Almost All These
Were Collected In One Patch Of Jungle, Not More Than A Square
Mile In Extent, And In All My Subsequent Travels In The East I
Rarely If Ever Met With So Productive A Spot.
This exceeding
productiveness was due in part no doubt to some favourable
conditions in the soil, climate, and vegetation, and to the
season being very bright and sunny, with sufficient showers to
keep everything fresh.
But it was also in a great measure
dependent, I feel sure, on the labours of the Chinese wood-
cutters. They had been at work here for several years, and during
all that time had furnished a continual supply of dry and dead
and decaying leaves and bark, together with abundance of wood and
sawdust, for the nourishment of insects and their larvae. This
had led to the assemblage of a great variety of species in a
limited space, and I was the first naturalist who had come to
reap the harvest they had prepared. In the same place, and during
my walks in other directions, I obtained a fair collection of
butterflies and of other orders of insects, so that on the whole
I was quite satisfied with these - my first attempts to gain a
knowledge of the Natural History of the Malay Archipelago.
CHAPTER III.
MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR.
(JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1854.)
BIRDS and most other kinds of animals being scarce at Singapore,
I left it in July for Malacca, where I spent more than two months
in the interior, and made an excursion to Mount Ophir. The old
and picturesque town of Malacca is crowded along the banks of the
small river, and consists of narrow streets of shops and dwelling
houses, occupied by the descendants of the Portuguese, and by
Chinamen. In the suburbs are the houses of the English officials
and of a few Portuguese merchants, embedded in groves of palms
and fruit-trees, whose varied and beautiful foliage furnishes a
pleasing relief to the eye, as well as most grateful shade.
The old fort, the large Government House, and the ruins of a
cathedral attest the former wealth and importance of this place,
which was once as much the centre of