightly modified Indian name of diebata (deca(e).
Fig. 38.- INHABITANTS OF SUMATRA.

Scale 1: 15,000,000.
Lose or Greenwtcn 105
300 Miles.
But religious worship enters very little into their daily life. They can scarcely
be said to have any regular ceremonial, and there are
only one or two temples
in the country. The natives are mostly satisfied with invoking the little idols
they always carry about with them in pouches, and are most concerned in circum-
venting the evil spirits by ingenious devices. Family groups and whole com-
munes have been known to secure the protection of some powerful patron by
burying a child alive, under the belief that its spirit will henceforth watch over
their plantations. Chiefs and nobles are supposed to survive in the after- world.
On the day of their death a rice-field is sown, and at the harvest,

presided over by
the corpse, a feast is given in honour of the departed, now assumed to have taken
his place amongst the benevolent After the feast he is buried near the
genii.
house of which he has become the guardian spirit.
To the Batta family are generally supposed to belong the little wild tribes of
Orang-Ulus and Orang-Lubus, who occupy the upland valleys north of Mount
Ophir, and who appear never to have been brought within Hindu influences.
They have been compared with the most savage inhabitants of Borneo, like them
going almost naked, dwelling in huts made of branches or in the hollow trunks
of trees, and armed with the
blow-pipe and poisoned darts. They cultivate no
not even that of husbandry,
arts, living mainly on fruits, roots, snakes, and insects,
besides the riceand salt deposited by the traders in certain fixed places in ex-
"
change for the local produce brought thither by the men of the woods." They
have a large breed of dogs, who warn them of the approach of the traders, and
scent out any tigers lurking about.
THE MENAXGKABAOS AND OTHER SUMATRAN MALAYS.
The ancient kingdom of Menangkabao, which succeeded the still older Hindu
empire of Adityavarma, comprises south of the Batta country the most densely
peopled part of Sumatra in the hilly region of the Padang uplands, and on the
west slope of the island. The true form of the word is Mmang-Karbmi, or the
"
Victory of the Buffalo," which is explained by the local legend of a fight between
a Sumatran and a Javanese buffalo terminating in the triumph of the former.
This tradition may perhaps symbolise some conflict, or even a long struggle
between the natives and the intruders from the neighbouring island. The natives
ultimately triumphed, and their customs consequently prevailed over those of the
Javanese and Hindus. They are at present regarded as Malays in a pre-eminent
sense, and their speech is held to be the purest form of the Malay language.
Despite their conversion to Islam and the conquest of Menangkabao by the

Dutch, the old institutions of confederate village communes and of matriarchy
still hold their
ground. The population is divided into stifnts or clans, each with
its own
chief, chosen from some privileged family, and its council, consisting of all
male adults. All the village chiefs are again grouped in a district council, the
usually taking its name from the number
district thus organised of kotos or
" " "
villages of which it is constituted the Seven," the Nine," the Ten," the
" " "
Twenty," the Fifty Kotas, and so on.
No man can marry within his own kota or sutu, so that unions are all essen-
of the
tiallyexogamous. The husband helps his wife or wives in the management
household and in cultivating the land, but his children belong to the mother, and
must remain in the maternal village to inherit the maternal property. The father's
inheritance, on the other hand, goes to his sister's children in his native village.
Such is the undang-undang,or matriarchal law, and the survival of these institu-
102 AUSTRALASIA.
tions, so opposed to the spirit of Islam, shows what little influence is really
exercised by the official religion of the country.
sect of the
Nevertheless, at the beginning of this century the rigid Orang
"
Puti, or "White Men," also known through their proselytising zeal as Padri,"
Portuguese missionaries, became powerful enough to overthrow

like the the king-
" whose reform consisted
dom. About 1820 the.-e eastern Wahabites," chiefly
in abstaining from tobacco, betel, and strong drinks, reduced the high-priest and
Kin<* of Menan<"kabao
O to such extremities that he was fain to call in the aid of the
O
Dutch, at presently masters.
first allies,
The Malay inhabitants of the upland valleys and plateaux south of Padang
traces of cannibalism.
greatly resemble the Battas, without, however, showing any
The Korintjiers (Korinches) settled about Mount Indrapura; the Eejanges
"
(Rejangs), guardians of the frontier" between the provinces of Palembang and
Benkulen the
;
Pasumahs of the district dominated by the Dempo volcano lastly, ;
"
towards the southern extremity of Sumatra, the Abungers, or Highlanders," and
"
the Lampongers, or Lowlanders," all appear to have formerly enjoyed a high
degree of civilisation. From their ancestors they have inherited a writing system
derived, like that of the Battas, from the Sanskrit characters, and all can still read
and write.
In the forests here and there occur colossal statues, which, strange <o say,
present neither the Hindu nor the Malay type. Amongst several Rejang tribes
the mothers flatten the nose and compress the skull of their children, and the
practice of filing the teeth is very prevalent. According to Van Hasselt, the
Lampong Abung peoples come from Menangkabao. Amongst them marriage is
also exogamous, and the price of the wife is relatively so high that the husband
lakes years to work off the charge. But on the other hand she becomes his slave,
and the jewels and coins with which she is decked on the wedding day all belong
to him. Later he also indemnifies himself by the sale of his own daughters. The
eldest brother is required to take over all the widows of the family ;
but the
women upper classes usually marry, as in Menangkabao, according to the
of the
matriarchal system, and retain possession of the land and offspring. In the coast-
towns, where Islam has prevailed over the primitive heathendom, unions are
contracted in the Arab fashion. The married alone are buried with honour, for
"
they are the parents of the people ;" all others are thrown to the bush.
The natives of the Siak, Jatnbi, and Palembang districts, on the east coast, are
for the most part immigrants from the neighbouring islands, being the descendants
of traders who founded factories about the river mouths. On these coastlands
Hindu influences long survived, thanks to the proximity of Java, whence colonists
continued to settle in Palembang down to the middle of the sixteenth century.
In general the usages on this seaboard differ little from the Javanese, and even
the current speech retains many words introduced from the neighbouring island.
In the interior dwell a few thousand Orang-Kabu, believed to represent the
aborigines gradually driven inward from the coast. They lead a wandering life
in the midst of the forests but physically they differ little from their Malay
;
INHABITANTS OP SUMATRA. 108
neighbours, except that they are more robust and of lighter complexion, and their
superiors in the qualities of truthfulness, honesty, and courage. Armed with a
simple stake they boldly attack the tiger, but, like the northern Orang-Lubu,
avoid all personal contact with the Chinese and dealers. The Kubu
Malay
language is
closely related to the current Malay speech.
THE NIAS AXD MENTAWEY ISLANDERS.
The natives of the West Sumatran

islands are of diverse origin. Those of
Simalu (Babi) in the north descend from Menangkabao mixed with
immigrants
Achinese blood. The Banjak islanders are also sprung from Malays and
Achinese, who arrived from the mainland about two hundred years ago. Bangkara,
the westernmost member of the group, is still uninhabited, and is even
avoided,
" "
through dread of the evil spirits by whom it is
supposed to be peopled.
The Ono Niha, or "children of men," as the Nias islanders are called, number,
according to Von Rosenberg, about two hundred and forty thousand souls, who,
however, have not been yet brought under the Dutch administration. Most
all
writers agree with Junghuhn in regarding them as of Batta stock. But although
the physical and moral resemblances are numerous, the contrasts are also
very
striking. Even the northern and southern Nias people themselves differ greatly
in their usages, and do not recognise themselves as of common kindred. If the
Ono Niha are really of Batta origin, the separation must have taken place in
extremely remote times.

Both branches of the Nias group are usually cheerful, agreeable, courteous,
easily led by motives of self-love, always anxious to please, but extremely indolent,
except in some of the southern districts, where war is not carried on, as elsewhere,
by a system of ambuscades and nightly surprises. Hereditary hatreds are perpe-
tuated sometimes to the utter extinction of one or the other of the hostile factions.
The villages, especially in the north, attest the state of constant terror in which
the people pass their lives. Nowhere is an isolated hut to be seen, all being
grouped together on natural or artificial eminences encircled by ditches and
palisades. The dwellings themselves are raised on rows of piles, amid which the
pigs act as scavengers, thriving on the kitchen and other refuse. A ladder and
trap give access to the house, which affects the form of a large oval basket with a
high-pitched roof thatched with reeds, the projecting gables being everywhere
decorated with the jawbones of hogs, attesting the wealth of the owner. To these
the southern village chiefs add the heads of their human victims, while the whole
isprotected by effigies of the tutelar deity against the machinations of the foe and
the malevolent spirits At one end of the village stands the smith's house, to
which a magic virtue is and for further security the entrance of
also accredited,
guarded by lofty statues of the tribal god and

the enclosure is his wife.
The Nias islanders are clever artisans, as shown by their well-constructed
houses and strongholds, their elegant and highly tempered weapons. They work
copper with taste, weave and dye their textile fabrics, make highly prized matting
104 AUSTRALASIA.
and extract cocoanut oil for exportation. Gold, either in fragments or wrought
into jewellery, is their only currency ;
and thechiefs delight in decking their hair
with golden plumes and attaching a golden crescent like a moustache to the upper
lip.
The southern districts are traversed by a few carefully paved roads skilfully
constructed over the crests of the hills. But, unlike the Battas, they have not
acquired a knowledge of Hindu letters, and their ancient usages have been slowly
modified under exclusive Malay and Mussulman influences.
At present their religious system has approached the vanishing point. The
main function of the ere, priests or priestesses, usually chosen by the chief from
his own family, is to invoke the beta, or intermediate spirits, who are familiar with
both the good and evil genii, and who can therefore be enlisted as helpmates and
accomplices in all undertakings. The priests also bless the nuptials by pressing
together the heads of the betrothed and offering some flesh to the protecting deity.
Marriages are exogamous and always a matter of purchase. But the price is
his
generally so exorbitant that the husband often runs great risk of forfeiting
own and his children's freedom, especially as the amount of the debt is doubled every
year. Whole families have thus fallen into slavery for a liability originally
contracted by the purchase perhaps of a few pins or a coil of metal wire. The
albinos, somewhat numerous among the southern Niassi, are accredited to some
prowling demon, and usually badly treated. Adultery involves heavy fines and
"
often capital punishment, while girls who have had an " accident are strangled
and thrown to the bush.
The priests are above all medicine-men, that is, exorcists. For every ailment
there is a wicked spirit, whom the infallible priest never fails to expel by his
incantations, but who is replaced by other devouring genii, that is, whenever the
malady persits is and followed by death. When the end approaches, the friends
and kindred gather round the bed, howling and yelling till the patient breathes
his last. In the south these wailings are followed by an honourable funeral, the
body being borne through the village and the weapons of the deceased exposed
along the route. At the extremity of the coffin is placed the effigy of a bird
carved in wood then the bier is suspended beneath a canopy of foliage, and the
;
friends lie in ambush along the

wayside to surprise and behead a few passing
men and women to the greater glory of the departed. In the case of a great
chief custom requires at least some
twenty heads, to raise which indiscriminate
warfare is
waged against the surrounding villages. Sometimes they are satisfied
with slaves, who, however, must die a lingering death under torture in order to
render the sacrifice more agreeable to the cruel demons.
The inheritance usually passes from father to eldest son but the rule is not ;
absolute, and whatever child contrives by means of a reed to capture the dying
man's last breath, or persuade the assistants that he has done so, becomes ipso facto
a claimant for the fortune and paternal or political power of the deceased. Chiefs,
all powerful in
theory, are nevertheless often fain to share the sovereignty with
their rivals, and, as a matter of fast,
they rarely venture to decide in weighty
affairs without consulting the notables, or even all freeholders. In the assemblies
INHABITANTS OF SUMATKA. 105
allspeak freely, at times coming to blows. It is also usual to deliberate fasting, in

order to guard against the violent scenes that might be caused
by the abuse of
palm-wine.
Formerly an extensive traffic was carried on in Niassi slaves, whom hundreds
of praus came to kidnap round the coasts of the island. Sir Stamford Raffles was
"
even " censured by the East India Company for obstructing this trade
during
the British occupation. At present many of the islanders emigrate to take
service in Malay or European families, and amongst them are nearly always
chosen the carpenters, masons, and thatchers.
The natives of the are also
"
Mentawey Archipelago savages," differing
greatly, however, from the other west Sumatran islanders. According to Von
Rosenberg, who visited them between the years 1847 and 1852, they are not
Malays at all, but a branch of the East Polynesian race. Their idiom, remarkable
for its softness and abundance of vowels, appears to differ completely from the
dialects of Sumatra and neighbouring islands. Like the Polynesians, the Chaga-
lalegats, as they call themselves, delight in waving plumes, foliage, and flowers.
They deck their hair with bright corals,
and cover the breast with tattoo markings
in the form of shields, like the Tonga and other Pacific peoples. Certain food is
strictly tabooed for the women, while the profane are warned off from certain
mysterious recesses of the forest.
The Mentawey people do not blacken their teeth like most of the Malay
tribes, but file to a point the front teeth. The youth of both sexes join together
in all gymnastic exercises, but after marriage the women keep discreetly apart.
Divorce is unknown and
adultery punished with death. Like their neighbours of
the Pagah group, the Chagalalegats are extremely pacific, never warring amongst
themselves, nor fortifying their villages, which, however, they take care not to
build on the coast, but always on the bank of some small inland stream. Till
lately their arms were the bow and poisoned arrows. Although much dreading
the evil spirits, they at times consult them in the depths of the forest, where the
replies are uttered in a harsh, quivering voice. The souls of the dead, also greatly
feared, are supposed to become demons, and a neighbouring uninhabited island is
the special abode of these departed spirits.
Even the little island of Engano, at the southern extremity of the insular chain,
has its peculiar race, on insufficient grounds affiliated by some writers to the
stock. These rude islanders were still in the stone age till the middle of
Papuan
the present century, when they learnt the use of iron. They went naked, whence
the term Pulo Telanjang, or " Naked Island," applied by the Malay traders to
their little territory. they call themselves, were also un-
The Kerikjee, as
acquainted with tobacco and strong drinks, but were, on

the other hand, scru-
pulously honest, theft being unknown amongst them. They bury their dead in a
fishing-net,doubtless to enable them to continue to procure themselves food in
the next world ;
but the fruit-trees, field, and garden-plot of the departed are laid
waste, being henceforth useless to him.

108 AUSTRALASIA.
TOPOGRAPHY OF SUMATRA.
Being still destitute of easy highways, and inhabited by diverse tribes and
nations without any political cohesion, Sumatra has developed on its seaboard but
few considerable towns, while in the interior the largest centres of population are
little more than villages. Nevertheless several epochs have witnessed the growth
of large kingdoms, whose capitals have successively been important commercial
marts.
Theold Atjeh empire, which, according to the chroniclers, arose about the be-
ginning of the thirteenth century, was of considerable extent. At the time of its
it embraced
greatest prosperity, in the first decades of the seventeenth century,
about half of the island, and held several secondary states in vassalage. From
Egypt to
Japan ruling princes sought army comprised hundreds of
its alliance ;
its
fighting elephants and disposed of two thousand guns. The sultan, who, despite
his Arab name claimed descent, like so many other Eastern potentates, from
Alexander of Macedon, exercised almost absolute power, at least in the districts in

the viciuity of his residence.
At present the Atjeh frontiers, as arbitrarily laid down by the Dutch across a
territory of which they are not even masters, includes only the northern extremity
of the island, from south of Langsar Bay on the east, to Silekat Bay on the west
coast. The island of Babi, with a few adjacent islets partly inhabited by Achinese,
also forms part of the State. Although the population has been more than deci-
mated during the long war with the Dutch, it is still believed to exceed half a
million. The Achinese, properly so called, are divided into three clans, the
" " "
twenty-two," the twenty-five," and the twenty-six," srtgi or mukims, that is,
communes, each governed by two panglimas, or hereditary chiefs, who naturally
check each other's power, while the whole body of the panglimas constitute the
national council. Moreover, each village enjoys local self-government, being
administered by its elders, without whom the chief can decide nothing. This
independent communal life explains the astonishing vigour with which the natives
have hitherto defended their liberties against the foreign aggressors.
Since the first commerce, signed in 1509 with the Portuguese, the
treaty of
Achinese have always maintained either pacific or hostile relations with the Euro-
peans. But about the middle of the present century the State had fallen into
complete decay, and the Dutch had seized several places on the seaboard. In 187<J
the moment seemed favourable to punish the sultan for the piratical doings of his
vassals, with whom he was probably in league. Thanks to a treaty with the English,
yielding to them her possessions on the coast of Guinea as a set-off against any
further claims on their part to the northern parts of Sumatra, Holland hoped soon
to make an end of the Achinese ;
but their first expedition ended disastrously.
Further equipments, a regular campaign, and a siege of forty-seven days, were
required to reduce the kraton, or chief native stronghold, which, however, was not
followed by the submission of the sultan . After fifteen years of incessant warfare,
which has cost Holland an expenditure of 20,000,000 and over one hundred
TOPOGRAPHY OF SUMATRA 107
thousand lives, and double that number to the natives, the inland districts
still
remain unreduced, and will
probably maintain their independence until the country
is opened up
by good highways ramifying in all directions.
The known as the Kofa-Raja, or " Royul
capital of Atjeh, formerly
City," and
now called Groot Atjeh, is built in the form of a
regular quadrilateral, three
miles from the coast, at the entrance of an
extremely fertile valley watered by the
river Atjeh. Southwards rise two isolated bluffs, the " father and mother of the
river," as the natives call them. Numerous villages are scattered round the
Fig. 39 KOTA RAJA AXD OI.EH-LEH.

Scale 1 :
120,000.
Lasb oF Greenwich 95 v 95ao-
Depths.
Otol6 Ifito 32 32 to 80 80 Feet and

Feet. Feet. Feet. upwards.
Biceflelds.
2j Miles.
enclosures,and the entrenched camp is defended by a ring of forts connected

together by railways. Another line, the first constructed in Sumatra, also
connects the city with its marine quarter, Oleh-lvh, standing on a narrow beach
between the sea and a sluggish backwater communicating eastwards with the Atjeh.
Before the war, Kota-Raja is said to have had a population of thirty-five
thousand ; had already recovered much of its importance, and in 1886

in 1882 it
contained nine thousand four hundred natives, besides two thousand five hundred
108 AUSTRALASIA.
introduced from India, is generally

Chinese. Pepper, the lada or piper nigntm,
cultivated in the district, yielding in times of peace as much as forty-five million
consumed in the whole world. According
pounds, or two-thirds of the quantity
to Van der Tunk the native idea is that the Europeans, living in a cold and
climate, stuff their mattresses with this spice to keep

themselves warm at
damp
night.
East of Atjeh, on the Areca coast, as it is called, because fringed with the
it is
Areca or betel-nut palm, the Dutch hold two other stations, Segli, near the
northern slopes of the Goudberg, and Edi, south of Diamond Point. In the
the city of Sumadra, whence the
neighbouring district of Pasei formerly stood
"
island takes its name. On the west or Pepper coast," which is subject to slow
upheaval, the chief port is Kluang, noted for its vast caves frequented by myriads
of edible-nest builders. Some 60 miles farther south lies the port at the mouth
of theTenom where the British ship Nisero was wrecked in 1883, and the whole crew
captured and subjected to great hardships
in captivity. Three years previously two
French travellers in search of gold mines had been assassinated on the same river.
Yet within thirty miles farther south
the little port of Malabuh (Analabu) is occupied
by a Dutch garrison. To escape from foreign rule most of the natives have fled
to the coast town of Wailnh, between Tenom and Malabuh. The latter place,
the port
which has some gold-washings and coal-beds, is followed southwards by
of T'impat Tutran, which trades with the neighbouring island of Babi.
Singkel, formerly capital of a kingdom and now the chief

town of a division of
the Tapanuli province, lies on an island at the mouth of a river surrounded by
pestiferous swamps. Nevertheless, the place is visited by some Chinese traders,

who take camphor, benzoin, and holothurias in exchange for opium and rice.
Baros, lying in a more healthy district farther south, was also a royal residence
before the arrival of the Dutch, and at present does a considerable trade with
Gitnung Siloli, capital of Nias. Beyond it follows Sibogha, on an inlet of the deep and
excellent
spacious Tapanuli Bay, one of the best harbours in the world, affording
anchorage close in shore. Sibogha is one of the points whence travellers penetrate
inland to the Batta country. On the eastern and south-eastern heights of the
neighbouring plateaux lie several commercially and strategically important places,
such as Sipirok, Padang Sidempuan, and Pertibi, noted for its Buddhist ruins.
Southwards in the direction of Padaug follow the little-frequented ports of Natal,
Ajer Bangis, and Priaman.
Padang, the most flourishing place on the west coast, presents the aspect
rather of a large park than of a great commercial mart. Except in the central
quarter occupied by the public buildings, the only structures are the low dwellings
of the Malays, Javanese, Chinese, and Niassi Islanders, overshadowed by cocoanut-
palms and mangoes, and surrounded by gardens, ricefields, and plantations of all
the tropical growths valuable for their bark, gums, flowers, and fruits. In the
distance rises the smoking cone of Talang, and southwards, beyond the little river
"
Padang, stands the Apenberg, or Ape Hill," so named from the quadrumana who
here dwell peaceably under the protection of the natives. The exports, averaging
TOPOGEAPHY OF SUMATRA. 109
about 600,000 yearly, consist almost exclusively of coffee shipped for the United
States.
But Padang owes its importance less to the fertility of the

surrounding plains
than to its favourable position at the converging point of the routes
radiating
- PADANQ AND ENVIRONMENTS.
Fig. 40.
Scale 1 : 88,000.
I0033'
Eask of Greenwich
Depths.
Ota 16 16 to 32 32 Feet and

3.3CO Yards.
towards the thickly peopled and salubrious Menangkubao plateau, which serves
as a health-resort for the Government officials. uplands, where
On these Padang
the Dutch have been firmly established for over half a century, the chief military
at
station is the fortress of Kock, lying some 3,000 feet above sea-level
110 AUSTRALASIA.
the foot of Mount Merapi in the Agam In case of foreign invasion

district.
centre of the whole

this place would at once become the strategic and administrative
island. In the vicinity is the Karhawen-gat Gorge, whose rocky walls have heen
excavated to a depth of 500 feet in the thickness of the plateau.
of the Dutch officials reside,
Padang-PanjaiKj, another large place, where most
occupies the edge of the plateau
at the west foot of Merapi. On another slope are
seen the ruins of Priungan, formerly capital of the Menangkabao empire. Pa/n-
" much farther to the east on the opposite
Kombo, capital of the Fifty Kotas," lies
"
side of Mount Sago. This district is the Sumatran earthly Eden," where the
cultivated plants of the temperate zone flourish side by side with those of
the
one time made
tropics. Here were also gold mines, which at
situated the
Sumatra famous throughout the East, but which are now abandoned. The deposits
of iron, however, are still utilised, which occur
in the neighbourhood of
magnetic
Fig-. 41. HIGHLANDS EAST OF PADAXQ.

Scale 1 : 760.000.
r ureenwich I00so-
Depths.
Oto32 32 to ICO 160 Feet and

12 Miles.
Fort Van der Capellen. On the banks of the Umbilien, east of Singkarah, are
extensive coal measures of excellent quality, the contents of which have been
estimated at about twelve billion cubie feet. Mainly with a view to opening up
these mineral resources, a line of railway has been projected to connect the plateau
either with Padaug or with the more southern Brandeirijn Bay. But the engineer-
ing difficulties have hitherto prevented the execution of this costly undertaking,
and it is now proposed to reach the coalfields from the opposite side of the island
by the navigable river Hari, main branch of the Jambi, which flows within thirty-
five miles of the locality. The slopes are crossed by excellent carriage roads, one
of which connects Padang-Panjang with the coa-t, passing by a profound ravine
whence are commanded some lovely prospects seawards.
South of Padang follow the little ports of Pa'inan and Mokko-Mokko, and the
to the
decayed city of Bciikn/i-ii (Bainjhiliulu), capital of a Presidency. According
TOPOGEAPHY OF SUMATEA. Ill
" Benkulen
is a small place with
local saying, big houses, where small people bear
big titles." From
the end of the seventeenth century till 1824, it belonged to the
East India Company, which had made it the capital of its Indonesian possessions.
Hut the harbour has gradually silted up, and the local trade has withdrawn a few
miles farther south, to the more convenient Silebar Bay. The town is unhealthy,
and in 1714 the English had already removed their residence to Fort Marlborouyh,
some miles farther north. The houses, injured by earthquakes, are often left
unrepaired, and the neglected appearance of the place is increased by the general
Fig. 42. PALEMBANO.

Scale 1 :
75,000.
3,300 Yards.
not
Malay and Chinese inhabitants. The surrounding
district is
poverty of its
and the neighbouring coffee plantations have been abandoned.

very fertile,
of the ports, lying in deep inlets at
Despite the excellent commercial position
the southern extremity of the island, the local trade chiefly in pepper, and dammar
resin, has been little developed. Even before the Krakatau eruption, which spread
not
havoc along the seaboard, the region of the Lampongs, or "Lowlands," did
contain a single important town. At present the chief centre of population is
and a neigh-
Telokh-Iiatwty, a group of eight villages skirting Lampong Bay
112 AUSTRALASIA.
bouring streamlet. Numerous thermal springs of varying temperature bubble up

at the foot of the volcanoes in the surrounding district.
The chief southern trading-place and the largest city in Sumatra,is Palembang,
which on both banks of the Musi just above the delta, and at the converging
lies
point of all the main routes from the interior. Palembang covers a large surface,
the thirty-six Kampongs, or quarters of the liir, comprising a spuce of over five
miles on the north or left bank, while the opposite side is occupied by sixteen other
quarters, grouped collectively under the name of Ulu* The few European
buildings are disposed on the north side, round about the kraton, or citadel,
which
the Dutch have gradually transformed to a residential palace. As in the Chinese
city of Canton, many of the natives live permanently afloat, residing on rakits, or
bamboo rafts, moored to the banks of the river, which is here 1,000 feet wide, and
from 30 to 50 feet deep. Some of the rafts are large enough to bear houses,
containing several families, and according to the local tradition, the first of these
structures were built by the Chinese traders, to whom the sultan had refused
permission to reside ashore. At present they are inhabited not only by the
Chinese, Ma ays,
1
Arabs, and Hindus, but even by some Europeans, for the sake of
the refreshing breezes, which blow alternalely up and down the stream. Nearly
all the shops are afloat, so that most of the business is conducted ^n small river
craft,which glide along the narrow channels winding between the little houses,
painted in bright colours, and surmounted .by curved roofs. During the floods
some of these dwellings break from their moorings, and drift with the current far
below Palembang. Children also frequently fall overboard, and become a prey to
the numerous crocodiles infesting the river.
The inhabitants Palembang, who claim descent from a Javanese colony of
of
the fourteenth century, still speak an idiom
differing greatly from the Malay
dialects of Sumatra, and resembling the current speech of Central Java. Their
commercial relations are also chiefly with that island, to which they forward the
tobacco, rice, india-rubber, gutta-percha, benzoin,and other produce floated down
from Mmcara Dua, Muwara Muicara Rupit, and other inland
Inini, Mnicara Bliti,
towns, usually situated at the Minraras, or confluences of the main stream with its
tributaries. This produce is shipped in large vessels which ascend the Musi to
Palembang, 60 miles from its mouth. The gold workings, whence Palembang
takes name, are now of little value, and the local industries are mainly confined
its
to lacquerware and furniture, manufactured by numerous Chinese artizans.

t
In the neighbourhood are the tombs of the sultans, amongst which Europeans
are surprised to find that of Sikandar Alam, " Alexander the Great," the traditional
ancestor of so many Eastern dynasties.
North of the ancient kingdom of Palembang, the sultanate of Jambi, reduced
by the Dutch in 1858, also possesses a considerable town, Mmcara Kompeh, situated,
as implied by its name, at the confluence of the Kompeh with the Jambi. This
important trading-place lies, like Palembang, above the fluvial delta, and 45
*
The two Malay terms Ilir and Ulii, of such frequent occurrence on the maps of the Eastern Arcl.i-
,
have the respective meanings of " lower," " below," " left," and " upper," " above," " right.''
TOPOGRAPHY OF SUMATRA. 113
miles below Jamb/, the administrative capital and residence of the sultan. Here
also a portion of the population lives on rafts moored to the banks of the
stream,
and, as in the southern province, some Hindu remains are still seen in the neio-h-
G
bourhood. Several petty states still maintain their in the
independence upper
part of the Jarnbi basin, the exports of which are directed almost exclusively to
Singapore.
Ringat, capital of the ancient
kingdom of Indragiri, whose southern frontiers
are marked by the course of the Jambi, has lost all its former greatness and
splendour, and is now reduced to a mere group of villages on the right bank of
the Indragiri. Its communications with the sea are
entirely cut oif by the alluvial
matter gradually deposited in Amphitrite Bay, at the mouth of the river. An
analogous position is occupied on the river Kampar by Pulu Laicang (Palalarang),

which was also an ancient capital. Siak, another old metropolis, now held by the
Dutch, although 60 miles from the mouth of the river, still communicates freely
with the sea. But trade is here centred chiefly in PeJian- Baru, which lies above
Siak, near the advanced spurs of the Barisan range. This place has been selected
as the future terminus of the railway intended to connect the Ombilien coal-fields
with the eastern slope of Sumatra.

Several little ports on this seaboard, notably Buldt Battt, have begun to take an
increasing share in the local coasting trade. Bengkalis, on the island of the same
name, possesses the advantage of a perfectly sheltered roadstead, and promises to
become a busy seaport, since these waters have been cleared of the pirates by
whom they were till recently infested.
On the Sumatran side of the Strait of Malacca the chief agricultural and
commercial centre is the group of villages and plantations which takes the name
of Deli, from a petty state occupying this part of the island. Since the sultan
placed his territory under the protection of Holland in 1862, numerous planters
have settled in the district, the soil of which
unusually fertile.
is The first
European speculators directed their attention mainly to the nutmeg, pepper, and
other spices but they have gradually abandoned these products, and now occupy
;
themselves exclusively with the cultivation of tobacco for the Amsterdam market,
where it is highly appreciated. The production has increased enormously during
the last few years; but unfortunately most of the plantations have been bought
up by a powerful financial company, to which the Government has granted several

exclusive privileges, rendering all free competition impossible. Freehold plots
cannot be obtained, and the Chinese and Hindus are expressly denied the right
topurchase land in the district. The first plantations had been
worked by slaves,
whom the company has now replaced by "contract labour." But the Malay and
Batta natives can no longer be procured in sufficient numbers, so that over 25,000
Chinese coolies have had to be imported. An attempt not, however, attended by
much success has also been made to introduce Javanese from Samarang, and
thus turn to the benefit of Sumatra a part of the yearly increasing surplus popu-
lation supplied by the neighbouring island. Some Klings, or Kalingas that is,
Hindus from the Madras presidency, for the most part mixed with other races also
80
114 AUSTRALASIA.
contribute to swell the number of half-enslaved gangs engaged on the Deli

plantations.
These plantations are continually advancing in both directions, northwards
into the Langkat and Atjeh territories, southwards into the sultanate of Sirdang.
Fig. 43. DEU.

Scale 1 :
650,000.
98 25' Lasb oPGreenwicK
Uepths.
Oto 16 16 Feet and

Feet. upwards.
12 Miles.
The small breed of Deli horses coming from the Batta country are highly valued
on the Singapore and Pulo Pinang markets.
Labiinn, the outport of the Deli state, lies near the mouth of the Deli, in a
swampy district, and on a muddy where the shipping has to ride at anchor
inlet
three miles from the shore. A railway runs from Labuaii up the river southwards
ADMINISTRATION OF SUMATRA. 115
across the numerous kampongs and plantations

belonging to the company. At
Medan, central and administrative " East "
village capital of the Oostkust or Coast
province, a branch from this line penetrates westwards into the Upper Langkat
valley.
ADMINISTRATION OF SUMATRA.
A uniform administration has not yet been introduced into the island. The
inland district of Atjeh, as well as the more inaccessible
regions of Battaland, still
enjoy complete political independence while
; other provinces, such as Padang,
Benkulen, and Palembang, are entirely reduced. Intermediate between these two
extremes are several other territories governed indirectly
through vassal princes,
who pay to Holland the hassil, or fixed portion of the produce, but who still retain
great personal privileges, as well as a considerable portion of the local revenue.
Every degree of transition thus exists between the old regime of the Malay
potentates and total subjection to the laws promulgated by the Dutch governor of
Batavia.
The petty states situated east of the Padang plateau still follow the adat, or
"customs," of the ancient kingdom of Meuangkabau. Nearly all the kingdoms
on the east slope have their more or less autonomous sultans and council of not-
ables. The sukus, or cbms, have similarly their elected chiefs, who receive their
investiture at the hands of the Government, and who serve as intermediaries
between the people and the Dutch authorities. Several united sukus constitute a
niarga, or secondary group, tribe, or principality, corresponding to the French

canton, and administered by district chiefs who act on the one hand as spokesmen
for the people, and on the other as agents for the central power. Formerly every
marga had its special laws and customs recorded on bamboos or the leaves of the
borassus, and jealously preserved from generation to generation.

The main divisions of Sumatra, with their areas and estimated populations, will
be found tabulated in the Appendix.
SUNDA ISLANDS, BETWEEN SUMATRA AND BORNEO.
The Riouw and Lingga archipelagoes, which form a southern extension of the
-Malay peninsula, occupy a considerable area, but are far from rivalling in population,
products, or commercial enterprise the little island of Singapore, detached by Great
Britain from the Dutch East Indies, and by her developed into the chief centre of
trade at the southernmost extremity of the Asiatic continent. Like Singapore,
both insular groups appear to be mere fragments of the adjacent mainland, and both
" Land of
are known to the Malays by the name of Tanah Salat, or Straits," from
the numerous channels and passages winding between these groups of islands,
islets, and reefs. Of all the channels, the most frequented is that of Riouw, which
connects the roadstead of Singapore with the open sea stretching eastwards to
Borneo.
Both archipelagoes contrast sharply with the alluvial islands on the Sumatran
116 AUSTRALASIA.
and like it consisting

coast, Belonging geologically to the Malay peninsula,
rise in undulating cliffs, above which
mainly of granite and sandstones, they
mountains," as the natives call them. One of
or "
appear a few higher summits,
the eminences in Bintang attains a height of 1,700 feet, which
is still 2,000 feet
like
lower than the peak of Lingga (3,700 feet), culminating point in the island of
their healthy climate, due to the
name, in the southern group. Notwithstanding
absence of tracts, a large number of the islands
are still uninhabited, and
marshy
Fig. 44. RIOTJW AKOHIPELAOO.
Pralel : 1.540,000.
& 5 j^-fesv..
i034<r East oF Greenwich I0440-
Depths.
OtoSO 80 to 160 ICO Feet and

. 30 Miles.
entirely clothed with a dark forest vegetation. The neighbouring waters are even
still imperfectly surveyed, and consequently avoided by the Malay seafarers.
The primitive population of the islands consists of Malays, and the Lingga archi-
pelago, which presents a type of remarkable purity, is even traditionally regarded
as the cradle of the race. The Riouw dialect is one of the richest in literary
products, such as chronicles, dramas, and poems. But

Riouw, or northern in the
group, the Malay stock is already largely intermingled with diverse foreign
elements Javanese, who ruled over the islands when the Mojo- Pah it kingdom
flourished ; Bug! traders from Celebes, who occupy several villages Chinese, who, ;
as in Singapore, have already acquired the numerical preponderance in many places-

BANGKA. 117
Buth in the towns and rural districts these Chinese are divided into two distinct
"
nations, each with its captain," the Chinese of Canton and those of
Amoy, the
latter contrasting favourably with the former for their peaceful habits, love of work,
and sobriety.
This steady inflow of the " Celestials " is due to the
development of trade,
which is much more active in the Riouw than in the Lingga The archipelago.
Chinese are here also occupied with the cultivation of gumbir, of which Riouw has
practically the monopoly. This product, called also terra japonica and catechu, is
obtained from a decoction of the leaves of the ttncaria, or nauelea gambiroi botanists.
The island of Bintan alone yields about sixteen million pounds
yearly, forwarded
chiefly to Batavia, Macassar, and Banjermassin, where it is used in the preparation
of betel. Riouw is also one of the most important pepper-growing regions in
Indonesia.
Some places have also deposits of tin, amongst others the two Karimon islets
in the Strait of Malacca, and the large island of Singkep, in the southern archipelago
south of Lingga. The straits yield large quantities of holothurians and of the agar-
agar (fucus sacc/iarinus), for which Chinese epicures pay a high price.
Riouw, capital of the archipelagoes, and, till
recently, of the East Sumatran
Residency, is situated in the islet of Tanjang Pinaug, close to the west side of Bin-
tang, largest member of these insular groups. The town, whose name is often
extended to the two adjacent islands, stands on the east side of the Riouw Strait,
the Rhio of the English charts. It comprises several distinct quarters, stretching
around a shallow roadstead; which, however, is well sheltered from all winds by the
adjacent islets of Mars and Sengarang. Although declared a free port in 1828,
Riouw has not been able to compete with its British neighbour Singapore, to which
vast emporium it sends the tribute of all its exports by a regular line of steamers.
BANGKA.
The large island of Bangka, with an area of about five thousand square miles,
and administratively constituting a Residency of itself, might seem at first sight
to form a mere
geographical dependence of Sumatra. Nevertheless it is entirely
distinct from that region in its geographical constitution, forming, like the Riouw
and Lingga groups, a fragmentary extension of the Malay peninsula. It is also
disposed in precisely the same direction, from north -west to south-east, parallel with
the main axis of Sumatra. The corresponding series of convex and concave curves
presented by both sides of the tortuous and shallow strait separating Bangka from
the alluvial lands of Palembang, is due not to a rupture produced between rocks
of identical formation, but to the action of the alternating marine currents uni-
formly distributing the sedimentary matter brought down by the Palembang

rivers.
Unlike Sumatra, Bangka has neither volcanoes nor igneous rocks, and is almost
destitute even of thermal springs. The chief formations are granites, quartz, feld-
spars, thrown together without any apparent regularity. The undulating hills are
118 AUSTRALASIA.
not disposed in ridges, but scattered in disorder over the surface, and nowhere
attain 3,000 feet in height. Mount Maras, the culminating point (2,800 feet),
rises above the south side of the narrow Klabat Bay, in the northern part of the
But the the high sea.

island. steepest cliffs are those of the east coast, facing
as those of the opposite
Although presenting the same climatic conditions
Sumatran seaboard, Bangka already some marked contrasts in its flora and
offers
fauna. All large animals, such as the elephant and rhinoceros, and even the tiger
and buffalo, are absent from its forests. The inhabitants, although very mixed,
are mainly of stock, as in the other Indonesian coastlaiids but here the
Malay ;
Fig. 45. BANOKA.

Scale 1 :
3,200,000.
East of G
Depths.
Ota 18 16 to 80 SO Feet "lid

Feet. Feet. upwirds.
.
00 Milts.
Javanese element numerously represented than in the Palembang district,

is less
being partly replaced by some scattered settlements of Malays from the north, and
"
commonly known as OrangOrang Laut, that is, Men of the Sea." They
Sekat, or
are akin to the Bajaus of Celebes, and the Orang Kwata, or " Men of the Estu-
aries," who carry on a little trade with the East Sumatran coast. When at anchor
they seldom leave their praus, eight or ten of which constitute a sort of floating
kampong, or community, with its special customs and council of elders.
The Orang Sekat live exclusively on fish and the species of fucus called agar-
agar, and to this diet must be attributed the so-calltd gfidim, a peculiar malady to
which they are occasionally subject. Having remained pagans, they are often
BAXGKA. 119
accused by their Mohammedan neighbours of being addicted to piracy, whereas
they are, on the contrary, strictly honest in all their dealings, depending for a
livelihood solely on fishing and trade. The inland populations, known as Orang
" resemble
Gunang, or Highlanders," the Battas both in physical appearance and
usages.
Of the Chinese, who form nearly a third of the whole population, about one-
half are natives of Bangka, this section taking the name of Pernakan, and constitut-
ing a group quite distinct from the Sinkee, or Chinese immigrants from Canton and
Fokien. They mostly marry half-caste native women, and speak both Chinese and
Malay, but on the whole preserve the original Chinese type. Since 1850 the popu-
lation of the island has more than doubled, but is still
slight, scarcely exceeding
twelve persons to the square mile. Agriculture is almost entirely neglected,
everything being sacrificed to the tin-mining industry, the most productive in the
whole world.
The valuable have been discovered about the beginning of
tin deposits, said to
the eighteenth century, belonged at first to the sultan of Palembang, master of the
island. In 1740 the Chinese, already at that time exclusively employed to work
the mines, raised about 1,550 tons, while the present annual yield of this state
monopoly often equals the value of the capital invested. But the miners continue
to be neglected, and have to be kept under control by the Dutch garrisons stationed
in the mining districts.
The stanniferous beds, of which there are several hundreds, occur in all parts of
the island, but are specially abundant on the north-east side, round about Mera-
waiig. As in the Malay peninsula, the ores are contained in the alluvial soil
which, to a depth of from 14 feet to 35 feet or 40 feet, overlies the dark-
coloured clays at the foot of the granite hills. Here and there the streams carry-
"
ing down the alluvial matter have excavated deep cavities or pockets," in which
the metal has accumulated in considerable quantities. Besides tin, Bangka also
possesses deposits of silver, copper, lead, arsenic, and iron, none of which are much
worked, except the last-mentioned, which is highly valued for the manufacture of
small arms.
Muntol;, capital of Bangka, lies at the north-west extremity, over against the
Palembang river delta. During the British occupation it was known as Minto,
in
honour of the Governor-General of that name, but has since resumed old Malay
its
Muntok, which comprises a strongly fortified European and a native

designation.
quarter, with a total population of about 3,300, has the advantage of a well- shel-
tered but somewhat shallow roadstead, which is the centre of a brisk trade with
Sumatra, Iliouw, and Singapore.
BILUTON.
which about one-third the size of Bangka, is connected

Billiton, or Blitong, is
with the south-east side of that island by about a hundred islets, rocks, reefs, and
Strait. It presents the
endangering the navigation of the intervening Gaspar
120 AUSTRALASIA.
same geological formation as neighbour, and, like it, possesses tin-bearing

its
alluvial deposits. Its culminating point, the twin-crested Tajem, has an altitude
of 3,100 feet.
to the numerous corsairs infesting the surrounding waters, Billiton was
Owing
and almost of inhabitants even in 1856 the popula-
till recently destitute of trade, ;
tion still numbered less than twelve thousand, or scarcely six persons to the square
mile. But since the development of its tin mines, this number has been tripled,
and the port of Tanjong Pandang, converging point of all the main routes, is now
the centre of a considerable local trade, largely in the hands of the Chinese, who
form about a fourth of the whole population. The output of tin, which in 1853
since then increased a hundredfold, and yields
scarcely exceeded forty tons, has
enormous profits to the chartered company. As in Bangka, the miners work on their
own account ;
but they are obliged to sell the tin at a price fixed beforehand, and
the company's stores. to this oppressive
to purchase their supplies in Owing
truck system, most of them are burdened with heavy debts to the end of their days.
Since the formation of this company, Billiton has been an administrative province
" assistant resident "
independent of Bangka, with an stationed at Tanjong
Pandang.
ISLANDS IN THE BORNEO SEA.
The Sea of Borneo, communicating northwards with the China Sea, is studded
with small archipelagoes, each comprising numerous islets, for the most part
uninhabited. Such are Tatnbelan, midway between Lingga and Borneo Anamlias, ;
off the Malay peninsula ; Natuna, in more open waters, equidistant from the Malay
peninsula and Borneo ; Serasan, west of the principality of Sarawak, in Borneo.
This last group is also known as the Pirates' Archipelago, although the people of
the only inhabited island are now exclusively occupied with the preparation of
cocoanut oil.
Of all these islands the largest is Bungnren, called also Great Natuna, which
has an area of 610 square miles, and in Mount Ranay attains an altitude of 3,380
feet. The inhabitants of the cultivated islands, estimated by Hollander in 1878
at twelve thousand souls, are exclusively Malays, who trade with Singapore and
Riouw, taking rice, hardware, and European textiles in exchange for their fish,
sago, and cocoanut oil. The people of Great Natuna build praus described by
Laplace as of admirable workmanship. This group depends politically on Riouw
and is administered
by members of the sultan's family, vassals of Holland.
BORNEO.
The formerly powerful kingdom of Brunei gives its name in a somewhat

modified form to the great island of which it occupies the north-west coast.
Kalamantin, or Klematan, is a native term current in some districts, and

occasionally applied to the whole island. But Borneo is of such vast extent
compared with all the surrounding lauds, that to its inhabitants it seemed almost
boundless, and far too large to be designated
by any special name. Hence they
BORNEO. 121
distinguished the various provinces alone by particular appellations, to which a

more general meaning was afterwards given by foreigners.
Excluding the con-
tinental and polar regions, this island is in fact exceeded in. size
by New Guinea
alone but thanks to its more compact
;
triangular form, it presents far more the
appearance of a continent than does that elongated and deeply indented region.
Borneo evidently constitutes the central nucleus of the former Austral-Indian
land, which comprised Java and Sumatra besides the
Malay peninsula and inter-
vening shallow waters. The basin of these waters has, so to say, scarcely yet been
excavated by the geological agencies, and still reveals the old form of the continent,
over one- third of which is represented by its largest fragment, Borneo. With the
adjacent islets, such as Maijang and the Karimata group, near the south-west coast,
Pulo Laut and Seboku at the south-east corner, and a few others, it has a total
area of nearly 300,000 square miles, or about two and a half times that of the
British Isles. Excluding minor indentations, the coastline has a development of _
not less than 3,800 miles.

This central region of Indonesia, although one of the most fertile, and
abounding in all kinds of tropical produce, is nevertheless almost a wilderness, so

is the population compared to its Java, seven or eight
slight superficial extent.
times smaller, exceeds it ten or twelve times in the number of its inhabitants even ;
the thinly peopled island of Sumatra is more than twice as populous, at least, if any
confidence can be placed in the summary estimates and conjectures of travellers.
This relative and absolute disproportion must be attributed to the zone of swampy
and malarious forests which encircles nearly the whole of the coastlands. Village
communities could scarcely be developed in these insalubrious regions, where most
centres of population have remained in a rudimentary state, lacking the elements
of progress which are acquired by mutual intercourse and commercial relations.
The riverain populations have risen little above the primitive social condition of
fishers and hunters. The period of agriculture, properly so called, has begun only
in a limited number of clearings, and in many districts such is the savage state of
the natives, that the various tribal groups still regard each other simply as so much
game. Head-hunting is the only object with which many tribes approach their
neighbours.
EXPLORATION OF BORNEO. POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
The social state of the people has naturally been a great impediment to the
exploration of the country, of which down to the beginning of the present century
little was known beyond the seaboard. Sighted by the Portuguese probably in the
first
years of the sixteenth century, Borneo remained
unknown to history till 1521,
when the survivors of Magellan's expedition round the globe presented themselves
before Brunei. Soon after this event, Jorge de Menezes established a factory on the
west coast ;
the Dutch made their appearance in 1598, and they were soon followed
by the English. But all attempts at exploration were successively abandoned

either for luck of means or owing to the opposition of the natives and Chinese
immigrants.
122 AUSTRALASIA.
Permanent European settlements on the coast were first made in 1812, when
the English occupied Pontianak and Bunjermassiu, which were two years later
surrendered to the Dutch. These two stations, and those subsequently founded at
other places along the seaboard, became the points of departure for the various
sent to the interior for military, geographical, or
expeditions that have since been
scientific purposes. No systematic survey has yet been undertaken but the ;
different itineraries of independent explorers already intersect each other at several
points. Except the more central regions, nearly all the unexplored districts have
also been at least viewed from a distance, and described from the reports of the
natives.
The routes followed by travellers have mainly been the watercourses, which
for the most part flow in a sufficiently deep and gentle current to be ascended in
boats a long way from their mouths. These highways were taken by von Martens,
and many others, who penetrated into the heart of the island from Pontianak by ;
Schwaner, who traversed nearly the whole of the Barito, Kahajan, and Kapuas
" Land of
fluvial basins by Karl Bock, who on the east side visited the
; Cannibals,"
watered by the Kutei River. Land journeys have been relatively more frequent in
the northern parts, where the streams, being less developed, present fewer facilities
for reaching the hilly regions of the interior. The memorable excursions of A. II.
Wallace were made round about Sarawak, and since the British occupation of the
northern territory, the network of itineraries has been extended over the whole of
that domain.
The Dutch, masters of all the rest of Indonesia, except the eastern half
of Timor, have not had time to establish their rule over the whole of Borneo.
They have, however, gradually reduced or annexed all the section lying south of
the equator, as well as about half of the northern districts. But possession of the
north-west and northern parts has been secured by the English, through various
treaties with the Sultan of Brunei, former suzerain of the whole of this region.
In 1846 the British Government obtained the absolute cession of the island of
Labuan, at the entrance of Brunei Bay, despite the protests of the Netherlands.
But the Sultan had already granted to James Brooke the principality of Sarawak,
comprising the southern part of his kingdom. In return for a yearly subsidy, this
soldier of fortune, commonly known as Rajah Brooke, thus became master of an
extensive territory, which has since been gradually enlarged at the expense of the
sultan's domain.
On the opposite side of Brunei the sultan has also yielded the northern part of
the island to a powerful British
company, which has already obtained a royal
charter from the Crown of England. A
part of this territory having also been
claimed by the sovereign of the Sulu archipelago, that potentate, like his Brunei
colleague, has been bought off by a pension. Thanks to this purchase of the land,
Spain, which had meantime become the suzerain of the Sulu prince, has henceforth
been excluded from claim to the possession of any part of Borneo.
all
Lastly, the
sultanate of Brunei itself depends for its
very existence on the sufferance of
England, and it is now proposed to unite it to the other territories of the two
MOUNTAINS OF BORNEO. 123
companies, under the direct protectorate of Great Britain. But a frontier question
remains to be settled between the Dutch Government and the North Borneo
still
Company, arising out of a misunderstanding as to the identity of the river Sebuku,

which is accepted by both sides as the boundary line.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BORNEO.
With theexception of Celebes and Halmahera, the Indonesian islands present,

as a rule, extremely simple outlines. Some even affect the form of geometrical
figures, such as parallelograms, ovals, trapeziums, and, as in the case of Borneo,
triangles. At first sight the observer is struck by the contrast presented by these
massive contours, compared to those of the eccentric island of Celebes, with its
curiously radiating peninsulas. But a superficial study of the Bornean mountain

ranges shows that a slight subsidence of the land would suffice to give the great
island a coastline analogous to those of Celebes and Halmahera. Reduced to its
framework of hills, Borneo presents in the first place a main ridge, disposed from
south-west to north-east, in the direction of the Philippines. But from the central
part of this ridge branch off three divergent chains, terminating at the principal
headlands of the island, and separated from each other by the alluvial plains of
intervening fluvial basins. The primitive aspect of the island has thus been
gradually modified by erosions and sedimentary deposits, which during the course
of ages has rendered less and less distinct its original stellar formation.
The main range begins some 30 miles from the Philippine waters
in a superb
mountain, culminating point not only of Borneo, but probably of the whole of
Indonesia. " Chinese Widow," as it is named from a curious
Kina-Balu, or the
local legend, was first ascended by Low in 1851. Belcher's trigonometric
measurements give it an altitude of 13,300 feet, although travellers who have
approached nearest to the summit estimate its height at not much more than
11,000 feet. Seen from one of the bays indenting the west coast, Kina-Balu seems
to rise almost vertically above the surrounding heights, terminating in an irregular
crest, which
is surmounted
by distinct prominences resembling towers. Formerly
itsslopes were clothed with dark forests up to a height of 10,000 feet but the ;
woodlands have almost everywhere been cleared by the highland peasantry, the
primeval brushwood surviving only on the more inaccessible precipices. The
to
prevailing formations are granites and crystalline rocks, although according
Little, who ascended Kina-Balu in 1867, a crater of vast size opens on its flanks,
while fragments of lavas are strewn over the surrounding granites.

situated at the east foot of the
Till geographers spoke of a large lake
recently
mountain with a circumference of about 100 miles. But no such lake exists, nor
is there anything to justify the report beyond a fen or morass flooded during the
periodical inundations of a neighbouring stream.

The belief in this pretended
" "
term danau, that lake," or sea,"
lake possibly be due to the
is,
may Malay
applied to one of the surrounding districts.
South of Kina-Balu the divide between the eastern and western slopes fulls
124 AUSTRALASIA.
abruptly, the psiss crossed by

Witti being little over 2,000 fuet high. But farther
south this explorer failed to discover any pass lower than 3,900 feet, while sonic
of the summits in this section of the chain attain elevations of over 6,500 feet.
Towards the south-west the main range is still for the most part unexplored,
visible from the sea.
nothing being known beyond the names of a few peaks
Fig. 46
Scale 1 :
1,280,000.
Depths.
OtoSO goto 160 ICO Feet and

18 Miles.
Everything vaguely designed on the maps, except in the basin of the river
is
Brunei, south and south-east of the capital, where Mounts Malu and Marud both
exceed 8,000 feet in height.
The central nucleus of the whole orographic system, whence flow south-west,
west, and east the upper affluents of the three great Bornean rivers, has not yet
been visited by any Europeans, and is known only by name. According to the
MOUNTAINS OF BORNEO. 125
natives the Batu Tabang, culminating point of this mountain group, is so

high
that " from its summit heaven
might easily be reached." From a distance it is
said to "
appear always white," either because rising above the snow-line, or more
probably because usually wrapped in vapour. However this be, the nearest
mountains that have hitherto been explored are
distinguished rather by their
picturesque outlines and eccentric forms than for their great elevation. Accord-
ing to Schwaner, none exceed 4,650 feet, while the ranges branching off towards
the headlands on the seaboard would appear to be almost
everywhere still lower.
Even the. Lupar chain, running south-west and west, completely disappears in
some places. Between the river of like name traversing Sarawak and Lake
Sriang, in the Kapuas basin, the slopes are scarcely perceptible, whereas towards
the north-east the horizon is bounded by the blue crests of the " Thousand and
One Hundred Mountains." Farther on the western chain
is again
interrupted
at several points ;
but towards its
extremity develops a it
superb amphitheatre
around the Sarawak country, terminating on the coast at the sharp headland of
Tanjang Datu. The two loftiest summits of this waterparting are Penrisan and
Pu, 4,750 and 6,000 feet respectively.
South of the Batii Rajah, or " King Mountain " (8,300 feet), the range skirt-
ing the east side of the Kapuas basin appears to have no peaks rivalling in altitude
those of Sarawak and the central nucleus. It is continued southwards by a line
of crestsfrom 2,000 to 2,600 feet high, and thence between the Kapuas and Barito
basins not by an uninterrupted chain, but by a series of groups separated from
each other by broad depressions, and thus forming so many isolated masses. The
south-eastern range forming the divide between the Barito and Mahakkam basins
is somewhat loftier, the Batu
Budang attaining, according to Schwaner, an eleva-
tion of 4,550 feet.But southwards it falls rapidly, in its central parts presenting
nothing but rounded hills, scarcely more than 600 or 700 feet high. One of the
gaps in this chainis occupied
by the Jallan-Batu, a chaos of limestone blocks of
every form and size, covering a space several hundred square miles in extent.
Trees have sprung up between the boulders, and here and there in their fissures
or on their summits. The mountains of which these calcareous masses at one .time
formed part have been gradually disintegrated and carried away by the running
waters, leaving nothing but these scattered fragments of more durable rocks.
As it
approaches the sea, sweeping round to the south-west of the alluvial
Banjermassin plains, the range again develops an unbroken chain of crystalline

formation, terminating in the promontory of Cape Satoi. In the same way the
hills skirting the north side of the Mahakkam basin merge eastwards in the
granite Lakuru chain, terminating in a bold headland on the coast.

Besides the fully developed continuous ranges, Borneo is diversified with a
large number of isolated dotted over the plains, like the archipelagoes in
groups
the surrounding waters. Most of these groups are of slight elevation, although
some few rival in altitude the summits of the main ranges. Such are Mounts
Balik Pippan and Bratus, in the Mahakkam basin, the latter, according to Bock,
about 5,000 feet high.
126 AUSTRALASIA.
Several of the summits in Central Borneo consist of granite and other crystal-
line rocks, as sufficiently attested by the debris washed down and strewn over the
But in the regions near the seaboard nearly all
plains by the running waters.
the hills are of sedimentary formation. Of these the .calcareous rocks are very
shelter to myriads of the esculent

prevalent, their innumerable caverns affording
swallow. Other deposits of various ages contain rich beds of coal and lignite,
and many parts of the island abound in thermal springs. Although surrounded
at present to contain no active
by a semicircle of igneous islands, Borneo appears
volcanic centres but this region also had at one time its eruptive craters, and
;
the scorife and other traces of extinct fires may still be seen here and there, as in
the neighbourhood of Kina-Balu and in the Montrado uplands.
The outlines of the Bornean seaboard have frequently been modified. If there
was a time when it formed continuous land with Sumatra and the Malay peninsula,
it was also at other epochs reduced to the mere skeleton of its mountain ranges,
destitute of the argillaceous, shingly, and alluvial plains at present filling up the
spaces between its divergent chains. It was probably during these epochs that its
volcanic cones blazed above the neighbouring marine waters. Then also were
deposited the horizontal beds on which are strewn the ferruginous pebbles
washed
down from the hills, and among which are collected the precious metals, gold,
platinum, quicksilver, as well as diamonds of the purest water. Gold washings

occur in most provinces the British territory in the north, Sarawak, Montrado,
the Pontianak and Banjermassin district. The Malays and Dayaks are moreover
acquainted with numerous mineral deposits, which they jealously conceal, either in
the hope of retaining a monopoly of the mines or else in order to keep the for-
eigners from their territory. The diamond mines are usually found in pockets
of argillaceous soil at some distance from the auriferous beds.
RIVERS OF BORXEO.
Thanks to an abundant rainfall, Borneowatered by a considerable number of

is
broad streams flowing in all directions seawards. Nevertheless the north-west
slope between the main range and the coast is too narrow for the development of
any great watercourses. Here the most copious is the Brunei, or Borneo, which
estuary at the capital of the state of like name. Farther south, but on
falls into the
the same north-west slope of the island, are the navigable rivers Eajang and
Lupar, besides the Sarawak, which, although of small size, is better known from
the town of that name situated on its estuary, the scene of so many stirring events
in recent years.
One of the three largest rivers in Borneo is the Kapuas, whose catchment
basin lies between the two south-western mountain ranges,' and which flows mainly
towards the south-west. The chain of large lakes which formerly marked its course
have been gradually filled in by alluvial deposits, and are now represented only by
so-called daiianx, such as the Sriang and Luar, periodically flooded shallow lagoons
occurring at intervals along the riverain plains. Before reaching the low-lying
EIVEES OF BOENEO. 127
coastlands, the
Kapuas contracts to a narrow bed between two neighbouring hills,
beyond which it ramifies into two main branches and numerous smaller
channels,
forming an extensive delta with a coastline of no less than 70 miles. This
alluvial tract projects considerably beyond the original shore-line, and according
to the local traditions mentioned by Temminck, has advanced several leagues sea-
wards during the historic period. The island of Majang, opposite the southern
branch of the delta, is already almost entirely connected with the mainland, while
the sedimentary deposits continue to encroach upon the sea still farther southward,
in the direction of the Karimata archipelago. The province of Pulu Petak was
formerly an island, as indicated by its
very name, which means an island destitute
of all vegetation.
The section of Borneo lying south of the equator is the most abundantly watered
part of the country. Here follow in rapid succession the rivers Kotaringin, Pem-
buan, Sampit, Katingan, Kuhajan, and Barito, all, like the Kapuas, lined by
occasionally flooded morasses, all steadily advancing beyond the normal coastline,
and all presenting navigable highways far into the interior. Of these southern
streams the largest is the Barito or Banjer, known also by several other names in
the various districts through which it flows. Rising in the centrul nucleus of
highlands, it first forces its way eastwards over a series of falls and rapids, through
deep and almost inaccessible gorges, beyond which it winds across the plains south-
wards to the coast at Banjermassin. Swollen by a large number of affluents, it is
everywhere navigable in this section of its course, and about 60 miles from the
sea ramifies into two also navigable branches, of which the eastern receives the
Negara and Martapura tributaries, while the western joins the Kapuas, which
formerly reached the coast in an independent channel. But the alluvial matter
brought down by both of these rivers has gradually filled in the intervening marine
inlet, and this eastern Kapuas has thus become a tributary of the Barito, a fate
which must also, sooner or later, overtake the Kahajan, or Great Dayak.
The Barito delta has a superficial area of over 800 square miles, while
the trenches enclosing and west are, in some places, considerably over
it east
half a mile wide. During the inundations the floodvvaters of the Barito and
Kapuas intermingle, converting the intervening plains into a vast sheet of water,
estimated by Schwaner at no less than 13,000 square miles in extent. Like the
Mississippi and other large rivers flowing through low-lying tracts, the Barito
frequently shifts its course, forming new channels, especially at the sharp turnings,
and thus giving rise to shallow lagoons and backwaters, analogous to the " false
"
rivers of the Mississippi valley. Here and there these danaus, or " seas," are
again scoured by the recurring inundations, and uniting with other lagoons or
flooded meres, stretch between their wooded banks beyond the horizon.
away
In the east equatorial region the only large river is the Mahakkam, called also
Kutei, from the vast plain which it traverses on its south-easterly course seawards.
After escaping from the rugged uplands, it spreads out to the right and left in vast
so broad that the oppo-
lagoons bounded by a fringe of forests, and in some places
site shores are invisible. These lacustrine basins, the remains of an ancient sea, are
128 AUSTRALASIA.
in
extent, their
muddy banks steadily advancing towards
gradually diminishing
the central parts, which Karl Bock found to be still over 80 feet deep. Below
the region of lakes, which are connected by narrow channels in ail endless laby-
rinthic system, the Mahakkam, after re-uniting with its chief affluent, continues its
southerly course between low ranges of carboniferous hills.

But beyond an
winding
Fig. 47. BAEITO DELTA.

Scale 1 :
1,400,000.
L,*^
~ = eay-^=
Depths.
to 32 32 to 80 60 Feet and
, 60 Miles.
abrupt bend to the east its two banks, diverging to a distance of one or two miles,
acquire a completely alluvial character ; and here the nipa palm is the only arbo-
rescent growth. Here also it becomes a tidal stream, flowing, so to say, beyond the
" "
mainland, and, like the Mississippi, ramifying into numerous goose feet amid
the surrounding marine waters. An exceptional spring tide, some 5 or 6 feet
RIVERS OF BORNEO.
129
higher than usual, would suffice to

again submerge the whole of this newly- formed
delta.
a
X,
I
I
oo
bb
North of the Lakuru hills none of the eastern streams, such as the Kelai, the
90
180 AUSTRALASIA.
Kajang, the Sebuwang, or the Kina-Batangan, are comparable in the extent of

Mahakkara and other large southern rivers. Never-
their catchment basins to the
theless all have a copious discharge, and are navigable, although their estuaries
all
are much obstructed by the coralline formations which abound on the north-east
coast.*
Fewregions of the globe can compare with Borneo in the number of their
navigable highways hence it is not surprising that hundreds of Malay and
;
Chinese traders have, as in Sumatra, utilised these streams for their floating
habitations, the materials for which are yielded in abundance by the surrounding
forests. Erecting their little houses, and at times a whole village, on their firmly
constructed rafts, they descend with the current, casting anchor wherever there
are prospects of doing a little trade in honey, gums, skins or other local produce.
After weeks or months of this wandering life they reach some larger emporium on
the lower ,course, where they sell their wares, houses and all. If the venture has
proved profitable, they again ascend the river in boats, build another floating
domicile and renew their barter trade with the natives.
CLIMATE OF BORNEO.
Although intersected by the equinoxial line Borneo has a far less torrid
climate than that of Aden, and the coastlands on the Red Sea. Like the other
Indonesian regions it enjoys the refreshing marine breezes, which are attracted
from all quarters towards the centres of rarefaction. On the seaboard the glass
seldom indicates 95F. in the shade and usually does not exceed 90, while the
thermometer normally oscillates between 72 in the morning and 89 u about two
o'clock in the afternoon. Hence the dangerous character of the Bornean climate
is due not to its heat, but to the heavy night dews and to the malaria caused by
the periodic inundations and decomposition of organic matters, especially in the
interior, less exposed to the invigorating sea breezes. Here also there is little
change of season, the winds being little regulated and rain-bearing clouds
arriving from all quarters throughout the year.
But on the seaboard the south-east trades prevailing from April to October,
are regularly followed by the west and stormy north-west, north and north-east
monsoons. But even here moisture is precipitated at all times, and at Sarawak
the mean annual rainfall is estimated at from 150 to 200 inches. Long droughts
* Chief Rivers of Borneo :
Approxiim'e Approximate Lenirth of Navigable

Length. Area of Basin. Course with Aflimuts.
Miles. Square Miles. Miles.
Brunei or Limbang 120 . .
4,000 . . 60
Eejang 300 .. 10,000 . . 190
Lupar 180 .. 4,000 . . 30
Kapuas 480 .. 30,000 . . 360
Katingan 270 .. 8,000 . . 120
Kahajan 330 .. 9,000 . . 150
Barito 550 .. 40,000 . . 600
Mahakkam 670 .. 32,000 . . 360
Kina-Batangan 330 .. 8,000 , . 270
FLORA. OF BORNEO. 131
also occasionally occur, as in the when the great Sriang lagoon in the
year 1877,
Fig. 49. NAVIGABLE STREAMS AND CHIEF ROUTES OF EXPLOEEES IN BOENEO.

Scale 1 : 12 000,000.
Bonte by water or Land

the river bunks. routes.
180 Miles.
Kapuas basin was completely dried up. In the Kutei district Bock traversed
by the heat, and destitute alike of vegetation and animal life.
forests killed
FLORA.
But these are rare exceptions, and on the whole Borneo nvjy be described as
one vast forest, so dense and continuous that, according to one observer, apes might
pass from one extremity of the island to another by swinging from branch to branch.
The forest growths are interrupted only in some few districts by tracts covered
with the herbaceous alang plant.
Although differing little from that of the other large islands, ihe Bornean
flora
comprises a few peculiar forms, especially trees yielding good timber, gums.
1S2 AUSTRALASIA.
and resins. On the flanks of Kina-Balu, noted for its numerous varieties of the
pitcher- plant, botanists

have observed a remarkable intermingling of Indian,
Malayan, and Australian species. On the muddy coastlands flourishes the valu-
able sago tree (Metroxylon sag/is Rumphii], which yields its nutritive sap in such
abundance that the province of Sarawak alone supplies more than half of the
sago exported from tropical lands.
A
single plant of average size furnishes a
thousand cakes, with a total weight of about seven hundred pounds, a quantity
support one man for a twelvemonth, yet not needing
sufficient to more than some
ten days' easy labour for its production.
FAUNA.
Like its flora, the fauna of Borneo possesses several species giving it a peculiar
'
physiognomy. Almost every island has some characteristic animal, and the con-
trasts presented by these insular faunas has enabled naturalists to conjecture the
relative ages the islands became detached from each other.
when Thus Sumatra
and Borneo must have still formed continuous land when Java was already a
separate region. Hence the narrow Sunda Strait would appear to be older than
the broad but shallow Sea of Borneo. is confirmed by the con-
This inference
formity of the faunas between Borneo

and Sumatra, and their relative difference
between the latter island and Java.

Amongst the animals which appear to have originated in Borneo, the most
remarkable is the mias, or orang-utan, that is, "man of the woods" (Simla satyrus),
also met in North Sumatra. He is found in every part of Borneo, but all attempts
to tame him have hitherto resulted in failure. Nearly all the captured specimens
die of consumption, even when retained in the vicinity of their native forests.
The Dayaks assert that the mias fears neither rhinoceros, tiger, nor wild boar, and
that he will even face the crocodile and python. It was long doubted whether the
elephant and rhinoceros formed part of the Bornean fauna, but although they
have disappeared from the Dutch provinces, they are still met in herds near
Sandakan, in British territory. The Bornean tiger is a distinct species, and here
also occur two varieties of the crocodile found nowhere else.
INHABITANTS OF BORNEO.
Mention is often made of a peculiar race of aborigines dwelling in the midst

and the natives themselves are fond of talking about the Orang-
of the forests,
" Tailed
Buntut, or Men," said to dwell in the central regions. Many Arab,
Malay, and native travellers claim to have seen them, squatting on little stools
with holes made for the convenience of inserting their caudal appendix. Even
recently the explorer, Carl Bock, searched, though in vain, for thess tailed people
amongst the inhabitants of the highlands, between the Barito and Pasir basins.
But apart from these Buntuts, Borneo still harbours many absolutely savage
peoples. Such are the Puans of the central regions, and the Njavongs of the
Kahajan basin, who live in the forests unsheltered even by a screen of foliage
from sun or rain. Their only garment is a loin-cloth, their weapon the blow-pipe,
INHABITANTS OP BORNEO. 138
through which they shoot little darts poisoned with a mixture of nicotine and
other ingredients. They shun Europeans, Malays, and Chinese alike, trading
with them only through intermediate agents. Their complexion is lighter than
Fig. 50. DAYAK TYPES, BOBNEO.
women to the shade of the dense

that of other Borneans, and the especially, thanks
forests, have clear skins of a somewhat greyish yellow

colour. Their chief food is
the flesh of apes, snakes, and frogs. But whether these or any other peoples of
is
the interior are to he classed with the fair Indonesians or the dwarfish Negritos
still a moot point.
134 AUSTRALASIA.
The great bulk of the inland populations are collectively known as Dayaks, a
term the primary meaning of which appears to be " Men," "People," but which for
" "
the Malays has simply the sense of Wild," or Heathen." In any case, many
tribes are certainly grouped under this general designation, which differ in their
origin, physical appearance, and customs. The

names by which they arc
special
known to their neighbours are for the most part taken from the districts, moun-
tains, or rivers inhabited by them. Thus have been named the Orang-Kapuas,
the Orang-Barito, Orang-Mahakkam, Orang-Bukit, or " Highlanders," Ot-Danom,
"
or " Uplanders in the same way are distinguished the " Sea," " River," and
;
" "
Land Dayaks.
Taken collectively the Dayak populations differ from the civilised Malays by
their slim figure, lighter complexion, more prominent nose and higher forehead.
In many communities the men carefully eradicate the hair of the face, while both
sexes file, dye, and sometimes even pierce the teeth, in which are fixed gold
buttons. The lobe of the ear is
similarly pierced for the insertion of bits of stick,
rings, crescent-shaped metal plates, and other ornaments, by the weight of which
the lobe is gradually distended down to the shoulder. In several tribes the skulls
of the infants are artificially deformed by means of bamboo frames and bandages.
The simple Dayak costume of blue cotton with a three-coloured stripe for
border is always
gracefully draped, and the black hair is usually wrapped in a
red cloth trimmed with gold. Most of the Dayaks tattoo the arms, hands, feet,
and thighs, occasionally also breast and temples. The designs, generally of a
beautiful blue colour on the coppery ground of the body,
display great taste, and
are nearly always disposed in odd numbers, which, as
among so many other
peoples, are supposed to be lucky. Amulets of stone, filigree, and the like, are
also added to the ornaments to avert misfortune. In some tribes coils of brass
wire are wound round the body, as among some African peoples on the shores of
Victoria Nyanxa.
The Dayaks are much subject to skin diseases, due perhaps to the lack of
salt in their diet. Victims of goitre also are as numerous in the Kutei basin as in
certain Alpine and Pyrenean valleys. Even before the arrival of the Dutch the
natives practised a sort of inoculation
against small-pox, which in Borneo is of a
very virulent character.

The Dayaks believe in the existence of a
supreme being, the Sang-Sang, who
reveals his pleasure to the and communes with them in a "heavenly
priests
tongue." But the confidence of the people is chiefly in the bilians or
priestesses,
who understand how to conjure the evil spirits,
dispel maladies, forecast the future,
solve riddles and extemporise songs.
They are brought up from, infancy by
the priests, and always chosen from the slave class, for
they are common to all
the married men of the community to a fixed tariff. One of the
according
marriage customs, probably of Chinese origin, is scarcely elsewhere equalled
for refinement of cruelty. The wealthy Ot-Damons confine their daughters
when eight or ten years old in a narrow, dimly lit cell, which they never leave
for the next seven or eight years.
During this period they are allowed to see
INHABITANTS OF BORNEO. 185
neither parents nor friends, not even their own mother their only occupation is
;
the weaving of mats, and their food is administered

by a slave. When at last
released from her prison, pale, emaciated, on her small enfeebled feet,
tottering
the maiden is considered a worthy for the wealthiest suitors a " piece of
prize ;
man," that is to say a slave, is immolated, and her person sprinkled with his
blood.
Many Dayak tribes are still addicted to

head-hunting, a practice which has
made their name notorious, and which but lately threatened the destruction of the
whole race. It is
essentially a religious practice, so much so that no important
act in their lives seems sanctioned unless
accompanied by the offering of one or
more heads. The child is born under adverse influences unless the father has
presented a head or two to the mother before its birth. The young man cannot
become a man and arm himself with the rnandau, or war club, until he has
beheaded at least one victim. The woo?r is rejected by the maiden of his choice
unless he can produce one head to adorn their new home. The chief fails to
secure recognition until he can exhibit to his a head secured by his own
subjects
hand. No dying person can enter the kingdom beyond the grave with honour
unless he is accompanied
by one or more headless companions. Every rajah owes
to his rank the tribute of a numerous escort after death.
Amongst some tribes, notably the Bahu Trings, in the northern part of the
Mahakkam basin, and the Ot-Damons of the Upper Kahajan, the religious
custom is still more
exacting. It is not sufficient to kill the victim, but before
being dispatched he must also be tortured, the corpse sprinkled with his blood,
and his flesh eaten under the eyes of the priests and priestesses, who perform the
prescribed rites. All this explains the terror inspired by the Dayaks in their
neighbours, and the current belief that they are sprung from swords and daggers
that have taken human form.
A regular head-hunting expedition is so much regarded as a pre-eminently
religious act, that amongst the primitive tribes it must be preceded by a general
confession. All sinners confess their shortcomings, submit to the pomali, that is,
the taboo of the Polynesians, and do penance in the forests in order to be " restored
to grace." When thus cleansed from all moral stain, they engage in their funeral
dances, don their warlike costume of the skins of wild beasts, and put on their
masks representing the open jaws of a tiger or crocodile. Thus disguised they
sally forth to fall upon some distant tribe of friends or foes, and gather their
harvest of heads or of victims reserved for the feast. The skulls of the enemy are
usually held in the greatest respect; every attention is bastowed on them; at

every meal the choicest morsels are placed in their mouth they are supplied with
;
betel and tobacco they are treated as chiefs, in the hope that they may forget
;
" Your head is ours now

their own and attach themselves to the new tribe. ;
help us to slay your former friends," is the language addressed to them.

With the gradual spread of Islam the Dayaks of the British and Dutch
possessions are slowly abandoning their bloodthirsty usages.
At the same time
the hcafl-hunters themselves, strange to say, are otherwise the most moral
186 AUSTRALASIA.
people in the whole of Indonesia. Nearly all are perfectly frank and honest.
They scrupulously respect the fruits of their neighbour/ labour, and in the tribe
itself minder is unknown. For a period of twelve years under the rule of Rajah
Brooke only one case of homicide occurred in the principality of Sarawak, and in
this case the criminal was a stranger adopted by the Dayaks. The natives also
contrast favourably with the Malay, Chinese, or
European immigrants for their
temperance and forbearance. Although cheated and plundered on all sides, they
reserve their good temper and cheerful disposition,
j) indulge freely in merry-
making, and display much ingenuity in inventing all kinds of games.
Born artists, they not only raise their dwellings on piles high above the
periodical floodsand beyond the reach of nightly marauders, but also dispose the
bamboo frames and gables in forms pleasing to the eve. They are eager collectors
of porcelain and " old china," and to certain choice
pieces are attributed divine
properties. The tombs of their chiefs, and in
some districts those of their dogs,
are solidly constructed of iron-wood and embellished with
carvings representing
heads, birds, dragons' mouths, rivalling those of Burmah and Siam in delicacy of
detail and instinctive harmony.
In the centre of most villages stands the " chief
bnhii, or house," a round or
elongated building, erected, like all the others, on piles, but containing a vast
apartment where the unmarried young men and all strangers pass the night, and
which serves as an exchange, forum, and council chamber. Some of these Dayuk
palaces, occasionally treated as citadels,
have a circuit of no less than 1,000 feet,
Keppel saw one on the banks of the Lundu which was over 600 feet Ion"- O> and
which accommodated a whole tribe of four hundred souls. The natives also give
proof of their engineering skill
by throwing cleverly constructed bamboo bridges
across and sometimes even across rivers
rivulets,
considerably over 300 feet
broad. But they never lay down roads, and rarely even paths, almost their only
highways being the water-courses. Their best tracks are made of the stems of
trees placed endwis3, over which
they run rather than walk. At the least alarm
the trees leading to their village are scattered and the track
destroyed.
The Sarawak Dayaks are good husbandmen, on the reclaimed land two
raising
crops in rotation, then sugar-cane, maize or
first rice,
vegetables. Then the ground
lies fallow for or ten
eight years, during which it is again invaded by scrub and
even forest growths. The granaries are a kind of basket fixed on
high trees and
approached by ladders or inclined planes of bamboo. The inland Dayaks are
chiefly occupied in collecting the natural products of the forest, ratan and gutta-
percha for the European market, swallows' nests and bezoar stones for the Chinese.
When absent from their homes in search of these
objects, the women send little
lamps of cocoanut shell adrift
on the stream, as is also practised on the banks of
the Ganges. These in honour of the of air and
floating lights, burning spirits
water, intercede with them for the absent toilers in the forests.
Notwithstanding the almost inexhaustible natural resources of their fertile

domain, even those half-civilised Dayaks who have given up the practice of
head-hunting do not appear to increase in numbers. Their abundant crops
INHABITANTS OP BORNEO. 137
yield ample both for their own wants and for a considerable
export trade ; celi-
bacy is unknown, all marrying in the prime of life ; yet their villages still remain
scattered in small groups over vast spaces. This arrest of growth must be
attributed partly to destructive epidemics, partly to the
slight fecundity of the
women. The families average not more than from two to four, which, according
to Wallace, is due to the life of hardships to which the women are condemned.
Although otherwise highly respected by their husbands, all the hard work falls
to their lot, and they thus become exhausted and The
prematurely aged.
consequence is that in the whole of Borneo the full-blooded Dayaks are estimated
at not more than about a million altogether.
The Mohammedun Malays, who are disseminating the tenets of Islam
amongst
the aborigines, are nearly all settled on the seaboard and along the banks of the
rivers. Attracted \>y the profits of trade, they advance slowly from market to
market towards the hilly regions of the interior, gradually transforming and
assimilating the Dayaks by crossings and the influence of their higher culture.
Although numerically inferior, they have already acquired the predominance, and
every day adds to their ascendency. The Moslem element is also augmented by
Bugis and Bajaus from Celebes, by Javanese, Illanos from the Philippines, and a
few Arabs. But more numerous than all together are the Chinese, who are settled
chiefly in the seaports, and who even enjoy a monopoly of several industries,
including that of gold mining. The Europeans had scarcely established their
permanent factories in Borneo when the Chinese made their appearance, and soon
developed considerable settlements. From them the Dutch met with the most
active resistance during their gradual conquest of the southern provinces.
Of pure Chinese there are over thirty thousand, but with the half-castes they
may be estimated at about two hundred thousand, the great majority of whom
have been settled in the island and intermingled with the Malays for several
generations. The Dutch and English do not number more than a few hundred
of which thousands
altogether but
; they hold the political power, in consequence
of the natives have begun to speak their languages and adopt their usages.
DUTCH BORNEO.
On the east coast Pontianak was the town visited
by its present masters,
first
and it still continues to be the capital and commercial centre of the country. In
1856 it was ceded by the local sultan to the Dutch, by whom it has been made a
free port. Pontianak are disposed in two groups on either
The wooden houses of
side of the Kapuas River, at the confluence of the Landak, about 10 miles from
the coast. Some Hindu ruins, temples and statues, are seen here and there in the
surrounding forests.
North of Pontianak, in the petty states subject to the Dutch about the Sarawak
frontier, the Chinese element preponderates. Attracted to Sambas and Montrado
by the rich gold and platinum mines, to Landak by its diamond fields, and now to
the banks of the Kapuas by its coal deposits, they
have gradually driven back the
133 AUSTEALASIA.
Dayaks, and towards the middle of tbe present century had even constituted them-
selves in independent republics. In these kony*/, or brotherhoods, the " elder
" "
brothers and the "younger co-operated together, and pauperism was unknown.
Animated by a common
Fig. 51. BANJEBMASSIN.
spirit of solidarity, they
Scale 1 ;
85,000. defended themselves
with the greatest cou-
rage, and expeditions of
several thousand men

were required to enforce
submission to the Dutch

rule. As in most other
Chinese settlements, the
staple trade of Sambas

and Montrado is of
opium.
Sukadana, situated
on a lateral branch of
the Kapuas delta, was
formerly capital of one
of the largest states in
Borneo now it is a
;
mere village facing the

picturesque Karimuta
archipelago. These
islands were at one time
densely peopled, but are

now almost uninhabited.
The culminating peak of
the chief island has an
altitude of 3,310 feet.
Between the Kapuas
and Barito deltas every
estuary has its market,

every petty state its
capital, where a Dutch

official is now
seated by
the side of the descend-
.8.300 Yards. ant of the old sovereigns.
But the coast population
is soscanty that none of these places are now anything more than humble villages.
Yet the upper valley of the Kahajan abounds in gold dust, which is collected by the
Dayaks, who have hitherto prevented the Chinese from penetrating to their territory.
Farther east the chief emporium is Banjennassin, or simply Baiy'er, capital of
TUTCH BORNEO. 189
the south-western provinces, and the largest

city in the whole of Eorueo. Although
to
K
commanding the entrance of the Barito, it does not stand on the estuary itself, hut
m-ire to the east in a district intersected
by a labyrinth of ever- shifting channels
140 AUSTRALASIA.
and backwaters. joined by the Martapura, on which stands

Here the Barito is
Banjermassin, the "Venice of Borneo," whose carved wooden

houses line both
banks for a space of over 2 miles. But these land residences are nearly every-
where concealed by the rakits, or floating structures, anchored in mid-stream. The

river is also animated by craft of all kinds, boats, canoes, gondolas, decked praus
with raised cabins darting about in all directions.
The Dutch occupy the island of Tatas, surrounded by the Malay and Chinese
quarters, for allhave their special districts, even the monkeys, who occupy the
Isle of Flowers, where they receive the attentions of the na:ives. Banjermassin,
which is accessible to vessels drawing 15 or 16 feet, is one of the busiest of the
secondary ports in the Eastern Archipelago. Till recently it largely exported
diamonds collected on the banks of the Martapura but since the discovery of the
;
Cape mines this trade has ceased to be profitable, especially as the Sultan claims
all stones of more than Yet such was the reputation of the Baujer-
five carats.
massin market that the local Chinese dealers imported crystals from the Cape to
be afterwards exported as Martapura diamonds. In this district is also collected
much gold dust, and the Panyaron coal mines above Martapura were lately yield-
ing a yearly output of over 10,000 tons. Martapura was formerly the capital of
the State, and the Sultan has still a palace in the place it lies 30 miles above and
;
to the east of Banjermassin.
The most thickly peopled and civilized region in Borneo is the basin of the
river Bahan or Negara, where the Hindus appear to have first settled. Since the
middle of the century the population of this small fluvial valley rose from
60,000 to over 300,000 in 1878 consequently this part of Borneo is now rela-
;
tively as densely inhabited as Java. Amuntai on the left bank of the Bahan,
Negara and Maryasari lower down on both banks, are all large trading and indus-
trial places. The armourers of Negara were famous throughout Indonesia before
the manufacture of arms was suppressed by the Dutch ;
but the district still
produces all the earthenware used in the country.

Farther east some Javanese immigrants cultivate the fertile plains of the Kcn-
dangan district, on the banks of the leautiful Amandit river. The new town of
Nuu-ara-Bahan, orMarabuhan (Bekompai), at the junction of the Bahan and Barito,
is the outport of the trade of
Banjermassin with the Bahan basin. Its population is
rapidly increasing, thanks to the spread of Islam amongst the surrounding Dayak
tribes. Higher up, the only important place in the thinly peopled upper Barito
valley is the village of Lutitntiir (Lolihton Tiior), at the Teweh confluence, 200
miles from the coast.
Thevarious petty states on the south-east coastlands are still semi-independent.
Pasir, capital of one of these states, is one of the chief places in Borneo. Lying
at the head of a delta navigable "
by small craft, Pasir, or the Sands," as it is named
from the surrounding dunes, carries on a brisk trade with the opposite coasts of
Celebes, whence it has received numerous immigrants.
Several important towns follow along the lower course of the Mahakkam in the
kingdom of Kutei, which since 1844 has been half subject to the Dutch. Tangaruiiy,
DUTCH BORNEO. 141
the capital, about 60 miles above the

lies
estuary on the right bank of the Mahakkam,
which is here a broad, tidal stream. I3ut
nearly all the trade of Kutei is centred
in Samarinda, which lies lower down near the fork of the
delta, where Chinese large
junks ship the gutta-percha, rattans, timber, honey, edible birds' nests and other
produce brought down on rafts from the upper regions of the Makakkam basin.
Samarinda is the residence of the Dutch political
agent, and of the Mohammedan
imam, from whom the natives learn to write Arabic and recite verses from the
Koran. Here the Bougis from Celebes have settled on the
right bank, where they
have set up a strong republic, administering their own laws and enjoying complete
Fig. 53. LOWEB COUBSE OP THE MAHAKKAIC.

Scale 1 : 1,500,000.
Depths.
Otol6 16 to 320 820to 1.280 1,2-0 Feet and

Feet. Feet. Feet. upwaids.
. 30 Miles
self government. The Chinese and Malays occupy the left bank, residing either in
floating houses or in dwellings raised on piles. Here are no roads or even tracks,
quarters being carried on exclusively
all the communications between the different
by water. The town itself is one vast cemetery, headstones or carved boards
marking the graves of the dead round about the abodes of the living. The few
steamers touching at Samarinda find in the immediate neighbourhood, and
especially at Pdarang, 5 or 6 miles farther down, a supply of coal in (he rich

mines, the property of the Sultan. Sanga- Sanyo, at the head of the delta, was
the royal residence before Samarinda.
14 2 AUSTRALASIA.
of the inlets north of the Mahakkam delta,

The port of Sankolirang, on one
little
is now a mere fishing village but to judge from the surrounding ruins it was at one
;
time an important centre of Hindu culture in East Borneo. Sambiliuncj, Gunong-
Tcbur, BitloH'jaii and Tidttng, petty states following north of Kutei as far as British
North Borneo, are amongst the least known parts of the island. A few Dutch
officials are stationed at two or three points along the coast, in order to maintain
the right of possession against the pretentious of the Sultan of Sulu, the claims
of Spain, and the further annexations by England. A
large part of these territories,
long harassed by corsairs, is almost uninhabited.
ADMINISTRATION OF DUITH BORNEO.
The Dutch portion of Borneo is divided into two provinces, that of the west
with capital Pontianak, and that of the east with capital Banjerma-sin. As in
Sumatra, the Dutch functionaries establish their direct authority very gradually.
Sultans and rajahs are still at the head of the different states, although several of
" "
them, protected by a Dutch garrison, are practically mere pensioners of the
government. Others, on the contrary, such as the Sultans of Pasir and Kutei,
being more removed from the centre of authority, are still real sovereigns, although
gradually sinking to the humble position of vassals. Even in the towns, where the
Dutch have long been indisputable masters and strictly obeyed, they prefer to rule
through native agency. The Chinese kap-t/iai and kapitan, the Malay panuin-
bahan, pangeran and tomongong, are held responsible for the conduct of their subor-
dinates. The Dutch Resident abstains from direct interference in the local
affairs of each nation, so keeps the peace and pays the imposts regularly.
long as it
The Dayaks of the interior are liable only to a poll-tax, although the chief
charged with its collection contrives too often to levy it four or five times over.
The sultans farm the opium crop and the customs, and according to Bock their
surest source of revenue is usury. They lend to their subjects at exorbitant
interests and on solid security.
In the Appendix will be found a table of the Dutch administrative divisions,

with their approximate areas and populations.
SULTANATE OF BRUNEI AND BRITISH BORNEO.
During the first half of the century, nearly all North Borneo was
subject to still
the Sultan of Brunei, at that time the most powerful potentate in the island that
bears his name. At present his dominions have been curtailed.
enormously Hope-
less of resisting the demands of those more powerful than himself, he has gradually
ceded most of his empire to the British. First went the island of Labuan, com-
manding the approach to his capital then followed the southern region of Sarawak,
;
surrendered to a soldier of fortune, and

lastly the whole of the north handed over
to an English financial What, remains is a fourth of his for-
company. scarcely
mer possessions, and even this is already under the effective suzerainty of England,
pending its official annexation to the British Empire.
BRUNEI. 148
Like most places on the coast, Brunei, the Sultan's residence, is an amphibious
town, but presents a more singular aspect even than Pontianak or Banjer'massin.
The picturesque Malay structures are not here mingled with flat European houses.
The stream, at this point considerably over a mile wide, is lined by long avenues
of inhabited boats, while the neighbouring crowded with Chinese junks and
bay is
praus from Mindanao. After two years of navigation amid the oceanic wastes, the
Fig. 54. BRUNEI.
Scale 1 :
35,000.
Depths.
Sands exposed to 32 32 Feet and

at low water. Feet. upwards.
.1,100 Yards.
at the spectacle presented by this great city,

companions of Magellan were surprised
time contained "twenty-five thousand
which, according to Pigafetta, at that
are described
hearths." The presentinhabitants, reduced to about ten thousand,
slaves of the
as mild and timid, impoverished, crushed by heavy imposts, all
The
Sultan. Their chief industry is the manufacture of arms and copperware.
tribes have already been partly converted to
neighbouring Kadyan and Murut
Islam.
144 AUSTRALASIA.
LABUAX.
At the time of its cession to Greit Britain in 1846, Labuan, the island of the
"roadstead," was completely uninhal ited and covered by dense forest. But in
annexing it to their colonial empire despite the claims of the Dutch, the English
hoped might become an important station on the highroad between Singapore

it
and Hongkong. It lies, however, somewhat out of the direct track of shipping,
while its coal mines, actively worked for some years, have been deluged by the
tropical rains of those regions. They are of older formation than those of the
mainluni, which belong to the Jurassic and even more recent epochs. The island
is inhabited chiefly by Malays and Chinese, and although provided with a
governor
and legislative council, had only nineteen Europeans in 1884. Since the suspension
of mining operations its trade has considerably diminished.
SARAWAK.
The territory of Sarawak, lying between the state of Brunei and the Dutch
possessions, and skirted on the west by the main Bornean range, forms part of the
British colonial empire only since the year 1888. It belongs to the Brooke family,
which holds it as a fief, and the head of which takes the Indian title of Rajah.
But these English vassals, more powerful than their Malay suzerain, have steadily
enlarged their dominion since 1841, and Sarawak is at present more extensive,
more densely peopled, and far more opulent than Brunei itself. But it is still
very sparsely inhabited, containing perhaps not more than 300,000 souls in a total
area of 36,000 square miles. A recent treaty secures to England the control over
its internal administration.
Like most other towns on the Bornean seaboard, the capital, Sarawak (properly
Kuc/thiff) lies on a navigable river, some distance from the coast, and above the
delta, whose two chief branches are accessible with difficulty to large vessels.
Commanded by woodland heights and surrounded with gardens and orchards, the
town presents a pleasant aspect although its British residents regret that the
;
capital has not baen placed some 20 miles to the north-east, on the breezy and
salubrious slopes of a headland at the entrance of the Moratabas river. But it is
now town which possesses some fine buildings, warehouses,

too late to displace a
covered markets, docks, rich plantations, and quite a network of well-kept roads.
Its Dayak, Malay and Chinese population is rapidly increasing both by immigra-
tion and excess of births over the mortality, and Kuching, an obscure village in
1850, has now over 20,000 inhabitants. .
Some antimony and quicksilver mines in the upper basin of the river formerly
yielded large profits, but have now lost much of their value. They are, however,
still occupied
by Chinese miners, who also work the gold washings, and the
diamond and coal fields of the Sadong valley. The most promising districts at
present are those of Lundu, west of Sarawak, where the planters cultivate rice,
gambier, and pepper. One of the bays on the Lundu coast is noted for its turtles,
SAKAWAK. 145
the fishing of which is and a

strictly regulated, close season enforced for the
collection of the
eggs.
East of Sarawak the broad andfertile Lupar
valley, with its rich coalfields, has
the future
probably brightest prospects, thanks to its easy natural communications
with the Kapuas basin and the interior of Borneo.
Simangang, its capital, is a
large Malay village 80 miles above the estuiry at the head of the fluvial navi-
gation.
The Rejang
basin, comprising the northern portion of Sarawak, has
already
developed a considerable export trade, especially in sago and bilian
(ironwood).
Fig. 55. SARAWAK.

Scale 1 : 900 000.
Depths.
0o 16 16 to 32 82 Feet and
18 Miles.
This trade, carried on by Chinese junks, is centred chiefly in the port of Rejang,
on the southern branch of the delta. Sibu, another Malay town at the head of
the delta, is the great market for the interior, and here the Government has built
a fort to overawe the surrounding Dayaks. The Milanos, one of their most numer-
ous tribes, have been partially converted to Islam. They are a repulsive race
with coarse limbs, uncouth carriage, and milky- white, unwholesome complexion.
The custom of treading out the sap of the sago-palm has given them broad, flat
feet,while the heads of their children are deformed by means of boards, like those
of the North American Flatheads. At the death of a rich Milano his sago plan-
tation is cut down, so that his estate may accompany him to the next world.
The increasing trade of Sarawak is furthered by about a hundred European,
Chinese, and Malay vessels, besides a regular service of steamers plying between
Kuching and Singapore. With the traffic the revenue also increases, leaving an
lOo
146 AUSTRALASIA.
annual surplus devoted to public works and instruction. The rajah exercises
almost absolute power, choosing his own council of Europeans or Malays, and
a slow process of extinction slavery
holding himself responsible to no man. By
died out with the year 1888. The regular army of about three hundred native
soldiers draws its officers from a civil and military school attended by one hundred
and fifty students.
The territorial divisions of Sarawak, named from the chief rivers watering
them, Lundu, Sarawak, Sadong, Batang Lupar, Saribas, Kalukah, Rejang,
are,
Mukah, and Bintulu.
NORTH BORNEO.
The British territory of Sabah, better known asNorth Borneo, has been con-
stitutedby successive acquisitions by purchase. In 1865 a United States consul
had already obtained from the Sultan of Brunei the grant of a portion of this
region, and founded an American company for its development. But these
essays ended in financial ruin, and an English corporation had little difficulty in
securing the privileges of the bankrupt American speculators. Fresh concessions
made in 1877 and 1878 enlarged the area of the districts detached from Brunei and
ceded to a small group of British capitalists, who also obtained from the Sultan of
the Sulu Archipelago the domains which he possessed or claimed on the mainland.
By means few pensions they thus acquired a whole kingdom, for which they,
of a
moreover, procured recognition and a charter from the English Crown.

The limits of the new state are fixed on the west coast by Mount Marapok near
Brunei Bay, and on the east side by the course of the Sibuko River. Numerous
travellers have been encouraged by the Company to explore the interior, to trace
the rivers to their sources, scale the mountains and passes, study the mineral and
agricultural resources of the land, and select the best sites for future plantations.
Thanks to these explorations North Borneo is now known to be the finest, most
picturesque, and promising region of the whole island, although at the time of the
British occupation one of the least peopled. In the Kina-Batangan basin Pryer
found only three villages and one isolated house for a space of two hundred and
ninety miles, and the whole population, scattered along the coasts and river-banks,
scarcely numbered one hundred and fifty thousand souls ten years ago. But the
suppression of tribal wars and piratical expeditions, the introduction of vaccination,
the arrival of Chinese immigrants, and the establishment of orderly government
have been followed by a rapid increase of the free and enslaved inhabitants. By
the terms of its charter the Company engages to prevent all foreigners, European
or Chinese, from holding slaves; but it is not bound to suppress servitude amongst
the tribes.
In any case the social condition of the people cannot fail to be rapidly modified
under the influence of the Chinese, who flock to the recently founded towns and
take the management of all new enterprises. To the Chinese is even attributed the
old Bornean civilisation, traces of which still survive here and there, and which is
NORTH BORNEO. 147
recalled by the names of Kina-Balu and Kina-Batangan. The local Dayaks are
commonly designated by the collective terms, Dusun and Idaan. The Bule-
Dupis tribe, near Sandakan Bay, appears to be distinguished from all the others by
their almost white complexion and "
European profile." They are regarded as
almost pure representatives of the Indonesian type, but sesm doomed to extinc-
tion.
For their new capital, Elopura, the English have selected a favourable site on
the magnificent Sandakan Bay, an inlet on the north-east coast, the entrance of
which completely sheltered from all winds, and which ramifies for over 20 miles
is
inland between sandstone cliffs terminating in wooded heights. On the silt at the
Fig. 56. SANDAKAN.

Scale 1 :
900,000.
II740' East oF Greenwich II82S-
Depths.
Oto32 32 Feet and

Feet. upwards.
_ 18 Miles.
entrance there a depth of no less than 26 feet at low water, and shipping can
is
moor at the landing stage in 23 or 24 feet. In the course of eight years Elopura,
or Sandakan, as it is more commonly called, has become a nourishing little seaport
with over 5,000 inhabitants, of whom two-thirds are Chinese. In the immediate
of future commercial expansion coal in
vicinity it possesses abundant elements
in the sur-
the hills skirting the roadstead, ironwood and other natural products
have been made on the opposite side
rounding forests. Larje tobacco plantations
of the port,and the sago palm now thrives in this part of Borneo, where it was
hitherto unknown.
coast lagoons or backwaters Sandakan communicates directly with the
Through
148 AUSTRALASIA.
mouth of the Kina-Batangan, the largest river in North Borneo, and navigable by
cteamers a long way inland. At Ma lap the riverain port, the Chinese have a depot
f,
for the edible nests collected in the caves of Mount Gomanton, lying some
miles
farther west. to one of these limestone caves rises to a height of

The entrance
900 feet, and in the evening the dense clouds of esculent swallows take three-
to pass through this vast portal to their roosting-places. The
quarters of an hour
annual sale of the nests yields 5,000 to the Chinese dealers. Other caverns,
others by bats, occur in all the spurs of the North
occupied some by swallows,
Bornean ranges and especially in the river gorges, and all contain rich deposits of
guano still untouched.
The Segama basin, south of and parallel to the Kina-Batangan, also possesses
are said to be very rich, and already attract numerous
gold-washings, which
Chinese miners. A carriage road has been constructed from Sandakan Bay to
these mines.
One of the vital points of the new colony lies at the southern extremity of
Marudu Bay, where the river of like name reaches the coast. Here the village of
Bongon, the commercial centre of the whole country and already

surrounded by-
extensive tobacco and sugar plantations, is the natural emporium for North Borneo
and the islands Banguey, and Balambangan, which form an extension
of Mallawalli,
of the mainland towards the Philippines. In 1773 the English had already
founded a settlement in Balambangan which, however, lasted only two years.
;
The port of Kitdat, in Marudu Bay, although neglected till 1881, seems destined
one day to become one of the chief commercial centres in the Eastern Archipelago.
Formerly the two rivers Tampusuk and Tarawan were notorious resorts of the
Illanos (Lanon, Lanun), pirates from Mindanao, against whom the English had to
send several expeditions.
On the west coast Gava Bay, still more spacious than Kudat, offers one of the
best anchorages in the China waters. The whole British fleet might here easily
ride at anchor, with coal from the beds in the surrounding cliffs.
and supply itself
Yet the British settlement has been founded, not on this magnificent bay, but at
Jfempakol, facing Labuan.
The rapid development of trade in North Borneo is
mainly due to the tobacco
plantations on the east coast. The Sagut and Labuk fluvial valleys yield a fine
elastic leaf much prized, especially for In 1887, about 200,000

wrapping cigars.
acres were already planted, and in that year 150,000 additional acres had been
bought by speculators for the same purpose. Thanks to this rapid increase of
productive land, the public revenues have also been considerably augmented,
though still failing to balance the expenditure. There is no army properly so
called, and only a few hundred amongst the Dayaks of other

police, raised chiefly
parts of Borneo. All the tribal chiefs are required to take an oath of allegiance
to the Company and pay the poll-tax.
The state is divided into the four administrative provinces of Dent and Keppel
on the west coast, Alcock in the north-east, and East-Coast in the east and south-
east. In the last-mentioned is situated the capital.
JAVA. 149
JAVA AND MADURA.
In the Indonesian tropical world Java ranks only fourth for size but it ;
contains over two-thirds of the whole population, while the relative value of its
productions is still more considerable. For a period of at least twenty centuries it

has surpassed all the other regions of the archipelago in population, abundance of
and th6 progress of civilisation. First visited and colonised
resources, by the
Hindus, it soon became the centre of their influence in Indonesia, and from that
period the Javanese have enjoyed a material and social pre-eminence in this region.
Their tribes, to whom the Buddhist missionaries had brought the words of peace
and universal brotherhood, became fused in a united nationality, thus entering on
a new historic era unattainable by the barbarous and savage inhabitants of the
adjacent islands. Under the subsequent Arab and Dutch sway the impulse given
by the first Indian civilisers made itself still felt by the Javanese populations.
According to some authorities the very name by which the island is still
designated is of Hindu origin. The term Jaladiu, known to Ptolemy, is merely
the vulgar form Java-jipa, the " Island of Barley," apparently so named by the
Hindu immigrants from a cereal which looked like the barley of India, but which
was probably millet (panicum italicum). Nevertheless other etymologists sought
an explanation of the word Java or Javi in the native languages. The Sundanese
of the western districts called themselves Jelma Bumi, that is, " Men of the Soil,"
designating their neighbours of the central and eastern provinces as Tyang Javi,
"
or " Foreigners," and the region itself as Tanah Javi, that is, " Foreign or
" Outer Land." This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that other outer
regions, notably Sumatra and Bali, also bore the name of Java, and at the dawn of
modern history, the Australian continent itself is vaguely indicated under the
appellation of "'Great Java."
But at the close of the sixteenth century, when the first Dutch traders founded
their factories in the present Java, it was already known by this name throughout
its whole extent. It is the Zabej of the Arabs, and to it the term Nusa Kenclang,
or " Island of Great Mountains," seems also at one time to have been commonly
applied.
At present this marvellous region is almost as well known as the lands of West
Europe. The works relating to it are already numbered by the thousand, it has
been studied from every point of view, and explored in all directions by eminent
geologists, geographers, naturalists, anthropologists, historians,
and engineers. Its
triangulation has beencompleted since 1882, and its relief in all its details is figured
on carefully prepared topographical charts. Each volcano has even been specially
described in section, plan, and elevation, so that all changes of form may hence-
forth be recorded with as much precision as those of Vesuvius and Etna.
Java was formerly supposed to consist exclusively of eruptive rocks upheaved
from the bed of the Indian Ocenn. But we now know that about three-fifths of
the surface is composed of sedimentary rocks, plains, and uplands, and that the
whole island is continued northwards in the direction of Billiton and Borneo, and
150 AUSTRALASIA.
north-westwards towards Sumatra, by a level marine plateau covered by less than

50 fathoms of water. Above this flooded plain rise a few low insular groups,
such as the " Thousand Isles," north-west of Batavia, and the twenty-six islets of
Karimon-Java, north of Semarang Bay. Bawean, with its fringing reef and cone
2,000 feet high, is distinguished by its igneous origin from all the other
islands in these waters. Farther east the Solombo group, about midway between
Madura and Borneo, is
very low, nowhere presenting any eminence, except on
Great Solombo.
Madura itself be regarded as a simple dependence of Java, forming its
may
north-eastern extension. On their north side both mainly consist of low-lying
plains continued under the water by reefs and sandbanks. The south coast, on
the contrary, is steep and rocky, plunging abruptly into the oceanic depths. Both
Fig. 57. CHIEF VOLCANOES IN JAVA.

Scale 1 :
10,000,000.
Heigh' s.
to 2,000 2,000 to 5,000 B.COO to 8,000 8.10" to 11.000

Feet Feet. Feet. Feet and upwards.
180 Miles.
seaboards are indented by bays and inlets penetrating some considerable distance
inland, although as a whole the island presents the almost geometrical aspect of a
long quadrilateral, nearly parallel with the equator. West and east it extends
from the Java-hoofd (Java head) in a straight line for 620 miles to Java's Oost-
hoek (Java's East Point). But north and south the distance varies greatly,
narrowing towards the centre to about half of its normal breadth. Excluding
Madura and the smaller indentations, the coast-line has a total length of 2,100
miles.
VOLCANOES OF JAVA.
The western has a much greater mean elevation than the eastern section of the
island, forming a plateau from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high. Here also the mountains
are connected by lofty ridges or saddles, the former intervening valleys having
JAVA. 151
been to a great extent filled in by outflows of lavas and showers of ashes and scorice.
Eastwards the island falls gradually nearly to the level of the sea ;
but towards the
extreme east the mountains again rise with a uniform slope from base to summit.
The volcanoes, which follow from one end of the island to the other, are not
developed in a continuous chain, and in muny places are separated one from the
other by a distance of 30 miles.
But noteworthy that they are often grouped two, three, or four together,
it is
forming independent ridges, whose axes run, not parallel with, but obliquely
athwart the main axis of the island. They are in fact disposed mainlv in the
direction of the axis of Sumatra, while by a remarkable contrast those of Sumatra
itselfrun parallel with Java. Thus the crevasses through which the lavas were
ejected appear to have been caused in both islands as it were by a sort of inter-
change of the igneous forces. The underground energies are also about balanced,
for the Javanese Semeru is
only a few feet lower than Indrapura and Korinchi, the
highest volcanoes in the neighbouring region. Altogether the mountains of Java
are not inferior in mean altitude to those of Sumatra, while the absence of subja-
cent terraces gives them a greater relative elevation above their base.
Java also differs from Sumatra in the rarity of longitudinal valleys between
the parallel crests and in the absence of lacustrine basins. The me.m altitude of
the whole island is estimated by Junghuhn at somewhat less than 1,650 feet.
Of the volcanoes, two near the north coast, Karang at the north-west corner,
and Slurio (Murya) in the peninsula east of Semarang Bay, appear to belong
to an independent igneous system. Both occupy isolated positions on the plains,
so that a rise in the former case of 1,000, in the latter of 15 or 16 feet above the
present sea-level, would suffice to convert them into islands. They are still sur-
rounded by alluvial deposits which rest against the northern flanks of hills belong-
ing to the tertiary age and disposed parallel with the main Javanese axis. In the
same way the volcanoes on the opposite side skirt the northern base of other
tertiary heights which run in a line with the south coast. Java infact, according
to Junghuhn, consists of two islands merged in one ;

but the southern alone is
northern nothing remaining except fragments. It has disappeared
intact, of the
between the provinces of Cheribon and Yapara, where the seaboard develops a
large marine gulf, and beyond which Madura is separated by a strait from the
Javanese plains.
Nevertheless, the original coastline may still be recognised, being continued
eastwards by a series of small groups comprising the Sapudi, Kangean, and Pater-
noster archipelagoes. Southwards is developed, like a vast breakwater, the parallel

chain of large islands from Bali to Nila, forming an eastern extension of the main
Javanese volcanic range. The terminal points of the disruptured northern island
"
would appear to be Krakatau in the west, and in the east Gunung Api, or Moun-
tain of Fire," north of Wetter Island.
Both Karang and Murio appear to be at present in a state of repose, the former
alone with the twin Pulasari cone emitting some

sulphurous vapours. But in the
southern chain, Salak, highest of the first volcanic group going eastwards (7,300
152 AUSTRALASIA.
feet) was still active in 1699, when streams of mud and sand were ejected in such
vast quantities that some of the neighbouring valleys were completely dammed up
and converted into temporary lakes. The main line of the Javanese railway sys-
tem passes along the east foot of Salak, here crossing the Tjitjurug pass at a height
of 1,700 feet.
" Great "
East of this pass follow the far loftier cones of Gede, or the (9,800
feet), which gives its name to a whole group, and the neighbouring Mandala-
Wangi, which exceeds it

by 200 feet. The Gede, properly so called, has frequently
.Fig. 58. GEDE VOLCANO.

Scale 1 : 80,000.
. 3,300 Yards.
ejected scorias, and from its breached crater, about 4,000 feet in circumference, jets
of vapour are still emitted ; sulphur is also deposited on the encircling walls, while
copious thermal streams flow from the flanks of the mountain. Gede is connected
by a narrow ridge with another and far larger crater, which from the Sala wall on
the south to Panggerango on the north side has a circuit of about two and a half
miles. It is wooded to the summit, terminating in an inclined terrace, whence
numerous rivulets rapidly converge in a broad stream, which was till recently
visited by the rhinoceros. From this terrace, the highest point of observation in
JAVA. 153
West Java, a panoramic view is commanded of both seas, wiih the intervening hills
and plains, forests, villages, and surrounding plantations.
South of the Gede highlands the
tertiary rocks, limestones, clays, and sand-
g
fi
a
a
M
O
bo
stones attain their greatest development. Nearly everywhere carved into steep cliffs
800 to 1,000 feet high, these whiteand yellowish formations rise in the Breng-
Breng Peak an altitude of over 6,500 feet. But farther east they disappear
to
beneaih the talus of scoriae and lava streams of the Patuha volcano (7,800 feet).
154 AUSTRALASIA.
"
Here the crater is flooded with an alum lake," that is, with water saturated with
sulphur and alum, at the normal atmospheric temperature.
But a few miles to the
north-east, at the source of the Chi Widei, lies a cirque of hot mud emitting acid
vapours of a sulphurous odour, which are disintegrating
the surrounding rocks.
East of Patuha the volcanic cones follow in great apparent disorder, connected
with each other by elevated ridges, and enclosing upland valleys, whence the
streams flow through narrow outlets to northern river basins. One of these volca-
noes, the Malabar, or Rose Mountain (7,800 feet), no longer retains its conic shape ;
its crater is almost effaced, and its former activity is indicated only by two thermal
springs. But farther south, Mount "Wajang
(7,200 feet) still preserves on its
west flank a magnificent solf atara, a little geyser with a jet of 10 feet, recurring
at intervals of two or three minutes, and a stream of sulphur and alum waters.
" "
Still more active is Papandajan, or the Forge (8,700 feet), whose breached
crater contains nearly all the elements of volcanic laboratories, sulphurous swamps
at boiling point, mud and ejecting mud and stones, hot
cones, snorting, groaning,
springs and jets rushing out with a hissing sound. All the voices of the volcano
are merged in one deafening yet rhythmic uproar, suggesting a vast workshop with
the voice of a thousand hammers mingling with its hissing jets of vapour. A
" "
rivulet which enters the Forge pure and limpid, emerges boiling and saturated
with sulphur. In 1772, Papandajan was the scene of one of the most tremendous
eruptions of modern times, but at that time the district had been visited by no
European naturalist, and the reports of the natives are of a contradictory character.
North of Papandajan, but forming part of the same group, stands the Gunoiig
Guntur, or "Thunder Mountain" (7,450 feet), which, unlike all the other Java-
nese mountains, is absolutely bare from base to summit. It forms a huge greyish
black mass presenting a uniform surface broken only by the lava blocks half buried
in the scoria. During eruptions the whole cone has been illumined by the burning
ashes ejected from its crater, for Guntur ranks with Lamongan as the most active
volcano in Java. The surrounding plantations have often been covered with the
ashes ejected during its outbursts. In 1843 Junghuhn estimated at ten million
tons the quantity of sands thrown to a height of 10,000 feet, and for a time darken-
ing the face of the sun yet this was only a minor display.
;
" "
Galungung, or the Cymbal Mountain (7,400 feet), although less active than
Guntur, was the theatre of two terrific outbursts in 1822, when the din was heard
over the whole island. The showers of stones and ashes were on both occasions
accompanied by a deluge of mud, the pent-up reservoirs overflowing on the sur-
rounding plains, and covering villages, rice fields, coffee plantations, and forests
with a layer of greyish blue mud in some places 50 feet thick. All vegetation
had disappeared for a space of over 12 miles, and 114 villages, with a total
population of 4,000, were completely inundated. Magnificent forests have since
resumed possession of the flanks of the volcano and surrounding district. A
little to the west lies the
" White
Telaga Bodas, or Lake," where the sulphurous
clays are kept at boiling point by incessant jets of vapour. In the neighbourhood
is the famous or "
Pujagalan, Field of Slaughter," which emits deadly exhalations,
JAVA. 15
-
and which is
always strewn with the carcases of wild cats, squirrels, snakes, birds,
and at times even tigers
and rhinoceroses, suffocated
by the carbonic acid, and pre-
served from putrefaction. But the emanations
vary considerably in quantity and
even in quality, and
occasionally the district be traversed without risk.
may
The other volcanoes of this region, such as
and Sawal
Tjikurai (9,350 feet),
(5,860 feet), have been quiescent throughout the historic
period, and no igneous
phenomena occur on the chain of hills
falling gradually eastwards down to the
Tanduwi delta.
The elevated Bandong plain, which stretches north of the
Preang volcanoes, and
in which are collected the headstreams of the Tarum, is dominated on the
north by
a volcanic system running west and east. the first link
Burangrang (6,840 feet),
of the chain, forms a
trachytic mass whose eruptions were antecedent to all history ;
but it is folio wed by Tangkuban Prahu

(6,900 feet), which is still active. Tampomas
(5,600 feet), at the eastern extremity of the system, seems to be also extinct,
although
some sulphurous gases still
escape from a fissure in its flank.
Gunong Tjerimai (10,200 feet), near Cheribon Bay, and also called Mount
Cheribon from the town at its foot, has a
perfectly regular crater some hundred
yards deep, inhabited by thousands of swallows. Beyond this point Java is con-
tracted between two gulfs,
which formerly penetrated much farther inland than
at present. Here the main waterparting falls to about 3,000 feet but in the ;
neighbourhood Mount Slamat, a recent and perfectly regular cone, rises in isolated
majesty to a height of 11,400 feet. Its slopes are forest-clad to within 2,500 feet
of the crater,which ejects with the roar of a cataract a dense column of vapours,
which the upper atmospheric currents always carry westwards.
The volcano, of which Prahu (8,420 feet) is but a lateral ruin, was in prehistoric
times probably the culminating point of Java. But the upper cone was blown
away during former eruptions, leaving nothing but fragments of its periphery,
Prahu on the north, Pakuoejo on the east and Wisma on the south side. All the
intermediate space occupied by the irregular plateau of Dieng, a term often
is
applied to thewhole group. This plateau, on which stands the highest village in
Java, in the midst of tobacco plantations, presents some of the most remarkable
igneous phenomena in the island. Here are grouped in close proximity eruptive
craters, lava streams, hot lakes saturated with chemical substances, solfataras, thermal
springs, rivulets of boiling water, gases and vapour jets. Here also, in a depres-
sion between two streamlets, lies the Pakaraman, or Guwa Upas, that is, "
Valley
of Death," described by some travellers as a desolate plain, on which no one dares
to venture except at imminent peril. Yet it is nothing but a simple cavity a few
yards broad, whence is occasionally emitted a little carbonic acid gas. Its celebrity
is doubtless due to the religious traditions associated with the Dieng plateau,
which was formerly much frequented by the worshippers of Siva, god of destruc-
tion. Even on the terminal crest of Prahu, not far from the summit, are still seen
abandoned temples, while other sanctuaries are scattered round about. Structures
have also been recognised which served as refuges for the pilgrims, besides a gigantic
flight of steps by which the faithful reached the edge of the plateau, and an under-
156 AUSTRALASIA.
In one of the caves

ground canal which drained a neighbouring marshy valley.
Junghuhn even discovered a Hindu inscription, which, however, has not yet been
deciphered The importance of the architectural works attests the presence of a
considerable population in these uplands during the period of Sivaite civilisation.
But the volcanic eruptions, aided perhaps by the zeal of Mussulman propagandists,
of nature till
spread desolation over the Dieng plateau, which reverted to a state
the beginning of the present century, when the first attempts were again made to
bring it under cultivation.

South of this district follow the superb cones of Sindoro (10,400 feet) and
Fig. 60. DIENG.
Scale 1 : 90,000.
. 3,300 Yards.
Sumbing (11,000), known navigators in these waters as the "Two Brothers."

to
Sindoro, that is "Majestic," is the finest of all the Javanese volcanoes, with per-
fectly regular outlines and truncated cone, as if the summit had been cleaved by
the stroke of a sword. The lavas flowing uniformly down its flanks have pene-
trated northwards into the breached crater of Telerep, and southwards to the
more precipitous slopes of Sumbing. Although higher than Sindoro, Sumbing is
lesssymmetrical ;
but it is
specially distinguished by the surprising regularity of
the ridges radiating in all directions from the summit to the base with intervening
ravines excavated by the running waters to depths of from 250 to 300 feet. The Two
Brothers appear to be all but extinct, the only indication of activity being a few
JAVA. 157
jets of vapour. Sumbing occupies almost exactly the centre of Java, and the
neighbouring Mount Tidar (1,680 feet) is spoken of by the natives as the "nail "
by which the island has been fixed to the surface of the
globe.
Telerep is connected by a low
water-parting with Ungaran (6,800 feet),
which is itself connected by a range of hills with the twin cones of
Merbabu
Fig. 61. GraoNo SEWU.

Scale 1 :
75,000.
M0io- East or Greenwich
.
3,300 Tarffc
(10,320 feet) and Merapi (9,500) facing Sindoro and Sumbing on the opposite
side of the broad Kadu valley. Merbabu appears to have been in repose since
1000, when the last recorded outburst took place. But Merapi, the " destroying
fire," is in a continual state of restlessness, ejecting from its terminal crater a
constant volume of white vapour, which sets with the trade-winds steadily towards
158 AUSTRALASIA.
the west. Nevertheless, the eruptions that have taken place during the historic
period have been less terrific than those of some other Javanese volcanoes. Some
of Merapi's trachytic walls have a columnar formation resembling that of the
Staffa basalts.
East of Merapi the igneous system is completely interrupted by the alluvial
valley of the river Solo. In this part of the island the main range consists of
Fig. 62. SOUTH-WEST SLOPES OF KELUT.

Scale 1 : 200,000.
East or Greenwich \I220'
. 3 Miles.
milk-white limestone rocks known by the name of Gunong Sewu, or the '' Thou-
sand Mountains," and developing a long line of cliffs on the southern seaboard.
"
The highest peaks rise to about 2,000 feet but most of the " thousand
;
eminences S3attered over the plateau range from 100 feet to little over 200
feet. They are separated by winding valleys shaded by the finest forest
trees. Some of the narrow longitudinal dales, mostly overgrown with tall grasses,
JAVA. 159
are closed at both extremities, the water which accumulates wet

during the
monsoon escaping through underground luicangs, or channels, seawards. The
Gunong Sewu district is described by Junghuhn as the loveliest in Java, its
shady avenues, gently sloping hills, grassy dells and villages surrounded by
gardens recalling the sylvan beauties of more temperate lands.
North-east of the Gunong Sewu and of a more elevated semicircle of other
sedimentary hills, the Gunong Lawu rises in nearly isolated majesty to an

altitude of 10,800 feet. The three domes of this volcano, which was
formerly
venerated by the worshippers of Siva, are not pierced by craters but vapours still
;
escape from the deep crevasses on the south side. The Gunong Willis (8,500 feet),
some 50 miles beyond Lawu in the same igneous range, no longer presents the
form of a volcano. The supreme cone was probably blown away during some
prehistoric explosion, and now nothing remains except a long, irregular, and
craterless eminence. Thermal springs and solfataras, however, still attest the
existence of underground forces, both here and in the smaller Mount Pandan
(3,000 feet),
which stands out on the plains to the north of Willis.
South of Surabaya and its fluvial delta, Java is occupied by a transverse system
of other volcanoes, of which the Gunong Kelut (5,750 feet), lying nearest of
Willis, the
is most dreaded by the natives. Its crater, at least 650 feet deep, is
flooded by a fresh-water tarn, whose contents were estimated by Junghuhn in

1844 at 2,000 millions of cubic feet. During eruptions, when the igneous outlet
lies below the lake, the liquid mass is converted into steam, which rises in dense
volumes emitting flashes of light and then falling on the slopes in tremendous
downpours of water mixed with the sands ejected by the volcano. Channels of
flanks of the mountain from summit to base recall
trachytic scoriae furrowing the
the rush of these sudden torrents, which deluge the surrounding plains, sweeping
away the crops, uprooting forest trees, and razing the villages to the ground.
In 1848 the regular detonation of the gases which changed the luke into clouds of
the whole of
vapour, produced an uproar that was heard throughout nearly
Indonesia. The Macassar people in Celebes, 500 miles off and under the lee of
the explosion, were terrified by what seemed like the roar of artillery, and
despatched vessels to scour the neighbouring seas.
The other volcanoes of this system are extinct, or at least have retained but a
feeble remnant of their former energy. The triple-crested Kawi, whose highest
peak, the Butak, attains an altitude of 9,500 feet, has preserved no solfataras, and
where the
only a solitary thermal spring; the mighty Arjuno (11,000 feet),
Sivaites formerly offered sacrifices, emits vapours only from one fissure, while
to be
Penanggungan (5,500 feet), last of the chain south of Surabaya, appears
main axis of the some 12
completely quiescent. Nevertheless, in the system,
miles from Surabaya, two mud volcanoes have made their appearance, which are
about 30 feet high, and which are usually active at the turn of the tide. From
one are ejected fragments of bricks, which must come from the Hindu structures
of the ancient city of Mojo-Pahit, which formerly stood much farther
to the
west.
160 AUSTRALASIA.
The Arjuno chain connected by a ridge scarcely 1,630 feet high with
is
another igneous group, comprising the Tengger and Semeru volcanoes The
former has the largest crater in Java, while the latter, to the south of it, is the
highest peak in the island (12,100 feet). From its crater was discharged in 1885
a lava stream estimated at over 10,000,000 cubic feet, the first of the kind recorded
in Java, where till recently
Fig. 63. TENGOEB AND SEMEEU. the volcanoes were supposed
6c:>le 1 :
300,000. to eject no molten matter,
but only solid substances,
such as ashes and stones.
'
Semeru takes its name

from the Indian Meru, the
holy mountain at all times
venerated by the Hindus and
Tibetans. Tengger (9,000
feet) is of extremely regular
form, and from its summit
are emitted at short intervals
columns of vapour and scoriae,
black by day, red at niglit.
It was formerly probably as
high as Semeru but of the ;
upper part has disappeared

all
except the outer walls, which

form a vast enclosure about
15 miles in circuit, here and
there interrupted by gaps
and breaches and rising in
some places 1,650 feet above
the inner plain. This level
plain, which was formerly the

crater, and which has a mean
altitude of over 6,500 feet,
bears the name of Dasar, or
" Sea of
Sand," mostly con-
sisting of the finest dust,
Miles.
movable in dry weather, but
changed by the rains to the
consistency of clay. From the centre rise a few sandy hills, one of which, the Bromo,
still
constantly ejects smoke, and has at times been the scene of tremendous out-
bursts. Its crater is alternately flooded by a small lake and filled by a mass of
molten The term Bromo is merely a corruption of Brahma. The last Javanese
lava.
who professed theHindu religion took refuge on the slopes of Tengger, and their
descendants still celebrate feasts in honour of the Devo-Bromo, or "God Brahma."
#lA^:$#sb3
VOLCANOES OP JAVA. 1C1
A chain of hills, crossed by a pass 830 feet

high, connects Mount Lemongan on
the east with another igneous
system whose numerous peaks are collectively known
by the name of Ajung. Before 1844 this hilly region, which also
comprises a broad
was completely unknown
forest-clad plateau, but in that year it was discovered
;
by Junghuhn, the indefatigable explorer of Java, Close to the summit of

Argopura, the highest peak (10,200 feet), he noticed the ruins of a temple of Siva,
and other structures scattered round about
explain the name of this summit,
which in the Kavi, or old Javanese, language means the "Mountain One City."
Fig. 64. LEMONOAN.

Scale 1 :
150,000.
i
Miles.
of the sanctuaries, corroded

by the acid vapours, shows that during the last five
hundred years the quiescent volcano has been the theatre of at least one disturbance.
The Gunong Ringgit (4,150 feet), which projects seawards at the north-east
extremity of the Ajang range, is also at present 'quiescent ; but towards the close
of the sixteenth
century it was rent asunder enormous quantities of ashes were
;
hurled in the air, and when the sun reappeared after three days of darkness caused
by the dense volumes of black clouds, it was found that all the surrounding
villages had disappeared with their inhabitants. The traces of the eruption are
still visible,
although the mountain has now neither crater, solfataras, nor thermal
springs.
Like the western extremity of the island, the east coast facing Bali is also
dominated by volcanoes. A circular plateau, which was formerly perhaps a vast
llo
162 AUSTRALASIA.
on
by a diadem of lofty peaks, such as the'Raun (11,000 feet)
crater, is encircled
the south-west, Kendeng on the north-west, Kukusan on the north-east, Merapi
and others on the south-east, often collectively known as the Gunong Ijen, or
"Isolated Mountain." The waters that collect on this plateau were formerly
confined in a but now escape northwards through a gorge
lacustrine basin,
between Kendeng and Kukusan. The crater of Raun at the time of Junghuhn's
visit had a circuit of about three milf s and a depth of no less than 2,400 feet,
in Java. But all these encircling volcanoes
being the deepest of any yet explored
are now extinct or quiescent except Merapi, whose crater, like that of Kelut,
is
flooded by a freshwater lake, which, during eruptions, is changed to steam and
precipitatedin the same on the surrounding district. During the outburst of

way
1817, houses and inhabitants were swept away,
and the strait flowing between
Java and Bali contracted by the formation of new land. The south-eastern head-
land of Java, formerly an island, has thus been joined to the mainland by showers
of scoria), while the extinct Baluran (4,300 feet), at the north-east extremity,
is
separated only by a sill 50 feet high

from the Gunong Ijen system.
The island of Madura, close to the north coast, has a somewhat irregular
surface of limestone rocks, the highest of which, Tambuku, at the east end, has an
elevation of little over 1,500 feet. As in Java itself, Verbeek's survey shows that
in Madura there is no trace of triassic, Jurassic, or chalk formations.
Although the igneous are far than the sedimentary rocks in Java,
less extensive
this island receives its characteristic aspect from its forty-five conspicuous volcanoes
with their lateral cones, lavas, and scoriae. As the mariner approaches its shores,
his gaze is irresistibly attracted by these lofty symmetrical cones, lowering above
the wooded plains, now purpled in the solar rays, now of a pale blue, standing out
against the deeper azure of the sky, at times surmounted by a wreath of white
vapours, at sunset flushed with pink like the snowy Alpine peaks. At different
epuchs, but especially during later tertiary times, all these burning
mountains
have taken part in the transformation of the island even during the historic
;
period more than twenty of them have contributed greatly to modify the profile
and contours of the land, transforming what was before a chain of separate
islands, like the Lesser Sundas, into one continuous insular mass stretching from
Bali to Sumatra. This action of the underground agencies appears also to have
been aided by process of slow upheaval, which is still going on in many places,
a ;
the beauh and coral reefs have thus been raised twenty, thirty, and even fifty feet
above the present sea-level.
RIVE its OF JAVA.
Owing to the positi >n of the volcanic ranges, lying for the most part much
nearer to the Indian Ocean than to the inland seas, the northern are far more
extensive than the southern fluvial basins, scarcely any of which are navigable.
The north-western plains about Batavia are watered by numerous streams, the
largest of which is the Tar um, which rises on the slopes of the southern volcanoes,
RIVERS OF JAVA. 163
and, after escaping from the Bandong plateau through a gorge in the northern
range, reaches the sea to the east of Batavia Bay after a course of about 140 miles,
of which 50 are accessible to small craft; The observations taken on the spot
show that its delta is encroaching on the sea at a mean rate of rather more than
22 inches yearly.
But the main fluvial artery of the northern slope is the Solo (Bengawan,
Fig. 65. NTJSA KEMBANOAN.
Scale 1 :
550,000.
,"
Depths.
Oto32 32 Feet and

Feet. upwards.
, 12 Miles.
" Thousand
Sambaya), whose farthest waters rise in the Mountains," within 7
or 8 miles of the Indian Ocean. After the confluence of the two chief branches
i north-east of Mount Lawu, the main stream pierces a rocky gorge, beyond which it
I becomes navigable for vessels of a considerable draught. It would even be
accessible to large sea-going ships but for the banks at its mouth covered only
by 6 or 7 feet of water. In its navigable part, the Solo, which has a total
length of 300 miles, flows first to the north-east and then to the east through the
164 AUSTRALASIA.
natural depression between the two parallel sections of the island to its delta in
of Madura.
Surabaya Strait over against the western extremity
At southern entrance this shallow passage receives another large river, the
its
Brantas or Kediri, which, although ranking next in size to the Solo, is scarcely
navigable except during the

floods. The Brantas, which also rises very near the
Indian Ocean south of the Kawi volcano, is remarkable for the quantity of
sediment it washes down, and for the disproportionate size of its constantly
increasing delta.
Onthe southern slope of the island the chief streams are the Progo, whose
farthest waters flow from the Sindoro and Sumbing volcanoes on the west, and
numerous tributaries from
Merapi and Merbabu on the east the Seraju, fed by
;
the Sumbing, Slamat, and other volcanoes, and navigable in its lower course ;
the Tanduwi, whose headstreams descend from the Sawal Mountains, and
lastly,
whose broad estuary is accessible to steamers. In its lower course the Tanduwi
winds through a vast marine inlet, which has been transformed to a rawa, or
marshy plain, by the alluvial matter washed down with the surrounding torrents.
Of the original inlet nothing now remains except the shallow Segara Anakan,
which is already nearly cut off from the high sea by the long rocky island of
Xusa Kembangan. This island itself, which has greatly contributed to the silting
up of the inlet by preventing the sedimentary matter from being carried sea-
wards, is now separated from the mainland only by a narrow muddy backwater ;
itmay already be regarded as forming an integral part of Java, from which it
was formerly detached by a broad intervening channel.
CLIMATE.
The Javanese climate resembles that of the other western Indonesian lands,
offering the same alternation of the two tiade winds, which here assume the
character of monsoons. Both are accompanied by a certain quantity- of moisture,'
the western being as a rule the more humid and attended by the more stormy
weather. Being partly sheltered from the west winds by Sumatra, Java receives
lessmoisture than the uplands of that island. The atmospheiic currents are also
modified by the disposition of the mountain ranges, running in the direction from
west to east. The south-east trade frequently veers round to the south, while the
west monsoon is shifted to the north. The northern and southern seaboards thus
present a great contrast, due to the direction of these winds, and an analogous
contrast is offered by the eastern and western extremities of the island
owing to
the gradual increase of dryness aswe approach the Australian Continent.
Other differences arise from local conditions, but most moisture falls
every-
where on the western slopes exposed to the " bad " monsoon. Above 2,600 feet
the alternation of land and sea breezes is no longer observed, and at 5,000 feet the
west monsoon loses its
strength. higher up Still a neutral
zone prevails, while
the highest summits are subject to the south-east trade alone. Several days
seldom pass without rain on the uplands, and almost every has its local evening
FLORA OF JAVA. 165
thunderstorm. The mean annual rainfall, as deduced from the records of a

hundred meteorological stations for the last eight or nine years, would appear to
vary from a little over 40 to nearly 200 inches.*
FLORA.
The Javanese flora, as described by Miguel, comprises altogether over nine

thousand phanerogams, of which three thousand have native names, a strong
proof of the remarkable power of observation of the inhabitants. Thanks to its
numerous volcanoes, following each other like islands in the sea, Java presents an
endless variety of vertical vegetable zones, ranging from the perennial summer of
the lower slopes and plains to the wintery, or at least autumnal upland regions.
As a rule, the strictly tropical zone scarcely rises above the 2,000 feet line,
beyond which few palms are met. Nevertheless the areng (boraxsus gomutus),
which yields a fermented drink, sugar, cordage, foliage for thatching, and many
other useful articles, is
everywhere found in the interior as high as 4,600 feet.
The finest trees flourish between 2,000 and 6,500 feet, their aspect becoming more
European the higher they ascend. Here such western species as the oak, maple,
and chestnut, are found associated with the lakka (myristica iner*) and the
rasainala (liqnidambar altingiana), giant of the west Javanese woodlands.
In the higher regions the vigour of the vegetation is gradually diminished,
the thickets consisting for the most part of shrubs and small plants, such as the
myrtle, acacia, thorn, elder, woodbine, and especially the woody gnaphalium and
the agapetes, a species of heath. Several of the volcanic crests, even when
emitting no gaseous exhalations, are completely bare yet some ancient travellers
;
attributed the noxious emanations to the presence of trees, such as the

antyiar,
to approach which was supposed to be But
this plant (antiarit toxicaria) is
fatal.
in itself in no way dangerous, although yields a upas, or poisonous sap.

it It 13
met in all parts of Java, as well as of other Indonesian regions, where it is used
for poisoning arrow and spear heads it kills by paralysing the action of the heart.
;
Next to the cocoanut, the areng and bamboos, one of the most valuable indigenous
plants is the jati or teak (tcctonia grandis), which is not found in many other parts
of the Eastern Archipelago, and the range of which even in Java has much
diminished during the historic period. It is comparatively rare in the western
provinces, and its true home lies between the Japara headland and Madura, in the
Rembang residency, where it
occupies more especially the drier districts on the
plains and the slopes of the hills to a height of over 800 feet. But extensive
teak forests also occur everywhere in the central and eastern provinces, and this
valuable tree has been planted along the highways and in unoccupied spaces.
FAUNA.
Like Sumatra and Borneo, Java also presents some distinct animal species. Of
* Mean rainfall of Situbondo, East Java, between 1879-80, 46 inches ; of Buiterzorg, West Java,
195 inches.
166 AUSTRALASIA.
about a hundred mammals five or six, and of two hundred and seventy kinds of
birds, forty are peculiar to this

island. But, strange to say, certain animals
characteristic of the other large Indonesian islands are not met in Java here are ;
neither the elephant, the tapir, nor the orang-utan, but instead
the elegant dwarf-
common European deer. Of the large mammals,
deer, a perfect miniature of the
the most remarkable are the rhinoceros and wild ox, but the former have become
to the western provinces. The tiger still
very rare and are already restricted
infests the jungle in various parts of the island, and hundreds of human beings
yearly fall victims
to its ravages. As in India, when their teeth are worn they
often become man-eaters, and in the province of Bantam whole villages
have had
to be displaced in consequence of their depredations. The crocodiles are also very

in certain rivers, although causing fewer deaths than the tigers. The
dangerous
tokci, a lizard of gigantic size, is so named from its cry, which a stranger might
fancy uttered by a human being.

The insular dependencies of Java present some peculiarities in their
faunas.
Bawean especially almost constitutes a little zoological world apart, and even
Nusa Kembangan, which is scarcely more than a peninsula of the mainland, has a
woodlark (pteropus aterrinii(s) not found in Java.
INHABITANTS.
The natives of Java do not all belong to a common

national group. The
Malays, properly so-called, are represented only by immigrants, and are in the
ascendant only in a section of the province of Batavia, whither they have been
attractedby trade and political influences. The rest of the island is occupied by
the Sundanese, the far more numerous Javanese, and the Madurese, three groups
distinguished chiefly by their languages,

Excluding the Malay enclave of Batavia and the north coast, where the
Javanese language has prevailed, the western part of Java is inhabited by the
Sundanese as far as a transverse line drawn from Cheribon Bay to the mouth of the
Tanduwi. The term Sunda given very ancient date, and the
to this region is of
" Men of the Soil," that
Sundanese, or is, aborigines, thanks to the hilly nature of
their territory, have better preserved their primitive
usages than the other
inhabitants of the island. They are as a rule taller, more robust, and healthier ;
but they are regarded as relatively barbarous, and in the

company of Malays or
Javanese, they are themselves ashamed of their dialect, which is looked on as a
sort ofrude patois. Less developed than the Javanese, it differs little from it in the
primitive stock of words and structure, but it contains far fewer Sanskrit terms,
Hindu influences having been relatively weak in the Sundanese highlands. Yet
the people at onetime accepted Buddhism, and afterwards Islam.
They have also
suffered much from invasions, and the word preang, which gives its name to the
to have the "
Preanger Regencies, is said meaning of Land of Extermination."
In the upper Ujung
Valley, near the western extremity of the island, about a
thousand Sundanese, known by the name of Badui, still practise pagan rites inter-
INHABITANTS OF JAVA. 1G7
mingled with traces of Buddhism. These highlanders are distinguished from their
Mohammedan neighbours by their honesty and more correct morals. Amongst
them murder, theft, and adultery are unknown, and visitors guilty of any mis-
demeanour are banished from the commune. The heads of the villages take
"
the names of " father and " source of joy."
The Javanese proper, representing over two-thirds of the population, occupy
allthe central provinces east of Cheribon Bay, as well as the northern seaboard
between Cheribon and the Sunda Strait, and the whole of the south-east coast.
Their ancient liturgical language, the Kavi, that is, " cultivated," contains a large
number of Sanskrit words. been preserved from oblivion by old documents
It has
and inscriptions, and numerous traces survive, especially in Javanese poetry. The
great scenes of Hindu mythology are still commemorated in the national legends,
poems, theatrical representations, and those trojangs, or marionettes, in which the

natives take such delight.
Fig. 66. INHABITANTS OF JAVA.
Scale 1 : 11,000,000.
East oF Greenwich
Snndanese. Malays. Javanese. Madurese. Tenggerese.
^^^___^_ ISO Miles.
Amid the Javanese populations, there -still exists a community of about three
thousand fugitive Sivaites, who have preserved both their Hindu practices and
their ancient dialect largely affected by elements derived from the sacred
language. These are the Tengger people, who have taken refuge on the plateau
of that name. Here they occupy large houses where several families reside under
one and where they keep alive the sacred flame, which has never been
roof,
extinguished since it was brought ages ago from the shores of India.
Modern Javanese divided into several provincial dialects, each of which, like
is
the Sundanese, comprises two forms, the "high" and the "low" (Kromo and
N(jol;o), the first used in addressing superiors or equals when treated ceremoniously,
the second employed amongst friends or in addressing inferiors. The differences
between the two forms are profound, affecting the vocabulary, the phraseology,
168 AUSTEALASIA.
and to some extent even the grammar. Intermediate between the two is the
Mailyo, current amongst intimate friends.
The dialect of the island of Madura differs sufficiently from Javanese to be

in the
regarded as a distinct idiom.
It is spoken not only in Madura, but also
eastern parts of Java, where it is even encroaching on the Javanese, just as the
latter is upon the Sundanese. All three are written with characters derived from
the Indian Devanagari.
Physically theJavanese are noted for their graceful forms and delicate
of slim and
features. They are rather below the average height, but always
than other The
supple figure, and even better proportioned Malays. complexion
varies from a pale yellow to a deep olive, according to occupation, diet, and
The nose, without being but slightly prominent, the mouth firm,
flat, is
locality.
the eyes broad and well opened, the face round, with a kindly courteous expression,
often sad, plaintive, or resigned. Princes wear a moustache in the Hindu style.
Altogether the Javanese are an extremely mild race, although by some accused
of beingfanatical, faithless, spiteful, and revengeful. Inhabiting a land well
suited for tillage, they early became and long raised sufficient to
agriculturists,
supply the local demand. However

rapidly the population increased, the produce
was always superabundant in a region where a few hours' labour sufficed to procure
three meals of rice with fish and a little buffalo meat, and where the climate
daily
enabled the natives to dispense with clothes, fuel, and even houses. Hence the
Javanese naturally acquired the peaceful habits of the peasant, and a communal
life became highly developed in the rice-growing districts where collective labour
was required.
On the other hand, a certain timidity of character was fostered by the
tremendous energy of the natural forces by which they were surrounded terrific
thunderstorms, yearly fatal to hundreds and destructive to houses and villages ;
volcanoes belching forth torrents of scoria?, molten lavas, and dense volumes of
smoke and ashes turning day into night ; igneous outbursts, by which whole
populations with their dwellings and crops were at times swept away in a few
hours inundations spreading havoc far and wide, and all these horrors increased
;
by the wild beasts prowling about the habitations of man.

But from man himself came still worse perils and plagues. The early history
of the country following the stone age is wrapped in
obscurity, but we know that
for the last twenty centuries, the inhabitants have always had foreign
of the island
rulers or oppressors. The highland tribes may here and there have innintained
theirindependence, protected by their rocky fastnesses, dense foresls, rugged
heights, or even the crater mouths themselves. But the agricultural lowlanders,
scattered over a region with natural bulwarks, were at all times
scarcely any
exposed to foreign invasion, and had everywhere to bend the neck to the yoke of
servitude. The very form of the island, a long parallelogram disposed in
transverse avenues by volcanic ranges, prevented the development of a
compact
nation with a certain political cohesion and capable of
presenting a firm front to
invading hosts.
INHABITANTS OF JAVA. 1G9
At the dawn of Indonesian history, Hindu propagandists, arriving probably
Fig. 67. EMPEBOE AND F.MFEESS OF SCBAKABTA.
through Burmah, Siam, and Camboja, were already at work converting the
170 AUSTRALASIA.
Javanese aborigines to Brahmanism. At the time of the visit of the Buddhist

in the fifth century, the Brahman form of Hinduism
pilgrim, Fa-hian, early
prevailed throughout the island. Later, it was almost everywhere replaced by
Buddhist tenets, although the rites still practised round about a few inaccessible
volcanoes recall the traditions of Siva'ism. Numerous Hindu states, whose names
are preserved in history or legend, and whose splendour is reflected in the mighty
ruins of their cities and temples, were successively constituted, especially in the
central and eastern parts of the island.
During the period of Indian ascendancy, nearly the whole of Indonesia was
twice, in the thirteenth and fifteenth century, reduced under the power of a single
master. But the Arab Mohammedans were already contending wilh the Hindu
dynasties for the supremacy in Java. In 1478, they destroyed
the capital of Mojo-
Pahit's empire, which stood near the present city of Surabaya, and during the two
or three ensuing generations, they successively overthrew the petty Hindu princi-
palities that had hitherto held their ground.
But these conquerors were in their turn soon replaced by others. The
Portuguese, too weak to reduce the island, did little more than found a few
factorieson the seaboard, and take part as adventurers in the local civil wars.
But the Dutch, who appeared on (he scene in 1596, in a few years felt themselves
strong enough to assume a dominant position in the country. In 1619 they erected
the fort of Batavia, centre of the sovereignty which gradually spread over the rest
of Java and the Eastern Archipelago. Notwithstanding some local insurrections
and a war of succession, which shook their power to its foundations, between the
years 1825 and 1830, they have, on the whole, found in the Javanese perhaps the
most submissive and resigned nation known to history. Cases are mentioned of
unhappy wretches who quietly submitted to take the place of their chiefs con-
demned by the suzerain authority to imprisonment with hard labour. It is sur-
prising that such a docile people, yielding so readily to bondage, should have never-
theless preserved their gentleness, sense of justice,
probity, and other good qualities.
The rapid increase of the Javanese population is
commonly appealed to in proof
of their material and moral progress, and consequently of the beneficent results of
the present administration. Assuredly, if the numerical growth of a people were
an indication of prosperity, the Javanese would have to be regarded as amongst
the happiest of nations. Within a century, apart from the Chinese and other
immigrants, their numbers have augmented tenfold by the excess of births over
deaths alone. In 1780, a series of exterminating wars had reduced them to little
over two millions ;
in 1888, theywere at least twenty-three millions, and the annual
increase now ranges from three hundred thousand or four hundred thousand to
half a million. The density of the population is
already far greater than that of
Holland and nearly equals that of Belgium and as two-thirds of the soil is still
;
uutilled, there appears to be no reason why this density should not be tripled,
when the whole island is reclaimed.
steady flow of human
Nevertheless there has been an occasional ebb in this
vitality. In 1880, a famine, followed by a series of epidemics, reduced the popula-

INHABITANTS OF JAVA. 171
tion of the province of Bantam by one hundred and sixty eight thousand in 1848 ;
several districts of Seinarang also suffered much from the same cause, while in the
seven central provinces the population diminished by three hundred and fifty-four
thousand in four years. But after periods of drought, the families again increase,
and the gaps are soon filled to overflowing.
A certain number of Javanese emigrate to Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands,
but this outflow greatly exceeded by the immigration, especially from China.
is
The Chinese already number over two hundred and twenty thousand, the majority
being Pernakans, that is, born in the island of Javanese mothers. But the paternal
type is little modified by the crossing, and even after several generations the
descendant of the Chinese may still be recognised under the Javanese national
garb. The children receive a Chinese education from teachers either introduced
from China, or who have passed their examinations there. In general, this
element is much dreaded by the other inhabitants of the island. As brokers,
contractors, farmers of monopolies, pawnbrokers, smugglers, and opium dealers,
Fifr. fifl. COMPARATIVE IXCEEASK or POPULATION iv JAVA AND HOLLAND.
I7CO 1790 1800 I8IC 1820 1850 1840 I860 I860 1870 I860
they appropriate the better part of the profits on all transactions. By loans and
credit they forestall the very crops and legacies ;
on their arrival they are your
humble "
servant, but presently your master ;
they expand like the lotus,"
and in 1885 their estates in Java had a collective value of considerably over
11,000,000. The Europeans look on them as rivals in the wholesale trade, yet
are fain to avail themselves of their services in acquiring a knowledge of men and
things. Even the Dutch Government, while on its guard against their indepen-
dence of character, their common national sentiment and secret brotherhoods, is
compelled to e^nploy them in numerous offices needing order and careful attention.
Hence the decree of 1837, absolutely interdicting Chinese immigration, had soon to
be revoked, although access to the island was still rendered difficult to the " Children
"
of Han by landing and resident charges, poll-taxes, passports, special imposts on
the several industries, and other harrassing burdens. They have still to pay a
special income-tax, and the result of this policy is that they increase at a less
rapid rate than the Javanese.

172 AUSTRALASIA.
Although less numerous than the Chinese, the Arabs, being Mohammedans of
the " chosen race," have a relatively greater influence, and those especially who
have made the to Mecca are venerated as saints. Yet they follow the
pilgrimage
same pursuits as the Chinese, and as business agents and dealers live at the expense
of the native peasantry. Till lately the Javanese Arabs were more or less mixed
descendants of the former masters of the land ;

but during the present century
their numbers have been increased by direct immigrants from Hadramaut. The
men, being engaged chiefly in the sale of European wares, speak Malay, but all
in other respects they keep aloof from the natives, and in the family circle care-
mother tongue. All learn to read and write, and some are
fully preserve their
regarded as well versed in questions of

Mussulman theology, jurisprudence, and
grammar.
The European population, even comprising the Eura-ims, are a mere handful,
lost, so to say, in this great sea of Oriental elements.
But they are the ruling
class, and consequently command an influence out of all proportion with their
numbers. Officials who marry native women bring up their children with great
care, and in the second generation the "nannas" or half-caste women are regarded
as belonging to the white race. Their education is often provided for by the
Government, as is also that of the signos or liplaps, as the half-bred men are here called,
not without a slight tauch of contempt. They receive appointments as notaries,
clerks, surveyors, and are reputed to be intelligent, but indolent, effeminate, and
excessively vain. Their families are said not to be very numerous, and appear to
die out in a few generations, the fact being that they simply become absorbed in
the surrounding populations. With them have already been merged the few
Portuguese who arrived in the sixteenth century.
European immigration was formerly discouraged by the Administration, which
regarded the Dutch East Indies as a domain to be worked for the benefit of the
State, and not as a colony opened to private enterprise. According to the decree
of 1818, which long remained in vigour, no European in any capacity had the
right to settle in Batavia, or elsewhere in Java, without the special authorisation
of the governor-general, and even then could not remove more than five or ten
miles from his residence, according to the locality. But although access to the
island is now no longer interdicted, few Europeans settle permanently in the
country. .
The excessive mortality, which formerly earned for Java the title of " Cemetery
of the Whites," is probably ten times less than in the last The maladies
century.
which were decimate:! are now
by they better understood, while they have le-jrnt
to live more like the nati es, and
accordance with sanitary principles. Their
in
dwellings are built in salubrious places, and the health resorts are situated at
various altitudes, so that the climate
may be graduated for invalids and convales-
cents. Nevertheless, the mortality is still high, and at times the colonial forces
suffer terribly,
especially from the so-called buri-beri, apparently a kind of low
fever or anaemia. The immigrants also tend to lose their moral tone, becoming
less vigorous and energetic after a protracted residence in the country.
INHABITANTS OF JAVA. 173
The first law for all Europeans is to uphold the prestige of their race, and to
maintain their ascendancy by a sort of religious terror. Till lately the natives
would fall prostrate by the roadside at the approach of a white in his carriage ;
those carrying an umbrella hastened to close it, at the risk of a sunstroke, and in
the presence of an the masses still preserve a solemn silence.
official For the
same reason, no European could accept servile work, and when condemned for a
breach of discipline the military were sent to Holland to undergo their sentence.
Before 1864, no Javanese was allowed to learn Dutch, or send his children to a
white school. An exception, however, was always made in favour of the Malays
proper, whose language has long been the lingua franca of the Eastern Archi-
pelago, as well as the official idiom for the transaction of public business and the
administration of justice. Till lately it was always written in Arabic characters,
which are now being gradually superseded by the European orthographic system.
The Dutch government also discourages the Christian missionaries, so that the
Javanese, nominal Mohammedans, are still pagans at heart, worshippers of their
ancestry and of the forces of nature, and attributing to the spirit world all the
events of their daily existence. But they have also preserved numerous Hindu
practices, while still celebrating the Mussulman feasts with ever-increasing fervour.
Amongst them have sprung up some fanatical sects, notably that of the Naksyi-
bendi, and since they are now permitted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, some
thousands return yearly from the Prophet's shrine dressed as, and calling them-
selves, Arabs. The Mohammedan schools are continually more and more fre-
quented, and most of the peasantry observe at least the evening devotions.
Some Christian legends have also been introduced into the national mythology.
Like their remote kindred, the Madagascar Hovas and the natives of the Moluccas,
the Javanese would have embraced Christianity had their rulers commanded them
to do so but the very opposite policy has been pursued, and missionaries, unless
;
of Dutchnationality, have often been refused permission to settle in the country.

Scarcely 11,000 Javanese are classed in the census papers as members of any
Christian church.
In order to avoid all needless contact with the natives, the Dutch officials carry
on the administration largely through the agency of local chiefs. Certain Java-
nese " Regents," descendants of princely families, have preserved a semblance of
authority, upholding their rank and dignity by means of rich emoluments and a
share of the public revenues. But in return they have to accept the advice of
"
the Dutch " Residents stationed at their courts. The action of the real rulers
is thus masked from the natives, who have themselves no share in the choice of
their officials. They however, allowed to elect the village chiefs entrusted
are,
with the distribution of lands, public works, statute labour, and salaries but these ;
chiefs or communal mayors are liable to be removed at any moment, should they
fail to satisfy the central authority.
174 AUSTRALASIA.
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF JAVA.
The was abolished in the Dutch East Indies at the end of the
slave trade
seventeenth century, and slavery properly so-called has ceased to exist in Java
since I860, when nearly five thousand slaves were emancipated. But can the
rest of the peoplebe regarded as freemen so long as they are subjected by
Government to forced labour ? While the authorities were satisfied with collecting
the taxes on the crops fixed by Sir Stamford Raffles during the British occupation,
the results were financially bad, and the public deficit went on increasing from
year to year. But in 1832, the Governor-General Van de Bosch received full
power modify existing arrangements, and the very next year the people had to
to
" "
of culture and taxation, which was
adapt themselves to the famous system
in the Philippines. Neverthe-
largely modelled on that of the tobacco monopoly
less,the change was effected without causing a crisis, the Government edicts being
largely conformable to the adat, or old customs

observed by the native rulers.
"
In virtue of system of culture," which was to replace the land-tax by a
this
sort ofGovernment monopoly of the crops themselves, each agricultural circuit of

the vast Javanese " farm," was placed under a controller, who reserved a fifth of
the land for the public service. Here the Administration, or its grantees, in-
troduced at its option the cultivation of economic plants, exacted throughout the
commune every fifth working-day (later every seventh), and de facto regulated
all the works, encouraged and coerced the workers. At the end of the year, it
took over from the producers the various exports, coffee, sugar, indigo, tea,
" at the market
tobacco, cinnamon, pepper, price," after deducting two-fifths for
the taxes, and a fixed sum for transit charges.
"
But this " market has always bsen fixed by the Government far below
price
the real value, and, according to official statistics, the Javanese peasantry have
been defrauded, since the introduction of the " system, to the extent of some
1 ''
80,000,000. On coffee alone, the " staple of the Dutch Colonial regime," the
plunder of the natives to the benefit of the home budget amounted, between
1831 and 1877, to the enormous total of 68,000,000. The real market price,
after deducting the impost, has
occasionally been three times in excess of the
price officially announced to the natives.
Hence not surprising that by the Minister Van de Putte and
it is
many other
Dutch statesmen this wholesale plunder of the Javanese has been denounced as
" wretched
a system." On the other hand, an administration which
yielded a
considerable "colonial bonus" to the mother
country, often over 2,000,000
yearly, could not fail to find many admirers, although the bulk of the nati\e
population meantime remained poor and half famished. Certain political econo-
mists have even ventured to hold
up the procedure of the Dutch Government in
Java as a model of political wisdom.
However, the era of direct agricultural monopolies seems to have run its course.
'1 he Achinese war, followed by the ravages of insects on the coffee
plantations
and the necessary increase of the public expenditure, have brought about a
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF JAVA. 175
deficit, showing once more that monopolies end in the ruin of states as well
as of the plundered Of late years, the system has been gradually modified.
Statute labour has been abolished, at least on

paper, except for works of
public utility, such as roads, harbours, canals and administrative
buildings.
Lands held by the communes in virtue of hereditary have been ceded to
right
17G AUSTRALASIA,
them absolutely ;
the cultivation of tea, tobacco, indigo, cochineal and cinnamon
has been left to private enterprise, the Government retaining the monopoly only
of 8u<*ar till the year 1890, and of coffee until the question is settled by legis-
lation.
The system is, of slavery in disguise,

of forced labour, that has had the natural
the intellectual and moral of the people. The
consequence, of retarding progress
structures in different parts of the island dating from the Hindu epoch show
that the knowledge of industrial, scientific and artistic processes has greatly
deteriorated since those times. Doubtless the initiative came from the Hindus,
but the works executed under their control attest the advancement made by their
disciples. But decadence was inevitable under an Administration which for

to the natives, lest they should learn
nearly three centuries closed the schoolroom
to think and thus attempt some day to bridge over the gap separating them from
their masters. Even now, for a population of some twenty-three millions, Java
possesses only two hundred native schools, attended by some forty thousand
scholars.
In the Javanese communes the land has remained unallotted, the sovereign
being still regarded as the supreme proprietor, while the collective usufruct of the
cultivated parts belongs to the peasantry. The cultivators thus form with the
communal land an organic whole, the so-called deasa, and they can scarcely under-
stand any other system of tenure. Efforts have in vain been made in some places
to introduce that of private holdings amongst the poor cultivators of the plains.
Doubtless there exist a certain number of plots inherited in the family but the ;
communal organisation everywhere prevails. Even where the jungle is cleared by

private enterprise, it lapses after a certain time to the commune, which, according
to the or "
aifat, custom," is the true owner and collectively responsible for the
taxes and the statute labourers. As in the Slav mir, each member of the dessu
keeps his cottage and garden, while all have equal right to the woods and waste
lands. But the tracts under tillage are distributed to the families either every
year, or every two or three years according to the districts.
Unfortunately the enormous increase of population during the present century
has had the consequence of reducing to a mere fraction the portion assigned to
each individual, in some places five acres or even less, while the government
communes by the grant of public waste or fallow lands.
abstains from helping the
On an average, the Javanese cottage is worth about sixteen shillings, and the
revenue of each family plot five pounds at the utmost. The peasant finds it
difficult to earn an equal sum on the Government plantations, so that the whole
population sees itssubstance constantly diminishing, and itself threatened witli
still at least contrives to live
deeper poverty, although it
despite the imposts r.^d
forced labour.
Would they fare better were the principle of private property established in
the 40,000 communes, and were most of the
holdings rapidly reduced to proportions
too small for any practical
purpose, or even bought up altogether, leaving the bulk
of the
peasantry without ? Would not the condition of Java then
any property
ECONOMIC CONDITION OP JAVA. 177
become analogous to that of Ireland, and depopulation become inevitable ? In the
province of Bantam under the British administration the greatest impulse was
given to the development of large estates, and here also the land, belonging mostly
to absentee owners, is the worst cultivated, here the indigent classes are most
n umerous, famines most frequent and often attended by bread riots. The famous
novel of Max Havelaar, which deeply moved the public conscience of Holland,
described in eloquent language the deplorable condition of the Bantam peasantry,
and since then there has been no change for the better.
The staple crop is rice, which in many districts constitutes the exclusive food
of (he people. Hence, despite the enormous annual production, the export of this
grain slight compared with that of Burmah and Cochin China.
is The rice-fields
exceed a total area of 5,000,000 acres, covering not only the marshy low-lying tracts
and regularly irrigated sloping valleys, but also the so-called Tegals or dry grounds,
yielding the most nutritive varieties, as well as the flanks of the mountains to a
height of over 4,000 feet, below the zone of coffee plantations. After the harvest, the
ditches and reservoirs are emptied, and a second harvest made of the myriads of fish
that swarm in these waters during the year. Fevers are endemic in the Saicah, or
wet rice districts, but are less fatal than in other regions lying even farther from the
equator. This is due to the fact that the Javanese do not allow the waters to stag-
nate, but always keep up the current, and also plant a curtain of large trees round
their villages.
In Madura, where the surface is
nearly everywhere gently undulating, scarcely
any rice is grownhere the chief alimentary grain is maize.
;
Although the Javanese peasantry never drink coffee, those residing in the pre-
scribed coffee districts have to cultivate a strip of 600 feet, and to supply fresh plants
in case of failure. It is from this source that Holland derives, or has hitherto
" colonial
derived, her bonus," and consequently to it the natives are indebted for
the oppressive system of forced labour. The coffee plant was not introduced till
towards the close of the seventeenth century ; yet Java produces from a
sixth to an eighth of the yield of the whole world, or an average of about 150
million pounds, valued at 2,000,000. Since the end of the Napoleonic wars,
when this island was restored to Holland, the yield had gone on increasing from
decade to decade till
recently. Now, however, although several private capitalists
have entered into competition with the Government, it seems to be at a standstill,
or rather to have entered a period of decline. In 1876, the destructive hemileia
which had already wasted the plantations of Ceylon, made its appearance
riixfntrijt,
in Sumatra, and three Precautions have also

years later attacked those of Java.
to be taken against other parasites, such as the xylotricus qwidrupes, the combined
attacks of which have reduced the Government crop from nearly 80,000 tons in
1*79 to less than 18,000 in 1887.
The Javanese coffee-planters have now great hopes of the Liberian variety,
which resists both the hemileia fungus and the xylotricus borer. But merely
to replace over 200 million plants would alone be tantamount to an economic
revolution.
120
178 AUSTRALASIA.
Java ranks next to Brazil in the production of coffee, and also holds the second
place in the
markets of the world for that of sugar, in this product being exceeded
varies greatly from year to year accord-
by Cuba alone. The crop, which, however,
ing to the rainfall
and other climatic conditions, averages one-tenth of that pro-
duced by the rest of the world. There are several local varieties of the cane, whose
cultivation is one of the old industries of the island. In 1808, the yield
rose to 5,800
tons,but it did not acquire its present gigantic proportions till the second half of the
declines each year in virtue
century- The share of the Government in this industry
ZONES OF WET AND DBY RICE FIELDS AND COFFEE PLANTATIONS ON MOUNT SCMBINO.
Fig. 70.
Scale 1 : 160,000.
. 3 Miles.
of the law obliging gradually abolish statute labour, and to grant concessions to
it to
private enterprise. Some

of the plantations, especially in the
Jokjokarta and
Surakarta districts, are supplied with machinery in no respects inferior to that of
the finest sugar mills in Europe.
The tea industry, introduced from Japan in 1826, has never acquired a
development sufficient to enter into serious competition with the Chinese and
Indian growers. The plantations laid out by Government in all
parts of the island
did not prove very profitable, and since 1865 the
industry has been completely
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF JAVA. 179
abandoned to piivate speculators. The yield averages about 6,000,000 pounds;

but the leaf is of indifferent quality.
Other economic plants, such as cacao, the clove, and cinnamon, are not extensively
grown, and even pepper, formerly the chief resource of the province of Bantam,
has ceased to be a profitable industry. Of the 25,000,000 cocoanut trees, about
10,000,000 are fruit-bearing.

Despite great commercial vicissitudes, tobacco has become one of the important
Fig. 71. TEAK FORESTS BETWEEN SEMAKANG AND SUUABAYA.
Scale 1 2,600,000.
Easb oFGreenwich III*
. TO Miles.
exports, besides supplying a considerable local consumption. This industry has

also ceased to be a Government monopoly, and is now largely in the hands of Chi-
nese speculators. But they are not allowed to cultivate opium, and have to pur-
chase this drug from the Government, which imports it from India, Persia, and
Asia Minor. Indigo, formerly one of the most jealously preserved monopolies, is
now also surrendered to free labour, and still continues to be an important article
of the export trade despite the
competition of the coal-tar dyes. Neither jute,
cotton, nor any of the other textile plants are extensively cultivated.
Amongst
180 AUSTEALASIA.
of which yields a
these the kapok or randu (eriodcndron anfractiiositm}, the fruit
is
down utilised by the native weavers.

The same plant is used for buildingpurposes, but in this respect a vastly more valu-
able tree is the teak the jati of the Javanese, which still covers an
extent of about
some of the cleared have been replanted

2,500 square miles. Recently, also, spaces
with the no less valuable cinchona, first introduced from Reunion in 1852, and
again directly from South

America in 1854. Within nine years of that date, there
were already 1,140,000 cinchona plants either in the nursery-grounds or the
forests of Java but the
;
selected was one of the least valuable, and it had
variety
even to be replaced by others of more medicinal value, notably the calisoya, which
had been successfully introduced into the uplands of British India. In 1888, the
Government enclosures contained over 3,700,000 of the best varieties, growing at
different altitudesbetween 4,000 and 6,500 feet. By careful selection and grafting,
plants have been obtained

whose bark yields from 1 1 to 13 per cent, of quinine.
Java lacks a sufficient number of domestic animals for agricultural operations.
In the western province of Bantam, the proportion of horses, oxen, and buffaloes is
increases somewhat
only 94 per thousand of the population, but this proportion
steadily eastwards until, in the extreme east, it rises to 830 per thousand. But
everywhere the live stock has diminished during the second half of the present
century, while the population has rapidly increased. The Javanese horses of
Arab stock have diminished in size, but not in mettle and staying power. The
Cheribon trotters and the Kedoc cart-horses are highly spoken of, although none
can compare with the Sumatran ponies in form or vigour.
The produce of the fisheries, which employ about fifty thousand hands, is all
required for the local consumption, except the sea- slugs and sharks' fins exported
to China. Java also yields the very finest quality of edible birds' nests, also des-
tined for the Chinese market.
To the traditional industries, such as weaving, dyeing, krisses, and other arms
for which the Javanese have always been famous, the manufacture of heavy
machinery has recently been added for the sugar refineries, the harbour works
and railways. An ancient monopoly of the Jokjokarta regency are the gongs
and musical instruments for the Gamelangs, or native bands, bells, cymbals, drums,
and bais of copper or bamboo which the players strike with a hammer to accompany
the theatrical representations and native ballets. The most skilled craftsmen are the
Chinese, who are usually employed, especially by Europeans, wherever taste and
execution are objects of consideration.
The carriage roads are well planned and kept in excellent
repair, and are
often supplied with footpaths and avenues for
supplementary traffic, heavy
especially between the chief towns. The main artery
the great military route,
is
7X0 miles long, running from Anjer, in the extreme west, to

Banjuwangi, in the
extreme east, and constructed by the terrible Daendels, still remembered
by the
natives as the " Master of the Great Thunder." The torrents and even rivers
are crossed by
ingeniously planned bamboo bridges, which, despite their frail
appearance, are extremely solid works. The first railway, connecting Batavia
TRADE OF JAVA. 181
with Buitenzorg, was opened in 1872, and since then the network of lines, as
originally planned and suggested by the configuration of the island, has been slowly
developed. When completed, the system must obviously comprise two coast lines
running from one end to the other, and connected at intervals by transverse lines
through the valleys separating the volcanic ranges. But this system is far from
complete, although the three great ports of Batavia, Semarang, and Surabaya are
already connected with the rich inland districts. More than half of the railways,
as well as all the telegraph lines, belong to the State. The latter are connected
with the Indo-European system through Singapore, and with that of Australasia
through Timor.
The steam navigation companies, whose craft ply regularly between Europe
.
and Batavia, as well as from port to port round the coast of Java and through-
Fig. 72. RAILWAYS n JAVA.

Scale 1 : 11.000,000.
hast or Greenwich 114*
Dep'hs.
Oto 100 100 to 1,000 1,000 to 2,000 2.000Fathoms

Fathoms. Fathoms. Fathoms. and upward*.
Railways. Steam Tramways.
. 180 Miles.
out Indonesia, already own over sixty steamers, with a collective capacity of
nearly 100,000 tons. The largest share of the Javanese trade is still carried
on with Holland, although the law of 1874 abolished all differential dues on
foreign vessels touching at the insular ports. The entry and clearing charges were
the same time, greatly reduced on a large number of commodities.
also, at All the
Government exports are shipped for Holland by the privileged ffaiidel-Maatsc/iappij
(" Dutch Trading Company "), founded in 182-4, and in the imagination of the
people confounded with the State itself. The original Dutch East India Company,
after realising millions
by its long monopoly of the trade with Indonesia, became
bankrupt at the end of the last century with a debt of 10,000,000.
Since the declaration of free trade in 1874, the exchanges movement of the
with Great Britain has acquired considerable importance. England takes especially
182 AUSTKALASIA.
the United States,

raw sugars in exchange for cotton goods and hardware. China,
and France also share to some extent in the general export trade. The Javanese
the shrouds almost
sailors are surprisingly daring and agile, swarming up ship's
with the nimbleness of the monkey.
TOPOGRAPHY.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the chief outport was Bantam,
situated near the north-west extremity of the island on a well-sheltered semi-
by mudbanks. Here the Dutch founded

circular bay, but obstructed their first
factory in 1596 ;
but it is now a mere village almost hidden by the surrounding
name to the province, the capital of the
foliage. Although Bantam has given its
Fig. 73. LINES OF STEAM NAVIGATION IN INDONESIA.
Scale 1 : 48,000,000.
100
.
1,200 Miles.
residency has been removed to the small town of Serang, some six or seven
miles
farther south, while the local trade has been diverted to Anjer, which was nearly
destroyed by the Krakatau eruption of 1883.

Sataria, the Jakatra of the natives, present capital of Java, and of all the
Dutch East Indian possessions, occupies an area out of all proportion with its
population, stretching from the harbour in a straight line for over twelve miles
inland. The vast space, however, is not continuously built over, but rather
occupied by several distinct quarters, connected together by canals, routes, and
avenues. The old town had been founded in 1619 on the coast along the right
bank of the Liwong, while the citadel with its four sharp bastions stood on an
the entrance of the estuary.
artificial islet at Eatavia gradually acquired the
aspect of a Dutch city with its canals and dykes, its

many storied and gabled brick
houses but a shower of ashes ejected from Mount Salak choked the canals, con-
;
TOPOGRAPHY OF JAVA. 183
verting the lower quarters into swamps

and causing the land to advance seawards.
Batavia thus became still more unhealthy than before, and at the same time lost the
advantage of its marine position. At present it lies considerably over a mile from
the coast and the canalized
river has had to be extended Fig. 74. BATAVIA IN 1028.
the same distance to reach deep PC lie 1 : 20,000.
water.
Leaving the old town to

the Malay custom-house offi-
cers and the teeming Chinese
population, the Europeans have -

6'
e>tablished their new quarter
some miles farther south on
more elevated ground, every-
where planting broad avenues
and laying out gardens and
shrubberies. The central
quarter of Weltevreden, com-

prising the chief public build-
ings and large hotels, combines
the aspects of a fine city and
magnificent park, where

flourish most of the tropical
plants distinguished by the
splendour of their flowers and
foliage. Round about this dis-
trict and beyond the extensive

grassy tract of Koning's Pkin
("The King's Plain") other
quarters have sprung up on
the western slopes, and these
also are everywhere inter-
spersed with gardens and
150'50'so- East oF Greenwich
shady groves, the favourite
650 Yards.
evening promenade of the Euro-
.
peans. Northwards, a district

of suburban residences, skirting the canal, stretches away to Old Batavia, and is
continued southwards as far as Mecster Cornells, another group of scattered quarters
separated administratively from Batavia proper, but all belonging to the same
system. The whole is encircled by the palm-groves of the native kampongs.
liittavia is the seat of the oldest and most flourishing learned societies in the
Eastern Archipelago. It also possesses a medical school, libraries, a museum, and
some periodicals of high scientific value.
The maritime quarter of Tunjong Priok, also forming part of Batavia, is of
181 AUSTRALASIA.
Till lately Batavia had no harbour, and large vessels were

quite recent foundation.
is perfectly sheltered
obliged to ride at anchor in the roadstead, which, however,
The canal was accessible only to small
by quite an archipelago of small islets.
steamers and river craft, while the approaches were being yearly invaded by the
Fig. 75. BATAVIA AND POET op TAKJONO PEIOK.
Bcale 1 : 60,000.
Eepths.
OtolG 16 to 3V 82 Feet and

Feet. Feet. llp\V.tllls.
.
2,200 Yards.
sedimentary matter brought down by the Liwong and Angkee rivers. Between 1817
and 1874, the shore-line advanced at the rate of 35
yards a year, so that it became
necessary to remedy the evil by constructing piers in deep water.
At first it was proposed to establish the port near the island of Onrust, north-
SU N DA
tf
Keizer-sK I
Piek
Telokh
Betoer^
Jiatai'
Poehawg
JBav of Lazoponf
^ '.Rood
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Lagocntti
I.Seboeb*
Blimbino' Viutxnsl
7..SW.MJ
D\
WaJrkr ffoeJc
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h'nkatnu ^
V
4
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Atnjen EUand TtnedePunt
We&amstBaai
EenstePunt Hondfef
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East uf Greenwich
2)t
O to SOfoOwms 50 to t50.
Seaboard swept by the, tvcci'6 di*

The
NEW YORK, E>.
TRAI T.
SEA F JA VA
Uiousandlsks
f
l.Toendfh.
8
hn Sdojn
CJSXk
jg-H
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-_~
^muiW I
5 I M
ÔnderandipO BATAVIA
'
_V* A A
P""s
! / /
*':,
-
,1
BUITE>'ZORG
Eadoet
Socdimanfk
106*30
t.
Z5O to SOO 500 upward*.
f esrtption c>f KraJtatau in 188 S .
we, indicated^ bv red dote.

TOPOGEAPHT OF JAVA. 185
west of the roadstead, which already possessed a naval arsenal but after much
;
discussion, the engineers at last decided in favour of the Tanjong Priok Point, which
is distant only 6 miles to the north-east of the old town. Here the land, somewhat
more elevated than the neighbouring coast, projects seawards towards a line of
upheaved beds, which are continued in the direction of the east. Two immense
stone jetties, 2,140 and 1.960 yards long respectively, now project from this point,
curving round at their northern extremity so as to leave for shipping an entrance

of about 500 feet. The space thus enclosed comprises nearly 500 acres, and affords
good anchorage for the largest vessels. Repairing basins, graving and dry docks,
and building yards complete the harbour works, which are connected with the rest
of the city by a road, a railway, and a canal crossing the intervening marshy
plain.
The twolarge towns of Tangerang and Bckasi to the east, both inhabited by
Chinese, may be regarded as direct dependencies of Batavia. Bekasi is even
connected by rail with the capital, of which it forms a suburban retreat but not ;
a single descendant is now to be found of the Dutch Boers, who settled in the
districtabout the middle of the eighteenth century. In Tangerang and neigh-
"
bourhood some 40,000 or 50,000 peasants are occupied during the " dead season
in plaiting hats, mats and boxes of bamboo fibre, which are bought up by Chinese
traders for the market of Paris. In 1887, the district of Tjilongok alone exported
about 1,200,000 hats, valued at nearly 80,000.
Farther south the advanced spurs of the Gede volcano are resorted to by most
of the Europeans, who can here breathe a pure and invigorating atmosphere. In
" Sans
1774, Buitensorg, that is Souci," was chosen as the site of an official health-
resort, and this place has by successive enlargements become a vast residence, now
usually occupied by the Governor-Generals of the Dutch East Indies. Lying 880
feet above the sea, on a wooded slope between the Liwong and Dani river valleys,
Buitenzorg commands a superb prospect of the surrounding forest-clad gloomy

gorges and undulating heights rising in one direction towards Mount Salak, in
another towards Gede. Nowhere else in Java is the indigenous vegetation more
exuberant or more varied than here, and no botanic garden in the world is richer or
better organised thuu that of Buitenzorg, wbose magnificent avenues wind round
about the government palace. Here are cultivated no less than 9,300 different
species of plants.
But Buitenzorg is not sufficiently elevated to be regarded as a sanitarium.
Hence invalids and convalescents usually prefer the station of Siiif/aiig-Ltiya, which
stands at an altitude of 3,560 feet on the northern slope of Gede, near the vast
nursery grounds of Tjibodns. This is said to be the most salubrious spot in the
whole of west Java, and hundreds of soldiers stricken down during the Atjeh
campaigns have here recovered their health.
South of Buitenzorg the railway, after crossing the main insular water-parting,
and leaving to the south thinly peopled districts sloping down to Wijnkoops Bay,
and the port of Plabunn-Ratn, passes eastwards by the important stations of
ii Tjniijiif, into the vast basin of tho Turum. Here is the port of Tjihao,
18 8 AUSTRALASIA.
of the railway was the only outlet for the produce

which before the opening
of the whole district.
Farther east, at an elevation of 2,470 feet, stands Bandony, the picturesque
"
capital of the Preang regencies," almost completely concealed by the surrounding
forest vegetation, and commanded northwards by the long crest of the Tangkubau
Prahu ridge.
At present (1889) the railway terminates beyond Bandong at Tjitjalcnka, but is
to be continued across the plateau down to the Manuk Valley, where it will throw
off a branch south-westwards to the town of Garut. Then climbing the eastern
long inclines down to TJitatjap, the most sheltered port on
hills it will fall the
by
south coast, and already connected by rail with the northern slope of the island.
Even at low water there is a depth of 17 or 18 feet on the bar, and from 30 to 35
in the harbour, which is protected by the island of Kembanjran, and defended by
fortified lines.
East of Batavia the marshy coast, fringed by mangroves and mud banks, has
no harbours west of Cheribon Bay. Indramaju, in the Manuk delta, which grows
the best rice in the island, is a small riverain port accessible only to vessels of light
draught. The populous and productive province of Cheribon

has a large number
of small towns and large communes, but no cities of great size. Cheribon, the
which takes its name from the Tji-Ribon torrent on which it is situated,
capital,
occupies only a secondary position amongst the commercial centres of Java. Tfijal,
capital of the province of like name, has a roadstead exposed,
like that of Cheribon,
to the north and east winds, so that vessels run some risk in shipping the produce
of the interior brought down by the railways, connecting this place with Balapuhntg
and Pangka. largest town on the north coast between Batavia and Semarang
The
is Pekalottgan, which occupies both banks of the river of like name. Pekalongan
formerly enjoyed a monopoly of the indigo trade, and the native women wove
highly esteemed coloured fabrics.
Semarang or Samarang, lying near the centre of the curve formed with the
rest of the coast by the peninsula of Japara, is one of the three great Javanese
marts. At the close of the last century it stood first, and still rivals Batavia and
Surabaya, exporting large quantities especially of sugar, coffee, tobacco, and indigo.
Yet has no harbour, and large vessels calling here are obliged to anchor consider-
it
ably over a mile from the shore in waters exposed to the fury of the west monsoon.
Boats and steam launches alone can penetrate into the city through the Banjir
canal to the west, and the canalised river to the east, on which have been erected
the chief public buildings. If a harbour is constructed it will probably have to lie
further west, near Krowelang Point, for at Semarang deep water of 25 or 30 feet
occurs only some five miles from the coast. In the marshy plain between the
canal and the river rises a star-shaped fort strengthened by bastions and a moat,
and close by is one of the two artesian wells which supply the place with pure
water.
As in Batavia the inhabitants are grouped according to their nationalities, the
Europeans, here numbering several thousands, being chiefly centred in the Bojong
mt\
>,->'. v-~ '*.. rfw.i tv,
quarter, which above the low-lying tracts near the spurs of the hills to the
lies
south. Pleasure resorts are also scattered to the south-west at the foot and on the
flanks of the Ungaran volcano, whose terraced slopes are crowned by the ruins of
Hindu temples.
Semarang abundantly supplied with means of communication, roads, railways,
is
steam trams, canals, and steamers, one line of navigation connecting it with the
Fig. 76. SEMABANO.
Fcale 1 :
00,000.
110 5 110*25 East of Greenwich
Deptlu.
to 32 32 Veet and
Feet. upwards.
. 2,200 Yards.
ancient city of Japara. During the Hindu epoch, Japara, which gives its name
to a province, was a great emporium, and down to the close of the last century it
was still frequented by shipping. But its port has been gradually closed by the
coral reefs, and its trade having been transferred elsewhere, Japara is now nothing
more than a dull administrative centre. In the rich valley stretching southwards
one of the chief places is Demtik, whose mosque is famous in the Mohammedan
world as being the first erected in Java.

Farther east follow the large markets of Kudus and Patti, and on a broad
188 AUSTRALASIA.
of average size, the ancient city of Jaicana or Joana. South

estuary accessible to ships
of Semarang the railway gradually rises in the direction of Ambaratca, which the
Dutch have selected as their chief strategic station in the interior. Here the vast
fortress of Wilkm I., 1,633 feet above sea-level, commands several natural routes
radiating in all directions.
JIAGELANQ AXD BuBtr-Bin>:iuB.

Towards the south east, on
pig. 77
ScUe 1
the first slopes of Mount
: 130,000.
Merbabu, stands the town of

Salntiya, where in 1811 was
signed the capitulation sur-

rendering the Dutch East
Indies to Great Britain. At
present Salatiga is one of the
chief health-resorts of Java.
Magelang, capital of the

province of Kadu, occupies
the centre of a magnificent
plain watered by the river

Progo and fertilized by the
ashes of the surrounding
volcanoes. Some nine or ten
miles to the south of this
enchanting spot a small

eminence near the Progo is
crowned by the pyramidal
temple of Bum-Badhur, the
finest Hindu ruin in Java.
Standing on a square plat-

form, 540 feet on all sides,
the edifice rises in seven
retreating storeys to the

central dayoba, or dome, a
solid mass of masonry tower-
ing above thousands of
sculptured stones and bas-

reliefs, representing battles,
hunts, shipwrecks, domestic
.t Miles.
scenes, triumphal proces-
sions,
figure! in which is
the elephant, an animal unknown in Java. At the angles of the terraces are
monstrous carved idols, while at intervals are throned effigies of Buddha of
the traditional solemn and conventional type. Thus are intermingled in these
and Sakya-Muni.
sculptures the cults of Siva This superb monument, which has
been compared, for vastness of proportions and finish of details, to the Cambojan
temple of Ankhor-Vat, has lost a large number of precious carvings, carried off
by native princes and officials to embellish their palaces and gardens. But enough
still remain to give an idea of the prodigious architectural work executed in the
eighth or ninth century by Javanese artists, under the guidance of their Hindu
instructors. The discovery has recently been made that the base of the building
is surrounded by a revetment, or stone
facing, which masks inner walls richly
carved and covered with inscriptions. Here archaeologists hope to find valuable
data on the history of the edifice and of the country.
Lying on the southern slope of the island, both Magelang and the equally
Fig. 78. MERAPI AND JOKJOKAKTA.
Scale 1 : 600,000.
HO'itr tasb oF G-eenwicl"i IIO'4O'
. 12 Miles.
picturesque Puncorejo, capital of the province of Bagalen, have their natural outlet
in the port of Tjilatjap. Here the fertile and thickly-peopled coastlands ar,e
traversed by a railway running parallel with the seaboard. North of this line
lies littnjiniinx, the province of like name.
capital of
But the central station of the insular railway system is the city of Solo, or
Surakarta, the ancient Kortasura, capital of one of the few remaining native
"
regencies." In population Surakarta holds the second rank, and would even
be the first were Batavia and Meester C'ornelis regarded as forming two really
distinct cities. Its numerous quarters, lining the banks of the Pepe, a western
190 AUSTRALASIA.
of which stands the kraton,

occupy a vast space, in the centre
affluent of the Solo,
or royal palace. This structure, with its inner courts, harem, barracks, kiosks,
forms a town of with a population of ten thousand

within its
and gardens, itself,
Fig. 79. PATJITAN.
Scale 1 :
100,000.
Depths.
Oto32 S2to80 80 Feet and

33 Yards.
enclosure. But close by is the Dutch citadel, whose guns command the Imperial
court and all its
surroundings.
Joty'okarta, or Jokjo, capital of the sultanate of like name, takes at present
TOPOGKAPHY OF JAVA. 191
only the fifth place amongst the Javanese cities but it has preserved its national
;
character far better than Surakarta, or any other town subject to European or
Chinese influences. Jokjokarta, which in the last century bore the famous name
of JfntftniM, the southern foot of Merapi, fifteen miles in a straight line
lies at
from the south coast. Like Surakarta, it groups its various quarters round about
a central kraton, covering nearly a square mile in extent, and occupied by the
Sultan and his numerous household. A few ruins of Hindu temples are scattered
over the surrounding district, and on a hill to the south-east stands the highly-
venerated necropolis of the Mataram princes.
Although lying so near the coast, Jokjokarta has no port, and the projected
harbour on the nearest creek (Manjiengan) has not yet been constructed. Mean-
while the least remote port is that of Pntjilan, which is formed by an indentation
of the rock-bound coast, to the east of the "Thousand Hills." But this place com-
municates with the inland towns only by means of rugged paths traversing a thinly
peopled territory. The district, however, contains rich deposits of fine marbles.
The elegant Sivaite temple of Brambanan, situated to the north-east of Jokjok-
arta, was the discovered by the Dutch explorers.

first It was brought to light in
1797 by some engineers who found it buried beneath a mass of dense vegetation.
Madiun, capital of the province of like name, lies like Surakarta in the Solo
basin on the banks of the Madiun, a navigable affluent of that great water-course.
Ngawi, standing near the confluence, was formerly a vitally important strategical
station on the frontier of the regencies, and is still a busy market. Biy'onegoro, on
the Solo, about the head of its delta, is also a considerable trading place, forward-
ing most of the supplies for the maritime city of Tuban, one of the most frequented
ports on this coast. Although merely the chief town of a district, Tuban is a
larger place than Rembang, capital of the province, which lies farther west on a
bay bounded by the two volcanic headlands of Murio and Lasem.
Surabai/a, metropolis of east Java, and for a time capital of the whole of Indon-
esia, is one of the great marts and the chief naval arsenal in the island. As a sea-
port it has taken the place of its northern neighbour, Gresik or Grinee, an old Arab
settlement, whence Islam was propagated throughout the interior, and which
became the residence of a powerful theocratic dynasty. The city of Surabaya
proper stands on the left bank of the Brantas, its site having been gradually
created by the deposits of this stream, which compelled the sea to retire some miles
to the north. Here the strait of Trechter, separating Java from Madura, has
preserved sufficient depth and width to give large vessels access to this perfectly
sheltered and commodious roadstead. Certain quarters of Surabaya, intersected
by canals in all directions, present the aspect of a Dutch town. But the com-
mercial parts are encircled by the palm-groves of the native kampongs, while the
European suburban villas of Simpctng are embowered in dense tropical foliage.

The ancient tombs still standing in a neighbouring suburb recall the arrival of
the " Legendary People," that is, the Hindus. To them the local tradition refers
the foundation of the great Mojo-Pahit empire, a Brahman State, which the
Mohammedans at last overthrew in the second half of the fifteenth century.
192 AUSTRALASIA.
The rains of the Hindu capital are still seen strewn over the plains watered by
the Brantas some 30 miles south-west of Surabaya, near the town of Mojo-Iferto.
The decline of Javanese civilisation since the arrival of the Europeans is here
Fig. 80. SUEABAYA AND StADUBA SlEAIT.

Scale 1 : 450,000.
112 50 Easb or Greenwich
Depths.
to 16 16 Feet and
Feet. upwards.
. fi Miles.
illustrated in the perfect specimens of masonry seen in the remains of several brick
edifices.
Higher up the Brantas river traverses the magnificent province of Kadiri, one
of the earthly Edens of Java, but also one of those regions where the wretched
inhabitants, brutalisedby servitude, are moreover physically degraded by the use
of opium. The upper bend of the stream, sweeping round the Kelut and Kawi
mountains, comprises the Malang district, in which are situated the richest coffee
and tobacco plantations in the island. At Singosari, near Malang, occur numerous
remains of Hindu structures, while the spurs and terraces of these highlands are
also crowned with the ruins of ancient temples, now, for the most part, enclosed
within the grounds of the residences belonging to the large landowners.

The village facing Surabaya on the opposite side of Madura Strait is the
terminus of the steam ferry plying between Madura and the mainland. Bangkalan,
the chief trading place in the smaller island, lies farther north on an open bay
facing the high sea. This seaport is a much larger and richer town than Pame-
kamn, the official capital of Madura, which lies on a plain a few miles from Madura
Bay. The chief industry along this coast is the preparation of salt for the Indo-
nesian government. The Madurese cattle belong to an excellent breed highly
valued throughout the Eastern Archipelago.
The island of Bawean, lying farther north and depending administratively on
Surabaya, appears from the local dialect to be inhabited by people of Madurese
stock. It has a brisk coasting trade, and yearly sends thousands of peasants and
artisans to find employment in Java.
South of Madura Bay, Pmuruan the
large Javanese town traversed by
is first
the railway beyond the old Mojo-Pahit gulf, which is now choked with alluvia.
In this ancient Hindu settlement the customs of Indian origin are batter
preserved
than in any other part of the island. The natives of the
surrounding district still
bring their offerings of foliage and flowers to the sources of the running waters,
and worship the remains of sculptures in the ancient temples of Siva. Tosari, the
chief health resort in east Java, stands 5,850 feet above sea-level on a spur of
Mount Tengger, whence a superb view is commanded of the surrounding waters,
plains and highlands.

East of Pasuruan, along Madura Bay, follow two other provincial
capitals,
Probolingo (Banger) and Bemki, both of whose roadsteads are very unsafe during
the prevalence of the ghendeng, or stormy south wind, in the months of Januarv and
February. Still farther east, on the shore of a small inlet, lies Panarukan, which
was formerly a great city and a chief centre of trade in the Eastern Archipelago.
Here the Portuguese, under Affonso d'Albuquerque, established their first factory in
Java. Beyond Panarukan the main highway, sweeping round Mount Ruan,
reaches the town of Banjuu-angi, or " Perfumed Waters," which stands on the
strait separating Java from Bali. As a commercial mart this place has replaced
Blambangan, which liesfarther south on an estuary now choked with sands.
Banjuwangi is the western terminus of the submarine cable connecting Indonesia

with Port Darwin on the Australian mainland. The surrounding district, cut
off from the rest of the island trackless mountains, is the least densely
by
peopled part of Java.
ADMINISTRATION.
The central authority enjoys almost absolute power in Java and the other
or " outer " The governor-general,
islands, possessions of Holland in Indonesia.
representing the crown, is himself a sovereign, who has at his free disposal the
l3o
194 AUSTRALASIA.
the Netherlands Parliament,

land and sea forces, applies the laws passed by
who
with
and who even enjoys the privilege of issuing decrees in general conformity
the administrative provisions of 1854. His civil list, although recently diminished,
still exceeds 13,000, besides travelling expenses.

In his legislative work he is
a council of five' members, who are proposed by him and
nominated by
aided by
the king, but who take no part in the executive.
Public opinion both in Java and Holland has hitherto in vain demanded for
budget, as well as some

own share in the
Indonesia the appropriation of its
administration. The natives retain nothing beyond a few tolerated rights in

the management of the dessa, or communal groups. large section of the inha- A
Fig. 81. ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF JAVA.
106 East oF Greenwich
I. Bantim. VI Tegal XII. Jokjotetft. XVIII. Surabaya.

II. Batavii. VII. Banjumns. XIII. Snrakarta. XIX- Pasiiruan.
III. Preanger Begent- VIIT. Pekalongm. XIV. Japara. XX. Probolingpo.
schappen . IX. Bagelen. XV. Kembang. XXI. B snkiand Ban-
IV. Kvawang. X. Semarang. XVI. Medinn. juwangi.
V. Cheribon. XI. Kadu. XVH. Kediri. XXII. Madura.
bitants still consists of the so-called manumpanrj, that is, "houseless and home-
less," with whom might till
lately be compared the class of the heimathfosen in
Switzerland.
Surprise is millions should obey the orders of a

often expressed that so many
person who has at his disposal so few material forces. The army scarcely exceeds
thirty thousand men, of whom only one half are Europeans, and even these
include Belgian, German and other mercenaries or adventurers. Whites and
natives of diverse races, half-castes, Negroes, Arabs and Hindus, serve together in
the same battalions, but grouped according to colour in distinct companies, and
commanded by a relatively small number of European officers. In accordance
with Eastern usage the troops may reside in the barracks with their permanent or
temporary families, which at times even accompany them on short military

It is an
expeditions. exclusively colonial service, and even for the Atjeh war
no Dutch troops have ever been despatched to the East Indies. But the better
part of the fleet belongs to the national navy.
The European element is directly administered by the governor-general, while
ADMINISTRATION OF JAVA. 195
\
for the natives the fiction is still maintained of a certain local rule by the
descendants of their ancient princes. The various provinces are divided into
"
regencies, whose " regents or titular chiefs are members of the former dynasties.
Although nominated by the crown, these adhipatti and tumenggung, that is, regents of
the first and second class, have always the prestige commanded by wealth, for they
enjoy stipends ranging from 800 to over 7,000, besides a share in the produce
of the land. But at their side are the Dutch residents and assistants prefects
and sub-prefects who, although keeping more in the background, represent the
real authority. Even in the secondary divisions the vedono, or native officials,
are held in check by European controllers, these Dutch functionaries numbering
altogether about three hundred. They are even gradually replacing the Javanese
officials, who will doubtless sooner or later disappear altogether.
In the two Vorstenlandeti (" principalities ") of Surakarta and Jokjokarta, the
old regime is still kept up with its primitive outward formalities. Surakarta
officiallyobeys a Susithunan ("emperor"), while Jokjokarta is ruled by a

sultan but both alike are controlled by a Dutch resident, without whose sanction
;
they cannot even leave their palaces for a stroll in the neighbourhood. The
monopolies formerly enjoyed by them have for the most part been bought up by
the Dutch Government.
A supreme court of justice for the whole of the Dutch possessions has its seat
in Batavia. Java itself is divided into three legal circuits, corresponding to the
natural divisions of the land, and under these courts, located in Batavia, Semarang
and Surabaya, secondary tribunals are established in the provinces, regencies and
districts. Each resident, assistant, and controller
the same time a magistrate
is at
who pronounces sentences in conformity with precedent and after formal consulta-
tion -with the Mohammedan assessors learned in the Moslem law and the local
usages. The communal mayors also enjoy a certain discretional power for
repressing crime and awarding penalties, and the same privilege, though to a less
extent, is possessed by the heads of the Chinese communities, the mayors, captains,
and lieutenants, as they are called, being charged with the maintenance of order
amongst their fellow countrymen.

Capital punishment, though not yet removed from the colonial penal code, is
rarely enforced. The native convicts are for the most part employed on public
works, in the arsenals and dockyards, on the road and canals. Except in the large
towns, there are no local police, the communes being directly responsible for the
preservation of peace in their several jurisdictions.
The " colonial " revenue, two-thirds of which is applied to local purposes, is
partly derived from the sale of the coffee raised by forced labour, the other chief
sources of income being the sale of land and the opium and salt monopolies.
About a third of the budget is applied to defensive purposes, and another third to
the administration properly so called. The actual revenue is much
larger than
would appear from the official returns. Including the statute labour and estimat-
ing this burden at the lowest rate, it amounts, according to Brooshooft, to not less
than 10,000,000.
!96 AUSTRALASIA.
which with
Java and Madura constitute twenty-two administrative provinces,
their capitals, areas and populations will be
found tabulated in the Appendix.
BALI.
" Little often called, is in fact geologically a fragment

Bali, or Java," as it is
over two miles

separated by a channel
from which it is little
of the great island
wide, and in one place only 53 feet deep.

Yet this narrow strait has sufficed
toimpart a certain local character to the flora and fauna, as well as to the native
the historic point of view Bali is, so to say, a fossil Java while
From ;
population.
the latter has become Mohammedan, the former has remained Hindu
in religion,
even in Hence the his-

customs, institutions, and, to a certain extent, speech.
and of Bali, owing to their unusual interest, have been
torical linguistic relations
studied, somewhat to the neglect of its present material
and social con-
carefully
No been taken but according to official docu-
dition. systematic census has yet ;
ments this island, like Java, is one of the most densely peopled lands in the
in a space not
world, about 1,340,000 human beings being here crowded together
exceeding 4,300 square miles.
Bali presents the general outlines of an elongated triangle, with apex pointing
towards Java and base turned towards Lombok. Hills of eruptive formation run
west and east, disposed in ridges or isolated masses without any apparent regu-
feet
larity. Bakungan, the first of the volcanic peaks, rises to a height of 4,800
over against the Javanese town of Banjuwangi. The much more elevated Batu
Kau feet), occupies very nearly the geometrical
(9,700
centre of the island. Its
central cone is enriched by a number of lakelets, and north-east of this point

stands the still active Batur (6,420 feet), whose twin craters emit columns of
vapour accompanied by a rumbling noise. Streams of molten lava flowing

down
its eastern flank have reached and nearly evaporated a lovely blue lake at its foot.
According to the local legend Batur is the abode of a god, whose wife dwells in
the waters of the lake.
South-eastwards follow other volcanoes apparently extinct, such as the Gunong
Abang (7,650 feet), and the Gunong Agung, that is, the "Great Mountain,"
called also the Bali Peak, whose bare yellowish cone rises 10,520 feet above the
sea. At the eastern extremity of the island stands the Seraya volcano (4,125
feet), now a vast ruin, whose crater and upper parts were blown away during a
prehistoric eruption. South of these igneous masses the plains are strewn with
volcanic scoriae, beyond which occur a few hills of tertiary formation, such as
Badung connected by an isthmus with the mainland, and the insular Nusa Penida
or Pandita, that " Isle of Priests."
is,
Despite an abundant rainfall Bali is too small to develop any important run-
ning waters, and most of the rivulets even run dry during the south-east monsoon.
The surface water is almost entirely absorbed in irrigating the rice-fields, which
are carefully cultivated by the native peasantry, and which cover nearly all the
productive land. The primeval forests have entirely disappeared, and with them
BALI. 197
allrapacious beasts, except a few tigers which still prowl about the brushwood on
the mountain slopes.
The Balinese, akin to the Javanese, are somewhat taller and more robust ;
being also less inured to serfdom and freer from the direct control of their Dutch
masters, they have a more resolute attitude and prouder glance. On the uplands
goitre is very common, in some districts more than half of the population being
afflicted by this affection, which, however, according to Jacobs, is here never
accompanied by Alps and Pyrenees.
cretinism, as in the
Two quite distinct dialects are current, the " low " or primitive Balinese,
differing greatly from Javanese and showing more affinity with the idioms of the
Fig. 82,-liAU.
Stale 1 : 1,600,000.
II420 Lasb or (jroenwtch
Depths.
to 100 NX) to MX) Fnthoms and

Fathom*. Fathoms. upwards.
. 31! Miles
" " "

eastern and the " high
islands, Bdlinese, which differs from the high
Javanese mainly in the large number of words it has borrowed from the Kavi, or
sacred language, still spoken by the priests and men of letters. As in Java, the
servile classes are obliged to use the high language in addressing their superiors,
who reply in the low language.
Hindu culture appears to have penetrated far more deeply amongst the
Balinese than amongst the Javanese. The persistence of the Hindu religion in
the smaller island may be due partly to the immigration of refugees from the
Mojo-Pahit empire in the fifteenth century, and partly to the arrival of settlers
direct from the
Coromaudel coast. (Jfficiully, the whole population is still divided,
198 AUSTRALASIA.
Brahmans, Kshatryas, Va'isyas, and Sudras.

as in India, into the four castes of the
But these primordial groups are again subdivided into numerous sub-castes, while
the ancient Balinese nobility constitutes a special class between the Va'isyas and
Sudras. All these distinctions are maintained by inveterate custom with pitiless
The daughter of a Brahman marrying a man of lower position is thrown
ferocity.
to the flames, and her lover sewed up in a sack and drowned. Even in the
provinces under direct

Dutch control, public opinion compels the magistrates to
banish any young persons violating the laws of caste. Brahmans have often been
known to slay their own daughters
guilty of this offence. Nevertheless, inter-
crossings are frequent, both Brahmans

and nobles having the right to take from
the lower ranks as many wives as they like, the offspring of such unions inheriting
the paternal caste.
The Balinese are still worshippers of the Hindu trinity, and everywhere is to
be seen the tricolour flag, red, white, and blue, symbolising the Creator, Preserver,
and Destroyer. But the effigies of Brahma and Vishnu have for the most part
been replaced by those of Durga and Ganesa. Buddhist influences also persist
under the outward forms of Brahmanism, and Siva, by far the most popular deity,
is invoked as a beneficent god.In other respects the Balinese have little religious
zeal, and display no intolerance towards those of other religions. Some thousands
of the lower caste have even become Mohammedans, in order thus to improve
their social position. But since the murder of a missionary in 1881, all further
attempts to propagate Christianity have been discontinued. The thousands of

Hindu temples scattered over the island are obviously too numerous for the
faithful, for many are in ruins and no one thinks of repairing them. The
religious ceremonies observed with the greatest fervour are those connected with
husbandry. These agricultural islanders delight in processions round their

fields, in worshipping at the little bamboo shrines of the goddess of the crops, and
crowning themselves with chaplets of flowers after abundant harvests.

The religious jurisprudence is excessively harsh, and severe public penances
are frequently imposed in order to avert any fancied forebodings of evil. Till
recently certain ill omens required the shedding of human blood, at times
accompanied even with the most atrocious tortures. One of the hideous devices
of the priests was to stretch their victims on the sharp points of young bamboos
and leave them to linger for days until released by death from their unspeak-
able agony. The wives of Brahmans and of princes were morally bound to perish
in the flames kindled to consume the bodies of their husbands, and twenty
years after the last case of suttee in India, Bali still had its holocausts of
widows.
The Balinese live almost exclusively on rice, other cereals, and fruits, pork
being the only flesh permitted by the priests, who, however, never touch it them-
selves. The extensive cocoanut groves yield large quantities of oil, and domestic
industries as well as agriculture are even more developed than in Java. The
jewellers, metal-chasers, and armourers are very skilful, while the women weave
and dve beautiful cotton and silk textiles.
BALI. 19!)
Public instruction stands at a high level, and, although there are no schools,
most of the men and women of the upper castes can read and write Balinese and
200 AUSTRALASIA.
even Kavi. Thousands of books circulate amongst them on history, theology,
jurisprudence, ethics, poetry, and the drama. According to Van der Tuuk, who
formed a rich library of this extensive literature, the Balinese poem of Tantrya is
at least partly the original source of the Arabian Nights. The people often gather
of an evening to assist at theatrical performances, the subjects of which are

the Brahmanic caste, use
The
mostly Hindu and local mythologies. actors, all of
" "
the sacred language, as was formerly the case in Java, and in these mysteries
the ancestors of the Balinese are figured as rtikx/ia-wn, or giants.
But the native civilisation has, for the last two centuries, entered on a period
of decline. The early travellers speak of flourishing seaports, and well-kept
highways connecting tlie large towns ;

now trade has fallen off, and the country
is
mainly traversed by rough tracks. This decadence must be attributed to the use
of opium, now prevalent amongst all classes, to the constant civil wars, to the
slave-hunting expeditions which have wasted the coastlands, and lastly to the
degradation of woman, now reduced to a mere object of barter.
The two western provinces of Jembrana and Buleleng. lying nearest to Java,
are subject to the direct administration of the Dutch. The town of Buleleng,
near the coast, is the chief residence of the officials, und ranks as the capital
although destitute of any harbour.

The seven remaining provinces have been left under the control of protected
princes, who still
enjoy certain sovereign rights, but whose military power was
broken during the sanguinary wars of 1840 and 1849. Although deprived of all
real power, they maintain the outward show of mighty potentates. They are
approached with much prostration, and at their death all their subjects have to
shave their heads in sign of mourning. They inherit some of the effects, of the
women, and slaves of those dying without direct heirs, and of all criminals
sentenced to banishment. But in these matters the princes themselves are the
judges, and whenever it suits them, they have merely to mount their stately tri-
bunal, and award to themselves any coveted estates.

The principality of Bangli, which lies to the east of Buleleng, is the " Holy
Land " of Bali, for here is situated the Batur volcano. But the province of
Kaltnig-Kung, on the south-east coast, ranks first in national importance. The
chief, although now one of the least powerful in the i.-land, is, nevertheless, the
" Great whom the other princes pay homage.
Man," to all
Gyanyar, lying west of Kalung-Kung, is the most

densely peopled territory in
Buli ;
great fertility, generally flourishing condition, and relatively mild
its
administration attract a constant stream of immigrants to this favoured princi-
pality. The conterminous state of Badung, on the south coast, was formerly the
chief centre of trade, but is now almost destitute of inhabitants, the slave trade
having converted it into a wilderness. The western principalities of Tabanan and

Mengtri are both said to be thickly inhabited. The eastern province of Kamng-
Asssm is included within the jurisdiction of the Rajah of Lombok. Since 1882,
both Bali and Lombok belong to the same administrative division of the Dutch
possessions.
LOMBOK. 201
A table of all the provinces with their respective areas and populations will be
found in the Appendix.
. LOMBOK.
Tnis island, so called by the Europeans from a village on the north-east coast,
Fig. 84. LOMBOK STRAIT.

Scale I : 600,000.
M5'50
Depths.
to 100 100 to 600 600 Fathoma

Fathoms. Fathoma. and upwards.
18Mile.
is known to the natives by the name

Selaparang or Selaparan, and to the Malays
of
as the Tanah Sasak, or Land of the Sasak It presents about the same
people.
superficial extent as Bali, but is less known owing to the more rugged character of
the land, and the lower state of culture of its inhabitants. Since the middle of the
eighteenth century it has been a political dependency of Bali, although the

Balinese themselves form but a fraction of the population.
202 AUSTRALASIA.
The Strait of Lombok separating the two islands, although little

more than
twenty miles broad at its narrowest point, has a depth of no less than five hundred
fathoms. This apparently unimportant channel may thus be said to form the
natural limit of the shallow Java Sea, which has an average depth of considerably
less than one hundred fathoms. The current in the Strait sets with a mean
velocity of four miles an hour in the direction from south to north, and
Wallace has shown that for the distribution of animal and vegetable species this
passage forms in many respects the chief parting-line
between the Indian and
Australian domains. The Areng palm (arenga saccharifcra) is not found in
Lombok, which also lacks the teak, orchids, heaths, and mosses peculiar to the
Javanese flora.
In the animal kingdom the differences are still greater, Lombok possessing
neither the tiger nor any other members of the feline family. Most of the
Javanese and Balinese birds are also unknown in the neighbouring island, which
on the other hand possesses several Australian species, amongst others the remark-
able megapodiiis gouldii, a species of turkey, which buries its eggs under a heap of
earth and foliage 6 or 7 feet high and 40 in circumference. Here also are
found the Australian cockatoos, which, however, reach as far west as the islet
of Pandita (Penida), separated only by shallow water from Bali. But the
transition of species may be followed from island to island, and according to
Martin, the true parting line between the Asiatic and Australian forms should be
placed rather to the north-west of Timor.
Like Java and Bali, Lombok is intersected by two parallel ridges, sedinr ntary
in the south and volcanic in the north. The former, which scarcely exceeds 1,000
feet in height, is continued both east and west beyond the coast-line, and is inter-
by a few prominent masses of scoriae. It is also connected

sected at certain points
with the northern volcanoes by some still older eruptive tufas, which form in the
centre of the island a water-parting for the streams flowing in one direction
towards Lombok Strait, in another to that of Alias.
The volcanic chain begins over against Bali with Mount"VVangsit (4,000 feet),
which followed eastwards by several other extinct cones.
is The system merges
towards the middle of the range in the massive Renjani group, from the centre of
which rises the peak of Api, or " Fire," whence are still emitted wreaths of
sulphurous vapour. The highest summit of this group, usually known as the
Lombok peak, is one of the loftiest, if not the culminating point of Indonesia ;
but this majestic cone has not yet been ascended, and its altitude is variously
estimated at from 11,000 to 13,800 feet.
The Sasaks, who form
the great bulk of the population, differ physically but
little from the Balinese and speak a language of the same stock, but approaching
nearer to the Sumbawa although written with the Balinese alphabet. The
dialect,
natives are all Mohammedans, but display little religious fervour, as is shown by
the general absence of mosques. Politically they are subject to the Balinese
intruders, who are represented by a colon}' of about twenty thousand scattered
over the westem parts of the island.
LOMBOK. SUMBAWA. 209
Mataram, the capital of the kingdom, lies on a plain about four miles from the
east coast. The neighbouring port of Amptinan is a flourishing place composed of
four Kampongs, which are inhabited by as many distinct nations Malays, :
Balinese, Bugis of Celebes, and Sasaks. Mataram, where the Balinese alone
with broad streets
enjoy the privilege of riding on horseback, is a well-kept place
lined by shady banyans. A little to the south lies the Sasak village of Karang-
Asaem, which was the capital of Lombok before the Baliuese conquest ;
but since
the year 1849 it has been subject to the foreign lajah.
The rolling plains stretching east of Mataram towards the Sasan hills are
described by Wallace as perhaps the most highly cultivated in the whole of
Indonesia. For a space of some hundred square miles all the streams are dis-
tributed with admirable art in a network of irrigating canals, which encircle the
flanks of the hills, and rise from terrace to terrace like the seats of an amphi-
" Each terraced some places of many
theatre. plot consists in acres, in others of
a few square yards. We

saw them in every state of cultivation some in stubble, :
some being ploughed, some with rice-crops in various stages of growth. Here
were luxuriant patches of tobacco there cucumbers, sweet potatoes, yams, beans,
;
or Indian corn varied with the scene."

The chief crops are rice and coffee, which are shipped at Ampanan. The
Sasaks also export a small but fiery breed of horses and a peculiar species of duck,
which walk nearly erect like penguins, and which are locally known as "Balinese
soldiers."
In Lombok the penal code is very severe, theft and adultery being capital
offences. In certain cases torture is even inflicted before death, and gamblers and
opium smokers are punished with the bastinado. The rajah, who is represented in
the Balinese province of Karang-Assem by a viceroy, maintains a force of about
20,000 men, well drilled and supplied with the best fire-arms.
SUMBAWA.
Sumbawa, the correct form of which is Sambava, is larger than Bali and
Lombok taken together. It really consists of several distinct lands, which a
slight subsidence would decompose into a small archipelago, and which
a corres-
ponding upheaval would connect with the neighbouring islets, such as Moyo in
the north, Sido and Tengani in the south-east. Towards the centre Sumbawa
contracts to a narrow isthmus scarcely twelve miles across, and here a broad inlet
penetrates from the Sunda Sea far inland, ramifying here

and there into lateral
creeks completely sheltered from all winds. Farther east the coast is again in-
dented by similar fjords, such as Tjempi Bay on the south and Bima on the north
side.
The surface is for the most part mountainous, developing distinct masses of
eruptive origin, and comprising altogether a^ many as twenty-two active or extinct
The Malay Archipelago, fifth edition, p. 164.

201 AUSTRALASIA.
craters. In the south, however, occur some sedimentary formations, which form
an eastern continuation of the Javanese, Balinese and Lombok limestone system.
The south-western extremity of the island also consists of a non-volcanic promon-
tory terminating in a regular plateau, which, like so many similar formations
elsewhere, takes the name
Tafelberg or Table Mountain.
of
The Ngenges (5,370 feet) and Lanteh (5,260 feet) volcanoes in the west are
succeeded farther east by the far more imposing Timboro (Tomboro, Tambora),
which projects on the north side beyond the normal coast-line, its broad slopes
Fig. 85. CENTRAL PART OF SCMBAWA.

Pcile 1 :
1,500,000.
1 17 so- Lasb orbreenwich i!830
Depths.
32 to 320 320 Feet and

Feet. upwards.
. 30 Miles.
here completely filling an extensive peninsula. At

present its loftiest peak rises
to a height of 9,900 feet but it is said to have had an elevation of over 13,000
;
before the year 1815, when it still formed the culminating point of the Eastern
Archipelago. But on the evening of April 5th in that
year, a tremendous explo-
sion took place,which was heard as far as Celebes, Borneo,
and Sumatra, and
which was accompanied by a prodigious shower of ashes
burying all the sur-
rounding lands and waters in darkness for ten consecutive days. In the nei"-h-
O '
bouriug seas the floating masses of pumice exceeded a yard in thickness, and
SUMBAWA. 205
these debris represented at least 150, and according to some authorities over 500,
cubic miles of matter ejected or blown from the mountain on this occasion. The
12,000 inhabitants of the surrounding district were all buried under the rain of
scoriao;but probably as many as one hundred thousand perished during the

famine and epidemics caused by the destruction of the forests, the loss of catlle,
the ruin of the irrigation works and the general havoc spread over the adjoining
islands by this terrific outburst. Over 40,000 Sasaks died of hunger in Lombok,
and the population of Sumbawa, which in 1815 was about 170,000, was still only
75,500 in 1847. Even at present the Timboro peninsula remains almost a com-
plete desert.
" "
Throughout a great part of Indonesia the night of ashes was long con-
sidered the chief event in history, and served as the starting point of a new
chronological era.
The eastern part of Sumbawa is
by violent earthquakes, and
often agitated
here also are numerous volcanoes, such as Dindi (5,160 feet), Soro Mandi (4,570 feet)
and Aru Hassa (5,520 feet) near the north coast, and towards the south-east angle
Sambon (4,130 feet), and Lambu (4,650 feet). Lastly the islet of Sangean, called
also Gunong Api (6,900 feet), is still in a constant state of agitation, emitting at
short intervals jets of vapour and ashes.
The Malayan inhabitants of Sumbawa have been much influenced by the cultured
peoples of Celebes, with whom they carry on a large part of their trade, and by
whom they have long been governed. The Bugi language of South Celebes is current,
with other Malay dialects, in some districts of the north coast, while that of Macassar
isthe only literary standard in the island. Nearly all the natives profess Islam,
but some groups of Orang Congo, or " Highlanders," occupying the forests south
of Mount Aru Hassa, are still pagans, though preserving a few practices dating
from the early visits of the Hindu missionaries to their mountains. They call the
spirits by the Sanskrit name, ([era, and offer them fruits and flowers. At night
torches alone are used, the light of lamps being regarded as ill omened. The
property of the
departed is shared equally amongst all the kindred, a share
being also reserved for the deceased. The cattle are sacrificed on their graves, and
the other articles burnt or buried for their use in the other world. These high-
landers keep aloof from all direct contact with Europeans, and their barter with
the outer world is confined to certain clearings in the forests on the verge of their
territory.
Sumbatra, capital of the western state which bears the same name, lies on a bay
on the north coast exposed to the north-west winds. At the time of the Timboro
explosion, only twenty-six of the inhabitants escaped alive, but at present it has a
mixed population of natives and Celebes immigrants numbering altogether about
six thousand. This place exports cotton, sandalwood, sapanwood (cvsalpitna or ,
" red
wood "), and an excellent breed of ponies.
Bima, on the east side of the bay of like name, is almost the only market in the
section of the island lying east of Timboro. It is the capital of a native state
which also comprises the old breached crater of Gili Banta, east of Sapi strait, the
206 AUSTRALASIA.
the Mangkarai district in the west part of

Komodo group, a few other islets, and
Flores. Formerly the large island of Sumba also formed part of this state. The
port of Bima is one of the best in Indonesia. The which here penetrates over
inlet,
fifteen miles inland, is no less than sixty-five fathoms deep at its entrance, and
opposite the capital,

where it expands to a land-locked lake, it affords large vessels
perfect shelter in depths
of from twelve to eighteen fathoms. The European
merchants and the Dutch who keep the sultan under control, reside in a
officials
"
separate quarter known Kampong Wolanda, or Dutch Village." In the
as the
neighbourhood are some Hindu tombs, dating probably from the epoch when this
part ofSumba wa was tributary to the Javanese Empire of Mojo-Pahit. Here
alsohave been discovered some undecipherable inscriptions, whose origin is un-
known.
FLORES, SOLOR AND ALLOR ARCHIPELAGOES.
These members of the

" Little Sundas " constitute so links in the long
many
chain of volcanic islands which stretches eastwards to Timor, and then curves
gently round north-eastwards to Nila. Flores and its eastern neighbours are
are con-
entirely of igneous origin, lacking even the sedimentary limestones that
tinued from Java through Bali and Lombok as far as Sumbawa. The southern
headlands of Flores are all volcanic mountains with extinct or still active craters.
Although abounding in natural products of all sorts, these lands have hitherto
been somewhat neglected by their European masters. The vast Indonesian Empire
is too extensive to have yet been systematically surveyed and opened up through-
out its whole extent. 1859 the Dutch and Portuguese were still contending
Till
for the eastern part of Flores and the adjacent archipelagoes, and although all
were then assigned by treaty to Holland, their exploration has since remained
nearly at a standstill. No accurate returns have yet been made of the population,
which is roughly estimated at about four hundred thousand for Flores and the
Solor and Allor groups, which have a collective area of 9,000 square miles.
Conspicuous amongst the chain of volcanoes stretching along the north side of
Flores are Rokka, or Ombuu Soro (b',900 feet), and farther east, in the Endeh
district, a name sometimes applied to the whole island, Gunong Iveo, or Roma,
believed to be the culminating point (9,200 feet). South of the village of Endeh
(Ambogaga) rises the
Gunong Api, and the natives report to the north of the
same place the Gunong Kingo, which is said to have been the scene of several
eruptions during the historic period. At the south-east corner of Flores stands
the double-crested Lobetobi volcano, one of whose cones, the Laki-Laki, or the
"Man" (7,160 feet), is always smoking, while the other, Perampuan, or the
" Woman"
(7,460 feet), is covered on the inner walls of its crater with incrustations
of sulphur.
The extinct Kabalelo (7,500 feet) commands one of the passages of Larantuka
Strait, facing the island of Solor ;

the strait itself takes its name from another volcano,
called also Ilimandiri (5,180 feet), at the north-east
extremity of Flores. This moun-
FLOEES. 207
tain is at present quiescent, but at its foot are numerous thermal springs, through
which the subterranean heats still manifest themselves. Near the village of
Geliting on the north coast, mention is made of another crater, which, however, has
not yet been identified.

South of the Tanjong Bunga, or " Promontory of Flowers," whence the Portu-
Fig. 86. LABANTOXA STBAIT.

Scale 1 : 1,000,000.
I2240- oF Greenwich I2330-
Depths.
Oto5 6 to 100 100 to 1,000 1,000Fathoms

Fathoms Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwards.
18 SlUes.
guese term, Flores, a channel about 1,300 yards broad at its narrowest part sepa-
rates this island from the islet of Adonare, and farther south from Solor, which,
although the smallest member of the group, gives its name to the archipelago
stretching east from Flores. Adonare is much more populous as well as larger,
and farther east follows the still more extensive Lomblem. The two islands of the
208 AUSTRALASIA.
Allor group, Pantar and Ombaai, visited by Pigafetta, companion of Magellan, and
described by him under the name of Maluva, are also larger than Solor, while
round about the chief lands are scattered a large number of reefs and islets. All
are hillyand from many lava streams have been discharged. The highest cones
are Lamahale (5,000 feet), in Adonare, and Lobetolle (4,900 feet), which forms the
northern headland of Lomblem.
The inhabitants of Flores and of the neighbouring islands are of a mixed cha-
racter. Those of the coastlands, who for the most part speak the Malay dialect
of Bima, belong to the same group as the natives of Sumbawa, and, like them, con-
struct their dwellings in the Malay fashion on the solid ground, and not raised on
piles after themanner of the Papuans. Nevertheless the natives of the interior
both in Flores and Solor appear to have a darker complexion than those of the
seaboard, and are said to betray both in their features and usages a marked affinity
to the Papuan inhabitants of New Guinea. Like the peoples of Sumbawa and
Lombok, nearly all claim to be followers of the Prophet. But the Portuguese, who,
down to the middle of this century, occupied the eastern part of Flores with the
far greater zeal than their Dutch successors for
adjacent archipelagoes, displayed
the conversion of their pagan subjects. Hence someof the Malays in these islands
"
and Christians." They may even have
themselves both "Portuguese"
still call
some Portuguese blood in their veins, and priests from Timor pay occasional visits
to their communities in order to baptise the children, solemnise marriages, and
bless the graves of the departed.
Larantuka, an old Portuguese stronghold at the foot of the volcano of like

name and on the west side of Flores Strait, has become the capital of the Dutch
possessions in these waters. The place is yearly visited during the north-west
monsoon by a fleet of native craft from Celebes, returning with the south-eastern
trade-winds, and exchanging textiles, pottery, and hardware for mother-of-pearl,
sea-cucumbers, edible birds'-nests and other local produce.
The Celebes traders also visit a few other seaports, such as Adonare, in the
island of the same name, Lawayang, capital of Solor, and Allor Kutjil, at the north-
west extremity of Ombaai. These places with their archipelagoes all depend
iidministratively on the province of Flores, while the district of Mangeraai in

Flores itself is attached to Sumbawa.
SUMBA.
This island, called also "Sunda," although lying in the deep waters of the
Indian Ocean outside the line of the Sunda Islands proper, forms a little world
apart from the surrounding lands. Separated from Komodo and Flores by an arm
of the sea some 60 miles broad and over 100 fathoms deep, its quadrilateral mass
is disposed, not east and west,
parallel with the Little Suiidas, but in the direction
from north-west to south-east.It possesses no active volcanoes, and igneous rocks
appear to occupy but a small portion of its surface. Nearly the whole of the
island, in fact, is believed to be of sedimentary formation. The south coast consists
SUMBA. 209
entirely of limestone cliffs pierced by caverns, which are frequented by myriads of

edible-nest builders. Towards the centre the somewhat level surface presents the
aspect of a plateau rising to a height of 2,000 feet above the sea, and developing
ranges of and mountains only on the north side.
hills
Amongst the numerous names, such as Sumba, Chandana or Chindana, given

to this island, there is one, that of Sandalwood, which it scarcely deserves any
longer, for this valuable tree, which formerly covered the coast-lands, almost
entirely disappeared during a terrific explosion and is now found only in the heart
of the island. There are two varieties, the red and the grey, the latter being the
more valued and much used in the powdered state as a cosmetic and medicinally.
Sumba also possesses some gold deposits, and was regarded as one of the legendary
" Golden Isles."
Notwithstanding the generally peaceful disposition of the natives, who are

divided into numerous small communities, the interior is still little known. The
estimate of the population, till
recently ranging from 200,000 to 1,000,000, is at
present about 400,000, a relatively large number for an area not exceeding 4,300
square miles. The people are all of Malay stock, but speak a peculiar dialect
unintelligible to the surrounding populations. Like their eastern neighbours of
the Savu group, they have preserved the worship of ancestry mingled with rites
and tenets which attest Hindu influence. Thus, they speak of a trinity of
mysterious deities, the Good, the Protector, and Evil One but the offerings of
;
"
the " elders are made, not to these superior beings, but to the ocean waves, to the
forest trees, to the rocky headlands and the graves of their forefathers. There
are neither temples nor priests, unless the heads of families and the old men of
the tribe can be regarded as such. In the Savu islands, however, the title of
priest is borne by the executioner, who beheads the criminals condemned by the
rajahs.
Nanyamewi, on the north coast, where there is a small Arab trading settle-
ment, is the chief market in Sumba, and from this port are forwarded hardy little
ponies to all parts of Indonesia and even to Mauritius and Australia. This island
jointly with the Savu group (Great Savu, Ranjuna, and Dana) constitutes an
administrative district dependent on Timor. The population of Savu exceeded
30,000 in 1869, when half of the inhabitants of the archipelago were swept away
by an outbreak of small- pox. At present the population is estimated at 16,000
200 square miles. According to Wallace the natives
in a total area of less than
resemble the Hindus or Arabs in physical appearance much more than they do the
Malays.
TIMOR AND ROTTI.
Like Sumba, Timor, largest of the Little Sundas, lies beyond the line of
volcanic islands. Disposed in the direction from south-west to north-east, it
forms an acute angle with that chain, which, in crossing, it appears to have
deflected from west and east to the same south-west and north-east direction
parallel with itself. Hence the links of the Suuda volcanic chain lying farther
140
410 AUSTRALASIA.
east bend round to the north-east in sucb a way as to continue the axis of Timor
as far as Nila. It seems, therefore, probable that in the general modelling of the
terrestrial crust, Timor and these islands have been subjected to a common process
some remote geological epoch.
of folding in
Like Sumatra and Madagascar, Timor presents towards the Indian Ocean a far
more coast-line than towards the inland northern waters. Notwith-
regular
the south-east corner of Indonesia over
standing geographical importance at
its
studied that the population can only be

against Australia, it has been so little
is divided in nearly equal proportions

approximately estimated. Politically it
between Portugal and Holland but the
; Portuguese half, which depends adminis-
"
tratively on Macao, and which comprises fifty-four kingdoms," some still corn-
Fig. 87. TIMOB AND NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS.

Scale 1 : 5 600.000.
Depths.
to 500 500 to 1.000 1.000 Fathoms

Fathoms. Fathoms. aad upwards
. 120 Miles.
pletely independent, is said to have a population of half a million, while the Dutch
section appears to contain
scarcely half that number.
The Malay term Timor, that the "East," shows that this island
is, long formed
the eastern limit of navigation in Indonesia.
According to tradition the natives
were savages, ignorant of agriculture, and
living only on the chase and fishing,
when the first Malay immigrants landed on the south coast, where is now the
petty
state of Waiwiko-Waihali. These settlers, who introduced rice and maize and
iron implements, are said to have come from Ternate towards the close of the
TIMOR. 211
fourteenth century, and soon made themselves masters, everywhere imposing

dynasties supposed to owe a certain vague allegiance to the Sultan of Ternate.
The first European were the Portuguese, who appear to have secured a
arrivals
footing at Lifau, towards the middle of the north coast, about the year 1520.
Soon after they raised a Kupang, now the chief station of the Dutch, who
fort at
first made their appearance in 1613. The desolating wars of the two rival powers
and their native allies were continued almost uninterruptedly down
to the present
century, when they werereplaced by diplomatic negotiations, the treaty of 1859

finally settling the question of the 'frontier line between the respective states.
According to the partial explorations round the coast and in the interior, Timor
seems to present a backbone of mountains and plateaux, consisting mainly of schists,
sandstones and limestones but on both slopes these older formations underlie
;
chalks and argillaceous deposits of great thickness. The coral reefs fringing the
south-west coast have gradually been upheaved several hundred yards above the
present sea-level. In some places the rocks of the primitive system tower up
above the surrounding formations in the form of obelisks and citadels, one of which,
Mount Leeu, in the south-west, attains an elevation of 4,000 feet. Farther east
follow still more
lofty peaks, although within the Dutch or western province none
of the summits reach an altitude of over 6,500 feet.
In the Portuguese division the surface is of a more rugged aspect, and here
the Kabalaki peak, visited by H. 0. Forbes, exceeds 10,000 feet, while Mount
Alias, close to the frontier and near the south coast, is said to rise 11,500 feet above
the Indian Ocean. The existence of true volcanoes has not yet been placed
beyond doubt, although mention is made of a Mount Ilun-bano in the west, which
was the scene of an eruption in 1856, while Bibiluco in the Portuguese territory is
said tohave ejected ashes the following year. In several districts porphyries and
serpentines have cropped out above the sedimentary rocks, and the islet of
Kambing, between Samau and the south-west extremity, terminates in a sort of
which are several mud volcanoes, 10 to 30 feet high, resembling the
crater, within
Sicilian niaccalube. Mud volcanoes also occur in Landu, between Samau and
Rotti.
In Timor the seasons are much more
sharply defined than in the large islands
of Western Indonesia. During the south-east monsoon, prevailing from May to
October, the winds blowing from the neighbouring Australian continent bring no
moisture, the vegetation withers, and wherever the slopes are covered with grasses
or scrub, they assume red, yellow, or greyish tints.- The brooks and even the
rivers run dry, and are not again flushed till the return of the western monsoon,
when vegetation revives and the land resumes its verdant aspect. The northern
slope of the island enjoys the most copious rainfall, and consequently here the
streams are most voluminous, the forests most extensive, and the population most
numerous and prosperous. But the southern slope is far from being so arid or
unproductive as it has been described by travellers who have visited it
only during
the dry season.
The same contrast between the two slopes is also presented by the respective
212 AUSTRALASIA.
floras and faunas. The side facing Australia abounds racst in forms characteristic
VIEW TAKEN IN A FOEEST NEAE KUPANO, TIMOE.

Fig. 88.
of that continent, while the opposite side helongs more to the animal and
TIMOR. 213
vegetable zones of the Sundas and Moluccas. But Timor is on the whole com-
paratively poor in biological species, and in this respect forms part rather of the
Australian than of the Asiatic world. Here occurs the eucalyptus, a peculiarly
Australian plant, while the vegetation of the interior often recalls the African flora.
The only feline animal is a long-eared wild cat, and the largest quadruped is a
species of deer resembling one found both in Java and the Moluccas. The only
member of the simian family is the Cercnpithccus cynomolgus, and two-thirds of
all the mammalian species belong to the widespread bat family. The most
dreaded animals are the green trigouocephalus and the crocodile, from whom the
rulers of Kupang claim descent. At the accession of a new rajah, his subjects
thronged to the waterside to render homage to his saurian relatives : the first that
came to the surfacewas regarded as his Majesty's cousin a beautiful maiden,
;
gaily decked and perfumed, was presented to him as his consort and devoured
amidst the applause of the multitude.

The natives of Timor are not classed with the Malays properly so-called, and
appear to be more akin to the Bornean Dayaks. Despite the statements of several
writers, there are no dark or Papuan tribes in the island, all the inhabitants of
which have the complexion of the Malay, and differ from each
light, yellowish
other rather in their dress and arms than in stature or features. They are divided
into a large number of distinct clans or communities, speaking according to
Crawfurd as many as forty different idioms. The largest ethnical group is that of
the Ema-Velus (the Belunays of the Dutch), who occupy all the eastern section
and a great part of the centre. They claim to have come from the Moluccas and
attribute the same origin to their western ne'ghbours, the Timorese properly
"
so-called ; whom, however, they also call Ema-Davan, or Javanese."
Some Bugis, Chinese and European traders are settled in all the seaports, and
a half-caste people, the so-called " Black Portuguese," have become established
especially in the northern principalities of Ambenu, Okusse and Noimuti, forming
a Portuguese enclave within the Dutch frontier.
The natives who have not yet been brought under the influence of the
Protestant and Catholic missionaries have a somewhat developed animistic form of
"
religion. They worship Usi-Neno, Lord of Light," who dwells in the Sun, and
whose wife is the moon. The stars are the abode of an inferior order of deities;
but while paying reverence to these remote divinities, the Timorese address their
supplications chiefly to the natural objects round about them, the mountains and
rocks, trees, like they also make offerings to the souls of
running waters, and the ;
the departed, who

are regarded as the indispensable intermediate agents for all
communications between man and the higher divinities.
The laws of pomali or taboo are as intricate and as carefully observed as
amongst the Polynesians and some Malagasy tribes. In fact the religious ideas
pervading the oceanic regions are so uniform that they can scarcely have been
independently evolved, and point rather at a common civilisation at one time
diffused throughout the whole area from Madagascar to the remote South-Sea
Islands.
214 AUSTRALASIA.
In Timor every village has its temple hid away in some sacred grove and
surrounded by a stout enclosure. Each petty state has its special sanctuary, a
hallowed spot which the profane dare not approach, for in it dwells the lulik, or
tutelar seated in the centre of the edifice on a stone cast down from
genius,
heaven by the Lord of Light. There are also evil spirits, to which are sacrificed
black victims, the animals with red coats being reserved for the protecting deities.
The Timorese tattoo various parts of the body with thorns, file the teeth to a
" in order not to look like The usages
point, and often dye them red apes."
Fig. 89. KUPANO.

Scale 1 : 300,000.
Depths.
Ot16 18 to 160 160 Feet and

, 3 Miles.
connected with marriage and inheritance differ greatly in the different districts.
In some places exogamous, in others endogamous rites prevail. In one tribe the
succession is from father to son :
through the female line. The young
in another
men in some communities can neither marry nor enter the public assemblies until
they have carried off one or more heads, as in Borneo, but only in open warfare or
else at funeral ceremonies. The penal code is very severe, death being the
penalty for most crimes ;
but as ransom is allowed, the poor are the chief victims.
As in many other places, the rulers, " children of the sun," never die, but only
TIMOR. 215
and are not buried "

fall asleep, long after the beginning of the trance." In
till
some districts they are exposed in open coffins on the branches of the trees in ;
others the wives have to keep them night and day for months together, until reduced
to the state of dried mummies, and then buried with all their treasures beneath
cairns corresponding in height to the rank of the deceased. They were formerly
accompanied by an escort of slaves, as they still are by a dog to lead the way in
the region beyond the grave. To prevent their return, the route followed by the
funeral procession is
carefully blocked by a strong bamboo palisade.
Kupang, capital of the Dutch territory and of the neighbouring islands, is one
of the unhealthiest places in Indonesia. It lies at the south-western extremity of
Timor, on the south side of a deep inlet too confined for the air to circulate freely.
Yet its official position and safe harbour have made it the chief trading place in
the island, with a motley population of about seven thousand Timorese, Malays,
Chinese and Europeans. Its principal exports are sandalwood, horses, excellent
oranges and beeswax. The neighbouring fishing grounds and oyster beds yield
great varieties of fish, besides pearls, tortoise-shell, sea-cucumbers and shark's fins
for the Chinese market. The people of Rotti prepare large quantities of a much-
esteemed palm wine, and rear an excellent breed of little ponies, " about the size
of Newfoundland dogs."
Atapupii, another seaport on the north coast near the Portuguese frontier, lies
in the province of Filarang, which is said to be one of the richest in copper ores,
though mining operations have scarcely yet been seriously begun.
Dilli,administrative centre of the Portuguese territory, is a less important
place than Kupang, and appears even to have entered on a state of decline, the
population having fallen from over five thousand about the middle of the century
to little more than three thousand in 1879. It is even a more
unhealthy town
than its Dutch rival, but has the advantage of a good roadstead, from which it
presents a pleasant appearance. Its exports are chiefly coffee of superior

quality,
wax, and sandalwood rice being the staple import. The wheat grown on the
;
plateaux and slopes to a height of about three thousand feet is much esteemed.
North of Dilli rises the steep rock of Kambing, the only islet beyond Timor which
the treaties have left to the Portuguese ;
it has a population of about two thou-
sand.
THE ZUID-WESTER (SERWATTY) ISLANDS.
"
These " South-western groups, so-called because mostly lying to the south-
west of Amboyna, their administrative and commercial centre, are better known by
their English name Serwatty, which, in fact, isa corruption of the Dutch " Zuid-
Wester." The southern and more numerous islands form an eastern extension of
Timor, of which they are, so to say, merely scattered fragments. But the central
chain, of which Wetter forms by far the largest link, belongs to the volcanic
Sundanese system, while Gunong Api (the "Burning Mountain"), with a few
scattered rocks farther north, are supposed by Junghuhu to constitute the eastern
216 AUSTRALASIA.
a few islets rising

extremity of another igneous range indicated at intervals by
above the surface.
But however they may differ in their sedimentary, volcanic, or coralline
origin, the Serwatty groups resemble each other in their political and commercial
history. The most striking in form and relief are naturally the igneous islands,
conspicuous amongst which is the superb but now smokeless cone of Gunong Api.
Wetter (Wetta), facing the north coast of Timor, is traversed by a line of craters,
amid which the timid natives have taken refuge. Kisser (Kissa), lying farther
east and nearest to Timor, is also mountainous, and in the last century was chosen
as the administrative centre of the whole group but it suffers from a deficient
;
rainfall, and its inhabitants have often been driven by famine to emigrate to the
surrounding lands. Roma, which follows to the north-east, is on
the contrary
productive enough to export some of its superabundant produce. The chain is

continued north-eastwards through Damma, with its smoking crater and thermal
springs, to Nila, with a still active cone, and Sarua, the last eastern links in the
Sundanese igneous system.

The southern chain, stretching between Timor and Timor Laut, begins with
Letti, most densely peopled of all the Serwatty Islands it is followed eastward
; by
"
Moa, also very populous and noted for its peak, the Buffalo," which looks like a
reduced copy of Teneriffe. The neighbouring Lakor is a mere coral bank rising
little more than twenty feet above the surface. Luang is also fringed with reefs,
where are taken the most highly prized sea-cucumbers in the whole archipelago.
Sermatta, forming a long chain of steep hills with no accessible creek, is little
visited by skippers, whereas Babber (Baba), with its numerous islets, including the
lovely little Wetang, is much frequented by native craft.
During the last century, when the Company kept a factory and a fort in almost
every island, the natives of Serwatty had mostly become Christians, adopting a
dark costume and European names as an outward sign of their conversion. In 1825
and 1826 the chaplain accompanying Kolff's expedition had scarcely landed in a
"
village, when he was surrounded by these Christians," entreating him to solem-
nise their marriagesand baptize their children. Some could still read and write,
and, as they were nearly everywhere looked on as a superior race, they had suc-
ceeded in imposing a kind of slavery on those natives who had remained pagans.
Their authority is now all the greater that they claim the title of Anak
Compani,
or " Children of the
Company," on the ground of descent from European fathers
and native women. But of late years Islam has made considerable
progress in the
Archipelago. The natives of several islands, especially Wetter and Kisser, are
designated by the name of Alf uru ;
a term, however, which has no ethnical value, and
which indifferently applied in many places to the indigenous inhabitants, what-
is
ever their origin, that have hitherto resisted Mohammedan and Christian influences.
THE SOUTH-EASTERN GROUPS: TENIMBER AND KEI.

These groups were named the " South-Eastern Islands "
by the Dutch in refe-
rence to Amboyna, their chief and station in those distant waters.
political trading
TEXIMEEB. 217
On the other hand the Macassar navigators gave to the largest of the Teniniber
Archipelago the name of Timor-Laut, or "Seaward Eastland," to indicate its

position in reference to Celebes. From
the geographical standpoint they may be
regarded as collectively forming the eastern limit of the Indonesian world; beyond
Fig. 90. TENIKBEB.

Scale 1 :
1,700,000.
Ease oF GreenwicK 151"
Depths.
Oto50 50 Fathoms
Fathoms. and upwards.
30 Miles.
them flows the Arafura Sea, whose shores are inhabited by Papuasian and Austra-
lian populations.
These thinly-peopled islands have not yot been thoroughly explored, and even
the coasts are here and there still traced with uncertain lines. Till recently
218 AUSTRALASIA.
Tenimber (Tanah Imber) was supposed to stretch uninterruptedly to tlie southern

extremity of the Archipelago, and this error still figures on most maps. Yet the
natives are quite aware that their territory is divided into two distinct islands, to
each of which they give a special name. Owen
Stanley had already stated in
1839 that Tenimber comprised several separate islands, and in 1878 the Eyeron, a
ship from Banda, traversed the channel between Yamdena and Selaru, varying
from eight to forty fathoms in depth, and presenting several excellent havens on
both sides. But the hydrographic survey of the group is still far from complete,
and so recently as 1888 a hitherto unknown island two miles long was discovered
at the south-west extremity of the Archipelago.
The two chief islands, consisting of limestone rock, are almost everywhere low,
and the highest point of the whole group is the volcanic islet of Laibobar, off the
west side of Yamdena, rising, according to Forbes, to a height of about two thou-
sand feet. The islet of Larat, separated by the navigable Wallace Strait from
Yamdena, is also low, but beyond it rises the precipitous islet of Verdate, at the
northern extremity of the Tenimber group. The archipelago is skirted on the

west side by a parallel line of islets and reefs, which, lying mostly in shallow
water, are little accessible to shipping.
Owing to the porous nature of the calcareous soil the rain-water almost every-
where disappears without forming fertilising streams; hence, vast tracts have
remained barren and uninhabited. Some of the slopes are, nevertheless, clothed
with dense brushwood, where the cattle, let loose by the early navigators, find a
refuge from the native hunters. Large herds of wild boars infest the neighbour-
hood of the villages but Tenimber, like most of the Moluccas, has no monkeys,
;
and its fauna generally presents a New Guinea aspect.

The natives recognise no rulers, although certain individuals claim the empty
title of chief. In appearance they resemble the Malays much more than the
Papuans, although they are evidently a mixed race. Both sexes slightly tattoo the
forehead, cheeks, breast, and hands, and the women deck themselves with bracelets
and necklets of red glass beads. The wealthy natives convert into heavy rings
and ear ornaments the gold coins they take in exchange for their holothuriae and
tortoise-shell in the decoration of their praus and dwellings they also display far
;
greater artistic taste than their Malay neighbours. They have hitherto resisted the
proselytising attempts of the Arabs and other Mohammedans. Nevertheless they
worship a supreme deity, Dwadilah, symbolised by a sacred post and other rude
images set up in front of their dwellings. They also believe in a future state for
themselves and all living beings, and the fisherman never fuils to return to the sea
a portion of his capture, so that the soul of the fish swim' away to the spirit
may
world.
The Kei (Ke) Islands were probably so named by
the Portuguese, for the term
appears to be identical with that of the Keys, that is, the Cayos, of Florida. Lying
nearer to Banda and Amboyna than Tenimber, this group, to which the surrounding
populations give the name Hog Islands, has been brought more under
of Evar, or
Mohammedan influences. They manufacture earthenware, and build excellent
CELEBES. 219
praus, which are exported to all the neighbouring archipelagoes. Two-thirds of

the inhabitants are centred in Great Kei, the largest member of the group but ;
Dula, the most frequented station, lies in Little Kei, on a deep inlet well sheltered
by Recently some planters have settled in the islands,
a chain of insular hills.
the chief products of which are holothuria) and tortoise-shell, both of excellent
quality.
CELEBES AND ADJACENT ISLANDS.
Celebes, which in extent takes the third, in population and commercial impor-
tance the fourth place in Indonesia, vies with Java itself for romantic beauty and
the variety of its natural phenomena. It consists, so to
say, of a framework of pen-
insular ranges, radiating from a central nucleus, and enclosing extensive marine
inlets, which, unlike those of Borneo, have not yet been transformed to alluvial
plains. Northwards the peninsula of Gorontalo and Minahassa sweeps round in a

double curve to the north and east. In the centre two other peninsular masses
project north-east to the Molucca waters and south-east to the Banda Sea lastly, ;
in the south is developed the Macassar peninsula,

stretching due south to the
Flores Sea. Thanks to this extraordinary conformation Celebes, with an area of
about 75,000 square miles, has a coastline of no less than 3,500 miles, excluding the
secondary indentations. In other words, although little over one-third the size of
France, it has a seaboard equal in extent to that of France and the Iberian Penin-
sula taken together.
This eccentric is-land, everywhere so easily accessible from the sea, and, more-
over, enjoying an extremely fertile soil and a superabundance of natural resources,

is nevertheless almost destitute of inhabitants. Were
as densely peopled as
it
Java, it would have a population of some thirty

millions, whereas, according to the
approximate estimates the actual population is little over three-quarters of a million.
But although nominally under the Dutch rule, most of the interior is still occupied
by Alfurus, that is, wild tribes for the most part living in isolated and hostile
group*. In many places head-hunters still prowl about the villages, and till
recently the neighbouring waters were infested by corsairs, continually sweeping
down on the natives and carrying them off into slavery. Nor was the Dutch occu-
pation effected without many sanguinary struggles, not always to the advantage
of the invaders. The Europ?ans appeared first as guests, and the early conflicts
were connected with questions of trade rights. Then the Dutch presented
themselves as rivals of the Portuguese in 16o'0, when they seized the fort of
Macassar, long their only possession on the coast. Later they concluded a treaty
of alliance and a protectorate with several petty states in the south-western
peninsula, and since that time they have omitted no occasion of strengthening
their position in the island. Yet in most of the inland states they are still
unrepresented by any officials, and even the coast districts are visited only at long
intervals.
Celebes has not yet been completely explored, and some parts are known only
220 AUSTRALASIA.
in a general way. The Latimojong highlands, which form the central nucleus,
and from which flow the largest rivers, are one of the least known regions, and
travellers have hitherto failed to form an estimate of the elevations. According
to Schneider the main range, beginning at Cape Palos (Donggala) on the west
which it traverses
coast, runs south-east towards the Latimojong mountains, beyond
Fig. 91. EXPLOEED REGIONS OF CELEBES.
Scale 1 :
8,000,000.
120 Easb oF Greenwich 125
Depths.
to 100 100 to 500 600 fo 1.000 1 ,000 to 2,000 2.000 Fathoms

Fathoms. Fnthoms. Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwards.
180 Miles.
The finished p rte of the map represent the regions c:>mi:le'.ely surv;yed by the Du'ch.
the south-eastern peninsula. The framework

highlands consists of gneiss of these
and granites, which in some places crop out above the secondary and tertiary rocks
of both slopes. A lateral ridge of gneiss, r.idiating from the central nucleus, forms
the backbone of the Balaute peninsula, while that of Macassar, traversed in 188S
by Weber and Wichmann, is also dominated by crystalline or paleozoic ranges,

CELEBES. 221
which, however, are not disposed parallel with the coasts, but run in a transverse
direction towards the south-west, one of them terminating in the granite headland
of Cape Mandhar. Farther south rises the isolated mass of Dikbuik, better known
by the name of Bonthain, or Bantaeng, from the town at its foot. Bonthain,
which was found by Weber and Wich-
Fig. 92. SALEYEB.
mann to be of volcanic origin, as already
Scale 1 : 900.000.
suspected by Beccari, is the culminating
point of Celebes (10,270 feet).
The south-east corner of the Macassar
peninsula is continued seawards by a few

islets and the long, hilly island of Salayer
Limbangang, with heights ex-

(Saleyer), or
ceeding 3,000 feet, and at one point attain-
ing an altitude of 5,840 feet. A curious
and hitherto unexplained phenomenon is
the glow of light observed in the evening

at both extremities of Salayer during the
prevalence of high winds. Salayer is itself

continued southwards by other islets, such
as Tambolongang, Pulasi, Rusa, Tanah
Jampea, and Bonerate, which belong ad-
ministratively to Celebes, and which like
Buton, at the extremity of the south-
eastern peninsula,
may also be regarded
as forming part of the same geological
system.
Although no volcanoes have been dis-
covered in the central parts, there can be

no doubt that in remote times Celebes was
the scene of considerable eruptions. In
several districts, and especially near Maros,
in the province of Macassar, the limestone
formations rest on basalt rocks, which here

and there even crop out above the sedi-
mentary deposits.
The northern peninsula, attached to the
Depths.
rest of the island by a low, narrow isthmus,
forms geographically and geologically a dis- Oto32 82 Feetand
Feet upwards
tinct region. East of Tomini, where the
18 Miles.
isthmus is contracted to a width of about 18
miles, and commanded by the lofty Mount Donda (9,500 feet), the peninsula is
traversed by chains of gneiss and auriferous quartz hills, and at the point where
it trends towards the north-east more recent lavas and scorioc have burst through
o
the other formations. Here rises the Saputan volcano (6,170 feet), the theatre of
222 AUSTKALASIA.
several disturbances during the present century. In the neighbourhood are the
thermal waters and still active mud volcanoes of Panghu.
Towards the northern extremity of Minahassa follow other volcanoes, such as
the twin-crested Klabal (6,800 feet), the Duwa Sadera, or "Two Sisters" (4,550
feet),and Lakon (5,570 feet), all visible as far as Ternate. This igneout system is
continued in a northerly direction seawards, thus connecting Indonesia with the
Philippines at the southern headland of Mindanao. Several of the intervening
Fig. 93. MINAHASSA.

Scale 1 : 1,200,000.
Depths.
to 250 2.VI Fathoms

Fathoms.
_and upwards.
24 Miles.
and Duang (Ruang), west of Tagulanda, forms a

islets are still active volcanoes,
cone 1,720 feet high, which emitted flames in 1856. Siao, lying farther north, is
often wrapped in smoke, and in the larger island of
Sanguir (Sangi) rises the
superb volcano of Abu, which has been the scene of several disastrous eruptions
during the last two centuries.
The peculiar conformation
of Celebes prevents the
development of any large
rivers. Nevertheless certain ranges are so disposed as to form
longitudinal plains
where the streams run for a considerable distance parallel with the coast before
CELEBES. 223
reaching the sea. Thus the Bahu Solo, rising in Lake Tafuti, traverses the south-
Fiif. 94. THE TOXDAXO CASCADE, MINAHASSA.
eastern peninsula for a distance of about

150 miles. The Sadang also, flow:ing
224 AUSTRALASIA.
between two oblique mountain ranges in the Macassar peninsula, has a length
of no less than 240 miles. On the eastern slope of the same peninsula the copious
river fed by several northern and southern tributaries and by the shallow
Tjeurana,
Tempe (Tamparang) navigable for boats for some 60 miles from its
lagoons, is
mouth. Of the other lacustrine basins one of the most romantic is Lake Tondano,
which lies at an altitude of 2,000 feet near the northern extremity of Minahassa.
After piercing a winding gorge the emissary of this basin suddenly plunges from
a height of 490 feet into a rocky cirque, whence it escapes through a broad valley
northwards to Menado.
CLIMATE, FLORA, AND FAUNA OF CELEBES.
Like Borneo, Celebes is crossed by the equator, which leaves the three
southern peninsulas in the Austral, that of Minahassa in the northern hemisphere;
hence the mean temperature is high, ranging from about 90 F. in the day to
70 But these extremes are usually tempered by the alternating land
F. at night.
and sea breezes, which prevail round the whole periphery of the island. The
rain-bearing clouds brought by the south-eastern
and north-western monsoons
being intercepted by the inland ranges discharge an abundance of moisture on
both slopes, but especially in the Macassar peninsula, which is exposed to the
"bad monsoon." Thus with a yearly rainfall varying from 40 to 160 inches,
Celebes seldom suffers from drought, and in other respects enjoys one of the
most salubrious climates in Indonesia.
splendour and variety that of the Sunda Islands its
Its flora almost rivals in ;
forests even appear more beautiful, having to a large extent preserved their
primeval aspect, especially in the wonderful Minahassa peninsula. But while the
indigenous flora is closely allied to that of the western islands, the fauna presents
considerable differences. Separated by deep waters from the surrounding lands,
Celebes appears to have enjoyed its insular independence long enough to impart
an original character to its fauna. Lying midway between Asia and Australasia,
it
possesses some species belonging to both of these zoological areas ;
but it also
presents numerous forms quite distinct from either, and often more allied with
African than with Indian or Australian types. Amongst these are the Cynopithecus
nigrescens, a baboon occurring nowhere else in Indonesia except the small island of
Batian ;
the Anoa depressicornis, with the horns of the antelope, but by many
naturalists classed with the bovine family, and greatly resembling certain African
species the famous Balirmsa, half pig,
;
half deer, with four spiral tusks. There
the squirrel, and two marsupials, Celebes
are no felines, but five varieties of
being the extreme eastern and western limit of the former and latter respec-
tively.
INHABITANTS OF CELEBES.
The native populations are usually classed as Malays and Alfurus a division, ;
however, which is much more of a social than an ethnical character. The

CELEBES. 225
cultured coastlanders, who speak

understand Malay or allied idioms, are
or
regarded as members of the dominant Indonesian race, while the inland wild
tribes, whatever their physical types and speech, are indiscriminately grouped as
Alfurus. Hence this name is dropped when any of those tribes exchange their
savage ways for a settled life on the coffee plantations. Many of these indigenous
Fig. 95. MACASSAE AXD THE SOUTH-WEST REGION OF CELEBES.
Scale 1 : 845,000.
1 19' so-
Depths.
Oto5 5 to SO 50 to 250 250 Fn thorns

Fathoms. Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwards.
peoples betray undoubted traces of mixed descent, and individuals are often met
with the characteristic features and hair of the Papuans.
One of the dominant nations are the Bugis, whose original home is the
kingdom of Boni, in the south-western peninsula. From this region they have
spread to the neighbouring provinces, and have even founded settlements in many
remote parts of the Eastern Archipelago. Like their Mangkassar (Macassar) and
Wajo neighbours, the Bugis are of middle size, but robust, vigorous, and active,
15 J
226 AUSTRALASIA.
with a complexion somewhat lighter than that of other Malays. They are a brave,
" "
haughty people, but very revengeful, and more addicted
to running amuck
than any other Indonesian communities.
The Eugis have long enjoyed the reputation of being daring and enterprising
mariners, and they have completely monopolised the local trade in many of the
surrounding lands. Although they purchase no slaves, creditors reduce their

this law as the
defaulting debtors to a state of absolute servitude, regarding
essential condition of their widespread commercial enterprise. Their women enjoy
a certain liberty, practising the industrial arts, such as weaving and embroidery,
and often even learning to read and write either Malay or Bugi, this idiom
M.mgkassar, a peculiar alphabet of Indian origin. Towards

possessing, like the
the middle of the seventeenth century the Bugis, yielding to the Mohammedan
missionaries, abandoned their old animistic religion, which had been profoundly
affected by Hindu influences. They even still observe many rites connected with
the worship of Siva, and the doctrine of metempsychosis explains the respect even
now paid to the crocodiles swarming in the moats of their citadels.
The Alfurus of the central districts are divided into many tribal groups, such
as the Torajas, a term often applied collectively to all the pagan savages of the
" Lake Posso district, eat
interior. The Topautunuasus, or Dog-eaters," of the
the brain and drink the blood of their enemies. Even some of the islands off the
coast are occupied by wild beasts in human form. Those of Peling Island,
still
near the Balante peninsula, roam naked in the forests and take refuge at night
amid the branches of the trees.
But in the extreme north the civilised and confederate peoples of Minahassa,
"
that is, Brotherhood," vie with the Bugis and Mangkassars of the extreme
south in the arts of peace and industry. The Minahassans and their western
neighbours are distinguished above most Indonesians for their remarkably light
complexion, many being quite as fair as Europeans and distinguishable from them
only by their more prominent cheek-bones. Dumont d'Urville was struck by
their surprising resemblance to the Tongans and Maoris of Eastern Polynesia.
At the beginning of the present century most of the Minahassans were still
head-hunters, and even devoured human flesh at their great feasts. But since
then they have become quiet, peaceful citizens, very industrious and skilled
artisans. The chiefswear the European dress, and the pure Malay taught in
the schools is gradually replacing the thousand local dialects. This remark-
able change is
mainly due to the cultivation of the soil, and especially to the
coffee plantations, which since 1822 have been rapidly developed throughout
the Minahassa Besides coffee, the chief cultivated plants are sugar-
districts.
cane, tobucco, kosso (Manilla hemp), the nutmeg, sago, rice and maize. This
district also yields for export gutta-percha, wax, mother-of-pearl,
honey,
tortoise shell, edible nests and alga;. Nearly all the Minahassans have accepted
Christianity, whereas most of the other cultured Celebians are followers of

the Prophet.
CELEBES. 227
TOPOGRAPHY OF CELEBES.
The most famous

city in Celebes is Mangkastof (Maoitsntir), the Ujnitg Panclang
and by the Dutch often called Vlaardingcn, from the fort of that
of the natives,
name erected in the centre of the town. North of this fort stretches the busy
native quarter, with its crowded streets, shipping, and Bugi, Chinese, and Arab
traders to the south lies the European quarter, with its avenues of large trees,
;
and numerous shady gardens. Macassar, occupying one of the most convenient
positions for trade in Indonesia, had already been much frequented by the Malays
when it was seized by the Portuguese in 1538. The Dutch occupation dates from
the erection of Fort Vlaardingen in 1665, after which trade rapidly increased till
1846, when Macassar was declared a free port, to the detriment of its commercial
prosperity. A chief item of the export trade is the lakalava extract from the pulp
of the badu plant, long known in Europe by the name of Macassar oil. The
roadstead is well sheltered from all winds by the numerous chains of islets and
reefs forming the Spermonde Archipelago.
Although held by the Dutch for over two centuries, the province of Macassar
has but few good roads. The most important is the route skirting the coast north
and south of the capital, leading northwards to Maros, residence of a vassal prince,
and running thence through several petty states to Tanette. Another highway
running east crosses the rugged region north of Mount Bonthain, reaching the
ejst coast at Sinjai and Balang Nipa. The southern route, after passing Goa
(Goica), residence of a former powerful sovereign, traverses Gliaong, Takalar, and
other coast towns inhabited by daring mariners. On the south coast of the
Macassar peninsula the chief place is Bonthain (Bantaeng), which has succeeded
Bulukomba as capital of the district.
Other " kingdoms " occupy the eastern slope of Macassar and of the two penin-
sulas radiating eastwards but their capitals are mere hamlets, like the numerous
;
fishing stations on the creeks and sheltered straits of these waters. Bajoa, the
port of Boni, at one time the most powerful state in Celebes, is an active centre of
trade. But the eastern shores of Celebes present little but a monotonous succes-
sion of headlands, inlets, and wooded
tracts, mostly destitute of inhabitants, and
"
visited only by the Orang-Bajo, the Gipsies of the sea," in quest of trepang and
tortoise-shell.
Farther north the shores of the gulf of Tolo or Tomaiki, with all their natural
advantages, present the same desolate aspect. Even most of the adjacent islands
are deserted, and of the Sula (Xula) Archipelago the only inhabited islands are
Sula Be.n and Sula Taliabo. The Togean Archipelago also, which lies in the
northern gulf of Tomini (Gorontolo), has a mixed population of not more than
four hundred souls. Parigi, at the neck of the northern peninsula, occupies a
favourable position for trade at the narrowest part of the connecting isthmus, and
within '21 miles of the
Bay of Pa/ns on the opposite coast. Palos itself, lying in a
fertile district on a deep and well-sheltered bay, enjoys quite exceptional com-
mercial advantages.
228 AUSTRALASIA.
North of Parigi the peninsula still continues to contract between the Bays of
Dondo and Tomini. But the whole region is almost depopulated, and Tomini,
which gives an alternative nameGulf of Gorontolo, is an obscure

to the vast
hamlet comprising some ten or twelve native cabins. Gorontolo (Holontalo) which
lies in a
givesits name both to the gulf and to the northern peninsula of Celebes,
Fig. 96. ADMINISTEATITB DIVISIONS OF CELEBES.

Scale 1 : 12,500,000.
t
Government of Celebes. Rcsi leiice of Menado. Residence of Terna e. Residence of Amboyna.
Residence of Timor. Borneo.

CD
Portuguese Territory.
240 Miles.
dried-up lacustrine plain at the mouth of a narrow valley watered by a torrent

which issues from Lake Limbotto. Beyond this point the coast is almost unin-
habited as far as the shores of Minahassa, where follow the two ports of Belatiy
and Kema.
These places are connected by good routes across the peninsula with Jfenado,
capital of the province, arid northern rival of Macassar in political and commercial
CELEBES. 229
importance. Menado (Manaio), the Wenang of the natives, lies on a spacious

inletopen west and sheltered on the north by several islets, one of which,
to the
Menado Tuica, or " Old Menado," marks the site of the old town, which was
abandoned in 1682 for the present more secure position on the mainland. Here
a pleasant little Dutch quarter gradually sprang up round about the foot of
Nieuw-Amsterdam. Hut the town itself is little more than a vast garden dotted
over with rural dwellings and crossed by shady avenues, each terminating with a
lovely view of sea, islands, and extinct or smouldering volcanoes.
still
The district is enriched by cultivated grounds, which have replaced the primi-
tive forests, and which are traversed by good roads giving access to the magnifi-
cent plateau of Tondano, with its coffee plantations, its woodlands, romantic
winding lake, and waterfall of the river Menado. A little to the west of Tondano
stands the village of JRurukan, 3,300 feet above the sea, being the highest group
of habitations in Minahassa, if not in the whole of Celebes.
The political and administrative in no way correspond with the natural
divisions of Celebes. Thus Sumbawa, one of the lesser Sunda Islands, forms part
of the Macassar
"
government," while the petty states on the Gulf of Tolo belong
to the Sultanate of Ternate, and consequently depend politically on a remote
eastern islet. The greater part of Celebes divided amongst local rulers,
is still
some classed as direct or indirect feudatories, others as allies, and others again as
stillcompletely independent. Thus the districts under direct Dutch administration
occupy but a relatively small part of the territory and even here the old adminis-
;
trative measures have been partly maintained, the authority being exercised by
native regents under the control of Dutch Residents or Assistants. The system
of government varies also in the numerous native " kingdoms," most of which are
electoral monarchies limited by custom, the authority of the notables, and priestly
influence. Wajo, on the east coast of Macassar, is an oligarchy of powerful families,
with a prince elected as nominal chief, and a council of forty delegates, including
some women. The various Bugi states constitute similar oligarchies, where the
nominal sovereign merely executes the pleasure of his vassals.
THE SOUTHERN MOLUCCAS :

BURU, CERAM, AMBOYNA, BANDA.
A submarine bed than 100 fathoms deep connects Celebes and the Xula
less
(Sula) Archipelago with Buru, westernmost member of the Moluccas. On the

other hand this oval island forms a link in a chain disposed in the form of an
arc comprising Ceram, Goram, sundry islets, and in the Kei group intersecting
another chain of upheaved lands, the alreadv described South-Eastern Islands.
The chain of the Southern Moluccas, sweeping round some 450 miles first west and
east,then south-east parallel with New Guinea, is well defined by deep waters
both north and south. Thus Ceram is separated from the Northern Moluccas by
an abyss of over 1,500 fathoms, while on the opposite side the Banda Sea has a
depth of 3,000, and at one point near the Banda volcano 4,280 fathoms. Precisely
in the centre of this sea rises the submarine plateau of Lucipara, marked by a few
230
AUSTRALASIA.
surface. With the exception of Amboyna and Banda,

reefs appearing above the
all these islands
axis of the Southern Moluccas,
which do not along the general
lie
volcanic zone.
are situated beyond the Indonesian
The smallisland of and the still smaller cluster of the Banda
Amboyna,
that of the larger islands
a commercial importance far beyond
formerly enjoyed
their political supremacy, though the
in these waters. They even still retain
centre of gravity will probably
be eventually shifted towards Burn and Ceram,
Fig. 97. BUBU.

Scale I : 2,000,000.
127 Ea?fc op Greenwich
Depths.
Oto25 25 to 250 250 to 600 BOOtol.noo l.ono Fathoms

Fathoms. Fathomn. Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwards.
. 30 Miles.
which have already outstrippsd them in population, and which also possess excel-
lent havens.
Despite its fertility and abundant natural resources Buru is still one of the
least-known lands of Indonesia. Near its rock-bound west coast it culminates in
the lofty Mount Lamandang, or Tomahu (8,5-10 feet), with which are connected
other mountain masses falling gradually eastwards, but more elevated and precipi-
tous along the southern than the northern side. The whole system is disposed
in a semicircle with its convex side facing eastwards, and leaving in the centre of
the island a large crater-like depression flooded by Lake "Wakoholo, 1,900 feet
above sea-level. The east coast is indented by the superb Bay of Kayeli, which is
encircled by an extensive plain enclosed by an amphitheatre of hills. A geo-
graphical dependence of Buru is the hilly and reef-fringed islet of Amblauw, off
the south-east coast.
The islets of Manipa, Kelang, and Bonoa, connecting Buru and Ceram, are
THE SOUTHERN MOLUCCAS. 231
mere geographical fragments of the latter. Amboyna with the Uliusser group
(Oma or Haruku, Saparua, and Nusa Laut) all rest on the same submarine plateau
as Ceram. Amboyna is formed as it were by two peninsulas, Hitu and Ley-timor,
connected by a sandy isthmus little over a mile wide. Although regarded by
Wallace as of igneous origin, European residents deny the existence of any volcano
in Amboyna.
Ceram, or Serang, largest and loftiest of the Southern Moluccas, is covered by
a dense forest on its western slope known as Howamul, or "Little Ceram." The
island culminates in Mount Musaheli (9,710 feet) ;
its prevailing formation appears
to be granite. Its shores are encircled by fringing reefs, and the islands continu-
ing the mainland south-eastwards are mainly formed of coralline limestones.
Goram, one of the largest of these groups, consists of a rocky central nucleus,
round which the polyps have constructed their coral retfs. But others, such as
Manawoko and Matabello, are composed exclusively of upheaved coral.
The little Banda group presents a marked contrast to all the surrounding
lands in complete isolation, and the incessant activity of its Gunong Api, or
its
Burning Mountain." Of the six islets of the cluster, three, Great Banda (Lon-
'
thoir), Banda Neira, and the Volcano, are so disposed as to form the margin of an
inner lake, probably representing an old crater of vast extent. Both Bandas are
clothed with verdure to their summits, while the superb cone of Api presents on
its lower flanks a mere fringe of vegetation, and higher up nothing but heaps of
rocks whitened with saline efflorescences. The craters emit constant wreaths of
vapour, and all the Banda Islands are subject to frequent earthquakes. In this
is best seen the curious of the " the water
neighbourhood phenomenon Milky Sea,"
during the months from June to September appearing white at night and illumined
by a strange phosphorescent glow.
Lying between Indonesia and New
Guinea the Southern Moluccas participate
of both regions in their climate and animal and vegetable forms. But land mam-
mals are almost completely absent, while on the other hand each island presents
some original types. Noteworthy are the Marsupials (Citscm), allied to those of
New Guinea the babirussa, which has reached Buru from Celebes, and especially
;
the huge pythons which attack and devour man. The Moluccas are amazingly
rich in birds, mostly resembling those of Papuasia. In Ceram alone Wallace
enumerated fifty-five indigenous species, including a remarkable helmeted casso-
"
wary five or six feet high, the wings being replaced by groups of horny black
spines like blunt porcupine quills." The surrounding waters also teem with every
variety of marine life, and in the ports and creeks of Amboyna alone Bleekcr
found
no than seven hundred and eighty species of man} as occur in
7
less fishes, nearly as
all the European seas and rivers.
Amboyna also presents larger and more beautiful
butterflies than any other spot on the globe. Yet by a strange and inexplicable
contrast the eastern part of Ceram, with all its wealth of vegetation, is extremely
poor in animal forms.
"
The Alfurus," or uncivilised natives of the Southern Moluccas, are allied, not
to the Indonesians of Celebes, Borneo, and Sumatra, but to the Papuans of New
282
AUSTRALASIA.
Those of Buru, absurdly supposed by

some to be the western home of
Guinea
with deep brown complexion and huge
the Eastern Polynesians, are of middle size,
" "
"-Most of their settlements are on
the coast, where, as in Ceram, the
mop-heads
modified by crossings with Malays and
other immigrants.
type has become largely
the language would
In Amboyna Hindu features are even said to occur, and here
seem former Asiatic influences.
to betray
of the Alf urus have discontinued head-hunting
and
Except in Ceram most
their other ferocious practices. All believe in a Supreme Being, creator and pre-
and puuisher of evil in this life
of good
server of all things, great judge, rewarder
and incantations being
and the next. But he is honoured by no worship, prayers
malevolent who dwell in the
reserved for the innumerable beneficent and spirits,
rocks, the trees,the and the wind. These are appeased by wizards and
streams,
who also heal maladies, make the crops prosper, and preserve mariners
astrologers,
from the dangers of the deep. Marriages are exogamous, and the women as well
as debtors are treated with remarkable kindness. In the interior Mohammedanism

Las hitherto failed to gain a footing, but on the coastlands its influence
is predomi-
nant, and steadily increasing with the ascendency

of the Malay intruders. On the
other hand Christian missionaries from Amboyna have already baptized some
thousands of Ceramese and other islanders. In some villages the Christians are
in the majority, and on the coast of Ceram facing Amboyna all the natives are at
least nominally Orang Sirani, or "Nazarenes."
The general spread of Christianity is
mainly the result of the early proselytis-
of whose occupation still survive. In the
ing zeal of the Portuguese, many traces
first
year of the seventeenth century the Dutch seized Amboyna and Banda, wherj
" worth their weight
they endeavoured to monopolise the trade in the famous spices
in gold." They ordered the destruction of the nutmeg and clove forests every-
where in their domain except Amboyna and Banda, and even here the number of
plants was strictly limited by numerous decrees. For two hundred and fifty years
Amsterdam was the only market in the world where nutmeg, cloves, and mace
could be procured but this policy was followed by many evils, such as the depopu-
;
lation of formerly flourishing islands, the spread of piracy, and the debasement of
the natives condemned to forced labour on the plantations for half a year. All
industries were sacrificed to the cultivation of the spice plants, and the monopoly
it>df became so burdensome and disastrous that it had at last to be abolished in
1860. Since then the yield has been greatly reduced in Amboyna, but the Banda
growers, favoured by the conditions of soil and climate, still compete successfully
with those of other spice-growing lands.
Amboyna, the native Ambon, capital of the Residence of the Southern Moluccas,
lies on the south side of the
bay of like name at the foot of Mount Soya it ;
comprises a central trading quarter and suburbs

with broad shady avenues
.
stretching for some distance in various directions, with a total population of
thirteen thousand. It is commanded
by Fort Victoria, and is now a free port,
where the largest vessels ride at anchor in ten or fifteen fathoms of water.
Amboyna is the centre of the religious establishments for all the surrounding
THE SOUTHERN MOLUCCAS. 288
regions ;
here resided Valentijn, and here died Rumphius, the pioneers of
scientific exploration in. Indonesia.
The chief port in Burn offers all the material advantages for a great centre of
trade, but on this magnificent and well-sheltered harbour nothing is seen except
the obscure village of Kayeli, with a mixed population of about two thousand
Fig. 98 POET OP AJIBOYNA.

Scale 1 : 80,000.
.^^.,.
Case oF Greenwich
Depths.
Otol6 16 to 98 96 to 320 320 Feet and

.2} Miles.
Mussulmans, Christians, and Chinese. The shores of Ceram also present no centres
of population
beyond a few groups of cabins occupied by Malays, some Moham-
medan and Christian Alfurus, and a few foreign traders. Of these groups, known
usHi-rjrrljt'n, from the Hindu nagar, a town, the chief are Amahai, centre of the
Dutch administration on the south side, and on the north Waliai, a fortified village
with an extensive harbour.
231 AUSTRALASIA.
The the east point of Ceram and near the ring-shaped

islet of Kiliraru, off
"
Gisser, presents the aspect
of a little Malay Venice," where the pile-dwellings
are so closely packed that the ground can
nowhere be seen, and the whole island
looks like a floating village.Lying on the only deep channel across the subma-
of the trade
rine banks of Ceram Laut, Kilwaru is a busy mart, the chief entrepot
between Amboyna and New Guinea.
East of the chief town of the Uliasser group is Saparua, in the
Amboyna,
island of the same name, near the shore of a good haven,
and at the converging
routes which cross the island at its narrowest parts. But despite
point of two
t
Fig. 99. KILWARU.

Scale 1 :
25,000.
Depths.
to 18 1G to 32 32 Feet and
1,100 Yards.
these natural advantages, Saparua has less than two thousand inhabitants, nearly
all Christians. The surrounding plantations yield a larger quantity of cloves than
Amboyna, though the crops are very precarious. A good harvest will exceed
310,000 Ibs. for the whole Amboyna group, while that of bad years will fall
below 56,000 Ibs.
The fortified town

of Banda, or ffeira, in the island of like name,
occupies one
of the most picturesque positions in the Eastern Archipelago. It lies on the north
of Banda Bay, on the
side slopes of Mount Papenberg, amidst the loveliest nutmeg
plantations in the world. Th.3 opposite island of Great Banda is almost covered
THE SOUTHEEN MOLUCCAS. 285
with the same shrub, and with others of larger growth planted for protection.
The light volcanic soil, the shade, and the natural moisture of the climate are all
conditions most favourable for the nutmeg, which here grows almost spontane-
ously, whereas in Singapore, Pulo Pinang, and other places successful crops can
be raised only by most careful cultivation.
Afringe of cocoanut trees encircles the base of the neighbouring Q-unong Api,
which is inhabited by the descendants of immigrants from Buton. The islets of
Fig. 100. BiNDA GUOUP.

Scale 1 :
115,000.
Ei si: cF Greenwich 129 I2956'
Depths.
Oto5 5to25 25 to 50 250 Fathoms

,
2J Miles.
Run and Rozengain are also occupied by small colonies of cultivators, descended
for the most part from transported convicts.
The residence of Amboyna is divided administratively into the four districts
of Amboyna, Bum, the Uliasser group, Banda, and the three circumscriptions of
Ceram.
THE NORTHERN MOLUCCAS :

Om, BATJAX, Tinon, TERXATE, HAI.MAHERA,
Mo ROTA i.
This northern group, of which Haiti ahera forms the centre, is completely
enclosed on all sides by deep waters. On the west it is separated from Celebes by
236 AUSTRALASIA.
abysses of over a
thousand fathoms on the north and north-west occur troughs of
;
two thousand fathoms southwards, a chasm of fifteen hundred fathoms yawns

;
I H.ween Obi and the Southern Moluccas ; lastly, towards the east, depths of five
hundred fathoms, with a sill of over two hundred and fi fty fathoms, mark the part-
world and the islands depending on Papuasia. The

ing line between the insular
Northern Moluccas are mainly disposed longitudinally north and south, whereas
the southern group runs east and west. The total area exceeds 6,000 square miles ;
but with the exception of the so-calltd "Little Moluccas" (Ternate, Tidor, Mak-
jan, Motir, Kayoa)

none of the islands are thickly peopled, while some even have
no permanent residents at all. The two islands of Tifuri and Mayu, which depend
politically on Ternate, may
be included in this group, although rising in deep
waters to the east of Minahassa.
" Little
The term Molucos was originally restricted by the Portuguese to the
" the
Moluccas of modern geographers, but has gradually been extended to all
eastern islands producing spices.

in the southern group,
Igneous energy is far more active in the northern than
and a whole range of active craters skirts the western edge of the archipelago.
In the northern section of Batjan (Batchian) occur hot springs, and a geyser which,
like those of Iceland, contains much silica. Farther north, beyond the basalt
rocks of Kayoa (Kajoa) rises the Makjan volcano, which was partly blown away
during the eruption of 1616. Motir also (1,020 feet) forms a burning mountain,
which was still active down to the close of the last century. The southern por-
tion of Tidor, a little farther north, consists of a perfectly regular cone, the
highest iu the Moluccas (5,720 feet), which emits vapours from time to time. Its
neighbour, Ternate, somewhat lower and of less symmetrical form, is one of the
most restless volcanoes in the whole of Indonesia from the Dutch occupation at
;
the beginning of the seventeenth century down to 1862 no less than eighty-four
eruptions were recorded ;

the mountain
is fissured in all directions, and
vapours are
constantly emitted from the seven craters opened on its flanks. Earthquakes are
also frequent, and the town lying at its base has scarcely recovered from one
disaster when it is overtaken by another.
Farther north, the volcanic axis of the Little Moluccas strikes the projecting
coast of Hahnahera, and here also rise three eruptive cones visible from Ternate.
In the same direction follow other centres of igneous activity, such as the
Gunong
Tarakan (Tafelberg), and Tolo, facing the island of Morotai (Mortai), whose scoriae
forming barriers across the marine inlets have converted them into complete
land-locked lakes.
" Great
Halnv.ihera, or the Land," presents in its outlines a curious resemblance
to Celebes,
consisting, like that island, of four mountainous peninsulas rooted in
a central nucleus, and all disposed in similar directions. The trachytic island of
Morotai, with the adjacent clusters, which appear to have been
formerly attached
to the northern
peninsula, also correspond to the Minahassa region of North
Celebes, while the southern and south-eastern peninsulas are
similarly prolonged
by the islands of Damar and Gebe.
THE NORTHERN MOLUCCAS. 287
The Xorthern Moluccas, where the ascendency is centred in the two

political
volcanic islets of Tidorand Ternate, are distinguished, even more than the southern
group, by their peculiarly specialised local forms. Thus Morotai possesses charac-
teristic birds unknown in Halmahera, from which it is separated only by an island-
studded strait
twenty-four miles wide. The fauna, both of Morotai in the extreme
north and of Damar in the extreme south, is much more allied to that of the remote
Papuasia than the Moluccas. Specially remarkable is the fauna of Bat jan, in
Fig. 101. EMPIEES OF TEBNATE AND TIDOB.

Scale 1 : 20,000,000.
Former Islands formerly

Evidence of Former possessions possessions Kingdom divided belween
Ternate. of Ternate. of Tidor. of Balj.m. Ternate and Tidor.
. 300 Miles.
whose spice forests is found the baboon-like cynopithecus, which here reaches its
farthest eastern range.

The dominant element in the Little Moluccas are the Malays, who, after secur-
ing a footing in Ternate and Tidor, overran the whole archipelago. But inter-
marrying with the Alfuru women, their type has been variously modified. An-
other intruding element are the Orang Serani, that is, the Nazarenes or Christians,
who are partly descended from Portuguese ancestors. But they have long forgot-
233 AUSTRALASIA.
language and even their Catholic faith they

ten, if not their origin, at least their ;
now speak Malay mixed with a few Portuguese words, and call themselves Protes-
tants. Through crossings with the natives they have become as dark as the
half-castes of the Amazons. The
Papuans and greatly resemble the Brazilian
"
Orang Serani are almost the only natives of .Indonesia who eat the flying-fox,"
that huge bat which is at times seen suspended by hundreds from the branches of
dead trees.
The Alfurus, or aborigines, are now found chiefly in the central parts of the
northern peninsula in Halmahera. Although many are as fair as the Malays,
Fig. 102. TEBNATE, TIDOR, AND DADINQA ISTHMUS.

Scale 1 :
000,000.
127V Easb cp Greenwich I27'J5-
Depths.
to 100 100 Fathoms

12 Miles.
Win lace and others regard them as but

slightly modified Papuans, with the
coarse features,
nearly aquiline nose, frizzly hair, and vivacity of the New Guinea
natives. In other respects, and
especially in their usages and social institutions,
they resemble the Alfurus of Ceram and Buru.
The little island of Kayoa, north of
Batjan, is
occupied by a few hundred
natives tributary to the Sultan of Ternate. The more
fertile
Makjan is also far
more densely peopled in former times its
;
importance made it a bone of contention
between the rival sovereigns of Tidor and Ternate. Afterwards
it
passed succes-
ivrly from the Spaniards to the Dutch, who ruined it
by compelling the ruler of
Termite to
destroy its clove plantations.
Nearly all the Northern Moluccas are divided between the two sultanates of
Tidor and Ternate, which are themselves for the most part now merged in the
240 AUSTRALASIA.
Dutch administrative division known as the Residence of Ternate. One of the
most remarkable phenomena in the history of Indonesia is the extraordinary
political importance acquired by these two insignificant

islets. At the very time
when the Italian republics of Venice, Pisa and Genoa were enjoying a marvellous
prosperity, these eastern Malay communities were, under analogous conditions,
acquiring vast colonial empires stretching far over the surrounding archipelagoes
and continents. Trading settlements from Tidor and Ternate were founded in all
the markets of Malaysia, and their ascendency was maintained as long as their
operations were limited to trade. But decay set in as soon as their sultans became
rich potentates surrounded by thousands of slaves, levying heavy tribute and
plundering the surrounding regions with their armies of mercenaries and piratic
fleets.
At present these sultans retain little

beyond an empty title. The so-called
Fig. 104. DENSITY OF THE POPULATION IN DUTCH INDONESIA.

Scale 1 : 4.1 000.000.
Inhabitants to (he Square Mile.
to 10 10 to 20. 20 to 101. 100 to 300.

Each square represents a population of 100,000.
6CO Miles
" "
kingdom of Tidor comprises the central
part of Halmahera with its two eastern
peninsulas, besides the western shores of New Guinea with the
adjacent islands.
To Ternate are nominally
assigned the northern peninsula of Halmahera with
more than half of the south, the Sula
Archipelago and about one-third of Celebes.
According to the local chronicles a treaty of peace was concluded in 1322
In-twwn the Molucca States, in virtue of which the first
rank was awarded to the
Kolano of Jailollo
(Jilolo) in Halmahera ; but in 1380 the Sultan of Ternate
the
acquired ascendency under the title of Kolano Maloko, or " Prince of the
Since that time the relations between the various
local states has been
ified by the wars between the Portuguese and Spaniards, and
by the arrival of
Dutch. At present the Jailollo prince is a mere vassal of
Ternate, which in
turn isfain to
recognise the suzerainty of Holland. In 1879 all slaves were
declared free
Officially throughout the whole of these territories.
The capital of a mere village on the west side of the island but
Tidor is ;
Termite is a real town, although it has suffered much since the opening of the
ports of Celebes to free trade. It is doubtless itself also a free port, but it has lost
many of its Chinese, Bugi, and Arab traders, and has ceased to be the chief market
for the feathers of the bird of paradise. The ruins of buildings overthrown by
the earthquakes are scattered amid the modern dwellings, and the old Portuguese
and Dutch forts have recently had to be rebuilt. Behind every stone house is a
second structure in light wood where the sleeping apartments are contained, and
where little risk isruu in case of any sudden shock. The slopes of the neigh-
bouring volcano are covered with orchards, which yield the finest durians, mangoes,
and other fruits.
East of Ternate is developed the deep inlet of Dadinga Bay, by which the
northern peninsula of Halmahera is nearly severed from the rest of the island.
The connecting isthmus is commanded at its narrowest part by Fort Dadinga, the
Fig. 105. POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF INDONESIA.

Scile 1 : 80,000,000.
Last -or ureenwiclv
Ba = Bangka. Bil = Billiton. L Lampong.

,
1,200 Miles.
strongest strategic point in the whole island, and the only place where the Dutch
keep a garrison. Here the isthmus is scarcely two miles across, and although the
route presents some difficulties, praus can be transported in three days from bay to
bay, thereby saving a detour of 240 miles. North of Dadinga Bay follows that of
Jailollo, formerly a flourishing capital which for a time gave an alternative name
toHalmahera, now a mere hamlet surrounded by old cultivated tracts now over-
grown with coarse grass and scrub. These regions, so popular and nourishing in
mediaeval times, have been almost entirely depopulated by slavery and monopolies.
Of the other villages in Halmahera the best known is Galvla, which lies on an
inlet in the north-east of the northern peninsula over against the island of
Morotai. The Alfurus of the surrounding district, the most skilful and indus-
trious peasantry in the whole island, are usually known as Galelas from the name
of this place. Tabello, which lies farther south, and which is defended by
numerous reefs and islets of difficult access, was long dreaded as a dangerous nest
100
242 AUSTRALASIA.
of corsairs. In 1837 the Dutch authorities removed four hundred of these pirates
to the island of Saleyer, where they received allotments of land to cultivate.
The large island of Morotai, which forms the north-east extremity of the
Moluccas and of the whole of Indonesia, became entirely depopulated in conse-
quence of the constant incursions of the corsairs. Thus the vast colonial empire
of Holland, comprising over five hundred islands and too extensive for all its
natural resources to be developed, terminates towards the Pacific Ocean in lands

which were formerly thickly inhabited, but which are at present deserted. As
shown by the statistical charts, Java, Madura, Bali, and Lombok are the only
islands where the population is grouped in considerable masses. The eastern
members of the Sunda group are far more sparsely occupied, while the other
such as Borneo, Celebes and the Moluccas, are relatively
regions, speaking almost
uninhabited.
In the Appendix will be found a table of the Dutch possessions, with their
administrative divisions, areas, and populations.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PHILIPPINES.
HE term Magellania, given to the Philippine Archipelago in honour

of its illustrious discoverer, has shared the fate of other denomina-
tions,such as the Western Isles and the Archipelago of Saint

Lazarus, all of which have yielded to the name conferred on this
group by Lopez de Villalobos to flatter his master, Philip II. All

these islands are also in a general way designated as the Spanish Indies, rivalling
as they do the Dutch East Indies in extent, picturesque
beauty, and the infinite
Luzon, the largest member of the group, has

variety of their natural resources.
alone an area of 40,000 square miles Mindanao, next in size, is very nearly as
;
extensive five others are each over 10,000 square miles in extent, while round
;
about these larger masses is scattered a vast labyrinth of no less than two thousand
satellites of all sizes.
Luzon and its neighbours scarcely yield to Java, Sumatra or Celebes, in the
splendour of their tropical landscapes. Perhaps they even offer greater variety
from season to season, thanks to tbe more marked alternation of the monsoons,
due to their greater distance from the equator. The vegetation of the seaboard,
which comprises the same or corresponding species, is fully as dense and leafy as
that of Indonesia ;
the shores are everywhere deeply indented by bays and inlets ;
island-studded lakes reflect the surrounding woodlands ; the horizon is bounded
by lofty crests and cones wrapped in vapours. The inhabitants also, whether
aborigines, Malays, Chinese, or half-castes of every shade, present many curious
ethnological studies, and appear on the whole to offer more originality than their
kindred of Dutch Indonesia. The action of their Spanish rulers, however violent
at times, hasweighed less oppressively on the natives, whose primitive character
has consequently been less profoundly modified than in the Sunda Islands. Some
members of the vast archipelago, as well as the more remote districts in the larger
islands lying beyond direct Spanish control, have even remained unexplored, while
even the regions directly administered by Europeans are still but imperfectly
known. No methodic and detailed study of ihe Philippines has yet been made ;
the maps and charts are extremely defective, except for the seaboard, in the
survey of which the k'a'ling maritime nations huve co-operated. The official
returns themselves, being left to cureless functionaries and parish priests, too
often give superficial and even contradictory results, while for the uncivilised
214 AUSTRALASIA.
are available. Nevertheless the present

natives not even approximate estimates
fixed at not less than seven millions, or more
than nine
population may be
millions, in a total area of
about 118,000 square miles.
distinct from Indonesia, from which they are
Although forming a group quite
other
separated by two
marine abysses, one nearly two thousand five hundred, the
over two thousand five hun-
Fig. 106. THE THBEE ISTHMUSES OF INDONESIA AND THE dred fathoms deep, the Philip-
PHILIPPINES.
pines are connected with the
Scale 1 : 18.000,000.
southern lands by three long
ridges, partly rising

above
the surface, partly covered
by shallow water. Of these

three isthmuses the north-
western is the most regular
and best developed, being
constituted for over half its
extent by the long narrow

island of Paragua. Between
Mindoro and the north-west
point of Borneo the deepest
parts of the sill limited by
Balabac and Bangney do not
average more than twenty-

five fathoms. Balabac Strait
between Paragua and Borneo
is occupied by reefs resem-
bling in outline the alluvial
islands of a delta, and formed
under the influence of the
marine current which, during
the south-west monsoon, sets
strongly towards the Sulu Sea.

The second isthmus is formed
by the Sulu Archipelago,
which connects the north-east
Depths.
point of Borneo with the
2 om Fathoms western extremity of Min-

to 1,000 1,000 to 2.000
Fathoms. Fathoms. mil upwards.
danao. But here the shallow
, SCO Miles.
channel, through which the
deep waters of the Sulu Sea communicate with the still deeper Celebes Sea, is
traversed by a system of alternating currents over two hundred and fifty fathoms
in depth. Lastly, east of the nearly circular trough of the Celebes Sea the penin-
sula of Minahassa, with the Sanguir Archipelago and other islands, develop a third
isthmus sweeping round to the southernmost point of Mindanao. This connecting
THE PHILIPPINES. 245
ridge is also broken by numerous openings, the broadest and deepest of which
lies off the coast of Mindanao. As shown by the submarine explorations of the
Challenger, thetwo basins enclosed between the Philippines and Borneo resemble
the Mediterranean in the temperature of their lower depths. The cold waters of
the oceanic depths are unable to penetrate across the intervening isthmuses into
these inland seas, where the thermometer nowhere records less than 50 F.
These three lines of partly emerged, partly submarine, ridges, stretching from
Indonesia towards the Philippines, continue their main axis in the interior of this
archipelago, and constitute a great part of its relief. Mindanao, least known of
the whole group, although one of the most remarkable for its volcanic phenomena,
is formed, at least in the west and centre, by the prolongation of the two eastern
ridges, indicated seaward by the Sulu and Sanguir Archipelagoes. The Sulu axis,
whose normal direction is south-west and north-east, comprises all the western
peninsula of Mindanao, while the Sanguir axis, running south and north, strikes
the southern point of the same region at the Saragani volcano. Beyond this
point it first continues its
northerly trend and then gradually sweeps round to the
west. East of this mountain range another parallel chain occupies all the eastern
section of Mindanao bordering on the Pacific Ocean.
A broad survey of the whole orographic system shows in the same way that,
from the southern point of Mindanao to the northern extremity of Luzon, the relief
of all the islands- is disposed in a line with or parallel to the southern isthmuses.
Thus the coast range of the east side of Mindanao is continued north-west in a
graceful curve through the islands of Leyte, Masbate, Ticao, anl Burias; in the
east is developed a parallel curveformed by the island of Samar, the Camarines
peninsula in Luzon, and the Isla del Polillo. On the other hand the islands of
Jtohol, Cebu, Negros, and Panay are disposed in a line with or parallel to the
Sulu Archipelago, while Mindoro and the main section of Luzon form the north-
eastern extension of Paragua and Borneo. In many places volcanic or other
masses mark the points of intersection, and it is noteworthy that in Luzon, most
rugged of the Philippines, all the cordilleras converge like the ribs of a dome in
the culminating crest of Caraballo. North of the Philippines the mountain ranges,
interrupted by broad straits, are continued through Formosa and the Liu-Kieu
group towards Japan.
The whole surface of the Philippines is essentially mountainous, the only plains
that occur being the alluvial districts at the river mouths, and the spaces left at the
intersection of the ranges. Most of the surface appears to be formeel of old rocks,
especially schists, and, in the north of Luzon, granites. Extensive coal-fields are
found in the central islands, especially Cebu and Negros, and in many places these
carboniferous beds seem to have been buried under more recent lavas. Later
limestones have- also been developed by the coral-builders round all the seaboard,
and there is clear evidence that along extensive stretches of the coastline these
formations have been upheaved to a considerable height above sea-level. The}'
form at some points broad horizontal tables round the headlands, and here are
found shells and other marine remains belonging to the same species still living in
24(3 AUSTBALASIA.
the surrounding wafers. But about the Gulf of Davao, in South Mindanao, the
subsidence has taken place, as shown by the dead
or dying
contrary movement of
forests invaded by the sea.
in the alluvia
The Philippines abound in minerals. The natives collect gold
of Benguet, Central Luzon, and
of all the islands, but especially in the province
Copper is common in the
about the north-east point of Surigao, in Mindanao.
the same central district of Luzon, where from time
Lepanto hills bordering on
into implements
immemorial the natives have extracted the ore and wrought it
for their
and ornaments. The blacksmiths also have at hand an excellent iron ore
arms and instruments. Cebu is said to contain lead-glance yielding nearly half of
of extinct volcanoes have
weight in pure metal, while the many
its solfutaras
formed inexhaustible deposits of sulphur.

Extinct or still active craters are relatively as numerous in the Philippines as
in the Eastern Archipelago, and all seem disposed in regular axes coinciding with
those of the islands themselves. In the islet of Dumaran, at the north-east end
of Paragua, rise the two active cones of Alivancia and Talaraquin, and Sulu has
also its burning mountain, which, however, appears to have been quiescent since
of Min-
the eruption of 1641 Sarangani, or Sangil, at the southern extremity
.
danao, hasalso been at rest since the seventeenth century. On the range running
thence northwards stands the Apo volcano, which was ascended by Montano in
1880, and found to be the highest in the Philippines (10,310 feet). The islet of
which
Camiguin, belonging to the same coast range, forms another igneous cone,
was the scene of a violent outburst in 1871.
West of Apo follow in the direction from south to north several cones, such as
Sugut (Cottabato), Macaturin, and Malindang, all probably extinct, but apparently
connected through the western islands with the Taal volcano in Luzon. Along this
line occurs the still active Malaspina or Canloon, in the northern part of Negros
(9,040 feet).
The eastern coast range in Mindanao, consisting mainly of basalts, appears to
contain no volcano, unless the large and deep lake Muin.it, near the extreme head-
land of Surigao, is to be regarded as an old crater. The coast range is continued
northwards through the island of Leyte, where the argillaceous soil, near the
wooded crater of an extinct cone, yields about one- fourth of pure sulphur.
But the igneous energy of the Philippines is concentrated mainly in Luzon,
where the superb Bulusan volcano stands at the southernmost
extremity connected
by a narrow isthmus with the peninsula of Camarincs. Farther north follow the
craterless Poedal, and on the Gulf of Albay, the Albay, or Mayon volcano, the
most dreaded as well as one of the highest (9,000 feet ?) in the whole
archipelago.
M;i von, which is of almost
perfectly regular form, covers at its base a circuit of
over eighty square miles, its flanks are clothed with forests to a
height of about
two thousand feet, but higher up little is visible
except deposits of scoriaj, which
are very difficult to scale.Nevertheless, both Jagor and Yon Drasche reached the
summit, the latter in 1876, when no trace could be detected of a crater
properly
so called. During its but prodigious
frequent eruptions Mayon ejects little lava
VOLCANOES OF THE PHILIPPINES. 247
quantities of ashes cover the surrounding districts far and wide. In 1814 the
town Daraga was buried and the ejected matter was wafted as far as Manilla,
of
two hundred miles distant.

Nazaraga (4,445 feet), a craterless dolorite cone, and Malinao, which appears to
have been quiescent for ages, continue the igneous chain northwards to Iraga, the
scene of a disturbance in 1641, when the little Lake Buhi was formed by a sudden
Fig. 107. SOUTHERN PART OF LUZON.

Scale 1 : 1,530,000.
r
T~
*
K
f-'
-*v
\/.CafifnlffLf'nfa
^/ _> ~ -
.- -
i
)- ^M '*' "
"
I23zo- uasb or Greenwich I2420'
Depths.
otooO ISO to 100 100 Fat horns

Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwards.
, 36 Miles.
landslip. East of this lake the Tibi valley presents the most remarkable group of
thermal, sulphurous, and silicious springs In the whole archipelago. They are
copious enough to develop a rivulet of hot water, which the people of the neigh-
bourhood utilise for culinary purposes. The springs precipitate considerable
quantities of silica, covering the surface with dazzling white incrustations, and one
jet of waterand vapour has a temperature of no less than 226 F.
At the neck of the Caramuan peninsula stands the broad-based Ysarog (Isarog),
248 AUSTRALASIA.
and Lagonoy,
whose slopes occupy the whole space between the bays of San Miguel
feet high. Ysarog has been quiescent through-
terminating in a regular cone, 6,450
to be a spring of
out modern times, and the only sign of former energy appears
carbonic acid near the summit.
The northern part of the Camarines peninsula is dominated by the two volcanic
masses of Colasi and Labo (Tetas de Polantuna), which, however, have no craters,
and apparently have been at rest since prehistoric times. Majayjay (6,500 feet)
and San Cristobal (7,660 feet), south-east from Manilla, are also extinct. But west
of them stands the volcano of Taal, which, although only 780
feet high, is one of
the most remarkable in the Philippines. It occupies, with two other lesser cones,
Fig. 108.- CENTRAL PAET OF LUZON.

Scale 1 : 2,600,000.
118* or Greenwich
Depths.
0*o50 BO to 100 100 Fathoms

. GO Miles.
an islet in the middle of Lake Bombon, which is

separated from the China
Sea by a low narrow isthmus. Taal, whose flanks are furrowed
by deep gorges,
terminates in an enormous crater, out of all
proportion with its size, "Purgatory,"
as the natives call this crater, has a circumference of over
4,300 yards, and contains
in its depths numerous crevasses emitting vapours, and two blue
secondary craters,
lakelets charged with sulphuric and hydrochloric acids in the proportion of over
six JUT cent. Formerly the two other volcanoes in the island the Great and
Little
Binintiang ejected ashes alternately, and the bod of the lake itself was
occasionally in a state of eruption ; but since 1749 all the
underground forces
have been centred in Mount Taal, which casts
up showers of pulverised rock, but
VOLCANOES OF THE PHILIPPINES. 249
no lavas. The last outburst in 1885 destroyed all traces of vegetation in the
island.
Bombon, which is nearly 640 feet deep, was probably a vast crater, of which
the islet with its three volcanoes is merely the central cone, while the walls of tufa,
over 600 feet high, encircling the north and east shores of the lake, are the remains
Fig. 109. LAKE BOMBON.

Scale 1 :
300,000.
120' 56' La-ab ci Ljreenw'cki
f> Jliles.
of the original rim of the crater. But, like that of the island of Saint Paul, this
crater was formerly open towards the sea, as shown by the present intervening barrier,
which is
entirely composed of eruptive scorife. The water of the old inlet, thus
converted into a lake, is still somewhat although constantly renewed by rain
saline,
water, and although the overflow is carried off by an emissary running south-west
to the coast. The marine fauna inhabiting the lake has gradually adapted itself
2go
, AUSTBALASIA.
The great Lake Bay, or the Laguna, south-east of

to its modified environment.
marine gulf cut off fVom the sea by the
Manilla, was also probably an ancient
narrow isthmus of recent formation on which stands the capital of the Philippines.
is inhabited by the shark and another sea-fish
According to Semper, the Laguna
and islets in the
found inthe neighbouring marine waters. The peninsulas
at the entrance of
northern part of the Laguna, as well as the island of Corregidor,
Manilla Bay, consist of igneous rocks, but all have been quiescent throughout the
historic period.
of Spanish writers leave it doubtful whether any
The contradictory statements
or Santo-Tomas
outbursts occurred in the seventeenth century at Mount Aringay,
(7,530 feet), which rises

above the east side of Lingayen Bay. Data, lying to the
north-east of Aringay, is certainly quiescent, although, like several other
cones in
this group, it is encircled by thermal springs and solfataras. No other volcano
occurs between and the northern extremity of Luzon, where Cagud

this district
emits wreaths of smoke.
(3,920 feet), at the terminal headland, constantly
Beyond this the igneous system is continued under the sea to the island of
point
In the neighbour-
Camiguin (2,415 feet), which contains a productive
solfatara.
rose above the surface in 1856 four years later it

ing Babuyan, an active volcano ;
had attained a height of nearly 700 feet, and since then has continued to grow, its
present elevation apparently being about 800 feet.
The reefs of Dedica, on which
the new volcano stands, would themselves appear to bs the remains of an old
burning mountain. In this vast igneous chain, which extends from Sangil for
about 1,000 miles northwards, the last member is Babuyan Claro, whose fiery cone,
over 3,000 feet high, lights up at night the dangerous waters of the Sea of Formosa.
This great island is connected with the Philippines through the reefs and islets of
the intervening Batanes (Basb.ee) Archipelago.
Fewregions are more subject to underground disturbances than the Philippines.
" "
Despite the numprous safety-valves which, according to certain theories, are
offered by the active volcanoes to the subterranean forces, this archipelago may be
suid to be in a continual state of tremor. The seismographs of the Manilla Obser-
vatory are constantly vibrating the crust of the earth is incessantly quivering
;
with undulations, normally running in the direction from west to east, and few
years pass without some disaster caused by thpse oscillations. The city of Manilla
has been frequently wasted by such convulsions, and most of its
public buildings
and European houses built of stone were levelled to the ground by that of 1863, the
most terrible on record. The no less violent shock of 1880 was far less disastrous
the edifices having in the interval been constructed on a
plan better able to resist
the effects of these oscillations.
During the earthquake of 18SO Taal and several other volcanoes were in full
eruption, and a submarine crater, between the island of Polillo and the east coast
of Luzon, rose above the surfacebut the following year this heap of ashes had
;
entirely disappeared, washed away by the waves.

The disposition of the mountain ranges in parallel chains has afforded
space for
the development of some considerable streams both in Luzon and Mindanao. The
RIVERS OF THE PHILIPPINES. 251
most copious is the Cagayan, or Rio Grande, which after a course of over 200 miles
between two Cordilleras in Luzon enters the sea through a broad estuary facing
ihe island of Camiguin. The Agno, which reaches the coast on the south side of
Lingayen Bay, receives the waters and auriferous sands of the Benguet Cirque, a
limestone amphitheatre, supposed by some to represent an ancient upheaved atoll.
The Pampangan, which traverses the vast plain of like name, after receiving the
Fig. 110. EARTHQUAKE OF 1880.
Scale 1 :
6,500.000.
C. fnfftffo
C.
13'
I SL
15'
(19 Easb oF Greenwich
. 120 Miles.
overflow of several lakes joins the sea on the north side of Manilla Bay, where it
has developed a broad delta projecting beyond the old coast-line. The Pasig,
which falls into the same bay,
is only 12 miles long but like the Russian Neva ;
acquires great importance as the emissary of the Laguna, and because Manilla,
capital of the Philippines, stands upon its banks; small, flat -bottomed steamers
ply on the Pasig, between the lake and the sea.

In Mindanao the largest river is the Agusan or Butuan t which is navigable for over
252
AUSTRALASIA.
also known as the Rio Grande, is said

60 miles from its mouth. Another stream,
to rise in Lake Magindanao, in
the centre of the island, flowing thence south-west
and north-east to Illana Bay in the Celebes Sea.
CLIMATE, FLORA, FAVNA OF THE PHILIPPINES.

and in other
The climate of the Philippines is essentially maritime tropical ;
oscillates within very narrow limit. 5.

words, the temperature, normally very high,
little from month to month, is useless to distinguish
season
Thus the heat,varying
rather by the alternating
from season, and the year, as in Indonesia, is divided
from the north-east prevails from
wet and dry monsoons.* The polar current
re=t of the year. The
October to April, the moist south-west monsoon for the
is always dreaded, being often attended by sudden
change of the trade winds
rise in the Pacific, and sweep across the archipelago to
bagnio* or typhoons, which
the north of Mindanao, wrecking vessels by the dozen, demolishing villages,
destroying thousands of lives,

and spreading ruin far and wide. The typhoon
that struck Manilla in 1882, the most terrific on record, travelled at the prodigious
velocity of 140 miles per

hour. At present a submarine cable communicating
with Hong-Kong signals the approach of these storms, thereby greatly diminishing
their disastrous effects.
in their flora
Lying between Indonesia and Formosa, the Philippines-present
and fauna a natural transition between these two regions nevertheless they also ;
possess a number of characteristic species,

which in some cases are even confined
to a single island. Mindanao, the least known region of the archipelago, appears
to be also the richest in special vegetable forms. The
sixty species of large
trees
in its forests, yielding valuable timbers for ship-building, cabinet-work or carving,

include a myrtacea (Xnnfhoslemitm cerdugonianum), an almost incorruptible wood
whose range extends to Australia. The balete, or banyan, is very common through-
out the archipelago, where it often attains enormous dimensions. Palms also are
numerous, while the cinnamon, clove, and pepper grow wild in the southern forests.
The tea plant has been discovered in Luzon, and is now cultivated in the botanic
gardens with good results. In 1882 botanists had already recognised 1,163
genera and 4,583 species of plants in the archipelago.
No carnivorous animals occur except the ngiao, a species of wild cat, although
the natives speak of a tiger or leopard in Paragua. Amongst the other mammals
are the wild boar, dangerous in some districts, two species of antelope, several
varieties of the deer family, the Macacut Cjfnontofgtu and other apes. Birds are
very numerous and the gallinaceae especially are represented by some superb
forms, such as the ffi!>iu/o and btfliotigay. The neighbouring seas abound in animal
organisms of all kinds, and some of the rivers team with fish. Amongst these
the curiims or snake-head
(Ophiocfphalus), furnished with water-pouches
is d-ilair,
on either side of the head, which enable it to remain

long out of its natural
*
M. "in annual temperature of Manilla from IS'Oto 1880 82 ; F. ; highest (September), 97; lowest
(February,, .'>9'
; rainfall about 100 inches.
INHABITANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES. 253
element ;
it is met browsing far from the streams, and even climbing up the stems
of palm-trees. All the venomous orders of snakes are represented in the local
fauna, and crocodiles grow to an enormous size, some having been met about
30 feet long, at least according to De la Gironniere.
INHABITANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES.
The gradually driven back or exterminated by the intruding

aborigines,
Malays, have disappeared altogether from some of the islands, and in the others
are now met only in scattered tribal or
family groups. The full-blood A etas
" Little
(Atas, Itas), as these Negritoes, or Negroes," are collectively called, do
not number at present more than twenty thousand in the whole archipelago but ;
traces of Negrito blood may be detected in large sections of the population, which
presents every shade of transition in physical appearance, culture, and usages,
between the Negrito and Malay elements. The pure blacks are most numerous in
the island of Negros, but they are also found in all the other islands, except the
archipelagoes north of Luzon, and apparently Samar, Leyte, Bohol, and Sulu.
The Negritoes fully deserve their name, for the average height is under five
feet. The head is
bright eyes, high forehead, abundant
relatively large, with
frizzly and at times almost woolly hair, slender extremities, calf almost absent,
and great toe often standing wide apart. The wrinkles of the face combined with
their projecting jaws give them at times quite a simian aspect. The Aetas speak
Malay in their intercourse with their more civilised neighbours, but amongst
themselves they use words of unknown origin, supposed to be derived from the
primitive language which was still current in the seventeenth century. It
appears, however, that many of their tribes must have been subject to Malay
influences from very remote times, for the dialects spoken in some districts
undoubtedly belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family, although the Aetas them-

selves are sprung from a totally different ethnical stock.
Most of the tribes practise tattooing ;

circumcision is also very general, and in
some parts the women artificially deform the skulls of their children. Except in the
vicinity of populous districts little clothing is worn
beyond a loin-cloth by the men,
and a short skirt by the women. In some places they build huts of branches and
foliage,and even pile-dwellings like those of the Malays but elsewhere their only
;
protection from the inclemency of the weather are frail screens of palm-leaves,
which are placed against the sun, wind, or rain. In the provinces where they are
gradually becoming civilised, they clear and till the land, raise poultry and pigs,
and enter into trading relations with the Malays. But being unable to reckon
beyond four and five, they are easily cheated, and they have evidently a profound
sense of their own inferiority, reserving the term too, or " men," to the dominant
race.
Apart from the Negritoes, the Chinese settlers, the Europeans and half-castes,
the entire population, at least north of Mindanao, is of Malay origin and speech.
At some unknown, but certainly very remote epoch, the Malay ancestors of the
254 AUSTRALASIA.
a permanent footing in the archipelago. The term

present inhabitants effected
Fig. 111. GEOUP OF NEGRITOES.
or boat, still
applied to the villages, recalls the time when these mariners,
encamping on the beach, continued to lead much the same lives as when scouring
the high seas in their praus. As was the case with the sampans or junks of the
more recent Chinese settlers, every balangay became the cradle of a Malay colony.
In general the Philippine Malays resemble those of Indonesia, except that in
Fig. 112. CHIEF INHABITANTS OP THE PHILIPPINES.

Scale 1 :
12,000,000.
TH gals. Vicols. Vistys and llocanos. 7nmhala and Cngnyanes.

Kindred. PagusinaDea.
Jporrntos ind Moors rind Duj ;iks. Negritoes. Chinese.

Kindred. Kindred.
___ 3C Miles.
some places, and especially Lu/on, a slight transition is presented towards the
Chinese type. Thus the oblique eyes, rare amongst the southern Malays, is on
the contrary a distinctive feature of the northern Malays.
Independently of their
special local characteristics and dialects, all are broadly grouped in three classes
256 AUSTRALASIA.
Those who have accepted the authority

according to their religion and pursuits.
of the whites and the ministrations of the Catholic clergy are called Indies, or
Indians," and this class is gradually merging in a common nationality.

" Those
of the south, who remain followers of the Prophet, are collectively known as
" Moors the tribes that have maintained their independence, or
Moi-os, or ;
"^lastly,
submit impatiently to the foreign yoke and still practise their old pagan rites,
"
form the class of Inficks, or Infidels."
Of the Indios the most the Tagals (Ta-Gala), who number
civilised are
1,500,000, and are steadily increasing, less by the excess of births over deaths than
by the gradual assimilation of the surrounding tribal groups.

The Tagal domain,
which comprises all the central parts of Luzon, is slowly encroaching on all the
other populations of the island. Thus in the north it has already absorbed the
territory of the Pampangos and Pangasinanes, in the north-east that of the Aetas,
in the south-east that of the Vicols, while the islands of Mindoro and Marinduque
have also become " Tagalised." The Tagals are met everywhere along the sea-
board, and are in fact the chief pioneers of European culture throughout the archi-
pelago. Besides them there are other groups of Indios, even in Luzon, such as the
Ilocos or Ilocanos on the west coast north of Lingayen Bay, and the Ibanags or
Cagayanes in the extreme north and neighbouring islands.
The Vicols, or Bicols, who occupy the Camarines peninsula, with the islands of
Catanduanes, Burias, Ticao, and half of Masbate, greatly resemble the Tagals, and
likethem were already somewhat civilised before the arrival of the Spaniards.
They number at least 400,000, including the Cimarrones and a few other groups
who still
keep aloof in the more inaccessible hilly districts. The third great
ethnical division of the Indios are the Visayas, or Bisayas, who are estimated at
2,500,000, and who give their name to the cluster of islands comprised between
Luzon and Mindanao. They have also formed several settlements on the coast of
Mindanao itself, and to the same division belong the inhabitants of the Calamianes
Islands and of Paragua, although their darker colour and
wavy hair betray evident
traces of Negrito blood. The Visayas had formerly the habit of " painting them-
selves with fire," whence the term Pintados applied to them by the Spaniards.
But since their submission and acceptance of Christianity, they have discontinued
this practice, as well as that of
head-hunting, formerly universal.
The " Moors," who occupy the Sulu
Archipelago and the southern shores of
Mindanao, comprise, like the Indios, a considerable number of distinct tribes or
nations, united by the common ties of their Mohammedan faith and social
usages.
Amongst them are groups resembling the Bornean Dayaks, the Bayos of Celebes,
and other Malayan peoples. The aristocratic families are
Arabs, or else from Bor-
neo or Ternate, while traces of
crossings with the Chinese and Spanish renegades
may also be detected. The roving habits of these corsairs, who were
continually
carrying off the women from all the surrounding regions, have made the Moors
one of the most mixed populations in the extreme East.
Their essentially feudal institutions caused the whole social
organization to rest
on piracy. By the side of the sultans were their almost
equally powerful vassals.
the data, each of whom, with the reservation of the homage due to his suzerain,
became proprietor of the lands conquered and wealth plundered bv his retainers.
The tao marahay, or "good men," that is, the free warriors, accompanied them on
their predatory expeditions, while the
sacope, or lack-land class, were reduced to a
state of serfdom. Like the Norman knights they issued forth in search of adven-
ture, to do battle against the infidel in the name of the true faith, or to acquire
renown by carrying off women, slaves, and treasure. In the early years of the
Fig. li'A. IFUOAO INDIAN.
sixteenth century they were beginning to overrun the Philippine Archipelago,

smd but for the intervention of the Spaniards there can be no doubt that the
Tagals would at present be Mohammedans. Piracy in these waters was not

entirely destroyed the latter half of the present century by the Spanish occu-
till
pation of the Mindanao seaboard and the Sulu Archipelago.

The pagan populations, often confounded by the Spaniards under the general
name of Igorrotcs, still form a considerable section of the inhabitants both in Luzon
and Mindanao. The Igorrotes, properly so called, dwell east of the Ilocos, in the
.
l7o
258 AUSTEALASIA.
districts. North of them are the Tingui-

Benguet Valley and surrounding hilly
limited to the possession of crucifixes
used as talismans
anes whose Christianity is ;
eastwards the upper Cagayan basin held by the Ilongotes, Ifugaos, Catalanganes,
is
The Tinguianes, whose complexion is almost

Irayas, and
other pagan tribes.
as half-castes of Chinese origin, whereas the
white, are regarded by most observers
to be Tagals, who have hitherto preserved their primitive religion
Igorrotes appear
in other deities in whom are
and usages. They believe in a supreme God, and
of nature. To these they offer sacrifices, although
personified the phenomena
their chief worship is that of their anitos, or ancestors, whose souls
rustle in the
tree planted at the entrance of every village. These anitos

foliage of the sacred
also appear at times in the form of animals, and in many parts of Luzon, as in
tended by the natives with
Celebes, the fish ponds are stocked with eels which are
filial piety.
Strict laws of solidarity bind together the family group, and all outrages must be
avenged by death ;
hence the hereditary feuds, and the prevalence of head-hunting
amongst these tribes. The Ifugaos use the lasso to seize the passing foe and drag
him suddenly under the sharp knife. Amongst the Igorrotes certain practices
survive pointing at former Brahmanical influences, and the very term clitrifn,
applied to the national deities, is of Hindu origin.

"
In Mindanao, the " Infidels comprise numerous communities, which are often
grouped by the whites under the collective name of Manobos. But this term
should properly be restricted to the natives of the north-east, who occupy the
Agusan basin and the Surigao peninsula. Some of those dwelling near the coast
have been conquered and converted by the Spaniards, others in the interior present
the Malay type of the Visayans modified by Negrito crossings. But
more or less
most of the tribes appear to be of the Indonesian stock, which is closely allied to
the eastern Polynesian, and characterized by high stature, fair complexion, and
well-proportioned figures. The lobe of the ear is usually pierced for the introduc-
tion of bone and other ornaments the teeth of the young men are filed according
;
to a different pattern for every clan ;

the heads of the children are artificially de-
formed in many communities, and various systems of tattooing prevail amongst the
different tribes.
The _expression "Land of Terror," applied by Montano to the eastern regions
of Mindanao,
might with equal truth be extended to nearly the whole island.
When the Manobos, led by their high priest with his divine talisman, have suc-
ceeded in surprising their sleeping enemies,
they slaughter all the men and carry
away the women and children into slavery. After the victory the high priest
opens the breast of the victim with the sacred knife, plunges the talisman in the
flowing blood, and eats the heart or liver raw. The Mandayas, who slay for
honour, have a special term, bagani, to designate the hero who has cut at least
fifty heads, and who has alone the privilege of wearing a scarlet turban. Vast
territories have been transformed to solitudes
by this incessant intertribal war-
fare.
Of foreigners settled in the most numerous are the Chinese.

Philippines the
From time immemorial their colonies have fringed the seaboard, and in nearly all
the tribes traces may be detected of Chinese crossings. According to the imperial
the native princes sent envoys and tribute to the " Children of Heaven,"
Jannals,
and objects of Chinese workmanship found in the local graves show that trading
relations had long been established between the two regions. Three times during
the seventeenth century the Chinese of Luzon rose against their Spanish masters,
and each time the revolt was quelled in torrents of blood. After all manner of
harassing restrictions were imposed on these tr'>ublesome immigrants, they were
expelled in mass or massacred in 1763, soon after the temporary occupation of
Manilla by the English. But with them trade disappeared, and despite the con-
tempt Europeans and the hatred of Tagals, they had soon to be
of recalled, so that
at present every town in the archipelago has its Chinese quarter. In 1887, they
were estimated altogether at fifty-three thousand, almost exclusively men, most of
whom return to China after making thur fortune, and generally leaving behind
them a family of half-castes. These half-castes, who resemble the Chinese much
more than the native type, found new homes in their turn, and, thanks to their
surprising vigour, they constitute at present the majority of the bourgeois class
in most of the towns.
Although the Spaniards made their appearance forty-four years after the death
of Magellan, the conquest of the archipelago is still far from complete. Although
by an abuse of language spoken of as a colony, it is really a military possession,
in which the whites are mainly officials, who control the natives, but found no
permanent settlements in the country. The Spanish Creoles, however, who have
not maintained the purity of their blood, are perfectly acclimatised, and become
the heads of numerous more or less mixed families. The white element, in which
are also represented some Peruvians and Mexicans, numbers altogether about four-
teen thousand, a proportion not greater than that of the Dutch in Indonesia.
Apart from the wild tribes in Mindanao and elsewhere, the inhabitants of the
Philippines are amongst the most civilised in the extreme East. In most of the
provinces the villages of the Indios are well kept and far superior, in many res-
pects, to the irregular groups of cabins still to be seen in so many European lands.
Each dwelling is isolated in the midst of a flowery garden, and separated from the
adjoining plots by rows of palms and bananas. The houses are all raised on piles
about seven feet above the ground, thus recalling the time when the natives dwelt
on alluvial lands on the shores of lakes or the sea. The timber framework of
these houses carved with the greatest care and often with much taste while the
is ;
well-swept and polished apartments are fitted with good furniture and Chinese
ornaments.
Except in the territory of the Ilocos and some other parts, each family has its
independent plot of land, and this system of small free lodgings prevails
little
throughout most of the archipelago. Apart from a few Chinese half-castes nobody
<>u us extensive domains, but all have enough, taking one season with another, to
support their families and leave a little for the feasts and holidays. In the thickly
peopled provinces the land is divided and subdivided into innumerable allotments
2C o AUSTRALASIA
and other alimentary produce. All the

for the cultivation of rice, sweet potatoes,
to the cultivators themselves, who sell only
the surplus of their crops,
plots belong
constitutes the
and this surplus, bought up by Chinese and other middlemen,
the commodities exported by the Manilla merchants.
But the
great bulk of
than they might be, for the cultivated lands are estimated
exports are still far less
at not more than 4,500,000 acres, or scarcely one-fifteenth
of the whole area of the
archipelago.
of tobacco, which
One of the last of the old government monopolies was that
was not abolished till This plant is cultivated chiefly in the
the year 1882.
the
northern provinces of Luzon, and especially in the Cagayan basin. Formerly
labourers on the plantations were little better than serfs. Every village was bound
real value.
to deliver a certain quantity of tobacco at a price far inferior to the
The result was that the cultivators, oppressed by official rapacity, found no time to
tilltheir rice-fields, and, despite the great fertility of the soil, they were constantly
threatened with famine. The tended also to impair the quality of the
monopoly
leaf, and the Manilla badly prepared by servile labour, became greatly
cigars,
inferior to thosa of Havana. At present the Philippines hold the fifth place for
the production of tobacco, standing before Cuba and coming next after the United
States, Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia. The plantations suffered much from the
birds from
ravages of parasites before the introduction of certain insectivorous
Cochin-China.
Sugar, which stands first on the list of exports, goes almost entirely to the
United States and Great Britain. The crop is about two- thirds of that of Java,
and now valued at about 2,000,000. Coffee, much neglected after the Franco-
is
German war, has again acquired some importance but cacao and other colonial
;
produce contribute little to the export trade. An extensive local industry has
"
been developed in connection with the Mitsa abaca, commonly known as Manilla
hemp," from which are woven textile fabrics superior in strength and lightness to
those made of the best Russian hemp. These articles are seldom exported, being
almost entirely bought up by the Chinese half-castes for the local consumption.
The banana, which yields the fibre for this industry, flourishes best in the Cama-
riiies peninsula, where as much as thirty cwts. are raised on an acre of ground.
None of the other native industries have acquired any development, so that
most manufactured wares have to be imported from abroad. During the lust
decade the movement of exchange has increased rapidly, thanks to the abolition
of certain monopolies, the reduced customs dues, the free admission of foreign
shipping, and the opening of new ports to trade. Regular lines of steam-packets
ply now between Manilla and the two great British marts of Singapore and Hong-
Kong, while smaller steamers maintain the communications between the capital
and the chief seaports of the archipelago. But the great natural resources of many
inland districtsstill lie dormant,
owing to the almost total absence of good roads
and of railways, beyond a short line running from Manilla northwards.
On
the other hand, the social position of the
people is greatly superior to that
of the Javanese and other populations under Dutch administration. Most of the
Indies have learnt to read and write Spanish, and even when employing their native
idioms they substitute the Roman for the somewhat rude and difficult characters
of Hindu origin, which were in use before the arrival of the Spaniards. The
civilised natives have also adopted the European costume, though in a modified
form, wearing the shirt as a blouse, and the Chinese form of hat.
Speaking generally, the Indies of the Philippines may be regarded as amongst
the happiest populations in the world. They lead a pleasant, easy life in the midst
of their fragrant gardens, under the shade of fruit-laden palms, and on the banks
of babbling brooks. In many places they sow their rice in cadence, to the sound
of violin or clarionette. But they yield too readily to indolent habits, and omit
no opportunity of indulging in the national vice of gambling. Cock-fighting
is a favourite sport on feast days, and the Roman Catholic
religion itself is for
them little more than a succession of festive amusements.
Troubling themselves
with questions of dogma, they display extraordinary zeal in the celebration of
little
the pompous rites of the Roman liturgy, and a great part of their existence is
thus passed in the observance of practices not greatly differing from those of their
primitive cult. A
domestic altar, with the images of the Madonna and saints, suc-
cessors of the ancient anitos, occupies the place of honour in every household, and
the humblest hamlet has its during which these sacred images, draped
special feast,
in embroidered silks and crowned with chaplets of flowers, are borne at the head
The churches, built in the Spanish
" Jesuit "
of brilliant processions. style, are
similarly decorated with rich hangings, bannerols and floral festoons, while every
village has its band of musicians, who accompany the religious ceremonies with a
flourish oftrombones and cymbals. Actors also are frequently engaged to perform
the " mysteries," and play comedies in which the sacred and profane are strangely
intermingled, the feast days kept in honour of the saints usually winding up with
a grand display of fireworks.
The cure, especially if a Spaniard bymost influential person in the
birth, is the
district, and to him the "Capitan" applies for advice on all serious occasions.
The church bells announce the hour of his siesta, and on him far more than on
troops and arms the government depends for the absolute submission of the con-
verted natives. But the increasing relations with the outer world, the spread of
education, the diffusion of profane literature daily penetrating more and more
despite the censure of the press, all tend to bring about a new order of things,
under which the Indios, while bscoming more assimilated to their European
master, must gain in independence and moral freedom. Hence the local clergy
show themselves little favourable to changes threatening to diminish their influence
over their congregations. They even see with reluctance the slow spread of the
Spanish language amongst the natives. But this result is inevitable since the
official decree that no Indio can henceforth exercise any remunerative or public
function, oven in the village >, unless he can read and write Spanish,
TOPOGRAPHY or THE PHILIPPINES.
Manilla, capital of the Philippines, lies on a spacious oval-shaped bay at

the
262 AUSTRALASIA.
The city properly

so-
mouth of the Pusig emissary of the neighbouring Lagunu.
the site on the left or southern bank,
called enclosed by a line of ramparts, occupies
de in 1571 as the bulwark of Spanish power
which was chosen bv Lopez Legaspi
Fig. 114. MANILLA.
Scale 1 : 45,000.
.
2,200 Yards.
in the Eastern seas. Here are centred the administrative buildings, barracks, and
convents, while trade and the industries have migrated to the quarters on the
north side, which are connected by two bridges with " walled Manilla," as the old
TOPOGEAPHY OF THE PHILIPPINES. 263
town Extensive suburbs also stretch along both margins of the Pasig,
is called.
the whole place covering an area of about five square miles.

The sanitary conditions are far from satisfactory. Thus the river, the water of
which taken above the city is used for drinking purposes, is charged with all kinds
of refuse floating up and down with the tides. The numerous canals derived from
the Pusig, and ramifying through this " Tagal Venice," run dry for half the
year,
leaving deposits of fetid mud to poison the atmosphere. The fortifications also,
now absolutely useless as defensive works, serve only to prevent the free circulation
of healthy sea-breezes.Often shaken by earthquakes, Manilla possesses no public
buildings of an imposing character, but here are centred the chief educational
establishments, the observatory, a school of design, a small museum, and a public
library.
As a centre of trade Manilla occupies an admirable position at the outlet of an
inland sea, and on a vast bay 120 miles in circumference, spacious enough to
accommodate the navies of the world.
all The approach to this roadstead is partly
protected by the volcanic Corregidor island, while during the prevalence of the
south-west monsoon ships of three hundred tons are able to ride at anchor in the
Pasig estuary under shelter of a long pier. The inlet at Cacitc, eight miles farther
south, also affords a refuge at this season to small men-of-war, and a new port in
course of construction off the old town will soon accommodate ships of the heaviest
tonnage in its To its other advantages Manilla adds its com-

extensive basins.
manding position on the main routes of navigation between the Sunda Strait and
the Yangtze- Kiang estuary. Lape'rouse asserted, perhaps with some exaggera-
tion, that the capital of the
Philippines occupied the finest commercial site of any
city in the world. Until the year 1811 it served as the chief intermediate station
for the trade between Spain and her American colonies.
Manilla is connected by a line of steam omnibuses with Malabon, which, like

the capital, lies on the shores of a gulf at the mouth of a river. Here is the
largest cigar manufactory in the Philippines, employing at times as many as ten
thousand hands. Both Malabon and Bitlacan, which stands a little farther north
on a branch of the Pampanga, may be regarded as industrial dependencies of
Manilla. The same remark applies also to the fortified town of Cavite, which
lies to the south, and which, with its arsenal, docks, factories, and European build-
ings, has the most Spanish aspect of any town in the archipelago. The neighbour-
ing district of Indan is noted for the prime quality of its coffee.
The two pueblos of Prr.svY/ and Pateron, on the Laguna, at the outlet of its emis-
s;ii-y
should also be considered as outer markets of the capital. For over three
miles along the banks of the river nothing is to be seen except aquatic preserves
for ihe ducks bred to
supply the wants of the city. They are fed on. shell-fish
brought from the roadstead, and the eggs are artificially hatched at Patoros. The
tte Bay, takes its name from a
lake, Lay HIM village on the south side of this
inland sea ;
on the same side but more to the north- west stands Santa- Cruz, capital
of the province. Here are also the much-frequented thermal waters of lianas, and
the industrial town of Lucbnn, which, with its springs, grottoes, and cascades,
261 AUSTRALASIA.
far from the Sun-Cristobal

occupies one of
the most romantic sites in Luzon, not
also a
volcano. On the north side of the Laguna lies the riverain port of Moron,
provincial capital.
river, a northern affluent of Mamll
In the basin of the copious Pampanga
such as Gapan, near some' gold and coal mines in
Bay, are several populous towns,
than its capital, San-Isidro.
the province of Nueva-Ecija, a more important place
the earthquakes of 1880, when
This is one of the regions which suffered most from
Fig. 115. ENVIRONS OF MANILLA.

Scale 1 :
300,000.
Depths.
Sands exposed OtolG 16 to 32 32 Feet

at lew water. Feet. Feet. and upwards.
. 6 Miles.
vast tracts along the river bank were broken into more or less regular sectionsby
yawning crevasses. Farther south is Bacolor, another provincial chief town, which
was selected as the capital of the Spanish possessions during the temporary occupa-
tion of Manilla by the English in 1762. The steamers plying between Manilla
and the Lower Pampanga stop at the station of G/iaync. below Bacolor. Calumpit,
an agricultural centre east of this place, stands at the confluence of the
Pampanga
and Quingoa rivers, in the most fertile district of the
archipelago.
facing Manilla on the west side of the bay, is followed round the
Balanrja,
intervening promontory by the well-sheltered port of Mar'mics, which gives its

name to the neighbouring volcano. Beyond it is the harbour of Subig, said to be
the safest in the Philippines, being protected on three sides by the southern head-
lands of the Zambales Mountains, llin, capital of the province, lies on a dangerous
creek a little farther north.In the spacious Lingayen Bay are several excellent
havens, notably that of Suctl, which, though now opened to international trade, is
still little frequented by shipping. The rugged Zambales highlands and the lack
of communications with the interior prevent trade from being attracted to this part
of the Luzon seaboard. The large town of Limjai/en,whence the bay takes its
name, lies between Sual and the port of Dayupan, on a branch of the Agno Grande
delta. In the interior of this basin, which comprises the three provinces of
Benguet, Tarlac, and Pangasinan, the chief town is San-Miguel de Camilhtg, where
several tribes of distinct speech are conterminous.
Along the north-west coast follow several considerable towns, such as Sanfo-
Tomas, Aringay, San- Fernando, and Vigan, this last in the delta of the Abra river.
Laoag, near the north-west corner of Luzon, ranks next to Manilla for population,
although it possesses no harbour, nor any resources beyond the agricultural pro-
duce of the surrounding district. Beyond this point the seaboard is nearly unin-
habited, the population of Luzon being mostly concentrated on the west side facing
the Asiatic mainland. Even in the basin of the Cagayan, the most copious river
in the Philippines, the only large towns are TuguagaraoandLnllo, formerly Nueva-
Segovia, which in recent times has acquired some importance as the depot for the
best tobacco grown in the archipelago. Aparri, the port of this place, stands on
the right side of the Cagayan estuary.
Then for 420 miles along the northern and eastern coasts of Luzon no seaport
occurs until Binaiigonan is reached, in about the latitude of Manilla over against
the island of Polillo. The Babuyanes and Batanes groups between North Luzon
and Formosa are almost uninhabited, although favourably situated near the ocean
highway between Hong-Kong and Sydney. This route is longer but safer, and,
consequently, more frequented than that of Torres Strait and the intricate waters
of the eastern archipelago.
Marigondon, Baraijuti, and TIKI/, on the west side of Luzon below Manilla, all
lie in extremely fertile and highly cultivated districts. Here also Safangas, one
of the largest towns in the archipelago, occupies a position of vital importance at

the entrance of San-Bernardino Channel, the great commercial highway between
Luzon, the Yisayas Islands, and Mindanao. On the north side of Mindoro, nearly
opposite Batangas, lies Calapnn, round which are grouped nearly all the inhabi-
tants of this island.
Along the narrow Camarines peninsula follow several busy marts, such as
Tnyalm and Mauban, on a roadstead well sheltered by the islet of Alabat. But
here the population is concentrated chiefly in the basin of the river Vicol, where
are crowded together the rural towns of Camalig, Guinobatan, Lirjao, Oas, Polangui,
and Lilony, each with over twelve thousand inhabitants, though distant less than
266 AUSTRALASIA.
where it becomes navigable, the

two miles from each other. Below Lake Batu,
of the province of
Vicol flows by Nabua and Naga or Nueca-Caceret, capital
the fortress
Camarines-Sur, beyond which it faUs into San-Miguel Bay opposite
of North Camarines.
of Cabusao, and not far from Daet, capital of the province
Albay and its
neighbour
Fig. lie. SAMAE AND LEYTE. Daraga occupy a charming
scale 1=2500.000.
foot of the
position at the
verdant lower slopes of the
Mayon volcano. Daraga,

officially Cag-
designated
saua, replaces an older town
of this name which stood
higher up on the flanks

of
the mountain, but which

was destroyed by the erup-
tion of 1814. The port of
both towns is Legaspi, which
is exposed to the full fury
of the north-east monsoons,

and consequently inacces-
sible during the winter
months ;
at this season all
the traffic is transferred to
Sorsogon on the west side of

Luzon. Other ports in this
region are Tibi and Tabaco,
north of Albay, and Bulusau
at the east foot of Mayon.
In the island of Samar,
which forms a south -eastern
extension of the Camarines
peninsula, there are no large

towns. The most important
centres of population are
Guinan near the southern

Depths.
extremity ; Borongan on the

OtoSO 60 to 100 100 Fathoms east coast, like Guinan sur-
- 60 Miles.
rounded by vast forests of
cocoa-nut palms ;
and the
capital Catbalogan on the west coast, on an almost inaccessible roadstead.
Of the adjacent island of Leyte the capital and chief seaport is Tacloban, at the
southern entrance of the channel separating the two islands. This channel, some
twenty-four miles long, contracts in some places to a narrow defile, expands in
others to a broad lake, and at certain
points is only a few hundred yards wide.
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE PHILIPPINES. 267
Both shores are fringed by primeval forest, interrupted only by a few village clear-
ings and their cocoa-nut groves. Here and there occur picturesque cliffs pierced
by caverns where the islanders formerly deposited their dead. In the vicinity of
Basey on the Samar side opposite Tacloban the poisonous plant known as Saint
Fig. 117. ILO-ILO AND STRAIT OF
Scale 1 : 660,000.
Depths.
Oto5 6 to 100 100 Fathoms

Fathom*. Fathoms. and upwards.
12 Miles.
Ignatius' bean (Strychnos lyiiatid amarrt) grows in the greatest profusion. Another
tree of the dicterocarptts species yields the baluo or mtitapnjo, a resinous oil, which
is
highly prized for its property of preserving iron from rust.
Panay, situated about the centre of the archipelago, is

relatively the most
268 AUSTRALASIA.
whole group. Here are several more or less important

populous member of the
places, such as Capiz
on the north coast San Jose de Buennisfa and Antique on
;
in the north-
the west side Sibalon farther inland in the same district Conception
;
;
and in the south-east Ilo-Ilo, on the well-sheltered

channel separating Panay
east,
Guimaras. Next to Manilla, Ilo-Ilo is the most frequented
from the islet of
Since has been thrown open to foreign trade, it has

seaport in the Philippines.
it
share of the export trade in sugar and other

rapidly attracted to itself a large
wares.
colonial produce, as well as of the import trade in European and Chinese
A the north of Ilo-Ilo lies the episcopal suburb of Jaro.

little to
the whole of the Yisayas

Although Ilo-Ilo is the central emporium for
Islands, Cebu or Zebu, the chief place in the
island of like name, ranks as the
to the priority of its foundation. Its first
capital of the group, probably owing
in 1571, just fifty years after
buildings were erected by the conqueror Legaspi
Magellan had met his death on the islet of Mactan
close to this spot. Cebu,
which like Ilo-Ilo was thrown open to international trade in 1863, exports the rice
and mother-of-pearl of Mindanao,

of Panay, the abaca of Leyte, the wax, ratans,
the sugar and tobacco forwarded from Tagbilaran and Maribojoc, capital of the
neighbouring island of Bohol. In the Cebu district are some carboniferous beds,
which yield a coal of good quality.
The large island of Mindanao, still almost entirely occupied by independent
tribes, has no Spanish stations except a few here and there on the seaboard. One
of the most promising of these stations is Mlsamis, in an auriferous district on the
north coast. Butuan has the advantage of being situated on the estuary of the
great river Agusan ; Surigao, at the northern extremity of the island, commands
the chief channel opening eastwards in the direction of the Pacific Bislig, towards ;
the middle of the east coast, possesses an excellent harbour on a seaboard exposed
to fierce gales during half the year. Here isthe only safe anchorage on the
east side of the island south of Suragao. West of Vcrgnra, recently founded on
the spacious Gulf of Davao or Tagloc, the only settlements are Cottabato and
Polloc, in the fertile plain watered by the Rio Grande, and Zamboangrt, an old
station at the extremity of the south-western headland
dating from the year 1635.
This place, which exports the best coffee in the archipelago, is remarkably
salubrious, notwithstanding its position on a low-lying plain broken by brackish
lagoons or swamps at the foot of wooded hills. Its inhabitants, nearly all half-
breeds, are none the less proud of their Spanish descent, and speak Castilian with
great purity. In the last century Zumboanga temporarily disappeared under a

shower of ashes from a neighbouring volcano.
In the Sulu 1876 formally annexed to the Spanish
(Jolo) archipelago, since
colonial possessions, each of
the larger islands has its military or naval station to
keep the unruly inhabitants in awe, and guard the neighbouring seas from their
piratical excursions. At Basilan, against which the French had sent an expedition
45 to murder of some sailors, the Manilla government fearing a
avenge the
permanent French occupation, has founded the town of Isabella, which, thanks to
its excellent harbour
facing Zamboanga, seems destined one day to acquire some
importance. Unfortunately the climate is so unhealthy that some hundreds of

convicts sent to clear the ground in the vicinity of the rising town all died of
fever.
The ancient city of western extremity of the island of like

Sulu, at the
name, has also become a Spanish station, and the descendant of the dreaded
sultans who ruled the whole archipelago together with North Borneo, is now
nothing more than an obscure pensioner of the Philippine Government. His

capital has lost all its industries, and the famous krisses made at this place are
now replaced by weapons of English or German manufacture.
In the large island of Paragua or Palawan, Spain also maintains two military
Fig. 118. SULU AUCHIPELAOO.

Scale 1 :
2,250,000.
121 Easb oP Greenwich
Ecpths.
Oto25 25 to 100 loo to l.noo 1,000 to 2,000 2 000 Fathoms

Fnthonw. Fathoms. Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwards.
stations :
Tay-tay, near the northern extremity on a well-sheltered inlet, and
Pttfrto-Prhicesa, on a fine natural harbour on the east coast. The forests in the
immediate neighbourhood of the latter station are still occupied by the Tagbanuhoy,
wild tribes of Malay origin, and the mountains of the interior are inhabited
by
the l>ataks, who are supposed to be of Negrito stock.
In the island of Bulabac, facing the Bornean archipelago of Banguay, the only
centre of population is a mere village, while the islets
studding the China Sea
farther west arc uninhabited.
270 AUSTRALASIA.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE PHILIPPINES.
The Philippines are governed directly from Madrid by the Crown and Cortes ;
their administration is modified

hence, without being fundamentally changed,
with the vicissitudes of political power in the Iberian peninsula.
the head of affairs stands the governor- general, who
At commands the military
and naval forces, and personally administers the island of Luzon, the Visayas
under the authority of subordinate governors.
group and Mindanao being placed
The governor general is himself assisted by an administrative council, the
members of which are chosen by the central power. A sort of ministry,
irresponsible except to this central power,

is also constituted by some of the
higher officials, including the government secretary, the head of the staff, the
directors 'of financial and civil affairs. The governor- general is considered as the
"vice-patron" of the church.
three governments of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao are divided into
The
or by civil alcaldes who are
provinces administered either by military governors
at the same time in the first instance in both the civil and criminal courts.
judges
In most of Luzon the civil system prevails but the regime is strictly military in
;
Mindanao, and even in the Visayas, although the population of these islands is
entirely civilised and almost as dense as in the industrial countries of Western
Europe. Each province is divided into pueblos, a term which comprises both the
district itself and its chief town hence some of these pueblos have a consider-
;
able population, ranging from ten thousand to fifteen thousand, and even twenty
thousand. Such are those in the neighbourhood of Manilla, in the southern
regions of Luzon, in Panay, and some other members of the Visayas group, and
each of these districts is administered by a gobernadorcillo, or "little governor,"
who delegates his powers to tenicntes, or " lieutenants," placed at the head of each
village or hamlet in the pueblo.
All the higher functionaries are exclusively Spaniards appointed directly from
the mother country but the smaller officials of the pueblos are drawn from the
;
half-caste or indigenous classes, and elected for three years the leading citizensby
the district. The "
of gobernadorcillos, called also captains," are at once mayors
and judges ;
but appeal is allowed from their decisions to the alcaldes and the
supreme court of Manilla. The notables of the pueblos are collectively

"Hi/iencia, or
responsible for the taxes, which average about six shillings for every adult
between sixteen and sixty years of age.
The collection of these taxes constitutes the main function of the local officials,
and the chief impost still retains the name of tribute, as at the time when the
natives of the Philippines were still regarded as
conquered pagans. This tribute,
a kind of poll-tax, about but at
formerly four, present exceeding ten shillings a
year, usually levied on the family group, and supplies the elements for the
is
summary statistics of the population. Besides this tax, the men are required to
give forty days' work to the government for the construction of roads and
communal buildings. But such an apparently excessive extent of statute labour
ADMINISTRATION OF THE PHILIPPINES. 271
isbut a slight burden amongst the indolent populations of the

archipelago, where
every native may purchase exemption for a sum which in no instance exceeds
twelve or thirteen shillings. The Chinese pay a tribute of
twenty-five shillings,
which for their mestizos is reduced to one-half, while all
Europeans are entirely
Fig. 119. DENSITY op THE POPULATION OP THE PHILIPPINES.
Scale 1 : 12,800,000.
126*
Jnhfibi*nntsto the Square Mile.
D H Q 3 *
to i. 2 to 50. 60 to 200. 200 and upn aids.
^^^
Each square represents over 1,000 inhabitants.
ISO Miles.
exempt from this poll-tax, which was originally a mark of subjection. Other
chief sources of revenue arc the taxes levied on industries and real property, the
customs and navigation dues, the postal and telegraphic services, lotteries, excise,
cock-fighting, and some other minor taxes. The cultivation of opium is interdicted
272 AUSTRALASIA.
to certain Chinese traders. The yearly outlay,

and importation restricted
its
service in China and Japan, is
which includes the maintenance of the diplomatic
the income.
usually in excess of
the
Although the Inquisition has been abolished in the present century,
Fig. 120. FEOVINCIAL DIVISIONS or THE PHILIPPINES.

Scale 1 : 11,300,000.
, 240 Miles.
exercise of no public worship is tolerated except that of Catholicism, the State
religion. A part of the tribute is strictly reserved for the support of the clergy,
who have also a right to exact direct contributions called pie dc altar, becaiise paid
l>y the faithful at " the foot of the altar." The Spanish
secular clergy, com-
prising a small number of ecclesiastics, reside chiefly in the archiepiscopal city of

Manilla, and in the three bishoprics of Nueva-Caceres, Jaro and Cebu. The
ADMINISTRATION OF THE PHILIPPINES. 273
pueblos are administered either by Dative priests, or by the different religious

orders, such as Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, and especially Augustinians, the
wealthiest and most influential of all. According to their regulations, ttese
missionaries are bound to reside at least ten years in the archipelago, and few of
them entertain any hope of ever returning to the mother country. But they are
not a numerous body, and the local clergy does not number altogether as many as
twelve hundred persons. The native priests are educated in the large diocesan
seminaries.
Public instruction, obligatory in the civilised districts, is under the control of
the priests, who have established primary schools in nearly all the pueblos. Here
the children learn to read and write Spanish, and although this language is
generally forgotten after they leave school, it is gradually becoming the idiom of
the civilised classes, and reducing the native tongues to the position of provincial
patois. Secondary instruction is provided for by two one directed by the
colleges,
Dominicans, the other by the Jesuits. The university of Santo-Tomas, founded in
1645, is
essentially a theological institution, although also comprising scientific
and medical courses. The censure, however, still prohibits the introduction of
most foreign scientific and literary works, and so recently as 1882 Bernardin de
Saint Pierre's Paul and Virginia was specially interdicted ! The one Tagal
and eight or ten Spanish periodicals are also subjected to the ecclesiastical
censure.
The nucleus of the colonial forces consists of about 1,450 Spaniards, forming a
regiment of artillery, the rest of the army being made up of some six thousand
natives. These are enlisted for a period of eight years but substitution is
;
allowed, the average price in time of peace ranging from 8 to 10 in the
wealthy provinces. A
militia of cuadrilleros is occasionally enrolled for local
service.
The navy comprises about twenty corvettes, avisos and gun-boats, manned by
two thousand hands, and stationed chiefly at Cavite, Manilla, Lingayen and
Zamboanga. Seven seaports are open to foreign trade Manilla, Legaspi and
:
Sual in Luzon Tacloban, IIo-Ilo, Cebu and Sulu in the other islands.
;
A table of the fifty-four provinces with their areas, populations and chief
towns will be found in the Appendix.
180
CHAPTER V.
MICRONESIA.
I. THE MARIANA OR LAURONE ISLANDS.
HESE islands, politically united to the Philippines for over two

with them in the history of maritime
centuries, are also associated
in 1521
exploration. They were the first group met by Magellan
on his voyage round the globe, and ten days afterwards he had
reached the Philippine island of Cebu and the adjacent islet of
Mactan, where he met his death. Later, when the Spaniards had permanently
occupied the Philippines and established the regular service of their galleons across
the Pacific, the island of Guam became the indispensable station
in the Marianas
for their mariners between Manilla and Acapulco on the Mexican coast and when ;
the aborigines of the Marianas had almost entirely disappeared this group was
repeopled by immigrants from the Philippines, bringing with them
new plants,
usages, and language.
The name of the Ladrones, or "Robbers," given to these islands
by Magellan,
has fallen into abeyance, and, like the Philippines, they are indebted to flattery
for their more usual designation conferred on them in honour of the Spanish
Queen, Mariana of Austria, wife of Philip. After their discovery by Magellan
they were explored chiefly by Anson, Byron, Wallis, and Freycinet.

A space of about 1,200 miles going eastwards separates the most advanced land
in the Philippines from the first south-western island in the Mariana group, and
this space is
everywhere almost entirely free from islets or reefs of any sort.
Nothing but a few rocks, such as Parece Vela, are visible in the north as the
archipelago is approached from Japan, while some other lauds announce the
proximity of the Pelew Islands to mariners advancing from the south. Thus the
chain of the Marianas is limited westwards by a perfectly open sea about 80,000
square miles in extent, and in some places from 1,200 to 1,500 fathoms deep.
Hence it is evident that this archipelago is in no way connected with the forma-
an independent geological system.
tion of the Philippines, but belongs to
The disposition of the chain shows at a glance an obvious analogy with the
volcanic ranges of the Kuriles and Aleutian Islands,
describing as it docs an
arc of surprising regularity, as iftraced with a compass with its fixed point resting
on the north coast of Luzon. The Marianas also constitute a volcanic range, some
THE MARIANAS. 275
of whose cones rise many hundred feet above the sea, while others, failing to reach
the surface serve as a foundation for a crown of coralline limestones rising above
the surrounding waters. The chain stretches north and south a total distance of
about 600 miles, and the seventeen islands with their islets and reefs have a
area, estimated by Agius at
collective
more than 400, and by Behm and

little Fig. 121. HAEIANA ARCHIPELAGO.
Scale
"Wagner at scarcely 560 square miles.
1 : 8,000,000.
Guam, or Guahan, the largest island,

comprising nearly half the extent of the
whole group, is continued southwards
by the Rosa Bank, which lies on the
northern edge of the deepest cavity in
this part of the Pacific (2,475 fathoms).
North-east of this abyss the soundings

of the Challenger show everywhere depths
of over 1,500 fathoms.
Considered as a range of half sub-
merged mountains the Marianas begin

with a few basalt and tufa crests, which
in Guam attain a height of from 1,300 to
1,600 feet, dominating the grassy or

wooded plateaux, the sandy or argillaceous
and steep coastline of this pictur-
plains,
esque island. Northwards the chain,

interrupted at first by a channel thirty IS"
miles wide, reappears in Mount Tempin-
gan and the rock-bound island of Rota or

Sarpan. Then follow Aguijan the charm- ;
ing Tinian with its gently undulaling

hills Saypan with two extinct volcanoes
;
at its northern extremity ;

Alamagan,
whose smoking crater is probably the
culminating point of the archipelago
(2,320 feet) ; Pagan, composed of two (44 E.oP Greenwich 146
mountainous islands united at the base,
Depths.
bearing two active and one quiescent vol-
cano Agrigan with an extinct cone; and
! J
;
Oto 1,000 to 2,000 to 3.000
1 000 2.000 3.000 Fathoms
Assumption (2,100 feet), whose fissured Fathoms. Fathoms. Fathoms, and upwards.
flanks emit vapours.
still Ihe Uraccas, 120 Miles.
or Mangas, near the northern

extremity
of the chain, seem, like the Dcdica islets off the north coast of Luzon, to be the
remains of a circuit of marine craters, while Farallon dos Parajos, terminating the
whole system, is a still active volcano 1,300 feet high. Altogether the chain
appears to contain six not yet extinct cones.
276 AUSTRALASIA.
to the regular
the so-called dry season from October to May
Exposed during
receive their most abundant rains from the
north-east trade winds, the Marianas
the four summer months from
moist south-west currents, which prevail during
But moisture is at all times, and the streams are
June to September. precipitated
where absorbed by the porous calcareous soil and
volcanic
everywhere copious except
and rendered
corke. The destruction of the forests has also reduced the rainfall
the freshets more sudden and the droughts more protracted.
has mostly disap-
The indigenous flora, consisting chiefly of Asiatic species,
has been mainly introduced by man in recent,
peared, and the present vegetation
the prevailing forms are the cocoa-nut
times. Here, as in most tropical islands,
bread tree. The only indigenous mammal
large is the
palm and the rima, or
" Keraudren " eaten the notwithstanding its
bat, the flesh of which is by natives,
There are but few species of birds, and the paroquets, so

disagreeable odour.
in the are
Moluccas, absent.
totally
Even insects are rare, and
richly represented
of
the reptile order is limited to a few kinds of lizards and a single species
serpent.
was found to contain a
When first by Europeans the archipelago
visited
The Chamorros, unjustly stigmatised by Magellan as
considerable population.
to the Tagals at least in speech
Ladrones, or robbers, appear to have been akin
;
but the physical appearance of their few descendants would lead to the supposition
that the aborigines were a half caste Indonesian and Papuan race. These two
of nobles and
elements may have been represented by the two distinct classes
whom marriage and even contact were forbidden. But however
people, between
this be, the Spanish conquest ended by reducing all alike to a common state of
servitude.
Long the archipelago the Chamorros continued to

after the occupation of
hold out valiantly against the oppressive measures of the authorities, and when all
resistance ceased towards the end of the seventeenth century, it was found that of
the thousand or sixty thousand natives more than half had perished or
fifty
escaped to the Caroline Islands over two-thirds of the 180 villages

;
had fallen
to ruins. Then came the which swept away most of the natives
epidemics,
of Guam, and when they were replaced by compulsory immigration from Tinian
nearly all the new arrivals perished of inanition Tinian had been entirely depopu-
:
lated without any advantage to Guam.

In 1760 the population of the Marianas had been reduced to 1,654 souls,
and was then that recourse was had to Tagal-colonists from the Philippines,
it
who absorbed most of the surviving aborigines. In 1875 not more than six
hundred in a total population of nearly nine thousand were regarded as of more
or less pure Chamorro slock. In Guam are concentrated six-sevenths of all the
inhabitants, who have steadily increased since the outbreak of measles in 1856.
The northern islands are occupied only by a few families engaged in fishing ;
Tinian has only a single village and a community of lepers Rota and Sayan ;
have each not more than a few hundred souls.

The natives of the Marianas have fallen off in culture as well as in numbers ;
'
*S1. '] /' 1

i
2(-JJiV ^1
,
'
THE MAEIANAS. 277
although baptised and capable of reading Spanish they have forgotten the industries
practised by their forefathers. Agriculture has greatly deteriorated, the art of
pottery has disappeared, the woven fabrics are coarser than formerly, the
perfectly
symmetrical houses seen by Anson in Tinian are no longer constructed, and rude
canoes have replaced the beautiful outriggers admired by the early navigators.
Anson's crew calculated that this craft could make twenty knots an hour running
before a brisk trade wind ;
when driven from their proper route they often reached
islands lying at great distances from the Marianas.
AyaTta, capital of the archipelago, on the north-west coast of Guam, contains
more than half of the whole population, as well as all
the political prisoners
banished to this region. The port is accessible only to small boats, and the postal
service with Manilla is made only once in the twelvemonth.
The government of the Marianas is military, the garrison consisting of three
hundred natives recruited by conscription. The clusters of islets, such as Parry
and Volcano, scattered over the northern waters in the direction of the Ogasavara
or Bonin group belonging to Japan, are nearly all uninhabited. On many marine
charts they are still
designated by the collective name
of the Magellan Archipelago,
but their total area scarcely exceeds forty square miles.
II. THE PELEW OR PALAOS ISLANDS.
This archipelago is often regarded as belonging to the chain of the Carolines,
just asYap and the neighbouring islets have frequently been included in the
Pelew group. The Spaniards, political masters in these seas, comprise all alike
under the common designation of the Caroline Islands. Nevertheless they clearly
constitute different systems, as shown by the disposition of the chains, the Caro-
linesrunning west and east and then bending round to the south-east, while the
Pelews are disposed north-east and south-we<t. However, the geological constitu-
tion of both groups is the same, all
being formed of mountains of eruptive origin,
trachytes or basalts, or else of coralline rocks, either as low atolls or upheaved to
considerable heights by the oscillations of the ground.
Collectively the Pelew Islands have an area of little over two hundred square
miles, ofwhich more than half are comprised in the single island of Baobeltaob
(Babelthuup). From north to south they have a total length of about 550 and a
breadth of over 240 miles at the widest point, being thus spread over an expanse
of 40,000 square miles,and bounded enst and west by abysses over 1 ,000 fathoms
deep. The population is
variously estimated at from ten thousand to fourteen
thousand. ,
The northern ii-lunds, which were first vi>ited by the Spanish navigators and
which Villalobos designated by the name of Arrecifes, form a perfectly distinct
group, comprising Babelthuap with south-western extensions terminating in the

its
insular muss of Niaur (Ngaur), most fertile and healthiest member of the archi-
pelago. The loftiest eruptive eminences lie near the west const of Babelthuap,
where one of the peaks rises to a height of 2,130 feet. This island is
partly covered
278 AUSTRALASIA.
to Palaos, and
with timber, whence its Spanish name of Palos, afterwards changed
to Pelew.
by English mariners corrupted
the Pelews have nevertheless some types
Although very poor in animal forms,
of bird, and a grey rat.
not elsewhere found, such as the psamat/n'a, a species
Fig. 122. Pi LEW ISLANDS.

Scale 1 : 900,000.
Depths.
Keefs exposed OtoSO 80 Feet and

. IS Miles.
Both the
1
crocodile and the dugong, formerly numerous on the coast, have become
extremely rare, if
they have not already disappeared altogether. The first
vertebra of the dugong is considered the most
precious object that a chief can
bestow on a subject, being a distinctive mark of an order of
nobility. When a
happy mortal is judged worthy of this honour, his fingers are bound tightly
THE PELEW ISLANDS. 279
together, and the hand is then thrust by

sheer force through the narrow aperture
of the bone. The distinction is thus often purchased with the loss of a finger.
The Pelew islanders have a darker complexion than the natives of the Marianas
and Carolines, and most of them have crisp or frizzly hair. Although there has
evidently been a mixture of Malay and Polynesian elements, the Papuan type
predominates, and the southern islands lying nearer to the New Guinea coast
belong ethnically to the Papuasian world. According to Semper many might be
taken for Jews, while others are distinguished by small eyes, flat nose, and
massive jaws. Formerly all pierced the cartilage of the nose; but this practice
is falling into
abeyance, although connected with a religious legend. The teeth
are blackened by means of an earth which causes the gums to swell and prevents
mastication for several days. The body is also painted a bright yellow, and
tattooed ; not so elaborately, however, as by the Caroline islanders. The practice
is even falling off owing to the dangerous nature of the operation ; nor has it
any
longer a sacred character. On the other hand some of the Pelew dames wear
beauty spots, like the fashionable ladies of the eighteenth century in Europe.
Wilson, being ignorant of the native language, fancied that the people had no
form of belief. But although there are scarcely any religious ceremonies, their
mythology is very intricate, and the halites, who act as mediators with the spirit
world, are very powerful, often more so than the chiefs themselves. These
magicians of both sexes can raise the souls of the dead, cure ailments, dispel or
evoke public calamities. Their powers are hereditary, and five of them enjoy a
supremacy over all their associates throughout the archipelago. The privileges
of the kalites and of the chiefs combined with the belief in spirits have surrounded
the existence of the natives with a multiplicity of prescriptions and observances.
The life of each individual is regulated by strict rules, and many places and
things are mongul, that is, tabooed.
The women are respected and may even acquire authority whether as kalites
or supreme chiefs. They form sisterhoods, whose privileges are recognised, and
some have reported that in criminal cases they are judged by their
travellers
peers. Traces of a former matriarchal system still survive. Thus power is

inherited, not from father to son, but from brother to brother, and the sister ranks
before the wife of the chief. The men also of the different castes, noble or
"
military, are grouped in brotherhoods, and possess special pai or clubs," into
which no one can penetrate without their consent. These clubs are relatively
sumptuous edifices, which are carefully decorated with carved and painted figures.
A symbolic group is set up in front, and on the walls are disposed rows of wooden
images painted and black, some representing religious myths, others
in red, yellow
recording and
social scenes constituting a sort of national history. There is also
a graphic system analogous to the Peruvian quippos, consisting of cords and
strings, which serve to exchange ideas according to an elaborate method of
knotting.
In the Pelew Islands there are almost as many petty states as villages. But,
thanks to the support of Wilson after his shipwreck in 1783, the " king" of the
280 AUSTEALASIA.
a sort of suzerainty over his

island of Koroer, south of Babelthuap, acquired
neighbours. His successors, however, have lost much of their ascendancy, and
most of the other chiefs hold themselves as fully his equals. These chiefs bear
"
different titles, one of the most significant being mad, or death," meaning that the
is fatal to his subjects. But associated with him is a krei,
potentate's mere glance
powerful than the mad him-
" often more
a sort of military mayor of the palace,"
self. Round him are grouped the rupal;*, or vassals, each with his suite of fierce
retainers. War, the essential occupation of this feudal system, is carried on with
relentless cruelty, the victors sparing neither women nor children. The chief
"
raids is to obtain skulls ; for the great Kalite," say the natives,
object of the hostile
"likes to eat men," and the heads are consequently laid at the feet of the
magicians, his representatives on

earth. But even during warfare the rights of
hospitality are still respected,
and any fugitive who succeeds in penetrating to
the house of the hostile chief has nothing further to fear.
To this intertribal strife is mainly due the moral and material decadence of the
islanders, who
are no longer the simple, kindly people described by Wilson at the
end of the last century. Even Miklukho-Maklai, with all his sympathy for
inferior races, speaks of them as false and rapacious. Since the arrival of the
Europeans the social conditions seem in other respects to have undergone

a
complete change. The natives are more civilised, at least outwardly they ;
ornament their dwellings with engravings and photographs they possess iron ;
implements, firearms, and even books many speak a little

; English or Spanish,
while their mother tongue has been enriched by numerous European words,
required to express the new ideas. The age of stone has passed away, or survives
which of or agate for the chiefs and nobles, of
only in the local currency, is
jt'sper
stones of less value, glass or enamelled beads, for the lower classes.
But with all thisthe population continues to decrease, having fallen from
probably fifty thousand at the end of the last century to little over twelve
thousand at present.
III. THK CAROLINE ISLANDS.
The archipelago formerly known as the '

New Philippines," and afterwards
named the Carolines in honour of Charles II. of Spain, is spread over a consider-
able expanse. From the westernmost island of Ngoli to TIalan in the extreme
east the distance in a straight line is no less than 1,800 miles, with a mean breadth
of about 350 Thus the Caroline Sea comprises an area of about 640,000
miles.
square miles, where the totul extent of some five hundred islets disposed in forty-
eight clusters is estimated at no more than 500 square miles. The water, however,
is
very shallow, and several of the insular groups are enlarged by extensive reefs.
The greatest depths occur at the western extremity of the archipelago, the
"
'
Challenger Trough in the north, the " Nares Trough " in the south, with an
intervening submarine bank connecting the Carolines with the Pelew group.
The Carolines were discovered by the Portuguese in 1527, when da Diogo
THE CAROLINES. 2S1
Rocha reached the western island of Ngoli or Matalotes. He was followed in
1542 by Saavedra and Villulobos, who traversed the Caroline Sea and sighted some
232 AUSTRALASIA.
But
of its islands ;
others were seen by Legaspi, conqueror of the Philippines.
their position not having been accurately determined, it was impossible to identify
laid claim to their discovery. The existence
them, and every passing navigator
of the lands south of the Marianas was well known ;
but instead of endeavouring
to fix their position, mariners rather avoided them, owing

to the dangerous shoals
by which they were surrounded.

No serious attempt was made at an accurate survey till about 1686, when the
first
"
Caroline," from which all the rest were mined,
was discovered by the
pilot Lazeano. This was perhaps Yap, or else Farroilep (Farraulep), which
lieson the meridian of the Marianas some 340 miles south of Guam. Then
Cantova prepared the first rough chart of the region round about Lamurek
in the central part of the archipelago but the scientific exploration of
(Namurek) ;
the Caroline Sea was first undertaken by Wilson and Ibargoita towards the close
of the eighteenth century. Between 1817 and 1828 occurred the memorable
expeditions of Kotzebue, Freycinet, Duperrey,
Dumont d'Urville and Lutke, after
which nothing remained except to fill
up the details and explore the interior of
the several islands. This work of exploration has been stimulated by the question
of sovereignty lately raised between Spain and Germany, and finally settled by
papal arbitration in favour of the former power.
The names of the islands, islets and reefs strewn over the Caroline waters
are far from being everywhere clearly defined. Except for some of the larger
lands, such as Yap, Ponape and Ualan, custom has not yet decided between the
native appellations variously pronounced by the seafarers of different nation-
alities, and those given to the different groups by English, French, or Russian
explorers.
Most of the Carolines are of coral formation, upheaved some few yards above
sea-level, and many lack sufficient vegetable humus for trees to strike root between
the fissures of the rocks. Some, however, have gradually been clothed with dense
verdure down to the water's edge, and here native settlements have been formed
beneath the shade of the cocoanut palm, the bread-fruit tree and the dark green
barringtonia. Some of the groups form perfectly regular atolls, -where lagoons
accessible to boats through narrow channels are encircled by a verdant fringe.
Satoan, one of the circular islands of the Mortlock group, consists of no less than
some a few miles long, others mere pointed rocks, but all disposed
sixty islets,
symmetrically round the periphery of the coralline enclosure. Others again, such
as Ruk, Ualan, and Ponape (2,860 feet), attain considerable elevations, and these
are often clothed to their summits with magnificent trees of few
species, con-
spicuous amongst which are the superb tree-ferns. This evergreen forest vegeta-
tion is supported which fall on the slopes of the
by copious rains, hills especially
during the south-west monsoon.

The fauna, like that of the Marianas, mammals being
is
extremely poor, the
represented only by a dog with pointed ears and long pendent tail, and a single
species of rat, which is said to have taught the natives the art of
obtaining palm-
wine by gnawing the crests of the cocoanut The vegetation
palm to get at its
sap.
THE CAEOLINES. 288
also affords shelter to some lizards and iguanas, while the sandy beach is visited
by turtles during the season.

The population variously estimated at from twenty thousand
of the Carolines is
to thirty thousand souls, two-thirds of whom are concentrated in Euk, Ponape
Fig. 124. RUK ISLANDS.
Scale 1 : 800,000.
I5I30' East oF.. Greenwich
Depths.
to 25 25 to 50 800 Fathoms and

Fathoms. Fathoms. upwards.
,
18 Mil.-.
and Yup. Owing to its proximity 1o the Philippines, Y.ip has been chosen as the
centre of the administration for the Western Carolines and the Pelew Islands.
Although the great majority of the natives are of Indonesian stock crossed by
cundry foreign elements, the various insular groups present considerable contrasts
294 AUSTRALASIA.
in their physical appearance. The western islanders with their fair complexion
resemble the Visayas and Tagals of the Philippines those of the central islands
;
have a red coppery colour, while farther east the natives of the Seniavin group
are almost black and like the Papuans. In Ualan they are still darker, with
slightly crisp
hair. The people of Nukunor and Satoan are descendants of
Samoan immigrants, from their physique, language and usages.
as is evident
that most
Lastly, in some of the islands the European element is already so strong
of the children present a type approaching that of the whites.
The population has certainly decreased since the arrival of the Europeans,
but
not, as has often been asserted, in virtue of some mysterious

and inevitable law
affecting inferior races. Epidemics little dreaded in the "West doubtless become
terrible scourges in Oceania, and such is the terror caused by measles, for instance,
that in Yap and elsewhere the people combine to attack the infected villages,
and stamp out the plague by killing the victims and compelling the others to
withdraw for some weeks to the interior. Nevertheless the maladies introduced
by foreign sailors do not suffice to explain the disappearance of the race, which
has suffered still more from the raids of these foreigners, who
carry off the natives
to work on the plantations in Fiji and other archipelagoes. After the Caroline
Islanders have thus been swept away, philosophic travellers indulge in meditations
on the fatality which dooms the so-called inferior races to perish at contact with
the civilised whites. Nevertheless there are certain favoured spots such as Lukunor,
"
pearl of the Carolines," in the Mortlock group, where the population is even
rapidly increasing by the natural excess of births over the mortality, and where
every inch of the land is carefully cultivated.
Taken as a whole, the Caroline natives are a mild, hospitable, industrious, and
peaceful race. They allow their women much freedom, treat their children with
great tenderness and faithfully observe the laws of friendship, comrades becoming
brothers by an interchange of names. In certain places, notably Ualan, the
people had no weapons of any sort, no strife or warfare. They even still lead
simple, peaceful lives, except in the neighbourhood of the factories and missions,
where their habits have been modified by contact with Europeans. Tattooing is
extensively practised, the systems varying greatly according to the localities,

tribes, and social position. Some of the chiefs and nobles are further distinguished
by badges such as the white shell worn on the hand by the aristocratic families in
Yap, where combs of orange-wood and ebony are reserved for the free men.
Their food consists chiefly of the rima or bread fruit, the taro (arum esculent/tin),
the sweet potato introduced from the
Philippines, fish and other marine fauna.
They cultivate no rice, which the planters are said to have vainly attempted to
introduce into the archipelago. The dwellings, in general much smaller and far less
commodious than those of Melanesia and Papuasia, are in
many places mere roofs
of foliage
resting on the ground and entered on all fours through openings at,
both ends. But every villige possesses one spacious and more
carefully con-
structed building, which serves at once as a boat-house, a hostelry for strangers, a
refuge during rainy weather, and a playroom for the children. Although they
THE CAROLINES. 285
purchase hatchets, saws, and knives from the traders, the people have scarcely
yet outlived the stone age, most of their implements still consisting of' shells, fish-
bones and the like.
In the eastern islands the American missionaries, who arrived in 1849, have
Fig. 125.- YAP.

Scale 1 :
360,000.
1
IS
I38s- East or Greenwich
Submarine HeTs.
6 Miles.
converted some thousands of the natives ;

but hundreds have returned to their
ancestral practices, while in the western groups the prevailing religion is still
animism associated with the worship of trees, of mountains, of everything that
lives and moves, the fear of the spirits of air, and homage paid to their forefathers.
286 AUSTRALASIA.
shown for the dead and for those animals, such as lizards and
Much veneration is
whose bodies they are supposed to have migrated. The Polynesians of

eels, into
Nukunor and Satoan are the only natives who have carved wooden idols before
which they prostrate themselves in solemn adoration. But the religious rites vary
greatly in the different islands,
and in respect of customs and institutions the
Caroline tribes are broken into endless fragments. Even some of the smaller
" several "
islands are divided into kingdoms incessantly at war, or else maintaining
an " armed peace." Most of the chiefs succeed by hereditary right, while others
are elected by their peers. They are usually regarded as owners of the common
territory, and most of the produce is their property.
Although European skippers have monopolised the trade of the Pacific

since
islands, they have ceased to make distant voyages in their famous outriggers, the
natives of the Carolines are still daring navigators, for whom the deep has no
terrors. Their pilots are able to navigate the high sens guided only by the stars
and the direction of the waves. Formerly they maintained schools of navigation
imd astronomy, where the young of both sexes were taught the relative position of
the constellations, the hours of the rise, azimuth, and setting of the stars, the
revolutions of the planets, the course of winds and currents, the divisions of the
circle, the direction of remote archipelagoes from the Philippines in the west to
Hawaii in the east. The horizon was divided into twelve, and even twenty-eight
and thirty-two arcs of a circle, and in some atolls there were special names for
thirty-three stars or stellar groups by which they were guided on the boundless
ocean. They visited the Marianas, over 230 miles distant, without any intermediate
station and even against cross currents. The pilots of the Caroline and Marshall
groups possess the so-callei meflos, a sort of chart ingeniously constructed with
shells or pebbles to represent islands, and bits of stick for the
equator, the meridian,
the route to follow, the degrees or periods of
navigation and the cross currents.
They understand the compass almost at a glance, and soon learn to make long
voyages by the magnetic needle.
Yap (Uap, Guap), the large island lying nearest to the Philippines, is the most
Europeanised in the archipelago. The centre of government for the Western
Carolines and Pelew group is stationed at Tamil, near the chief roadstead ;
here
also are settled the
foreign traders, Germans, who
mostly export copra and
beche-de-mer. The natives, formerly much given to trade, have lost nearly all
their traffic, and profit little by the movement of exchanges. For currency they
still use shells and other objects
pierced with holes and strung togeiher, like the
Chinese coins.
Ponape, largest and formerly most populous of the Carolines, is likely to

acquire great importance as a re- victualling station for shipping several ports ;
accessible through
passages piercing the reefs are sheltered by the encircling
barrier, and the foreign traders have
already extensive plantations on the island.
On the coralline cliffs near the east side are seen the remains of
prehistoric struc-
tures consisting of thick walls which are built of
huge basalt columns placed
horizontally, and measuring from 26 to 3G feet in length. The natives have no tradi-
THE GASOLINES. 287
tions associated with these ruins, several ofwhich are partly submerged, the land
having subsided since the time of their erection.
But the chief edifices raised by the former inhabitants of the Carolines are
those found in Ualan at the eastern extremity of the archipelago, and especially in
the adjacent islet of Lele. Here some of the walls, 20 feet high and over 12 broad,
are formed of enormous basalt blocks brought from great distances. Several of
Fig. 126.
Scale 1 :
100,000.
I58t0' I5820-
Submarine Reefs.
the ruins, now overgrown with vegetation, appear to rise above the reefs like
verdant islets.
Ualan is the central station of the American missionaries, whose posts are
scattered over the surrounding groups. Although Catholicism is the only Christian
cult permitted by the colonial administration, the Spanish Government has been
compelled by a revolt of the natives to recognise the accomplished fact and to

leave these converts the free exercise of their Protestant religion.
288 AUSTRALASIA.
IV. EASTERN MICRONESIA : MARSHALL, GILBERT, AND ELLICE ARCHIPELAGOES.

about 2,500 miles trans-
These groups, which stretch east of the Carolines
all belong to the same geological formation,
and are all
versely to the equator,
in the same direction. From the geographical standpoint they should be
disposed
The Ellice
studied together, although inhabited by different ethnical populations.
while the
and part of the Gilbert Islands are in this respect Polynesian lands,
more importantMarshall belongs to Micronesia.
group
Politically also they form different areas, being already distributed officially
amongst two European powers.

The Marshalls, whose trade
monopolised by is
form of the German colonial empire, whereas in 1886

Hamburg merchants, part
of
the Gilbert and Ellice Archipelagoes were declared to lie within the sphere
British interests. But were priority of discovery to confer any right of possession,
allshould certainly be assigned to Spain. The San Bartolomeo sighted by Loyasa

"
in 1525 was probably one of the Marshalls but in any case the
;
Jardines," so
named by Alvaro de Saavedra in 1529, certainly belonged to this group, as did

also the Pescadores visited other navigators during the sixteenth century. In
by
1567 Mendana de Neyra also sailed through the southern Ellice group. None of
these islands, however, were exactly determined before the systematic exploration
of the Pacific two centuries later.
Marshall
In 1767 Wallis surveyed two members of the Pescadores then
first ;
and Gilbert, returning from Port Jackson in 1788, traversad these regions of
Eastern Micronesia, and studied in detail the position and form of the groups
henceforth known by Other designations, however, have also been
their names.
given them, and the Gilbert, for instance, have been called the Kingsmill and
the
Line Islands. Marshall and Gilbert were followed by other English navigators,
and then at the close of the Napoleonic wars Kotzebue and Chamisso made their
memorable expedition through the Micronesian atolls on board the Russian vessel,
the llurik. In 1823 Duperrey also visited two important members of the Marshall
group, and since then interesting memoirs have been published by traders and
missionaries long resident in various parts of these archipelagoes, whose collective
area may now be estimated at about 350 square miles, with a total population of
fifty-five thousand.
Nearly all the islands in the three archipelagoes, which rest on a common
marine bed less than 900 fathoms deep, are disposed in the direction from north-
west to south-east. A moderate upheaval of this bed would unite them all with
the Samoan Archipelago in a long narrow stretch of dry land. With the excep-
tion of three or four islands all the Marshall,
probably upheaved by igneous action,
Gilbert, and Ellice groups are of low coralline formation, rising little more than
or six feet above sea-level,
five
except where shifting dunes have been formed by
the winds.
Some of these coral islands have been unite;! by the marine alluvia in conti-
nuous lands without break or lagoons. But most of them are atolls with an outer
circuit of islets and reefs, and a central
lagoon offering shelter to boats, and some-
EASTERN MICRONESIA. 281)
times even to large vessels. From the peculiar character of this formation the
"
Ellice group has even been called the Lagoon Islands," and is habitually so
named by the missionaries. Seen from a distance allgenerally present much the
same aspect :
below, the white zone of breakers ; above, a fringe of green foliage.
In all these low-lying clusters the highest land is an eminence in Pleasant Island,
one of the Gilberts, which is scarcely 230 feet high.
Most of the Marshall and Gilbert atolls are remarkable for their eccentric forms.
Fier. 127. ABHNO.

Scale 1 :
275,000.
I7P50'
Dep'h-.
to 25 25 Fathoms
__ 6 Miles.
Very few are circular, a fact doubtless due to the irregularity of the igneous founda-
tions on which the coral-builders have raised their structures. Triangles and
trapezes prevail in the Marshalls, where Arhuo resembles a bull'qjhead and horns,
while others are suggestive of such curious objects as shuttles, stirrups, or harps.
Xearly all the atolls have continuous fringing reefs on the east side alone, the
west side being traced only by a line of white surf. The reason of the contrast is
not difficult to understand. On the west face the slow and sluggish waves roll
, 190
290 AUSTRALASIA.
whereas on the east the far more furious

over the reefs without destroying them,
which are gradually bound together
breakers displace and heap up huge fragments,
in a compact mass by the shells and sands.
The seeds of plants drifting with the
shrubs spring up and in course
current strike root on the ground thus prepared
:
with dense forest. Of all these wooded atolls Maraki

of time the reefs are covered
Fig. 123. MARSHALL ARCHIPELAOO.

Scale 1 : 8,650.0(10.
165' East of Greenwich 172'
Depths.
Oto 1,000 l.oon to 2.000 2.000 Fnthoms

Fathoms. Fathoms. and upwaids.
. 300 Mile
in the Gilbert the most picturesque.

group is Seen from the mast-head it looks
like a green ganland floating on the blue waters here also nearly all the islets;
have become united in a single unbroken ring.

The climate most delightful in the oceanic world.
of the Marshalls is one of the
Here the normal tropical heats are tempered by the north-east winds which pre-
vail regularly from November to February, and which at other times are replaced
EASTERN MICRONESIA. 291
by breezes from the east and south-east, or else interrupted by calms. Storma are
to be dreaded chiefly in October and November. Being also further removed
from the continents than the Marianas and Carolines, the Marshall group enjoys a
more oceanic climate.
At the same time its flora and fauna are much poorer, although still compara-
tively rich for lands of coralline origin. To the fifty-nine species of plants found
in the archipelago by Chamisso subsequent explorers have scarcely added any new
forms; one alone seems peculiar to the Marshalls. The most useful plant is the pan-
danus odoratissimm, of which there are some twenty varieties, and from which the na-
tives derive their chief nourishment. Both the pandanus and the bread-fruit tree
grow to greater perfection herethan in any other oceanic region. There are also
several distinct varieties of the cocoa-nut palm but this plant is less used for food
;
since the development of the export trade in copra and cocoa-nut oil.
There are no indigenous mammals or birds but the goats, pigs, and cats intro-
;
duced from Europe have multiplied rapidly, and the domestic poultry have reverted
to the wild state.
The indigenous populations become gradually modified in the direction from

north to south. Thus the natives of the Marshalls resemble those of the Carolines,
and like them belong to the Micronesian group, whereas the people of Ellice are
of nearly pure Polynesian stock, like those of the eastern archipelagoes. Between
these extremes stand the Gilbert islanders, of mixed descent but fundamentally
Micronesians. They are the finest race in this oceanic region, tall, sometimes
even gigantic, often with quite European features, and occasionally acquiring a
somewhat Jewish cast from their slightly aquiline nose. Except in the remoter
islands not yet visited by the missionaries the old dress a loin-cloth and fringes
as well as the practice of tattooing have been abolished, and the few ornaments
now worn are flowers or foliage inserted in the pierced lobe of the ear, bird's
feathers and necklaces.
In 1817, when Chamisso explored the Marshall group, the natives, still free
from the influence of traders and missionaries, seemed to be possessed of high
qualities, intelligence and enterprise. Everywhere was presented a picture of
peace, love of work, and domestic harmony, combined with a strong sense of
equality, even in the presence of the chiefs. Yet these populations, which seemed
to give promise of a prosperous future, are precisely amongst those that have most
rapidly declined. The young are carried off by consumption ;
all initiative is
killed by the introduction of European wares there is no longer any necessity

;
for exercising the

faculty of thought, and listlessness takes the place of an active
life. In some of the islands not a single article of native manufacture is now to be
found, and here the villages resemble the wretched suburbs of some American
city.
Traditions still survive of former cannibal practices, at least in some of the
groups. Other sanguinary rites also prevailed, as in the Ratak Isles, where the
mother was allowed to keep her three first children if a fourth was born she had
;
to bury it with her own hands. But much tenderness was shown for the
292 AUSTRALASIA.
were at once adopted into other

survivors, who, in case of the mother's death,
In general the wife was much respected, the men performing
all the
families.
hard manual labour, and leaving to the women nothing

but the preparation of
food and the weaving of sails and matting.

Their religion was little more than a kind of spirit- worship,
and the temples
of a rock or
were merely a square space between four stones, or under the shade
to that of
some high tree. The influence of the priests was but slight compared
of a ruler who,
the chiefs, most of whom enjoyed absolute power. Hager speaks
all those whose progress was more rapid than
having learnt the alphabet, beheaded
his own. The social hierarchy is clearly defined. Under the iroiy, or royal class,
from whom are selected the kings in the female line, come the nobles, the land-
who may be deprived of the land they cultivate
owners, and last of all the poor,
without compensation, and who Amongst this proleta-
are restricted to one wife.
riate class were till recently recruited the labourers for the plantations in Samoa.
But in the Marshall archipelago the population has so greatly fallen off that
of their own palm-groves.
scarcely sufficient hands now remain for the cultivation
Even in the barren and more populous Gilbert group the cupply of
relatively
living freights has been nearly exhausted.

Since 1864 European traders have been settled in the Marshall Islands.
Although mostly representing German houses, they have to compete with the
missionaries, as well as with English, American, Hawaiian, New Zealand, and
even Chinese dealers. In order to secure their commercial preponderance against
"
these rivals, they induced the German government to extend its " protection to
the archipelago in 1885. To this protectorate were added the two little groups
of the Brown (Eniwetok) and Providence Islets, which, according to the conven-
tion with Spain, should rather have been included in the zone of the Caroline
Islands.
Jaluit has become the administrative centre of the German possessions, as it
had already been the cummercial centre of the Carolines, the Gilbert and all other
groups in these waters. Plantations and factories have also been established in
Milli, Namorek, Arhno, Majuro, Likieb, Ebon, and elsewhere. The religious
stations are chieflyunder the direction of Hawaiian missionaries, who are much
disliked by the traders. Conflicting interests have given rise to dissensions,
which have in all cases been settled by the protecting power in favour of the
Jaluit dealers.
North of the Marshall! are scattered a few clusters, which should be regarded
as belonging, not to the same groups, at least to the same geographical zone.
if
Such amongst others is Cornwallis or Gaspar Rico. The islets and reefs
following
in the direction of
Japan are separated from the submarine
by abysmal depths
hank above which rise the Marshall atolls.
In the Appendix will be found a table of all these archipelagoes, with their
respective areas :md populations.
CHAPTER VI.
NEW GUINEA AND ADJACENT ISLANDS.
(PAPUASIA.)
HIS owes the appellation of New Guinea, conferred on it

vast region
by the Spanish explorer, liiigo Ortiz de Retis, in 1545, to the

resemblance observed by him between its inhabitants and those of
Guinea on the West African seaboard. Next to Australia it is
the largest continental mass in the Pacific, and exceeds even Borneo
in extent. From the north-west to the south-east extremity the distance in a
straight line is
nearly 1,500 miles, exclusive of the groups and chains of islands
by which the mainland is continued in both directions. At the broadest part it is
over 400 miles from north to south, and the total area is estimated at 314.000
square miles, or 326,000 including the Aru Islands and other adjacent groups
scattered like fragments round a shattered continent.
New Guinea, which is thus half as large again as France, seems destined to
take an important part in the future evolution of the oceanic lands, for it is abun-
dantly watered and rich in various natural resources. Hitherto, however, it has
remained almost entirely excluded from civilising influences. The fringing reefs,
marshy coastlands, dense forests, and even its very vastness have protected it from
white intruders, while the scattered indigenous populations, divided into endless
hostile tribes, have nowhere merged in a compact
nationality.
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY.
But although still unexplored to any great extent, Papuasia has already been
partitioned amongst three European powers. Holland, which had laid claim to the
whole island for over half a century, is henceforth recognised as mistress of the
western section as far as 141 east longitude, while the rest of the territory has
been divided between England and Germany by the treaty of 1885. To England
the northern
is
assigned the south-eastern slope, facing Torres Strait ;
to Germany
seaboard washed by the Pacific.
The honour of having discovered New Guinea belongs to none of its present
political rulers. A letter addressed by the Florentine Corsali in 1515 to Julian dei
294 AUSTRALASIA.
east of the
Medici mentions the existence of a very extensive region stretching
But most historians
Moluccas, and the reference was probably
to Papuasia.
attribute its actual discovery, or at least that of some of its contiguous islands, to
"
good haven of Versiya," where
The this
the Portuguese Jorge de Menezes.
in 1526-27, was perhaps the present Warsai, near the north-
navigator wintered
be no doubt as to
west extremity of the mainland. But, however this be, there can
Alvaro de
the direction followed by Menezes's immediate successor, the Spaniard
" island of gold," which seems
Saavedra. In 1528 this explorer cast anchor near an
to be one of those situated in Geelvink Bay, and the following year
he coasted a
land south of the equator, which extended south-eastwards across several degrees
of and which was certainly the New Guinea seaboard. Sixteen years
longitude,
now and took possession of for
gave this region the name it it
later Retis bsars,
Fig. 129. CHIEF EXPLOBATIONS ON THE COASTS AND IN THE INTEKIOE OF NEW GUINEA.
Scale 1 : 24,000,000.
Lost cP Greenwich 146'
. eoo Miles.
the Spanish crown. At that time, however, it was still uncertain whether it was
an island or a part of the Australasian mainland. Doubtless some charts dating
from the sixteenth century already represent Papuasia as an island but on others, ;
notably that of Valentijn, prepared in the eighteenth century, it still figures as a

part of Australia.
Yet its insular character had already been practically demonstrated in 1606 by
the Spanish pilot, Torres, who had
penetrated into the dangerous strait named
from him, and who had at the same time surveyed the south coast of New Guinea.
But this discovery, carefully concealed as a state secret in the archives of Manilla,
had at last been forgotten by the Spaniards themselves. It was again brought to
light, however, by Dalrymple during the temporary occupation of Manilla by the
Knglish in 1762 and in 1770, Cook, resuming the itinerary of the Spanish navi-
;
gator, traversed the strait which he supposed he was the first to visit. Henceforth
NEW GUINEA. 295
the great island assumed on the charts a form somewhat approaching its real outlines.
ii, 'UQ , 1 IV .N
C5
During the interval, various parts of the seaboard had been coasted by other
290 AUSTRALASIA.
in 1606, reached the Aru Archipelago and

mariners, such ns William Jansz, who,
the south-west side of New Guinea. Ten years later, Le Maire and Schouten
discovered the Schouten Islands, north of Geelvink Bay,
and in 1623 Carstensz
of Frederik
advanced as far as Valsche Kaap at the extremity of the island
Hendrik. Other seafarers, amongst whom Tasman, also visited the north and
the close of the seventeenth century, Papuasia was still so
south coasts :
yet, at
little known that its western end was quite wrongly described by Rumphius, who
even extends it to the north of the equator.
Attention was again attracted to the great island by the fear that the English
might succeed in founding settlements on the seaboard and deprive the Dutch
Company monopoly of the spice trade.

of their Dampier had, in fact, already
coasted the north side, and determined the independent insular character of
the
New Britain and New Ireland Archipelagoes. Hence Wijland was despatched to
the same waters, and the northern seaboard was traced to its eastern extremity,
and even beyond it to the Massim or Louisiade Archipelago, which was at that
time supposed to form part of the mainland. Yet old Spanish charts studied by
E. T. Hamy and carefully compared with the Dutch documents, show that Torres
and his precursors in the sixteenth century had already determined, in a general
wav, the form of the eastern section of New Guinea.
The era of modern exploration in these regions begins with Cook's expedition.
Before the close of the eighteenth century, Forrest, MacCluer, and d'Entrecas-
tcaux surveyed long stretches of the seaboard But the Napoleonic wars inter-
rupted these peaceful operations, which were not resumed till the general pacifica-
tion. Duperrey, Dumont d'Urville, and Belcher were amongst the first navigators
who then found their way to the New Guinea waters. Kolff sailed through the
strait between the island of Frederik Hendrik supposing it to be a river, and in
182S, this explorer founded on Triton Bay, over against the Aru Archipelago, the
first
military station occupied by Europeans on the Papuan seaboard. Fort Bus,
afterwards abandoned owing to the insalubrity of the district, was thus the com-
mencement of the work of annexation, which has since been prosecuted slowly but
irresistibly. In the same year, 1828, the Dutch Government officially announced
the formal possession of the great island as far as 141 east
longitude, substituting
throughout that region the sovereignty of Holland for that of her vassal, the
sultan of Tidor.
.Meanwhile the greater part of the interior remains still
unexplored. Learned
naturalists, such as Jukes, "Wallace, Cerruti, Beccari, d'Albertis, Bernstein, Meyer,
Kaffray, and Forbes, have already penetrated at different points considerable dis-
t'uices inland. But despite these isolated efforts, the physical features of the land,
with its
populations, products, and natural resources, still remain almost less
known than those of any other region of the globe.
Long journeys are rendered
extremely difficult, and often impossible by the malarious climate of the coastlands,
the total absence of stations on the of the and the often
breezy plateaux interior,
too well grounded who
hostility of the natives, justly distrust the white strangers
conrug with a revolver in one hand and a bottle of
brandy in the other. To complete
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NEW GUINEA. 297
the work of discovery without friction, explorers are needed, such as Miklukho Mak-
lay, whose rule of conduct was to be ever discreet, forbearing, truthful in his dealings
with the aborigines, and who, in the midst of imminent perils, always remained
faithful to his resolutions. But such heroes are rare, and there are few who have
"demonstrated by experience that in every part of the world man is still human,
that is to
say, a sociable being, possessed of good qualities, with whom it is right
and possible to enter into relations on a footing of mutual justice and kindness."
(Letter of Tolstoi to MikluMio Maklay.}
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NEW GUINEA.
NewGuinea has nothing of the massive form characterising the Australian

continent, which it separates from the equatorial waters. It has been compared
to a gigantic bird whose head is represented by the north-west peninsula, the neck
by the narrow isthmus between Geelvink Bay and Etna Bay, the tail by the
south-eastern prolongation fringed by numerous little parallel peninsulas resem-
bling the plumage. The surrounding waters are so shallow on the south side that
a sudden subsidence of some fifty fathoms would suffice to connect Papuasia with
Australia; while the Louisiade Archipelago would form a continuation of the

mainland towards the south-east. But in other directions its shores are encircled
by profound chasms of over one thousand fathoms, such as the Nares Trough on
the north side, and the Carpenter Trough (1,320 fathoms) between the Louisiades
and the great Barrier Reef of East Australia. Even the narrow channel separat-
ing New
Britain from the north-east coast is over 500 fathoms deep.
At
the north-west extremity some islands of considerable size, such as Mysol,
Salwaty, Batanta, and Waigiu, indicate the beginning of the relief which on the
mainland rises to great elevations. The Arfak hills, which skirt the north side of
the Berau Peninsula, terminate at the entrance of Geelvink Bay in a precipitous
headland, 9,520 feet high. The Gulf of Berau, better known as MacCluer Inlet
from the navigator who explored it at the end of the last century, penetrates
over 120 miles inland, almost completely separating the north-western peninsula
from the rest of the great island. The two regions are connected only by a
narrow range of hills, and even these were recently supposed by Strachan to be
pierced at one point by a channel flowing between Geelvink Bay and Mac-
Cluer Inlet. But the naturalist, A. B. Meyer, who had crossed from sea to sea,
had already demonstrated the non-existence of any such communication. Accord-
ing to the missionary Geiseler, who resided, in 1867, in a village on the isthmus,
boats may cross from coast to coast by utilising two streams flowing in opposite
directions between the rooky water-parting, which is, at one point, only "a quarter
" " mile " in
of a mile broad. It is uncertain, however, whether the question is
German or English.
South of MacCluer Inlet the seaboard indented by the deep Arguni Bay, a
is
long, narrow, fjord-like formation winding between the steep escarpments of the
surrounding hills. The Onin Peninsula enclosed between these two inlets stands at
298 AUSTRALASIA.
a considerable mean elevation, though still lower than the Berau uplands, with but
few summits exceeding 3,500 feet. Farther east rise the superb crests of Genoffo
(4,915 feet), at the entrance of Arguni Bay, and Lamansieri (2,450 feet), at the
foot of which are the ruins of Fort Bus.
Beyond this point the coast-range is again interrupted by other inlets, such as
Triton and Etna bays but farther east it merges in
;
the loftiest mountain range
not only in New Guinea, but in the whole oceanic world. This system, which is still
very imperfectly explored, begins at Cape Buru with the Lakahai headland (4,560
feet), after which follow eastwards a succession of crests continually increasing in
altitude and rising even above the snow line, one of the glittering peaks having an
elevation of 16,750 feet. These snowy summits, to which has been given the
Fig. 131. MOUNTAINS op NEW GTHNEA.

Scale 1 : 24,000,000.
Depths.
to 1,000 1.000 to 2,000 Fathoms

2.000
Fathoms. fathoms. aud upwards.
600 Miles.
name of Charles Louis in

ignorance of their native appellation, are probably con-
tinued eastwards to the crests seen
by d'Albertis to the north of the Fly River
basin, and are doubtless connected either
by lofty plateaux or by other highlands
with the ranges
skirting the north coast. Here Mount Gautier or Tabi attains an
altitude of 6,500 feet; Mount farther
Cyclops, east, is nearly as high, while the
system terminates opposite New Britain in the mountains, 11,500 feet
high, to
which the French
navigators have given the name of Finisterre. The last head-
lands present in
many places the aspect of regular fortifications, the step-like
nmiparts being formed of old coral beaches
successively upheaved at various
geological epochs. Earthquakes are of most frequent occurrence in this region of
the mainland, which lies nearest to the
volcanoes of Melanesia.
The orography of the south-eastern
peninsula has been more extensively sur-
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NEW GUINEA. 299
veyed, thanks partly to the proximity of Australia, and partly to the more con-
tracted form of this region, rendering it accessible to explorers
penetrating inland
from both coasts. Here the highlands lying within the territory annexed to the
British colonial possessions have received English names. The north-west chain,
under the same meridian as the Finisterre highlands, begins with the Albert
range, followed south-eastwards by Mounts Yule (10,000 feet) and Owen Stanley
(13,200 feet). This twin-crested mountain, which dominates the whole peninsular
system, was firstascended in 1888 by the Australian explorer, Martin.
Eastwards, the range gradually diminishes in height, and then branches off
Fig. 132. MACCLUER INLET AND ONIN PENINSULA.

Scale 1 :
4,000,000.
132* 134" Easb of Greenwich
TVpths.
to 32 32 to 80 80 Feet and
60 Miles.
intotwo ridges forming the extreme south-eastern fork of New Guinea, and reap-
pearing at intervals in the Moresby and Massim (Louisiade) archipelagoes. The
channel here separating the mainland from Hayter and the other eastern islands
has received from
Moresby the name of China Strait, because it offers a direct
route for vessils plying between Australia and China. The shores of this channel
present some of the most enchanting scenery in the whole of Melanesia. Owen
Stanley was the first to determine, in 1848, the completely insular character of the
eastern archipelago.
East of the China Strait, the south-east extremity of New Guinea is continued
800 AUSTRALASIA.
terminate 300 miles farther on

seawards by a chain of reefs and islets which
in the Louisiade group. All these lands are disposed from west-north-west
to east-south-east in a line with the

main axis of New Guinea itself. South-
east Island, the largest member of the Louisiades, is surrounded by reefs also dis-
In the north the Calvados rocks run parallel with

posed in the same
direction.
South-east Island towards Rossel Island, whilst Saint- Aignan

is similarly disposed
in the north-west.
The Entrecasteaux group, lying north of the terminal peninsula of the main-
land, has the same conformation, and
serves as the base to a semicircle of reefs
which encloses one of the largest lagoons in the tropical seas, often known by the
name of the Lusensay Lagoon, from one of its reefs. Above this reef rise the
all of which lands probably at
Trobriand, Grandiere, and other clusters of islets,
one time formed part of the mainland. The peninsula now terminating at the
eastern headland of the Finisterre range no doubt formerly extended through the
or Woodlark.
intervening reefs eastwards to the island
of Muyu
RIVERS AND ISLANDS OF NEW GUINEA.
Although Iving so near the somewhat arid Australian continent, New Guinea
being situated in the equatorial zone and traversed by lofty ranges, which intercept
the moisture-bearing clouds brought by both monsoons, receives a rainfall sufficient
to feed several large rivers. Of these the most copious appear to be the Amberno,
or Mamberan, and the Fly. The former, to which the Dutch have also given the
name of Rochussen, drains the snowy Charles Louis range, and reaches the coast
east of Geelvink Bay, where it develops a vast delta with numerous branches
fringed by the nipa palm and casurmna. For a long distance seawards the water
is white or greenish, and the mouths of the Amberno are avoided
by shipping
through fear of the surrounding shallows.
On the southern slope the chief artery is the Fly river, discovered by Black-
wood in 1845, and named after his vessel. This voluminous stream has been
visited by Jukes, MacFarlane, and d'Albertis, the last of whom ascended it for a
distance of about 500 miles to a point within where
sight of the lofty highlands it
has its origin. All the branches of its delta have not and
yet been explored, it is
still doubtful whether the numerous channels

flowing south of the Fly exactly
opposite the York peninsula, Australia, are independent streams or only branches
of the delta.
Islands of alluvial formation project seawards at the mouths of the rivers, but in
many places the coast is fringed by coral islands, for the most part clothed with
vegetation. Many of these being eroded by the waves look at a distance like
masses of verdure suspended in mid air. Off the seaboard are also several large
islands, which should be regarded as forming part of the mainland. Such are
Korrido, Biak, and Jobie in Geelvink Bay, and on the south side Frederik Hendrik
(Frederick Henry), which is little more than an island in appearance. It is
separated from the Klapper-Kust " Cocoa-nut "

( Coast ) merely by a narrow
CLIMATE OF NEW GUINEA. 301
winding canal, which might easily be blocked by a snag or a sandbank. Several

islets, especially in Torres Strait, are disposed in such a way as to form natural
harbours, a fortunate provision for shipping in the vicinity of a rock-bound coast
with but few inlets, and for hundreds of miles destitute of a single sheltering
creek.
According to Wallace the Am

Archipelago must also be considered, like
Frederik Hendrik, as a part of New Guinea, separated from the mainland only by
shallow waters. The river-like channels by which it is intersected and disposed
in regular blocks like the quarters of a city seem to indicate that this archipelago
was formerly a marshy plain, whose channels represent the branches of the rivers
by which it was traversed before its separation from the mainland by a slight sub-
" When down we must
sidence of about 300 feet. the intervening land sank
suppose the land that now constitutes Aru to have remained nearly stationary,
a not very improbable supposition, when we consider the great extent of the
shallow sea, and the very small amount of depression the land need have undergone
*
to produce it."
CLIMATE FLORA FAUNA.
Thanks to its geographical position, under the same mean latitude as Sumatra,
Papuasia is essentially a hot and moist region, without great oscillations of tempera-
ture, without excessively prolonged rains or droughts. This region has neither
the cold nor the sultry heats of Australia, and observers have recorded no tempera-
tures higher than 89 Fahr. or lower than 68 Fahr.t
As in the eastern archipelago, the alternation of the seasons is regulated by
the trade winds, which, for a portion of the year, set regularly from south-east
to north-west, and at other times veer round to different quarters according to the
various centres of attraction. The lofty ranges by which the island is divided into
two precipitous areas of drainage also cause a sharp contrast between the succession
of the seasons on either side. During the winter of the northern hemisphere,
from November to April, when the vapours of the Pacific are brought by the
north-east trade wind, the slopes facing northwards receive an abundant rainfall,
while droughts, varied by a few occasional showers, prevail on the opposite side
turned towards Australia. During the other half of the year the south-east trades,
which are always accompanied by rains, blow steadily on the south-east seaboard,
that is, on all that part of the island which is not sheltered by the Australian
continent. West of Torres Strait this continent again modifies the direction of
the normal currents which come from the south-west and west, and which also
bring a considerable quantity of moisture from the Indian Ocean. During this
A. E. Wallace, The Jfalay Archipelago, chap, xxxiii.

t Observations made by Miklukho Muklay at Hermitage Po'nt (5 23' S. lat ; 145 46' E. long ) :
Highest Temperature
Lowest
M.;m
,, .... .
88 F.
70
80 F.
F.
Rainy Days
Rainfall .... 150
94 inches.
302 AUSTRALASIA.
slopes, the lofty Owen

period the phenomena are reversed on the northern Stanley
intercepting the south-east trade, and producing calms or
range completely
variable breezes in the sheltered waters north of Papuasia.
Half Australian in some of its aspects, New Guinea presents a less varied flora
than Indonesia, although the western peninsula seems to belong to the same zone
as the Moluccas. Here are found the nulmeg and other Moluccan plants, while
the acacias and eucalyptus of the eastern regions recall the neighbouring continent
of Australia. In general the two floras may be said to overlap each other in New
Guinea, alternating with the dryness or moisture
of the contrasting slopes. Where
the slopes are exposed to droughts the prevailing forest trees are the eucalyptus
and other Australian species, and here occur vast savannahs of the so called
" with the bread-fruit tree, the
kangaroo grass," while the streams are fringed
mango, pandanus, areca, and cocoa-nut palms. But there are also a large number
of indigenous forms, and Beccari enumerated no less than fifty varieties of the
palm peculiar to the great island. Amongst the more valuable local species is the
sassafras goheianum, the bark of which yields the precious masso'i oil, so highly
prized as a febrifuge in the Malay Archipelago.

Notwithstanding the great diversity in their relief, climates, and general
physical aspects, New Guinea and
Australia present remarkable resemblances in
their respective faunas. On
the one hand lofty mountains, rain-bearing winds,
well-watered valleys, large rivers, vast ever-green woodlands on the other, ;
boundless plains, where waterless and stony tracts are varied by thorny scrub.
Yet the mammalian fauna belongs to a common centre of dispersion, a fact which
can be explained only by assuming a former continuity of land between both
regions. The present Torres Strait by which they are now separated is evidently
a comparatively recent event in the history of the planet.
The animals, however, have had to modify their habits in order to adapt them-
selves to their different environments. Thus one of the New Guinea kangaroos,
formerly a jumper, is now a climber. His tail has become smaller and covered
with hair, his paws have been furni-hed with claws, and he moves from branch to
branch with short springs. Instead of grazing he feeds on the rich foliage of the
trees, but he is still rather awkward at climbing, and would soon be exterminated
were the local forests infested by rapacious beasts.
The whole mammalian fauna is limited to a pig, some bats, mice, and mono-
tremes, with over thirty species of the characteristic marsupials, one of which is no
bigger than a rat. The dingo, or wild dog, which everywhere accompanies the
natives, came with them at some remote age from foreign lands like the Austra-
;
lian dingo it never barks, it lives almost

exclusively on fruits and and vegetables,
its flesh is said to be excellent.
In its New Guinea partakes both of the Australian and Malaysian
avifauna
In the north-west peninsula and
regions. neighbouring islands alone Wallace
and other naturalists have enumerated at least two hundred and
fifty species of
land birds belonging to one hundred and
eight genera, of which are sixty-four
peculiar to the zone of Papuasia, the Moluccas, and North Australia. Some of
FAUNA OF NEW GUINEA. 303
these are remarkable for their beauty, original forms, and brilliant colours. Such
are the gottra coronata, loveliest of the pigeon family the large black cockatoo
;
and the nasiterna, the " giant and dwarf " of this tribe lastly, the marvellous
;
birds of paradise, called by the Malays the " birds of God," and formerly supposed
to live always on the wing, ever-soaring heavenwards. They were also believed
to have no feet, because the skins prepared for the Moluccan markets had the legs
amputated, and even Linnaous gave the name of paradisca apoda to the large
variety. The cassowary is also found in New Guinea, but birds of prey are
almost completely absent, and to this circumstance is due the development of so
many other species with gorgeous plumage. Amongst the numerous reptiles occurs
the curious chondropython pulcher, which forms the transition between the American
boas and the pythons of Asia. Although the exploration of New Guinea is still
far from complete thousands of insects have been discovered,
fully as remarkable as
the birds for their surprising wealth of forms and genera.
INHABITANTS OF NEW GUINEA.
The population of New Guinea, variously estimated at from half a million to

two millions, comprises a very large number of groups differing greatly from each
other in stature, complexion, shape of the skull and other
physical features, as
well as in their usages and mental qualities. Several tribes approach the Indo-
nesian type, as found in Borneo and Celebes, while others resemble the
Malays,
and are described by travellers as belonging to this race. Wallace, Virchow,
Hamy, d'Albertis, and other ethnologists also believe that the Negritoes are repre-
sented in New Guinea as a distinct race, and not merely as degenerate Papuans,
as supposed by A. B. Meyer and Miklukho Maklay. Communities of Polynesian
origin are also numerous, especially in the south-eastern districts, and endless
interminglings have taken place between contiguous groups.
But, although there is no ethnical uniformity, as seemed probable from the
reports of the early explorers, the Papuan element, whence the great island takes
the name of Papuasia, certainly predominates over all others. This element is
found almost unmixed on some parts of the north coast, and according to several
authorities it even occurs in all parts of the Oceanic world. Formerly it reached
as far as Hawaii and New Zealand, where it has been replaced by the Polynesian
stock.
This term Papua, said by Crawford to be derived from the Malay expression
" "
pua-piia, that is, black, black," is by most writers explained to mean frizzly,"
from the natural texture of the hair, the trait by which most strangers are arrested.
The natives give themselves no collective name, and the special appellations by
which the various tribes are known are usually found to be of topographical origin.
The languages, as numerous as the tribal groups, are sufficiently distinct in many
places to prevent the natives of neighbouring villages from understanding each

other. According to Lawes no than twenty-five idioms are current along the
less
section of the southern seaboard stretching for about 300 miles to the east of Torres
30 4 AUSTRALASIA.
Strait. '1 he best known native dialect is the Nofur (Nufor), of Dorey and the
Some of those that have been hitherto studied,
adjacent islands in Geelvink Bay.
as, for instance, the
Motu of the south-east coast, belong undoubtedly to the great
but it would be premature to assert that all
]Ualayo-Polynean linguistic family ;
oceanic group.
the New Guinea languages are members of that widespread
On the whole the are somewhat shorter than the Polynesians, the
Papuans
average height being about
62 to 64 inches. They are well-proportioned, lithe,
and active, and display surprising skill both in climbing trees and in using
the
Most have a very dark skin, but never of

feet forprehensile purposes. Papuans
that shiny black peculiar to the Shilluks of the White Nile, the Wolofs of Senegal,
and some other African peoples. The eyebrows are well marked, the eyes large
and animated, the mouth large but not pouting, the jaw massive. Amongst the
north-western Papuans, regarded by Wallace as representing the type in its purity,
arched, and tipped downwards at the extremity, and this
is a trait
the nose is long,
which the native artists never fail to reproduce in the human effigies with which
Another nume-
distinctive characteristic of
they decorate their houses and boats.
rous tribes is their so-called mop-heads, formed by superb masses of frizzly hair,
no less abundant than that of the Brazilian Cafusos, and, as in their case, possibly
indicating racial interminglings. But this feature is not constant any more than
is the dolichocephalous, or narrow shape of the skull, although both are very gene-
ral. In Mabiak and some other islands of Torres Strait the heads of the children
are lengthened by artificial means almost and the young women of
to a point,
many tribes on the mainland carry loads supported by a strap round the forehead,
which has the contrary compressing the skull to a circular form.
effect of
Some Papuans still go naked, but the majority wear at least a sort of bark loin-
cloth or skirt of vegetable fibre, or else a rattan cane to which is suspended a
shell or some Tattooing is not universal, nor do the Papuans, properly
foliage.
so-called, ever decorate themselves with designs and arabesques like the Poly-
nesians. The tattooing is, moreover, generally effected by burns or incisions, and
not by the pricking operation common amongst the mixed populations of the south-
eastern districts. Bamboo combs are worn in the hair, little bits of stick or bone
are passed through the cartilage of the nose, the is also painted and orna-
body
mented with and pendants of bone, shells, polished pebbles,
earrings, bracelets,
the vertebra of fish, and even human
teeth. In sign of mourning they daub
themselves in white, yellow, or black, according to the tribes, and the women of
Kalau, near the Fly delta, express their grief by covering themselves from face to
knees with a network of little
strings.
Certain tribes on the shores of Astrolabe studied by Miklukho Maklay are
Bay
amongst the least civilised in Papuasia. Till recently they were unacquainted
with metals, wooden implements exclusively
using stone, shell, or they were
still
;
even incapable of producing fire, so that when the emb2rs died out it had to be
borrowed from the next-door neighbour. The old men assured the Russian
traveller that within a recent epoch fire was altogether unknown, and flesh
till
was eaten raw, which causod scorbutic affections to Such is also probably
prevail.
INHABITANTS OF NEW GUINEA. 805
the state of culture amongst the inland tribes cut off from all relations with
still
the outer world but most of the populations dwelling on the seaboard, and visited
;
by Malays, Bugis, or European and American seafarers, have long enjoyed a much
higher degree of civilisation. Some tribes are still exclusively hunters or fishers,
whereas others till the land, making extensive clearings in the forests, where
they
plant. the sago tree, surround their huts with, bananas, sow maize, taro and tobacco,
and even export their agricultural produce in exchange for European goods,
especiallyarms and hardware. Till lately they used no weapons except stone-
headed or poisoned darts and arrows, bamboo knives, bone daggers, wooden spears
and clubs. Some of the natives also possess musical instruments of primitive form,
such as flutes, drums, and trumpets.
However backward they may be in other respects most of the Papuans are
endowed with a highly developed artistic feeling, and as carvers and sculptors they
are far superior to most of the Malayan peoples. Having at their disposition
nothing but bamboos, bone, banana leaves, bark and wood, they usually design and
carve with the grain, that is, in straight lines. Nevertheless, with these primitive
materials they succeed in producing extremely elegant and highly original decora-
tive work, and even sculpture colossal statues representing celebrated chiefs and
ancestors. Thanks to this talent they are able to reproduce vast historic scenes,
and thus record contemporary events. Numerous tribes have their annals either
designed on foliage or depicted on rocks in symbolic writing. The skulls of the
enemies slain in battle, which are carefully preserved to decorate the houses, are
themselves often embellished with designs traced on masks made of wax and resin.
On. the banks of the
Fly river these skulls are also used as musical instruments.
All Papuan dwellings, even those of inland districts, are erected on rows of
piles on the model of those insular villages which are surrounded by water at every
tide and inaccessible
except by boats. These clusters of habitations, which from
a distance look like upraised reefs of eccentric form, present a perfect picture of
what the European lacustrine towns must have been some three or four thousand
years ago. Stakes of unequal length sunk deep into the muddy bed of the shallow
bays serve to support a flooring of planks interlaced with lianas tmd more or less
polished with stone implements in the centre is the hearth formed by a bed of
;
glazed earth, and in front runs a little verandah, serving as a playground for the
children and a workshop for the fishermen. The houses are connected together
by means of slight wooden galleries, along which the natives with their prehensile
feet pas's while underneath the crocodiles swim sluggishly about,
fearlessly,
attracted by the refuse of the kitchens. Now also European craft, and even small
steimers, thread the mazes of these floating villages, casting anchor before the
large building which serves at once as temple, hotel, exchange and market. In
the interior the Papuans have preserved the same type of structure as on the sea-
board.
But the ingenuity of the natives is displayed above all in the construction of
their boats.At the approach of bad weather they lash two, three, and even four
of these praus in a
single floating ma=s, which rises and falls with the waves with-
200
806 AUSTRALASIA.
out ever foundering. the lafnkoi, or trading craft, carry as many as six
Some of
rectangular sails or large

mats made with the bark of the sago palm, each sup-
masts springing from the gunwales of the praus. Other
ported by two vertical
oval and hollowed out
boats heist only a single sail double the height of the mast,
at top so as to leave two points, which at a distance
resemble the horns of some
the water. The natives also contrive to make
prodigious animal gliding through
means of a platform which is attached at its two
imple canoes quite seaworthy by
SI
extremities to a pointed boom or spar serving the purpose of

an outrigger.
much dreaded by passing seafarers, most of the New
Although formerly
Guinea peoples are of mild disposition and habits. The women are respected and
the children treated with extreme kindness. The slaves, also, in the few districts
the same clothes as the free men.
where they enjoy the same food and wear
exist,
but the funeral
Homage is paid to the dead with flowers, songs, and ceremonies,
rites differ greatly in the different tribes. Some bury the deceased immediately
"
after the obsequies," others wait till the body has been dried by fire or the
the son
weather, while elsewhere the bones are distributed amongst the relatives,
wearing his father's maxillary as an armlet.
A very common sculpture the so-called karvars, that is,
practice is to little
figures representing
the deceased, or rather the life that has escaped from them.
At the son's death the karvar is planted on his grave, with his arms he is thus ;
followed to the other world by his father's image, while he own to hisleaves his
children. The houses and boats, which serve as temples, are also decked with the
effigies of their ancestors,
the worship of whom, combined with that of the good
and evil spirits dwelling in the trees, the rocks, the winds, and storms, constitutes
the religion of all the aborigines. Mohammedanism, however, has already invaded
the small archipelagoes off the west coast and even some parts of the mainland.
Christian missionaries have also established stations at various points of the sea-
board, which are at least becoming so many centres of civilising influences.
TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW GUINEA.
The Dutch, as heirs of the Sultan of Tidor, who retains the nominal suzerainty
without the right of levying tribute, are the official masters of west New Guinea
as far as 141 E. longitude. But on this vast domain they do not possess a
single town, whence their direct authority
might be gradually extended over the
interior. There are, however, a few ports of cull visited at more or less frequent
intervalsby their ships of war to protect the commercial operations of the few
European traders, and especially to show their flag and maintain their authority
in the eyes of the natives.
At the north-west extremity of New Guinea the island of Waiyett, that is,
"
Laud of Water," seems to be admirably situated to serve one
day as a centre of
trade for the insular populations of this The deep inlets indenting the
region.
south coast might afford shelter for whole fleets, while a roadstead is
magnificent
formed by the coralline islet of Gemien lying near the shore. Unfortunately
TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW GUINEA. 307
AVaigeu, although fertile and tliickly peopled, produces nothing for exportation.
The natives, of mixed Malay and Papuan descent, are indolent, like all other
islanders for whom the sago tree yields a superabundance of food with little effort
Fig. 133. WAIQEU, BATANTA, AND SALWATT.

Scale 1 :
1,800,0: 0.
tasbcF Greenwich I502CT I5IMO'
Depths.
OtoSO Mi to 250 250 Fathoms

Fathoms. Fathoms. mid upwards.
.36 Miles.
on thtir part. In the interior there are no independent Alfuru tribes, and all the
inhabitants recognise the rajah, who resides at Samsam, at the head of the inlet by
which the island is nearly divided into two parts. The isthmus of Fak-Fak
connecting the two nearly equal sections is scarcely 200 feet high. But the most
808 AUSTRALASIA.
in this western archipelago of New Guinea is Samatt, at the

frequented market
north-east point of the island of Salwaty.
Onthe Dutch mainland the best-known and busiest station is Dorei, at the foot
of the Arfak hills, at the entrance of Geelvink Bay.
Close to the coast are three
Fig. 134. DOBBI.

Scale 1 : 900,000.
DepthR.
Oto60 50 Fathoms
IS Miles
on the north side by a wooded headland, and visited

pile villages sheltered by a
few Malay and European traders. Here is also a long- established missionary
station but although well received
;
by the natives, the preachers of the gospel
have hitherto failed to form a small
congregation of neophytes.
TOPOGEAPHY OF NEW GUINEA. 309
The Papuans of Dorei are known by the name of Mafur or Nofur, a term
supposed by some to have the same origin as the word Alf uru, which in Portuguese
would have the meaning of "outsiders," or "savages." But Van Hasselt

it in the sense of " discoverers of and these natives are justly
interprets fire,"
proud of the sublime invention attributed by other peoples to the gods. The
neighbouring highlands are occupied by the Arfak people, much dreaded head-
hunters, who have nevertheless given a friendly welcome to those travellers who
ventured to visit them.
West of Dorei on the north coast lies the station Ambcrbaken (Amberbaki], that
" Amber Land," which is inhabited by Papuans of the same stock as the
is,
Maf urs, and like them peaceful and friendly and even more skilful agriculturists.
Their villages consist of very high cabins perched on the interlaced stems of the
bamboo. The territory west of them is occupied by the Karons, one of the few
New Guinea peoples who have not been unjustly accused of cannibalism. They
eat the bodies of their enemies slain in battle but they are probably not of
;
Papuan Although averaging about

race. 5 feet 4 inches in height, they would
appear to belong to the same stock as the Negritoes of the Philippine Islands and ;
according to the naturalist Raff ray are characterised by robust, thick- set frames
and limbs, large round head, very prominent superciliary arches, thick lips, broad
flat features.
They dress their frizzly hair in long tresses, which hang loosely over
the temples and forehead, and practise a kind of tattooing with large raised welts.
According to the Malays who have visited them, the Karons do not eat sago
like the coastlanders, but feed on the sprouts of another palm that grows in a
dry soil, and also devour all kinds of reptiles and insects. They are accused,
though not on direct evidence, of eating their own offspring when all the slaves
and captives have been consumed, leaving only two children to each family.
Further south and more inland dwell the Gebars, who, like the peoples living on
the shores of MacCluer Inlet, are also reputed cannibals.
South of Dorei one of the most important coast villages is Wairur, lying not
far from the narrowest part of the isthmus, across which a portage might easily be
established between the Geelvink and MacCluer Gulfs.
This place is visited by
Malay traders, who purchase

the nutmegs here growing wild. Other stations
follow round Geelvink Bay, such as Wandamrnen on the south and Aropcn
( Waropen) on the east side. Then beyond the Amberno delta occur a few ports
of call occasionally visited by Dutch skippers. But here the population is very
scattered, and foreign trade has fallen off since the middle of the century. The
dealers, following the usual plan of making advances to the natives in order to
secure their produce beforehand at nominal prices, run the rick of being murdered
by their debtors, and in some places do not venture even to land, but wait off the
coast the arrival of the native craft laden with locul produce.
Humboldt Bay (Telokh Lintju), the easternmost inlet within Dutch territory,
is inhabited by some of the rudest coast tribes in New Guinea. Such is their
ignorance that they are even unable to extract the oil from the cocoanuts that
fringe all tbe western parts of the bay.
810 AUSTRALASIA.
seaboard the mainland is less frequented than the

Along the whole of this
Those of Geelvink bay have each some busy markets, the

most
adjacentlslands.
is Aimts, on the south side of Jobi or Jappen.
The inhabitants
important of which
of the station resemble the Mafurs of Dorci but the interior of the island
greatly
;
who are accused, rightly or wrongly, of

is occupied by much-dreaded savages,
cannibalism.
On the Dutch territory facing the Moluccas the most frequented station is Sekaar,
which stands on a small bay at the southern entrance of MacCluer Inlet.

The
of Bintuni in search
traders from Ceram penetrate in this direction as far as the port
of sago and nutmegs but they never venture
;
to approach the northern shores of
the whose inhabitants are dreaded as pirates and man-eaters. Here the most
gulf,
" an insular group of some twenty
powerful rajah" is the prince of Afti-Atti,
houses lying west of Sekaar, and occupied by a motley population of nominal
Mohammedans. The rajah of this place is the representative of the Sultan of
Tidor in these waters, and the tribute of the villages along the coast is collected
by him. Thanks to his intervention the Tidor suzerain and the Dutch Govern-
ment have ceased to be myths for the natives of these districts
itself in the ;
Karas archipelago, in the Island of Adi, and as far as Namatotte and Aiduma, near
the bay where formerly stood Fort Bus, the authority of the Netherlands is fully
" "
recognised; but farther eastwards the power of the Company is no longer
anything more than a name. The Papuans of these regions are said by travellers
to approach the African Negro type more than any others ; formerly they carried
on a trade in slaves, and according to the early explorers at times even sold their
own children into bondage.
"
The Aru, that is, Mother-of-Pearl," Archipelago, lying about 90 miles south
of the New Guinea coast, enjoys far greater commercial importance than the
trading places on the mainland. Dobbo, the commercial centre of the group,
commands a well-sheltered channel in the islet of Wamrna, one of the coralline
rocks in the north-west of the archipelago. During the season from March to
May whole fleets of praus assemble here from Ceram and the surrounding islands,
from the Kei Archipelago and even from Macassar. According to Wallace the
exports of Dobbo, chiefly mother-of-pearl, tortoise-shell, holothuria), birds of
paradise and edible birds'-nests, have a mean annual value of 18,000. During
the busy period the houses are unable to afford accommodation to the numerous
traders flocking hither from all parts of Western Indonesia but after the fair the ;
place is completely deserted.

The Aru Archipelago depends on the Amboyna Residence, and usually once a
year a Dutch commissioner comes rcund from the capital to make his general
inspection and deliver judgment on pending cases. His intervention, however, is
little needed, for during his absence the people administer their own affairs fairly
well, having neither murders nor thefts to punish. According to von Rosenberg,
some groups of Negritoes dwell near the fisheries in the eastern part of the
archipelago. The Alivurus (Alfurus) of the Aru Islands claim descent from an
ancestral tree, and are regarded by Riedel as of the same stock as the Australians
BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 311
of North Queensland ;
others think they came from Timor and Tenimber, while
Wallace considers that they belong to the pure Papuan type.
They eat the flesh
of the dog, supposing that this diet. will always keep them brave and
strong ;
but with their sago cakes they also take a few slices from the bodies of deceased
relatives. The foreign religions, whether Christian or Mohammedan, have hitherto
made scarcely any progress amongst these islanders.
BRITISH NEW GUINEA.
Even before they became the official rulers of southern Papuasia, the English
had already extended their jurisdiction over all the inhabited islands of Torres
Strait to within sight of the great island. Hence the Australian colonists had
only very narrow waters to cross in order to take possession of their new domain.
The proximity of the Australian continent in fact gives quite an exceptional
importance to this British territory. It is accordingly the best known, or rather
the least unexplored region in the whole of New Guinea ;
here the itineraries of
travellers reach farthest inland, and here attempts at colonisation have been
essayed on the largest scale. Australian speculators are already demanding the
concession of vast tracts to be converted into plantations and cultivated by native
labour. Meantime the Government, fully alive to its responsibilities, has issued
salutary measures tending to protect the aborigines from extermination or from
the evils usually resulting even from peaceful contact with the white. The sale of
fire-arms, or alcoholic drinks and of opium to the local tribes is absolutely forbidden,
as is also the indiscriminate recruiting of the natives for the labour markets else-
where.
The portion of British territory conterminous with Dutch New Guinea seems
to hold out the brightest prospects for future settlement and material progress.
Here are the rich alluvial lands watered by the numerous navigable branches of
the Fly River, and at the same time lying nearest to the Australian mainland.
The intervening shallow and island-studded waters of Torres Strait are only about
100 miles wide, reckoning from the mouth of the Baxter River to Cape York at
the northern extremity of the York Peninsula. Nevertheless the vast and fertile
delta region is still entirely held by Papuan wild tribes, and the nearest station
of white, traders and missionaries lies, not on the mainland but on the reef- fringed
islet of Saibai, off the coast to the east of the mouth of the Mai Kasa.
When the syndicate of the Australian colonies sent an expedition in 1885 to
establish British authority over the officially annexed territory, the site of the
future capital was fixed at Port-Moresby, an inlet opening to the south-west of the
superb Owen Stanley highlands, and sheltered by a chain of reefs from the fury
of the surf during stormy weather. At
this point white coralline cliffs take the
place of the muddy mangrove-covered shores which skirt the mainland to the
north-west. The basin of the roadstead, which is
approached by a wide entrance,
has a depth of from 24 to 40 feet almost close inshore. Here also is one of the
largest and most salubrious native villages on the whole seaboard. Even at the
312 AUSTRALASIA.
time of the discovery in 1873, double row of huts, shaded by cocoanut palm-
its
groves, had as many as eight hundred industrious inhabitants occupied with

agriculture, trade, and pottery, and doing a large traffic with the villages along
Fig. 13-5. POET-MOBESBY.

Scale 1 : 100,000.
Last oPbreenwich I46"29
Depths.
Eecfs and sands exposed to 32 82 to 80

at low water.
80 Feet and
. 2 Miles.
the north-west coast, which took the excellent

Port-Moresby earthenware in
exchange for sago.
Since that time the native town has
considerably increased in size, while the
BRITISH NEW GUINEA.
European charter, wh ich in 1 885 had only .
^ rf
" 'Â *% *
_TL^- -g-^,".T
'
"
< "T
'
':'*'/' *%Ji'!*7t '
: ,
:
missionaries and the

depot, of a British trader, no, boasts of its Gove.n.ent
3U .
AUSTRALASIA.
" and other structures symbolising European

palace," barracks, court-house, prison,
administration. Port-Moresby is the only haven in British New Guinea where
foreign skippers are authorised to land their wares nor can any colonists settle
;
in the place without special permission. It is already connected by a submarine
cable with the Australian continent.
In 1887 not more than about twenty whites, officials, traders, and missionaries,
were resident on the mainland of the British territory. Most of the dealers carried
on their operations with the natives from their ships without ever landing. The
explorer and naturalist, 0. H. Forbes, had

founded a small settlement at Sogere, in
the interior, about 50 miles north-east of Port-Moresby, and it was from this point
that he organised his expeditions to the surrounding highlands. Gold miners,
hitherto attended with but little success, have also established a few camping
grounds at some distance inland, and a white traveller may now wander alone
without danger throughout most of the southern regions in British territory east
of the Fly River.
But it is chiefly through the action of native teachers trained by the mission-
aries that European influence is
slowly making itself felt amongst the highland
populations. The Protestant seminary at Port-Moresby sends every year a certain
number of young educated natives to the villages along the seaboard and in the
islands, and thanks to them the languages current in this region are already well
known. These teachers have been most successful especially as gardeners, and the
enclosures of the villages are already in many places well stocked with vegetables
and fruit trees till
recently unknown in the country.
Beyond Port-Moresby no European houses are anywhere to be seen except on

the Hula headland some 60 miles south-east of the capital, and in a few islets near
the coast. The Government, however, has acquired South Gape and Stacey Island,
at the south-east extremity of New
Guinea, in anticipation of a future strategical
and commercial establishment in this region. Plantations have been
recently
begun in South-east Island, the chief member of the Louisiade Archipelago.
Here the Island of Vare, or Teste, has already become a station much frequented
by
skippers engaged in the coasting trade.
On the whole the British is much more thiokly peopled than the Dutch section
of New Guinea. In some
districts, and especially on the shores of Papua Gulf
between the Fly Delta and Yule Island, the population is
very dense, large villages
following in succession from creek to creek. The Aroma south-east of
country,
Port-Moresby, is also well peopled, while the Louisiade and Entrecasteaux Islands
are fringed with hamlets round their The natives of these archi-
periphery.
pelagoes, however, aremuch dreaded, and seafarers shipwrecked on their shores
have often been devoured by them.
They have the reputation of being all
powerful magicians, of whom it is related that they can tear out the eyes, the
tongue, the heart and entrails of their enemies without the victims' knowledge.
Some of the tribes are of Papuan origin, and resemble those of western
closely
New Guinea. Those are for the most part agriculturists, while those
engaged in
trade and navigation appear to be half-castes, the
Polynesian type predominating
BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 815
amongst many of them. To this mixed race belong the Motus of Port-Moresby,
who manufacture and export vast quantities of earthenware, and whose language
has become the lingua franca of the traders along a large part of the seaboard.
Their complexion is relatively fair, not unlike that of the Tahitians, and in their
attitude, physiognomy, and usages they also recall the eastern Polynesians. Of
all the New
Guinea peoples they practise tattooing to the greatest extent. The
designs, with which they cover a great part of the body, bear a surprising resem-
blance to Greek and Latin characters. At the sight of these fine torsos, which
seem clothed with inscriptions, one feels involuntarily tempted to decipher the
writing, as if it contained the personal Listory of the bearers.

The Koyari, who occupy the first slopes of the mountains back of Port-Moresby,
have near their villages little dobos, or houses, perched on the tree tops, where they
take refuge in case of danger, and whence they hurl stones on their assailants. It
was perhaps these dobos that gave rise to the legend of certain Papuan peoples
living in the trees, and springing from branch to branch like monkeys. The
Koyari and the neighbouring Koitapu of kindred stock have a much darker com-
plexion than the Motus.
The aborigines of the British territory must be included amongst those popula-
tions, who have developed no distinct form of government, all the male adults
being practically equal. Doubtless each village has its so-called "chiefs," who
owe this title either to age or to personal valour in warfare, or else to their superior
skill and potency as magicians. But this moral ascendency gives them no authority
over the tribe, and the consequence ie> that the British Government is unable to
utilise them as officials in the
way it would wish. All its efforts aim at giving
the tribes a monarchical constitution, by appointing some distinguished member of
the community to be henceforth a paid functionary, and at the same time the
representative of his fellow-tribesmen, and responsible for their conduct. The
general administration of British New Guinea has meantime been delegated by the
home Government to the Australian colony of Queensland.
THE GERMAN POSSESSIONS IN NEW GUINEA.
The German territory, officially designated by the name of Kaiser

"Wilhelms-
laiul, is not administered as a state colony by officials from Berlin. Its manage-
ment is
simply left in the hands of a trading company, which, under the protection
and control of the Government, endeavours to make money by laying out planta-
tions, establishing trading stations, and exporting local produce. Men-of-war visit
these wa'ers to give the German traders the necessary prestige, and, when
required, to lend them active assistance.
Numerous expeditions have revealed the form of the coastline in all its detai's,
but the old French, English, and Russian names of the prominent headlands and
other geographical features have been gradually replaced by German appellations.
Very little of the nomenclature given to this region by the first explorers now
remains on the maps, and the natives no longer salute strangers by the title of
816 AUSTRALASIA.
" Dumont d'Urville and other French

Monsieur," as they had learned to do from
navigators.
The capital of the German possessions in New Guinea is Finsch-luifen, so named
in honour of the German explorer Finsch, who has surveyed most of the country
Fig. 137. ASTBOLABE BAY.

Scale 1 :
425,000.
Depths.
OtooO 50 Fat.hims
9 Miles
and best described the land and

its inhabilants. Finsch-hafen lies near the
the peninsula, which
projects to the north of Huon Bay ; at this
coast is
deeply indented by a winding inlet, where
large vessels can
ichor in 60 or 70 feet of
water completely sheltered from all winds.
GERMAN NEW GUINEA. 817
The houses of the settlement were erected towards the end of the year 1885
first
on a round island, which has been connected by an embankment with the main-
land. Cisterns have also been constructed to husband the ra\n-water, there being
a total absence of springs in the coralline limestones of the island and surrounding
shores.
At the first arrival of the Germans the district was comparatively well-peopled,
but most of the natives have since emigrated in order to avoid being obliged to
work on the plantations of the whites. A
Protestant mission has been established
in the vicinity, and communication with the civilised world
maintained by a
is
steamer plying between this station and the Australian settlement of Cooktown on
the east coast of Queensland.
In the Appendix will be found a table of the islands which may be regarded as
geographical dependencies of New Guinea. The German islands off the north coast
form part of the Melanesian Archipelagoes, while those of Torres Strait on the
opposite side of the great island are attributed to Australia.
CHAPTER VII.
MELANESIA.
LL tie islands lying north-east of New Guinea as far as .the equator

have been declared German possessions by the treaty of partition
with Great, Britain. Towards the west the German .waters are
limited by the meridian of 141 east longitude, but eastwards the
Pacific Ocean is left open for future annexations. Till 1885 the
limit was indicated by 154 east longitude, but that limit was effaced the next year
when the north-western members of the Solomon group, Bougainville, Choiseul,

Yzabel, and all the neighbouring lands to the north of 8 south latitude, were pro-
claimed German territory. The islands thus officially annexed to the empire have
an estimated superficial area of over 30,000 square miles, with a population of pro-
bably about three hundred and fifty thousand. Like the New Guinea possessions,
these insular groups are assigned to a trading company, which at the same titne
exercises political functions.
According to the terms of the treaty the southern section of the Solomon
Archi-
pelago falls within the sphere of British influence.
I. NORTH MELANESIA: ADMIRALTY, BISMARCK AND SOLOMON ISLANDS.
These oceanic lands are amongst those that have longest remained unnoticed.
In 1567 Mendana, guided by the pilot Hernando Gallego, landed on Yzabel, one
of the large islands to which he gave the collective name of the Solomon
Archipelago, doubtless with the hope or pretension of having here discovered that
"
auriferous " land of Ophir whence the King of Judaea imported the gold for the
Temple of Jerusalem.
Mendana spent six months in exploring the islands, which he was at last obliged
to leave through lack of provisions and water, after quarrelling with the natives
whom he had come " to convert to the true faith." Later he returned to colonise
the archipelago which he had discovered, but died before reaching it. The route
to the Solomon Islands was thus lost, and remained unknown for two hundred
years afterwards. Its position had been too vaguely indicated to be followed with
any certainty, while Gallego's report had been kept secret, lest he should direct
the mariners of other nations to these islands henceforth claimed
by Spain. The
record of this route has only recently been discovered in the and
Spanish archives,
translated into English by H. B.
Guppy.
NORTH MELANESIA. 819
Two hundred years after Mendana's voyage, Carteret, in 1767, followed the
next year by Bougainville, and in 1769 by Surville, again sailed through the
straits and channels discovered by the Spanish navigator, but without identify-
ing them ;
in fact, they fancied they had discovered new lands and accordingly
gave them new names. It was reserved for Buache and Fleurieu, by patient
investigation and comparative studies of the early itineraries, to restore to the
Spanish mariners the glory of having first explored these Melanesian regions.
But while navigators were in vain seeking the lost route to the Solomon group,
they visited other lands lying nearer to New Guinea. In 1616 the Dutch sailors,
Le Maire and Schouten, surveyed the " Twenty-five Islands," since Carteret's time
known as the Admiralty Archipelago they also discovered Birara or New
Britain, which, however, they mistook for the northern seaboard of New Guinea
fringed with numerous islets. Tasman, who also visited these lands in 1643, fell into
the same error, which was not corrected till the year 1700, when Dampier, passing
southwards, penetrated into the strait that bears his name, and thus determined
the insular character of the Admiralty group but much still remained to be
;
done, and the systematic survey of these waters, begun in the last century by
Carteret, Bougainville, and d'Entrecasteaux, and continued in 1827 by Dumont
d'Urville, is only now being gradually completed.
For the inland exploration of the islands little has hitherto been done.
Missionaries, traders, adventurers, naturalists, such as Miklukho-Maklay, Finsch,
Guppy, have visited various parts of the Melanesian groups and published the
results of their studies ;
but no methodical survey of the whole region was begun
till the year 1884, when New Britain and New Ireland were occupied by the
German Government. Unfortunately, one of the first official acts of that power
was to
change the geographical nomenclature, in which names of English and
French origin prevailed. Doubtless, some of these arbitrary terms might with
advantage have been suppressed, and replaced by those current amongst the
natives themselves. But the maps have been modified in the spirit of a mistaken
or aggressive patriotism, without considering whether the new terminology could
be justified by the physical aspect of the islands, the nature of the soil,
population, or comparative geography.

The chief insular group has thus become the Bismarck Archipelugo; Tombara,
or New Ireland, is henceforth to be known as NeV Mecklenburg York Island ;
has taken the name of New Lauenburg, and Birara, or New Britain, that of New
Pomerania. Most of the mountains and ports have been similarly "re-baptised,"
with a cynical defiance of international etiquette and indifference to the fitness of
things.
PHYSICAL FEATURKS OF NORTH MELANESIA.
The North Melanesian lands are dispased in the form of two transverse curves.
1 he northern, beginning with Tiger Island, about 100 miles north of the New Guinea
seaboard, stretches eastwards through the groups of Ninigo or Exchequer, the

820 AUSTRALASIA.
Hermit and Admiralty to New

Hanover, which is followed by the elongated
island of Tombara, disposed in the direction from north-west
to south-east, in
common with all the members of the Solomon Archipelago. The southern curve
runs at first parallel with
the New Guinea coast, where the extreme limit of the
chain is marked by Vulcan Island within ten miles of the mainland. The system
is then continued at intervals by Dampier (Kar-Kaf), Long
and Rook, beyond
which the curve, ceasing to follow the New Guinea coast south-eastwards, sweeps
round through Birara (New Britain) east and north-east transversly to Tombara.
Both curves thus converge and somewhat overlap about York Island in St. George's
Channel.
Like most other insular chains disposed in the form of arcs of a circle, these two
ranges of the North Melanesian islands consist in a great measure of volcanic lands.
Vulcan, at the western extremity of the southern curve, forms a superb peak
from which wreaths of smoke constantly issue. Its shores are festooned with a
its slopes clothed with forest growths to a height of
garland of plantations and
over 3,000 feet, beyond which nothing is seen except a scanty herbaceous vegeta-
tion as far as the summit, 5,000 feet above the ssa.
Aris, near this smoking cone, is a long extinct breached crater; but Lesson,
lying farther west, is still active. These waters have often been the scene of
violent commotions, and when Dampier penetrated through the strait bearing his
name, the atmosphere was charged with vapours and ashes flames were reflected ;
from the clouds, and the sea was covered far and wide by floating pumice but at ;
present all the numerous igneous cones dotted over this maritime region are
quiescent.
Birara, largest member of all the Melanesian groups, is too little known in its
central parts to determine the character of the rocks concealed benoath the
uniform mantle of verdure clothing all the mountain slopes. But Cape Gloucester,
at the extreme point overlooking Dampier Strait, is known to be a still active
volcano, while round about rise numerous eruptive cones with an average height
of about 6,500 feet. A low reef in the cluster of the French Islands scattered to
the north of Birara is an upheaved igneous mass, one of whose springs forms
also
a geyser. Farther east a promontory on the mainland, 3,940 feet high, consti-
tutes, with two less elevated crests, the group of still-burning mountains known as
the "Father" and his two "Sons." Lastly, Blanche or White Bay, at the
northern extremity of Birara, appears to be itself a ruined crater encircled by an
amphitheatre of hills. In the midst of the waters, which present an almost

lacustrine aspect, stands a steep circular eminence, while the peninsula enclos'ng
ihe bay on the east is surmounted by another triplet of volcanoes, known as
the "Mother" (2,100 feet) and her two "Daughters." In the neighbouring
seas the water has often been seen to boil and some of the islets have even been
up,
partly blown away.
Igneous energy seems to be less active in the western section of the northern
curve forming the chief insular chain of North Melanesia. The Exchequer and
Hermit groups are vast atolls resting on a bed whose true character has not
rocky
NOETH MELANESIA. 821
yet been determined. The Admiralty Archipelago consists mainly of coralline

rocks, and here a mass, 2,970 feet high, occupying the centre of the large island
of Taui, alone said to be of plutonic origin.
is
Among the less elevated hills in New Hanover, Tombara (New Ireland), and
Fig. 138.- WHITE BAT.

Scale 1 : 170,000.
152V
Depths.
Bands and Heefs Oto26 25 Fathomn

exposed at low water. Fathoms. and upwards.
3 Miles.
neighbouring no igneous cones have yet been discovered, but the volcanic
islets
system again reappears in the Solomon Archipelago. Here, the large island of
Bougainville consists from one extremity to the other of a continuous igneous
range describing a regular curve whose concave side faces north-eastwards Balbi, ;
its
culminating peak, has an altitude of 10,170 feet; but Bagana, situated in the
21 o
822 AUSTRALASIA.
central part of the island, the only cone which still ejects vapours and ashes.
is
The upraised cones scattered over Bougainville Strait are also composed of lavas,
but appear to have long been extinct.
Choiseul, which forms the south-eastern continuation of Bougainville, and
which rests on the same submarine bank, presents a greater expanse of lowlands,
former marine and coralline beds.
Yzabel and Malaita (Malanta), in the northern division of the Solomon group,
also consist of igneous ranges whose culminating crests rise respectively to
altitudes of 3,900and 4,270 feet. But the eruptive masses in both islands are of
very ancient date, and have been modified to great depths by weathering. Up
to
a height of 500 feet the hills are encircled by calcareous terraces slowy deposited
by the surrounding marine waters.

The southern chain of the Solomons, running parallel with the northern,
begins with Treasury (Mono) Island, lying some 60 miles south of Bougainville.
Guppy describes this island as an anciently submerged volcanic peak covered by
several hundred feet of deposits, then encrusted with coral reefs,
and finally
elevated above the sea to a height of nearly 1,200 feet. At one time it appears
to have subsided to a depth of about 1,800 fathoms, so that, adding its present
height, there must have been a subsequent upheaval of no less than 12,000 feet.*
The group of islands stretching from Treasury in a south-easterly direction
contains some not yet entirely extinct cones. Vela la Velha (Vella Lavella),
3,000 feet high, has some fumeroles and a solfatara. Narovo, or Eddystone, is also
furrowed by crevices whence escape sulphurous vapours. But on New Georgia,
largest member of this cluster, nothing occurs except a range of quiescent or

extinct crests. When the Spaniards first reached these waters, the islet of Savo,
(Sesarga) at the north end of Guadalcanar, was in full eruption. Guadalcauar,
largest of the southern Solomons, is covered with superb cloud-capped mountains
rising to heights of from 6,000 to 8,000 feet.
San Cristobal (4,100 feet) is also of volcanic origin; but all traces of activity
have disappeared, and the coast is now fringed by coralline headlands. Santa-
Ana, at the southernmost point of the Archipelago, is, like Treasury, an ancient
volcano, which, after subsiding some 1,500 or 2,000 fathoms below the surface,
was again upheaved with a calcareous deposit encrusting its primitive eruptive
rocks.
Atolls and low islets are scattered over the Pacific to the east of the Solomons,
forming an irregular chain of extensive surf-beaten reefs. Here the atoll of
Ongtong-.Java or Candelaria, called also Lord Howe or Leueneuwa, is especially

dreaded by mariners, oval circuit of reefs having a
its
periphery of at least 120
miles. The Solomons are also fringed in many places bv barrier reefs, which
rise above the surface in deep waters. East of Yzabel one of these coralline
ramparts is reported to be considerably over 100 miles long New Georgia, ;
Bougainville and Choiseul are similarly fringed with reefs, which render more
than half of their seaboards inaccessible to
shipping. The straits flowing between
* The Salomon
Islands, p. 102.
these barriers and the islands have an average depth of from 350 to 400 fathoms.
But the greatest cavity yet revealed in the Melanesian waters occurs towards the
centre of the semi circle formed by the Bismarck Archipelago between New
Britain and New Ireland, where the sounding line plunged into an
abyss of 780
fathoms.
CLIMATE, FLORA AXD FAUNA OF NORTH MELANESIA.
The North Melanesian lands are comprised entirely within the zone of the
south-east, trade winds. For more than half the year, from May to September, or
even from April to November or December, the wind sets steadily in the normal
direction ; then to the west or north-west monsoon, a variable and
it
yields
shifting current, but humid, like the trade wind, for it also traverses a wide
still
expanse of water before reaching the islands. Hence there is at least one rainy
day in three, at times one in two, throughout the year, and both the Bismarck and
Solomon Archipelagoes have a mean annual rainfall of not less than 150 inches in
the immediate
vicinity of the seaboard,* and far more on the higher slopes where
the moisture-bearing clouds are first intercepted.
According to Guppy, the
discharge averages from 440 to 480 inches at heights of 6,000 to 7,000 feet in
the upland valleys of Guadalcanar
facing towards the south-east trades. These
mountain slopes appear to be the most copiously watered of any oceanic lands, and
are elsewhere surpassed in this respect
only by the escarpments of the Khasi Hills
in the Brahmaputra basin. During a single downpour of ten hours Guppy
recorded over 11 inches of rain in the neighbourhood of the coast. The least
healthy season is that of the variable winds accompanying the west monsoon.
Thanks to the abundant rainfall, the North Melanesian flora, which greatly
resembles that of New Guinea, is both rich and varied. Even the low coral banks
disappear in many places under the large trees, the seeds of which have been brought
by the winds, the marine currents, and the birds. On the hillsides the forests
extend in a continuous, impenetrable mass, their leafy canopies rising here and
there over 150 feet above the ground. One of the most widespread of these foreign
growths the banyan fig, with its thousand pendent tendrils twining round and
is
at lastchoking other species. This incessant struggle between the banyan and the
other giants of the woodlands forms a familiar theme of many local legends.
One most remarkable products of the cryptogamic flora in the Solomon
of the
group a mass
is of vegetable matter which resembles the yam, but which is found
resting upon the ground without roots or any connecting stems. Guppy dwells
with admiration on the surprising knowledge displayed by the natives in
liotanical matters.
They clearly distinguish between species almost identical in
appearance, and in this respect show themselves far better naturalists than any
educated Europeans except specialists.
The North Melam sian fauna also greatly resembles that of New Guinea, but
*
Rainfall at Santa- Ana off south-east coast of San Cristobal in 1883, 125 inches; at Ugi, east of
San Cristobal, f4fi">4 inches. (Guppy).
324 AUSTKALASIA.
with Papuasian forms in the Solomon Islands, which lie

Polynesian are intermingled
on the borders of the two zoological domains. According to native report anthro-
survive in the large islands of Malaita, Guadalcanar and San
still
poid apes
Cristobal but they have never been seen by any European zoologists, who
have
;
met no indigenous mammals except the pig, the dog, and a small species of rat.
Of birds the pigeon is the most common and the chief agent in the dispersion of
plants. Powell asserts that in the volcanic islands the megapodius (brush turkey)
often lays its eggs in the fissures of the rocks emitting hot vapours.
The in most oceanic islands, are somewhat
reptiles, so poorly represented
numerous in the Solomons, and several species are even peculiar to the Mela-
nesian Archipelagoes. Specially noteworthy are the
enormous toads, which were
with snakes in the island of Yzabel. Crocodiles, still
formerly worshipped
venerated by the islanders, abound on the coastlands, and live both in salt and
are
fresh water. They are little dreaded, and according to the local legend
dangerous only to unfaithful wives. The Solomon Archipelago marks the
easternmost limit in the range of these saurians, which are not met again till
the American continent is reached.
INHABITANTS OF NORTH MELANESIA.
The Melanesians belong undoubtedly to the same stock as the New Guinea
Papuans, although representatives also occur amongst them both of the Malay
and Polynesian types. A Micronesian enclave is also found in the little
Exchequer group, consisting of some fifty isles and islets. San Cristobal, in the
Solomon Archipelago, is probably the land pointed to as the cradle of their race
in the legends of the South-Sea Islanders. This land of Puro, which was indi-
cated to the pilot Queiros as the original home of the Oceanic tribes, and which
Hale sought to identify with the island of Buru in the Moluccas, would seem
much more probably to have been Baura, that is, the island whose name the
Spaniards afterwards changed to San Cristobal.
But however this be, the prevailing features amongst the inhabitants of the
seaboard in the Admiralty, Bismarck, and Solomon
groups are those of the
Melanesia!! or Papuan type. The tribes of the interior, often spoken of as bush-
men, are very little known but certain indications would seem to imply that the
;
Negrito element is largely represented amongst them. The legend of tailed men
said to live in the interior of New Britain is widespread. A great variety of
idioms prevails throughout the
archipelagoes, although, so far as is known, all
would appear to be derived from a common source.
The North Melanesians are for the most part of mean
height and well-propor-
tioned, with a deep brown or blackish complexion and abundant frizzly or crisp
hair. The finest
group arc those of Bougainville, who surpass all the others in
statureand strength, but who are also of a darker colour and
distinguished by their
brachycephalic or round heads. The same form of the skull, however, prevails
amongst many other Melanesians, a fact first
placed beyond doubt by Miklukho
Maklay to the surprise of most ethnologists, who regarded the dolichocephalic

or long shape of the head as specially characteristic of this Oceanic group.
A large number of Melanesians, especially in the Admiralty Islands, have
long teeth projecting beyond the mouth, a feature which imparts to the phy-
siognomy a somewhat ferocious and even bestial expression. But this feature is
less conspicuous amongst the men, whose teeth are covered with a dark varnish
from the habit of betel-chewing, than amongst the women and children, whose
teeth are white. Some natives, especially of New Britain, are also met, the toes
of whose feet are all connected together by a common membrane.* Ulcers under
the soles are very general, and in the Solomon Archipelago at least two-fifths of
Fig. 139. SAN CEISTOBAL.

Scale I :
1,700,000.
I6I'20- Easb oF Greenwich I62'20
Depths.
to 260 250 Fathoms

30 Miles.
the inhabitants are afflicted with large sores caused by a parasite (tinea circinuta
tropicn);
in some islands nearly the whole population has to entertain these
troublesome guests.
Skin diseases, also, are not less prevalent than amongst the Caroline islanders,
while the baneful habit of eating argillaceous clay is common in the Admiralty
group. Most of the old people are carried off by pulmonary affections, and when
the mortality becomes excessive in a village, the inhabitants migrate to some other
place declared by the magicians to be more propitious. As a rule the Melanesians
Polynesians by the morbid influences caused by contact

arc less affected than the
with the whites but on the othtr hand certain islands are being gradually
;
depopulated by the universal praciice of infanticide. In TJgi, off the east coast of
Romilly, The Western Pacific and New Guinea.

S 2G AUSTRALASIA.
both sexes are killed their parents,

San Cristobal, nearly all the children of by
and the is recruited the purchase of young slaves
by on the neighbour-
population
ing island on reaching the adult age these slaves become free.
;
The Melanesians do not practise circumcision, and the prevalence of this rite
in is a sure proof of Polynesian descent. Tattooing is the rule,

any community
incisions with sharp stones, not as amongst the
performed, however, by by pricking,
South-Sea Islanders. In Santa-Ana, at the southern extremity of the Solomon
the privileges of manhood until they have sub-

group, the youths do not acquire
mitted to this rite, and during the operation they are obliged to dwell apart and
live on the blood of a sacred fish. In Bougainville, on the contrary, tattooing is
interdicted to the young ;
but after marriage both sexes embellish the person with
rows of knobs in the form of peas, the number and disposition of which indicate
the rank of the individual.
Like most savages the Melanesians pay great attention to their toilet they ;
the body and painting it red, except in

daily spend hours in the waier, rubbing
time of mourning, when bathing is forbidden. The hair is dressed in various ways,
enormous globe, or tower-shaped, or else fashioned by means of clay
either as an
and ochre into a compact red mass. Such is the labour required to keep the
hair properly dressed that in Treasury Island some of the old women shave it
off altogether in order to find time for their household duties.
Instead of clothes some of the more savage tribes load themselves with orna
ments of all kinds, necklaces, bracelets, fantastic trinkets, tufts of foliage and
the like. The cartilage of the nose is generally pierced for the insertion of small
boars' tusks, or else strings of shells, while bits of stick, bone, and other objects
are introduced into the pierced lobe of the ear. Warriors distinguished for their
prowess in the battlefield wear festoons of human teeth, vertebrso or finger joints,
a thigh bone suspended on the breast completing their military decorations. In
Matupi and many other islands the currency still consists of strings of shells,
replaced elsewhere by dogs' teeth, and in the cannibal districts by necklets of
human teeth empty bottles serve the like purpose in the Admiralty group.
;
Incessant warfare prevails in certain islands not only between the seaboard and
inland tribes, but also between the coastlanders themselves. This is due to the
necessity of procuring heads to decorate the chief's house and the war canoes ;
captives are also needed, to be slaughtered on certain solemn feasts, so that their
souls may protect the plantations or
bring success to the fishermen. Further
victims are required to grace the funeral obsequies of the chiefs. The body is
placed erect in the grave, then buried up to the neck, after which a fire is kindled
to consume the flesh, the skull being then carried off and set up in the canoe,
serving the purpose of a temple. But the grave has still to be filled in with the
youngest wife, a child, and the most valued treasures of the departed, together
with the offerings of his friends. Then the miscellaneous contents are crushed,
broken to pieces and covered with stones, while the assembled multitude utter
cries of grief;
occasionally the very palm groves are felled, so that the owner's
trees may share in the universal mourning, or else accompany him to the other world.
As a rule the slaves owned by the chiefs are well treated but the terrible
;
prospect constantly stares them in the face of being at any moment clubbed and
eaten in honour of some tribal victory, the launching of a canoe or other festive
occasion. According to Romilly one of the most appreciated dishes of the New
Ireland cuisine is a mixture of sago, cocoanut and human brains. Cannibalism is
probably nowhere more rampant than in Arossi (San Cristobal), where as many as
twenty people are at times cooked and consumed in a single day. A chief visited
by Brown had a cocoanut palm on which seventy- six notches indicated the number
of human beings devoured up to that time (1883).
Anthropophagy regarded as a religious rite is still almost universally practised
in the Melanesian Archipelagoes in Santa- Ana, however, it has fallen into
;
abey-
ance ever since it was tabooed by the chief after an epidemic. In some other
islands, also, the influence of the whites has caused it to disappear, and the natives
who still indulge are at least so far ashamed of doing so that they deny it in the
presence of strangers. Human remains are also being gradually replaced in many
places by the bones of swine in the decoration of houses and war canoes.
The Melanesian villages, mostly composed of two rows of huts built stoutly
enough to standthe climate for five or six years, present every type of con-
struction prevalent in the oceanic world. Isolated groups raised on piles are
characteristic of one district, dwellings standing on the ground of another, while
elsewhere, notably in Yzabel, the people live in fortified trees accessible only by
ladders or notched beams. "
Every village has its tambu, a sort of town-hall,"
built with the greatest care, embellished with curious wood-carvings, and set apart
for public assemblies, for the reception and entertainment of strangers, and for
housing the chief's war canoes. In New Britain this mansion is at times decorated
with statues sculptured in a chalky stone, which is said to be cast ashore by the
tidal and earthquake waves.
Of all the large Melanesian islands New Ireland appears to be the most
densely peopled, es-pecially on the west side. Coasting along the seaboard, sea-
farers everywhere observe the smoke rising from human habitations, and in some
places the shore thickly fringed by cocoanut palms, which supply the staple of
is
food. The population may be

roughly estimated by the number of these trees, twenty
of which represent on an average one person. The cabin of every native is con-
sidered as a sacred place by his neighbours, who dare not enter it
except at the
risk of their lives.
Like some of the Micronesian islanders, the Melanesians construct admirable and
highly decorated boats, most of which carry a square instead of a pointed sail as
in Polynesia. They are d-tring and skilful navigators, as well as intelligent

husbandmen. In the forest clearings, generally at some distance from the villages,
the fields planted with yams, sweet potatoes, taro, bananas, and sugar-cane are
well till d by the women. The produce of these plantations is supplemented by
other alimentary plants, such as the sago, cocoanut palm, and bread-fruit tree.
The women also weave the matting with paudanus leaves, and make the earthen-
ware, while the men manufacture the agricultural implements, clubs, spears, bowe
328 AUSTRALASIA.
different islands
and arrows, and other weapons, which vary considerably in the
of commercial intercourse.
English is everywhere the language
afterwards served up at the
Notwithstanding the murder of many whites,
Catholic and Protestant missionaries have penetrated into
public banquets, both
many of the Melanesian Archipelagoes.
parts
A mission founded in San Cristobal
had to be removed to Woodlark Island
having brought about a general massacre
;
but the priests were driven from this place also, and have
now taken refuge in
Rook Island, near Dampier Strait, at the south-west extremity of New Ireland.
The influence of the missionaries, more or less neutralised by that of unprin-
traders and mariners, has hitherto been little felt. The Melanesians still
cipled
continue to worship their good and evil spirits, as well as the grand phenomena of
in one place the shark,
nature. They also venerate those animals that they fear,
in another the crocodile. Little care is taken of the sick, who, in most of the islands,
are even abandoned to their fate when hope of recovery is lost

all they are taken
to the dead-house, a cocoanut is placed on their mat, and they are left to die
alone.
In the
The systems differ greatly in the various insular groups.
political
have no or rather those
Admiralty and Bismarck Archipelagoes the tribes chiefs,
bearing this title owe it to the foreign traders. Here no one presumes to dictate
to his neighbour; all the members of the community are equal, and deliberate
without the control of superiors on the common interests. On the other hand the
power of the hereditary chiefs has been firmly established in most of the Solomon
Islands. Although, as a rule, there are as many states as villages, some of the
more powerful chiefs rule over whole clusters of islets and even over extensive
" "
tracts on the larger islands. Thus the King of Shortland in Bougainville
Strait holds sway over all the islanders in that channel, as well as over the neigh-
bouring tribes in Bougainville and Choiseul. The more powerful dynasties are
generally constituted by the rulers of the smaller islands, whose inhabitants are
more restless and daring than the settled agricultural populations of the large
islands. The policy of the German Government is at present directed towards
consolidating the power of the more influential chiefs, and gradually transforming
them to paid officials.
There are no towns in German Melanesia. The "colony" of Port-Breton,

founded in 1879 on the south coast of Tombara, in the most arid part of the island,
has been completely abandoned by its French immigrants, to whom such golden
promises had been held out, but who found nothing but famine and sickness in
'
New France."
Nothing remains of the settlement except a few sheds sheltering
some merchandise from the weather.
The political and commercial capital of the German Melanesian possessions
occupies a perfectly central position between New Guinea and the Bismarck
Archipelago. The was Mioko, in the still waters stretching south of
first station
York Island (New Lauenburg) but this port was abandoned in consequence of the
;
fetid odours emitted

by the neighbouring shoals which are exposed at low water.
Choice was then made of the
thickly peopled island of Mntitpi, which lies farther
west, and which is nothing but an upraised crater in the older crater of Blanche
Harbour. But the village having been half destroyed by a volcanic
eruption, the
centre of the administration was again shifted, this time to the iblet of
Keraicara,
which is situated south-west of Mioko, and which has the advantage of a roadstead
accessible to the largest vessels. Not more than a thousand tons of copra are
annually exported from this place.
Fig. 140. NEU-LAUENBURO (YoBK) ISLAXD.
Scale 1 :
170,000.
3 U.R-a. '
".;.'
''
f.-r. o -*.*/ .'.-. ,-.'
Lasb cf Greenwich
Depths.
Beefs exposed at Oto25 215 Fathoms

low water. Fathoms. and upwards.
3j Miles.
The officials of the trading company which represents the German power in
these waters have hitherto been
mainly occupied in superintending the emigration,
or rather the transportation, of the natives carried off to work on the plantations of
the whites. The slave markets have certainly been replaced by markets of " free
"
labour ; but the difference between the operations of all these labour vessels is
830 AUSTRALASIA.
" "
little more than nominal, and thousands of natives engaged to work in remote
have perished of despair and hardships. Some German writers have

places
advocated the establishment of a convict settlement in Melanesia.
The islands in
between the New Guinea coast and

Dampier Strait, occupying a central position
the northern archipelagoes, have been mentioned as the most convenient locality
for this purpose.
A table of the chief North Melanesian islands, with their extent and estimated
population, is
given in the Appendix.
II. SOUTH MELANESIA: SANTA-CRUZ AND NEW HEBRIDES.
These two insular chains, although evidently belonging to the same geological
system as the Solomons, are not disposed quite in the same direction,
their longi-
tudinal axis running north-north-west and south-south-east. The two clusters

comprise some fifty isles and islets, besides countless reefs, and a few groups scat-
tered over the eastern waters on the highways leading to Fiji and Samoa. Alto-
gether Santa Cruz and the New Hebrides, with the more remote Tikopia and
Anuda, have a collective area estimated at from 5,000 to 5,500 square miles, with
a total population approximately computed at about seventy thousand souls.
The Santa-Cruz Archipelago was discovered in 1595 by Alonzo de Mendana,
during the unsuccessful expedition undertaken to rediscover the Solomon group
visitedby him twenty-eight years previously. His companion, Queiros, when
exploring the same waters in 1606, was the first to sight the New Hebrides.
Casting anchor in a bay on the coast of Espiritu-Santo, he supposed he had
reached the Australian continent, and accordingly gave to this " mother of so
"
many islands the name of Australia. It was in this island of Merena, or
" New
Espiritu-Santo, that he founded the Jerusalem," the city whence the true
faith was to be spread over all the scattered lands of the Pacific Ocean. But
Queiros never returned to this region, which remained unvisited for a hundred
and fifty years till the time of Bougainville. But the very name of the "Great
Cyclades," given to the New Hebrides by this navigator, shows that he made no
systematic survey of this archipelago, which is disposed not in circles but in
chains.
In 1774, six years after Bougainville, Cook visited the same
group, which he
studied more in detail, and to which he the name of the Scotch Islands, which
gave
has since been maintained in nomenclature. After Cook's visit the
geographical
coasts of the central islands still
remained to be surveyed, and some more remote
groups to be discovered.
In 1789, Bligh, driven from his ship by the mutineers
of the Bounty, and
compelled to make his way across more than half of the
Pacific, had the good fortune to come the Banks
upon to the
Islands, lying
north of the New Hebrides. The previous year Laperouse had
navigated the
same parts of the ocean; but he never returned to announce his discoveries.
His vessel was wrecked on a shoal off
Vanikoro, the southernmost member
of the Santa-Cruz
group, though the scene of the disaster remained unknown until
SANTA-CRUZ. NEW HEBEIDES. 831
discovered thirty-nine years afterwards by Dillon. The fatal rock lies to the
west of the island in one of the channels piercing the circuit of fringing reefs.
Although now well known to mariners in the South Seas, and frequently
visited by labour vessels and missionaries, neither the Santa Cruz nor the
group
New Hebrides have yet been annexed by any European power. The former
come, no doubt, within the sphere assigned to British influence by the treaty
concluded with Germany but the New Hebrides, which also seemed destined to
;
become an English possession, have been disputed by France, and some of the
islands have even been temporarily occupied by small French Protes-
garrisons.
Fig. 141. VANIKOEO.

Scale 1 375.000.
-;fc oF Greenwich
Depths.
Oto60 60 Fathoms
tant and Catholic missionaries, inspired by religious rivalries, New Caledonian and
Fijian speculators in search of labourers for their plantations, clamoured for the
intervention of their respective governments in favour of their particular interests,
and for some years the political fate of the archipelago remained in suspense.
This uncertain situation has even been indefinitely prolonged by a recent treaty
which places the group under joint British and French protection, a state of things
which may probably, sooner or later, result in the partition of the archipelago
between the two rival powers.
Like the other insular chains in the Western Pacific, both archipelagoes are of
882 AUSTRALASIA.
volcanic origin, as evident from the regular cones strewn with ashes and lavas,
is
which occur in nearly all these Melanesian lands. According to Dana, the almost
of the igneous
total absence of coralline reefs must be attributed to the activity
forces; although lying between
Fig. 142. NEW HEBRIDES.
Scale 1 :
9,600,000.
New Caledonia and Fiji, so rich in
corals, neither Santa-Cruz nor the
New Hebrides have a single atoll,
and the only complete fringing

reef is that which encircles the
island of Vanikoro. Tinakoro, a
northern member of the Santa-
Cruz group, is in a constant state
of eruption, while a volcano 1,870
feet high, in the islet of Urepara-
para, Banks Archipelago, shows a
breached crater facing north-east-
wards and now flooded by the sea.
Copious thermal springs well up on
the shores of Vanua-Lava, in the
same neighbourhood ;
both the
island of Ambrym (3,590 feet), in
the centre of the New Hebrides,
and the precipitous Mount Lopevi
(5,000 feet), culminating point of
that group, are active volcanoes,
as is also the wooded Mount Yasova,
in Tanna (Tanna Aiperi), near the

southern extremity of the chain.
Vapours, ashes, and lumps of lava

are ejected from this crater at in-
tervals of six or eight minutes,

especially in the months of Jan-
20-e 20
uary, February, and March. Port
Resolution, an excellent harbour
in Tanna, was filled up by an earth-
Depths.
quake in 1878.
to 1,005 1,000 to 2.000 2 000 Fathoms Submarine disturbances are of

180 Miles. frequent occurrence in these waters,
where vessels have occasionally to
force their way through dense masses of floating pumice. Besides the still restless
craters a number of other insular cones were formerly the scene of igneous convul-
sions.
Many places show
indications of comparatively recent upheaval, and Ormieres
speaks of mangrove roots encrusted with shells lying some -40 feet above the
present sea-level.
SANTA-CRUZ. NEW HEBRIDES. 835
inland populations form well-marked divisions, generally designated, in the

" names
Pigeon English" of these waters, by the of Man-saltwater and Man-bush.
But according to Otto Finsch, the Melanesian on the whole the dominant type
is
even in the southern islands of Vate, Erromango and Tanna.
Navigators have noticed that the natives of these southern islands are as a
rule stronger, taller and better built than those of the northern section. But
judged by our normal standard of beauty they cannot be considered handsome.
The forehead is low and retreating, the face broad, with two prominent cheek-
bones, the nose flat and the lips thick. In several islands the head of the children
isdeformed by means of boards, which have the effect of lengthening the skull
from back to front, while at the same time contracting and lowering it. To this
deformation is perhaps due the fact that, according to Professor Flower,
artificial
the Vanikoro and Mallicolo islanders are the most dolichocephalous or long-headed
if
any known race.
Hair and beard are woolly, or frizzly, and the complexion almost black in the
ew Hebrides, where the people embellish themselves by piercing the lobes of the
CO.
: ,rs and the cartilage of the nose, by gashing arms and breast,decking the head
th shells, foliage, or tufts of grass, and embellishing the body with paintings in
I ochre, lime, and diverse pigments. But tattooing in the strict sense of the
t
m is somewhat rare, and in the southern islands absolutely unknown. Many
, . \ wood ashes to impart a fine golden tint to the hair, which in Tanna the height
i
.he fashion requires to be arranged in a multitude of small tresses tied at the
y .ts with
vegetable fibre. To complete this part of the toilet of a gay warrior is
take no less than three or four years.
.d to
A At the time of the discovery the natives went naked, or wore nothing beyond
_a strip of pounded bark, leaves, or cocoanut fibre. Some of the islanders described
by Cook fastened the waist so tightly with a girdle of cordage as to look like
large ants. At present most of the New Hebrides people have adopted European
materials for all or part of their apparel. Their dwellings are not raised on piles
like those of the Papuans and western Melanesians, but consist, for the most part,
of simple roofs of palm-leaves suspended on four stakes.
While the bulk of the population in both archipelagoes is evidently of Mela-

nesian stock, the fine Polynesian race is in almost exclusive possession of the more
easterly islets of Anuda (Cherry Island) and Tikopia (Barwell). They are easily
recognised by their tall stature, robust frame, long hair and bright countenance.
"
The people of Futuna and Aniwa, the " Madeira of the New Hebrides, towards the
southern extremity of the group, are also Polynesians the very names they have ;
given to their new homes are taken from the lands in the vicinity of the Tonga
Islands. Judging from the description given of them by Queiros, it is highly
probable that the natives of the Taumaco or Duff Islets, north-east of Santa-
Cruz, also belong to the same family. Those of Nukapu, a chief member of the
Santa-Cruz cluster, are the issue of a crossing between the two oceanic elements,
to the Maori, while
for their language is
essentially Polynesian, closely related
their usages connect them with the Melanesians.
336 AUSTRALASIA.
In the New Hebrides the women are as a rule very harshly treated. Many
things permitted to the husband are declared " taboo" for the wife by the chiefs
and priests.
The latter are potent wizards, who control wind and rain, conjure
or expel the spirits and ailments, hold converse with the ancestry, the gods of the
tribe, and communicate their pleasure to the living. They formerly presided at the
cannibal banquets, for anthropophagy, till recently more prevalent in eastern
Melanesia than in any other oceanic region, had assumed a religious character.
Prisoners of war and the enemy slain in battle were devoured, in order to acquire
and courage but the taste
their strength ;
for human flesh had also introduced the
custom of eating their own dead, or else exchanging them for those of friendly
tribes.
These practices could not fail to earn for the Santa-Cruz and New Hebrides
natives a reputation for ferocity and wickedness. Nevertheless there can be no
doubt that in the mutual relations between Melanesians and whites the latter have
been far more treacherous and cruel than the former. Tf Bishop Patteson was
killed in the island ofNukapu by the hand of a man who had
in 1871, he fell
just been robbed of his children. According to Markham, the natives of Erro-
inango who murdered the missionary Williams make use of firearms only against
the whites, whom they regard as kidnappers. In their local wars between
,
kindred tribes they would consider it disgraceful to employ the new weapons.
Cannibalism survives only in a small number of islands in the southern groups,
;
the most frequented by Europeans, it has become a mere tradition. In point of

fact, several of the New Hebrides, although not officially annexed by any European
power, belong none the less to the whites, who govern the people and make them
work on the plantations, thus gradually reducing them to the condition of the
proletariate classes in Europe.
Anatom (Ancitium), lying nearest to New Caledonia, is exclusively in-
habited by Christian converts who can both read and write. In some other
islands, also, the Christian congregations alreadv outnumber the pagan element.
But Espiritu Santo, largest of the New Hebrides, despite the brilliant future
predicted for it
by its discoverer, Queiros, is one of those that have been least
visited by Europeans, and that still
possess but slight economic value. Its vast
and perfectly sheltered "port" of Vera Cruz, where "four thousand vessels
might easily find room," has remained almost deserted nor has anv planter yet
;
settled on the banks of the " Jordan."
In 1828 the discovery of sandalwood in

Erromango gave rise to a nefarious
traffic with China, which ceased with the disappearance of the forests.
gradually
The traders added to the traffic in sandal wood that of
"living ebony," and
women.
especially of
The commercial centre of the New Hebrides is the island of
Vats', or Efat,
better known by its English name of Sandwich. Some European settlers have
established themselves near Port Hamminh and in other parts of the island, where
they cultivate maize, rice, cotton, tobacco and coffee ;
in 1882 the coffee planta-
tions alone comprised one hundred thousand shrubs. But Sandwich, although
FRENCH MELANESIA. 337
remarkably fertile, is one of the most insalubrious inlands in the whole archi-
pelago. The New Hebrides planters forward corn, fruits, pigs and to poultry
Noumea, capital of New Caledonia, and a large part of the archipelago is owned by
a New Caledonian company.
In the Appendix will be found a table of the Santa Cruz and New Hebrides
groups, with their areas and populations.
III. FRENCH MELANESIA : NEW CALEDONIA AND THE LOYALTY ISLANDS.
NewCaledonia, one of the largest oceanic islands east of Australia, has an area
of nearly 7,000 square miles, and about 8,000
including the adjacent islets and
the Loyalty group. It also enjoys exceptional importance from its
position on
the great highway of navigation between and San Francisco. But, what-
Sydney
ever be its present and future economic value, its
notoriety has hitherto been mainly
due to the part has played as a French convict station since 1864, and especially
it
since the fall of the Commune. So small has tha earth become that no event can
happen without being the Antipodes.
felt as far as After having been a place of
exile for thousands of Frenchmen involved in political and social storms, this
Melanesian land has become the jail of other thousands condemned by the laws of
their country, and subjected to experiments in a new order of penal treatment. In
fact, New Caledonia is less a colony, as it is
conventionally called, than a region
affording scope for philanthropy and criminal jurisprudence to test their respec-
tive reforming and punitive
systems.
The political destiny of New Caledonia presents but few elements of permanent
stability. Annexed to the French

colonial empire in 1853, owing to a shipwrecked
crew having been eaten by the natives, this remote oceanic land has, so to say, no
military or commercial basis to facilitate its retention as a French possession. It
is over 4,000 miles distant from Cochin China, and nearly 3,000 from Tahiti, the
chief French is-land in the East Pacific, while
it is surrounded on all sides
by large
British colonies or territories peninsular New Guinea in the north-west, the
southern section of the Solomon Archipelago in the north, Fiji in the east, New
Zealand in the south-east, and in the west the vast Australian continent, with its
thriving and expansive populations. Strictly speaking, New Caledonia is a geo-
graphical dependency of Queensland, and the irresistible progress of Australia

scarcely leaves a doubt that the natural force of gravity will sooner or later draw
it within the
political sphere of the neighbouring continent. Already most of its
commercial and industrial undertakings are organised by British speculators, and
" "
English terms enter largely into the bichlamar jargon, which serves as the
medium of intercourse between the whites and the natives in their mutual trading
and shipping relations.
Owing remoteness from the highway followed by the Spanish galleons

to its
plying between Mexico and the Philippines, New Caledonia, notwithstanding its
extent, was one of the last oceanic lands discovered by explorers. It was first
sighted in 1774 near its northern extremity by Cook, who afterwards skirted the
220
333 AUSTRALASIA.
east coast, and discovered, at the south-east end, Kunie, to which he gave the
name of the Isle of Pines.Sixteen years later d'Entrecasteaux coasted the west
side and surveyed the reef lying over 150 miles farther
north.
The Loyalty Islands still remained unknown, and Butler, who discovered them
in 1800 or 1803, did little more than announce their

existence. The systematic
exploration both of this and of

groupNew Caledonia itself was reserved for
Dumont d'TJrville in 1827. But much remained still to be done before the coast-
lines,with their fringing reefs, could be accurately laid down, and New Caledonia
had already besn declared a French possession before the discovery, in 1854, of the
of the colony.
fine roadstead of Noumea, which has become the commercial centre
Now, however, New Caledonia is one of the best-known lands in the oceanic
world. It evidently forms with the parallel Loyalty group a geographical whole,
different geological formation. Disposed exactly
although the surface rocks are of
in the same direction, from north-west to south-east, they are, in fact, two mountain
ranges, one of which, the western,

is
completely upraised in a continuous mass,
while the highest summits of the other still lie below the surface as foundations
o
for the superstructure of insular coralline banks. Reefs and shoals, also resting
on submerged primitive or volcanic rocks, continue both ranges seawards, and
between the two flows a deep marine trough, where the sounding line has failed to
touch the bottom in 350 fathoms of water. Compared with the other oceanic lands,
the NewCaledonian orographic system harmonises with the general disposition of
the upraised chains. It forms a folding in the earth's crust parallel with that
which caused the upheaval of the Solomon group.

form of
Excluding the reefs and contiguous islets the large island presents the
a very elongated regular oval, 250 miles long with a mean breadth of not more
than 30 miles. Nearly the whole of the surface is covered with hills and
moun-
form
tains very irregular form and elevation. The south-eastern uplands
of
isolated masses separated by intervening plains, partly marshy and studded with
small lakes, whose overflow is discharged in various directions. These plains are
as if
perfectly level, while the escarpments of the surrounding hills rise abruptly
from deep water. The soil is a hard and ferruginous clay, interspersed with
nodules of black and red iron, and for the most part completely arid. In some
places are seen scanty tufts of grass, and in a few more favoured spots appear
dense thickets rising like green oases in the midst of the barren steppe.
Farther north and near the east coast, which, on the whole, is rather more
elevated than the opposite side, the Humboldt Peak attains an elevation of over
5,300 feet, and was long supposed to be the culminating point of the island. Some
12 miles to the west, and near a bay ramifying into several creeks, stands the rival
eminence of the Dent de Saint Vincent (4,750 feet). North of these heights the
whole breadth of the land is occupied by mountains, which, however, gradually
full inthe direction of the north-west, where few summits exceed 3,000 feet. But
towards the north-east extremity these uplands assume the aspect more of a coast-
range, and here attain their greatest altitude in the Panie Peak (5,385 feet), and
in another rounded crest
nearly 5,600 feet high.
In New Caledonia the prevailing formations are syenites, serpentines, diorites,
metamorphic schists, and trachites. The very pumice cast up as flotsam by the
waves attests the existence of former eruptive centres. The great geological resem-
blance of these rocks to the East Australian ranges at one time held out
expectations
of rich auriferous discoveries but the financial results of the local mining opera-
;
tions have not hitherto been encouraging. The metals which really occur in
abundance, and which may yet contribute to the industrial prosperity of New
Caledonia, are iron, nickel, cobalt, antimony, and chromium. Copper mines have
also been worked, and coalfields, though of little economic value, have been die-
covered at the foot of the serpentine rocks on the seaboard.
Fig. 144. NEW CALEDONIA.

Scale I : 5,000.000.
Depths
otx> l.ono 1.000 Fathoms

Fathoms ttnd upwards.
. 120 Miles.
New Caledonia is at least doubled in size by the reefs skirting its shores and
extending it in the direction of the north-west and south-east. The hydrographic
surveys of Chambeyron and other explorers leave no doubt of the existence of
these fringing and barrier reefs on the east side, though their presence had been
denied by Darwin and Dana. Towards the southern extremity, however, the
encircling coralline rocks disappear below the surface, at first a few yards, then
from 16 to 20 fathoms, forming, north of the central passage, near the Isle of
Pines, a continuous bank, above which rise at intervals chaplets of coral, some
840 AUSTRALASIA.
covered by water. In its middle and northern sections

emerging, some still
" from 200
Chambeyron's "great barrier
reef everywhere presents a uniform mass
to 1 ,000 yards broad, interrupted only by a few passes,
which give access to a
broad and deep sheet of smooth water flowing between the reef
and the mainland.
This basin is about 6 miles wide and from 25 to 30 fathoms deep towards the
centre but the navigation is endangered by a few hidden shoals occurring near
;
both margins.
Seawards the great reef sinks rapidly, and then at a mean distance of 450
into depths of over 350 fathoms. Nowhere else does
yards plunges abruptly
Darwin's hypothesis regarding the slow subsidence of fringing coralline reefs
in these waters. The coral builders work with
appear to be better supported than
surprising rapidity on the New Caledonian reefs. North of the mainland the
two branches of the fringing barrier do not converge, but, on the contrary, grow
wide apart and stretch for a distance of 160 miles before they become reunited
north of the Huon, Fabre, Leleizour, and Surprise islets. Between this perfect
atoll and the north end of the great island, the lagoon, enclosed by the two barrier
leefs, is occupied in its central part by the Belep group, which comprises the islets
of Art and Pott.

The Loyalty chain, built up by polypi, presents in a summary form the whole
history of .coralline islands. The Petrie and Astrolabe reefs in the north are
dangerous shoals, awash with the surface and grouped as atolls. Uvea, following
southwards, is a semi-circular coral plateau, perfectly horizontal, with a mean
height of 50 to 60 feet, and enclosing a lagoon 9 fathoms deep. Lifu, largest
member of the archipelago, is also an ancient atoll, which has been upraised at
successive epochs to an altitude of 300 feet. The observer easily distinguishes
the three terraces marking three consecutive upheavals, and disposed in abrupt
scarps like the outer cliff at present washed by the waves. Mare, or Nengone,
a
some 30 higher than Lifu, develops five horizontal terracss, which indicate
feet
corresponding number of changes between the level of land and sea. Having risen
above the surface at a more remote period than the other islands, Mare is also
more fertile, better wooded, and relatively more densely peopled. To judge from
the numerous shells of still surviving species which occur on the upper terraces
and which partly retain their colours, the last upward movement must have taken
place in recent geological times.
With a mean annual rainfall of about 40 inches, New Caledonia is abundantly
watered by numerous streams, one only of which is sufficiently copious to deserve
the name of river. This is the Diahot, which rises at the foot of the Panic Peak
and flows parallel 'with the east coast Harcourt Bay, between the two north-
to
western promontories of the island. Including its windings the Diahot is over 60
miles long, and in its tidal reaches is
drawing 8 or 10 feet of
accessible to craft
water. The Toutouta, which falls into Saint Vincent Bay, north-west of Noumea,
as well as several other rivulets, flows for a
large part of its course below the sur-
face, and near its source in Mount Humboldt develops a copious cascade at a
height of 4,000 feet above the sea. Judging from their high temperature some
INHABITANTS.
The discovery
quaternary formations of Xew
of polished jade hatchets in the
Caledonia attests the presence of man in these oceanic lands from a remote
very
epoch attempts have even been made to discriminate the descendants of the
;
primitive element amongst the present tribal groups. But, however this be,
the kanakas* or " men," belong to the Melunesian
mainly family, as shown by
Fig. 146. NATIVE OF MAB, LOYALTY ISLES.
their almost black, or at least deep brown complexion, highly prominent cheek-
bones, and crisp or frizzly hair, naturally of a black colour, but in many districts
still
dyed yellow or white with lime. The lobe of the ear is also pierced for the
'nsertion of wood, bone and other ornaments, and the heads of the children of
g
This now familiar Polynesian term denotes no particular race, but is commonly applied by the
w }i*
neb in a collective sense to all the inhabitants of New Caledonia and the neighbouring archipelagoes,
344 AUSTRALASIA.
that of the boys

both sexes are artificially deformed, the object being to elongate
and is scarcely practised
and shorten that of the girls. Tattooing has become rare,
arms and chest by a painful process,
at all exceptby the women, who puncture
the body with
which leaves an indelible blue pattern. The custom of smearing
soot is also falling into as clothes take the place of the primi-
abeyance according
tive rudimentary costume.
the New Caledonian tribes. All power and
Patriarchal right prevails among
Fig. 147. NEW CALEDONIAN MAN
property are inherited by the eldest son whether by birth or adoption but although ;
the idea of property is thoroughly developed, custom requires all produce to be

shared in a brotherly way amongst the members of the community. When
provisions abound, all,even the dead, have their portion the emigrant also
;
presents all his earnings to the chief to be equally distributed throughout the
tribe. But amongst the tribes themselves there exists scarcely any political union ;
thousand, of whom
the majority are employed on the public works as many as ;
twelve hundred have been handed over to mining or industrial companies, and
some six hundred enjoy a relative measure of freedom in the agricultural peniten-
tiaries, where they cultivate their own "concessions." The convicts thus gradually
merge in the class of the free citizens, who, though still far inferior in numbers to
the criminals and their keepers, cannot fail ultimately to predominate,
being
continually recruited by the descendants of convicts restored to their civil rights.
But most of these families must few women are transported
die out, because very
to New Caledonia at present they number scarcely one hundred and
;
fifty in the
whole island. Nevertheless, some families are perpetuated, and, as happened in
Australia, the offspring of these convicts have already begun to protest against a
further importation of the criminal classes from Europe.

Free immigration is but slightly developed, and the " colony " still possesses
fewer colonists than officials. Doubtless the government offers to all
immigrant
labourers a free grant of ten acres of arable land and fifty of pasturage, on the
condition of residing a few years on the estate and bringing it under cultivation.
But the essays at colonisation have hitherto been so disastrous that the unfortunate
squatters have had to be restored from time to time to their native land. The
competition of penitentiary labour deprives the small holders of all hope of success.
The most numerous and flourishing settlers are the Australians, some hundreds
of whom have settled in the agricultural districts, where they devote themselves
chiefly to stock-breeding. With their knowledge of the climate, of the nativesand
the local economic conditions, they are able to face the difficulties of colonisation in
its initial
stages with more confidence than the ignorant peasantry imported from
France.
Large estates have already been created, and so early as 1880 one speculator
owned as many as 42,000 acres in a single holding. Yet stock-breeding, the only
industry of these extensive landowners, possesses but a slight relative importance.
In the whole of New Caledonia there are less than 100,000 head of cattle, scarcely
20,000 sheep, and but a few hundred horses introduced from Norfolk Island. A total
area of 50,000 acres is reserved by the state for all the agricultural penitentiaries.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Noumm, or Port-dc-France, as was called during the first years of the

it
occupation, is the capital, and the only town in New Caledonia and its depen-
dencies. has a population of four thousand, or about one-half of all the resident
It
civil and military Europeans. Founded in 1854 after the submission of the
Nguea, or Numea commercial position towards the
tribe, it occupies a favourable
southern extremity of the island on the side facing Australia. Here a wide
opening in the ouêr barrier reef communicates with several roadsteads, all
perfectly sheltered by the neighbouring hilly peninsula and adjacent islands.
The largest expanse, opening in the north-west between the islet of Nou and the
Ducos peninsula, is spacious enough to receive a whole fleet. The whole trade of
848 AUSTRALASIA.
New Caledoniais at present centred in Noumea, which, as a town, is still in its
infancy, but for which an abundant supply of water has been brought from a
distance of 11 miles. The chief thoroughfares are planted with trees a fine ;
garden encircles the government palace, and pleasant walks winding up the slopes
of the encircling hills lead down to the inlets on the opposite side of the peninsula.
Fig. 149. NOUMEA.

Scale : 120,000.
Tepths.
OtoB 5 to 12 12 Fathoms
Fathoms. Fathoms. aud upwards.
2 Miles.
Beyond this peninsula the main highway from Noumea ramifies iu various direc-
tions through the island.
Noumea is surrounded by "penitentiaries," or convict stations, such as those
of the island of Nou, with three thousand
inmates, of the Ducos peninsula, where
eight hundredCommunists were detained, and of Montravel, for military
se,t apart
criminals.Others are engaged on the public works in and about the
capital,
while the Marist missionaries
employ a large number on their gardens and
plantations at Saint-Louis, east of Noumea.
Farther north follow along the west coast the military posts and settlements
Fig. 150. DWELLING OF A NATIVE CHIEF, NEW CALEDONIA.
of Bouloupari, near Saint Vincent Bay ;

Foa and Teremba, or Urai, markets for
350 AUSTRALASIA.
the surrounding farmsteads ;

most important agricultural centre in
Bourail, the
the island, connected by good roads with the rising port of Goitaro ; Gomen,
on a
with a saladero for the of tinned beef.
spacious and safe roadstead, preparation
The middle course of the Diahot, towards the north- east extremity of the
island, is the richest mineral district in
French Melanesia. Here the Balade
mountain is traversed in all directions by metalliferous veins, including gold,
copper, pyrites, and nickel. At the time of the discovery in 1872, crowds flocked
Fig. 151. -ISLE OF PINES.

Pcale 1 : 880.UOO.
Depths.
to .12 32 to 160 100 Feet and

R Miles.
to the spot from Australia, hamlets sprang up in the midst of the wilderness,
inining companies were formed, and the district began to assume the aspect of a
Queensland cantonment, when a financial crash brought about the ruin of all these
undertakings Since then a mining association, supported by the government,
has made all further competition impossible the Australians have retired, and
;
the mining population is reduced to a small

group at Ouegoa, guarded by a mili-
FRENCH MELANESIA 351
tary post. Most of the ores are shipped at Cai'l/on, on the Diahot estuary. The
road from this port leads across the mountaiii clown to the historic village of Balade,
the first sighted by Cook in 1774, and the first occupied by the French in 1853.
Kanala, founded in 1859, may be regarded as the capital of the east coast ;
it
lies near a deep completely sheltered by a hilly peninsula, and

inlet, is both a
mining and agricultural centre. The nickel of Kanala, Hoiiailau

and Thio,
worked almost exclusively by Australian miners, who spread the English language
amongst the natives, is the richest and purest hitherto discovered in any part
of the world.
A few short railways traverse the mining districts but the general communi-
;
cations are still in a backward state, notwithstanding the fact that the government
has at its disposal over ten thousand labourers.

The inhabited islands depending on New Caledonia Art and Pott in the north,
the Island of Pines at the southern extremity of the barrier reefs have neither
large villages nor frequented ports. The last mentioned is a penal settlement,
where the three thousand Communists, formerly working in the forest clearings,
have now been replaced by Kanaka exiles, invalid or aged convicts, and others
condemned to perpetual banishment.
In the Loyalty group the centre of administration is established at Chepenehe,
in the island of Lifu, a port frequented by traders from Sydney.
Some 300 miles west of New Caledonia, a large atoll, comprising ihe islets of
Chesterfield, Bampton and Avon, occupies the centre of the waters flowing between
New Caledonia and the Great Barrier Reef south of the Coral Sea. In 1878,
it had been discovered
France took possession of this group, though by English
navigators in 1793, and afterwards surveyed by British exploring expeditions.
Great Britain and Australia have accordingly protested against this political
annexation. and the neighbouring islets, formerly much frequented
Chesterfield
by whalers, have some guano deposits worked by a few traders.
ADMINISTRATION.
Till 1860, New

Caledonia was regarded as a dependency of the French
Oceanic establishments, of which Tahiti was the centre. Now it is administered
by a Governor assisted by a Colonial Council, comprising the chief local officials,

two notables, and some municipal delegates. Noumea is the only commune
possessing a municipal council, the colonists in the rest of the island being
represented by an elective Colonial Council, and in France by a special delegate to
the Colonial Office. The judicial system is the same as in France, the native
chiefs acting as magistrates for crimes committed in the tribe. The police, also,
are recruited from the natives in Noumea and throughout the island.
NewCaledonia proper comprises the five circumscriptions of Noumea, Kanala,
Bourail, Oubactie and the North. The yearly budget varies from 80,000 to 120,000,
and since the occupation the colony has cost France altogether 8,000,000.
CHAPTER VIII.
AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA.
]HE very name of Australia recalls the numerous voyages which,

previous to Cook's decisive expedition, were undertaken in search
of a vast Austral continent supposed to balance in the south the
immensely preponderating extent of upheaved land in the northern

hemisphere. But, reduced by the illustrious navigator to its true
proportions, this southern region can no longer be considered as a "make-weight"
to the continents north of the equator. Nevertheless, it is still extensive
lying
enough to be regarded as one of the great sections of the globe comparable to the
southern divisions of Africa and America. It may thus be considered as one of the
three southern continents which are connected with those of the north either by
narrow isthmuses, or by continous chains of islands. The insular lands uniting it
with the Asiatic peninsulas belong themselves in

great measure to the Australian
zone by their climate and natural productions. The Austral mainland is, more-
over, considerably increased in extent by a submarine bed fringed with
barrier reefs. with that of the adjacent islands scarcely
Its superficial area
exceeds three-fourths of that of Europe but with the other lands

;
stretching from
New Guinea to New Zealand, the whole area of the upraised land in this part of
the South Sea is
very nearly equal in extent to the European continent.
GENERAL SURVEY.
But in other respects what a profound difference between these two

antipo-
dean lands !
Relatively speaking, the one is the mobt the other the most
densely,
sparsely peopled division of the world, the discrepancy between the two being in
the proportion of a hundred to one. At the same time it should be remembered
that Australia has but entered on the career of its evolution in the common stream
of human culture, while its new occiipants have already made astounding progress
in numbers and influence. Still, this region is far from enjoying the advantages
in physical constitution and climatic conditions that have made Europe a privileged
section of the globe.
Compared with this favoured region, Australia presents the
heavy, shapeless outlines of a rough-hewn block, being, for the most part, deficient
in lofty mountain
ranges, extensive river basins ramifying in all directions, fertile
AUSTRALIA T AS MAN
AND NEW ZEALAND.
AUSTRALIA. 353
alluvial plains, deep marine inlets penetrating far into the interior, and those
other diversified features which impart to Europe the aspect of an
organised hody
with proper adjustment of parts.
Nevertheless, civilised man is able by science and industry to make himself
more and more independent of his inconvenient surroundings, and to turn their
limited resources to the best account. The underground reservoirs of water are
brought to the surface by simple mechanical appliances scrubby tracts are ;
continually brought under cultivation artificial

highways supply the want of
;
navigable routes. Habitable regions are steadily encroaching on the wilderness,

and become daily more accessible.
The Australian continent has thus rapidly assumed a position in the com-
mercial world which it could never have acquired before the age of railways and
steam navigation. In many respects it has become the first of British colonies,
and from the political standpoint, even without fleets and armies, its immense
reserve of growing strength contributes greatly to consolidate the vast colonial
empire of Great Britain. The great navigable highway connecting England,

through the Mediterranean and Red Sea, with her immense Asiatic possessions is
continued south-eastwards across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, until, at about an
equal distance, it meets the Australian continent, which has for ever become the
exclusive appanage of the Anglo-Saxon race. The longer maritime route from
London, round the Cape, to Melbourne and Sydney, has also, for intermediate
station, the British South-African colonies. Thus, during his long voyage of nearly
16,000 miles across half the circumference of the globe, the civis Britannicus
touches English territory alone everywhere he sees his social and political insti-
;
tutions firmly established, everywhere he hears the familiar sounds of his

mother tongue he moves from hemisphere to hemisphere, but scarcely feels that
;
he has quitted his native land.

To appreciate at its full value the influence exercised, if not by England, at
leastby the English element, in the history of mankind, the United States must
be added to Great Britain with its innumerable colonies and boundless possessions.
With this large section of the terrestrial surface inhabited by over one hundred
millions of his kindred, the Englishman may look forward with full confidence in
the destiny of his race. The Russian continental world, embracing half of
Europe and of Asia, is more than balanced by the British Oceanic world, which
sweeps round the whole periphery of the globe.
PROGRESS OF DISCOVEUY.
The voyages of discovery extended by the Portuguese to the Australian

first
Sens remained unknown, or, at most, left nothing behind except vague rumours
indelibly traced on a few cartographic documents. That island of " Great Java,"
already figuring on the maps dating from the first half of the sixteenth century,*
presents such accurate contours as to leave no doubt of the presence of some
* E. H. Major to Terra Auslralis, now called Australia.
:
Early J'oyayes
230
854 AUSTRALASIA.
unknown Lusitanian mariners in these latitudes. Even Torres' expedition of
1606, through the reef-studded strait separating New Guinea from Australia, was
and would, perhaps, be still buried in oblivion but for the learned
forgotten,
researches of Dalrymple.
To the Dutch navigators due the accurate knowledge of a great part of the
is
Australian seaboard, and the name of New Holland given by its discoverers to
this regionhas not yetbeen quite forgotten. Towards the middle of the seven-
teenth century, while this appellation still prevailed in geographical nomenclature,
a considerable section of the coasts had already been explored. In 1606, the
LuytfTien, by
equipped the Dutch for a voyage of discovery, had probably touched
Fig. 152. COMPARATIVE AREAS OF AUSTRALIA AND THE BEITISH ISLES.
Scale 1 : 40,000,000.
COO Miles.
the eastern shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and advanced

along the coast as far
as Cape Keer-weer, or " Return." In 1616, the Eendracht skirted the west side
of the continent, and till
recently the name of this vessel still figured on the maps.
Three years later Edol discovered the south-west point of Australia, and he was
followed by the captain of the Leciitc/n, who, with Peter

Nuyts, successfully
navigated the southern waters, while in the north and north-west, other Dutch
mariners sighted lands to which they gave the names of Witt and Arnhem. The
discovery of the western half of the continental periphery was completed in 1 644
by Abel Tasman, who had, two years previously, sailed round a great part of the
EXPLORATION OP AUSTRALIA. 355
island of Van Diemen's Land, which now bears his name. He had, however,
failed to determine its insular character.
It was reserved for Cook to lead the way in the exploration of the east Austra-
lian seaboard, and to confirm the anticipations made by Desbrosses on the chart
accompanying his historical work on the voyages of discovery in the Austral Seas.*
In 1770, Cook, after discovering Botany Bay, sailed northwards between the
mainland and the Great Barrier Reef, and then penetrated into Torres Strait, thus
at last placing beyond doubt the insular character both of New Guinea and
Australia.
Fig. 153. CHIEF ROUTES OF AUSTRALIAN EXPLOKEBS.
Scale 1 : 40.000.000.
--*" 15 * 5
i 00 Miles.
But it was still uncertain whether Tasmania was the south-eastern promontory
of the Austral mainland, and numerous navigators visited this island and cast
anchor in its harbours before the question was decided by Bass, who first sailed
through the strait now bearing his name. This event occurred in 1798, 4en years
after the foundation of the first British colonv on the coast of New South Wales.
The exploration of the interior had also commenced by short expeditions between
the seaboard and the east
slopes of the Blue Mountains, but these ramparts were
not crossed till the
year 1813, when some stockbreeders were driven by a long
drought to seek fresh pastures farther inland.
*
Jlittoire ties
Xiiviyations uux Terra Australia.
856 AUSTRALASIA.
Our knowledge of the interior was doubtless greatly enlarged by the search for
the discovery of gold in 1851, by the sudden rush of
grassy lands, and after
miners to the still unknown alluvial plains and rocky valleys of the eastern regions.
But more was accomplished by the disinterested expeditions of travellers who
far
never hesitated to risk their lives in the cause of science and geographical dis-
covery. And, in truth, the work of Australian exploration has cost the lives of
as the botanist Cunning-
many daring pioneers and distinguished naturalists, such
ham, the learned Leichhardt, Gray, Burke, Wills, who, with numerous comrades,
fell victims, either to the spears of the natives or to the hardships, hunger, and
thirst of toilsome journeys across inhospitable lands and the trackless wilder-
ness.
A.nd of those more fortunate pioneers, who brought their expeditions to a
successful issue, how many proved themselves true heroes, displaying all the
energy, resolution, and endurance of which man is

capable For days and weeks
!
and scan the horizon in search of some stream-

together they had to study the soil
" water-hole." Fellow-travellers had to disperse in the midst of the
let, mere, or
desert in quest of a little moisture to quench their burning thirst, indicating as

their rally ing-point some distant rock, from which they might easily be beguiled
by a treacherous mirage. Then the weary ploddings across sandhills, over shingly
plains, through salt marshes, and thorny scrub ; the deviations in search of stray
horses the intolerable heats beneath brazen skies, followed by the dangerous
;
chills of night Altogether the history of Australian exploration forms a chapter

!
in the records of heroism, which gives the most exalted idea of the greatness of
man.
In the which followed year after year, the decisive journey was
series of essays
that made in 1862, after two failures, by MacDouall Stuart, whose itineraries to
the right and the left resemble the movements of the antenntc of puzzled ants.
He succeeded in crossing the Australian continent at its broadest part, from
first
Saint Vincent Gulf to the north coast, opposite Melville Island. Australia was
thus severed, as it were, in two by a transverse route, along which stations sprang
at intervals, as so
up many places of refuge, or starting-points for future explorers.
From these headquarters, which reduced by one-half the distance to be traversed,
itbecame possible to penetrate far into the surrounding wilderness, and in 1873
Wurburton at last reached the west coast. The network of itineraries was now
rapidly extended in all directions, oast and west, as well as north and south, and
tho preliminary rough
survey of the continent may be regardedas already accom-
plished. The inland regions are known in their main features, while the details
are being gradually filled up
by the partial explorations undertaken in connection
with the telegraph service, or in quest of springs and
grazing grounds. Never-
theless there still remain vast spaces, especially in the west, where no European
has yet succeeded in
penetrating, and the blank spaces, even on the latest maps,
between the routes of Giles, Forrest, and "Warburton
represent altogether an area
of some 300,000 square miles, or more than double the whole extent
considerably
of the British Isles.
EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIA. 357
The explorations carried out in recent years by the Challenger and other vessels
have determined with tolerable accuracy the submarine bed on which Australia stands,
and which may be geologically regarded as forming with the mainland a partly up-
heaved continental mass. In
Fig. 154. MACDOUALL'S ITINERARIES.
the north New Guinea, with the Scale 1 :
6,000,000.
clusters and chains of adjacent
islands, such as the Louisiades
and Aru, all rest on the com-
mon pedestal, being united with
Australia by the reefs dotted
over Torres Strait and neigh-
bouring waters. The Gulf of

Carpentaria and the north-
western seas nearly as far as
Timor belong to the same sub-
marine bank, which in the south
stretches far seawards, and in
the south-east develops a long
submerged peninsula, above

which rises Tasmania, and
which advances over 900 miles
into deep water.
On the east side the New
South Wales seaboard is washed
by abysses of over 2,000 fathoms,
while the north-east coast is
fringed by the Great Barrier

Reef, which is connected
by a
sill less than 1,000 fathoms deep
with Norfolk Island and the
north-west peninsula of New
Zealand. This connecting line
between the continent and its
most remote geological depen-
dencies is
disposed towards the
south-east in the same direction
asNew Caledonia, the Loyalty,
and New Hebrides groups, and
other upraised lands in this
section of the South Sea.

It is
noteworthy that in this 120 Miles.
vast aggregate of Australasian
lands the continent itself presents the least diversity of relief. Even the loftiest
Australian are of
ranges importance compared with the New Guinea and
secondary
858 AUSTRALASIA.
New Zealand orographic systems, and are surpassed

even by the mountains of the
Solomon Archipelago. This circumstance strengthens the hypothesis, according to
which Australia forms a single geological unit with the lands now scattered to the
north and east. New Guinea, Melanesia, and New Zealand would thus be nothing
more than the margin of the primitive Austral continent, over half of which now lies
submerged beneath the intervening shallow seas.
Numerous examples of similar
formations occur elsewhere, as in South America, in Africa, and, in a general way,
round the greatOceanic basin from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn, where
the loftiest crests also rise immediately above profound marine abysses.
PHYSICAL FEATURES. MOUNTAIN SYSTEMS
As in other Australasian regions, the highest mountains on the mainland occur

in the neighbourhood of the seaboard
and on the side facing the deep Pacific
waters. The chief continental crests are disposed in such a way as to form an
outer crescent sweeping round from York Peninsula to Wilson's Promontory,
as
over against Tasmania. Beyond this elevated rim the land falls so uniformly
" "
to suggest to the early explorers the existence in the interior of a Caspian
depression, into which flowed the suriounding streams.

all But instead of this
a few small basins without any
imaginary central sea there exists nothing beyond
Never-
outflow, while nearly all the important rivers flow directly to the coast.
theless the plains traversed by them stand at a very low level, in consequence of
which disposition of the land the seaboard has been excavated far into the interior
both on the north and south sides, where have been respectively developed the
Gulfs of Carpentaria and Saint Vincent. Between these two indentations, which
are the largest on the whole continental periphery, the intervening plains scarcely
anywhere exceed an altitude of 500 feet above sea-level. West of this depression
the surface again rises, and towards the centre of the continent several of the
summits exceed 3,000 feet in elevation.
The chief range, known as the Australian Alps, begins in Victoria, and after
presenting its convex side towards the south-east, trends round to the is left and
continued by other chains northwards. The Yass, a headstream of the Murray,
is regarded as the northern limit of the Australian Alps proper, which have a total
length of about 250 miles. These highlands deserve the name of Alps less for
their altitude than for the large number of their collective groups, spurs, offshoots,
lateral or parallel ridges. are almost everywhere of easy access, the most
They
rugged escarpments being usually situated about midway between base and sum-
mit, while higher up the slopes are more gently inclined, and extensive grassy or
sparsely wooded plateaux form the pedestal of domes and crests which may be
ascended even on horseback. The culminating peak, Mount Townsheud, in the
Kosciusko group, New South Wales, attains a height of 7,350 feet.
In many of these upland valleys the snows never melt, and in winter from
May to November even the plateaux remain shrouded in a white mantle. A few
iteresare found in the higher ravines of the Kosciusko Mountains, and traces of
ancient glaciers in various parts of the range. In the Bogong Hills (6,630 feet),
THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS. 359
which lie west of the farthest sources of the Murray, a frontal moraine dams up a
little fluvial valley at an elevation of 2,950 feet.
In the Australian Alps the prevailing formations are of great age, consisting
of granitesand Silurian masses interspersed with porphyries, diorites, and basalts.
Here and there tertiary rocks overlie the valleys, hut are always disposed horizon-
tally, whereas the surrounding strata have been diversely folded and dislocated.
Fig. 155. AUSTRALIAN ALPS.

Scale 1 : 3,250,000.
Depths.
to 100 HX) Fathoms

Fathoms. aud upwards.
, 60 Miles.
Notwithstanding the intervening depressions the same general features reappear

farther west in the Victoria highlands, and even in Tasmania, which belongs in
great measure to the same geological epoch. The Pyrenees, which run parallel
with the coast north-west of Melbourne, and the Grampians, whose irregular forms
stretch farther west, are also of Silurian formation, though less elevated than the
Alps, Mount William, the culminating point in the Grampians, being scarcely
5,600 feet high.
But nowhere in Australia have igneous formations been more developed than
800 AUSTRALASIA.
in this region of West Victoria, where volcanic cones are reckoned by the hundred
some simple eruptive craters, others real mountains 2,000 feet high belonging
to every successive period between paleozoic and tertiary times. Several of the
craters are perfectly circular basins now flooded by lakes of great depth, such as
the Blue Lake, which occupies the upper cavity of a volcano belonging to the
Gambier group in South Australia, and which is no less than 675 feet deep.
Others, which formerly discharged lava streams covering vast expanses, are
now
mere grassy or wooded cirques. All the older volcanoes are on the mainland
rises above the surface of the neigh-
except Tower Hill, near Warrnambool, which
o waters.
bouring
Like the Australian Alps the Tasmanian mountains are formed of granites and
Silurian deposits. But geologists have hitherto failed to determine the presence
of volcanoes properly so-called, although in many places eruptive rocks have
formed transverse barriers over which the running waters fall in cascades down
to the plains. Nearly the whole island is covered with irregular mountain masses,
which attain their greatest elevation in the north-west, here culminating in Cradle
Mountain (5,065 feet). Several other peaks exceed 4,600 feet, but the land falls
towards the south-east, where the seaboard is
penetrated by deep fjords.
Viewed whole Tasmania presents the outlines of half an oval, eroded on the
as a
north side facing Australia in the form of a regular concave curve. Here the
intervening waters of Bass Strait were at some former epoch undoubtedly replaced
by an isthmus connecting both regions, and of which nothing now survives except
a few granite islets. But immediately east marine abysses plunge
of the strait the
into depths of over 2,500 fathoms. From the geological standpoint Wilson's
Promontory, the southernmost point of the Australian continent, is an island like
those scattered over the shallow waters of the strait. Were the mainland to
subside some 300 feet the two inlets to the west and east of the headland would
be connected by a second marine channel.
North of the Australian Alps the highlands skirting the seaboard ramify into
several parallel chains, the main
range running at a mean distance of 45 or 50
miles from the Pacific. Each chain and each transverse ridge has its separate
name, while the whole system is sometimes designated by the common appellation of
the Blue Mountains, a term more
specially applicable to the mountains lying to the
west of Sydney, and long regarded
by the early settlers as an unsurmountable ram-
part towards the interior of the continent. Although the highest peaks, such as
Sea-view, west of Port Macquarie towards the north of New South Wales, scarcely
exceed 6,000 feet, while most of them below 5,000 feet, they have in many
fall
places been carved by erosive action into rocky cirques with vertical walls of an
imposing aspect.
The ranges precipitously soaward, while on the opposite side they frequently
full
present the appearance rather of a gently inclined tableland, the ground sloping
somewhat uniformly in the direction of the plains watered Exten-
by the Murray.
sive cavities, where the rivulets now
escape through breaches in the periphery,
appoar to have formerly been lacustrine basins. Such amongst others on the
GEOLOGY OP AUSTRALIA. 861
western slope of the mountains are the Liverpool Plains, which are dotted over with
isolated basalt rocks. Like the regions in the north of Europe, Australia also had
evidently its glacial epoch followed by a lacustrine period.
In the northern section of New South Wales the water-parting
gradually falls
in the direction of the colony of Queensland, where few summits attain an elevation
of 2,000 feet. In some districts the mountain system is even
completely inter-
rupted, the parting line between the two slopes being formed by scarcely per-
ceptible undulations. But eminences exceeding 3,000 feet reappear north of
the tropic of Capricorn, where a granite ridge skirting the seaboard runs north-
westwards to the neck of York Peninsula, here merging in a small
water-parting
of moderate elevation.
Between the Australian Alps and the granites of North Queensland the pre-
vailing formations are carboniferous of various ages, some dating from paleozoic,
others from mesozoic times. Here also occur some granites and porphyries, and
on the western slopes a few volcanoes and lava fields. It is in this section of the
Australian highlands and on the northern slopes of the Victoria Mountains that
are scattered those auriferous deposits that have so greatly stimulated the develop-
ment of Australia. All belong to different periods of the tertiary epoch and rest
on a rocky bed of the Silurian system. Most of the deposits fill old fluvial channels,
the so-called " gutters," and in some districts they attain a thickness of over 300
and even 600 feet.
"
West of the " backbone of the continent the depression comprised between
the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Murray estuary is largely occupied with cretaceous
formations. From these mesozoic strata and the vast plains of tertiary origin it is
"
evident that Australia, formerly considered as the " old continent in a pre-
tminent sense, has also had its revolutions, its alternating upheavals and subsi-
dences, like other great divisions of the globe.
Beyond the chalk zone begin the little-known regions intersected at long
intervals by the itineraries of a few daring explorers. We
know, however, that
granites and primitive rocks occur in South Australia on both sides of Spencer
Gulf, as well as round the margins of the saline basins in the interior. The
northern peninsulas facing Melville Island have also their granites and metamor-
phic formations. Lastly, the south-western regions are to a great extent consti-
tuted of slightly elevated granite plateaux traversed here and there by a mountain
range from 1,800 to 2,000 feet high. All these chains and ridges are named after
the early explorers or statesmen distinguished in contemporary politics. The
MacDouall group, lying east of the overland telegraph line, abounds in precious
stones, of which have been doubtfully or wrongly described as "rubies."
some
"
The desert sandstone," comprising over one-third of Australia, is probably
of more recent origin than any of the continental mountain systems. But owing
to the general absence of fossils itsage cannot be accurately determined, although
the upheaval of the plateaux, hills, and plains in this arid wilderness is by most
geologists referred to pliocene times. In North Queensland it overlies cretaceous

formations. Its numerous depressions have been produced by meteoric agencies,
362 AUSTRALASIA.
heat and cold, wind and rain, and in several places the surface has been excavated
many tens and even hundreds of yards, leaving here and there masses of harder
rocks, which indicate the original level of the now vanished formations. In
north-west Australia lies the region to which Gray has given the name of "Pillar
Land," from the myriads of sandstone columns rising ahove the surrounding plains
which have been irregularly excavated. This region is carpeted with flowering
plants and festooned with belts of verdure, while the work of erosion is still con-
tinued by running waters partly flowing below the surface.
About the very centre of the continent stands another of these geological
witnesses, which is known as "Chambers's Pillar," and which rises 150 feet above
an eminence itself about 100 feet higher than the surrounding plain. This
column, one of the most regular formations of the kind on the surface of the globe,
forms a conspicuous landmark much utilised by the early explorers as a rallying
point, and convenient site for a cache or storehouse of provisions.

It is about ten
feet by twenty in cross section, of nearly equal compass from top to bottom, and
formed of a soft white sandstone like the hill on which it stands. The upper part
of the pillar is of a red tint, and its preservation is perhaps due to the greater
hardness and durability of this topmost layer (Wallace).
Like the Sahara, the Australian desert has its region of dunes stretching west
of the overland telegraph on the north-west continental slope. Here the chains
of sandhills follow each other with perfect regularity, rolling away like the waves
of the sea for a distance of about 350 miles in the direction from east to west.
Consisting entirely of red particles, without a blade of grass to relieve their fierce
glare, these dunes are described by Sturt as producing a "terrible" effect, and no
traveller ventures to traverse them without a sense of awe. Beyond this dreaded
region a few verdant and flowery oases are seen here and there in the dreary
wilderness. The aspect, however, of the Australian desert changes with the dry
and wet seasons, so that the descriptions of the same district by different explorers
often present great discrepancies.
The observations made by geologists on the main features of the continental
periphery lend much probability to the hypothesis of a general upheaval of the
Australian seaboard. Its shores, after
having been submerged under the waters,
which at one time covered about half of the surface, were again
gradually upriised
above the level of the surrounding seas. The coasts are
fringed by upheaved
beaches, in which are embedded banks of shells similar to those still surviving
a in
the neighbouring waters. Numerous lakes, which were, till recently, marine
have preserved their oceanic fauna, while others have been
inlets,
gradually
changed to freshwater basins, or have even been completely evaporated. Shoals
and reefs formerly concealed below the surface now show their black rocks above
the level of the sea.
A
careful study of the whole
region stretching to the north of Spencer Gulf
leaves no doubt that this tract of
dry land at one time formed an archipelago with
numerous islands separated from each other
by shallow straits. Bass Strait itself,
which forms the southern limit of Australia
proper, would be changed to dry land
THE AUSTRALIAN SEAS AND ISLANDS. 303
by a general upheaval of less than twenty-five fathoms, and Tasmania, which was
long supposed to form part of the neighbouring continent, really belongs to it
from the geological point of view* The presence of glaciers probably contributed
to preserve the primitive form of the Tasmanian seaboard, all the south side of
which is carved into creeks and
inlets, evidently ancient fjords which have main-
tained their original depth and outlines.
A close resemblance to the sea which formerly flooded South Australia, is
pre-
sented by the channel at present separating this continent from New Guinea.
Between Cape York and Mount Cornwallis at the narrowest part of Torres Strait
Fig. 1">6. BASS STHAIT.

- Scale 1 :
5,555,000.
East F Greenwich 148
OtolO 10 to 25 25 to 100 100 Fathoms

Fathoms. Fa thorn B. Fathoms. and upwards.
120 Miles.
the water is nowhere more than eleven or twelve, while the average scarcely
exceeds seven fathoms. It was shown by the accurate surveys of the Fly and
Bramble (1842 1847) that, even by keeping to the windings of the deepest
channel, a vessel drawing over 30 feet could only pass through in perfectly
smooth water. The rocky islets in whether isolated or grouped in
this strait,
clusters, consist exclusively of porphyries or syenites, like the rocks in the northern
peninsula of Queensland, of which they evidently form a seaward extension.

East of these reef-fringed islets, between which flow channels perfectly free
861 AUSTRALASIA.
from shoals, begins the true "Coral Sea." which is studded, not with rocky
a dangerous labyrinth of coralline masses, and which taken
heights, but only with
as a whole may be compared to a long submarine bank gradually falling
east-
wards to a mean depth of 20 fathoms. Here is the true coastline of the Australian
or submerged seaboards, the
continent, and as happens on so many other upraised
line between the continental plateau and the abysmal depths
of the Pacific
parting
Ocean marked by an igneous chain. The volcanoes, however, of the Coral Sea
is
have all become extinct during the present geological epoch, and none of them
are of any considerable size, the largest being Murray Island, which lies within
the zone of the Great Barrier Reef. Although so near the Australian mainland
Tig. 157. TOEEES STRAIT.

Scale 1 :
7,750,000.
141 Lasb oF Greenwich
Depths.
Oto5 5 to 25 25 Fathoms
120 Miles.
of which it isa geological dependence, this island is distinguished from it by its
vegetation. The beach and even the lower slopes of the hills, which rise to a
height of GOO or 700 feet, are clothed with a continuous forest of cocoanut palms,
trees which all travellers assure us were not found in Australia before the arrival
of the European immigrants.
The rampart forming the outer coastline of Queensland and connecting
of reefs
Australia with New

Guinea has a total development of no less than 1,500 miles,
without counting minor indentations. It begins at
Cape Sandy, where the main-
land projects seawards off the convex curve of the east coast, and is at first inter-
rupted by broad straits but the rocks and shoals soon press closer together, and
;
at last in a continuous barrier few openings accessible

merge presenting but to
THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 865
ships. Theearly explorers anxiously skirted the long line of breakers during the
day, and at dusk veered off to a safe distance from their everlasting roar yet ;
shipwrecks were of frequent occurrence. Now, however, all the accessible passes
Fig. 158. THE GBEAT BABKIEB REEF.

Scale 1 :
11,800,000.
145' 150* Lnsb or Greenwich
Depths.
to 100 100 to 1.000 1,00(1 to 2,000 8.000 Fnthnnu

. 800 Miles.
are known, and vessels freely navigate the inner waters under shelter from the
fury of the ocean waves.
Before the introduction of steam navigation, the channels of the Great Barrier,
866 AUSTRALASIA.
with Torres Strait, the only

notwithstanding their dangerous reefs, presented,
route for vessels passing from the Pacific to the Indian
Ocean. Here the south-
east trades set regularly throughout nearly the

whole year, whereas off the south
coast of Australia the south and south-west winds blow

almost constantly and are
often stormy. Within the Great Barrier the surf is seldom dangerous, and here
the ordinary roadsteads, sheltered by a rock or an islet, form really

safe havens.
Seafarers navigating these seas are also aided by the clear atmosphere
and the
extreme limpidity of the water. At a distance of over a mile the sailor at the
mast-head readily detects the existence of shallows 30 feet below the surface,
thanks to the contrast their greenish tints with the deep blue of the
presented by
neighbouring abysses.
RIVERS AND LAKES.
Australia is as inferior to the other continents in the extent and abundance of

its watercourses as it is in the elevation of its mountain ranges. Of all those
reaching the coast the Murray or Goolwa, discovered in 182i by Hume and
Hovell, is the only river draining a large extent of country. This great artery
receives all the running waters belonging to the inland watersheds of the Gram-
pians, thePyrenees of Victoria, the Alps, and the New South Wales coast ranges.
From its furthest headstream, the Condamine, rising in Queensland, to its estuary
in South Australia, the distance is at least 1,200 miles, and the whole extent of
the catchment basin of the Murray exceeds 400,000 square miles. It is thus
larger than those of the united Tigris-Euphrates, of the Danube, and the St.
Lawrence ;
but what a difference in its volume ! the mean annual discharge being
only about 12,000 cubic feet per second, or less than that of the Seine. The
Murray waters are scarcely deep enough for small steamers to ascend its lower
course even during the floods. During the ten years between 1877 and 1886 the
Darling was accessible to craft of light draught only for fifty seven months
altogether, while none of its affluents are navigable except for small boats.
The has been rightly named, not from its longest upper
fluvial basin itself
branch, but from the headstream which, thanks to the direction of its course
parallel with the main axis of the Victoria mountain ranges, receives the largest
quantity of water. The Murray rises in the Australian Alps on the frontiers of
Victoria and New South Wales, and during its
westerly course is gradually
increased in volume by the torrents descending from the Victoria
uplands to its
left bank. Its northern affluents, the
Lachlan-Morrumbidgee, and especially the
Darling, have a far longer course, but roll down a much smaller quantity of water.
Many of the sub-tributaries even lose themselves in meres and
swamps before
reaching the banks of the main stream. All these running waters expand over
the surface in shallow
temporary lakes, and, boing destitute of regular sandy or
gravelly beds, scarcely deserve the name of rivers.
On the east slope of the New South Wales and Queensland coast-ranges the
streams are relatively more copious, thanks to the heavier rainfall and the closer
EIVERS OP AUSTRALIA. 867
texture of their rocky beds. But between the hills and the coast
they have no
space to develop long courses, and most of them are lost in the ocean as soon as
they escape from the mountains. On this slope the largest rivers are the Fitzrov
and the Burdekin, which, through openings in the coast-ranges, receive some con-
tributions from the opposite side.
On the western watershed of Queensland the Gulf of Carpentaria is encircled
by fluvial basins, such as the Mitchell, Norman, Flinders, Leichhardt, Albert and
Roper, which usually send down very little water, but whose channels excavated
to great depths in the rocks bear witness to the
great force formerly exercised by
their currents. The more arid north-west seaboard has scarcely any streams that
can compare in magnitude even with those of the east coast ranges. Amongst
the more important in this region are the Victoria, discharging into Queen's
Channel, the Fitzroy, a little farther west, and quite on the west side of the
continent the Grey, the Ashburton, Gascoyne, and Murchison, nearly all of which
watercourses are for the greater part of the year mere chains of half dried-up
morasses.
Still more arid is the great southern bight, which for* space of 1,200 miles
between the south-west corner of the continent and Spencer Gulf, is unbroken by
a single fluvial estuary. Throughout this vast and almost waterless tract not one
of the few rivulets developed in the interior has sufficient force to reach the coast.
Temporary freshets are caused by the heavy downpours in most of the desert
regions, and on these occasions the sudden appearance of a real current rushing
along in a usually dried-up river bed ishailed with a sort of ecstacy by the few
spectators of the rare phenomenon. Long before the arrival of the stream its
distant roar is heard as sweeps down with the shrubs and trees torn from its
it
banks; then the noise grows louder, presently a thread of water is seen winding
through the sinuosities of the ravine, as if in search of an outlet, and this is followed
with a tremendous crash by the raging torrent which soon fills to overflowing the
winding valley.
Amongst the watercourses which run out in the depressions of the interior
there is one which, at least for the extent of its basin, may be regarded as a true
river. This is the Barcoo, or Cooper's Creek, which also bears other names in the
various districts through which it flows, and whose headwaters traverse the Queens-
land pasturages for a distance of over 350 miles. The upper affluents converge in
a common channel, which after running south-westwards parallel with the Darling,
wanders in an uncertain course from swamp to swamp, and at last merges in the
extensive depression of Lake Eyre together with other watercourses flowing from
the solitudes of Central Australia.
The but it does
length of Cooper's Creek cannot be less than 1,200 miles,
total
not flow continuously throughout the year, and its course is often indicated only
by meres and morasses. The lacustrine basins themselves vary in extent and form
of tho
according to the greater or less abundance of the rainfall and intensity
evaporation. At one season they present the aspect of extensive inland seas with
surf-beaten shores, and stretching beyond tho horizon without visible shoals or
868 AUSTRALASIA.
islands ; they are mere quagmires reflecting the glittering mirage, or

at another
with white saline efflorescences.

else argillaceous tracts covered During protracted
droughts these so-called lakes may be crossed on horseback, provided the traveller
avoid the bays and inlets of the periphery, where the treacherous muds and bogs
are longest maintained by the underground waters filtering through from the
surrounding lands towards the lateral creeks.
From the disposition and outlines both of Lake Eyre, and of Lake Torrens,
which forms its southern continuation in the direction of Spencer Gulf, it seems
probable that these now isolated basins were formerly marine inlets communicating
freely with the South Pacific. The terminal depression, however, which is certainly
the lowest cavity on the Australian continent, still stands some 65 or 70 feet above
the present sea-level. Another depression towards the centre of Australia is occu-
" Lake "
pied by Amadeus, alternately a shallow lagoon, morass, or saline waste.
In the arid region of West Australia there also occur several depressions of like
character, which are commonly designated by the name of lakes.
In the thoroughly explored basins, such as that of the Darling, the fluvial
discharge is so slight compared with the rainfall that some observers have sought
for an explanation of the discrepancy in the existence of underground rivers
flowing beneath tha surface clays, and carrying either to the sea or to some
subterranean reservoirs the greater part of the running waters. Some portion,
however, of the rainfall, instead of being carried off in river beds, remains on the
ground in certain shallow basins, which in the Darling pasturages are known by
thename of " gilgies." On these level tracts, where the rains spread out in stag-
nant sheets without the force required to excavate a fluvial channel, the only
depressions where the water can be collected are the fissures formed in the arid
soil during the dry season. Under the action of the heavy downpours the sides of
these crevasses are washed away, the bed of the cavities thus formed is levelled,
and water-holes are gradually developed, which
vary in depth from 4 to 5 or 6
feet, and in size from a few feet to over a hundred yards in circuit. Some of
these natural gilgies have even been
enlarged by the natives, and converted into
reservoirs capable of containing considerable
quantities of water.
CLIMATE.
The climate of Australia is written

on the surface of the land, its more salient
features
by those bare rocks, those treeless plains and
being clearly indicated
waterless depressions which occupy the
greater part of the continent. Although
surrounded by marine waters, Australia is of too massive a form to
enjoy an insular
climate, such as that of Europe with its deeply indented seaboard. Owing to the
dryness of the atmosphere, due to the slight relief and the monotonous contours
of the coastline, the
meteorological conditions are essentially of a continental
character.
Lying half within the tropical and half in the south temperate zone, this
region presents, from the York Peninsula to the terminal point of Tasmania, a
CLIMATE OP ATJSTKALIA. 369
long succession of graduated isothermal lines, with a mean temperature ranging

from 78 or 80 F. in the extreme north to not more than 54 in the extreme
south. But this gradual decrease does not correspond uniformly with the change
of latitude, for the normal averages are often greatly modified, raised in one place,
lowered in another, by the influence of the prevailing winds, marine currents, and
mountain ranges. Thus the temperature is diversely affected by the backward
and polar currents, which meet on the coasts of Queensland
flow of the equatorial
and New South Wales. The contrasts are also always great between the opposite
slopes of the higher ranges, while in the deserts of the interior, as in the African
Fig. 153. ISOTHEBMALS OF AuSTBALIA.

Scale 1 :
45,000,000.
10
900 Stiles.
Sahara, the extremes of heat and cold present enormous discrepancies, according
to Sturt as much as from 16 to 122 F. and even more.*
In Australia the normal wind is the south-east trade, which prevails in the
lower, while the opposite north-west trade sets regularly in the higher atmospheric
Climate of various Australian towns:

Latitude. Mean temperature. Highest Lowest. Rainfall.
Somerset, N.E. 10' 45' S. 78 t. 86 inches.

Brislmne, E. . 27 28' 69' 133" . 37 53
Sydney, E. 33' 52' 92 104 . 35 48
Melbourne, 8. . 37 49' 99' 110' . 27' 64
Adelaide, S. WtT 94" 113" . 34" 20
Perth, S.W. . 31" 57' 112 . 32 33
'240
370 AUSTRALASIA.
regions. Nevertheless, the regular direction of these currents is considerably

modified by the great centre of attraction formed by the arid solitudes of the
interior. The trades being deflected towards the coast are changed to easterly and
even north-easterly winds,
Fig. 160. RAINFALL OF EAST AUSTEALIA. while marine breezes set
Scale 1 :
30,000,000. inland all round the sea-
board. In the north-west
the winds blowing from
Indonesia in the winter
are simply the north-east
trades, which, coming from
the northern hemisphere,
change their direction with
the change of zone.
Between these two zones
of the south-east and north-
west monsoons the neutral
region, shifting with the

seasons from east to west
and north to south, cor-

responds in a general way
with the York Peninsula.
But in the south of Australia
the prevailing westerly
gales, which are often very
strong and even tempes-
tuous, find an unobstructed
course from the Indian to
the Pacific Ocean, and are
consequently seldom de-
40
flected from the normal
140 150 direction. On the mainland
CZJ
itself the changes of the
Otoli li t..i 10 UP to 20 JO to dominant currents, espe-
Inches. Inches. Inches Inches.
summer, are usually
cially in
accompanied by sudden
40 to 60 GO Inches and
Inches upwards.
squalls known by the name
COO Miles. of " bursters." The baro-
meter falls rapidly, clouds
of dust are stirred up, the storm of thunder echo from the welkin,
gathers, peals
and the rain comes down in torrents. In Melbourne these sudden gales from
the interior are called "
bricklayers," from the destructive whirlwinds of dust
accompanying them. In the cultivated districts of the Australian coastlands no
summer passes without several visitations of hot winds analogous in their effects to
FLORA OF AUSTRALIA. 371
the African scirocco. Under their action the temperature rises suddenly, both
men and animals feel a sense of exhaustion, the vegetation droops, and if the wind
lasts long enough the foliage becomes blighted and withers as if frost-bitten.
The from the coast towards the interior of the

rainfall diminishes rapidly
continent, and the quantity received by the inner slopes of the coast-ranges is
scarcely more than one-half that of the slopes facing seawards. Thus the forty
inches received by Sydney is reduced to less than sixteen on the western plains of
New South Wales, and the supply of moisture is certainly much less in the central
regions, where the winds arrive deprived of nearly all their vapours. At the
station of Charlotte Waters, in the heart of the continent (26 29' south latitude),
the mean annual discharge is only five inchSs, and at times a whole
year passes
without a single shower. Hence the greater part of Australia is too arid for
European settlements, or for the development of agricultural enterprise. Never-

theless, the colonists have had the immense advantage of finding a perfectly healthy
climate in all the districts where they have built their towns or established cattle
farms. Salubrity remains in the eyes of the immigrants from Great Britain the
special privilege of Australia, and is regarded by them as a compensation for many
material disadvantages. Notwithstanding the changes required by a new social
life, the Anglo-Saxon suffers no inconvenience by migrating to the Austral hemi-
sphere, and the average period of existence is even said to be higher in his new
home at the antipodes. That people advanced in years here enjoy " a new lease of
"
life has become a local saying in most of the settled districts.
FLORA OF AUSTRALIA.
The Australian flora presents a highly original character. Few other vegetable
zones are so well defined, offering as it does a most astonishing contrast even to
that of New
Guinea, from which it is separated only by narrow and shallow waters.
This originality must be explained by the long ages that have elapsed since the
separation of the southern continent. But it still seems surprising that a region
physically so monotonous compared with Europe, and moreover of smaller extent,
should possess so many more botanical forms. These are estimated altogether at
about 12,250, of which number as many as 7,550 are quite peculiar to Australia.
The only vegetable zones which present a comparatively richer or more varied
flora are the southern extremity of Africa and the island of New Caledonia.
There must be some common cause for the extraordinary concentration of distinct
species in these three regions of the southern hemisphere, where the floral world
appears to have increased in variety according as the lands themselves diminished
in superficial area. Nor is it the tropical, but, on the contrary, the temperate part
of all three zones that
presents the greatest proportion of vegetable forms ;
and
these forms arc again more numerous in the arid western section than in the
romantic eastern division of the Australian Continent. Hence the submergence of
the land must have been greater on the side facing the Indian than on that turned
towards the Pacific Ocean.
372 AUSTRALASIA.
The splendour and exuberance, not the variety, of vegetable growths depends
if
above all on the abundance of the rainfall. Thus the lovely family of palms,
which might be supposed restricted to the tropical part of Australia, seems almost
independent of latitude, here following the seaboard far to the south of the torrid
zone. No members of this group occur on the arid west side of the continent.
A
narrow belt of palms is seen only along the northern and eastern shores as far
south as New South Wales, where the slopes of the hills beyond Sydney in 35
of over
S. latitude are still shaded by the livistona, which here grows to a height
80 feet. In its palm flora, as in so many other respects, Australia resembles South
Africa.
than Moreton Bay, on the
The pandanus penetrates southwards no farther
Queensland coast, and in general the Australian tropical is less original than
the
temperateflora. Numerous Indian and Malayan species give it in many places an

Indonesian aspect but there also occur in the tropical zone a few forms of quite a
;
a very narrow area. Such are, near

special character, which, however, occupy
Hanover on the north-west coast, those remarkable capparia, which grow to a
Bay
considerable height, and whose branches, laden with fruits as large as cocoanuts,
bend gracefully over in the form of a vast canopy. The stem is always inflated,
bulging out like a pumpkin and giving a sickly appearance to
the plant. Its fruit,
however, is excellent, and the white gum obtained by incision of the bark resembles
macaroni both in flavour and colour.
plants restricted to a narrow range botanists have also
discovered on
Amongst
the New South Wales uplands some forms belonging to the north European
regions. Of these Hooker enumerates 38, including varieties of the ranunculus,
gentian, and myosotis. Since the arrival of the whites the vegetation has been
but
greatly modified, and some northern forms have not only invaded Australia,
have spread thence to New Caledonia and other South-Sea Islands. According to
Hooker there are at present over 200 perfectly acclimatised European plants in the
Sydney district, where they grow freely without the aid of artificial cultivation.
Amongst the 950 species of trees which attain a height of at least 30 feet the
most common are those with small slender leaves, throwing off but slight evapora-
tion and affording little shade. The genus acacia is represented by no less than
320 species, some almost destitute of true foliage, but overladen in spring-time
with fragrant blossom. The casuarina also lacks a fully developed foliage, but is
covered with little rigid branchlets, and often presents a black, withered appear-
ance. This family is
very numerous, as is also that of the so-called grass-tree
(tanthorrh(ca) , which is characterised

by a large tuft of wiry, grass-like foliage
shooting up from the stem, with a spike like a bulrush in the centre, which is
covered in summer with a mass of white blossom.
In Queensland is met another curious forest plant, the bottle-tree, so named
from its shape. But the Australian tree in a pre-eminent sense is the eucalyptus,
or gum-tree, of which there are about a hundred different Amongst these
species.
is the famous
eucalyptus globulus, to which have been attributed so many curative
properlies, and which is said to exceed all other trees in mean height, with
AUSTRALIAN FLORA. 873
perhaps the single exception of the icellingtoiiia of California and Oregon. But this
prerogative is
by others assigned to the Regii'ins variety of eucalyptus amygdalina,
which attains its greatest size on the mountain slopes of eastern Victoria, where
trunks have been measured no less than 480 feet long.* Gums 420 feet high are
by no means rare in the gorges of Victoria and Tasmania ;
but farther north
scarcely any are met exceeding 200

Those growing on the Tasmanian
feet.
uplands shoot straight up like bamboos, without any branches below a height of
50 or 60 feet. When the wind whistles through the ravines, the strips of bark
hanging from these tallstems clash together with a weird, creaking sound as of
moaning spirits. Growing only on the slopes of the hills, the giant gum-trees are
not seen to full advantage from a distance.
In Australia there are scarcely any dense forests with a tangled growth of
interwoven branches and creepers, as in most tropical regions nor are there many ;
woodlands with close-set stems, as in the pine and fir plantations of north Europe.
As a rule, the trees lie wide apart, like those of the English parks, and beneath
their shade stretches the grassy sward, where formerly grazed herds of kangaroos,
now mostly replaced by flocks of sheep. Till recently these open wooded tracts
covered the greater part of the western slope of the New South Wales and Queens-
land uplands but farther west, towards the centre of the continent, they give place
;
to scrub, usually consisting of thorny plants, such as acacias, dwarf eucalyptus or

spinifex (friodia irritans), growing together in thickets. North of the 28 south
latitude, where this scrub prevails, men and animals often find it impossible to
make way, and many travellers, unable to force a path through the spinifex, have
been fain to change their route or retrace their steps.
The dense growths of eucalyptus dumosa, the mallie of the natives, are also a
great obstacle to explorers, though they may still be traversed. They have the
appearance of bulrushes, growing to a height of 10 or 12 feet before throwing off
tall
any branches, and completely covering the ground with a uniform sea of verdure,
in which the wayfarer disappears, while laboriously striving to force a passage.
The cuttings made for highways across these mallie thickets are as sharp and
clearly defined as those of roads flanked by walls. Of the scrubby tracts the most
easily penetrated are those composed of melaleuca, a shrub which resembles the
myrtle, and which grows in clusters with free intervening spaces. The natives of
the desert regions are acquainted with a plant, the pitchouri (ituboisia hopicoodti),
whose leaves reduced topowder sustain them on long journeys, and keep off the
pangs of hunger. When fighting they continually chew these leaves, which
appear to have the effect of exciting their warlike spirit to a pitch of frenzy.
A
beginning has long been made in the process of disafforesting Australia.-
About the year 1860 some stockbreeders entertained the idea of extending their
grazing grounds by clearing away the forest growths that clothed the slopes of the
hills. The process of felling the eucalyptus and other large trees would have been
too slow and two expensive ;
hence the squatters had recourse to the more expe-
ditious plan of barking the stems. This practice spread rapidly, and by 1880 ut
* "
George Sutherland, amongst others, declares this to be undoubtedly the largest tree in the world."
374 AUSTRALASIA.
least three-fourths of the forests in the basin of the Hunter had already disap-
peared. The time seems approaching when scarcely a single tree will bo left in
the boundless pastures of the interior. This ruthless destruction of the woodlands
has had the effect of transforming the most charming landscapes into dreary
monotonous wastes. But strange to say, the clearing of the forest tracts has not
been followed by any decrease in the annual rainfall, while such a luxuriant
a thousand sheep find an abun-
herbage has been developed, that in some places
dance of food where scarcely a hundred could formerly be kept. The eucalyptus
and other trees, whose roots ramified far and wide in search of moisture, left little
for the grasses, which sprang up in the rainy season and perished on the return of
the droughts. the pastures receive the full benefit of the whole
Now, however,
their improved condition.
supply, which sufficiently explains
FAUNA OF AUSTRALIA.
Like the flora, the Australian fauna presents a strikingly individual physiog-
nomy, attesting the long succession of ages during which this southern continent
has been separated from the Asiatic mainland. Of its 160 species of mammals
scarcely any correspond with those of the northern regions, except some rats,
mice, and the dingo, a half-wild dog, which probably accompanied the first human
immigrants, and the remains of which are found amongst the bones occurring in
former cave-dwellings. There is no elephant, no rhinoceros, no monkey, nor a
single member of the feline group. The characteristic species are, in fact, mainly
marsupials, which scarcely occur in any other region of the globe, except in
America, where several varieties of the opossum family occupy a wide range.
The fossils discovered in the Australian quaternary deposits show that at some
remote period the continental fauna resembled that still surviving, but was repre-
sented by animals of far larger dimensions. The diprotodon, a species allied to
that of the kangaroos, was
nearly as large as the elephant, and others rivalled the
rhinoceros in size one variety of carnivorous phalanger was as formidable as a
;
lion, and birds of the emu family surpassed the largest ostriches in proportions.
Of all Australian mammals the kangaroos and kindred forms are by far the
most numerous. There occur some fifty distinct species of these marsupials, one
of which, the
great red kangaroo, is over 5 feet high and weighs as much as 225
Ibs.,while others are no bigger than a hare or even a rat. The other chief repre-
sentative animals of the Australian fauna are the
pcrameluhe, locally known as
"
rabbits," which have the marsupial pouch like the kangaroo, but which run on
all fours like other
quadrupeds, and not by a series of hops on the hind legs the ;
pkalangen, which live in trees and feed on leaves ; the phascolotnys, or wombat,
which burrows in the ground and feeds on roots the carnivorous;
dasyurida, with
bear-like tail, which on and even
prey mice, birds, small live-stock lastly, the ;
anomalous omithorhynchits, or duck-bill, a monotreme mammal allied to

oviparous
the marsupials.
The Australian avifauna is very rich, comprising 630 species, or 130 more than
FAUNA OF AUSTRALIA. 375
the European, but, viewed as a whole, it presents less marked features than the
order of mammals. Doubtless Australia has its emus, its casowaries, and various
species of megalopodim,which does not hatch its eggs, merely covering them with
brushwood but most of the birds found on this continent belong also to the
;
Indonesian and Asiatic zones, thanks to the faculty of flight by which they cross
the intervening marine spaces. Birds of graceful form and gorgeous plumage
are scarcely less numerous than in New Guinea and the Moluccas those whose ;
food is nectar and honey are relatively the best represented, for Australia
abounds in flowering trees and shrubs. Nevertheless, whole groups, such as
the families of vultures, the pheasants and magpies, are absent from this region
of the globe.
The crocodile is found only on the seaboard facing the Malay Archipelago, but
the venomous species of snakes are very numerous. Other zoological orders, such
as fishes, insects, molluscs, also present special types with a great
diversity of
forms, but already much modified in their general distribution since the introduc-
tion of corresponding European species. Even the forests and thickets, formerly
seldom enlivened by the songsters' notes, now constantly echo with the music of
the new arrivals from the mother country. Indigenous plants and animals alike
have been thrust into the background by the intruding species, just as the Austra-
lian himself retires before the strangers of white stock. Not only have the
English brought with them all the European domestic animals, but since 184G
they have even imported the Asiatic camels with their Afghan and Baluchi
drivers. Thanks to these human and animal immigrants, accustomed to cross vast
desert wastes, expeditions have been successfully undertaken, which but for them
would have been impossible.
INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA.
The aboriginal population before the establishment of the first British settle-
ments has been conjecturally estimated at from one hundred and fifty thousand to
two hundred thousand. But even were it three or four times more numerous
Australia would none the less have to be considered as at that time almost unin-
habited, regard being had to its vast extent. All the tribal groups thinly scattered
over this boundless region everywhere presented great resemblance in type and
speech ;hence most anthropologists agree in looking on the natives as belonging

to a common stock, constituting a well-marked independent branch of the human
family. Nevertheless, it seems probable that before the European immigration
peoples of diverse origin, either driven before the storm or following long familiar
marine routes, had reached the Australian mainland and intermingled with the
primitive populations. During his exploring expeditions across the north-western
regions George Grey noticed in all the tribes the presence of individuals with
relatively light complexion, who seemed to wield a certain authority over their
fellow tribesmen. According to Grey these warriors represented an element of
Indonesian origin, and even their dogs, quite different from the Australian dingo,
376 AUSTRALASIA.
resembled the Malay species found in Timor.* On the other hand there exist
in the islands of Torres Strait peoples with abundant frizzly hair, who belong
probably to the same stock as the Papuans.

Maer (Murray Island) is inhabited
by a dark race differing in no respects from the New Caledonians.
But whatever be the origin of these contrasts amongst the natives, whether
due to difference of race or to diversity of environment andsocial life, the ordinary
type of the Australians not yet debased by a degraded existence amongst the
colonists is much finer than is
usually supposed. Those especially who occupy
more favoured domains along the fertile river-banks are distinguished by fine
and a well-developed muscular system, with low but broad forehead, rather
figures
flat nose, large mouth, massive jaws, brown animated eyes sheltered by very promi-
nent superciliary arches. The natives are generally free from physical defects,
and amongst those of West
Australia Bishop Rudesindo Salvado noticed only four
blind, but not one either deaf, dumb, or insane.
Although of dark or blackish complexion, like the Sudanese Africans, unlike

them the Australians have no woolly or frizzly hair, being in this respect distin-
guished from all other dark races. The beard, also, is much more developed than
that of the Negroes proper, while the lips are never everted so as to show the red
inner skin. Their weak point are the lower extremities spindle legs, flat calves,
flat but very small feet. On the whole, they doubtless yield to the Europeans in
physical strength, though not in endurance and power of supporting pain, but they
are by no means the beings of grotesque and repulsive appearance as described by
travellers who saw them only in the wretched hovelson the outskirts of large
towns, or as depicted by the sportsmen who hunted them down like so much game.
To believe some accounts, they are little better than animals, intermediate
between man and the higher apes, and even more allied to the latter than the
former.
On
the other hand these vilified aborigines have found enthusiastic champions
amongst the dominant race. Mitchell, who had taken the black Yuranigh as his
guide across the tropical regions, expressly declares that the Australians of his
escortwere " superior in penetration and judgment " to his white assistants,
although he had no occasion to complain of the latter. Yuranigh he calls his com-
panion, his counsellor and friend, and from the physical point of view regards his
superiority as self-evident. As a mere specimen of natural history, what civilised
animal, he asks, could have compared with this native for the beauty of his teeth,
his powerful
digestion, the perfection of his organs of sight, hearing, smell, taste,
and touch, his staying powers in walking,
running, and climbing trees, his healthy
constitution, and the intensity of his animal existence ? t
As a rule the superior tribes have a coppery rather than a black complexion,
while nearly all the skulls are of the
dolichocephalous or long type. The aborigines
appear to be most degraded physically in the arid central region, where man,
exhausted and stunted by hunger and thirst,
passes his in the
days grubbing
*
Journal of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North- Western and Western Australia.
t Tropical Australia,.
INHABITANTS OF AUSTEALIA. 377
earth in quest of a few roots and of a little muddy water. Tribes are even said
to exist which, together with their dogs, have adapted themselves to the use of
sea-water.
The finest natives were those of the east coast, where a more beneficent nature
supplied food and water in abundance, including, however, certain articles of diet
calculated to excite the astonishment and loathing of Europeans. Thus Von
Lendenfeld tells us that Mount Bogong takes its name from the grubs which the
aborigines here collected in myriads for their daily meals.
Although numbering but a few thousand souls, the Australian race is divided
into hundreds of tribal groups. In certain districts there are as many languages
as communities or scattered family circles. In others, again, the native idioms
present great uniformity throughout considerable tracts of country. Thus from
the banks of the Hawkesbury to Moreton Bay, a distance of about 350 miles, the
natives have little difficulty in conversing together so, also, those of the
;
south-west coast, between Hamalin Bay and King George Sound, speak closely
related dialects. Another extensive linguistic zone comprises the whole region
between Cooper's Creek and the Middle Darling, a space of over 40,000 square
miles, and this surprising uniformity of speech is attributed to the extreme dryness
of the land, which obliges the tribes to gather round the watering-places in sum-
mer, suspending all hostilities, and for the time being merging, as it were, in a
common nationality.
On the other hand, the tribes of the Lower Darling, where there is never any
lack of water or vegetation, have been able to keep aloof for long ages, and their
languages have consequently become greatly diversified. The fact is evident from
the very names of the different peoples in this region, all of which have exactly
the same meaning, though often differing altogether in form. Such are the Baraba-
Barabas, the Wati-Watis, the Waiki-Waikis, the Lichi-Lichis, the Darti-Dartis,

the Yari-Yaris terms meaning " No-No," just as by an analogous mental process
mediaeval France was divided into the Langue d'Oui and the Langue d'Oc. The
rapid divergence of the local dialects is due to the respect paid to the
also partly
dead requiring the survivors to taboo for a time, and even for ever, a large num-
ber of words which bore or seemed to bear a certain relation to the deceased either
in sound or sense.
may differ from each other outwardly, all the native idioms
But, however they
present some common points of resemblance. They are polysyllabic and aggluti-
nating by means of harmonious suffixes abounding in vowels. Aspirates are
slightly developed, the sibilants are completely absent, and the accent fulls usually
on the penultimate syllable. Onomatopo3ic terms are very common, and all objects
perceived by the senses are indicated by numerous synonyms, or at least by what

pass as such amongst strangers interrogating the natives. But on the other hand,
these primitive tongues are extremely poor in abstract expressions, as well as in the
names of numerals. Scarcely any appear to have distinct terms for more than
one or two, while probably none of the tribes can count beyond five.
In the absence of accurate knowledge attempts have been made to classify the
373 AUSTRALASIA.
Australian languages on the ground of a few common points of resemblance, but

these attempts have not proved very successful, often yielding the most contradic-
results. In case the Tasmanian idioms, of which a few vocabularies are
any
tory
extant, are regarded as forming an independent group.
The islanders themselves
were evidently of a different stock, and much more closely allied to the Melanesians
than to their Australian neighbours.

To the great physical differences of the aborigines correspond moral traits of
a no less divergent order. Hence the varying and even contradictory reports of
observers, some of whom vaunt their native pride, courage, and respect for their
and One of
pledged word, while others describe them
as cowards, liars, traitors.
cruel and oppressive

charges urged against them
the most common is their treat-
ment of the women, and in most communities this accusation is only too well
founded.
Instances are not lacking of women who have acquired a certain moral ascen-
but as a rule they fare better than slaves. Not only are
dancy in the tribe, little
they forbidden to eat in the presence of men, but many kinds of food are denied
them, while they are required to show in speech and attitude a sort of adoration
towards their masters, the least inattention being visited with the severest castiga-
tion. The husband may kill and even burn his wife, her friends and relations
being powerless to interfere on her behalf. He may throw her body to his dogs,
because the wife is his property, which he has the right to use or abuse at his
pleasure. Nevertheless, traces survive in Australia of a primitive matriarchal

still
system, and even now name, kinship, rank, and fortune are for the most part
transmitted through the female line.
Polygamy prevails amongst the native populations, and in the north-western

districts cases occur of powerful tribesmen acquiring as many as ten wives. In
some communities exogamy is strictly observed, all marriages contracted with
women of the same class being regarded as incestuous, yet amongst others unions
between near relatives are held in honour. In one place marriages are effected by
a real or simulated abduction, in another the only formality is the payment of the
contract price.
This purchase of the women by the strong and wealthy members of the com-
munity has the effect of condemning the poor and the young men to a state of
celibacy, or obliging them to put up with the divorced wives of their elders. The
dearth of wives amongst most Australian populations is all the greater that the
women are far less numerous than the men not, however, because female births
;
are rarer, as has been asserted, but because during their short existence the
women are exposed to many more dangers, such as premature confinement, exces-
sive hardships, bad treatment, night attacks, and the like. Amongst many tribes
infanticide is common, and as rule it is the girls who are removed either by being
p.
buried alive or knocked on the head immediately after birth.

Children who survive the perils of infancy are treated with much kindness;
they are never beaten and grow up freely to man's estate, following their elders to
the chase and war. Nevertheless they have to undergo the severe trials of the
INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA. 879
bora before being admitted as equals into the society of the mea. In a large
number of tribes two incisors of the upper jaw are broken or extracted. Most of
the youths are subjected to circumcision, or else to various kinds of extremely
painful mutilations. They are also required to run down a kangaroo in the chase,
to remain alone in the forest without food for several days at the risk of their
lives, to endure horrid tortures without wincing, and so on. Amongst the Kurnai
of South Australia these probations end in a magnetic sleep, after which the
youths
wake up "men." Then at last they are entitled to wear the girdle, bracelets, the fron-
tal band, and other ornaments, indicating that they have rejched the virile state.
These initiatory ceremonies are usually concluded with a corrobori, or tribal
gathering, held during the full moon, combining the administration of justice, par-
liaments, solemn treaties of alliance, and concluding with theatrical representations,
midnight dances, feasts, and orgies. Once initiated, the youths may take part in
the songs, dances, and oratorical displays. As members of the clan they are
branded on the breast or thigh with the kobong, that is, the national emblem, some
plant or animal, like the totem of the North American Redskins. But these
emblems are at times insignificant enough, a simple ant or spider, or other
small insect. The person so marked must henceforth show his respect for the
talisman that symbolises the family group, holding himself as the inseparable
companion or kinsman of all bearing the same totem, as well as of all natural
objects associated with his particular kobong. Thus during the funeral rites care
must be taken that the body be buried under a tree regarded as belonging to the
same clan.
Tattooing is often limited to the figure of the kobong, but in some tribes the
body is covered with symmetrical scarifications of a rude design, incised by means
of sharp shells. On the north-east coast the natives also follow the Papuan custom
of piercing the cartilage of the nose and introducing a bit of stick or a kangaroo
bone, which impedes the respiration and obliges those so adorned to keep the
mouth open. According to the various occasions of war, feasts, or mourning they
paint the face and body in red, yellow, white, or black colours. White is an indica-
tion of grief, while red is the sacred colour reserved for the great events of the
tribal life.
Before the arrival of the Europeans the natives of the tropical regions went
naked, or restricted their attire to a few rags or waist-bands of fibre, while in the
colder southern districts the women wore a smock or tunic of kangaroo skin. The
northern tribes still paint the face and body in various colours, and near Port
Darwin the white streaks traced on the black ground of the face give from a
distance the effect of a death's head. But the form and pattern of dress and orna-
ment, as well as of the dwellings, vary endlessly. In one place the only shelter
are the natural caves and rocks, in another a screen of foliage, hovels, and even
rude stone structures. The weapons also differ greatly,though the most prevalent
are spears, clubs, and darts with fish-bone or flint heads. In certain districts the
aborigines still use of unpolished stone hatchets, but the

make bow and arrow are
unknown, except along a small strip of the east coast.

880 AUSTRALASIA.
The most characteristic weapon is the boomerang, a short curved stick which
whirls with a corkscrew motion in the direction of the object aimed at, and after
striking returns to the thrower.

The inventive genius which devised this remark-
able implementhas also enabled the natives to invent other ingenious contrivances
for the hunt, fishing, and navigation. Yet it is noteworthy that the neighbouring
Tasmanians were ignorant both of the throwing-stick and of the boomerang, and
even of boats or canoes, although living in an island fringed with clusters of islets.
The populations of Torres Strait and of the Arafura Sea, amongst whom the
Fig. 161. INHABITANTS AND LANGUAGES OF AUSTRALIA ABOUT 1850.

Scale 1 : 40,000,0(10.
. BOO Miles.
The dots indicate the regions where the hoomerang was unknown ; the lines mark the range o' certain linguistic groups.
Papuan elements seem in some places to prevail, were also ignorant of the boome-
rang, the form of which curious weapon varies greatly in the different tribes.
Not only is the tribal territory perfectly defined, but within this collective
domain each individual often owns a plot, his right to which is never questioned.
No one can cross the boundary without his express permission, the
stranger pre-
senting himself without arms, and holding green branches in his hand. The
aborigines, however, are the most backward of agricultural peoples, the being yam
the only plant cultivated
by them, just as the dingo is the only animal they have
INHABITANTS OP AUSTRALIA. 881
succeeded in domesticating. Nevertheless, industry has been so far developed among

certain tribes that they appreciate the advantage of taking foreign articles in
exchange for skins, nets of vegetable fibre, spear-heads, diverse pigments, and
other native produce. This intertribal commerce is carried on through the so-called
r.galla who are solemnly elected to the office, and who

icatos, act as mediators
between their own and other tribes whose languages they speak. Thanks to cer-
tain pass-words, signs, and " writing sticks," they are able to present themselves
everywhere with confidence, their person being sacred even in time of war.
The remarkable development shown especially by
of certain Australian tribes is
their knowledge of the starry firmament. They give to the different constella-
tions the names of legendary heroes, and are able exactly to describe their position
according to the eight points dividing the sphere. The path of moon and stars
enables them to determine the hours with great accuracy, although the poverty of
names of the numerals prevents them from having any exact sense of
their idioms in
measure, and from combining the primitive elements with sufficient skill to develop
a rudimentary geometry. They acquire languages with remarkable facility, and
in the mixed schools where the native children are seated by the side of the whites,
the latter are not always at the head of the class.
Their linguistic faculty is probably due to the extreme delicacy of their sense
of hearing. They have no musical instruments except rude drums of kangaroo
skin, and in some of the southern tribes a kind of flute on which they play with
the nose. But singing is much practised in joy or grief, during the fury of battle,
or even to allay the pangs of hunger. Events interesting to the community are
also commemorated in song. Like the South African bushmen, to whom they
have often been compared, they are fond of figuring human faces and animal
forms on their skin garments, on the bark of trees and the face of the rock. The
paintings seen by Grey on the banks of the Glenelg in the north-west were in
diverse colours, black, red, yellow, white, blue, coated over with a gum which
while enhancing the brightness of the tints protected them from the weather.
Certain figures reproduced by Grey recall those of Byzantine saints surrounded
with their luminous nimbus. This traveller also noticed a head in relief remark-
ably well sculptured on a sandstone rock.
In the central parts of the continent the most conspicuous objects are images
of snakes done in charcoal or painted with ochre. Grey also mentions certain
designs traced on a person clothed in a long red robe, which so closely resembled
written characters that it was impossible not to associate the representation with
the idea of an inscription. It would seem natural to attribute such designs to
some casual visitors from the neighbouring Eastern Archipelago, but for the fact
that the less rudely executed figures were precisely those which were discovered
furthest from the coast. Figures, however, have also been found carved on the
surface of the rocks far to the east both in Queensland and New Sou f h Wales.
Funeral rites vary to a surprising degree from tribe to tribe. In one district
the dead are burnt, in another they are buried or else exposed on rocks or the
branches of trees. In South Australia they are interred with the head turned
882 AUSTRALASIA.
towards the rising sun, and a fire is then kindled near the grave to scare away the
evil spirits. In the York Peninsula they are placed on the headlands, and a
terrace on a rocky islet at the very extremity of Caps
York is covered with an
enormous pile of skulls enclosed by a fence of stones and surmounted by a stout
bamboo cane. No more solemn site or more in harmony with a deep poetic senti-
ment could have been chosen for the necropolis of the community.
Amongst numerous tribes, especially in the northern regions, the mother cuts
off a finger at the death of each child. Elsewhere the obsequies are accompanied
by cannibal scenes. When a man dies young or through old age his nearest and
dearest consider themselves bound to eat him in proof of their affection. In South
Australia, also, the child dying of any illness devoured, the mother taking the
is
head in the hope of thus restoring the lost one to life but in other tribes she is
;
condemned to keep with her the dead body of her child for months together. A
common practice is also that of consuming the enemy killed in battle, the motive
being to acquire their strength and valour, and to prevent their shades from
avenging their death. But in order to achieve this object all that is needed in
certain districts is to eat the kidney fat, which regarded as the seat of the soul.
is
Elsewhere the same purpose is secured merely by consuming the eyes, in which
shone the rage of battle.
The Australians believe in charms, incantations, and miracles. No malady but
has been caused by some hostile magician no cure but has been effected by a
;
beneficent wizard. The universe is full of spirits and genii, some wandering
about in pain and seeking to reoccupy some new body, others animating the trees
and rocks, heaven itself, the storm, clouds, and stars. But the natives do not
appear to have idols properly so called, though all their surroundings are objects
of worship; in everything they see some formidable or benevolent being, who
must be invoked to appease his wrath or secure his aid. The moon-god especially
seems to be a potent deity, more powerful than the sun- goddess; for he is born
again each month to beget the stars, trees, animals, and men. Thanks to the
action of the Christian missionaries the various national
myths have gradually
assumed a certain biblical aspect, so that some writers have discovered a distant
resemblance between them and the Mosaic records.
Few
Australian tribes show even the rudiments of a state in their
political
organisation. Amongst these mention is made of the Narrinyery people of Murray
"
River, who, according to Taplin, have elective " kings assisted by a council of
elders but such constitutions are rare, and their existence is
;
absolutely denied by
Curr. In any case each head of a family has almost complete control over the
destinies of his domestic Doubtless the ba/t/as, or sorcerers, exercise great
group.
influence, and this influence combined with that of age at times secures them real
political power. But these are all exceptional cases, and it seems safe to assert
that there is at all events no transmission of
authority from father to son or through
the female line in Australian
any community.
The universal rule is equality of
rights for each family as well as for each
tribe. In time of peace all were held to be of
equal worth but in the course of ;
ages particular groups had devoted themselves to some special industry which
rendered them necessary to the others. One found within its territory an excellent
material for the manufacture of stone hatchets, and thus acquired perfection in that
art another supplied the best boomerangs, or the finest
;
kangaroo skins, and so on.
But throughout nearly the wholeof the Australian world the history of the
aborigines is
already a thing of the past. The race itself is steadily decreasing
and dying out. Even the few that still survive are being
rapidly transformed bv
crossings and the adoption of a settled existence. In many districts more than
half of the population has been swept the diseases introduced with the
away by
Europeans, and especially by small-pox, the invasion of which coincided with the
landing of the first convicts at Botany Bay. Besides small-pox, whose ravages were
continued down to the year 1840, there are other influences at work, some even
within the tribes themselves. Such are the monopoly of the women by the old
and rich, infanticide and abortion but most of all is the
; irresistible advance of the
European driving to the background the primitive populations which at
settlers,
" white men" as their kinsmen
first regarded these
returning from the world of
spirits. Thrust back towards the wilderness the natives find themselves deprived
of their rich hunting-grounds, and many, conscious of the doom pending over
them, give up the struggle for existence, and even refuse to perpetuate their race.
How could it be otherwise when certain colonial magistrates declare all those to be
marauders and poachers who persist in remaining on the territory of their fore-
fathers ?
The very appearance of European cattle is already the death-knell of the
aborigines, for this is followedby the extermination or disappearance of the

kangaroo, and the native hunters finding no more game are obliged also to retire
or perish of hunger. In sixteen months as many as 220,000 kangaroos were
killed in the single Queensland district of Warwick. But a war of extermination
is
waged not only against the native game, but also against the natives themselves.
On the borders of many estates, notably in Queensland, which stretches to the
confines of the desert, the sheep farms are guarded by mounted police Australians,
Melanesians, or Kafirs who are instructed to fire on the independent blacks and
thus relieve the peaceful squatters from " these troublesome loafers."
"
The island of Tasmania has already been completely " cleared by the
systematic destruction of its primitive inhabitants, who were estimated at about
seven thousand on the arrival of the whites, and who were said to be of a remark-
ably gentle and kindly disposition. On December 28th, 1834, the last survivors,
hounded down like wild beasts, were captured at the extremity of a headland, and
this event was celebrated as a signal triumph. .The successful hunter, Robinson,
received a Government reward of 600 acres and a considerable sum of money,

besides a public subscription of about 8,000.
The captives were at first conveyed from islet to islet, and then confined to the
number of two hundred in a marshy valley washed by the

of Flinders Island,
stormy waters of Bass Strait. They were supplied with provisions and some
lessons in the catechism ;
their community was even quoted as an example of the
384 AUSTRALASIA.
But after ten years of residence in this place of

progress of Christian
civilisation.
exile more than three-fourths of the natives had perished. Then pity
was taken on
them, and the twelve surviving men, twenty-two women,

and ten children, nearly
all half-breeds, were removed to a narrow promontory at Oyster Cove,
near Hobart,
and placed under some keepers, who enriched themselves at their expense.
In 1860 the Tasmanian race was reduced to sixteen souls in 1869 the last ;
"
man perished, and in 1876 " Queen Truganina, popularly known as Lalla Rookh,
followed her to the
people But there still survived a few half-castes, and
grave.
Fig. 162. LALLA ROOKH, THE LAST TASMANIAN.
"
in 1884 a so-called " Tasmanian woman obtained a grant of land from the
colonial parliament.
On
the Australian mainland, also, most of the coast tribes have disappeared.
Of the one thousand five hundred natives occupying the Botany Bay district in
1788 not a single descendant can be found, and in the settled districts where a
few of the aborigines still linger, all tribal grouping has been effaced. At the
census of 1881 the total number in the colonised
territory was estimated at some
thirty thousand. Since then there has been an apparent increase in some of the
colonies, which is explained by the fact that the frontiers have been enlarged so
as to include a few hundred tribes till recently independent, and consequently not
included in the earlier returns. Nevertheless, some recent statistics seem to show
that there has been a real increase either of the

pure or the mixed aboriginal
elements in certain "reserves," where the natives are treated with kindness. In
the arid regions of the interior beyond the districts settled the whites the by
aborigines are probably even less numerous than in the vicinity of the seaboard.
The mixture of white and native blood produces an intermediate race of fair
proportions and comely appearance.
At present the colonists of European birth and descent have become absolute
masters of the continent, where they are already at least fifty times more numerous
than the aborigines. But their beginnings were lowly enough, and whereas the
inhabitants of other countries delight in celebrating the heroic virtues of their
forefathers and predecessors, the present citizens of the Australian states prefer to
trace their descent, not from the first arrivals, but from later immigrants. Those
first were in fact convicts, who, to the number of seven hundred and
arrivals
eighty-
seven, were transported in 1778 to Botany Bay, and thence soon after removed to a
more favourable locality on the south side of Port Jackson. But the experiment
to found a colony with elements drawn from the criminal classes was attended
with little success. The prisoners, treated with excessive rigour,
especially under
the administration of Bligh, thought only of escape, and thousands
perished in
their repeated attempts at revolt or flight. Large numbers, however, succeeded in
reaching the inland tribes, and although many were devoured by the natives,
others rose to positions of authority and became tribal chiefs, while some
played an
historic part as conquerors of archipelagoes in the South Seas.
Between 1778 and 1820 Australia received from the mother country 28,878
convicts, of whom not more that 3,661 were women. During that period the
births did not exceed 1,500, and so farfrom becoming self-supporting, these in-
voluntary immigrants cost the British Government about 600,000 annually. But
a new era opened for the Australasian world with the introduction of free immi-
gration in the year 1820. The new settlers soon began to protest vigorously
against the continuation of the system of transportation, and in 1840 their efforts
were crowned with success, at least in the eastern provinces, for Tasmania continued
to receive convicts till 1853, and West Australia till 1868. At present the original
convict element may be regarded as completely merged in the rest of the popula-
tion, and all sense of humiliation associated with the early penal settlements has
entirely disappeared.
The white population, which had hitherto increased at a moderate rate, received
a tremendous impulse by the discovery of the gold- fields about the middle of the cen-
tury. Since that time it has been multiplied tenfold, rising from three hundred
thousand to considerably over three millions in 1889. The mining element con-
sisted for the most part of adult males, while other fortune-hunters, traders, artisans,
or tillers of the soil, arrive in large numbers without families. Hence the discrepancy
between the sexes is all the greater the more copious
the stream of immigration.
is
In Queensland, which receives the largest influx of settlers, the women are least
numerous, whereas the equilibrium is already nearly re-established in South Aus-
tralia, towards which the tide of immigration has almost ceased to flow. From
25' o
886 AUSTEALASIA.
because the excess of births over the mor-

year to vear the disparity diminishes,
tality,
which is much higher than in most other civilised lands, acquires more im-
portance the more the general population increases.
This excess is already greater
than the whole number of immigrants, and thus are gradually re-established the
normal conditions. It is also noteworthy that the mortality is far less amongst
Fig. 163. DENSITY OF THE AUSTRALIAN POPULATION.

Scale 1 :
30,000,000.
55
us" Ear,toF Greene, C K
Inhabitants ppr square rniifi.
Oto2 2 to 4 4 to 8 8 and upwards.
^^^.^
Each square represents a population of 2,000.
COO Miles.
the women than the men, so that by the end of the century the Australian popu-
lation, like that of Europe, will show a slight predominance of the fair sex.
In the movement of immigration the part taken by the English, Scotch, and
Irish preponderates to such an extent that all other ethnical elements may be
regarded as of no account. Language, institutions, usages, all is English, and in

some places even more English than in England itself.* Many Australians take a
certain pride in resisting the current of modern ideas prevalent in the mother country,
akhough their new environment obliges them to strike out fresh paths, severing
*
Fronde, Occana ; Anthony Trollope, Australia and Xew Zealand.
INHABITANTS OP AUSTRALIA. 387
them gradually from their European fellow-citizens, and

bringing them somewhat
nearer to their North American kinsmen, whom resemble in
they figure, bearing,
and even features.
The German settlers, although numerous, are nowhere grouped in sufficient
masses to enable them to live apart from the
English, and, in fact, they become
rapidly absorbed in the surrounding Australian populations. On the other hand, the
Chinese, formerly introduced in large numbers by capitalists to work their
planta-
tionsand mines, had begun to form a powerful class, which threatened to drive the
white workmen out of the labour market. But the national antagonism aroused by
these conflicting interests,
by the
"yellow danger," as it is called, 164 ._i NCBEASE OP THE AUSTRALIAN POPULATE.
has had the result of rendering a
residence in Queensland and the
other Australian colonies almost
for the " Celestials."
impossible
Thousands have had to leave the
country, while recent laws passed

in contravention to the treaties
concluded with China, prevent them
from landing, except on payment
of a heavy fine, besides imposing on
them all sorts of vexatious burdens.
As in all modern colonies of an
industrial character, the immigrant
populations have been to a large
extent centred in the towns, and
owing to this tendency the cities of
Sydney aud Melbourne alone con-

tain nearly a third of the whole
Australian population. Yet it is
from the land that the settlers in

00000
this new world derive their chief

1 j g I I S i
resources. A comparative study of
the ample statistics now available
for the various provincesshows what an important economical position is already
occupied by the Australian colonies. Although the vast domain belonging to the
Crown has only been utilised to a relatively small extent, considerably over
100,000,000 acres had already been disposed of to private individuals at the
end of 1886, and either brought under
cultivation, or devoted to stock-breeding,
and especially sheep- farming. Artesian wells, sunk in many of the inland regions,
have tapped the underground reservoirs, and transformed extensive arid wastes
into good grazing grounds projects are also being entertained for husbanding
;
the surface waters by means of dams and other hydraulic works.

Australia is the first wool-producing country in the world, ranking in this
888 AUSTRALASIA.
the Argentine Republic, and Russia. The

respect even before the United States,
wool yielded by its twenty-four million sheep being of the finest quality, commands
the highest prices in all the markets of the globe, and represents an annual value
20,000,000. The stock-breeders also own large herds of cattle,
of about excellent
horses and swine, yielding for the export trade considerable quantities of hides,
suet, fat, tinned meats, and since 1882 frozen carcasses.

The Australian dingo is
much dreaded by the sheep-farmers, for he regards the flock as so much game,
killing all he cannot devour ;
whole folds have been destroyed by the depreda-
tions of this animal, which, however, is rapidly disappearing with the natives
themselves. The fox hasbecome dangerous but the great scourge of the stock-
also ;
breeders is the rabbit, which, once imported from Europe, soon found a congenial
home in the rolling, grassy, and flowering plains formerly tenanted by the kangaroo.
Here the coney has multiplied to a prodigious extent, and although at least fifty
millions are yearly destroyed by the shepherds and their dogs, he encroaches more
and more on the pasturages to the great detriment of the live-stock. To get rid of
this pest several plans have been tried or suggested, amongst others the complete
enclosure of the grazing grounds, and the systematic extermination of the does, thus
arresting the propagation of the species. Experiments have also been made at
Rodd Island, near Sydney, with "chicken cholera," inoculated according to the
Pasteur method, in the hope that the rabbits themselves will spread the contagion.
But fears have been expressed that the disease may thus be gradually disseminated
among the domestic animals.
In 1888 the arable lands comprised a total extent of nearly 8,500,000 acres,
yielding a relatively high proportion of produce, which is largely required for the
local consumption. But Australia has already begun to take a prominent position
amongst countries exporting wine, sugar, and tobacco. Some of the vintages have
even acquired a certain reputation, and the burgundies especially shown at the
Paris Exhibition of 1889 were much appreciated by French connoisseurs.
Other classes of wine, such as bordeaux, champagne, moselle, port, are also success-
fully grown ; but the vineyards have unfortunately begun to suffer from the
ravages of the phylloxera.

Cereals and other alimentary plants are chiefly grown on small holdings, while
the Queensland sugar plantations, like the pasture lands of the Darling and of
other regions lying beyond the east coast-ranges, are for the most part in the
hands of large land-owners. Despite the laws limiting the extent of land which
one person may purchase, or rent for seven, fourteen, or twenty- one years, the
tendency in Australia, as in the mother country, is in the direction of vast

landed estates. In New South Wales the smallest plot offered for sale is about
forty acres, but in some of the colonies allotments of 2,500 acres may be purchased,
and syndicates have been formed for buying or renting far more extensive holdings.
Certain estates, sheep-runs, or sheep-walks, as they are called, are laid out in the
central part with a park, gardens, and a
magnificent residence with turrets,
and conservatories, for the squatter is the 1rue Australian aristocrat, a
galleries,
wealthy citizen, owning sheep by the hundred thousand, administering his

INHABITANTS OP AUSTEALIA.
889
domain through
agents, and residing in the coast towns, or even
in Londor
Paris. ThuB it has come about that the land is

already largely monopolised by a
893 AUSTRALASIA.
limited number of wealthy capitalists, so that of a hundred settlers not more than
six are landowners.
The gold-mines which more than aught else have contributed to the rapid
development of the population, still form a chief resource of the country. Victoria
especially possesses auriferous deposits

of immense value, and to them was indebted
for its temporary ascendency over New South Wales. But here, as elsewhere,
Fig. 166. GOLD MINES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA.

Scale 1 : 7,500,<X.
. 120 Miles.
mining operations became continually less remunerative according as the precious

metals diminished in relative value. Since the discovery of the gold-fields in 1831
down to the year 1887, the total
quantity of gold recovered by the miners reached
the enormous sum of 320,000,000, or more than 8,000,000 a year. The tin-
mines, which occur chiefly in Queensland, and the highly productive copper-mines
of South Australia also contribute to feed the
export trade of the colonies, while
AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES. 391
the New South Wales coal-fields yield in importance only to those of West Europe,
the United States, and Russia. The coal-mines increase in value according as those
of gold fall off, and to them, combined with
sheep- farming, New South Wales is
indebted for the first place which it now holds
amongst the Australian colonies.
The silver-mines have but slight economic importance, whilst the salt lakes are
scarcely utilised at all, as they yield only an inferior article full of impurities.
The Australian manufacturing industry differs in no
respect from that of Great
Britain, so far as regards the raw materials and mechanical processes but it is
;
not yet sufficiently developed to give rise to

any considerable export trade to the
surrounding oceanic world. The country offers little beyond agricultural and
mining produce in exchange for the manufactured wares imported almost exclu-
sively from England, and for the teas received from China. But the total
value of this commercial movement is
prodigious, regard being had to the
relatively slight population of the continent. Amongst trading lands Australia
takes a first rank for the value of its exchanges
compared with the number of its
inhabitants. In this respect, however, the inter-colonial traffic is reckoned as so
much foreign trade, because the custom-house tariffs differ in the different states,
and are even regulated with a view to protecting special industries
against the
competition of neighbouring provinces.
This local and foreign commerce employs thousands of vessels,
constantly
plying along the seaboard and on the highways of navigation converging from all
quarters on the periphery of the continent. The main lines of oceanic steamships
subsidised by the British Government maintain the communications between the
great seaports of the British Isles and the Austral regions foreign steamers, also,
;
such as those of the French Messageries and the German

Company, touch at the
more important Australian ports. Thanks to the combined service of steam
navigation and railways, letters have been received in Adelaide from London within
twenty-seven days. The
colonies have also developed a considerable local
ship-
ping, and the mercantile marine registered in the various seaports already equals
that of several European trading countries, such as Austria- Hungary and
Greece.
In the interior of the continent railways have been constructed between all the
large towns of East Australia, and the completion of the viaduct across the Hawkes-
bury river now places Adelaide in uninterrupted communication with Brisbane
by a trunk line over 1,700 miles long or as far as from Paris to Moscow. West
Australia at the south-west corner of the continent also possesses a few short lines
and has just begun the vast undertaking of a coast railway to connect King George
Sound with the South Australian system. The government of the latter colony
on its
part pushing forward the construction of a trans-continental line between
is
Adelaide in the south and Palmerston on the north coast. Tasmania also is
adding a few branches to its main line between Launceston and Hobart. With the
exception of a few mineral and other industrial lines all the Australian railways
belong to the several colonies whose territory they traverse.
The telegraphs, which are also maintained by the national budget, connect all
392 AUSTRALASIA.
the colonies with each other, as well as with New Zealand and Java. Two sub-
marine lines will soon be laid from Ceylon to West Australia, and from Sydney to
Vancouver Island on the Pacific coast of British North America, and thus will be
completed the electric circuit of the English colonies
round the globe.
Education being compulsory and free, at least in the Government schools, all
children pass a few years in the public schools. The average standard of instruc-
tion is even higher in Australia than in England, and as a rule girls attend school
longer than boys. The expenditure for educational purposes is very high, amount-
Fig. 167. AUSTBALIAN RAILWAYS AT THE END OF 1887.

Boale 1 : 40,000,000.
120" Laob oF Greenwich 150
. Lines completed.
Main Lines in progress.
600 Miles.
ing in 1885 to 5 for each pupil. The Australian press comprises about 800
newspapers and other periodical publications.
At present Australia constitutes five, and with Tasmania six, separate colonies
or states. to the date of their foundation, their economic and
According interests,
the influence of dominant political
parties, these various states frame for them-
selves different constitutions but all require their fundamental enactments to be
;
ratifiedby the British Government, and also receive as governor a direct represen-
tative of the Crown. Nevertheless a recent controversy between Queensland
and the metropolis on the appointment of a
governor resulted to the advantage of
the colony. In the two states of Victoria and Tasmania the institutions are demo-
GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA. 893
cratic, and the two chambers are elected by universal suffrage, applied in such a
way as to give a proportional representation to minorities. In New South Wales
and the other states the upper house is either entirely or
partly named by the
Crown.
According as they grew in power and wealth the Australian colonies felt the
need of drawing closer the bonds of union. A federation, authorised beforehand
by the Imperial Parliament, has been projected for the purpose of amalgamating
the states under the suzerainty of England, and
safeguarding the common
interests on the mainland and in the South Sea Islands. But certain questions of
Pig. 168. AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

Scale 1 :
44,000,000.
150'
. 600 Miles.
rivalry and precedence have hitherto prevented the definite constitution of the
future federal state of Australasia, which must establish the absolute and perma-
nent dominion of the Anglo-Saxon race in the oceanic world. Albury, on the
Murray, about midway between Sydney and Melbourne and on the common frontier
of NewSouth Wales and Victoria, seems destined by general consent to become
the metropolis of the rising empire. In anticipation of its future rank it has
already been named the " Federal City," although it is still possible that this high
honour may fall to the share of another place.
To the first conference held in 1886 at Hobart, New South Wales, South
Australia, and New Zealand had sent no delegates, although the Fiji Archipelago
894 AUSTRALASIA.
was adequately represented. But in 1888 a second conference, attended by dele-

discussed the establishment of supreme
gates from all the Australasian states,
tribunals for the whole group of colonies. South Australia also, hitherto opposed
has recently joined the movement. Australia natu-
to all projects of federation,
to the time when the confederation will be joined not only by
rally looks forward
British New Guinea and Fiji but by all the Pacific islands already acquired or to
be acquired by Great Britain, and thus secure an incontested hegemony throughout
Fig. 169. KINO GEOKQE SOUND.

Scale 1 : 260,000.
35'
Easb of. Greenwich
Depths.
to 16 16 to 32 S2 to 160 160 Feet and

. 6 Miles.
the southern hemisphere. In many instances, notably during the recent discus-
sions with France on the subjest of the New Hebrides and the
transport of convicts
to New Caledonia, it became evident that the Australians aspire soon to be masters
in the Austral regions, and proclaim, like the North Americans, th?ir " Monroe
doctrine" the Oceanic World for the Oceanians.
As a
military power Australasia would already present formidable difficulties
to a foreign invader, for the adult between their twentieth and fortieth
population
year exceeds half a million of men thoroughly organised in volunteer corps, which
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 895
the coast railways might rapidly concentrate on any threatened points along the
seaboard. Moreover, the three strategical positions of King George Sound at the
south-west corner of the mainland, the entrance to Port Jackson at Sydney, and
some islands in Torres Strait, have been strongly fortified. fleet of gunboats, A
torpedoes, and swift cruisers guards the approaches of the seaports, while recent
conventions with England provide for a rapid increase of the Imperial navy. In
1888 over 800,000 were voted for the coast defences and the construction of
forts.
Financially Australia heavily burdened. The possession of seemingly inex-

is
haustible gold-fields fostered a spirit of extravagance to such an extent that the
public liabilities, head for head of the inhabitants, are already higher than those
of France. But this incumbrance much
thanks to the rapid develop-
is less felt,
ment of the population and of the resources of the land. The annual increase of
the population exceeds a thirtieth, while that of the national wealth is still more
rapid ; yet the demon pauperism has already raised his head in Australia.
of
A table of the Australian states, with their respective areas and populations, is
given in the Appendix. The administrative subdivisions differ in the various
colonies, and even in each according to the density of the population and the
state,
several political and economic interests. They take the various names of counties,
boards, shires, municipalities, boroughs, electoral and pastoral divisions.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
This colony, the first Australian land sighted by vessels arriving from Europe,
is the least populous and the least important of all the Australasian states, although
its
territory comprises about one-third of the mainland. It was founded over half
a century ago in 1829, yet its residents of European origin scarcely exceed forty
thousand and may possibly be still surpassed numerically by the natives, whose
form relatively compact groups in the north western districts.
tribes continue to
In 1850, when the colony had no more than six thousand inhabitants, the British
Government made it a penal station, and by the year 1868 nearly ten thousand
convicts had been introduced into Western Australia.
But despite, or possibly in consequence of, this continuous stream of involun-
tary colonists, the population increased very slowly until a decided stimulus was
given to the movement by the discovery of auriferous deposits in the part of the
territory situated between the Irwin and Murchison
Rivers. The reluctance of
intending colonists to turn their steps towards Western Australia was, however,
mainly due to the dryness of the climate, the arid soil, brackish waters, and
inferior pasturages infested in several districts by poisonous plants. The greater
part of the colony, which stretches north and south from shore to shore, and east-
wards to 129 cast longitude, is even
unexplored. The settled parts are, in
still
fact, chiefly situated in the south-west corner of the continent and along the
lower
reaches of the coast streams, which follow in the direction of the north beyond
Perth. Western Australia is thus an isolated world separated by vast desert
896 AUSTRALASIA.
spaces from
the other Australasian colonies, with which it communicates only by
sea. The dangerous overland routes across the intervening solitudes still rank with
those rare and daring exploits which are recorded in the annals
of geographical
exploration.
The centre of the colony is the city of Perth, which has been founded 12 miles
from the coast on the banks of the Swan River, at a point where it expands into
Fig. 170. PERTH AND ITS ENVIEONS.
Scale 1 :
600,000.
Depths.
01032 32 10 80 8 1 to 160 IRO Fee f and

Fe-t. Feet. Feet. upwards.
12 Miles.
the form of a lake. This modest capital is connected by road and rail with its
seaport of Fremaiitle, which
lies on the south side of the Swan
estuary but there ;
is no natural harbour and the open roadstead is so unsafe during the prevalence of
the north and north-west winds that the shipping has at times to take refuge
farther south in Cockburn Sound between the coast and Garden Island. Never-
theless, Fremantle is the busiest port in the colony, and here are shipped the
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 897
wools, which have hitherto formed the chief resource of Western Australia. Rott-
nest Island, which partly shelters Gage Road on the west, is fringed with salt
beds worked by the convicts and natives for the Government. Farther north
follow the three ports of Rocking/tarn, Bitnbury, and Busselton, from which is
mainly
exported the jarra-wood (eucalyptus marginafa), which is highly valued by ship-
builders and others for its durable properties and power of
resisting the action of
termites and borers.
In the north-east the Perth railway is continued up the Swan Valley towards
GuiUfurd, York, and Beverley, nourishing agricultural centres surrounded by
pastures and scrub, where sandalwood formerly abounded. A carriage road 250
miles long, running south-eastwards to a great extent
through barren wastes,
places Perth in communication with Albany, almost the only seaport on the south
coast. The lack of arable lands in the neighbourhood of this place prevents it
from developing as rapidly as might be expected from its excellent harbour of
King George Sound at the south-west angle of the continent. Albany is a port of
call for steamers
plying between England and Melbourne, and the terminus of
the cable connecting the local telegraphic system with the rest of the world. The
British and Australasian Governments are at present occupied with the construc-
tion of fortified works around this important strategical point on the south-west
coast. In 1826 the Governor of New South Wales stationed a small garrison here
by the French after the systematic survey of the seaboard by

to prevent its seizure
Baudin and Freycinet. French geographical names occur most frequently along
this section of the Australian seaboard. Farther east the only settlement on the
south coast isEucla (Tircla or Yergalla), that is, "Morning Star" in the native
language. Although scarcely inhabited Eucla bears the name of a seaport it lies ;
on the frontier of the two colonies of Western and South Australia.

North of Fremantle the coast almost a solitude for a space of about IbO
is
miles. In this direction lies the Roman Catholic mission of New Nurcia, which
has been made memorable by the ethnographical studies of Rudesindo Salvado.
Still farther north the work of colonisation has acquired considerable importance
in the district of Victoria, which is watered by the river Greenough. The banks
of this river are fringed by wheatfields, and the produce of the districts is forwarded
by rail to the port of Geraldton, which stands on Champion Bay. Off this coast
flows the Geelvink Channel formed by the chain of the Houtman's Abrolhos islets
and reefs. The Victoria district is the chief mineral region of Western Australia,
abounding especially in lead, copper, and gold. Beyond it the spacious inlet of
Shark's Bay and the north-west coast are annually visited by about a hundred fishing
smacks in quest of pearls and mother-of-pearl, for which the chief depot is the
village of Roebournr, at the mouth of the Sherlock River. The yearly value of the
fisheries exceeds 20,000 ;

but nowhere else in Australia have the whites treated
more oppressively the native labourers, who have been practically reduced to the
"
position of slaves by a so-called act of assignation."
The whole of the Australian seaboard stretching round to the north-east was
uninhabited by any -white people before the year 1869, when auriferous deposits
898 AUSTRALASIA.
were discovered in the hilly district bounded on the south by the course of the
Fitzroy Paver. This event attracted large numbers of gold-hunters to the spot ;
villages sprang up, and ports were established along the river-banks and on the
shores of the neighbouring inlets. In 1886, when the mines were pluced under
official administration, this district of Kimberley was found to be inhabited by
several thousands, mostly connected with the mining industry. Derby, the capital,
stands on the east side of an estuary, where the Fitzroy River reaches the coast.
The settlement of this part of Australia, which over half a century ago was
already described by George Grey as one of the most promising regions on the
continent, is an event of primary importance in the history of colonisation.
Although comparatively well watered and fairiy productive, it had been avoided by
the British colonists owing to the heat of the climate. It certainly lies entirely
within the tropical zone but it occupies a favourable position over against the
;
Dutch East Indies, from which it is separated only by the narrow Arafura Sea.
Hence Kimberley probably destined to become the chief centre of trade and
is
intercourse between the Indonesian and Australian populations, at present almost
complete strangers to each other. In some of the estuaries along this coast the
tides rise to a height of from 35 to 40 feet.
Of all the continental colonies Western Australia has remained longest attached
to Great Britain by direct administrative ties. Hitherto not only the Gover-
nor and Executive Council, but even the Legislative Council has been at least
partly nominated by the Central Government. In 1889, however, the Imperial

Parliament favourably entertained a passed by the Legislative Council substi-
bill
tuting a responsible government for the hitherto existing representative system of

administration. By this change "Western Australia will doubtless soon be placed on
the same footing as all the other colonies of the Australian continent. It is divided
into fourteen electoral districts, the franchise being extended to all citizens
pos-
sessing landed property of the value of 1,000, or paying a yearly rent of at least
10. The defensive forces comprised in 1889 a volunteer corps of over 600 men.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
The name of this colony is scarcely justified

by its geographical position, for
its
territory does not include the southernmost part of the mainland, while on the
other hand it stretches right across the continent northwards to the Arafura Sea.
It thus comprises all the central
region westwards to 129 east longitude, and
eastwards to 138 on the Gulf of Carpentaria and as far as 141 on the
slope
draining to the Southern Ocean. On the north coast it embraces the peninsula
skirting the west side of the Gulf of Carpentaria; on the south the Gulfs of
Spencer and S. Vincent form the chief indentations of its seaboard, and over a
fourth of the mainland lies within its borders.
The settlement of South Australia began on the shores of the southern gulfs in
the year 1834, and towards the close of 1836 the new
official proclamation of the
state was made near the port of
Glenelg under a large eucalyptus, whose now life-
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 399
lessstem bears a commemorative inscription. Here the people gather in multi-

tudes on the anniversaries of the foundation to celebrate the national feast. Free
settlers alone have taken part in the development of the colony, where no convicls
from beyond the seas were ever landed. Nevertheless, the growth of the popula-
tion was extremely slow down to the year 1846, when the discovery of rich copper-
mines immediately attracted numerous speculators and miners. But notwithstanding
this stimulus South Australia has lagged far behind the three eastern colonies of
Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland in population, wealth, and trade.
In the years 1885-6 it even presented the phenomenon, unique in Australia, of a
temporary decrease in the number of its inhabitants, the emigration to the West
Australian mines and to other regions having exceeded the immigration and the
natural excess of births over the mortality.
Although the climate is one of the healthiest for Europeans, it is dreaded on

account of its heats and the lack of invigorating sea breezes, the concave formation
of the coast facing the desert causing the parching winds of the interior to prevail.
Infant mortality is high, and the acclimatisation of the race presents greater diffi-
culties than in most other regions of the continent. Here also consumption, the
Australian malady par excellence, is more common than in any of the other colonies.
Another obstacle to progress are the long periods of drought, which occasionally
occur, and which render much of the land arid, unsuitable for tillage, and in
many places even saline and destitute of vegetation. In the northern districts the
torrid climate is still more unsuitable for European workmen, so that the suzerain
Government has been fain to tolerate the introduction of Malay and Chinese
labour.
Thus nearly the whole of the white population is confined to the southern
region between the lower course of the Murray and the east side of Spencer Gulf.
From here also come the copper, wool, and wheat, from which Soulh Australia
derives its importance in the British colonial world; for the production of wheat it
takes the first place amongst the Australian states. Essays have been made at
ostrich-farming, while wine-growing has received a great development during the
last few years wines are already produced, which the growers in the different
;
districts compare to port, sherry and hock. The colony also exports fruits and
preserves.
"
Model City," capital of South Australia, ranks for population
Adelaide, the
after Melbourne and Sydney, already containing over one hundred and thirty
thousand inhabitants in the central quarters and its suburbs. It lies on a plain
near the sea not far from the first slopes of the Lofty Range rising to the east,
and on the banks of the Torrcns River, which often runs dry. The broad streets
running at right angles in the direction of the cardinal points dispose the city in
a number of regular blocks. Enormous sums have been expended on the con-
struction of vast reservoirs in the neighbouring hills needed to supply the city
with water. There are also numerous promenades, extensive parks, and one of
most beautiful The University of South

the botanic gardens in the world.
Australia, the Institute and other learned societies, have their seat in the capital,
400 AUSTBALASIA.
where is centred all the scientific and literary work of the inhabitants. Beyond
Adelaide, which, with its suburbs of Hindmarah, Norwood, and Kens'uirjton, alone
contains over a third of the whole colonial population, there are

no towns or
with trade, agriculture, or mining.
villages except those exclusively occupied
Adelaide has several ports, the chief of which, Port Adelaide, lies three or four
miles to the north-west near a creek which has been artificially deepened and
lined
Kg. 171. ADELAIDE.

Scale 1 :
280,000.
Depths.
Sands exposed to 16 18 to 32 32 Feet and

at low water. Feet. Feet. upwards.
Lighthouses.
6 Miles
with wharves. GkncJg, situated to the south-west, and almost connected with the
capital by continuous groups of suburbs and villas, is a port of call for mail
steamers. Farther south follows Victor Harbour, on the shore of the Southern
Ocean, but connected with the capital by a railway. Another line running north-
eastwards to Morgan, at the chief bend of the Lower Murray, places Adelaide in
communication with the only line of inland navigation on the Australian main-
land above Morgan the Murray is navigated by about forty small steamers.
;
SOUTH AUSTBALIA. 401
The little fluvial port of Goolwa, seven miles above the mouth of the Murray
on its terminal Lake Alexandrina, exports a considerable
quantity of wool.
Beyond the river and near the frontier of Victoria, Mount Gambler, or
Gambterton,
at the southern foot of the volcano of like name, is the most active commercial
Fig. 172. ADELAIDE, SPENCEE AND Sr. VIXCEXT GULPS.

Scale 1 :
5,300,000.
57
Depthi.
Oto32 32 to 80 80 to 180 160 Feet and

,
120 Miles.
centre in the southern districts. It is connected by rail with the capital, and
supplied with water from the lake in the neighbouring crater.

Other railways run from Adelaide towards the northern mineral districts,
where Gaicler, K<i)>nn<l<i, and Kooriiiya are the chief centres of the copper mining
operations. The deposits of Boom-Buora, near Kooringa, have largely contributed
2C o
402 AUSTRALASIA.
to the value of over

to the prosperity of the colony, having yielded ores 4,000,000
between 1846 and 1877. No productive are the copper
less mines of Wallaroo,
Mooiita, and Kadiiia, on the east side of Spencer Gulf, while Teetitlpa, in the north-
east, near the frontier of Victoria, has been enriched by its gold mines.
Farther north the railway, penetrating inland through the pastures, deserts,
Tig. 173. PORT DARWIN.

Scale 1 : 830,000.
Depths.
Bands exposed Otoie 16 Feet nnd

6 Miles.
and saline wastes, soon advances

beyond the mineral districts, and serves only for
the transport of wool and some agricultural produce. But when it has pushed its
way across the continent this trunk line will be used by most travellers and
immigrants bound for the nourishing regions of east and south-east Australia.
The two submarine cables already connecting the northern end of this line with
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 408
Banjuwangi, in Java, were broken by a volcanic eruption in the year 1888. They
were supplemented in 1889 by a third cable laid between the same Javanese port
and Roebuck Bay on the coast of West Australia. This line, which is about
1,000 miles long, serves not only for the local communications of West and
South Australia, but also, in case of interruption, for those of the eastern
colonies.
Palmerston, the terminus of the trans-continental railway, already

future
enjoys a considerable trade. Since 1875 Port Darwin, on the east side of which
Palmerston has been founded, has be^-n thrown open to the commerce of all
nations. This extensive inlet forms one of the largest, most convenient, and
best sheltered harbours frequented by seafarers in the eastern seas. The popu-
lation of the Northern Territory, as this region is officially called, has considerably
increased since 1881, when it contained only 4,550 inhabitants. Over four-fifths
of the residents are Chinese, occupied in discharging cargoes, in clearing the land
for plantations, constructing highways, and working the southern gold-mines of
Burrundie and other districts. Here the employers of labour are vigorously
opposed laws
to the restricting Chinese immigration. Being unable to employ
white labour in these torrid lands, they naturally look to China for the hands
required to cultivate their plantations.

Alittle traffic has
already been developed between Palmerston and the Javanese
city of Surabaya, which lies on the future highway of inter-continental trade
between Australia and Europe. The essays at colonisation made so early as 1824
on Apsley Strait between Melville and Bathurst Islands, as well as subsequent
attempts of the sume kind made farther east on the Coburg Peninsula, all proved
failures owing to the isolated position of the British settlers in a torrid climate
and on an unproductive soil, covered with an almost ferruginous laterite. The
station of Victoria, founded on the fine harbour of Essington, has never risen to
the rank of a town.

The colony of South Australia is autonomous. The governor, appointed by the
Queen, is assisted by six responsible ministers chosen by the Parliament, which
itself consists of members elected
by the citizens. The Legislative Council, or
Upper House, comprises twenty-four members, and the House of Assembly, or
Lower House, is formed of fifty-two deputies, chosen for three years. The
franchise for electors of the Council is limited to about two-fifths of the adult
male population, holders of property, or paying a certain annual rent but all ;
citizens settled not less than six months in the country have a right to vote at
the elections for the House of Assembly. Some thirty municipalities enjoy the
privileges ofcommunal autonomy. The armed forces comprise over three thou-
sand volunteers and the crew of a small man-of-war.
QUEENSLAND.
Itsvery name is an indication of the recent creation of this colony. Originally

it formed part of Xcw South Wales, from which it was not separated tillthe year
404 AUSTRALASIA.
1859. But although its political life is shorter than that either of Western or
South Australia, it already surpasses both of those states in trade and population.
Convicts, however, had been transported to the shores of Moreton Bay so early
as the year 1824, and the territory had been thrown open to free colonisation in
1842. The inhabitants of North Queensland, whose economic interests are not
the southern region, are already demanding the
always in harmony with those of
formation of a new state, to comprise the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the
York Peninsula, the Torres Strait islands, and British New Guinea. The country
" divisions " of
is meantime administratively constituted in the three North,
Central, and South Queensland, which are regarded as destined one day to form
three distinct political states.
More than one-third of the inhabitants is still concentrated in the south-east
corner of Queensland, the old district of Moreton Bay. But beyond this region
centres of population are already very numerous, settlers being attracted to

different parts by the diverse agricultural and industrial interests. As in New
South Wales there are vast grazing grounds, especially on the western slope of the
mountains Queensland also possesses rich auriferous deposits, which are scattered
;
throughout the whole colony from the New South Wales frontier to the York
Peninsula, and the valleys sloping towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. Its deposits
of copper, tin, and coal have also attracted speculators and miners to various parts
of the territory, while such alimentary plants as wheat, maize, sugar-cane, tea,
pine-apples, which do not thrive under the same climate, have had the consequence
of developing several distinct centres of colonisation throughout the colony.
For the cultivation of tropical plants the growers have had recourse to the
services ofSouth Sea Islanders engaged for a term of years, and usually com-
"
prised under the general name of Karnakies" that is, Kanakas, a word in the
" men." But this system of contract
Polynesian languages simply meaning
"
labour, carried on by means of the so-called labour-vessels," has been a fruitful
source of crime and of outrages against the freedom and even the lives of the
Oceanic peoples. The presence of the Chinese also has given rise in Queensland
to the most cruel injustice on the part of the
"
representatives of the higher
civilisation."Kidnapping expeditions have often been organised in this colony,
which have spread havoc and ruin throughout many Melanesian and Polynesian
archipelagoes.
Brisbane, capital and oldest town in Queensland, stands en the river of like
name, at the point where it expands into an estuary communicating with Moreton
Bay some 24 miles lower down. Vessels of average tonnage ascend this estuary
to a bridge about long, which here crosses the river.
1,150 feet The port of
Brisbane, the most frequented in Queensland, is approached through the fine!
roadstead of Moreton Bay, which is sheltered by a long chain of low islands, and
counecterl with the capital by two railways. One of these lines runs north-east
in the direction of Saiidgate, a favourite watering-place and summer residence ;
the other passes south-eastwards through Albcrtoii to the southern entrance of the
bay, which is accessible only to boats. Brisbane is

supplied with an abundance
QUEENSLAND. 405
of water, and like the other large Australian towns has a beautiful botanical
garden.
Ipsicic/i, some 35 miles above Brisbane on a southern affluent of the river
stands at the head of the fluvial navigation, and receives
by water the wares which
are thence forwarded to the various stations of the interior. At this point the
Fig. 174. BRISBANE AJJD MOBETON BAY.

Scale 1 :
1,300,000.
Depths.
Oto5 5 <o 25 25 to 50 60 Fathoms

30 Miles.
main railway begins to climb the coast range, after crossing which it descends to
\\'nnrirl; inthe upper valley of the Condamine, chief headstream of the Darling.
The trunk line continues to run beyond Warwick westwards through Toowoomba,
Dnlliy, and Roma, while a branch connects the system southwards with the Sydney-
Melbourne line. Another branch has already been projected to bring Point
Pnrker, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, into direct communication with the southern
406 AUSTRALASIA.
Maryborough occupies, 170 miles farther north, a position analogous to that of

Brisbane it stands on the navigable river Mary, which expands to a broad inlet
;
and reaches the coast through an arm of the sea sheltered on the east side by
Great Sandy Island. At Maryborough the river is crossed by a bridge about
1,640 feet long. Sugar is chiefly grown by the neighbouring planters,
and there
are numerous factories in the district. On a southern tributary of the Mary
stands the gold mines, which were

straggling town of Gympie, noted for its
discovered in 1867, and which by 1880 had already yielded a quantity of the
precious metal estimated at over 2,000,000. At Burmm, lying to the north,

have been discovered, and productive copper
rich coal-fields of excellent quality
mines have been opened in the north-western district of Mount Perry, which
is connected by a railway with the port of Sundalterg, at the mouth of the
Burnett.
Rockhampton, another fluvial port, is the largest town in Queensland next to

Brisbane. It occupies a fine position in a fertile district, within view of the
wooded skirting the broad river Fitzroy, which is accessible to large vessels.
cliffs
Rockhampton, which lies in the vicinity of rich gold, silver, and copper mines,
stands, like Brisbane, at the terminus of a railway, which penetrates far into the
interior in the direction of the central plains, and which ramifies to the right and
left towards the mining districts.
Farther on follow along a deeply indented seaboard the port of Mackai/, whence
are exported tobaccos, sugar, coffee, and other tropical produce Botcen, or Port- ;
Denison, with easier access than any of the other harbours shelteredby the Great
Barrier Reef, and Townsrillc, which derives its
importance from the gold mines of
the Burdekin and its tributaries. RatetUKOod and Charters Towers are the chief
centres of the mining operations, the latter place producing about 250,000 of the
precious metal annually.
On the Pacific Coast the last frequented port is Cook town, which was founded
in 1873 and soon became a flourishing place, thanks to the vicinity of the Palmer
River gold-fields. Cooktown is also the chief market and victualling station of the
British and German establishments in New Guinea and the Melanesia!! Islands.
The settlement of Somerset, which was founded at the northernmost extremity of
York Peninsula in the hope of making it a second Singapore, has remained an
obscure village with a bad climate but the
neighbouring Thursday Island is already
;
a much frequented station, which owes its

prosperity to its favourable position on
the route of vessels traversing Torres Strait. Since 1877 it has also become the
centre of the pearl-shell fisheries in these waters. Here over two hundred craft
of all sorts with one thousand five hundred hands find
employment on the pearl,
mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, and beche-de-mer fishing grounds. central station A
of the London
Missionary Society has been established on or Emb
Dnrnley Island,
which lies in the eastern part of the Strait.
On the slope draining to the Gulf of Carpentaria the two stations of Nonnantojrn
;incl Burketoicn were till recently nothing more than little rural markets for
supplying the stock-breeders of the surrounding districts with provisions and

QUEENSLAND. NEW SOUTH WALES. 407
Europ?an wares. Burketown had even been almost entirely abandoned, to

owing
the insalubrity of the neighbouring marshes. But the discovery of the Croydon
gold-fields made in1885 immediately attracted thousands of speculators and

colonists to these districts. Point Parker, at present the only
seaport of the whole
is sheltered from the northern winds the Bentinck and
region, by Morning ton insular
groups.
Queensland has not yet severed the administrative ties connecting her with the
British Government, The Governor and Legislative Council, that is, the Upper
House, are still nominated by the Crown. The members of this chamber numbering
thirty-six, are named for life, while the
Legislative Assembly, or Lower House, is
elected by universal suffrage for five

years, and receives no payment for its services.
The armed forces comprise a standing corps of 1,650, about 600 volunteers, and 136
cadets. A' gunboat and a few marines are charged with the defence of the coast-
line, some 3,000 miles in length.
NEW SOUTH WALES.
This colony, the oldest on the continent, has recently celebrated its first
centenary. But it bears a name which recalls its dependence on England, and
which certainly presents a somewhat cumbrous and inconvenient form. Hence it
has been frequently proposed to change its official designation for the simple title
of " Australia," just as the United States have claimed the exclusive right to the
name of "America." But the old designation still holds its ground, owing chiefly
to the protests of the other Australian states against this assumption. Doubtless
there was a time when New South Wales
really comprised the European settle- all
ments on the mainland and neighbouring islands. But after the foundation of
West Australia, and the separation of Victoria and Queensland from the mother
colony, this state was reduced to little more than one- tenth of the continent.
Yet even this space remains out of all proportion with its relatively slight
population, for its superficial area is still fur more than twice that of the British
Isles. The southern frontier towards Victoria and on the Pacific slope, follows a
straight line traced across mountains and valleys between the south-eastern head-
land of Cupe Howe and the Pilot Mountain on the main range. But farther
inland the common limit of the two colonies is indicated first by a headstream of
the Murray, and then by the Murray itself as far as 141 east longitude. Towards
Queensland the border line is marked by a mountain range beginning at Danger
Point, and then in the basin by the course of various rivers as far as the
Darling
29 south latitude, which constitutes a conventional frontier across the boundless
inland plains.
Since the abatement of the gold fever, which gave a temporary ascendency to
Victoria in population and commercial importance, New South Wales has resumed
its natural at the head of the Australian states.
position
She is no doubt less rich
in gold but the yield of this metal is yearly losing its relative importance in the
;
general economy of the continent, while wool, which has most contributed to the
408 AUSTRALASIA.
development of the colonies, is produced in the largest quantities in New South

Wales. Here also coal raining, and several other less important industries are far
more developed than elsewhere, and the claim to the hegemony among the
surrounding political groups seems strengthened even by priority in point of time.
Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand were, moreover, to a great
extent founded by settlers from New South Wales, and the very spot already
indicated by Cook has thus become the true centre of the Australasian colonial
world.
The site chosen in 1788 as the first convict station at the antipodes of Great
Fig. 175. BOTANY BAY.

Scale 1 : 160,000.
151 is
Depths.
EH Oto5 100 Fathoms

Land exposed 5 to 25 25 to 100
at low water. Fathoms. Fathoms. Futhoms. aud upwards.
. 3 Miles
Britain still remains unoccupied by a town of any size. The shores of Botany
Bay, whose name was long applied to the aggregate of the British possessions in
Australia, are dotted round only by a few small watering places and scattered
villas, which already form part of the environs of Sydney. The approach to the
harbour is indicated by the monument to Cook, who discovered this bay in 1770 ;
farther north stands the statue of Laperouse, who sailed in 1788 from this spot on
the last expedition, from which he never returned. The names of Banks and
Solander given to the two headlands facing each other on either side of the channel
also perpetuate the
memory of illustrious pioneers in the work of Australian
If the inlet described in
discovery. glowing colours by these first explorers has
SYDNEY AN
to 16 fut.
ENV RO I N S.
fi^ IT
Cabbage Tree-bar
Worth IF.
Middle
33'
Spring C. 55'
ton
Bondi-bry
153'ii
W.
Hi
160 f? JGVf.'Upwards.
NEW SOUTH WALES. 409
since been abandoned by commerce, the neglect was not due to any lack of deep
waters or of sufficient shelter for
shipping, but to the marvellous group of havens
which are collectively known as Port Jackson, and which are
scarcely rivalled in
the whole world for extent,
safety, and nautical advantages of every kind. The
only drawback is the entrance passage between the headlands, which is scarcely
quite deep enough for modern ocean vessels. The anchorage has a total area of 9
Fig. 176. SYDNEY IN 1802.
Scale 1 :
33,000.
HPI
:/^ê-y
'
: :
''-.* '.1
"' \ ,. \
'
-. ;
-.-. ':.' .-?
Last cr uêen 151 'k
.1,100 Yards.
or 10 square miles, and the shore-line of the inner waters with their bays and
secondary creeks is no less than 50 miles long.
Sydney, founded on the south side of this magnificent harbour, is the oldest city
in Australia, for a hundred years is still a long period in the history of
cycle of a
European settlements in the southern hemisphere. At first a simple convict
station, and afterwards the headquarters of the prisons scattered over the sur-
rounding territory, Sydney long remained an obscure village built in a forest

410 AUSTRALASIA.
of a conspicuous headland. At present it is a great

clearing at the extremity
which with
competesMelbourne for the first rank in the oceanic world,
capital,
and which h-is already received from its inhabitants the title of Queen of the South.
Thanks to the of the shores, and the irregular relief of the
numerous windings
encircliiif lands, Sydney has nothing of that insipid monotony so characteristic of
most Australian and American cities. Instead of resembling a chess-board with
and structure, laid out with streets of varying
square blocks of uniform size
it is
and
proportions running up hill and down valley,
and interrupted by creeks,
inlets,
which the of the is disposed in several distinct

ridges, by irregular plan city
quarters. In the centre lies the old town in the form of an open hand stretching
itspromontories far into the well-sheltered roadstead. Southwards run the fine
avenues of Woolomoloo, while animation is added to the bright scene by the steam
ferries incessantly plying on the north side between the old quarters, the new town
of North Shore and the watering place of Maul// with its double beach, one exposed
to the ocean surf, the other facing the tranquil inland sea.
Every street thus presents a constantly varying prospect sweeping over the
surrounding hills, the harbour with its innumerable creeks and bays, the public
gardens and more distant woodlands. For few other capitals are more liberally
provided with parks and grassy swards. Moor Park, one of the tracts reserved on
the south-east side as a public pleasure-ground, has an area of no less than 600
acres, whileanother open space in the very heart of the city commands a superb
panoramic view of the inland waters and the channels communicating with the
Pacific Ocean. A
project has been formed to supply the city with fresh water
'
from Lake George, which lies to the south-west amid the Australian Alps ;
but in
years of unusually protracted droughts this lacustrine reservoir has itself been
almost completely dried up.
As a seaport Sydney occupies a vital position as the chief centre of the lines of
steam navigation in the Pacific, as well as of the coasting trade along the east
Australian seaboard. Moreover, the harbour is so vast that room has also been
found for the development of an ever-growing inland traffic for the transport of
passengers and the distribution of merchandise amongst the rising markets of the
interior. Forts erected on the headlands commanding the seaward approaches
defend the city and roadstead, which, however, have never yet been attacked by
any enemy.
Compared with Melbourne, the only other place which aspires to the first rank
on the Australian Continent, Sydney has the great advantage of occupying a
relatively more central position in relation to the whole group of Austral Colonies ;
it also lies nearer to the oceanic lands and America, thus

facing inhabited regions
and not turned, like Melbourne, towards the ice-bound Antarctic lands. Amid its
rapidly increasing material prosperity Sydney has also taken a pride in fostering
university of New South Wales it

the arts and sciences besides the well-endowed
;
has founded several museums, learned societies, and a vast well-administered

botanic garden. A
marine zoological station was lately founded by the Russian
mturalist Miklukho-Maklay on an inlet near the
capital.
Sydney is connected by rail with all the important towns and centres of popu-
lation in the
colonyand the neighbouring states of Queensland, Victoria, and South
Australia. In May, 1889, was opened the great steel bridge across the
Hawkesbury
River between the Capital and Newcastle. This bridge, which has seven spans of
Fig. 177. NEWCASTLE.

Scale 1 : 125,030.
Fast cF
Depths.
Otol 16 to 64 B4 Feet
Feet. Feet. ;t)id upwards.
.
SJIilrs.
500 feet each, completes the main coast line, affording uninterrupted communication
between New South Wales and Queensland.
Paramatta, the nearest town to Sydney, may be regarded as one of its natural
dependencies, for it lies at the western extremity of the same bay, at the mouth of
the river from which it takes its name. The Paramattan district is spoken of as
the orchard of Sydney, and here are grown the finest oranges on the continent.
The basin of the Hawkesbury Iliver north of Port Jackson has no towns
properly so called ;
but the Hunter, flowing still further north, waters one of the
412 AUSTEALASIA.
most densely peopled districts in New South Wales. Newcastle, which occupies a
side of the estuary, is the second city in the
triangular promontory on the south
state, and some 20 miles higher up stands Maitlaml, another busy
centre of traffic,
comprising two contiguous communes

on the banks of the Hunter, which is
to this point. Newcastle, as well as the neighbouring borough of Walls-
navigable
end, owes name to the rich coal-mines which have bean opened on the banks of
its
the Hunter, and which both in quality and abundance compare favourably with
those of the north of England. The export coal trade, which represents about
two-thirds of the total production in Australasia, yearly attracts to Newcastle over a
thousand colliers. Thanks to this industry the traffic of Newcastle, a place founded
but yesterday, already exceeds that of many European cities, such as Nantes and
Cadiz. Near the coalpits several factories have sprung up.
Port Stephens, Port Nacquarie, and the other seaports following northwards in
the direction of Queensland are little frequented. Along these coastlands the only
place of any importance is
Graf I on, which owes
prosperity to the neighbouring
its
plantations, and to its deposits of gold, copper, antimony,

and especially tin. Of
these the Vegetable Creek or Emmmille mines are the most productive. On the
district of New England a few
opposite slope of the water-parting in the pastoral
small towns occur at long intervals. Of these Tarn worth is the chief intermediate
station on the railway connecting Sydney with Brisbane. Bathurst, on another
line running from Sydney north-eastwards in the direction of the Darling, is a still
more Lying 2,300 feet above the sea in an upland valley
active centre of trade.
of the Blue Mountains draining westwards to the Darling through the Macquarie
River, Bathurst has the aspect of an English agricultural town surrounded by corn-
fields, pasture lands, and scattered clumps of trees. Farther on the main line is
continued across a region of the same appearance through Orange, Wellington, and
Dnbbo to Burke, which stands on the Darling at the head of the navigation during
the floods. Here this watercourse is known by the name of Riverina or the
" Australian
Mesopotamia."
Other railways, branching off from the trunk line between Sydney and the Blue
Mountains cross the affluents of the Murray and the Murray itself, touching at several
mining or agricultural centres and riverain ports. Of these places, all recently
founded, the most important are, Forbes, on the Lachlan Gnndagai and Wagga- ;
Wagga, on the Morrumbidgee and Albitry, on the Murray. Albury especially has
;
made rapid progress as a station midway between Sydney and Melbourne, and as
the centre of extensive tobacco plantations and vineyards yielding a wine of ex-
cellent quality. At this point the Murray is crossed by a long bridge. East-
wards, beyond the course of the Darling, occur the silver and lead mines of Silver-
foil, which are frequently designated by the name of Wilcannia, from a town on the
banks of the river.
South of Sydney the ports of Wollongong, Kiama, Noicra, and S/ioaf/iaven do a

little traffic in coal and
agricultural produce. But in this part of New South Wales
the chief commercial and industrial centre is the inland town of Goulburn, which
stands on an upper affluent of the Hawkesbury, 2,130 feet above sea-level. The
Goulburn district, with certain tracts in New England, is the best cultivated and
most productive in New South Wales. In 1880 a section of the seaboard between
Sydney and Wollongong was set apart as the common inheritance of all Australian
citizens. This "national park" of Port Hacking, with its hills, woodlands,
navigable streams and inlets teeming with fish, has a total area of no less than
37,000 acres.
Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, with the contiguous islets, depend adminis-
Fig. 178. NOBFOLK ISLAND.

Scale 1 :
110,000.
Depths.
OtoSU SStoSO 80 Feet

l\et. Ftet. find upwards
ti _Mi
tratively on South Wales, although they belong geographically to New Zeu-

New
land, as shown by the common submarine relief.
On the other hand, they may be
said to constitute little worlds apart in virtue of their highly characteristic flora
mid fuunu. Lord Howe, 2,800 feet high, has been inhabited since 1840 by a few
who vessels with provisions. But they
families, get a living by supplying passing
do not appear to prosper, judging at least from the emigration, by which the
liltlo has been reduced from three hundred to some forty souls.
community
414 AUSTRALASIA.
Norfolk, over times larger than Lord Howe, is also relatively more
five
densely peopled. the time of its discovery by Cook in 1774 it was unin-
At
habited it was afterwards chosen by the British Government as a convict station
;
for the more desperate class of criminals, who were at first treated with frightful
rigour, many of the unhappy

wretches being shot down within the very precincts of
the church. Later several more or less successful experiments were made in Norfolk
Island on " the reformation of criminals."But the station was abandoned in 184'2,
and the inland again remained uninhabited the year 1856, when it was ceded
till
descendants of British mutineers

by the Government to the Pitcairn Islanders,
who had married Polynesian women and overpeopled their native island.
These half-castes, who now number over six hundred, enjoy self-government
under the presidency of an elected magistrate, but really controlled by Angli-
can missionaries, who have here founded a large school for about two hundred
young students brought from Melanesia. The results of this system of isolation
and strict control have not been satisfactory: the natives have lost the spirit of
self-reliance and enterprise, and have become cringing hypocrites with no indus-
tries or manly pursuits. Even agriculture decays, and in 1885 not more than
150 acres were under cullivation. The people seem to weary of life, and even
forget to marry, so that in 1884 only one-fifth of the adults were living in wed-
lock.
L ke Queensland, New South Wales depends on the Crown both for her
Governor and the Legislative Council, which consists of twenty-one members
named for life. But the Legislative Assembly is elected by universal suffrage,
and at present comprises one hundred and twenty-four members, or two for each
electoral district. At each official census this number is increased in proportion
to the increase of the electors. The armed forces comprise nearly seven thousand
regulars and volunteers, and the budget is much heavier per head of the popula-
lation than that of Great Britain or France.
VICTORIA.
This the smallest in extent, but relatively the most

densely peopled of all the
is
colonies on the mainland. Yet in this respect it still falls far behind the average of
West Europe, the number of inhabitants to the square mile
being scarcely eight or
nine. In absolute population Victoria is second only to New South Wales, from
which was politically detached in 1851 it even temporarily occupied the first
it ;
place during the height of the gold fever. To this cause of special attraction Victoria
adds an advantage of paramount importance for British immigrants in a climate,
which is cooler than that of the other Australian colonies, and in its variations
more analogous to that of Hence the title of Australia Felix given
Great Britain.
to this region before the general wish of the people induced the Government
once more to inscribe the name of Queen Victoria on the
map of the world.
In 1851, when it was constituted a separate state, Melbourne, its capital, had
alroady been founded sixteen years. But compared with Sydney it was still a
VICTORIA. 415
place of little importance ;

nor did the great rush of immigrants take place till
after the discovery of gold. At present it is one of the great cities of the British
410 AUSTRALASIA.
colonial empire. Melbourne, the "Magnificent," claims, like Rome, to be built

on seven hills, and in the Yarra-Yarra it
may also boast of a modest Tiber with
muddy Although founded at some distance inland it has
or yellowish waters.
grown rapidly seawards, and has already lined the beach with monumental quays
and facades. The numerous suburbs, each with a town hall and municipality, and
each forming a chess-board of streets and squares distinct from the central paral-
lelogram, stretch to great distances in all directions, -and collectively comprise

a population of about four hundred thousand, or rather more than one third of all
the inhabitants of the colony.
Far more regularly constructed than Sydney, Melbourne claims also to possess
in the Houses of Parliament, the Governor's Palace, the University, museums,
churches, and banks, a number of superb monuments, on which no expense, has

been spared. The libraries already rival in importance the secondary collections
in Europe, and the Observatory, established in the midst of extensive gardens east
of the city, is provided with the most costly instruments by the best constructors.
The local savants have even largely contributed to the study of the Austral heavens,
as well as to the geological exploration of the continent. In Melbourne has been
projected that expedition of discovery in the Antarctic seas, which the parsimony
of the Central Government has hitherto prevented from being equipped and
despatched. Here also has been founded the Australasian Geographical Society.
The port of Melbourne, discovered by Murray in 1802 and more specially de-
signated by the name of Hobson's Bay, is crowded with shipping, amid which
hundreds of steamers ply from shore to shore of the roadstead. The ocean packets
stop seven or eight miles below the city proper, near the quays of Sandrldgc, or
Port Melbourne, and in the Williamstown docks at the extremity of a tongue of
land near the head of the bay. To the same commercial centre belong also the
towns which follow round the vast triangular inlet, the head of which forms the
port of Melbourne. One of these satellites of the capital is the town of Geelong,
a busy centre of numerous industries, such as tanneries, spinning-mills, preserving
establishments, and the like. The founders of Geelong hoped that, being situated
nearer the sea, this place would soon outstrip Melbourne as a commercial mart.
"
Queenscliff, on the west side of the strait or Rip," giving access to Port Phi/lip,
is also a dependency of Melbourne, its watch-tower and chief bulwark towards the
southern ocean ;
east of this gully Nepean Point marks the
site of the buildings
connected with the quarantine station.

The small watering-places dotted round the shores of the inlet and along the
adjacent coast are all indebted for their prosperity to the visitors from the neigh-
bouring capital. Innumerable villas and little rural retreats are also connected with
Melbourne by the twelve railways radiating in all directions from this great centre
of Australasian life. Some ten miles to the north-east lies the artificial lake Yan-
Ycan, 14,000 acres in extent, which is formed by the liiver Plenty, a tributary of
the Yarra-Yarra, This great reservoir contains about 6,380,000,000 gallons of
water, or sufficient to supply the city for a twelvemonth at the
daily rate of forty
gallons per head.
VICTORIA. 417
In the thinly peopled hilly district east of Melbourne the most

important
centres of population are Sale in the
agricultural coast region of Gipp's Land, and
Beechtcorth in the heart of a rich auriferous
country near the sources of the
Murray. Beyond Melbourne immigrants have been attracted in the largest num-
Fig. 180. MELBOURNE AND HOBSON'S BAT.

Scale 1 : 860,000.
Depths.
OtoSZ 32 to 80 80 tv.160 160 Feet and

18 Miles.
bers to the region which occupies both slopes of the waterparting for a space of
from GO to 100 miles to the north-west of the capital. Here were discovered
the first gold-fields in 1851, and here is situated Ballarat (Bnllaarat), the second
city in Victoria, standing on ground every clod of which has been washed for the
270
418 AUSTRALASIA.
precious melal. Since those days Ballarat, like Melbourne, has surrounded itself
with villas, gardens, plantations, and has even constructed
an artificial lake in the
vicinity. Other flourishing towns, such as Smythesdale, Cresicick, Clunes, Daylesford,

which follow the
Kyneton, and Castlemaine, are dotted over the district, beyond
prosperous Sandhurst or Bendigo, rival of Ballarat itself, and Eagkhawk, both at
the northern extremity of a chain of the approach of the plains watered by
hills at
the Bendigo and Campaspe affluents of the Murray. Three railways radiate from
Sandhurst, one of which, crossing the Murray on a bridge 1,900 feet long at Echma,
runs northwards through New
South Wales to the flourishing town of Deniliquin.
Echuca, the chief riverain port on the main stream, is conveniently situated on
a peninsula at the confluence of the Campaspe.
Although not quite so thinly settled as Gipp's Land, the western part of Vic-
toria has not yet developed any important centres of population. Warrnambool,
Belfast, and Portlrtnd are small trading places following each other along the coast
westwards from Port Phillip; but Portland is likely to attract a considerable
traffic as soon as the roadstead is sheltered by the new breakwater from the fierce
south-east gales. In the interior of this region the largest settlements are Ararat
and Sfawell, both founded in mining districts. The Stawell and Sandhurst gold
mines are the most productive in the colony the latter had been sunk in 1888 to a
;
depth of 2,400 feet.
Victoriaone of the Australian states that depend least on the Central Gov-
is
ernment, which is here directly represented only by the Governor. The Legislative
Council, or Upper House, is elected by ballot, each of the fourteen provinces
naming three members, one-third of whom retire every two years, so that the whole
representation is renewed every six years. The Legislative Assembly, or Lower
House, elected by universal suffrage, consists of ninety-four members returned for
three years, and receiving an allowance of 300 a year. No allowance is made to
the Legislative Council, the members of which body must possess an estate of the
annual value of not less than 100, while the electors must own or occupy property
rated at 1 if freehold, or 25 if leasehold.
The land forces comprise nearly five thousand men of all arms, and the fleet,
which includes an armoured turret-ship and several gunboats and torpedo boats, is
manned by about five hundred hands.
TASMANIA.
Although the smallest in extent of the Australasian colonies, the island of

Tasmania, formerly Van Diemen's Land, has a much larger population than the
vast territory of West Australia ; relatively to the superficial area it is even the
most densely peopled of all these states with the single exception of Victoria. So
early as 1804 it began to serve as a penal station, and the Central Government
continued to send thither convicts from Great Britain till 1 853, the year before
Tasmania entered into the comity of the Australasian States: but after its
political separation from New South Wales it received most of its free immigrants
from that colony. But the discovery of the gold-fields on the mainland brought
TASMANIA. 419
about a reaction, and the Tasmanians rushed towards the new Eldorado, the
prosperity of the island thus diminishing to the advantage of the neighbouring
continent. Now, however, a fresh era of prosperity has set in, and the population
continues steadily to increase.
Tasmania offers to British settlers a climate which, more than any other in the
southern hemisphere, resembles that of their native land. Hence during the
dry
and sultry Australian summers, numerous temporary visitors come from Victoria
and New South Wales to enjoy its fresh marine breezes. As in other Australian
colonies, the staple export is wool but the island also possesses deposits of tin,
;
gold, and silver another source of wealth are its excellent fruits, -which grow in
;
such abundance that the greater part rot on the ground. Tasmania, says
Trollope, should prepare jams for the rest of the world.
The island contains only two large towns, and these have been founded at the
northern and southern extremities of the depression connecting the two fjords
tbat penetrate farthest inland. Both cities are also connected by a railway, and
by a splendid highway, constructed by convict labour. Launcesfon, the northern
city, is the chief commercial centre, and already a more important place than the
Cornish town from which it takes its name. With its outer port of Georgetown,
situated at the entrance of the fjord on Bass Strait, it monopolises nearly all the
trade of Tasmania with Melbourne, from which it is distant only a day's voyage
by steam.
Hobart Town, or simply Hobart, the southern city, has like Launceston a
harbour accessible to vessels of average size, besides an outer port where ships of
the largest tonnage can ride at anchor. As capital of the island Hobart possesses
the finest buildings and the chief scientific and other institutions in the colony.
Its magnificent park, covering an area of over a thousand acres, commands a
panoramic view of the surrounding scenery almost unrivalled in Australasia.

The western horizon is bounded by Mount Wellington, often snow-clad in winter,
and by the other ranges and wooded hills, the headlands fringed with foaming
surf, Storm Bay and the winding straits merging in the distance with the
Austral seas. Eastwards Storm Bay is skirted by the bold promontory of Tasman
Peninsula, broken by numerous secondary headlands, and connected with the

mainland only by a narrow rocky ridge. At the southern extremity of this
peninsula lies the inlet of Port Arthur, which had been chosen as a convict
station for the more desperate class of criminals, here guarded both by armed
sentinels and ferocious bloodhounds. Now that these painful scenes have passed
from the memory of living generations, Port Arthur with its craggy heights,
cavernous recesses and seething waters stands out as one of the most romantic 1
spots along the seaboard. At the southern extremity of the peninsula all vessels
bound for Storm Bay and the Derwent estuary have to double the frowning cliffs
of Cape Raoul, whose black columnar basalt rocks are encircled by a white line of
breakers. On the west side of the bay the inlet of Oyster Cove, near which
perished the last survivors of the Tasmanian race, has been recently converted
into an oyster-bed modelled on those of the French coast.
The western districts of Tasmania, mostly a rugged mountain region, are
420 AUSTRALASIA.
almost uninhabited and for the most part even uninhabitable. Here the bare
with almost impenetrable scrub, yield no fodder for
rocky heights, at most covered
cattle, and .are clothed in a snowy
mantle for eight months in the year. No
settlements can be formed in these bleak tracts except at the entrance of a few
sheltered from the prevailing boisterous moisture-bearing winds.
valleys scarcely
Fig. 181. HOBAET AND THE DEKWENT RlVEE.

Scale 1 : 1,260,000.
TVpt.lis.
tn 5 5 to 50 50 Fathoms and
Fathom*. Fathoms. upwards.
. 3fi Sliks.
In this inhospitable region, however, are found all the mines of gold, tin, bismuth
and antimony that have hitherto been opened in the island.
The constitution of Tasmania differs little from that of Victoria except in the
number of members composing the two assemblies forming the local parliament.
The former, numbering eighteen, are elected for six, the latter for five years. The
defensive forces comprise nearly 1,000 volunteers of all arms.
CHAPTER IX.
NEW ZEALAND AND NEIGHBOUKING ARCHIPELAGOES.
|
HE insular home of the Maori race, which penetrates southwards in
the direction of the Antarctic waters, has preserved the name
bestowed upon it
by its Dutch discoverer. Although the most
English of all the Australasian colonies, and often called the
" Great Britain of the
Antipodes," New Zealand thus still recalls
the memory of the great navigator Abel Tasman, who its western shores
sighted
in 1642, and who at first named it Staaten Land, in the belief that it might
possibly be continuous with the other so-named Dutch territory lying to the
south of America. In consequence of a sanguinary encounter with the nati^s of
Massacre Bay at the north-west side of the southern island, Tasman continued his
northerly course to the extreme headland of the Archipelago without determining

the insular character of the lands discovered
by him.
This region was not again visited till the year '1769, when Cook touched first
at an inlet on the east coast of the northern island, to which he
gave the name of
Poverty Bay, a name, however, now belied by the magnificent flocks of the surround-
ing pastoral district. Cook then coasted the seaboard in a southerly direction, and
by circumnavigating the whole group showed that it formed no part of the
Austral continent which he had hoped to have at last discovered. He again
visited these waters on each of his two subsequent voyages, and altogether passed
327 days in surveying the archipelago, the chart of which, prepared by him, is
remarkable for its surprising accuracy, even in details. Henceforth, nothing
remained to be done beyond following the sinuosities of the coast-line and explor-
ing the interior of the islands. The very year of its re-discovery by Cook, the
French navigator Surville landed on the northern island, the shores of which
were studied three years later by Marion and Crozet. Marion, with fourteen of
his men, was here massacred by the natives, and after this period the whalers
began to visit the New Zealand waters, without, however, founding any permanent
settlements on the seaboard.
The earliest attempts at colonisation were due to the enterprise of Australian
immigrants. A missionary station founded at Pahia, on the shores of the Bay of

Islands, near the northern extremity of the archipelago, was soon followed by a
settlement of fishers and traders, which sprang up at Kororarika over against
422 AUSTRALASIA.
Pallia,and which was peopled by whites and half-castes. A resident magistrate

was appointed by the British Government with jurisdiction over the Europeans of
the rising colony, but without claiming any authority over the natives, who were
regarded as a sovereign people.

Colonisation in the strict sense of the term, that is, withofficial occupation of
the land, began in 1840 by the foundation of the New Zealand Company, which
purchased territory from the natives and selected a site on Port Nicholson at the
south end of the northern island as the capital of its possessions and the starting-
point for the peopling of the archipelago. In the same year a French vessel
belonging to the Compagnie Naiito-Bordelaixe cast anchor in Akaroa Harbour, at
the extremity of the hilly Banks Peninsula, near the present Christchurch, in the
southern island. But when the French landed they found that they had been
anticipated by some British officials who had already bought the land. Hence the
French colonistshad to establish themselves on their domain of 30,000 acres as
subjects of Great Britain, and the little settlement became gradually merged in
the surrounding English population.
This attempt at colonial annexation in the name of France had the effect of
stimulating the action of the British Government and territorial companies. The
latter, without even awaiting official approval or sanction, hastened to found
villages along the seaboard, and to land immigrant families by the hundred. In
1841 New Zealand, ceasing to be regarded as a political dependency of New South
Wales, assumed the title of a distinct colony, and twelve years later, when its
white population already numbered some thirty thousand souls, it took its place
amongst the Constitutional States of the British colonial empire. This event was
followed in 1857 by the discovery of the gold-fields, which made the fortune of the
colony by attracting thousands of capitalists and miners. Henceforth the popula-

tion rapidly increased, and the archipelago now ranks as one of the leading
.Australasian states, as well as relatively one of the most densely peopled.
Although separated by Cook Strait the two large members of the group are
naturally comprised under the collective name of New Zealand, for they form in
reality but a single geographical unit, disposed in thesame direction, presenting
the same physical conformation and standing on a common submarine bed. The
North Island, Marion's "Austral France," is the smaller of the two, and is
" Fish of
occasionally designated by the Maori name of Ika na Maui, the Maui,"
in reference to a native heroic legend. Another Maori name is Aotea-roa, that is,
the " Great Expanse," or according to Kerry Nicholls, the " Bright Sun."
The South. Island bears the native appellation of Tevahi Panamu, which,
" "
though variously interpreted, probably means Land of Jade (A. S. Thomson).
Foveaux Strait separates South Island from the much smaller but steep and
elevated Stewart Island (3,000 feet), which was also for a time formerly known as
South Island. "
This is the Raki-rua, or "Arid Lind of the Maoris. The
archipelago terminates southwards in the isolated peak of the Snares, which is
encircled by a few rocky islets first
sighted by Vancouver in 1791.
Many geographers have called attention to the remarkable resemblance of
NEW ZEALAND. 428
New Zealand in its outward form to the Italian Peninsula, disposed, however,
in a reversed direction. Thus the north-west point corresponds to the Cala-

424 AUSTRALASIA.
" heel " of Otranto.

brian peninsula, while the north-east extremity recalls the
Nevertheless, in. their general relief the two antipodal regions present scarcely
any analogy.
The general lie of from south-west to north-east, and the submarine
the land is
of the ocean the other insular

exploration of the Pacific also shows that in this part
groups are disposed in a like direction. The same remark applies to various
other islets, such as theAuckland Archipelago, the volcanic rocks of Camp-
little
bell and Macquarie, and Emerald Island, discovered at the beginning of this
century. North of New Zealand the chain of upheaved land becomes slightly
deflected and is continued through the Kermadec Islets to the Tonga Archipelago.
Lastly, the Chatham, Bounty, and Antipodes groups, lying

more to the east, are
alldisposed parallel to the general axis of New Zealand. The Antipodes, better
named the Penantipodes by Waterhouse, who discovered them in 1850, scarcely
deserve their name, for they do not stand quite opposite the Observatory of Green-
wich, as was supposed by the English Their position (49 42' south lat.,
explorer.
178 43' east long.) corresponds exactly to Barfleur Point on the opposite face of
the globe, that is, 120 miles south-west of the astronomic point indicated by
Waterhouse. The Antipodes are inaccessible granite rocks pierced with caverns
and galleries through which the water rushes with thundering echoes. Mount
Galloway, culminating point of the large island, rises to a height of 1,320 feet.
On the west the mainland is continued by two elevated submarine banks,
which take a north-westerly direction. One of these banks, terminating in the
pyramidal rocks of the Lord Howe group, is separated by deep waters from
Moreton Bay on the Queensland coast. The other, forming a seaward prolongation
of the north-west peninsula of New Zealand, rises above the surface at Norfolk
Island, and again at the Chesterfield Reefs, west of New Caledonia, beyond which
it
merges in the Great Barrier Reef. These relatively shallow oceanic waters,
where the soundings seldom reveal depths of over 900 fathoms, are supposed by
some geologists to indicate the line of direction of the now submerged lands
formerly connecting New Zealand and Australia in a vast continent corresponding
to Africa and South America in other parts of the southern hemisphere. Accord-
ing to this view the New Zealand highlands would form the eastern coast range of
the drowned continent, although, unlike most other coast ranges, they do not
rise above the deepest oceanic waters. The sea is much shallower at the foot of
the New Zealand Alps than along the east side of the Australian Alps.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SOUTH ISLAND.

The Alpine chain which gives the South Island such a striking resemblance
to the Scandinavian uplands begins with the volcanic
group of the Snares, beyond
which it traverses Stewart Island, a
fragment of a hilly plateau, consisting, like
the mainland, of granites and old sedimentary formations. The backbone of the
South Island mainly follows the west coast, which is very steep, with rocky walls
rising in many places abruptly above the neighbouring waters. On the other
hand the eastern slope is
relatively but slightly inclined, but here the fall is
NEW ZEALAND SOUTH ISLAND. 425
broken by ridges running parallel to the main axis and consisting

chiefly of debris
that has been carried by ancient moraines down to the In the southern
valleys.
part the uplands present the aspect, not of a continuous range, but rather of a
plateau from 3,500 to 4,000 feet high dotted over with pyramidal eminences
some hundred yards hi 5'h. But this plateau gradually contracts northwards until
at Milford Sound it is reduced to a mere crest dominated
by the tower-shaped
Castle Mountain (7,210 feet). Beyond Milford Sound the range rises higher and
higher, presenting a succession of snowy peaks as far as Mounts Earnslaw (9,165 feet)
and Aspiring (9,940 feet), which may be regarded as the southern limits of the New
Zealand Alps properly so-called. This range, however, is abruptly interrupted
by a
gorge, no similar example of which is presented by any other large mountain system.
Ascending a steep ravine, which is traversed by a foaming torrent, and crossing a
sill about 10 feet
high composed of debris, we reach a narrow plain sloping imper-
ceptibly westwards down to the basin of the river Awarua (Haast). The gorge,
which can hardly be called a pass, has like the neighbouring river been named
after the late geologist and explorer, Von Haast, to whom we owe the most careful
study of the New

Zealand orographic systems.
North of the transverse fissure the mountains still continue to rise, and in this
part of the island, about the middle of the waterparting, stands the giant of New
" "
Zealand, the heaven-piercing AhravaVgi, now Mount Cook, which attains an
altitude of 13,200 feet. This glittering peak overtops all other summits, which
have for the most part been named after distinguished naturalists, such as Darwin,
Lyell, Hochstetter, Elie de Beaumont, and Malte-Brun. North of Mount Cook
the Alps maintain an elevation of over 8,000 feet without any great breaks for a
distance of about 120 miles, as far as Harper's Pass, which affords a communication
3,500 feet high between both slopes. But although this is the terminal point of
the Alpine crest, some lofty masses, such as Mount Franklin (10,000 feet), still
occur in the line of the main axis.
Farther on the system ramifies in all directions, the highest ridge continuing
to follow thewest coast, where the last lofty summit is Mount Arthur, 5,800 feet
high. One of the offshoots of this branch sweeps round Golden Bay to Cape
Farewell, north-eastern extremity of the island. It was' in this district that the
natives found the nephrite used in the preparation of the arms and ornaments
which were so highly valued by the chiefs.
The New Zealand Alps rise high above the lower limit of perpetual snow,
which here stands at from about 7,900 to 8,000 feet. Bound Mount Cook the
snowfields cover many hundreds of square miles, dominated by glittering peaks
and discharging glaciers down both slopes of the mountains. On the east side
descend such magnificent frozen streams as. the Tasman, commanded eastwards by
the isolated peak of Malte-Brun, whose outlines vaguely recall those of the Cervin.
In amplitude the Tasman may be compared withthe largest glaciers of the Euro-
its lower extremity, which
pean Alps, being 12 miles long, and nearly 2 broad at
is still 2,340 feet above sea-level ;
but the greater part of its surface remains con-
cealed beneath heaps of shingle and mud. ,

426 AUSTRALASIA.
On by more abundant snows, descend

the west side the glaciers, being fed much
lower, that of Cook approaching to within 790 feet of
the sea-level. But here the
to allow the congealed rivers the same development as on the
valleys are too short
east On both sides, however, all the were formerly far more
glaciers
slope.
extensive than at present, as shown by the still existing moraines, polished rocks,
Fig. 183. TASMAN GLACIEK.

Scale 1 :
800,000.
. 18 Miles.
and lakes. According to Green the New Zealand glaciers have again entered on a
period of expansion.
While the highlands are still in the glacial epoch, the plains, and especially
those of South Island, have reached the lacustrine phase. The beds of the former
frozen streams are now partly filled by lakes, which are dammed up at their lower
end by old frontal moraines, and which higher up are gradually being filled up
by the sedimentary matter washed down with the mountain torrents. "Without
counting numerous sparkling ponds or tarns less than a square mile in extent,
South Island contains about sixty basins, some of which cover an area of over 40
square miles and fill cavities 300 feet and upwards deep. Nearly all these great
reservoirs are grouped in the southern
part of the island and on the east slope of
the mountains. Rising abruptly above the western seaboard, the New Zealand
Alps
have too precipitous a slope on ihis side to allow the running waters to collect in
large basins. But the opposite declivity and the plains stretching thence to the
east coast present numerous depressions where the glaciers have been replaced by
lakes, most of which have been formed in the intermediate zone between the
uplands and the plains. A
straight line drawn across the chief flooded basins
from north-east to south-west far a distance of about 200 miles would run parallel
to the main Alpine chain, and would represent the direction of the axis of the
southern island.
The northern group of lakes east of the highest section of the Alps appears to
be merely the remains of a labyrinth of inland waters, which formerly occupied
the vast Mackenzie Plains, and which are now disposed in countless
secondary
cavities by moraines, heaps of erratic boulders, dams and
sedimentary deposits.
These basins Te Kapo, Pukaki, Ohau were formerly much deeper, and are now
rapidly silting up, just as those farther north have already been filled in which
were at one time traversed by the river Waimakariri. The day may be predicted
when the glacial waters of the Waitaki, which now issue in a crystal stream from
the flooded depressions, will roll down in a turbid current to the plains. Although
its course
scarcely exceeds 120 miles in length, the Waitaki is none the less a great
river, according to W. five times more voluminous than the Thames,
N. Blair
although this writer gives no data in support of his statement.*
Farther south the Clutha, which receives the overflow of the central group of
lakes, is a much larger watercourse, being compared by the same author with the
Nile. Itcertainly the first river in New Zealand both for size and volume, its
is
catchment basin exceeding 8,000 square miles in extent. The Clutha has also
been more thoroughly explored than any other stream in South Island, thanks to
the rich gold-fields, which since the year 1862 have attracted thousands of miners
to the region about its headwaters. Wakatipu, one of the lakes belonging to this
system, is no than
less 50 miles long, but only from 1 to 3 miles wide. It thus
presents the aspect of a winding river, without visible current, with a mean depth
of no less than 1,200 feet, and in its profoundest chasms sinking to 1,400 feet. On
both sides the encircling hills plunge abruptly into these abysmal waters.
Te Anau, largest of all New Zealand lakes,. lies beyond the Clutha basin at the
head of the Waiau, a short stream flowing to the south coast. The lake fills a long
valley and several tributary branches for a space of 140 square miles,
and in its
deepest part the sounding line has measured 940 feet. Te Anau is
separated by a
narrow isthmus from Manapuri (Manipori), another lacustrine basin, which is also
said to be very deep, and which branches into numerous creeks and bays, winding
* Scottish 1887.
Geographical Magazine, November,
428 AUSTKALASIA.
between numerous islands and steep rocky headlands. The Maoris who formerly
dwelt in these now almost deserted uplands never ventured without a sense of awe
to approach the shores of this lake, in whose gloomy waters were reflected the dark
" Sad
forest-clad slopes of the encircling hills. The name Manapuri, that is, Heart,"
possibly expresses the sense of melancholy inspired

in them by the god concealed
in this silent lake.
To the lakes on the east slope correspond the fiords indenting the west side of
Fig. 184 FIOKDS or SOUTH-WEST NEW ZEALAXD.

Scale 1 :
2,--'00,OPO.
Depths.
OtoOO 90 Fathoms
Fathoms. find upwards.
- .TO Miles.
the southern plateau of the New Zealand Alps. Both are of analogous formation,
the only difference being that the eastern depressions are flooded with freshwater,
while those on the west are saltwater basins communicating with the sea. In this
region of the archipelago the contrast is consequently the same as that presented
by the eastern and western valleys of the Scandinavian Peninsula, where Sweden
with its lacustrine and fluviul valleys corresponds to Norway with its marine
indented seaboard. As in the northern

region, the New Zealand fiords, or sounds,
as they are here called, occur
only at the issue or at the converging points, where
glaciers filled the primitive valleys, protecting them from the deposits of debris
which were formed round about wherever the surface was not covered with
layers
of ice. Neither moraines nor alluvial matter could
help to fill these profound
depressions, which were preserved in their original form by the frozen streams
occupying all their cavities.
But as soon as the glaciers withdrew above sea-level and their lower reaches
became gradually converted into running waters, the
levelling-up process set in.
Avalanches, landslips, torrents, marine waves, and currents combined to fill
up the
Fig. 185. BREAKSEA AND DUSKY SOUNDS.

Paile 1 : 600.000.
Depths.
to SO 80 to 100 MO Fathoms
12 Miles.
basins, which thus became transformed at first to chains of lakes, then to swampy
tracts and All the fiords that formerly existed north of 44 S. lati-
fertile plains.
tude have already been obliterated, and those still surviving are now all concentrated
in a space about 80 miles long in the south-west corner of South Island. The
largest, was to be expected, are those which open exactly at the southern
as
extremity of the seaboard. Such are Preservation Inlet, Dark Cloud Inlet (Chalky
Sound), and Dusky Sound, which last has an area of no less than 80 square miles.
The northernmost fiord in New Zealand, or in any region of the southern hemi-
sphere, Milford
is Sound, a magnificent sheet of water, in which are mirrored the
surrounding snowy crests, glittering peaks and verdant headlands. Sheer above
480 AUSTRALASIA.
the surface rise the rocky walls of the encircling hills, through whose fissures are
waterfalls.
precipitated several sparkling
All the New Zealand fiords offer a general resemblance in the length, narrow-
ness, and great depth of their troughs, which present as a rule but few ramifica-
tions. Nevertheless several are connected by lateral branches, which thus form
islands of regular outline along the seaboard. In the central parts these inlets have
an average depth of over 700 feet, while Milford Sound, deepest of all, averages
"
1,180 feet. All without exception have a sill or bar at the entrance, like the sea-
" washed
bridges of the Norwegian and the seaboard is
fiords, everywhere by
relatively shallow water?. Depths equal to those of the sounds are not met in the
open sea within 60 miles of the coast.
Is this phenomenon due to the vast quantities of refuse formerlybrought down

by the glaciers from the uplands ? Or are the submarine banks the remnants of
mountain ranges first destroyed and then redistributed in regular layers ? Or are
they to be referred to geological agencies more potent than the glaciers

? The
general form of the coast, disposed in regular convex curves between
the fiord
estuaries, seems to point at the action of a powerful current, by which the old
beach was eroded and the debris deposited far seawards. On the east side, on the
contrary, the land has encroached on the marine waters, the rivers
with their
sedimentary matter developing vast alluvial plains protected at two points from
erosion by volcanic promontories. One of these is Cape Saunders, under the shelter
ofwhich Otago harbour has been opened the other is the much bolder Banks
;
Peninsula, a superb and completely isolated mountain mass indented with several
deep-water creeks and bays, such as Akaroa Harbour, Pigeon Bay, Port Levy, and
Port Cooper. The south side of Banks Peninsula is connected with the mainland
by a marine sands enclosing an extensive muddy lagoon. The whole

strip of
formation presents a surprising resemblance to Monte Argentaro on the Italian
coast. Excluding the minor indentations and windings of the seaboard, Thomson
estimates the whole New Zealand coast-line at over 3,000 miles.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH ISLAND.
Despite the deep gap caused by Cook Strait, the eastern ridges of South Island
are continued on the opposite side by low parallel crests disposed in the same
normal direction from south-west to north-east. But while in the south the Alpine
system skirts the west coast, in North Island the ranges are developed along the
east side, or at least within 50 miles of the shore. The foundation on which they
restforms almost a separate region, a long quadrilateral terminating in the south-
west and north-east in massive peninsulas, and attached to the rest of the mainland
by extensive plains and rocky ridges, which south of Lake Taupo rise to a height of
about 3,000 feet. In this eastern region the culminating point is Mount Hikurang
(5,550 feet), which is situated not far from East Cape. The short Kaimawana
whose wooded slopes are often snow-clad to the summit, belongs to the same
chain,
orographic system in its general disposition and the character of its old rocks,
schists, sandstones, and quartz interspersed with veins of diorite. The crests of
NSW ZEALAND NORTH ISLAND. 481
Kaimawana, which lies near the centre of the island, attain an altitude of 5,900
feet.
West of these uplands the rest of the island is

occupied by volcanic masses,
disposed for the most part without apparent order and separated from one another
Fig. 186. COOK STRAIT.

Scale 1 :
3,000.000.
OtoWl 50 to 100
Fathoms. Fathoms.
,
HO Miles.
by lakes and deep valleys. Mount Ruapehu, highest in North Island, forms a
whole cluster of cones whose common base, resting on a plateau over 3,000 feet
high, has a circuit of no less than 60 miles. From the two snowy points of the
loftiest pyramid, nearly 9,000 feet high, the eye sweeps over a vast horizon
432 AUSTRALASIA.
embracing nearly the whole island away to the easternmost headlands. The
western slopes of the extinct volcano are finely timbered, while on the other side
stretches the uninhabitable Onetapu desert thickly strewn with the ashes and scoriae
ejected from the Ruapehu craters at some unknown epoch. But at one time even
this dreary solitude was covered with large forest trees, whose charred stems are
found beneath the overlying refuse.
A level space of about 5 miles separates the base of Ruapehu from that of the
still active Tongariro volcano, which rises farther north on a pedestal about 3,000
feet high. But the deep trough encircling the mountain seems to show that
perhaps one
at time there stood on this spot a vast crater, from which gradually
rose the Tongariro cone, a perfectly regular pile of ashes and scoriae, whose terminal
crater according to Nicholls is now about 8,200 feet high. The volcano, nearly
was " tabooed "
always in a state of eruption, till
recently strictly by the natives.
Nevertheless it has been scaled, its summit affording a superb view of the great
crater and smaller mouths vomiting forth dense clouds of sulphurous
lateral
vapours. Across the wreaths of smoke waving on the breeze the observer detects
a few pools of blue water flooding the terminal depressions of the parasitic
volcanoes. Farther north Mount Ketotahi also discharges dense vapours, while
the regular cone of Mount Pihanga, commanding the south side of the great Lake
Taupo, has long been extinct. A

Maori chief recently deceased has bequeathed
the volcanic masses of Ruapehu and Tongariro to the New Zealand people as
a " national park," to be guarded for ever from the encroachments of private
property.
Lake Taupo, occupying almost exactly the geographical centre of North
Island, also belongs to the New Zealand volcanic system
the hypothesis has even
;
been advanced that it was formerly a crater of prodigious size. This view is
certainly not justified by the irregular form of the basin, which, however, is
bordered by volcanoes, whence have been discharged enormous quantities of lava,
pumice and scoria). The

eruptions probably took place beneath the sea, the
first
ejected matter gradually separating from the ocean a large inlet, which in course
of time became transformed to a saltwater and then to a freshwater lake
by the
action of rain, snow and other agencies.
remarkable coincidence that the Maori word Taupo has the meaning of
It is a
"
Formerly Flooded Rouk," as if the natives had a tradition about the gradual
upheaval of the land. All the central part of the island west of the old formations
dominant along the main axis consists of pumice several hundred yards thick and
covered with humus partly derived from disintegrated The mountains
trachytes.
in the east, the volcanoes in the west and the ashes and scoriae in the intermediate
space, have pent up the central reservoir, thereby raising its level to the convex
surface of the shield- shaped plateau which
occupies the central part of North
Island. Taupo stood at one time even at a higher level, as shown by the clear
lines of the old beaches But has been
along the face of the surrounding slopes. it
partly emptied by the emissary, which has gradually eroded the heaps of pumice
confining the lacustrine basin on the north side. At present the level of the lake
NEW ZEALAND NORTH ISLAND. 483
is 1,200 feet above the sea, while its superficial area exceeds 300 square miles in ;
some places it is shallow, but towards the centre has a depth of several hundred
yards. Of its seventeen affluents the largest is the Waikato, which skirts the foot
of Mount Pihanga, and is now
slowly encroaching with its sedimentary matter on
the southern part of the lake. The Waikato, whose name simply means
"
Running Water," rises amid the upland snows of Ruapehu near another stream,
which flows to Cook Strait.
The river through which Taupo sends its overflow northwards to the Pacific
Fig. 187. LAKE TAUPO.

Sealf t : 1,100.000.
. IS Miles.
also takes the name of Waikato, and, like the Rhone, the upper and lower
Waikato are popularly supposed to form a continuous stream traversing the lake
without intermingling their currents. Like the Rhone the Waikato also plunges
into deep gorges cut through successive layers of pumice rising one above the
other in perfectly regular terraces. At several points the base of these crumbling
cliffs is lined by fissures emitting smoke, suggesting from a distance the fires
kindled by fishermen. The waters of Waikato are of a lovely opalescent colour,
said to be due to the silicawith which they abound. Within six miles of the
outlet the river is crossed by a ledge of hard trachyte, over which it plunges some
280
434 AUSTRALASIA.
50 feet into a wide basin of eddying waters. Farther down it receives on its left
bank a broad thermal stream descending from the Wairakei Cirque, where
numerous geysers with silicious margins jet up in all directions amid the sur-
rounding forest. Here and there fallen stems may still be recognised beneath the
by which they have been gradually coated. At the foot of
crystalline incrustation
a hill a jet of hot vapour at a temperature of 252 F. rushes with a ceaseless
hissing sound through the air. This geyser may at times be detected from a
distance of 50 miles round about, and the Maoris navigating Lake Taupo study its
varying phases as trustworthy weather forecastings.

Below its confluence with the thermal stream, the Waikato describes a great
bend to the east across thepumice-strewn plateau, beyond which it trends north-
westwards to the west coast, where it enters the sea through a wide estuary south
of the Auckland Peninsula.
Between the Waikato valley and the Bay of Plenty on the north- east sea-
board, the plateau is occupied by another group of volcanoes and of lakes, either
old craters or reservoirs formed by barriers of eruptive matter. Roto-rua, that is,
the "Second Lake," largest in this region, lies to the west of the other basins at
the east foot of Mount Ngongotaha (2,530 feet). Roto-rua, about 30 square
miles in extent, presents a charming view with its green islets, the hills and
headlands rising above its margin, the forests and thickets fringing the river
banks. But the whole of this region is a veritable land of wonders, conspicuous
amongst which are the springs and fountains which burst through the ground on
the west side of the lake, and which are endlessly diversified in their form, size,
periodicity and chemical composition. The district in a constant state of tremor

occupies a zone 3 or 4 miles long, and about a mile broad, along the margin of the
basin. Within this narrow space are concentrated the most varied igneous
phenomena, intermittent fountains, erratic jets disappearing inone place to
reappear in another, tranquil pools of clear water scarcely ruffled by a few bubbles,
cold, tepid, hot, or boiling springs, some sulphurous, others saline or acidulated,
solfataras, fumeroles, geysers, and the like. One of the geysers rises to a height of
60 feet above a silicious cone 50 feet high, the vapour escaping with a hissing
noise, and the water bursting out with a roar as of thunder. The thermal and
mineral waters, whose curative properties had formerly attracted the natives from
all quarters, are now visited even
by the European settlers, who have erected a
sanatorium on the banks of the lake.
East of Roto-rua follow other lacustrine basins, such as Roto-iti, or the
" Little "
Lake," Roto ehu, the Muddy Lake," and Roto-ma, the " White Lake,"
all of whose short emissaries flow northwards to the Bay of Plenty. Farther
south, at a mean altitude of 1,000 feet, are grouped other lakes, the largest of
which is Tarawera, dominated eastwards by the volcano of like name. This
" Burnt
Rock," as the word is interpreted, has the form of a truncated cone of
formidable aspect, whose red and black taluses rise 1,000 feet above the lake.
Tarawera was supposed to be extinct till the year 1886, when one winter's
night it suddenly awoke. The whole region was shaken by a tremendous shock,
NEW ZEALAND NORTH ISLAND. 435
crevasses opened on the flanks of the volcano, whose summit, reduced to

ashes,
was hurled into the air in the form of a column of and scoria?. vapours flaming
The ejected matter, which was visible over 150 miles off, rose to a height of
20,000 feet and fell in dense showers on the
surrounding district. Whole
villages were crushed beneath the weight of the dry ashes, or changed to heaps of
mud by the raging storm that had gathered round the burning mountain. When
people could again venture to approach Tarawera, they found the whole aspecl; of
the land transformed, and in some uniform layer of
places buried beneath, a
volcanic dust. No trace was left of the "Wonder of Wonders," the famous
Fig. 188. LAKE TARAWEBA.

Scale 1 : SOO.OOO.
rt
"'
) Boto-tnabana before June 10, 1886.
^^^ ^__ 6 snips.
mineral spring of Te-Tarata, on the site of which there appeared a mud volcano
over 500 feet lower than the level of the old lake. Before the explosion the
waters falling into Roto-mahana, or the " Hot Lake," rose in intermittent jets in
a flooded crater about G-jO feet in circuit and 80 feet above Roto-mahana. After
filling this crater the waters overflowed its transparent, alabaster-like silicious
margent, falling in thin azure sheets from basin to basin, all with perfectly
semicircular white rims due to the regular undulation of the water circulating in
uniform eddies round the cascades. As its temperature fell the water, saturated
with silica and sulphurous substances, gradually changed in colour from the
436 AUSTRALASIA.
sapphire tints of the upper basin to the turquoise hue lower down and a slightly
" white " and "
azure shade at its entrance into the lake. At present these pink
"
terraces are shrouded beneath a heap of scoriae. But the hidden forces are
coming to the surface at other points, and if vulgar speculators are prevented from
" "
manipulating the mineral springs and converting them into rarey shows with
will always
charges for admittance, the phenomena of this volcanic region
continue to rank amongst the most remarkable spectacles of Nature's laboratory.
The Awa o te Atua, or " River of the Gods," as the lacustrine emissary is
called, flows at first north-eastwards, and then, after sweeping round the extinct
Putauaki volcano, unites with the Rangitaiki, the chief watercourse of this slope,
which falls into the Bay of Plenty. But the volcanic region is still continued
beyond the mainland, and in the middle of the bay rises the cone of Whakari, or
White Island, which although only 850 feet high, at times ejects sulphurous vapours
over vast spaces. The crater, which tilts a little to one side, is one and a-half mile
in circumference, and the interior is completely filled with fumeroles, solfataras
jets of vapour and hot springs. Whakari may be regarded as the northern
extremity of the volcanic axis, of which the south-west end is occupied by the
superb Ruapehu volcano. According to a Maori legend the Whakari crater is
connected with that of Tongariro by an underground passage, and it was through
this passage that the messengers of the gods brought the sacred fire to the central
volcano of North Island.
New Zealand has no other still active volcanoes ;
but some of those now extinct
are of imposing grandeur. a whole penin-
Taranaki (Mount Egmont), which fills
sula at the south-west angle of North Island, was formerly an island, whose base
became gradually attached to the mainland by the accumulating deposits of scoriae.
Its supreme nearly 8,300 feet high, is overtopped in the northern island by
crest,
Ruapehu alone.Other cones, some exceeding 3,000 feet, are disposed in chains to
the north-west of Lake Taupo, and Perongia (3,150 feet), rising on the south side
of the Waikato estuary, has discharged westwards vast lava-streams, which have
formed long headlands enclosing deep marine inlets.
In the Auckland Peninsula, which projects far seawards in a north-westerly
direction, the volcanoes are low, but very numerous, being counted by the dozen
at the narrowest part of the peninsula. Some rise 300 or 400 feet above the sea,
while others are flush with the surface, forming perfectly regular little havens along
the coast. Off Auckland on the east coast the oval-shaped Rangitoto, that is,
" Blood-red
Sky," seems from a distance to close the entrance to the harbour.
Farther north the long peninsular horn of North Island is indented by numerous
shallow inlets, which appear to be the remains of half-obliterated fiords. Such is
the Bay of Islands on the east coast, which is studded with islands and islets of
pyramidal form one, however, which with its truncated cone and eroded argil-
;
"
laceous cliffs resembles a huge " sou'wester floating on the surface, has accord-
ingly been named the " Old Hat." On the shores of the Bay of Islands occur some
thermal and sulphurous springs.
Earthquakes are frequent in every part of New Zealand, and in many places
CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND. 437
geologists have observed modifications of the coastline due to former convulsions

or other underground phenomena. The hypothesis has even been advanced that
the whole of the archipelago is subject to oscillations of level
analogous to those
of the Scandinavian Peninsula. While the northern part of North Island would
appear to be slowly subsiding, the rest of the land is said to have been perceptibly
upraised even within the short period of British colonisation. Sudden upheavals
caused by violent igneous disturbances account for the withdrawal of the marine
waters in some places, and especially in the harbour of
Wellington on the north
side of Cook Strait. But elsewhere the movement appears to have been much
slower, and unattended by perceptible shocks, as attested by deposits of pumice
occurring at different elevations along the seaboard. In 1847 there was discovered
in South Island nearly 650 feet inland from the coast and far above
highwater mark
the hulk of a vessel supposed to be the Actire, which had been shipwrecked in 1814.
that is, only thirty-three years previously.
CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND.

The climate of the archipelago has been compared to that of Great Britain,
although the mean temperature of the tracts occupied by the British settlers is
considerably higher than that of their native land. Great climatic contrasts, how-
ever, are presented between the extreme sections of New Zealand, which stretches
for a space of over 900 miles across nearly 14 degrees of latitude. Thus the peninsula
of North Island enjoys an Italian climate, while the southern regions recall that of
Scotland, and Stewart Island that of the Orkney Archipelago.* But in these
oceanic lands the sudden shifting of the winds is attended by corresponding changes
from heat to cold, from wet to dry, changes which are here everywhere abrupt.
The temperature, however, is on the whole more equable along the western seaboard
exposed to the least variable marine breezes. On the other hand the discrepancies
are very great in certain parts of the east coast, and especially on the plains near
the Banks Peninsula. But notwithstanding the great transitions from heat to cold
the east side, being more sheltered by lofty ranges, enjoys a pleasanter climate than
the windy opposite slope, where a whole year passes without a single calm day.
To the prevalence of westerly breezes the coastlands facing towards Australia
are also indebted for their more abundant moisture, which falls as rain on the plains
and lower snow on the uplands. Amongst these winds that
slopes of the hills, as
which sets from the north-west and which blows over tiie mountain ranges down
to the eastern slopes resembles the Mediterranean scirocco in the phenomena
accompanying it. This atmospheric current supplies an abundant rainfall to the

side of the New Zealand Alps, which it strikes coming directly from the high seas ;
hence reaches the eastern plains as a dry wind during its prevalence the sky
it ;
here assumes a deep blue colour, the heavy clouds that had gathered on the horizon
* Climate of the chief New Zealand towns :
Lati'ude. Mean Temp. Lowest. Rainfall.

Auckland . . . 36" .W S. . . . oS F. ... Highest.
85 ... 28 ... 33 inches.
Wellington . . 41 16' ... 54 83 ... 25 ... 16
Chritchurch . . 43 32' 52 95 ... 21 ... 29
Dunedin . . 45 52' ,,
.51 84 ... 30 ... 33 ,,
438 AUSTRALASIA.
disappear as if
by enchantment, and the streams fed by the melting glaciers sud-
denly become swollen torrents.

The "England" of the Austral seas has the advantage over the mother country
of being exempt from fogs, enjoying a clear azure sky succeeded at regular
intervals by rain-bearing clouds, without those long periods of unsettled weather
which at times render a residence in Great Britain so unpleasant for strangers. It
is mainly to this absence of fogs that physicians attribute the remarkable salubrity
of the New Zealand climate, a salubrity which, with the magnificent scenery and
abundance of all kinds of mineral waters, promises to make the archipelago one
vast health resort. But the serene skies are purchased at the expense of frequent
and fierce gales. Along the shores of Cook and Foveaux Straits these tempestuous
gales prevail throughout

a great part of the year, and in 1886 the approaches to
the harbour of Wellington were swept by as many as fifty-seven successive storms.
FLORA.
The New Zealand flora varies with the climate from the temperate zone of the
north to the cold southern region, while still preserving a certain general uniformity
throughout the archipelago. Thanks to its isolated position in the ocean

hundreds
of miles from any other great extent of dry land, it possesses a flora very distinct
from that of any other region in the Austral hemisphere; two-thirds of its plants,
forming nearly thirty different genera, have absolutely no representatives else-
where. nearest allied forms occur in Australia and South America, and by a
The
remarkable phenomenon the latter, although the farther removed of the two con-
tinents, seems to present the most numerous analogies. The eucalyptus and acacia,
so pre-eminently characteristic of Australia, are not found in New Zealand, a fact
of primary importance scarcely in harmony with the assumption of many geologists,
that during recent epochs the archipelago was connected with the neighbouring
continent by now submerged lands. New Zealand appears to have been an inde-
pendent centre of plant life, whence numerous species have been dispersed through-
out the surrounding insular groups.
The isolation of the archipelago had for necessary consequence a certain
relative poverty of its flora, which in fact comprises only 960 indigenous species.
The forests contain only a small number of distinct forms, and these forms are
for the most part characterised by dull and inconspicuous flowers. Hence the
thickets present a sombre and monotonous aspect compared at least with the lovely
flowering woodlands of Tasmania and the Cape. Their gloom is intensified by the
absence of animal life, and even of the song of birds. After wandering through
these dense leafy thickets and returning to the sunlit open spaces, the traveller
feels relieved as from an oppressive sense of awe.
if
The characteristic plants are the 130 species of tree-ferns and others which
in many districts hold exclusive possession of vast tracts. New Zealand has
alsosome peculiar varieties of the pine family, amongst others the kauri
(dammara amtralis), which is at present restricted to the northern island. The
magnificent stem of this conifer attains a height of 200 feet, and it
yields a
FAUNA OP NEW ZEALAND. 439
gum much valued for the preparation of varnish.But it has been recklessly cut
down, owing to the excellent quality of its timber as a building material whole ;
forests have been cleared in the construction of the new

towns, and before measures
were taken to re-plant the clearings, the species itself was in
danger of being
exterminated. The climate appears to have also contributed to reduce the
range
of this tree.
Along the banks of the Molyneux, in the southern part of South
Island, the ground contains large quantities of kauri gum, although at present the
species confined
is to the province of Auckland in North Island. The fossil
regions of New Zealand looks as fresh
resinous substance collected in the southern
as that derived from living
plants yet long ages must have passed since the pines
;
producing it have gradually receded some 600 miles northwards. The old gum,
being more compact, is much more highly valued than than obtained from trees
still
standing, and trading companies have been formed for working the rich
deposits in various parts of the country.
FAUNA OF NEW ZEALAND.

The indigenous fauna is no than the flora, and is supposed by
less original
geologists to comprise only a single a

mammal, species of otter, whose traces were
seen by Von Haast, and which was pursued
by other explorers, without, however,
being captured. The Maori rat, now utterly exterminated by its European rival,
appears, as the natives assert, to' have been introduced by themselves, as was also
the dog, which was nowhere found in the wild state. There are neither snakes nor
tortoises in the archipelago, and even the batrachians are represented only by a
single species confined to one locality on the east coast of North Island. Lizards,
however, abound, and comprise as many as twelve species occurring in no other
part of the world. One of these, the hatteria punctata, numerous in an islet in the
Bay of Plenty, is of very peculiar form, somewhat intermediate between the

ordinary lizard and the crocodile hence, although quite harmless,
;
it was regarded
with a certain superstitious awe by the Maori.
Before the introduction of European species the New Zealand rivers were almost
destitute of fish. Some, however, of the native forms are remarkable for the vast
extent of their range. Such are an found also in China, Europe, and the West
eel
Indies, and a trout, which is likewise met in the streams of Tasmania and South
America. One of the great curiosities of the New Zealand biological order is a
species of caterpillar (tpkaria Soberiti), which burrows a hole at the foot of a tree,
and in which a tall fungus then takes root and grows above the surface of the
ground.
Of the New Zealand fauna the most remarkable class is that of the birds,
which is very rich, comprising altogether about 150 species. One-third of these
are peculiar to the archipelago, and constitute seventeen or eighteen absolutely
distinct genera,some presenting some very curious features. Such is the Inda, a
kind of starling (hetcrolocha Gou/di), the male and female of which have entirely
different beaks, the one straight, the other curved quiteround like a sickle. But
the essentially characteristic bird is the famous kiici (apteryx), absolutely wingless
440 AUSTRALASIA.
and which three or four species still survive. Being covered with a hair-
tailless, of
like plumage, and as large as an average fowl, the kiwi is helpless against dogs,
and would soon be exterminated even in the remoter districts but for its nocturnal
habits. But it must nevertheless disappear, as analogous species have disappeared
in the Mascarenhas Islands, and as in New Zealand itself have disappeared the
fifteen varieties of the moa(dinar nia), a bird of varying size belonging to the ostrich
familv. The fossil remains of the moa, one species of which was over 10 feet high,
have been discovered in the bogs beneath alluvial deposits and in caves encrusted
with stalagmites. But skeletons have also been found, as well as an enormous egg
10 inches long, besides fragments of skin and feathers, in the Maori graves and
amongst the kitchen refuse. Hence there can be no doubt that the natives hunted
these birds, which were doomed by their defenceless state to rapid extinction.
According to the local tradition the moas were decked with a brilliant plumage.
Amongst the types in course of extinction or already gone, are included the
moho (notornis), the coturnix, a sort of quail remarkable as the only indigenous
representative of the gallinaceous family, the anarhynchus, distinguished by the
lateral twist of its beak, the thinornis, another bird of the same group, and the ken
(nestor), an owl-like parrot still common in the lower valleys, where it is much
dreaded by the farmers since it has acquired a taste for the flesh of sheep and lambs.
Since the arrival of the British settlers the gaps made in the local fauna have
been gradually filled up by new wild and domestic species. Sportsmen have
introduced the deer, roebuck, hare, and rabbit, of which the last named has proved
specially disastrous to the prospects of agriculture. The pig has reverted to the
wild state in some districts, and thousands are now annually killed in the thickets.
The streams have been stocked, chiefly with salmon,
also trout, and other species
from the mother country. But the extinct forms of bird life have been replaced
mainly from Australia, Europe, and America. Thus the indigenous quail has
been succeeded by the Californian variety, which has multiplied to a surprising
extent, and by the grey partridge and pheasant from China. Starlings, sparrows,
blackbirds, thrushes, crows, larks, finches, introduced at great cost from England,
have become acclimatised, and often produce on the colonist the impression that
he has scarcely changed his home in migrating to the Austral world. He
finds himself surrounded by fields, woodlands, buildings similar to those of the old
country ;
he meets the same wild and tame animals, and hears the same birds
warbling in the thickets.
INHABITANTS OF NEW ZEALAND.

The
natives found in the archipelago by the white immigrants compare their
destiny to that of the indigenous plants and animals, and believe themselves
doomed to perish with thcrn. " Our rat," they say, " is eaten by the European
rat ;
our and we ourselves will be replaced by you." Yet these
fly yields to yours,
Maori, who thus foresee their extinction, were amongst the most intelligent, the
noblest, and most cultured Polynesian peoples. If their disappearance is
inevitable, it must still be regarded as a common calamity for mankind.
INHABITANTS OF NEW ZEALAND. 441
The Maori, that the " Line," or " Descendance," in the sense of "
is,
Indige-
nous," are unquestionably a branch of the eastern Polynesian race. Their legends,
full of precise details, are
unanimous in recording their migration to the archi-
pelago, and even give some approximate idea of the epoch when this event took
The children were carefully instructed in all these oral
place. traditions, and
taught the history and genealogy of the national heroes, as well as the succession
of events and ages by means of inscribed tablets. These sources of information,
collected by Grey and other ethnologists, relate how some four or five centuries
ago the chief Te Kupe first landed on Aotea-roa, the North Island, and that,
astonished at his discovery, he returned to his native land of Havaiki for his
fellow-countrymen. He then returned with a flotilla of seven war-canoes, each

containing about a hundred warriors, priests, stone idols, and sacred weapons, as
well as native plants and animals. To this tradition of the first immigration the
descendants of the Maori add legends of marvellous deeds, the severance of Aotea-
roa into two islands, the emergence of islets, rocks, and
reefs, the appearance of
springs and of flames bursting from the ground. But, according to Huxley,
Quatrefages, and other authorities, skulls presenting all the characteristics of the
Papuan type would seem to indicate the previous existence of an aboriginal
race apparently exterminated or
partly absorbed by the Maori intruders.
This island of Havaiki, whence came Te
Kupe and his followers, cannot now
be clearly determined. The resemblance of names
suggests the island of Savaii in
the Samoan Archipelago, and the same island of Savaii is also
supposed to have
sent out other kindred tribes to colonise Havaii in the Sandwich
Group. The
marked analogy between the peoples, languages, customs, and legends of New
Zealand and Polynesia certainly leaves no doubt that migrations have taken place
from some region of equatorial Polynesia towards the more remote archipelagoes.
Nevertheless, there nothing beyond a vague resemblance of names to identify
is
the Samoan Savaii with the legendary cradle of the Maori people. It even seems
more probable that they came from Tonga, that is, the group of islands lying
nearest to New Zealand. The distance between the two archipelagoes is not more
than 1,200 miles, and here the marine current sets in the direction of New Zea-
land. So great the affinity of the Tonga and Maori languages that the natives
is
of both regions soon understand each other, and the very word tonya is of frequent
occurrence in the Maori dialect, as well as in the geographical nomenclature of the
archipelago.
The Mori-ori inhabitants of the Chatham Islands, now reduced to a few family
groups and Maori half-castes, are certainly Polynesians of the same origin, who,
according to their traditions, arrived from tha north about the fifteenth century.
They are of smaller stature, but more robust and stronger than the Maori, with
little song- and myth-
very marked features and the aquiline Jewish nose. This
loving community lived happily in their island home of Warekauri when a Maori
sailor of Taranaki, serving on board an English vessel, happened to visit one of
their villages either in 1832 or 1835. On his return he spoke to his friends about
these islanders, "peaceful and good to eat," and his report was soon followed by a
442 AUSTRALASIA.
warlike expedition to Warekauri. The unhappy Mori-ori, suddenly attacked, were

easily captured,
and the conquerors immediately selected those to be eaten. The
victims had themselves to fetch the wood and to prepare the fire on which they
were roasted. The population of Chatham was thus reduced from fifteen hundred
at the time of the conquest to no more than thirty-six, practically slaves, despite
Fig. 189. TATTOOED MAOEI CHIEF.
the official decrees of emancipation. Their reserved holdings comprise little more
than 600 acres.
The Maori are amongst the finest islanders of the Oceanic world. Some are
very and the majority above the average European height, strong and well-
tall,
built,with very broad chest, but with trunk proportionately longer and lower
extremities shorter than amongst the whites. The features are as a rule suffi-
ciently regular, with slightly prominent cheekbone, high forehead, piercing and
haughty glance. Formerly the men were carefully depilated, in order to increase
the surface to be covered with ornamental tattooing, while for

young women the
operation was limited to the lips, whence the term Blue-lips applied to them by the
English. No Polynesian nation rivalled the Maori in this art of embellishing the
human form with harmonious designs following the contours of the body and
bringing its The Maori artist knew how to give
proportions into fuller relief.
endless variety to the curves of his drawings all was calculated so as to
;
produce
a happy blending of the lines the natural furrows, the movements of the coun-
;
tenance, the play of muscles, everything was made to enhance the charm of the
design, and a hale young man certainly presented a fine sight, draped only in this
delicate network of blue lines on the ruddy brown ground of his skin. Whoever
refused to undergo the protracted tortures of tattooing required at
every important
event of his life was regarded as a person by his own consent foredoomed to slavery.
On the other hand the tattooed native could never be enslaved. " Liberty or Death "
was his motto.
Proud and pleaders, the Maori have always commanded the respect of
skilful
the English ;
in the political conferences they have even frequently proved them-
selves superior in logic and eloquence, just as in field sports, such as cricket,
they
excel in strength and skill. Even in the schools they stand at least on a level
with their masters, and when called upon to defend their native land, they proved
themselves fully as valiant as their pnkehn (European) invaders. Near the present
town of Tauranga a farmstead occupies the site of the great pa, or fortress of earth
and palisades, which General Cameron at the head of four thousand British t7'oops
failed to reduce, the siege ending in the utter rout of the assailants. At the same
time this warlike spirit was associated with cannibalistic and other ferocious
practices. The Maori ate the heart and eyes of the foe in order to acquire their
courage and intelligence. In the old kitchen middens occur human remains
associated with those of dogs and birds, and tradition speaks of a memorable
victory celebrated by a banquet of one thousand of the fallen enemy.
In their few national industries the Maori displayed remarkable skill. They
tilled the soil with extreme care and decorators they were unrivalled
;
as carvers
in the Oceanic world, and displayed great originality in the design and perfection
in the execution of the rock-paintings and in carving the ornamental figures of
their dwellings, their boats, and sacred enclosures. Many of these objects are
carefully preserved in the local museums, or in places

still still regarded as
tabooed by the natives.

Like that of other Polynesians the Maori religion was concerned with the wor-
ship of the natural forces, always associated in their mind with the spirits of their
ancestors. The memory of their forefathers was so interwoven with their every-
day that
life friends on meeting, instead of saluting each other with signs of joy,
gave way to groans and lamentations over the departed. All are now at least
nominal Christians, and have forsaken the stone idols brought with them from
Ilavaiki at the time of the exodus. One of these effigies was given by the people
themselves to Governor Grey, and the other, which had been buried in the sacred
lake Roto-rua in the island of Mokoia, formed the subject of a law-suit between
444 AUSTRALASIA.
and
two During the revolt of 1864 many renounced Christianity,
tribes in 1834.
founded a new religion in which Christian mythology and ancestral worship were
strangelyblended. The Hau-hau sect, as it was called from the cries of grief or
has not yet entirely disappeared,
ecstasy uttered at the public prayer-meetings,
and a few of its adherents are still found in scattered groups in the King's
Country.
This region, some 10,000 square miles in extent, comprises a large part of
North Island, west of Lake Taupo. The two lofty mounts, Ruapehu and Tongariro,
were till recently included within its limits, together with the seaboard between
Tort Aotea and the north foot of Mount Taranaki. Alarmed by the incessant
Fig. 190. KIJJO'S COCOTBY.

Seals 1 : 2.000,000.
Depths.
Oto25 25 Fathoms
30 MilHS.
encroachments of the white squatters, the natives assembled in congress in 1854,

and resolved thenceforth to sell no land at any price, and even prevent the Euro-
peans from penetrating into their domain. Since that time conflicts have taken
place, British troopshave crossed the frontier, and sundry tracts have been
detached from the territory. Nevertheless this Native Reserve still constitutes a
well-defined region, till recently almost inaccessible to explorers unprovided with
safe-conducts. The tribes, formerly without any bond of union, are now grouped
in a sort of political state ruled by a "king," whence the name of King's Country.
This potentate has hitherto refused to become a colonial functionary by
accepting
the heavy pension and administrative power offered him by the crown. Neverthe-
less the days of the Maori nation are numbered. he white population is increas-
'1
ing at the rate of at least twenty thousand annually, and its influence on the still
independent territory increases in the same proportion. On the other hand the
Maori grow continually weaker in numbers, in physical force and moral energy.
Owing to the refusal of the natives to allow any official census to be taken
within their domain impossible to form an accurate idea of their present num-
it is
bers, although the summary estimates made at various times are generally accepted
as sufficiently trustworthy to place beyond doubt the steady decline of the race.
At the first arrival of the whites they numbered at least one hundred thousand,
but in 1874 they were already reduced to less than forty-six thousand, and acccord-
ing to the returns for 1886 they appear to have lost three thousand more at that
date. The most serious fact, well authenticated in those districts where both races
live sideby the higher rate of mortality amongst the women.
side, is Nor have
the young Maori the same vigour as their forefathers, and about half of the deaths
isattributed to consumption. Nevertheless the decay of the race appears to have
been partly arrested, and in some districts, notably that of Kaipara north of Auck-
land, some excess of births over the mortality has been observed amongst the
half-castes.
On the other hand the white population rapidly develops, not only by immigra-
tion but especially by the great increase of births over deaths. This increase, at
present estimated at nearly three to one, is almost unparalleled elsewhere. More-
over, the loss and gain are invariably balanced in such a way as to increase the
proportional number of females, and thus reduce the disparity caused by the much
larger immigation of males. Already more than half of the colonists are native
born ;
come from the British Isles, the English and Scotch being greatly
nearly all
in excess of the Irish. The Germans number not more than five thousand, and
some Scandinavian communities have been established in the North Island. Some
thousand Chinese have also been introduced by employers of labour, but here,
as elsewhere, unaccompanied by their women. The competition of the white
labourers has required Parliament to pass some prohibitive measures against Chinese
immigration analogous to those taken by the Australian Assemblies.

During the early years of colonisation methodic steps were taken to reproduce
in NewZealand as perfect a copy as possible of the English social system regarded
as an ideal standard. Efforts were made to reproduce at the Antipodes ah image
of the mother countoy, with its powerful clergy, its territorial aristocracy, its indus-
trious middle classes, its submissive and religious working communities. In accord-
ance with this plan the capitalists, who in the North Island had obtained possession
of the land from the natives under the protection and suzerainty of Great Britain,
sold it at prices the means of small holders, and the sums thus obtained
beyond
were employed to introduce day labourers on the large estates.
446 AUSTRALASIA.
Nevertheless, financial difficulties and conflicts with the government prevented

the complete realisation of this social scheme. The projects of other companies
that had secured concessions of extensive domains in the southern island proved
more successful. The province of Canterbury, so named by zealous Anglicans

from the primatial see of England, was at once constituted
under the direct spiritual
and partly temporal control of the Anglican clergy, and was divided into parishes
"
and flocks." On the other hand the Scotch of the Free Kirk, who
immigrants
had settled in the southern part of the same island, and who had given to their
capital the Gaelic name of Dunedin, synonymous of Edinburgh, also possessed their
religious constitution intended to maintain them in a distinct community. But

the discoveries which suddenly attracted thousands of gold-hunters to this rigid
Presbyterian settlement soon broke up the narrow organisation of the young

colonial churches, and New Zealand no longer differs from the other British
colonies in its social religious constitution. Sects of all denominations are now as
numerous as elsewhere. The majority, however, are still members of the Anglican
Church.
From the very first agriculture has been the chief industry of the colony. Since
the first sale of public lands down to the end of March, 1888, planters and others
had acquired an extent of 11,500,000 acres at a total cost of 13,000,000, to a very
large extent secured by a limited number of capitalists. Seven proprietors possess

each over 100,000 acres, while two hundred and fifty-nine own domains each
exceeding 10,000 acres. The regions still available for tillage are at least as
extensive as those already disposed of ;

but the uplands, especially in South Island,
can scarcely be utilised except for their forests and pasturage. North Island is
the more fertile of the two, thanks to its decomposed volcanic tuffas, and it also
enjoys a milder climate ;

hence in former times the Maori were concentrated
chiefly in this region, which however is the smaller in extent ;

and here also the
settlers have a far less extent of land at their disposal.

The 33,400 farms which existed in 1887 in the archipelago were all under pre-
cisely the same crops as those Great Britain, the only perceptible difference being
of
a few fruit trees in North Island, where the fruits of Italy ripen side by side with
those of England. New Zealand is less favourably placed than Australia for stock-
breeding; nevertheless, the livestock is already considerable, and wool is now exported
to the annual value of over 3,000,000.Meat-preserving is also a flourishing local
industry, and New
Zealand has recently tiirned its attention to the preparation of
butter for the home market.
Both abound in minerals, although the gold mines alone have hitherto
islands
been actively worked in 1887 nearly twelve thousand miners, of whom one-fourth
;
were Chinese, were engaged in extracting the precious metal from the quartz
rocks and auriferous sands. Between 1857, when the gold-fields were discovered,
and 1887 the total yield was over 44,000,000, and in the single year 1886, the
produce was no less than 28,000,000. The decrease in the exportation of gold
will probably be followed by greater activity in the coal mines, which already em-
ploy over a thousand hands, with a total yearly output of more than 500,000
NEW ZEALAND. SOCIAL PBOGEESS. 447
tons. New Zealand has already developed some large manufacturing industries
and now turns out her own ships, locomotives, and other rolling stock.
The archipelago has an extensive network of roads and railways, and it will
soon be possible to travel by from one extremity to the other of both islands.
rail
Except a few provincial branches, nearly all the lines have been constructed and are
owned by the Government. Steamers also ply regularly between the seaports round
the coast, and maintain rapid communication with Australia, America, and Europe.
Fig. 191. RAILWAYS OP NEW ZEALAND.

Scale 1 :
13,000,000.
SOO ililes.
The foreign trade that of for

relatively greater than
it
is European countries,
already exceeds 22 per head of the white and Maori population. The proportion
of letters forwarded through the post is also higher than in France, and the
instruction. The periodical
colony enjoys a more developed system of primary
which one issued in the Maori lan-
represented by 200 journals, of
is is
press
guage.
448 AUSTRALASIA.
TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW ZEALAND.
one of the " old

"
cities of New Zealand, its foundation dating from
Auckland is
1840, that is, a few years after the establishment of the station of Kaica-K(tiCa or t
TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW ZEALAND. 449
Russell, on the Bay of Islands. was originally chosen as the capital of the
It
whole archipelago, and although deprived of this
dignity, it has remained the
largest city, with a population of over sixty thousand, including the suburbs ; here
is also the chief
university in the colony. Auckland owes its importance to its
Fig. 193. AUCKLAND.

Scale 1 :
560,000.
Depths.
Snnds Oto32 82 Feet

exposed at low water. Feet. and upwards.
.
12 Miles.
admirable position on the south side of the excellent and thoroughly sheltered port
of Wfiitcmntd, at the narrowest point of the isthmus connecting the northern penin-
sula with the rest of North Island. Its suburb of Oiichuvya lies seven miles farther
south on the great inlet of Manukau, which comprises a group of havens also open
290
450 AUSTRALASIA.
to navigation. Thanks to these maritime advantages, to the density of the popula-

tion in the surrounding district, and thefertility of the land, Auckland exceeds all
other New Zealand seaports in commercial activity; it enjoys a monopoly of the export
trade in kauri wood and the valuable gum of that tree. Being encircled by several
small extinct volcanoes, Auckland is the centre of one of the most interesting regions
Fig. 194. KAIPAEA.

Scale 1 : 680.000.
Depths.
Bands exposed Oto32 32 Feet and

. 12 Mies.
on the globe for the study of plutonic phenomena. In the neighbourhood are no
less than sixty perfectly regular cones, each in former times the scene of igneous
eruptions.
North of Auckland the only trading places are the small stations on the Bay of
Islands, and the villages dotted round Kaipara Harbour, whose numerous branches
TOPOGKAPHY OF NEW ZEALAND. 451
wind amid the surrounding forests and recent plantations. JTaipara

in all directions
has been called the " Eden of New Zealand." South-east of Auckland are the twin
towns of Shortland and Grahamstotcn, which are now united under the name of
Thames, and which lie on the east side of the inlet
improperly called the Firth of
Thames. Farther south
Tauranga is
Harbour, the landing-place for travellers pro-
Lake Tarawera and " Wonderland."
ceeding ro South of the little haven of Gis-
borne on Poverty Bay, the only coast town on the east side is Napier,
capital of the
province of Hawke Bay. Napier is well situated on a peninsula between a winding
estuary and a semicircular bay which, like so many others, has been
compared to
the Bay of Naples. Although its port, the Ahuriri of the natives, is of difficult
access for large vessels, the yearly export trade of Napier in wool,
preserved meat,
and cattle already exceeds 800,000.
Wellington, capital of New Zealand, dates from 1840 ;
it occupies a central
position on Port Nicholson on the north side of Cook Strait, and holds frequent
communication with. Blenheim on the opposite side. Wanyanui, another busy sea-
port in the same province, lies at the mouth of the navigable river of like name
south of the King's Country. North-west of Wanganui the coast railway is deflected
inland by the peninsular Mount Egmont (Taranaki), and thus reaches New Plymouth,
which is probably destined to become a flourishing seaport when the construction
of the neighbouring Moturoa breakwater will enable skippers here to
ship the pro-
duce of the " Garden of New Zealand."
In the South Island Blenheim, over against Wellington, is still a small place
although capital of a province and converging point of two railways. On this
south side of Cook Strait the most commercial town is Nelson, which lies at the
head of the hill-encircled Tasman Bay. Farther on the north coast presents
nothing but villages and hamlets ;
but on the west side a few little towns have
sprung up in the
neighbourhood of the gold and coal mines.
Westport, sheltered
by Cape Foulwind, has the advantage of possessing a safe and deep harbour,
whereas the more southerly ports of Grcymouth and Hokitika, capital of the province
of Westland, were of difficult access before the construction of jetties and other
harbour works. Greymouth, formerly a centre of gold-mining, is now the " New
Zealand Newcastle," and in 1886 no less than 120,000 tons of coal were shipped at
this place. Ilokitika, the town lying nearest to the regions of snows and glaciers,
still retains some importance, thanks to the neighbouring gold-fields, which in
1866, the year following the discovery, yielded over 1,300,000 of the precious
metal.
The South Island being more gently inclined, presents by far the
east slope of
greatest extent of arable and fertile lands, with the largest centres of population
and most flourishing seaports. Here are found the two chief cities, Christ-
church and Dunedin, the former of which lies not on the coast but in an extensive
plain watered by the river Avon and about eight miles from its port of Lytt'etoii,
formerly Port Cooper. Christchurch, capital of the province of Canterbury, is the
most English in aspect of all the New Zealand cities, and as the see of the Anglican
primate, it also contains the most sumptuous religious edifices. In its museum is a
452 AUSTIULASIA.
remains of extinct birds. "With the surrounding

very remarkable collection of the
suburbs Christchurch ranks as the second city in the archipelago for population,
while its owns the largest mercantile fleet, although the general movement of
port
the shipping is inferior to that of Auckland. The neighbouring Banks Peninsula
with Akaroa Harbour, where survive some descendants of the early French
still
settlers, are pleasant retreats, much frequented by

the inhabitants of -Chrietchurch.
Fig. 195. CHEISTCHUECH AND AXABOA PENINSULA.

Scale 1 : 700,000.
Depths.
to 32 32 to 80 80 to 160 160 Feet and

6 Miles.
A railway, connecting the city with its port, passes in a tunnel through a thick bed
of lava the finest work of the kind in New Zealand.
South of Christchurch follow along the cast coast the seaports of Timaru, Oamaru,
and the flourishing city of Dunedin, metropolis of the south, which lies on the west
side of Otago Harbour under shelter of an eastern volcanic headland. Since the
deepening of the channel ships of average size are able to ascend as far as the
town but larger vessels are obliged to anchor in Port Chalmers at the mouth of
;
TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW ZEALAND. 458
the estuary, about eight miles north of the city. During the flourishing period
of gold-mining, Dunedin, which from an obscure village had suddenly been trans-
formed to a populous town, became the busiest commercial centre in New Zealand,
and even holds the second rank in this respect. This place is the usual start-
still
ing point for travellers visiting the region of the lakes in the New Zealand Alps.
On the southern seaboard, washed by the Antarctic Ocean, the most flourishing
place is the recently founded Invercargill, converging point of all the roads and
Fig. 196. POET CHALMEKS.

Scale 1 : 350,000.
Essb oF-Greenwlch 170'
Depths.
Sands exposed (it., K; 16 to 80 80 to 160 160 Feet and

at low water. Feet. Feet. Feet. upwards.
. 6 Miles.
railways radiating towards the interior. Unfortunately this seaport lies at the
head of a shallow estuary without any outer port, so that the large steamers are
obliged to stop at Campbelltown on Foveaux Strait. railway runs from Inver- A
at the
cargill towards Kingston, a pleasant little inland town delightfully situated
southern extremity of Lake Wakatipu. Qiieenstotcn, at the foot of Ben Lomond on
the east side of the same lake, is a still more romantic place, originally founded
454 AUSTRALASIA.
bv the miners, but now a much-frequented rural retreat. The few travellers bound
for the almost uninhabited Stewart Island embark at Invercargill.
The small groups of islands not subject to the administrative system of the
mainland have a collective area of 1,170 miles, with a total population of about
Fig. 197. CHATHAM ISLAND.

Scale 1 :
900,000.
Depths.
OtoSO 50 Fathoms
Fathoms. and upwards,
_ IS Miles.
six hundred souls. Of these groups the largest is Chatham, or Warelinttri, whose
capital, Waitangi, lies on Petre Bay, an inlet on the south-west side here are the ;
headquarters of the Maori invaders of the island. Pitt, or Bntaritnri, south of the
larger island, is a basalt table 600 feet high, mostly overgrown with scrub and
NEW ZEALAND. ADJACENT ISLANDS. 455
nearly uninhabited. The other more southerly groupsBounty, Antipodes, Auck-

land, Campbell, Macquarie were never occupied except by temporary visitors,
shipwrecked crews, or whalers. In 1874 Campbell was the station chosen by the
French astronomers for observing the transit of Venus across the solar disc. On
the same occasion the German expedition occupied Auckland, which is
permanently
inhabited only by a single family of graziers.
The Kcrmadec islands, lying some 600 miles north-east of New Zealand on the
Fig. 198. PBOVINCES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Scale 1 : 13,000,000.
5! ',5
ms ''JJ
Lasb cF Greenwich 178-
. 300 Mile-!.
submarine bed connecting this archipelago with the Tonga group, were formally
annexed to Australia and to the British colonial empire in 1887. When discovered
in the last century by Watts and d'Entrecasteaux they were uninhabited, and
hiiveremained in nearly the same state ever since. At present the large island of
Rnonl (Sunday Ixlaiid) has a little village at the foot of its wooded volcanic cone
1,600 feet high. A depot of supplies for shipwrecked sailors has here been estab-
456 AUSTRALASIA.
by the British Government. The other two smaller islands are also
lished of
eruptive origin, and have collectively an area of about 20 square

miles. Formerly
the Kermadec. group was probably a station for Polynesian emigrants, as they now
form a connecting link between the British colonies of New Zealand and Fiji.
They lie within the New Zealand vegetable zone.
Since the year 1853 New Zealand has ceased to be a Crown colony, and is now
self-governed by a Parliament of two Chambers

and a minister, besides the Governor
appointed by the Queen. The Legislative Council, that is the Upper Chamber,
members also appointed by the Queen amongst them are
consists of forty-seven ;
two Maori. The Chamber of Representatives comprises ninety-four elected members,

of whom four are Maori. All resident citizens twenty-one years of age and
upwards are electors and eligible. The members of Parliament receive a grant of
200 for travelling expenses.
The department of public instruction one of the most liberally endowed

is
branches of the public service. According to the law of 1877 education is at once
obligatory, gratuitous, and secular, and comprises the rudiments of the sciences,
besides drawing, vocal music, domestic economy, and military exercises.
Secondary
and university instruction are provided for by a large number of colleges, of which
those of Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin are affiliated to the University.
These high schools are^ richly endowed with public grants of many hundred thou-
sand acres of land. The body of examiners constituting the University confers
the same degrees as Cambridge and Oxford. But despite the large sums voted for
educational purposes about one-fifth of the population is still illiterate.
In 1886 the defensive forces numbered over 8,000, all volunteers, besides a
corps of 1,667 cadets. A division of the Australian fleet comprising two men-of-
war and a few torpedoes protects the seaboard, while the approaches to the four
chief towns Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin are defended
by fortifications.
The New Zealand budget is enormous compared with the population, and the
public debt is
relatively heavier than that of all other civilised states, France not
excepted. The Government undertakes the charge of life insurances and the
administration of the public domains.
In the Appendix will be found a table of the provinces, formerly little autono-
mous and confederate states, now simple electoral and administrative districts.
x
-.
.
-
1
.A _ P ;
(> i o fCi
3 - -i / <?
CHAPTER X.
THE FIJI ISLANDS.
HIS large archipelago of the south equatorial zone is not even officially
designated by the name given to it by the inhabitants themselves
The term Fijisimply a Tonga mispronunciation of the native
is
word Viti, these islands having thus lost the very right to name
themselves, while entering by a constitutional fiction into the num-
ber of the independent Australasian states. In point of fact Fiji is a simple
political possession of Australasia, belonging to a limited number of planters, who
cultivate their lands by coolie labour introduced from the surrounding islands and
even from India, while the natives themselves perish in the villages of the interior.
Yet the archipelago occupies a considerable area, and is so favoured by a fertile
soil and genial climate that it
might easily support a population of two millions.
Tasman discovered the eastern part of the group, which he named in a
first
general way "Prince Willem Islands." In 1774 Cook merely sighted Turtle
(Vatoa) Island, and in 1789 the Fiji waters were traversed by Bligh, when,
abandoned by most of his crew and perishing of hunger and thirst, he made his
way to the Eastern Archipelago. Fiji was again visited in 1797 by Wilson, after
which time numerous trading vessels opened relations with the natives, chiefly for
the purchase of trepang and sandalwood. But the scientific exploration was not
begun till 1827 with Dumont d'Urville's first expedition in 1838 the same
;
navigator resumed the survey of the archipelago, which was continued in 1840 by
the American Wilkes, accompanied by Dana and other men of science. Then
came the missionaries and isolated travellers, and Fiji was one of the best known
oceanic groups when it was annexed to the British colonial empire in 1874. The
d'Urville and Wilkes and
hydrographic survey of the coasts, begun by Dumont
extended by Denham and Hosken, was completed in all its details by Moore, who,
of the group.
during his ihrec years' expedition, coasted every part
The chief island, Viti-Levu, that is, "Great Viti," is of oval form, its main axis
being disposed in the direction from west to east. Viti-Levu, one of the largest
islands in equatorial Polynesia, is entirely mountainous, with densely wooded
extinct volcanoes 4,000 and even 5,000 feet high. The argillaceous soil, of a
colour, consists of decomposed scoria, which
or dull red are extremely
yellow
productive wherever exposed to a copious rainfall. The plains themselves are
458 AUSTKALASIA.
naturally watered by hundreds of streams and brooklets, and even rivers accessible
for some distance to steamers. One of these, the Wai-Levu ("Great Water"),
commonly called Rewa-Rewa, embraces in its catchment basin over one-third of
the island, and forms a considerable delta at its mouth on the south-east coast ;
the
tides ascend 26 miles and boats 50 miles farther inland.
Vanua-Levu, or "Great Island," the second in extent, lies north-east of Viti-

Levu, and encloses between its two eastern peninsulas the extensive Nateva Bay,
" Dead Sea," owing to the stillness of its waters. This island
.
also called the is also
Pig. 199. FIJI ISLANDS.

Scale 1 : 16,000,000.
!-
177
Depths.
to 250 250 to 1,003 1,000 Fathoms

180 Miles.
volcanic, sending down from its hills numerous thermal rivulets. It is connected
with Viti-Levu by barrier reefs, which may perhaps indicate a former coastline,
and above which rise several other islands. The large outer reef, whose long
convex curve is pierced by an opening in the north-west, supports the little Yasawa
and Mamanutha archipelagoes on the inner reef stand the islets of Mbauand Ovalau,
;
famous in Fiji history as political centres of the whole group at various epochs.
Besides the two large islands there are two others of average size, the volcanic
Kandavu in the south-west, important as the nearest land to New Zealand and
Australia and encircled on the north by a long fringing reef; and in the north-east
Tavuini, dominated by a volcano with flooded crater 2,500 feet high, and separated
FIJI. 459
from Yanua-Levu by the narrow picturesque Somo-Somo Strait. Of the other

members of the group not one has an area of 60 square miles, all
being for the most
part mere fragments of atolls or low hills fringed with coral reefs. The main chain
of these islets, sweeping round the east side of the archipelago from north to
south,
is designated
by the general name of Lau it resembles the rim of a submerged
;
cone open towards the sea on right side, and enclosing a few reef-fringed
its
islets. Altogether Fiji comprises 225 islands, of which about a hundred are
inhabited.
CLIMATE. FLOKA. FAUNA.

The windward and leeward sides of all the islands present remarkable contrasts
due which prevail throughout the year and
to the moist couth-east tradewinds,
support a luxuriant vegetation on the south and east slopes, while the drier oppo-
site sides are mostly under grass, with here and there a few odoriferous
pandanus
trees. Here the settlers find the more favourable tracts, already prepared by nature
for tillage and stock-breeding.
The mean temperature is somewhat lower than that of the continental lands
lying under the same latitude; but although the extreme heats are tempered by sea
breezes, the whites still complain of the fiery solar rays on the plantations of the
interior. There are two seasons, one relatively cool, from May to October, the other
warmer and more humid, for the rest of the year. This " wet
is
essentially the
season," when the moisture espacially in March is precipitated in tremendous
downpours, and at times accompanied by fierce gales and hurricanes. In 1871
Mbua received in a single day 15 inches of rain, as much as South Australia in a
whole year.
A tropical vegetation prevails in Fiji, where the outer fringe of cocoanut palms
and, in the few swampy mangrove thickets, are succeeded higher up by
districts,
tree-ferns, various species of palms and other equatorial plants partly covered with
parasitic orchids. In some places the flora is essentially Australian, with casuarinas,
acacias,and other forms, such as those occurring along the shores of the Gulf of
Carpentaria. Towards the altitude of 2,000 feet the seaboard vegetation is replaced
by other plants, amongst which no Alpine forms have yet been found. The botanist
Home, who has himself discovered over 300 new species, assigns 1,080 flowering
plants and 24-3 ferns and allied forms to the Fiji flora.
lake the other Pacific islands the archipelago is extremely poor in higher animal
life, the only mammals being a rat, some bats and the cetaceans of the surrounding
waters. But European domestic animals have been introduced and thrive well,
all
both the pig and cat having already reverted to the wild state. Berthold Seeman
has reckoned 46 species of birds, and reptiles, snakes and lizards are still more
numerous a few varieties of the frog in the eastern parts are the last representa-
;
tives of the batrachian family in the Oceanic world. The neighbouring seas are
inhabited by about 12o species of fishes, several of which are venomous and their
flesh poisonous. Sharks also are numerous, and some of these formidable animals
are confined exclusively to the estuaries.
460 AUSTRALASIA.
INHABITANTS OF FIJI.
The Fijians present affinities both with the western Melanesians and eastern
Polynesians, and areat least partly of mixed descent, although the majority approach
nearest to the former group. They are tall and robust, very brown or coppery,
sometimes even almost black, with abundant tresses intermediate between hair and
wool. Half-breeds are numei'ous and are often distinguished by almost European
features. Till recently they went nearly naked, wearing only the loin-cloth or
skirt of vegetable fibre, smearing the body with oil, and dyeing the hair with red
ochre. The women passed bits of stick or bark through the pierced lobe of the
ear, and nearly all the men carried a formidable club now they wear shirts,
;
hlouses, or dressing-gowns, or else drape themselves in blankets, and thus look more
and more needy labourers dressed in the cast-off clothes of their employers.
like
They display great natural intelligence, and according to Williams are remarkable
for a logical turn of mind, which enables Europeans to discuss questions with them
in a rational way. Their generosity is attested by the language itself, which
abounds in terms meaning to give, but has no word to express the acts of borrowing
or lending. Compared with their Polynesian neighbours, they are also distin-
guished by great reserve. Their meke or dances, always graceful and marked by
great decorum, represent little land or sea dramas, sowing, harvesting, fishing,
even the struggles between the rising tides and rocks.
At present all the Fijians are nominal Christians. The first missionaries, who
settled at Lekemba in the eastern group of islands 1835, gradually so early as
extended their influence, founding other stations in various parts of the archi-
pelago and even acquiring a share of authority with the chiefs. For the last fifty
years the history of the natives has been a record of endless rivalries and alliances
between the missionaries and planters, who are henceforth associated under the
protection of the British Government. The dominant religion is that of the
Wesleyans, comprising over 100,000 faithful some thousands have also become
;
Roman Catholics, while the Anglican Church, enjoying a considerable revenue,

yearly increases the number of its adherents.
At a great obstacle to the progress of Chri>tianity was a mistake made by
first
the missionaries, who, in the ignorance of their language, adopted as the name of
the Deity the word Kalu, which is applied by the people only to the secondary gods,
the patrons of the social classes, family groups, and professions. better term A
would have been Ndegei, the name of a mysterious being, who under the form of a
great serpent hidden in the deep caverns created and still preserves the universe.
Ancestry worship formerly prevailed the forefathers of the race had been
;
raised to the rank of gods, and some, renowned during life, had become potent
divinities invoked by the whole nation. As in most Polynesian islands, the exact
spot was shown where the dead started on their long journey to the unknown world
whence none return, and which lies far away in the region of the setting sun.
This Vanua-Levu, or " Land's End," lies at the extreme western headland of
ISTaikobokobo, whither the natives made frequent pilgrimages. They had also
powerful priests, who were able to hold commune with the souls of the dead and
FIJI.
461
ita the
gods, making them open their mouths before the assembled
Fig. 200. THE EOYAL FAM.LY, FIJI.
"3
tude. These priests also consulted all

living things, for not man alone but every-
462 AUSTRALASIA.
thing possesses a soul, animals, plants, even the houses, canoes, weapons, and imple-
ments of labour. The temples stood for the most part on natural or artificial
terraces, and consisted generally of an ordinary cabin erected on a square base or
else on a pyramidal pedestal. A magic wand, probably intended to ward off
evil influences, was placed horizontally above the roof made of branches and
foliage.
Cannibalism entered largely into the religious system of the Fijians. The
names " God of " God eater of
of certain deities, such as the Slaughter," and the
human brains," sufficiently attest the horrible nature of the rites held in their
honour. Religion also taught that all natural kindness was impious, that the gods
loved blood, and that not to shed it before them would be culpable hence those ;
wicked people who had never killed anybody in their lifetime were thrown to the
sharks after death. Children destined to be sacrificed for the public feasts were
delivered into the hands of those of their own age, who thus served their appren-
ticeship as executioners and cooks. The wives of the chiefs had to follow him to
the grave, and on certain occasions the sons consented to be buried alive in their
father's tomb, "happy victims highly acceptable to the gods." All protest against
their fate would have been regarded as an outrage, and it is related of a woman
rescued by the missionaries that she escaped during the night and delivered herself
up to the executioners. The aged and invalids frequently asked to be despatched,

and were then usually strangled in their graves.
The banquets of "long pig," that is, human flesh, were regarded as a sacred
ceremony from which the women and children were excluded, and while the men
used their fingers with all other food, they had to employ forks of hard wood at
these feasts. The ovens also in which the bodies were baked could not be used for
any other purpose. Notwithstanding certain restrictions human flesh was largely
consumed, and in various places hundreds of memorial stones were shown which
recalled the number of sacrifices. Near Namosi, in the interior of Viti-Levu,
there was a tribe, the Nalocas, who happening to offend a neighbouring kinglet,
was condemned to systematic extermination. Every year a single household was
put death and served up at the chief's banquet. After the feast the cabin was
to
burnt, and the place planted with taro and the solanum aitthropophagum, to serve
as the future accompaniment of the next family. Flight would have been imme-
diately punished with death, and the wretched victims had to remain on the spot
while the plants sprang up, blossomed, and ripened. On the harvest day the
ministers came to prepare the table, to cut the taro, and heat the great pot then ;
seizing the victims by the arms and legs they carried them off and dashod out their
brains against a sacred stone. When most of the community had thus perished,
the rest were reprieved and an old woman, last of the tribe, died a natural death
in 1860.
Thakumbau, who later became " a fervent Christian," and who was accepted by
the English as the " legitimate king " of the whole archipelago, was wont to indicate
with his club the person he should like prepared for his evening meal. If any
wretch dared to sue for pardon the king had his tongue torn out and devoured it
FIJI. 468
raw. He also amused himself by setting up a "tree of forbidden

fruit," on the
branches of which were hung up the more choice of human flesh
pieces reserved
for the royal table. Yet when the missionaries and English residents called on
the chiefs to put an end to cannibalism, the " conservative
party," sticklers for the
old usages, energetically defended the nation.il " that it
institutions," maintaining
was due to society to uphold the system of terror over the lower classes. But the
" radicals "
triumphed, and even before the British occupation human sacrifices
had everywhere ceased, as had also the atrocious custom of
launching war canoes
over the bodies of prostrate captives.
A great inducement to accept
the sovereignty of England was the dread of the
Tonga immigrants, who might overrun the archipelago, just as Tonga itself had
formerly been reduced by the Samoan ancestors of the Tongans. At first these
islanders dared not venture to land without
special permission, but, thanks to the
ever-increasing commercial relations, they gradually obtained a footing, especially
in the eastern islands lying nearest to
Tonga, and at last became numerous enough
to form independent communities in Lakemba and elsewhere. One of their chiefs
converted to Christianity took the missionaries as allies in
extending his conquests,
and at every treaty of peace required the
vanquished Fijians to burn their temples
and join the lotti of oil, that is to say, the Wesleyan Church, whose ministers
were paid in cocoanut oil. In 18-59, this victorious chief, who claimed to be
merely a lieutenant of the king of Tonga, found himself at the head of three
thousand victorious troops all the eastern islands together with Vanua-Levu had
;
already been reduced, and he was preparing to invade Viti-Levu when the British
consul Pritchard interfered and compelled the Tonga intruders to desist from all
further military or political intervention in the affairs of the archipelago.

The terror of the Tonga invasion was followed by the danger of extermination
by American or Australian whites. Some United States seafarers, having suffered
some wrong at the hands of King Thakumbau, demanded enormous
real or fancied
damages, which he would have been unable to pay had not a company of Austra-
lian speculators advanced the money in return for 200,000 acres of arable land in
the most fertile parts of the archipelago. Henceforth the white planters were
masters, and those natives who refused to work on the plantations with the coolies
from the New Hebrides, Samoa and India, were fain to withdraw to the remote
valleys of the interior.
Even the annexation was at first followed by disaster, over thirty thousand
natives having perished in a few weeks from a frightful outbreak of small-pox,
accidentally introduced from Australia in 1875. The population still continues

to decrease, and although the number of inhabitants at the arrival of the whites
isuncertain, the decay of the race is placed beyond doubt by the ruined villages,
the deserted islands, and more recently by the more or less accurate returns of the
regular census. Of late years the whites themselves have become less numerous,
owing to the fluctuations of trade. An indication of the unhappy social conditions
now prevalent afforded by the fact that the women are in a minority both
is
amongst the natives and the strangers, either arriving voluntarily or else intro-
464 AUSTEALASIA.
duced as labourers on the plantations. Every year the mortality is also greatly in
excess of the births.
A
great variety of plants are cultivated in the archipelago. A
species of yam
supplies the staple of food for the natives, who also raise large crops of the taro
or dato but the sandalwood so largely exported at the beginning of the century
;
is nearly exhausted, while the dakua, or Fiji pine (dammara Vitiensis), resembling
the New Zealand kauri, has become very rare. The shores are fringed by hun-
dreds of thousands of cocoanuts, owned, however, not by the natives, but by the
planters, who
export the oil and copra to Europe and Australia. One of the
plants most utilised for the local industries is the malo (broussonetia papyri/era), the
bark of which is pounded by the women to the consistency of a stout pliant fabric
used as a loin-cloth or toga, and even for making fancy paper. Naturally of a pure
white colour, this cloth is dyed in various designs by a process which resembles
printing, by means of carefully prepared bits of bamboo charged with pigment.

The natural or acclimatised flora abounds in plants valuable for their fruits,
edible roots, drugs, spices, fibres, colours, gums or resins, and if the plantations
have hitherto proved little remunerative, the fact must be attributed not so much
to the destructive cyclones as to the evils associated with the prevailing system of
contract labour. years of the colonisation the American Civil
During the first
War rapidly enriched the planters by the sudden impulse given to cotton growing.
But since that time labour has become too dear to allow this industry to compete
with the growers of the Southern States, and Fiji now exports only a few bales of
cotton. Tobacco is raised exclusively by the natives, and at present the chief
agricultural industries are the preparation of cocoanut oil, copra, and sugar. Up
to theyear 1882 the public lands sold to planters had a total area of over 280,000
acres. The foreign trade is mostly in the hands of the English and Australians,
although some Hamburg houses are also represented by a few local agents.
Levuka, the former capital, being inconveniently situated on the east side of
Ovalau Island, the centre of government was removed to the new capital, Sura,
near the southern extremity of Viti-Levu between the deltas of the two largest
rivers, and not far from Revm, the largest village of the interior. But the port of
call for ocean steamers lies in Nyalao Bay, south of Kandava Island, where the
waters are deeper and less obstructed by reefs. Scieu-Savu Bay, south of Vanua-
Levu is also frequented by skippers. Near the port copious thermal springs
bubble up on the beach.
The natives take no part in the administration of the archipelago, which
is a Crown colony, with a Governor and executive council named by the Queen,
and a legislative council of thirteen members, seven ex officio and six chosen
by
the Governor. Fiji is divided into twelve districts under paid chiefs.
The yearly budget has fallen off with the decrease of the population, while
the public debt grows from year to year. Fiji has, in fact, disappointed the
expectations of the first white settlers, and the local traders have already several
times petitioned the Victoria Parliament to undertake its administration. In 1881

the volcanic island of Rotuma, lying 300 miles to the north-west, was formally
FIJI. 465
annexed by England to Fiji. The interior of this hilly islet, scarcely 14 square
miles in extent, has been transformed to an enclosure for wild
pigs, which with
palm groves and gardens constitute its chief wealth. Like the Fijians, the
Rotumans, skilful and daring seafarers, have been subjected to the influence of
Fig. 201. STTTA AND LEVCKA.

Scale 1 :
570,000.
East oF Greenwich 178 178 so-
Depths.
Rock and Sands ex- OtoSO 80 to 640

'
640 Feet and
posed at low water. Feet. Feet. upwards.
. 12 Miles.
the Tongans, who, even before the arrival of the English missionaries,
had
converted most of them to "VVesleyan Christianity; but the natives, like so many
other Polynesians, are dying out.
. so o
CHAPTER XI.
EQUATORIAL POLYNESIA.
OLYNESIA is one of those vague geographical terms which have
been variously applied to more or less extensive aggregates of

oceanic islands. Fromthe purely geographical standpoint these
are insular groups of small extent, scattered over the Pacific east
of the great archipelagoes and continental regions of the Philip-
pines, New Guinea, and Australia. But ethnographically considered Polynesia,

that is, the " Many Islands," consists of the east oceanic clusters inhabited by the
light brown race Malays in speech, but differing greatly from them in
allied to the
physical appearance, usages, and traditions. Hence, from, the ethnical point
of view, both New Zealand in the Antarctic hemisphere and Hawaii in the
northern hemisphere would form part of Polynesia. But these outlying regions,
80 far removed from the equator, are so clearly distinguished by their climate and
geographical constitution from the other Polynesian groups, that they have to be
studied apart. The Ellice Archipelago, also, whose inhabitants are likewise Poly-
nesians, belong to the same insular chain as the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
Within its restricted limits
Polynesia, properly so called, lies almost entirely
between the equator and the tropic of Capricorn. But even within these limits it
still presents a considerable extent of land scattered over about 1,200,000 square
miles of oceanic waters, and disposed in eleven chief groups, with here and there
little clusters in twos and threes, or even
solitary islands of every form, with a
collective area estimated at
nearly 4,000 square miles. Of the several islands,
about two hundred and twenty have an area of at least half a mile and upwards ;
but it would be impossible to number all the thousands of distinct islets and reefs,
which form the rings of countless atolls, and which are awash with the surface,
appearing and disappearing with the alternation of the tides.

Like most other oceanic lands, the East Polynesian Islands are disposed in
certain uniform directions. With the exception of Tonga, which belongs to the
New Zealand system, and connected with that archipelago through the Eermadec
is
group, all the Polynesian islands are arranged in the direction from north-west to
south-east in parallel chains, whose true form is shown more distinctly by that of
the submerged banks revealed by the sounding-line. Excluding the less impor-
tant prominences, six main ridges follow with striking regularity from the Niue
EQUATORIAL POLYNESIA. 467
(Inui) to the
Marquesas group, all separated one from the other by profound
chasms, with a mean depth of 2,000 fathoms. The first and least clearly defined
of these ridges is attached to the north-east
angle of the Tonga Archipelago im-
mediately to the east of the deepest trough yet measured in the southern waters,
where the Egerla recorded 4,500 fathoms in 1888.* Niue is the
only inhabitable
land presented by this first chain, which has nevertheless a total
length of 1,800
miles. The other prominences along this line are mere
rocks, reefs, shoals, or
sandbanks, all terminating in the islet of Maria Theresa, which rises amid
deep
waters at the south-east
extremity of the submarine bank.
On the other hand the second parallel range is marked a number of by large
Pig. 202. TBEND OF THE POLYNESIAN ISLANDS.

Scale 1 :
90,000,000.
30'
iBO' West or Greenwich

Dtpths,
cz:
to 1.000 1.000Fat horns
,
1,800 Miles.
upraised lands, beginning in the north-west with Samoa, one member of which is
the largest in Polynesia. Then follow the little Palmerston and Cook clusters,
the whole terminating with the more scattered Tubuai Archipelago. The third
line, less regular in its general disposition, but still
clearly traced by the sub-
marine soundings, runs from the Tokelau group through Pukapuka and Suvarov to
the Society Islands. Beyond this point a few islets, usually assigned to the Tuamotu
Archipelago, might be equally well regarded as belonging to the same system as
the Tahiti (Society) group. Although isolated by abysmal depths, such as those
of Ililgard and Miller, west and east, the Phomix cluster is disposed in the same
Penrhyn Islands (Manahiki) forming the north-

direction as Tahiti, as are also the
west extremity of the fourth range. This range, running south-east through the
main axis of Tuamotu, curves slightly round so as to present its convex side to the
equator. To the same range belong Pitcairn and Easter, as well as Sala y Gomez,
8' E. long.
'
In 24 37 S. lat. ; 173
468 AUSTRALASIA.
the last Polynesian land in the direction of Asia. Farther east tue Pacific is
entirely free of islands for a space of about 1,600 miles, and Juan Fernandez,
although in a line with Tuamotu and Easter, must be regarded as a geographical
dependency of the American continent.
North of the Central Polynesian axis follow two other ranges, one comprising
Maiden, Caroline, and the northern chain of the Low Archipelago, the other
beginning north of the equator with Samarang, New York, Christmas, and
Fanning, often collectively named America Islands, and terminating with the
isolated swarm of the Marquesas, still 3,000 miles from the Californian peninsula,
and even 2,000 from Hawaii.

Like other oceanic populations, the Polynesians have been brought under the
Fig. 203. VOLCANIC ISLANDS OF EASTERN POLYNESIA.

Scale 1 :
100.000,000.
\ . .
\V*svTt/e
30> Faster I.
^
ISO- eridian or Greenwich llO'
1.800 Miles.
influence of the European missionaries and traders, and the clash of national and
religious interests has resulted in the official annexation of most of the archi-
pelagoes. England is supreme in the western parts, where Tonga and Tokelau come
within the political attraction of her Australian possessions. Owing to its central
position in the mid-Pacific Samoa forms a bone of contention between the rival
British,American, and Germanic powers, and to their diplomatic conflicts are due
the civil wars that have long raged in the archipelago. The less important
Phoonix, Funning, Enderbury, Maiden, and other guano producing islands, though
often attributed to the United States, have hitherto remained unoccupied. But
Tahiti, together with the Low and Marquesas groups, are henceforth recognised
as belonging to France, which is thus paramount in the easternmost parts of Poly-
nesia.
Geologically this region differs in no respect from Micronesia. The vol-

canoes, extinct in the east, are now confined to Tonga and Samoa, the former group
continuing the igneous system of New Zealand. Here Tofua (2,800 feet) was the
scene of an eruption in 1885, and Kao (5,000
feet) has been frequently disturbed
during the historic period. Late", west of the Vavao group, emitted flames in
and northern Fonualai
1854, its
neighbour (Amargura) was nearly blown away by
a terrific explosion in 1846. Niua, which stands in a line with the volcanic axis,
/ Fig. 204. TONOA-TABU.

Scale 1 :
700,000.
Depths.
to 1.000 1.000 Fathoms

Fathoms and upwards.
__ 12 Miles.
presents a remarkably regular oval shape, with a lake of like form within the
circuit of its vast crater. Tonga really comprises two distinct chains, a western
with several lofty isolated cones, and an eastern consisting of low islands. Here
the large island of Tonga-Tabu itself is merely a level plain of coralline sands un-
derlying a thick layer of extremely fertile vegetable humus. The whole island is
covered with a rich vegetation of bread-fruit trees, palm-groves, and bananas.
Other coralline islands, such as the picturesque Vavao group and Niue farther east
have been raised to a certain height above sea-level.
470 AUSTEALASIA.
Samoa, which is regularly disposed in a long chain, is entirely volcanic, present-

ing nothing but basalt rocks, cither still compact or reduced to tuffas and scoria?,
and differing greatly in age. Some are completely weathered on the surface,
while others appear to have little changed since the time when the lava streams
overflowed from their fiery furnaces. Tutuila, easternmost of the three large
islands, hasno longer a central crater, all the cones having been obliterated by
weathering, while profound ravines have been opened in the flanks of the moun-
tains, whose original outlines can no longer be recognised. TJpolu, farther west,
presents a somewhat similar aspect, though the volcanoes have preserved their
regular slopes, scoriae, and craters in some districts.

Lastly, the large island of Savaii, in the extreme west, forms a single igneous
Fig. 205. -SAMOA.

Pcale 1 : S.snO.OOO.
West of Greenwich 172
Depths.
Oto 1.000 1,000 tn 2.000 2.000Fathoms

, 60 Miles.
mass, an Etna with central crater, with gently inclined slopes dotted over with
numerous parasitic cones. A
continuous forest clothes the central summit and the
zone of secondary crests, while every crater is embowered in verdure. Of all
the Samoan islands Savaii has the narrowest fringe of coral reefs, which Dana
attributes to the shorter period that has elapsed since the extinction of its vol-
canoes. The eastern islets also present the same coralline formation, relatively
larger in proportion to the longer time they have been quiescent. Rose, last link
of the chain, is probably an atoll built up
by the polyps on the summit of an igneous
crest. Even on the reefs are seen here and there fragments of basalt, perhaps
deposited by the floating trunks of trees, or thrown out by passing boats as useless
ballast.
The various groups continuing the Sumoan range south-eastwards also consist
either of volcanoes or upheaved coral rocks, with hut few atolls. The Cook Islands
have several cones 300 or 400 feet high, overtopped by the majestic Raratonga,
which attains an elevation of 4,000 feet. Of like formation are the Tubuai or
Austral Islands, whose reef-fringed igneous crests continue the line of the Samoan
system.
But the loftiest volcanic mountains in equatorial Polynesia are those of the
Fig. 200. GAMBIEE ABCHIPELAOO.

Scale 1 : '200.000.
West oF G'eenwr.ch
Depths.
Oto12 12 to 600 50" Futhoms

3 Miles.
Tahiti or Society group. Here Maupiti, rising over 300 feet above an atoll, is
followed by the twin-crested Bora-Bora (2,300 feet), Tahaa (1,300 feet), Huabine
to the superb group of Tahiti
(1,180 feet), and the isolated Tapamanoa, leading
proper. Moorea or Kimeo, westernmost of this group, is dominated by the long
extinct Tohivea (4,000 feet), whose decomposed lavas now support a luxuriant
472 AUSTRALASIA.
tropical vegetation. Of more symmetrical form is Taiti Nui ("Great Tahiti"),

whose regular cone occupies the centre of the island, which is connected on the
" Little
south-east by a narrow tongue of land with Taiti Iti, or Tahiti." Komo,
highest peak of the latter (3,700 feet), is nearly doubled in height by the superb
Orohena (7,335 feet), which springs from the centre of Great Tahiti. The neigh-
Fig. 207. THE MABQUESAS.

Scale 1 : 2,000,000.
140 .West oF Greenwich 139
Depths.
to 1,0110 1,000 tn 2.000 Fathoms

2.000
. SO Miles.
bouring Aorai is
nearly as lofty, while several of the surrounding satellites of these
two monarchs attain an altitude of 5,000 feet. Orohena, that is, "Soil of the Gods,"
terminating in a cluster of vertical basalt columns, has never been scaled, and even
the more accessible Aorai was only ascended for the first time in 1882. Some
hundred and fifty streams or rivulets rushing in cascades over the basalt terraces
have gradually deposited the rich detritus of the eruptive rocks on the narrow
zone of plains encircling the island with a

fringe of verdure about two miles deep ;
the deposits are prevented from carried seawards an outer barrier of reefs.
being by
The Manahiki islets, scattered to the north-west of Tahiti, are all like
"low,"
those of the great archipelago This Low
specially designated by that name.
Archipelago, formerly known as Pomotu ("Lands of Night" or "Mystery"),
and at present as Tuamotu (" Remote Lands" ), might well have retained the
name of " Dangerous " given to it
by Bougainville. Nearly all the visible islets
are atolls or mere reefs perilous to navigators. Before the introduction
extremely
of the cocoanut the only arborescent were the pandanus and a species of
plants
box called mikimiki. Of the 78 islets composing the archipelago properly so
called 74 appear to be under 14 feet
high, and the few that attain an eminence
of 120 feet look like veritable mountains.
Possessing no lagoons of smooth water
they are avoided by skippers. The atolls are generally of a regular oval shape
disposed in the direction of the archipelago itself, that is, north-west and south-
east.
South-east of Tuamotu the relatively large inland of Mangareva forms with a

few elevated a distinct volcanic group, known as the Gambier
islets
Archipelago,
and memorable in connection with the researches of Darwin on the oscillations of
the terrestrial crust. The whole group is enveloped in an outer coral reef appa-
rently indicating the ancient coastline of now submerged land, which, according
to the illustrious naturalist, slowly subsided, while the exterior
rim was kept near
the surface by ihe coral builders. But whatever is to be said of this theory, which
has recently been contested by Guppy, Murray, and others, it is certain that
Gambier consists essentially of an igneous nucleus round which the polyps have
raised their coral structures. Daff, the central eminence (1,'<)00 feet), is an extinct
volcano, as are all the other heights scattered over the inner waters.
Apart from a few atolls and coral reefs the

Marquesas are all old volcanoes, or
groups of volcanoes, probably extinct for many ages, and no longer anywhere pre-
senting the regular form of cones with terminal craters and lava sheets. Nuka-
hiva, largest member of the archipelago, shows on west side nothing but steep
its
cliffs and
stony plateaux almost destitute of vegetation but the central part, source
;
of the largest stream, is enclosed by a circle of hills culminating in a peak 3,860
feet high. Hiva-oa has better preserved its primitive architecture, still forming
an amphitheatre of volcanic hills, one of which is the highest point in the archi-
pebgo (4,140 feet).
The solitary Easter Island, on the eastern verge of Polynesia, is a huge block
of lava, terminating in a volcano ruptured at the three corners of its triangular
mas?. The summit at the north-west .angle rises 1,640 feet sheer above the
highest
surface of the water.
CLIMATE. FLORA. FAUNA.
Equatorial Polynesia is almost entirely comprised within the zone of the south-
east trade winds, the groups north of the equator being alone exposed to north-
east breezes, which in summer veer round to the north-west, or become variable
474 AUSTRALASIA.
currents. In these waters hurricanes are rare, although they Mow at times with
extreme violence, especially in the Low Archipelago and in Samoa. In 1878 a
the capital. Another tremendous
cyclone passing over Tuamotu swept away Anaa,
and almost completely wrecked the
typhoon visited Samoa in March, 1889,
American and German fleets riding at anchor in the harbour of Apia. The
British cruiser Calliope alone escaped uninjured by making for the open sea in
the teeth of such a gale as had not been known in the archipelago for nearly thirty
years.
The hilly islands, such as Nuka-hiva, Tahiti, Raratonga, Upolu, and Savaii,
receive an abundant rainfall at least on
lying along the track of the trade-winds,
their windward slopes. But the low insular groups, which are unable to arrest
the moist atmospheric currents, are much drier, and at times never receive a single
downpour for years together. The islands lying within this almost rainless zone
of guano, and some are even still
were, till lately, covered with thick deposits
worked with Such are Baker, the neighbouring Rowlands, and farther
profit.
east Jarvis and Maiden.
In its flora and fauna Equatorial Polynesia is essentially Melanesian. Although
American forms occur, nearly all its plants and animals have come from the west,
which would seem to imply that these archipelagoes are not surviving fragments
of a submerged continent. Tahiti, Samoa, and other lands enjoying a copious
rainfall are clothed with an exuberant tropical vegetation, but distinct animal and
vegetable species are everywhere few in number. In the Low Archipelago Gray
failed to discover more than 28 or 30 indigenous plants, and before the arrival of
the whites a species of rat, said to have been half domesticated in Mangareva, was
ihe only mammal found in equatorial Polynesia. Here also a centipede 6 inches
long is the only venomous animal.
INHABITANTS OF POLYNESIA.
Fromthe ethnical standpoint Polynesia forms a distinct domain in the oceanic
world, although its inhabitants do not appear to be altogether free from mixture
with foreign elements. The vestiges of older civilisations differing from the
present even prove that human nrgrations and revolutions have taken place in this
region on a scale large enough to cause the displacement of whole races. The
curious monuments of Easter Island, although far inferior in artistic work to the
wood carvings of Birara and New Zealand, may perhaps be the witnesses of a
former culture, no traditions of which have survived amongst the present aborigines.
These monuments may possibly be the work of a Papuan people, for skulls found
in the graves differ in no essential feature from those of New Guinea. The
" statues " are enormous basalt
rocks, one no less than 23 feet long, representing
the head and bust of persons with uniformly low forehead, prominent superciliary
arches, long nose, wide nostrils, large mouth, thin lips, and stern expression.
According to Clements Markham they resemble the Aymara (Bolivian and Peru-
vian) more than the present Polynesian type. Most of them are erected on basalt
ledges in the interior of a crater, and some have been left unfinished or not com-
pletely detached from the primitive rock. The

surrounding district is strewn wilh
obsidian implements, scrapers, and knives, doubtless the instruments
employed by
this extinct race of In Easter Island are also seen avenues with
sculptors.
regular
flag pavements and walls embellished with little obelisks, besides tablets of toro-
miro, a species of hard-grained acacia, on which are
carefully inscribed in regular
lines objects of various kinds, such as
fishes, turtles, snakes, plants, shells, men and
their weapons. Most of these " speaking " tablets, or
hieroglyphics, are preserved
in the museum of Santiago, Chili, but do not
they appear to have yet been inter-
preted, although a chief, who died about 1850, was said to understand and even
Fig. 208. EASTEK ISLAND.

Scale 1 : 300,000.
Hep hs.
Oto25 25 to 1.000 1.000Fathoms

6 Miles.
write these characters. Other monuments occur in Fanning, Rapa, and elsewhere,
and in Tonga-Tabu isseen a sort of triumphal arch.
The Polynesians properly so called, to whom the collective terms Mahori and
Savaiori have also been applied, and who call themselves Kanaka, that is,
"
Men,"
have a light brown or coppery complexion, and rather exceed the tallest Europeans
in stature. In Tonga and Samoa nearly all the men are athletes of fine proportions,
with black and slightly wavy hair, fairly regular features and proud glance. They
are a laughter-loving light-hearted people, fond of music, song, and the dance, and
where not visited by wars and the contagion of European "culture," the happiest
and most harmless of mortals. When Dumont d'Urville questioned the Tukopians
as to the doctrine of a future life with rewards for the good and punishment for
the wicked, they replied " Amongst us there are no wicked people."
:
476 AUSTEALASiA.
The various idioms current in Eastern Polynesia all spring from one stock and
are closely related to each other both in structure and vocabulary.

still More
distantly akin to the Malay family, they represent an older period of development,
and would seem to imply greater racial purity on the part of the Polynesians them-
selves. They are poor in sounds, but soft and harmonious, no syllable ending in a
Fig. 209. TATTOOED NATIVE OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS.
>
?'
consonant, and the vowels everywhere predominating. Till lately almost unin-
flected, they have in recent years been considerably modified by the missionaries
ignorant of their true genius, and are now largely affected by English words and
expressions.
Tattooing was widespread, and so highly developed that the artistic designs
EQUATOEIAL POLYNESIA. 477
covering the body served also to clothe it ;

but this costume is now being replaced
Fig. 210. SAMOAN WOMEH.
by the cotton garments introduced by the missionaries. In certain islands the

478 AUSTRALASIA.
operation lasted so long that it had

to be begun before the children were six years
and the was largely left to the skill and cunning of the professional
old, pattern
tattooers. Still traditional motives recurred in the ornamental devices of the
several tribes, who could usually be recognised by their special tracings, curved or
parallel lines, diamond forms and the like. The artists were grouped in schools
like the Old Masters in Europe, and they worked not by incision as in most
Melanesian islands, but by punctures with a small comb-like instrument slightly
tapped with a mallet. The pigment used in the painful and even dangerous opera-
tion fine charcoal yielded by the nut of aleurites tri/oba, an
was usually the
oleaginous plant used for illumining purposes throughout Eastern Polynesia.
The Polynesians are wrongly supposed to have been unacquainted with the bow
and arrow. In Tonga and Samoa these weapons were used in the battle-field, and
in the eastern archipelagoes they figured at the civil or religious feasts, or as mere
playthings. Except where anthropophagy formed part of the mythical ceremonies,
the only animal food was fish, shell-fish and pork, and even this diet was generally
forbidden to the women, sometimes under pain of death. In most of the groups
fruits, grains, edible roots and sometimes fermented and pounded to a paste,
leaves,
sufficed to nourish the natives, and were mostly yielded by bountiful nature with
little labour on their part. At every repast the never-failing beverage was kam,
which the young women prepared by masticating the slightly pungent leaves and
fibre of the piper methisticum, still cultivated in the gardens for this purpose. After
fermentation the liquor becomes clear, pleasant to the taste, very refreshing and
but slightly intoxicating. Indulged in too freely, however, it is said to cause
general debility and skin diseases. Since its interdiction by the missionaries, it has
been almost everywhere replaced by the more dangerous brundy distilled from
orange juice.
In Samoa the women were much respected, and every village had its patroness,
usually the chief's daughter, who represented the community at the civil and
religious feasts, introduced strangers to the tribe, and diffused general happiness
by their cheerful demeanour and radiant beauty. But elsewhere the women,
though as a rule well treated, were regarded as greatly inferior to the men. At
the religious ceremonies the former were noa, or profane, the latter ra, or sacred,
and most of the interdictions of things tabooed fell on the weaker sex. The women
never shared the family meal, and they were regarded as common property in the
household of the chiefs, where polygamy was the rule. Before the arrival of the
Europeans infanticide was systematically practised ;

in Tahiti and some other
groups there existed a special caste, amongst whom this custom was even regarded
as a duty. Hence doubtless arose the habit of adopting strange children, almost
where it gave rise to all manner of complications connected
universal in Tahiti,
with the tenure and inheritance of property.
In Polynesia the government was almost everywhere centred in the hands of
powerful chiefs, against whose mandates there was no appeal. A vigorous hier-
archy separated the social classes one from another, proprietors being subject to
the chiefs, the poor to the rich, the women to the men; but over all custom reigned
supreme. This law of taboo, which regulated all movements and

every individual
act, often pressed hard even on its and the terrible
promulgators, it penalties
enforced against the contumacious
certainly contributed to increase the ferocity of
the oceanic populations. Almost the
only punishment was death, and human
sacrifices in honour of the gods were the
crowning religious rite. In some places
the victims were baked on the altars, and their flesh
wrapped in taro leaves was
distributed amongst the warriors.
Yet despite the little value attached to human
life, the death of adult men gave
rise to much mourning and solemn obsequies. Nor was this respect for the
departed
an empty ceremonial, for the ancestors of the
Polynesians were raised to the rank
Kg. 211. EELIQIONS OF OOEANIA.

Scale 1 :
180,000.000.
*; '. -<
c-
^ ,'%, % ' '>

0'
,.^
o^'&B-w^-x&v '
*"> j ^ "Ts^"
Xtk
...p.
S-^,^- :#
^ *& *< '
* .".;*
*
ir
4 40'
100' Meridian op GreenveVi ISO- ISC'
4 B M C P
Aniiuists. Brahmanists. Mohammedans. Catholics. Protestants.
rp re
Catholics more numerous than Protestant!. Protestants more numerous than Catholics.
1,800 Miles.
of gods, taking their place with those who hurled the thunderbolt and stirred up
the angry waters. A
certain victorious hero thus became the God of War, and had
to be propitiated with supplications. But the common folk and captives were held
to be " soulless," although a spirit was attributed to nearly all natural objects.
But for about half a century nearly all the Polynesians have practised some
form of Christianity. The work of conversion was begun in 1797 by the establish-
ment of the Protestant station at Tahiti, whence the missionaries gradually spread
their influence throughout Polynesia. They were followed by the Catholics, who
though numerous and possessing smaller revenues, have everywhere made
less
proselytes in some places, and especially in the French possessions, they even
;
already outnumber the Protestants. Civil strife has often been stirred up by the
friction of the rival religions. Where the priests hold undisputed sway theocratic
480 AUSTRALASIA.
and in Gambier a Catholic missionary attempted

governments have been constituted,
to transform the island of Mangareva into a vast monastery. On the other hand
the English Protestants in the Cook Islands and for a time even in Tahiti deprived
non-communicants of all civil and political rights,

and regulated social customs,
attitudes, salutations, and the whole conduct of

the natives.
In their institutions, myths, religious rites, and many other respects the Poly-
nesians betray diverse affinities to all their western neighbours, Papuans, Indo-
nesians, Malays, and even Japanese. They also present numerous analogies with
the natives of North and South America, and more especially with the Araucanians
of Chili. It seems therefore possible that the Americans have had their share in
Fig. 212. INHABITANTS OF OCEANIA.

Scale 1 : 180,000,000.
B
iOO Meridian op Greenwich
Malays, Indonesians. Australians. British. Papuans. Micronesians. Polynesians.
.N .E. .B. .M .H
Bum. Baura. Maori. Havaiki.
_____^
Negritoes.
1,800 Miles.
the interminglings that have taken place throughout the eastern archipelagoes, the
more so that the normal winds and currents set in the direction from east to west.
Recent historical facts show that migrations from the mainland to the islands and
from one archipelago to another may often take place under certain favourable
conditions. Thus in 1832 a Japanese junk with nine fishermen drifted for ten
months with the winds and currents, finally landing at Oahu in Hawaii. About
the same time another Japanese bark was stranded on the American coast, and
similar unwilling voyages have frequently been made between the Philippine,
Caroline, and Marshall groups. The Tahitians and seafarers returning from the
Low Archipelago also speak of numerous migrations made even in the contrary
direction to the normal winds. Similar cases are attested by the unanimous tradi-
tions of the natives, so that

interminglings could certainly have taken place at
various times throughout the vast Pacific basin.
But although migrations
may evidently have occurred in all directions,
physical
resemblance, speech, usages, and traditions all point to the western lands near Asia
as the region whence most of the
Polynesian islanders reached their present homes.
Ethnologists have also shown that the general eastward movement must be referred
to a very remote epoch,
certainly prior to the spread of Hindu influence in
Malaysia, for no trace of Sanskrit can be found in the
Polynesian languages.
According to Hamy their nearest kindred should be
sought amongst those tall,
light-corn plexioned Indonesians,who have been driven into the interior by the in-
truding Malays, and who under the common name of Alf urus are often confounded
with the Negrito or Papuan populations.
Attempts have been made to fix the point of
Fig. 213. EQUATORIAL POLYNESIA, BY TUPAJLA.
Cp^y o/ ^ft Chart by
O lij<*,r>.~
Titpcia.
v.i
Half cf the original size.
X
*
jCervvtea cja&af
'" _ '""*
JflpMMMMM
7isrnat0>ifaar*o
\ o*
dispersion eastwards at Buru between Celebes and Ceram, or at Baura in the Solomon
Archipelago, merely because a vague Samoan tradition speaks of a certain Pulotu
(Burotu), an island in the west, as the cradle of their race.
More probability attaches to the conjectures regarding the second point of dis-
persion within the Polynesian area itself. The Maori, Hawaiian, Raratongan,
Tahitian, Marquesas, and Tuamotu traditions point uniformly to an island Savaiki,
Havaii, Avaiki, Havai, Havaiki, as their ancestral home,* and other traditions
describe the migrations from this island to the various oceanic archipelagoes.
Savaii, largest of the Samoan group, is regarded by most ethnologists as the Savaiki
of the Polynesian legends, and the resemblance of names gives some weight to this
view, although in Samoa itself Savaii is regarded as having been colonised

by
from and other of the According to others
immigrants Upolu parts archipelago.
Ilaviiiki would simply mean "Fire," so lhat the tradition would merely refer
vaguely to some active volcano or burning mountain as

the starting-point of the
migrations.
A. H. Keane, The Interoceamc Knees and Languages.
31u
'
482 AUSTRALASIA.
East of this mysterious land the dispersion took place from island to island,
and essays have been made to trace the very order of the migrations by the aid of
the map of Tahiti and surrounding islands prepared by the Tahitian Tupui'a, who
accompanied Cook on one of his voyages. But this map itself, correct enough for
Tahiti and neighbouring lands, has probably little more than a mythical value for
the more western regions.
Meanwhile, the race itself seems to be almost everywhere hastening to its
extinction, asshown by the accurate returns made at different times during the
present century. In 1774 Cook estimated the population of Tahiti at about two
Fig. 214. MOVEMENTS OP THE OCEANIC POPULATIONS.

Scale 1 :
150,000,000.
100 Meridian 01 ureenwic
Lands in which the population is increasing.

J
The prpulation
i^ _
increases also in the islands inserted on the
___
mnp.
1,800 Miles.
In all the others it diminishes,
hundred and forty thousand, reduced to one hundred and fifty thousand by Forster,
who assigned six hundred and fifty thousand to the whole of Polynesia. At present
the Polynesians number scarcely more than one hundred and ten thousand, but
while they are thus disappearing at a rapid rate they still remain physically one of
the finest races on the face of the globe. In this respect there appears to be no
deterioration, and the decrease in numbers must be attributed in great part to
numerous external causes, such as former massacres, the contract labour system,
it was regulated by government control, the sale of strong drinks,
especially before
and above the epidemics introduced by the white traders and seafarers. In
all
1778, immediately after Cook's visit, Hawaii was decimated by this scourge, and
what the Hawuiians assert all their Polynesian kindred repeat, that disease and
extermination were introduced by the Europeans.
Even the adoption of European clothes, rendering them more susceptible to
changes of temperature, and still more the suppression of their national

pastimes,
boisterous and dances, interdicted by the missionaries, have
feasts
rejoicings,
co-operated towards the extinction of the race. The people become
weary of a too
placid, aimless existence, and die out through sheer inanition. thereNevertheless,
are exceptions to the
general law of decadence and in certain favoured localities,
such as Lukunor in the Carolines, Futuna in the Wallis
group, and Niue north of
Tonga, the population normally increases the natural excess of births over
by
deaths. Elsewhere the natives become more and more
intermingled with immi-
grants from all quarters, and wherever actual increase takes place, as for
any
instance in Tahiti, occurs almost invariably
it
amongst the half-castes resulting
from these The modem era has thus begun for the
crossings. Polynesians, who
can be rescued from ultimate extinction
only by the sacrifice of their racial purity
and gradual absorption in the surrounding populations.
The Tonga Archipelago lies somewhat apart from the chief ocean
highways
between Australia and the New World, its principal member,
Tonga-Tabu, being
over 420 miles south-east of Fiji, the natural station on the route from Melbourne
and Sydney to Hawaii and San Francisco. is visited
Nevertheless, Tonga by
many skippers, mostly Germans, who here ship large quantities of copra, yielded
by the vast palm-groves of these fertile islands. The capital and most frequented
port of the little
Tonga state is Nukualofa, on a roadstead well sheltered by reefs
on the north side of Tonga- Tabu. On the east side Mua, the central Catholic
station, lies near the old residence and the necropolis of the royal family.
Lffuka, in the Haabai group, and Niua, in the largest of the Vavao Islands,
also trade in copra,
chiefly with German houses. The port of Niua, although of
somewhat difficult access, is one of the finest in the Pacific, forming an extensive
basin 20 to 25 fathoms deep, sheltered from all winds by an amphitheatre of high
escarpments.
East of Tonga, Sarage Island, so called by Cook from the rude welcome given
him by the natives, has resumed its original name of Nine (Inui"), and has been
declared neutral territory by a convention signed 1886 between England and
in
Germany. English influence, however, is paramount in this islet, one of the

most fertile in Polynesia, and inhabited by Polynesians of Tonga speech and
descent.
The few islets lying north-west from Tonga and north-east of Fiji, and
collectively called Wallis from their discoverer in 1767, are disposed
on a line
which, drawn from Samoa, would pass through the British island of Rotuma to
Anuda and Tukopia, the last western lands inhabited by Polynesians. The natives
probably came from Tonga-Tabu, although Uvea or Wallis, properly so called, is

regarded by them as the cradle of their race. Ftttunu, west of Uvea, was formerly
inhabited by ferocious cannibals who devoured to the last man the eighteen
hundred of the neighbouring island of Alofi,, " Land of Love," and one of its chiefs
is
reported to have eaten his own mother. Wallis was annexed to the French
Oceanic possessions in 1887.
Samoa, named by Bougainville the Navigators Archipelago, is still a great
484 AUSTEALASIA.
centre of Pacific navigation, Upolu, the most densely peopled island, being much
frequented by English, American, and German skippers. The chief port, Apia,
lies at the head of a semicircular bay on the north side of Upolu, which is sheltered
on the west by a long wooded promontory fringed with reefs. Formerly a
rendezvous for whalers, Apia now chiefly exports copra, although cotton, coffee, and
tobacco plantations have also been laid out. But a protracted war of succession
Fig. 215.- APIA.

Scale 1 : 37,000
/.;''' MatJfi-lFlj:!
Depths.
Rocks exposed Oto32 32 to SO 81 Feet nd

at low water. Feet. Feet, upwards.
. 1,100 Yards.
fomented by the Germans has well-nigh ruined its agricultural prospects. The
fields and gardens have been wasted
up to the very suburbs of Apia, which has
itself sufferedmuch from these deplorable rivalries. Apia might be replaced as a
seaport by the much safer inlet of Pango-Pango on the south side of Tiituila, but
for its remote position. At the
bay of Funga-sa, on the opposite side of this island,
Laugle and three other companions of Laperouse were murdered by the natives in
1787.
The whole of Samoa except Taw, easternmost member of the group, forms a
constitutional state modelled on that of with a
England, king and upper and lower
houses. The capital is Muliatiu in TJpolu, Apia
forming a special municipality
under a triumvirate of the
English, American, and German consuls. Tau
constitutesan " independent kingdom," whose
sovereign is sharply looked after
by his half-pagan subjects to prevent him from drinking water or bathing in the
sea, events which would involve the state in ruin.
The groups stretching south-eastwards from Samoa, though thinly peopled, had
formerly great historic importance as stations along the lines of migration.
Raratonga (Rorotouya}, in the Hercey or Cook Archipelago, is pointed to the by
Fig. 216. TAHITI AND MOOEEA.
Scale 1 : 1,000 OX).
lV st of Greenwich I4940-
Depths.
n to 1.000 1,000Fathoms
18 Miles.
natives of several other groups as the home of their ancestors. The present Rara-
tongans have completely accepted the rigid administration introduced by the
English missionaries. They have schools, libraries, and even a newspaper in their
language. Farther east, Tubuai or the Austral Islands, of which Rapa is the most
important member, have recently been annexed by France.
Tahiti, or the Society Archipcli/tjo, lies at present far to the east of the main
Pacific highway. But whenever the Panama Canal is opened, thisgroup willbe
situated exactly midway between Central America and Australia, and must then
take a foremost position in the Polynesian World. Papeete, residence of the
representative of France, is a pleasant little place on the north side of the large
island, with a spacious and deep harbour sheltered by a barrier reef pierced by
three navigable openings. The trade of Papeete is mostly in the hands of English
486 AUSTRALASIA.
and American dealers, and next to their mother tongue, the natives are most
familiar with English, originally introduced by the Protestant missionaries.
The orange, first planted here by Cook, has become the chief agricultural resource
of the Archipelago, while the guava, introduced in 1813, now runs wild, covering
the slopes of the mountains with impenetrable thickets. The cotton, coffee, and
of AUmaono and other districts have proved an utter failure
sugar plantations
since the dispersion of the 4,500 Chinese contract labourers employed by the
Fig. 217. PAPEETE.

Scale 1 : 35,000.
:-..._-
':: %
East cPGreenwich 154 1 4' 154' is'
Lepths.
Beefs exposed 82 to 80 320 Feet and

.
1,100 Ymds.
speculators. About a thousand of these have settled clown as potty dealers and
gardeners.
About 50,000 acres, or one-fifth of the large island, are estimated to be avail-
able for plantations. All these lands lying on the seaboard or on the first slopes
of the hills, are easily accessible by the highway, 115 miles long, which winds in
a double circuit round the twin islands of Great and Little Tahiti. But at the
south-east extremity of the latter this romantic route is interrupted by precipices,

and here the surf, driven by the trade winds through a large opening in the
fringing reefs, has to be crossed in frail outriggers. The western part of Great
Tahiti, between Papeete and the plantations, will soon be reached by a railway
from the capital. A little fort has been erected on the isthmus of Taravao, which
connects both islands, and which is the most convenient site for the centre of
aduiiuistration. Port Phaeton, in this southern district, is far more spacious and
EQUATOKIAL POLYNESIA. 487
better sheltered than that of

Papeete, and it has also the advantage of a better
climate and a more fertile soil.
Moorea a mere agricultural

is
dependency of Great Tahiti but Raiatea, one ;
of the Leeward group, one of the best harbours in the Pacific, thanks to
possesses
which it has become the centre of a brisk trade,
chiefly in the hands of the Germans.
Some 480 miles north of Tahiti lies Caroline Island, where the French astrono-
mers made some remarkable studies of solar physics in, 1883.
The eastern groups of Tuamotu, Mangareva, and the
Marquesas have also some
excellent havens, which might afford shelter to But they are all
large fleets.
thinly peopled, and the two capitals Taio-hae in Nuka-hiva and Rikitea in Man-
Fig. 218. NUKA-HIVA.

Scale 1 :
3&0,000.
West of G*-ee
, 6 Miles.
gareva are mere villages. In Tuamotu the administrative centre has been
removed from Anna to the more northern atoll of Fafcarara. sparse But the
population, dispersed over a space some 400,000 square miles in extent, renders
all industrial and commercial
development almost impossible. These remote
archipelagoes, lying 3,500 miles from the nearest point of America, can never
possessany natural resources beyond their palm- groves and pearl fisheries.
In 1813 Porter, an American, seized the Marquesas Islands in the name of the
United States Government, which, however, did not ratify the procedure. But
in 1835 the French adventurer, Thierry, proclaimed himself "King of Nuka-
hiva," and he was followed by French Catholic missionaries, whose action led to
483 AUSTRALASIA.
the gradual annexation of the archipelago by France. Here the French agent
exercises absolute control, while till quite recently the Catholic priests governed
on theocratic principles in the name of France. In 1880 the Tahiti group was
declared a French possession, and is now administered by a Council General elected
by all citizens speaking the French language.

South-east of Tuamotu the last inhabited land is Pitcairn In/and, where the
settled with Tahitian
English crew of the Bounty, after the mutiny of 1789, finally
"
wives. When this little republican "state was discovered in 1808 it awakened
a certain sympathetic curiosity in England. The revolt was forgotten, donations
Fig. 219. POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF OCEANIA.

Scale 1 : 150,000,000.
100 Meri'dian or Green
F. A. Al. P. U. C.
France. England. Germany. Portugal. United States. Chili.
.1,800 Miles.
flowed in, and the British Government even placed the fertile island of Norfolk at
the disposal of the overcrowded community. Most of the islanders accepted this
offer, but some have since returned to Pitcairn.
Easter Island, or Rajm Nut, that is "Great, Rapa," famous for its monolithic
monuments and hieroglyphic tablets, lies 1,300 miles east of Pitcairn. After its
occupation by some Tahitian immigrants, it was regarded as virtually a French
possession ;
but it has now been assigned to Chili, whose fleet dominates in these
waters.
The guano islets lying near and north of the equator are considered as British
territory, although their only residents have hitherto been Americans engaged in
working the guano deposits. The group nearest to Hawaii has even been named
America' Islands. Christmas, a southern member of this group, is one of the
largest islands in Polynesia proper.

A table of the chief Polynesian groups is given in the Appendix.
CHAPTER XII.
HAWAII, OR SANDWICH ISLANDS.

HE Hawaiian group, better known by the name of Sandwich,
given
|
to it by Cook in 1778, forms the limit of the oceanic lands in the
north-east Pacific. It forms a chain of islands,

reefs, and banks
running nearly 2,000 miles in the direction from north-west to

south-east, parallel with the South Polynesian archipelagoes.
Hawaii is limited northwards by chasms ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 fathoms,
and on the south side
by abysmal depths exceeding 2,750 fathoms. It occupies a
position of vital importance, being the most advanced region of the oceanic world
in the direction of the United States. Yet its Polynesian inhabitants, who con-
tinue to diminish in numbers, have not yet been replaced by fresh
immigrants, and
the whole archipelago, with nearly 7,000 square miles of land, has a population
dry
of little over 80,000 souls.
Sighted by the early Spanish navigators, Hawaii appears to have been subse-
quently visited by passing European seafarers, and thirty seven years before the
arrival of Cook a Spanish vessel was wrecked on one of the islands. But the
honour of having revealed the archipelago to the belongs to Cook, who
world still
twice visited it in 1778, on the first occasion discovering the three western islands
of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu, on the second perishing at the hands of the natives of
Maui under circumstances that have not yet been satisfactorily explained. After
Cook's voyage Hawaii was visited by Laperouse and Vancouver, and in 1794 Brown
surveyed the port of Honolulu, which has since become the commercial centre of
the group. Missionaries, naturalists, and traders gradually settled in the islands,
and the work of exploration was even prosecuted by the natives themselves. At
present Hawaii is by far the best known of all Polynesian lands, and its biblio-
graphy comprises thousands of treatises of all kinds.
A native legend, referring the origin of the archipelago to an enormous egg
suddenly bursting in mid-ocean, is probably a reminiscence of old eruptions,

during which some lands really rose above the surface. The volcanic range repro-
duces in the inverse direction and on a far larger scale the formation of the Samoan
group, for here also the loftiest mountains lie at one extremity, the islands theme
decreasing in altitude until at the opposite end they are mere reefs rising little
above the surrounding waters. The igneous forces diminish in the same direction,
490 AUSTRALASIA.
for the highest volcanoes and vastest cauldrons of seething lavas are found in
Hawaii, the largest member of the group, at its south-eastern extremity. The other
islands are also studded with cones but here the fiery energy is much
and craters ;
weaker, or is reduced to a few thermal springs. In the extreme north-west the
long-extinct craters have been obliterated, and the heights are now clothed with
an exuberant vegetation. Here also the coral reefs are far more numerous than off
the coast of Hawaii, where the noxious gases prevent the development of coral
life.
In the island of Hawaii the southern volcano of Mauna-Loa, or the " Great
Mountain," rises to a height of 13,760 feet, or about 3,000 feet above the vege-
Fig. 220. HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

Scale 1 :
6,500,000.
Depths
Oto 1,000 1 000 Fnthmns

. 120 Miles.
table /one. Thecrater, or rather group of craters, collectively named the Mokua-
veoveo, open on the very summit of the mountain, so as to form a symmetrical

cavity disposed in the direction from north to sourh. In the centre lies the vast,
primitive crater, which has a mean diameter of about 2,200 yards and a depth of
over 1,000 feet. Mounds of scoria), some in ignition, some extinct, rise from the
liottom of this pit, north and south of which, two semicircular terraces over 400
feet higb represent two halves of a crater inscribed, so to say, on the periphery
of the central opening. Vast lava streams have been discharged from the very
rim of Mauna-Loa, as in 1880, when about 2,200,000,000 cubic feet of burning
matter flowed down the slopes of the mountain. But the molten lavas mostly
escape from openings far bclo.v the upper cone. Thus in 1853 such a strenm over-
HAWAII. 491
flowed from the north-east side, and after

covering a space of 300 square miles
reached the plain of Hilo close to the coast. Three
years later another crater was
opened six miles north of the central one, discharging a double stream which
flowing west half filled up Kiholo Bay.
On the east flank of Mauna-Loa has been opened the vast lateral crater of
Kilauea, at a height of about 4,000 feet above the sea. Kilauea, abode of the
formidable goddess Pele, is an almost circular chasm about nine miles round, and
varying in depth with the movement of the boiling lavas at the bottom. During
the present century there has been no direct overflow from Kilauea or from the
other furnaces forming its eastern
prolongation but the underground heat has
;
melted the rocks at a lower depth, and

through these the fiery streams have found
their way to the surface. In 1868 one of these, after flowing some miles to sixty
Fig. 221. CRATERS OF MAUNA LOA AND KILAUEA.
West oF Greenwich I55'20
, 6 Miles.
the south- we*t, poured in a flaming cataract over the cliffs into the sea, where it
formed a pyramid of lavas which, by later accessions, has been gradually attached
to the mainland under the name of Kalae Point. Dana estimates at over fifteen
billions of cubic feet the quantity of molten rock discharged on one of these
occasions.
Xorth-west of Mauna-Loa, which covers a space of nearly 2,000 square miles,

the much less elevated Mauna-Htialahd (7,822 feet) is also occasionally active,
but all the other cones in Hawaii Island are extinct. One of these is streaked or
even covered with snow during a great part of the year, as indicated by its native
" White Mountain." It even overtops Mauna-Loa, its
name, Mouna-Kea, the
highest peak rising, according to the official surveys, to an altitude of no less
than 1.3,8^0 feet.
Hawaii is continued north-westwards by four mountainous islands and a few

492 AUSTRALASIA.
islets, which constitute a secondary group within the archipelago itself. Each of
these has its volcanoes, whose height bears a somewhat uniform proportion to the
size of the island. The Haleahula (" Abode of the Sun "), whose vast
loftiest is
cone, 10,200 feet high, occupies the southern part of the island of Maui. Its crater,
one of the largest on the globe, has a circuit of no less than 15 miles and a depth
of over 2,000 feet. The two sections of Maui are connected by a strip of sand, six
or seven feet high, which is incessantly destroyed and renewed under the con-
flicting action of winds Beyond Maui follow the islands of Oulm
and waves.
with several cones, Kauai, Niihau, and Kaula, terminating the chain of the
Sandwich Archipelago towards the north-west. Then follows for 1,800 miles in
Fig. 222. LAVA STREAMS OF KILAUEA.
the direction of Japan a range of reefs and islets, also probably volcanic, although
lavas have been found on only a small number of these
upraised lands. The
traces of upheaval are everywhere conspicuous throughout the archipelago, and
here and there are met ancient beaches at different elevations along the slopes of
the hills. In one of the Maui group, a coral bank of apparently recent origin
runs for a considerable distance at a height of 500 feet above the present sea-
level, and a similar, though formation fringes the great volcano in
less distinct,
Kauai Island at an altitude of no less than 4,000 feet. Since 1794 the shoals at
Honolulu have been upraised about four feet, to the great detriment of navigation.
Excluding the western reefs the whole of the Hawaiian archipelago lies within
HAWAII. 493
the torrid zone, and
although the temperature is lower than in
Fiji or Samoa,
it is still
very oppressive in the sheltered districts, where the atmosphere is not
renewed by the north-west trade winds. The glass stands normally at 70 Fahr.
494 AUSTRALASIA.
in Honolulu, where, during a period of twelve years it never rose above 90 or fell
below 53, shewing an extreme range of under 40 degrees. Although less

copious than in Indonesia, the rainfall is still abundant, averaging annually from
60 to 80 inches. The north-east trades, which blow with great regularity for
nine months in the vear, bring from time to time refreshing downpours, and the
climateis altogether one of the most agreeable and salubrious in the world.
Fig. 224. HAWAII.

Scale 1 : 1,500.000.
Depths.
to 1,000 1,000 Fathoms

Fathoms. :m<l upwards.
. 18 Miles.
The indigenous than might be expected from the mean

flora is less varied
high temperature and the fertility of the soil. Along the narrow zone of the coast-
lands little is seen beyond cocoanut groves and two other species of palms, the
breadfruit tree, and a few other plants, such as the oleaginous kukui (ii/i>nrifes)
still used for lighting the houses. But in the well-watered upland valleys the
vegetation is far more exuberant and diversified. Here flourishes the gigantic
halapepe (brenc/t/eya), with foliage like that of the pandanus, and in general the
HAWAII. 495
Sandwich flora may be said to abound more in arborescent than in

herbaceous forms.
Even many plants which in Europe are annuals, here become
perennial.
The native fauna is very poor in mammals, and before the arrival of Cook
the
only domestic animals were the dog, the pig, and poultry, all probably introduced
within a few centuries The only indigenous mammals are the mouse
previously.
and a species of bat, while the reptile class was
represented only by three small
lizards. Of land and aquatic birds there are some 40
species, amongst which not a
Fig. 225. HONOLULU.

Scale 1 : 250,000.
'
West of Greenwich 10? 52
Depths.
Beefs exposed Oto32 82 to 320 320 Feet

at low water. Feet. Feet. and upwards.
6 Miles.
single songster is The most highly valued bird was the oo (drepanin pacifica),
found.
whose beautiful black plumage was varied with a few small yellow feathers in
great demand for the decoration of the chiefs. The royal robe of Kamehameha I.,
which represented the labour of nine successive generations, was entirely made of
these feathers attached to a ground of close netting. The streams are almost
destitute of fish, while molluscs abound in prodigious quantities.
The Iluwaiians have long lost their national usages, which resembled those of
the kindred peoples in New Zealand and eastern Polynesia. They now regard the
ruins of their ancient sanctuaries with as much religious indifference as the present
generation of Britons do the Stonehenge monoliths. Even when the first mis-
sionaries arrived, in 1820, most of the natives had already ceased to believe in their
national gods, and religious wars had broken out between the conservative and
progressive parties. But after the official conversion of the chiefs all their subjects
had to conform under the severest penalties. Then the rivalries between the
496 AUSTRALASIA.
Anglicans, Methodists, and Catholics, followed by local revolutions and the inter-
vention of foreign powers, kept the archipelago in a state of ferment for many years.
As in most otherPolynesian groups the indigenous population is steadily
decreasing, having fallen
from perhaps three hundred thousand at the time of the
discovery in 1778 to forty thousand

in 1884. The natives are now being replaced
by the immigration of foreigners of all nationalities, who already outnumber
the
extinction and absorption
aboriginal element, which must rapidly disappear by
the new arrivals. To the other causes of decay was added in 1848 the
amongst
" Chinese
terrible scourge of leprosy, here called mai pake, or malady," which is
absolutely incurable. When attacked by the loathsome disease the patients are
removed to the island of Molokai, between Maui and Oahu, where about 800 are
their sufferings by death. Amongst recent victims
usually confined till relieved of
was the heroic Catholic priest, Father Damien, who had voluntarily selected this
island prison as the field of his religious administration.
In virtue of a reciprocity treaty with the United States the foreign trade of the
archipelago almost monopolised by North America. Even the exchanges with
is
Europe are made chiefly by the overland route, by which Honolulu may be reached
from London in about twenty-four days. In the islands of Hawaii and Maui a few
short railways have been opened, while the postal, telegraph, and telephone services
are more developed than in most European states. All the natives without excep-
tion can read and write, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1S78 Hawaii was awarded
the grand prize for primary instruction.
Hi/o, the capital of the island of Hawaii, lies on a bay open to the north-east
trade winds, and partly siltedup with alluvial deposits. A more convenient position
is occupied by Lahaina, chief town of Maui, on a roadstead sheltered by the islands
of Lauai and Kalulaui. Honolulu, capital of Oahu, and of the whole archipelago,
is well protected from the dominant winds by an amphitheatre of hills, and from
the variable currents by a double line of fringing reefs. Since its discovery in
1794 Honolulu has completely superseded the old capital, Kail tin, on the west
coast of Hawaii, north of the bay where Cook was murdered. From the sea little
is visible of the town, which is scattered over some square miles of gardens, orange
groves, and forest trees. The roadstead is commanded on the east side by the
extinct volcano of Diamond Head, and at the back of the city rises the perfectly
" Punch-bowl." Honolulu is the centre of
regular cone known by the name of the
the intellectual movement in the archipelago, and here are issued nearly all the
locjl English and native newspapers.
According to the constitution of 1887 Hawaii is a constitutional monarchy,
with two chambers, both elected by all citizens whether native or foreign, the
Upper House for six, the Lower for two years.

The official Kanaka (Hawaiian) language is
being gradually replaced by
English, already the chief medium of intercourse throughout the Pacific Ocean.
The schools are constituted on the model of the American system, the schoolbooks,
weights, measures, and currency are American, and the group itself is practically
HAWAII. 497
a province of the The very harbour
great republic. of Honolulu is an American
naval station, and the political independence of Hawaii be regarded as a legal

may
fiction sustained
by the personal interests of the American planters.
320
APPENDIX.
STATISTICAL TABLES.
MASCAKENHAS AND NEIGHBOUKING ISLANDS.

Area in Population Whites, Hindoos and
Square Miles. (1887). Coloured, &c. Chinese.
Mauritius 708 368,000 116,000 252,000
Rodriguez 45 1,800
Reunion 790 161,000 136,000 25,000
Imports of Port Louis (1886), 2,400,000 ; exports, 3,440,000 ; shipping, 922 vessels of 692,000
tons.
Railways of Mauritius (1886), yO miles net revenue, 35,000.

;
Revenue of Mauritius (1886), 750,000 expenditure, 840,000 public debt, 746,000.

; ;
Imports of Reunion (1886), 1,125,000; exports, 532,000; revenue, 196,000.

Area of Amsterdam, 18 square miles of St. Paul, 3 square miles of Marion and Prince Edward,
; ;
125 square miles.

Area of Crozet, 210 square miles ;
of Kerguelen and dependencies, 1,800 square miles ; of Heard and
MacDonald, 175 square miles.
INDONESIA.
Area in Population
Dutch Indonesia...... Square Miles.

600,000
(1881).
30,650,000
Portuguese .......
British (North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei) . 108,000
15,000
630,000
530,000
Total 723,000 31,810,000
Area of Sumatra and adjacent islands, 185,000 square miles approximate population, 3,500,000.
;
Tobacco crop of North Sumatra, 1875, 200,000 1880, 900,000 ;- 1886, 2,400,000.
;
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF SUMATEA.

Population (1886).
Batta Land
Tapanuli
....
Atjeh (independent and reduced)
.....
Padang, Lower (Beneden-landen)
Benculeu .....
Padang, Upper (Boven-landen)
.....
.
Lampong
Palembang
East Coast
....
APPENDIX. 499
Riouw and Lingga Archipelagoes: area, 1,700 square miles ; population (1888), 98,000.
Area of Baugka, 5,000 square miles; population whom 53,000 are Malays and
(1886), 74,715, of
21,000 Chinese.
Area of Billiton, 1,870 square miles
population (1886), 35,174.
;
Mean annual output of the Bangka and Billiton tin mines, 8,330 tons.
Area of Tambelan, Anambas, Natuna, and Serasan, 930
square miles ; of Great Natuna, 640 square
miles.
Area in
Square Miles. Population.
Dutch Borneo
Sarawak ....
British North Borneo
.
.
.
.
.
216,000
39,000
26,000
.
..
.
.
.
1,071,000
500,000
250,000
Brunei 15,000 . .
80,000
Total . . .
296,000 . .
1,901,000
ADMINISTEATIVE DIVISIONS OF DUTCH BORNEO.

Divisions. Provinces or Kingdoms. Chief Towns. Population.
WEST. Area, 62,000 sq. miles; }
Sambas Sambas 10 000
population, 410,000 capi- ;
>
Pontianak
tal, Pontianak. J
Kotaringin ......
......
Pontianak . .
15,000
Sampit
Great and Little Dayak
Dusun and Bekompai
... Marabaham
. . . . .
10,000
Amuntai Amuntai . .
8,000
Banjennassin Banjermassin .
38,000
SOUTH AND EAST. Area, 1 50, 000 Martapura Martapura .
12,000
square miles population,
; Tanab Laut
017,000 ;capital, Banjer- Tanah Kusan
massin. Tauah Bumbu
Pasir Pasir . .
20,000
Kutei Samarinda .
10,000
Sambiliung
Gunong Tebur
Bulangan
.....
......
Tangarung .
5,000
Tidung
Area of Labuan, 30 square miles population, 6,300 shipping, 52,278 tons exchanges,
; ; ; 164,000.
Revenue of Sarawak (1886), 60,000 exchanges, 800,000. ;
Imports of North Borneo (1887), 212,000 exports, 113,000 revenue (1888), 30,000. ; ;
JAVA.
Population according to languages (1 888) Javanese, 16,600,000; Sundanese, 2,500,000
: ; Madurese,
2,600,000; Malay, 1,000,000; sundries, 300,000: total, 23,000,000.
Growth of population of Java and Madura in 30 years (185786), 11,300,000 to 22,000,000 = 98 p.c.
Mohammedan Schools in Java, 16,760; attendance, 255,000.
Primary Schools for Natives (1887), 201 attendance, 39,700. ;
Rice crop of Java (1885), 4,370,000 tons rice exported (1887), 71,250 ;
tons.
Natives employed on the coffee plantations (1886), 475,000 families.
Coffee crop (1816), 3,000 tons ; (1850) 60,000 tons ; (1879) 79,000 tons ; (1887) 17,750 tons.
Average sugar crop (1857 62), 103, 700 tons; (1875) 199,000 tons; (1887) 418,000 tons.
Tobacco exported (1831), 280,000 Ibs. (1864) 16,000,000 Ibs. (1882) 34,000,000 Ibs.
; ;
Indigo crop (1887), 1,660,000 Ibs. Salt (1885), 57,000 tons, value 526,000.
Live stock (1886) buffaloes, 2,542,000 oxen, 2,090,000 horses, 518,000.
: ; ;
Railways open (1887), 780 miles. Telegraph lines, 5,500 miles.

Letters forwarded, 5,162,000 newspapers, 3,029,000.
;
Exports to Great Britain 3,000,000 imports from,

(1886), 1,300,000. ;
Total exports (1884), 12,600,000 imports, 10,300,000. ;
Shipping: 9,195 vessels, 2,227,000 tons; mercantile navy, 1,060 vessels, of which 34 are steamers,
94,000 tons.
Chief towns, with population in 1886: Batavia and suburbs, 172,000; Surakarta, 130,000; Sura
baya, 129,000; Jokjokarta, 90,000; Semarang, 72,000; Pasuruan, 50,000.
Capital. Area in Square Miles.
APPENDIX. 501
NOBTHERN MOLUCCAS: Area in Square Miles.

Batchian group
Little Moluccas
Halmahera (Jilolo)
Morotai .
Obi group
Tafuri and Maju
502 APPENDIX.
MICKONESIA.
Mariana Islands ....
....
Area in Square Miles.
450 ...
...
Population
9,680
(1887).
Pelew Islands
Caroline Islands
Marshall group
....
. . . .
200
400
160
...
. . .
12,000
29,000
10,600
(?)
Gilbert (Kingsmill) . . . 170 . . . 41,000

Ellice . 14 3,300
Total . .
1,394 . . .
105,580
PAPTJASIA (NEW GUINEA).

Area in Squire Miles. Estimated Population.
Dutch New Guinea . . 156,000 . . . 300,000
British New Guinea . . 90,000 . . . 140,000
German New Guinea . . 70,000 . . .
100,000
Total . . . 316,000 . . . 540,000
Waigeu, Batanta, Salwati, Mysol 3,000

Islands in Geelvink
Aru Archipelago ....
Islands on the South- West Coast
Bay . .2,000
.
2,000
130 ...
Moresby Group . . . . 200
Entrecasteaux Islands . .
.1,100
Woodlark (Muyu) group . . 480
Louisiade Archipelago . . . 870
Total . . 325,780 . . . 640,000 (?)
MELANESIA.
Area in Square Miles. Est. Popul ition.
Admiralty group 770 .. 2,000

Matthias group . . . . . . . . 25
.........
j
Other Western Islands 240 1
<U,000
New TT
XT
Hanover Kl\n
500 C
New Ireland (Tombara) 5.000J

New Britain (Birara) . 10,000 . .
100,000
York and other Islets 300 )
" French " Islands

(Willaumez, Raoul, Giguel, &c.) . . 300 )' '
>0
Rook Island 280

Long Island 240 '..
j
10,000
Dampier group 300 )
SOLOMON AKCHIPELAQO
Bougainville (Boukaj)
:
...... 4,000
Choiseul (San Marcos)
New Georgia group
Yzabel group
...... 2,000 \
1,200
2,000
J
'
Guadalcanar and Savo

1
75, 000
2,500
Malaita (Ramos), Meramasiki, &c 2,400 I
San Cristobal (Arossi, Baura) 1,200 1
'
Adjacent Islets
Santa Cruz Archipelago

Banks and Torres Islands
. ......
......
1,000
200
190
.
. .
.
5,000
4,500
NEW HEBRIDES :
Espiritu-Santo 2,000 . .
20,000
Mallicolo 850 . . 8,000
APPENDIX. 503
Area in Square Miles Eet. Popul ition.

Ambrym .
240 3,000
Vate (Sandwich) 200 3,000
Erromango 400 2,000
Tanna 150 10,000
Anatora .
60 1,280
Other Islets
Tikopia, Anuda, and other eastern
New Caledonia
....
........ isles
1,200
20
15,000
650
6,500 43,000
-
Loyalty Group . .
1,100 20,000
Annual yield of the New Caledonian nickel mines, 12,000 tons.
Numea, imports and exports (1884), 640,000 shipping, 277 vi ;
Budget (1887), 400,000.
AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND FIJI.

Colonies. Area in Square Population Revenue. Debt.
Expenditui e.
Miles. (1887).
New South Wales. 310,700 1,043,000 8,583,000 9,100,000 41,000,000
Queensland . 668,500 367,000 3,178,000 3,369,000 26,000,000
Victoria 87,900 1,036,000 6,734,000 6,561,000 33,000,000
South Australia 903,400 312,000 19,006,000
1,870,000 2,165,300
Western Australia 976,000 43,000 378,000 457,000 1,290,000
Tasmania 26,000 143,000 595,000 662,000 4,110,000
New Zealand 104,000 604,000 3,520,000 4,082,000 37,000,000
Fiji . . .
8,000 125,000 65,000 73,000 255,000
Total British Austral ) .,n

, i
i > O.U 3,673,000 24,923,000 26,429,000 161,655,000
Colonial Empire J
Aborigines (1881) : New South Wales, 1,643.

Victoria, 768.
Queensland, 20,585.
South Australia, 6,346.
Tasmania, none.
New Zealand, Maori, 44,097.
AUSTEALIA AND TASMANIA.

Births (1886), 35 per ICO deaths, 16 per 100 immigrants (1887), 64,800.
; ;
Wool produced (1887), 247,000 tons; sheep, 84,827,000; cattle, 7,577,000 ; horses, 1,252,000 ; pigs,
760,000.
Wheat produced (1886), 35,000,000 bushels; other cereals, 7,000,000 bushels; potatoes, 357,000
tons; sugar (1888), 40,000 tons.
Gold produced (1886), 4,100,000; tin, 1,120,000; copper, 416,000; silver, 250,000; coal,
3,070,000 tons, value 1,400,000.
Imports (1887), 57,000,000; exports, 51,000,000; total exchanges, 108,000,000.
Shipping (1885): vessels entered, 7,668; tonnage, 5,684,000; vessels cleared, 7,658 ; tonnage,
6,692,000.
Mercantile navy: 1,546 sailing vessels, 800 steamers; total tonnage, 259,000.
Railways (1888) 7,000 miles capital invested, 76,000,000 ; net profits, 2,700,000.
:
;
Telegraph lines (1887)

32,000 miles; despatches (1886), 6,472,000.
:
Letters, cards, &c., forwarded, 99,430,000 papers, parcels, &c., 80,000,000. ;
Public schools (1886), 5,321 attendance, 540,000. ;
CHIEF TOWNS.
WESTEBN AUSTRALIA: Perth, population (1886), 5,000; Freemantle, 3,600.
SOUTH AUSTBALIA: Adelaide (1888), 130,000; Teetulpa, 5,500; Port Adelaide, 5,280; Moonta,
5,000 Gawler, 3,000 Glenelg, 3,000.
; ;
QUEENSLAND: Brisbane (1888), 55,000; Gympie, 12,000; Rockhampton, 11,000; Ipswich, 10,000;
MaryboroiiKh, 9,000; Townsville, 8,000; Toowoomba, 6,000; Croydon, 5,000.
NEW SOUTH WALES: Sydney (1887), 350,000 with suburbs; Newcastle, 20,000; Paramatta, 12,000;
Uoulbuni, 8.000; Wollnngong, 8,000; Maitland, 7,500; Bathurst, 7,000.
VICTORIA: Melbourne (1887), 392,000 with suburbs; Ballarat, 37,000; Sandhurst, 30,000; Geelong,
23,000; Eaglehawk, 8,000; Castlomaine, 7,000; Warrnambool, 6,000; Stawell, 6,000; Echuca, 5,000.
TASMANIA: Hobart (1885), 29,000; Launceston, 19,500.
50-4 APPENDIX.
NEW ZEALAND.
Kauri gum exported (1887), 6,790 tons, value 360,000.
Land under tillage (1887), 1,380,000 acres ;cereals produced, 600.000 bushels.
Pastures, 12,000,000 acres; sheep, 15,000,000; cattle, 853,000; horses, 187,000.
Tinned and frozen sheep exported (1887), 1,525,000.
Gold produced (1887), 800,000 coal, 559,000 tons.
;
Railways opened (1887), 1,750 miles; capital invested, 14,100,000.

Letters, &c., forwarded, 40,000,000; papers, parcels, &c., 20,000,000.
Telegraphic despatches, 1,836,000.
Total imports (1887), 32,000,000; exports, 35,000,000.
Shipping entered and cleared, 1,432 of 991,000 tons.
Mercantile navy 503 sailing vessels 168 steamers; total tonnage, 95, OUO.
:
;
Chief Towns: Auckland, population (1887), 57,000 with suburbs; Wellington, 28,000; Dunedin,
46,000; Christchurch, 37,000; Thames, 8,000; Napier, 8,000; Nelson, 7,500; Oamaru, 6,000; Inver-
cargill, 5,500 ; Wanganui, 5,000.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS.
Area in Squire Population
Miles. (1S&7).
. 45,000 . .
264,000
.
63,000 . .
339,000
INDEX.
A bang Volcano, 196 Anaa, 474, 487 Australians, 375
Abonfr-Abong, 82 Anambas Island, 120 Avon Island, 361
Abu Volcano, 222 Anatom, 336 Awa o te Attua, 436
Abungers, 102 Angkee River, 18*4 Awarua River, 426
Adelaide, 399 Aniwa, 335
Adi Island, 310 Anjer, 88 Baba Island, 216
Admiralty Islands, 319, 321 Ansus, 310 Babalthuap Island, 277
Adonare Island, 207 Antipodes Islands, 424, 454 Babber Island, 216
Aetas, 253 Anuda Island, 330, 483 Babi Island, 93, 103
Azana, 277 Aorai Mountain, 472 Babuyan Island, 250
Agiing, 196 Aotea Bay, 444 Bacolor. 264
Airriiruii Island, 275 Aparri, 265 Badui, 166
Aguijan, 275 Apenberg Mountain, 108 Badung Island, 196
Agusan River, 251 Api (Banda), 231 Bahau River, 140
Ahravaigi Mountain, 425 (Flores), 206 Bahu Solo River, 223
Ahuriri, 451 (Lombok), 202 BahuTring, 135
A Jang Mountains, 161 (Sumbawa), 205 Bajoa, 227
Ajer Bangis, 108 (Wetter), 215 Bajos, 256
Akitroa Bay, 430, 452 Apia, 474, 488 Baker Island, 474
Alamagan Island, 275 Aps Mountain, 246 Bakungen Mountain, 196
Albany, 397 Apsley Strait, 403 Balabac Strait, 244
Albay, 266 Arafura Sea, 217 Island, 244, 269
Albay Mountain, 246 Ararat, 418 Balade, 351
Albert Mountains, 299 Areca, 108 Balambangan Island, 148
Albert River, 366 Arfak, 308 Balanga, 265
Alberton, 404 Mountains, 297 Balapulang, 186
Altmrv, 393, 412 Arguni Bay, 297 Balbi Mountain, 321
Alcock, 148 Argopura Mountain, 161 Bali Island, 196
Alexandra Land, 14 Arhno Island, 289 Balik Pippen Mountain, 125
Alexandrina Lake, 401 Aringay, 250, 265 Ballarat, 417
Alfurus, 77, 219, 231, 310 Arjuno Mountain, 159 Baluran Mountain, 162
Alivancia Mountain, 246 Aropen, 309 Banbury, 397
Alias Mountain, 211 Arreeifes, 277 Banda Islands, 231
Allor IslandH, 206 Art Island, 340 Neira, 231
Allor Katjil, 208 Arthur Mountain, 425 Sea, 219, 229
Alps (Australian), 358 Aru Islands, 293, 301, 310 Town, 234
(New Zealand), 424 Aru Hassa Mountain, 205 Bandong, 155, 162, 186
Amadeug Lake, 368 Asahan River, 91 Bangka Island, 117
Amnhai, 233 Ashburton River, 366 Bangkalan, 193
Amrgura Mountain, 469 Aspiring Mountain, 425 Bangli, 200
Ambarawa, 188 Assumption Island, 275 Banguay Islands, 269
Amber Island, 45 Astrolabe Bay, 304 Banguey Island, 148
Amlierbaken, 309 Atapupu, 215 Banjermassin, 122, 138
Amboynu Island, 230 Atjeh, 79, 95, 106 Banjuwanji. 193
Town. 'JS2 Atti-Atti, 310 Banks, Cipe, 408
Atnbrym Island, 332 Auckland Islands, 424, 455 Islands, 330
America Islands, 408, 488 Peninsula, 434, 436 Peninsula, 430, 452
Ani)Kinan, 203 Province, 439 Banos, 263
Amphitrite Hay, 91 Town, 448 Bantam, 179, 182
Amsterdam Island, 56 Austral Islands, 59, 471, 485 Baobeltaob Island, 277
Amuntai, 140 Australia, 352 Barayan, 265
VOL. XIV.
506 INDEX.
Barcos River, 366 Botany Bay, 385, 408 Cavite, 263

Barisan Mountains, 82 Bougainville Island, 318, 321 Cebu Island, 246
Barito River, 125, 127 Strait, 322 Town, 268
Baros, 108 Bounty Islands, 424, 454 Celebes, 75, 219
Basilan Island, 268 Bourail, 350 Ceram, 229, 231
Basey, 267 Bourbon Island, 46 Laut, 234
Bashee Islands, 250 Bowen, 406 Chagalalegat, 105
Bass Strait, 362, 383 Brambanan, 191 Chalmers, 452
" Chambers's
Batanes Islands, 250 Brandewiju Bay, 110 Pillar," 362
Batang Lupar River, 146 Brantas River, 164 Chamorros, 276
Batangas, 265 Bras-Panon, 52 Champion Bay, 397
Batanta, 297 Brass Island, 82 Chandana Island, 209
Batavia, 182 Bratus Mountain, 125 Charles-Louis Mountains, 298, 300
Batchian Island, 236 Breng-breng, 153 Charlotte Waters, 371
Bathurst Island, 403 Brisbane, 404 Charters Towers, 406
Town, 412 British North Borneo, 142 Chatham Island, 424, 441, 454
Batjan Island, 236 Brown Islands, 292 Cheribon Mountain, 155
Battas, 96 Bromo Mountain, 160 Province, 151, 186
Batu Bundang Mountain, 125 Brunei Bay 146 Town, 186
Kau Mountain, 196 River, 124, 126 Chesterfield Islands, 351, 424
Rijah Mountain, 125 State, 122, 142 Chin* Strait, 29t
Tebang, 125 Town, 121, 143 Chi Widei River, 154
Baura Island, 481 Buffalo Peak, 216 Choiseul Island, 318, 322
Bawean Island, 150, 166 Bugi, 225 Christen urch, 451
Bay of Islands, 421, 436 Buhi Lake, 247 Christmas Island, 56, 93
Beech worth, 417 , Buitenzorg, 70, 185 (Polynesia), 468, 488
Bekasi, 185 Bukit Batu, 113 Harbour, 63
Belang, 228 Bulacan, 263 Cimandef Mountain, 46
Belfast, 418 Bulangan, 142 Clunes, 418
Bendigo, 418 Bule-Dupuis, 147 Clutha River, 427
Bengkalis Island, 94, 113 Buleleng, 200 Coburg Peninsula, 403
Benguet, 251 Bulusan, 2G6 Cockburn Sound, 396
Benkulen, 110 Mountain, 246 Condamine River, 365
Ben Lomond, 453 Bundaberg, 406 Cook Glacier, 426
Bentinck, 407 Bunguren Island, 120 Islands, 467, 471, 485
Bernu Peninsula, 297 Burangrang Mountain, 155 Mountain, 425
Besuki, 193 Burdekin River, 366 Strait, 422, 430
Beverley, 397 Burias Island, 256 Cooktown, 406
Biak Island, 300 Burke, 412 Cooper's Creek, 366
Bibiluto Mountain, 211 Burketown, 406 Coral, Sea of, 364
Bicots, 256 Burrundie, 403 Cornwallis Island, 292
Big Ben Mountain, 63 Burrum, 406 Mountain, 363
Billiton Island, 119 Buru Island, 230 Corregidor Island, 263
Bima, 203, 205 Buru-Budhur, 188 Cottabato, 246, 268
Bay, 203 Bus Fort, 298, 310 Cradle Mountain, 360
Binangonan, 265 Busselton, 397 Creoles, 42
Binintiang Mountains, 248 Butak Mountain, 159 Creswick, 417
Bintang Islands, 116 Butaritari Island, 454 Croydon, 407
Bintulu River, 146 Butuan River, 251 Crozet Islands, 60
Bintuni, 310 Town, 268 Crozier Mountain, 61
Birara Island, 319 Curepipe, 45
Bislig, 268 Cabusao, 2fiG Cyclops Mountain, 298
Bismarck Islinds, 319 Cagayan River, 251, 258
Black River Peak, 43 Cagayanes, 256 Dadinga Bay, 241
Blambangan, 193 Cagsaua, 266 Daet, 266
Blanche Bay, 320 Cagud Mountain, 250 Dalby, 405
Blenheim, 451 Caillou (le), 351 Damar Island, 236
Blue Lake, 360 Calamianes Island, 256 Damma Island, 216
" Blue
Lips," 443 Calumpit, 264 Dampier Island, 3 20
Blue Mountains, 360 Camalig, 265 Strait, 320
Bojonegoro, 191 Camarines Peninsula, 246, 248 Dana Island, 209
Bogong Mountains, 358 Caminguin Mountain, 250 Danau, 83
Bohol Island, 253 Campbell Islands, 424, 455 Danger Island, 33
Bombon Lake, 248 Campbelltown, 453 Dani River, 185
Bonerate Island, .'21 Candelaria, 322 Daraga, 247, 266
Bonfire Beach, 63 Canterbury Province, 451 Dark Cloud Sound, 429
Bingon, 148 Capiz. 208 Darling River, 365
Boni, 225 Caraballo Mountains, 245 Darnley Island, 406
Bonoa Inland, 230 Cnrgados Islands, 487 Darwin Peak, 425
Bonthain Mountain, 221 Caroline Island, 468 Dasar, 160
Town, 227 Islands, 280 Data Mountain, 250
Boora-Boora, 401 Carpentaria Gulf, 354 Davao Bay, 248
Bora-Bora Mountain, 471 Castle Mountain, 425 Town. 246
Borneo, 120 Catalangunes, 258 Dayaks, 78, 134
Sea, 120 Catanduanes, 25o Daylesford, 417
Borongan, 266 Catbalongan, 266 Deception Island, 29
INDEX. 507
Deli Town, 96, 113 Fly River, 300 Gyanyar, 200

Demak, 187 Foa, 349 Gympie, 406
Dempo Mountain, 85 Fonualai Island, 469
Deniliguin, 418 Forbes, 412 Haabai, 483
Dent, 148 Foul Wind Cape, 451 Haast River, 425
Derby, 398 Foveaux Strait, 422, 453 Haleahala, 492
Derwent River, 419 Franklin Mountain, 325 Halmahera, 64, 236
Diahot River, 340 Frederik Hendrik Island, 296 Hari River, 91
Diamond Cape, 82, 497 Fremantle, 396 Hawaii Islands, 489
Dieng, 155 French Islands, 320 Island, 491
Dilli, 215 Funga Sa Bay, 484 Hawaiians, 495
Dindi Mountain, 205 Hawkes Bay, 451
Dobbo, 310 Hawkesbury River, 377, 391, 411
Dolok Simanabum, 82 Gabriel, 54
Heard Island, 63
Donda Mountain, 221 Galapagos Islands, 34 Hervey Islands, 485
Donggala, 220 Galela, 241 Hermit Island, 320
Dorey, 304, 308 Galets River, 48 Hikurang Mountain, 430
Duang Island, 222 Gallaway Mountain, 424 Hilo, 497
Dubbo, 412 Galungung Mountain, 154 Hindmarsh, 400
Dueos, 347 Gambier Islands, 473 Hitu, 231
Dula, 219 Gambierton, 401 Hiva-oa, 473
Dunedin, 446, 451 Gapan, 264 Hobart, Hobart Town, 419
Dusky Sound, 429 Garden Island, 396 Hobson's Bay, 417
Dusun, 147 Hochstetter Peak, 425
Gascoyne River, 366
Duwa Su<lara Mountain, 222
Caspar Rico Island, 292 Hokitika, 451
Gaspar Strait, 119 Honolulu, 492, 497
Gautier Mountain, 298 Houailu, 351
Eaglehawk. 418 Houtman's Abrolhos, 397
Karnslaw Mountain, 425 Gawler, 401
Easter Island, 467, 473, 475, 488
Gebe Island, 236 Howamul, 231
Gede Mountain, 152 Howe, Cape, 407
Ebon, 292 Lord, Islands, 322, 413
Echuca, 418 Geelong, 414
Geelvink Bay, 294 Rowlands Island, 474
Edi, 108 Huahine Mountain, 471
Geliting, 207
Efat, 336 Hula, 314
Genoffo Mountain, 298
I'Vni'uit Mountains, 436 Humboldt Bay, 309
Eimeo, 471 Georgetown, 419
Hunter River, 411
Elie de Beaumont Peak, 425 Geraldton, 397
Gilbert Islands, 288 Huon Island, 340
Ellice Islands, 288
Gili Banta Mountain, 205 Bay, 316
Elopura, 147
Gipp's Land, 417 Iba, 265
Ema-Davan, 213
Gisborne, 451
Ema-Velu, 213 Ibanag, 256
Emerald Island, 424 Glenelg, 398, 400 Idaan, 147
Gloucester Cape, 326
Emmaville, 412 Goa (Gowa), 227 Ifugaos, 258
Endeh, 206 Igorrotes, 257
Gomanton, 148 I jen Mountain, 162
Enderbury Island, 4C8
Goolwa, 401 Ikana Maui, 422
Enderby Land, 14 Goram Island, 231
Engano Island, 93 Illana, 252
Eniwetok Islands, 292 Gorontalo, 219, 228 Illanos, 137
Entrecasteaux Islands, 314 Bay, 228 Ilocos, Ilocanos, 256
Gouaro, 350 Ilo-Ilo, 268
Equatorial Polynesia, 466
I'.rebus Mountain, 14
Goudberg, 82 Ilongotes, 258
Goulburn, 412 Iluu-bano Mountain, 211
Erromango, 336 Graf ton, 412
Erub Island, 406 Indan, 263
Graham's Land, 14 Indian Ocean, 40
Espiritu Santo Island, 330
Grahamstown, 451 Indonesia, 64
Essington, 403
Etna Bay, 297 Grampians, 359 Indonesians, 76
Grand Brule Mountain, 47
Eucla, 397 Indragiri River, 84, 91
Great Banda, 234
Evar Island, 218 Indramaju, 186
Great Barrier Reef, 355, 364
Exchequer Islands, 319 Indrapura, 84
Great Sandy Island, 406
Eyre Lake, 366 Insulindia, 64
Greenough River, 397 Inui Island, 467
Gresik, 191
Invercargill, 453
Fak-Fak Isthmus, 307 Grey River, 366 Ipswich, 405
Fakaraua, 487 Greymouth, 451 Irayas, 258
Funning Islands, 468 Gros Morne Mountain, 48
Iraja Mountain, 247
Farallon dim Pajaros, 275 Guadalcanar Island, 322 Irwin River, 395
Farewell Cape, 425 Guagna, 264 Isabella, 268
Farrnulap (Farroilep), 282 Guam (Guahan) Island, 274 Isarog Mountain, 247
Fiji Islands, 457 Guildford, 397
Fijians, 460 Guinan, 266 Jakarta, 182
Finisterre Mountains, 298 Guinobatan, 265 Juluit, 292
Finsch-hafen, 310 Gundaga, 412 Japara, 187
Fitzroy River, 3(>f>, 398 Gunong Alpi, 151 Jambi River, 85, 91
Flinders Island, 383 Sitoli,108 Province, 113
Kiver, 366 Tebur, 142 Town, 113
Flores Island. 206 Guntur Mountain, 154 Jappen Island, 310
Strait, 208 Guwa Upas, 155 Jaro, 272
508 INDEX.
Jarvis Island, 474 Kingsmffl Islands, 288 Lifau, 210

Java, 149 Kingston, 453 Lifu Island, 340, 351
Java-hoofd, 150 Kisser (Kissa), 216 Ligao, 265
Javanese, 167 Klabat Bay, 118 Likieb Island, 292
Jawana, 188 Mountain, 222 Limbangang Island, 221
Jilolo, 64, 240 Klapper Kust, 300 Limbotto Lake, 228
Jobie Island, 300, 310 Kluang, 108 Line Islands, 288
Jokjokarta, 190 Koek Fort, 109 Lingayen, 250, 265
Jolo Islands, 268 Komo Mountain, 472 Lingga Islands, 115
Juan Fernandez Islands, 35, 463 Komodo Islands, 206 Mountain, 110
Kompeh River, 112 Liverpool Plains, 361
Kaba Mountain, 85 Kooringa, 401 Liwong River, 182
Kabalaki Peak, 210 Korintji, 84, 102 Lobetobi Mountain, 206
Kabalelo Mountain, 206 Koroer Island, 280 Lobetolle Mountain, 208
Kadina, 402 Kororarika, 421 Lofty Mountains, 399
Kadyan, 143 Kosciuzko Mountains, 358 Lombleii Island, 207
Kahajan River, 127 Kota Raja, 107 Lombok Island, 201
Kailua, 497 Kotaringin River, 127 Peak, 202
Kaimawana Lake, 430 Koyari, 315 Strait, 202
Kaipara Bay and Town, 450 Krakatau, 86 Lonthoir, 231
Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, 315 Kuehing, 144 Lopevi Mountain, 332
Ka-lae Point, 491 Kudat, 148 Louisiade Islands, 296, 315
K.-i I.-i i>i<> nt in. 120 Kudus, 187 Louis- Philip Land, 14
Kalukah River, 146 Kukusan Mountain, 162 Low Islands, 33, 468
Kalung-Kung, 200 Kupang, 210, 215 Loyalty Islands, 337, 354
Kambing Island, 211 Kuro-Sivo, 24 Luang Island, 216
Kampar River, 91 Kutei River, 127 Luar Lake, 126
Kanala, 351 Lucban, 263
Kandavu Island, 458 Labo, 248 Lueipara, 229
Kao Mountain, 469 Labuan, 114 Lundu, 144
Kapuas liiver, 125, 126 Island, 144 Lupar River, 125, 126
Kapunda, 401 Labuk, 148 Mountains, 125
Karang Mountain, 151 Lachlan River, 365 Lusch, 82
Karang-Assem, 200 Ladrone Islands, 274 Lutuntur, 140
Karbawen-gat, 110 Laguna de Bay, 250 Luzon, 243
Karimata Islands, 127, 138 Lahaina, 497 Lyell Peak, 425
Karimon-Java Islands, 150 Lakahia Mountain, 298 Lyttleton, 451
Karons, 309 Laki-Laki Mountain, 206
Kartasura, 189 Lakuru Mountains, 125 Mabiak, 304
Katau, 304 Lakon Mountain, 222 Macassar, 221, 226
Katingan River, 127 Lakor Island, 216 Maeaturin Mountain, 246
Kauai, 492 Lamahale Mountain, 208 MaeCluer Bay, 297
Kawa-Kawa, 448 Lamandang Mountain, 230 Macdonald Island, 63
Kawi Mountain, 159, 164 Lamansieri, 298 MacDouall Mountains, 361
Kayeli, 233 Lamongan Mountain, 154 Mackay, 406
Kayoa Island, 236 Lampogerg, 102 JIacquarie Island, 424, 455
Kediri River, 164 Mactan
Lampong, 86, 111 Island, 7, 268
Kn Hog Islands, 54 Lamurek Island, 282 Madiun, 191
Kei Islands, 216, 218 Lundak, 137 Madura, 14!). 150
Keisers Piek, 85 Landu Island, 211 Madurese, 166
KVlai Hiver, 129 Maer Island, 376
Lang Island, 90
Kelang Island, 230 Langsar Bay, 106 Mafate, 48
Kelut Mountuin, 158, 162 Lanteh Mountain, 204 Mufur, 309
Kema, 228 Larantuka Mountain, 206 Magelang, 188
Kembangan Peninsula, 160 Town, 208 Magellania, 7
Kemp Island, 14 Larat Island, 218 Magindanao Lake. L'.VJ
Kendangan, 140 Late Mountain, 469 Mahakkam River, 125, 127

Kendeng Mountain, 162 Latimojong Mountains, 221) Mahebourg, 46
Kensington, 400 Lau Islands, 459 Maitland, 412
Keo Mountain, 206 Launceston, 419 Majang Island, 121, 127
Keppel, 148 Laut Tawar, 96 Makjuu Island, 236, 2'iS
Kerawara, 329 Lawayang, 208 Malabar Mountain, 154
Kerguelen Island, 35, 60 Lawu Mountains, 158 Malabuh, 108
Kerikjce, 105 Leeu Mountain, 210 Malabon, 263
Kcnnadec Islands, 424, 455 Lefuka, 483 Malays, 38, 78, 253
Ki'tntahiMountain, 432 Legaspi, 206 Malaysia, 64
Kiama, 412 Leichhardt River, 366 Malaita Island, 322
Kiholo Bay. 491 Lekemba, 460 Malang, 192
Kilauea, 491 Lele Island, 286 Malapi, 148
Kilwam Island, 234 Lemongan Mountain, 161 Malaspina Mountain, 246
Kimberley, 398 Lemuria, 3,52 Maiden Island, 468
Kina-balu Mountain, 123 Letti Island, 216 Malinao Mountain, 247
Kina-batangan River, 130, 146 Lsvuka, 464 Malindang Mountain, 246
King George Sound, 377, 391 Leyte Island, 245, 266 Malintang Mountain, 82
Kingo Mountain, 206 Leytimor Peninsula 231 Mullicolo, 335
King's Country, 441 Libong, 265 Malte Brun Mountain, 425
INDEX. 509
Malu Mountain, 124 Mindanao, 243, 245 New York Island, 468
Mamanuthas, 458 Mindoro, 244 Zealand, 421
Manahiki Islands, 467, 473 Minto, 119 Ngalao Bay, 464
Manapuri Lake, 427 Mioko, 328 Ngaur Island, 277
Mandala-Wangi, 152 Misamis, 268 Ngawi, 191
Mandayas, 258 Mitchell River, 366 Ngenges Mountain, 204
Mandhar Cape, 221 Mojo-Kerto, 192 Ngoli Island, 280
Mangareva Island, 474, 487 Mojo-Pahit, 159, 191 Ngongotaha Mountain, 434
Mangkarai, 206 Mokko-Mokko, 110 Nias Island, 96, 103
Mangkassar, 227 Mokoia Island, 443 Niaur Island, 277
Manilla. 261 Mokuaveoveo, 490 Niihau, 492
Maninju Lake, 83 Molokai Island, 496 Nila Island, 206, 216
Manipa Island, 230 Moluccas, 76, 229 Niua, 483
Manly, 410 Molyneux River, 439 Niue Island, 446, 469, 483
Maori, 39, 440 Mono Island, 322 Njavongs, 132
Maraki Island, 290 Montrado, 126, 137 Norfolk Island, 35, 413
Marapok Mountain, 146 Montravel, 348 Norman River, 366
Maras Mountain, 118 Moonta, 402 Normantown, 406
Mare, 340 Moorea, 471, 487 North Borneo, 146
Margasari, 140 Moreton Bay, 404 Island, 422, 430
Marianas, 274 Morgan, 400 Northern Territory, 403
Maria-Theresa Shoal, 467 Mori-Ori, 441 Norwood, 400
Mariboju, 268 Momington, 407 Nou Island, 347
Marigondon, 265 Moron, 264 Noumea, 347
Marion Islands, 60 Morotai, 236 Nowra, 412
Mariveles, 265 Morrumbidgee River, 365 Nueva-Caceres, 266
Marlborough, 111 Mortlock, 282 Nufor, 304
Maros, 221, 227 Motir Island, 236 Nuka-hiva, 474, 487
MarqueRas Islands, 487 Motu, 304, 315 Nukapu Island, 335
Mars Island, 117 Mount Perry, 406 Nukualofa, 483
Marshall Islands, 288 Mua, 483 Nukunor, 284
Marsuins River, 52 Murio Mountain, 151 Nusa Kembnngan, 164, 166
Martapura River, 127 Mulinuu, 485 Laut, 231
Town, 140 Muntok, 119
Marud Mountain, 124 Murchison River, 366, 395 Oahu Island, 480, 492
Marudu River, 148 Murray River, 365, 407 Oamaru, 451
Mary River, 406 Island, 364 Oas, 265
Maryborough, 406 Murrut, 143 Obi Island, 236
Masbate Island, 245 Musaheli Mountain, 231 Ohau Lake, 427
Masearenhas, 40 Musi River, 91 Old Hat Island, 436
Massacre Bay, 421 Muwara-Bahan, 140 Oleh-leh, 107
Massim Islands, 296 Bliti,112 Oma, 231
Mat River, 48 Dua, 112 Ombaai Island, 208
Malar, in. 190, 203 Inim, 112 Onehunga, 449
Matupi Island, 328 Kompeh, 112 Onetapu Desert, 431
Mauban, 265 Rupit, 112 Ongtong-Java, 322
Maui Island, 492 Mysol, 297 Onin Peninsula, 297
Mauna Hualalai, 491
Ono Niha, 103
Kea, 491 Naga, 266 Onrust Island, 184
Loa, 489 Namorek Island, 282, 292 Ophir Mountain, 82
Maupiti Mountain, 471 Nangamessi, 209 Orang-Bajo, 227
Mauritius, 40, 43 Napier, 451 Buntu, 132
Mayon Mountain, 246 Narovo, 322 Dongo, 205
Maya, 236 Natal, 108 Gunong. 119
Mbau Island, 458 Nateva Bay, 458 Kubu, 102
Medan, 1 1 .3 Natuna Island, 120 Kwata, 118
Meester Cornelia, 183 Navigators' Islands, 483 Laut, 118
Melanesia, 318 Negara River, 127, 140 Lubu, 101, 103
Melanesians, 39, 324 Town, 140 Sekai, 118
Melbourne Mountain, 14 Negritos, 38, 253 Serani, 232
Negros Island, 246 L'lu, 101
City, 414
Mflville Island, 356 Neira, 234 Orange, 412
Nelson, 451 Orohena Mountain, 472
Mempakol, 148
Menado, 228 Newcastle, 412 Otago Harbour, 452
Town, 228 New Britain, 296, 319 Ot Danom, 134
Menangkubao, 101 Caledonia, 337 Ots, 345
Mcngwi, 200 Georgia, 322 Ouegoa, 350
Islands, 103 Guinea, 293,311, 315 Ovalau Island, 458, 464
Mentawey Owen Stanley Mountain, 2D3
Mcrapi (Java), 157, 162 Hanover, !S'20
Sumatra), 84, 109 Hebrides, 320 Oyster Cove, 384, 419

Merbabu Mountain, 187 Ireland, 296 River, 52
Micronesia, 39, 274 Lauenburg, 319
Milano. 1 15 Mecklenburg, 319 Padang, 83, 108
Milf.ird Sound, 425, 429 Nurcia, 397 Island, 94
Milli Islands. -l\r> Plymouth, 451 Pan jang, 110
Minahassa, 219 South Wales, 470 Sidempuan, 108
510 INDEX.
Padri, 96, 102 Pines, Island of, 338, 3.51 Rangsang Island, 94
Pagan Island, 275 Pirate's Islands, 120 Ranjuna Island, 209
Pagan Island, 105 Piteairn Island, 467, 488 Rantau Island, 94
Pahia, 421 Piton des Neiges, 46 Raoul Cape, 419
Painan, 110 Piton du Midi, 43 Island, 455
Pajagalan, 154 Pitt Island, 454 Rapa Island, 485
Paja-kombo, 110 Plate Island, 43 Raratonga, 471, 485
Pakaraman, 1;V> Pleasant Island, 289 Ratak Islands, 291
Pakuojo Mountain, 155 Plenty, Bay of, 434 Raun Mountain, 162
Palaos Islands, 277 River, 414 Ravenswood, 4(16
Palawan, 269 Poedal Mountain, 246 Rejang River, 126
Palembang, 91, 112 Point Parker, 405, 407 Rejangs, 102
River, 91 Polangui, 265 Rembang, 191
Palmer River, 40fi Polills Island, 250, 265 Renjani Mountain, 202
Palmerston, 391, 403 Polynesia, 466 Reunion, 40, 46
Islands, 467 Polynesians, 39, 474 Rewa, 464
Palos Bay, 227 Pomotu Islands, 473 Rewa-Rewa River, 464
Cape, 220 Ponape, 282, 286 Rikitea, 487
Town, 227 Pontianak, 122, 137 Ringat, 113
Pamekasan, 193 Port Adelaide, 400 Ringgit Mountain, 161
Pampangan River, 251 Akaroa, 452 Riouw Islands, 115
Pampangos, 256 Arthur, 419 Town, 117
Panarukan, 193 Breton, 328 Rockhampton, 406
Panay, 267 Chalmers, 452 Rockingham, 397
Pandau Mountain, 158 Cooper, 430, 451 Roebuck Bay, 403
Pangaron, 140 Darwin, 403 Rodrigues Island, 40, 52
Pangasinan, 265 Denison, 406 Roebourne, 397
Panggeiango Mountain, 152 Hacking, 413 Rokau River, 91
Panghu Volcanoes, 222 Jackson, 385, 409 Rokka Mountain, 206
Pango-Pango, 484 Portland, 418 Roma (Australia), 405
Panic Peak, 338 Port Levy, 430 Island, 216
Panka, 186 Louis, 43 Mountain, 206
Pan tar Island, 208 Maequarie, 360, 412 Ronde Island, 43
Papandajan Mountain, 154 Mathurin, 53, 54 Rook Island, 328
Papeete, 485 Moresby, 311 Roper River, 366
Papuans, 38, 303 Nicholson, 451 Rosa Bank, 275
Papuasia, 293 Phaeton, 486 Rose Island, 470
Paragua. 244, 269 Phillip, 414 Mountain, 154
Paramatta, 411 Stephens, 412 Ross Mountain, 61
Parigi, 227 Possession Island, 60 Rota Island, 275
Parry Islands, 277 Posso Lake, 226 Rota-ma, 434
Pasaman, 82 Poverty Bay, 421 Roto-ehu, 434
Pasig River, 251 Prahu Mountain, 155 Roto-iti, 434
Pasir, 140 Preang, 155 Roto-Mahana, 435
Pasumah, 102 Preservation Inlet, 429 Roto-rua Lake, 434
Pasuruan, 193 Priaman, 108 Rotti Islands, 209
Paternoster Islands, 151 Priangan, 110 Rotuest Island, 397
Pateros, 263 Princes Islands, 85 Rotuma Island, 465, 483
Patjitan, 191 Prince Edward Island, 60 Rozengain Island, 2:i">
Patti, 187 Probolingo, 193 Ruapehu Mountain, 431
Pa tuna Mountain, 153 Progo River, 164 Ruang Island, 222
Pekalongan, 186 Providence Reefs, 292 Ruk Islands, 283
Pekan-Baru, 113 Pu Mountain, 125 Run Island, 235
Pelarang, 141 Puerta Princesa, 269 Rupat Island, 94
Pelew Islands, 277 Pukaki Lake, 427 Rurukan, 229
Peling Island, 226 Pukapuka Island, 467 Rusa Island, 221
Penanggungan Mountain, 159 Pulasari Mountain, 151 Russel, 449
Penrhyn Islands, 467 Pulasi Island, 221
Penrisan Mountain, 125 Pulu Lawang, 113 Sabah, 146
Pepe River, 189 Petak, 127 Sabrina Land, 14
Perampuan Mountain, 206 Purworejo, 189 Sadaug River, 144, 146, 222
Pernakan, 119 Pusuk Bukit Mountain. 82 Sago Mountain. 84, 110
Perongia Mountain, 436 Putanaki Mountain, 436 Sagut, 148
Perth, 396 Pyrenees, 359 St. Aignan, 300
Pertibi, 108 St. Benoit, 52
Pescadores Islands, 288 Queen's Channel, 366 St. Denis, 47, 50
Petre Bay, 454 Queenscliff, 414 St. Etienne River, 48
Petrie Reefs, 340 Queensland, 403 St. Joseph, 52
Philippine Islands, 243 Queenstown, 453 St. Leu. 48, 51
Phillip Port, 414 St. Louis, 51
Phoenix Islands, 467 Raja Bassa Mount dn, 86 St. Paul Island, 56
Pieter Both Mountain, 43 Raiatea Island, 487 Town, 47, 50
Pigeon Bay, 430 Raki-rua, 422 St. Philippe, 52
Pihangra Mountain, 432 Ranay Mountain, 120 St. Pierre, 48, 51
Pilot Mountain. 407 Rang'itaiki River, 436 St. Vincent Gulf. 356
Pillar Land, 362 Sala Mountain, 152
Rangitoto Mountain, 436
INDEX. 511
Salak Mountain, 151, 182 Selaparang, 201 Sundanese, 77, 166

Salatiga, 188 Selaru Island, 218 Sunday Island, 455
Sala y Gomez Island, 467 Selawa Janten Mountain, 82 Surabaya, 191
Salazie, 48 Semarang, 186 Province, 191
Sale, 417 Semaru Mountain, 151, 160 Strait, 164
Saleyer Wand, 221 Sengarang Island. 117 Surakarta, 189
Salwaty Islands, 297 Serasan Island, 120 Province, 189
Samalanga Mountain, 82 Serang, 182, 231 Surigao Port, 246
Samar Island. 253, 266 Serwatty Islands, 215 Town, 268
Samarang, 186, 468 Sewu Mountiiins, 158 Susang River, 91
Samarinda, 141 Shetland Islands, 14 Suva, 464
Samate, 308 Sherlock River, 397 Suvorov Islands. 467
Saraau, 211 Shoalhaven, 412 Swan River, 396
Sambas, 137 Shortland, 328, 451 Sydney, 409
Sambaya River. 163 Siak River, 91
Sambiliung, 142 Town, 113 Taal Mountain, 246, 248
Sambori Mountain, 205 Siao, 222 Tabaco, 266
Samoa, 467, 483 Sibalon, 268 Tabanan, 200
Sampit River, 127 Sibogha, 96 Tabello, 241
Samsan, 307 Sibu, 145 Tacloban, 266
San Bartolomeo Island, 288 Sibuks River, 146 Tafelberg (Sumbawa), 82, 204
San Barnardino Strait, 265 SilebarBay, 111 Tafelberg (Halmahera), 236
San Cristobal Island, 322 Silikab Bay, 106 Tafuti Lake, 223
Mountain, 264 Silverton, 412 Tagals, 356
San Fernando, 265 Mines, 412 Tagbanuhoy, 269
Sandakan, 147 Simalu Island, 103 Tagbilaran, 268
Sandalwood Island, 209 Simangang, 145 Tahaa Island, 471
Sandgate, 404 Sindang Lay a, 185 Tahiti, 467,471, 485
Sandhurst, 418 Sindoro Mountain, 156 Taio-Hae, 487
Sandridge, 414 Singalong Mountain, 84 Taiti Hi, 472
Sandwich Island, 336 Singapore, 235 Taiti Nui, 472
Islands, 489 Singkara Lake, 84, 91 Tajem Mountain, 120
Sandy Cape, 364 Singkel, 108 Talang Mountain, 84
Sanga-Sanga, 141 Singosari, 192 Talaraquin, 246
Sangeang Mountain, 205 Sipirok, 108 Tambora Mountain, 204
Sangi Inlands, 222 Slamat Mountain, 155 Tambelan Island, 120
Sangil Mountain, 246 Smythesdale, 417 Tambuku Mountain, 162
Sanguir Islands, 222 Snares Islands, 422, 424 Tamil, 286
San Isidro, 2G4 Society Islands, 467, 485 Tamparang Lake, 224
San Joe de Buenavista, 268 Solander Cape, 408 Tamworth, 412
Sankolirang, 142 Solo, 189 Tanah-Jampea, 221
Santa Ana Island, 322 River, 163 Tanduwi River, 155, 164
Santa Cruz Islands, 320 Solombo Islands, 150 Tangarung, 140
Town, 263 Solomon Islands, 318, 322 Tangerang, 185
Santo Tomas, 250 Solor Islands, 206 Tangka Mountain, 86
Saparua Island, 231 Somerset, 406 Tangkuban Prahu Mountain, 155
Town, 234 Somo-Somo Strait, 459 Tan jang Pinang, 117
Sapudi Islands, 151 Sorobandi Mountain, 205 Tanjong Bunga, 207
Saputan Mountain, 221 Sorsogon, 266 Pandang, 120
Sarangani Mountain, 245 South Australia, 398 Priok, 183
Sarawak, 68, 144 Island, 422, 424 Tanna, 332
River, 146 Spencer Gulf, 361 Aiperi, 332
Saribas River, 146 Sriang Lake, 125 Tapamanoa Mountain, 471
Sasaks. 201 Stawell, 418 Tapanuli Bay, 108
Sasan Mountain, 203 Stewart Island, 424 Province, 96
Satoan, 284 Stone Islands, 14 Tarakan Mountain, 236
Satoi Mountain, 125 Storm Bay, 419 Taranaki Mountain, 436
Saunders Cape, 430 Sual, 265 Taravao Isthmus, 486
Savage Island, 4S3 Subig, 265 Tarawera Lake, 434
Savaii Island, 470 Sugut, 246 Volcano, 434
Savo, 3-J2 Suikerbrood, 85 Tarun River, 155, 162
Savu Islands, 209 Sula Islands, 227 Tasman Glacier, 425
Savu-Savu, 464 Besi, 227 Tasmania, 352, 363, 418
Sawah Mountain, 85 Takomi, 227 Tasmanians, 380, 383
Sawal Mountain, 155 Taliabo, 227 Tatas Island, 140
Saypan Man:!. 27") Sulu Islands, 122, 268 Tau Island, 485
Schoutcn Islands, 296 Sumadra, 108 Taui Island, 321
Sea View, 300 Sumatra, 79 Taumaco, 335
Sebesi Island, 86 Sumba Island, 208 Taupo Lake, 432
S.-l>,,ku Island, 121 Sumbawa, 203 Tauranga, 443, 451
Sebuwang River, 130 Bay. 205 Taviuni Island, 458
Si-yama River, 148 Province, 205 Tayabas, 2(>5
S'lMivi Anakan Iluy, 164 Town, 205 Tay-tay, 269
Si-ifli, los Sumbing Mountain. 156 Te Anau Lake, 427
Sekaar, 310 Sunda Islands, 64, 208 Tebah Mountain, 85
Sekingau, 85 Strait, 54, 86 Teetulpa, 402
552. 03
512 INDEX.
Tegal, 186 Torres Strait, 9, 293, 294, 302 Waimakariri, 427

Province, 186 Tosari, 193 Wairakei Cirque, 434
Te Kapo Lake, 427 Toutouta Cascade, 340 Wairur, 309
Telaaa Bodas Lake, 154 Tower Hill, 360 Waitaki River, 428
Telokh-Betong, 83, 111 Townshend Mountain, 358 Waitangi Island, 4o4
Tempe River, 224 Townsville, 406 Waitemata, 449
Tempingan, 275 Treasury Island, 322 Waiwiko-Waihali, 210
Tengger Mountain, 160 Triton Bay, 296 Wajang Volcano, 154
Tenimber Islands, 216 Tuamotu Islands, 467, 473, 487 Wajo, 225
Tenoru River, 108 Tuban, 191 Wakatipu Lake, 427, 453
Ternate Island, 236 Tubuai Islands, 467, 471, 485 Wallaroo, 402
Town, 241 Tuguagarao, 265 Wallis Islands, 483
Terror Mountain, H Tukadana, 138 Wamma Island, 310
Te Tarata, 435 Tukopia, 475, 483 Wandammen, 309
Tevahi Panamu, 422 Turtle Island, 457 Wanganui, 451
Thames River, 451 Tutuila Island, 470, 484 Wangsit Volcano, 202
Town, 461 Tyang Jaw, 149 Warekauri Island, 441, 454
Tuio, 351 Warrnambool, 360, 418
Thursday Island, 406 ITalan Island, 280 Warsai, 294
Tibi, 266 Uap, 286 Warwick, 383
Valley, 247 Ugi Island, 325 Town, 405
Ticas Island, 256 Ujung Pandang, 227 Wawaps, 345
Tidar Mountain, 157 Uliasser Islands, 231 Wellington, Australia, 412
Tidor Island, 236, 241 Ulu, 112 New Zealand, 451
Tidung, 142 Umbilien River, 84, 91 Mountain, 419
Tifuri Island, 236 Ungaran, 157 Weltevreden, 183
Tiger Island, 319 Upolu Island, 470, 484 Wenang, 229
Tikopia, 330 Uracas, 275 Western Aut tralia, 395
Tiraaru, 451 I'rai, 349 Westport, 451
Timboro Mountain, 204 Ureparapara, 332 Wetang Island, 216
Timor Island, 209 Uvea Island, 483 Wetter Island, 215
Timorese, 213 Whakari Mountain, 436
Timor Laut, 216 Van Diemen's Land, 355, 418 Wijnkoops, 185
Tinakaro, 332 Van der Capellen, 110 Wilcannia, 412
Tinguianes, 258 Vanikoro, 33, 330 Willem, Prince, Island, 457
Tinian Island, 275 Vaniia Levu, 332, 458 Wilkes Land, 13
Tjanjur, 185 Vare Island, 314 William Mountain, 359
Tjaringi, 88 Vate Island, 336 Williamstown, 414
Tjempi Bay, 203 Vatoa Island, 457 Willis Mountain, 158
Tjenrana River, 224 Vavao Islands, 469 Wilson Cape, 358
Tjerimai Mountain, 155 Vegetable Creek, 412 Wisma Mountain, 155
Tjibodas, 185 Vela lu Velha. 322 Wollongong, 412
Tjikao, 185 Vera Cruz. 336 Woodlark Island, 328
Tjikurai, 155 Verdate Island, 218 Woolomoloo, 410
Tjilatjap, 189 Vergara, 268 Wyville-Thomson Mountain, 61
Tjilongok, 185 Verlaten Island, 90
TjitjalenUa,
186 Vicol, 256 Xula, 229
Tjitjurug Pass, 152 River, 266
Toba Plateau, 82 Victor Harbour, 400 Tamdena Island, 218
Lake, 82, 96 Victoria Colony, 414 Yan-Yean, 414
Tofua Peak, 469 Fort, 232 Yapara, 151
Togean Islands, 227 Land, 14 Yap Island, 277, 284
Tohivea Mountain, 471 Port Essington, 403 Yarra-Yarra River, 414
Tokelau Islands, 467, 468 West Australia, 397 Yasova Islands, 458
Tolo Mountain, 236 Vigan, 265 Mountain, 332
Gulf, '2-27
Visayans, 258 Yass River, 3.~>8
Tombara Island. 319 Visayas Islands, 265, 270 York Island. 320, 328
Tomaiki, 227 Viti, see Fiji Cape, 3(>:i
Tomini. 221. 227 Viti-Levu, 457 Town, 31)7
Gulf, 227 Vlaardigen, 224 Peninsula, 34, 300, 358, 361
Tondano, 229 Volcan Island, 320 Ysarog Mountain, 247
1,-ikc. 22 I Volcano Islands, 277 Yule Island, 314
Tonga Islands. 468, 469, 4S3 Mountain, 299
Tonifiiriko Mountain, 432, 436 Wagga-AVagga, 412 Yzabcl Island, 318, 322
Tonga-tabu, 4G9, 48.! Wahai, 233
Toowoomba, 405 Waiau River, 427 Zabej, 149
Topantuuuiisu, 226 Wai (Pulo), 82 Zambales, 205
22(i
Torajas, Waigeu, 297, 306 /amboanga, 268
Torrens Lake. 363 Waikato River, 433, 436 Zebu, 268
River, 399 Wailah, 108 Zuid-Wester Islands, 215
THE END.
DU 17 .R4313 1892 SMC
Rec lus El isee.
.
Oceanica 47086063
I

The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Reclus Elisée, Vol 17.oceania

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THE

EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS

ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS.

II. THE MASCARENHAS REUNION, MAURITIUS, RODEIOUES 4063

III. INDONESIA (THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO)

Climate, p. 70. Flora, p. il. 73 Inhabitants, p 76. Sumatra and

Tidor, Ternate, Halmahera. Morotai, p. 235.

IV. THE PHILIPPINES AND SULU ...-'... .... p 261.

p. 300. Climate, Flora, Fauna, p. 301. Inhabitants, p. SOS. Topography, p. S0(i.

VII. MELANESIA 318351

VIII. AUSTII.T.TA AND TASMANIA 352420

IX. NEW ZEALAND AND NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS 421 456

X. THE FIJI ISLANDS 457 455

XI. EQUATORIAL POLYNESIA 466 488

XII. HAWAII (THE SANDWICH ISLANDS)

p. 494-5. Inhabitants, p. 495. Topography, p. 497.

MAPS PRINTED IN COLOURS.

Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand . . 352 Groups .450

Group of Natives, North Queensland of Koyari Chiefs, South-East New

Louis-Philippe Land, Antarctic Ocean . . 34 Solomon Archipelago 324

the Blue Mountains, Australia .

North-East 58 Bay . 408

Sti..t View in Batavia 182 General View of Launceston, Tasmania 420 . .

Meliorations of the Pacific

4. First Circumnavigation of the Globe from

6. Explorations in the South Polar Waters .

14. The Grand Brflle

24. Comparative Areas of Holland and the

28. The Herupi Volcanic Range

:'._'. Si KAMKIl BORNE ON THE KRAKATAU WAVE

33. Alluvial Plains of the Musi Basin

Tuba and the Batta Country

Inhabit. nit* nf Sumatra

ija and Oleh-leh

107. Southern Part of

113 IFUGAO INDIAN . .

116. Samar and Leyte . . . . .

117. Ho-Ilo and Strait of Guimaras . .

118. Sulu Archipelago .

119. Density of Population of the Philippines.

123. GENERAL VIEW OF UALAN

129. Chief Explorations on the Coasts and in the

146. NATIVE OF MARE, LOYALTY ISLES .

117. NEW CALEDONIAN MAN . . . .

Eoutes of Australian Explorers

155. Australian Alps . . . . .

156. Bass Strait

160. Rainfall of East Australia

THE OCEANIC HEMISPHERE.

OMPARED with the collective body of marine waters, the Atlantic

encompasses the whole periphery of the globe.

EXTENT AND FORMATION OF THE OCEANIC BASIN.

Fig. 1. THE GREAT OCEANIC HEMISPHERE (WESTERN SECTION).

The vast oceanic basin

islands, and insular groups.

Fig. 2. THE GREAT OCEANIC HF.MTSPHEBE (EASTEEX SECTION).

Sumatra to Tasmania, also constitutes, notwithstanding its present fragmentary

equatorial regions which form a southern continuation of Indo-China across the

THE ANTARCTIC LANDS.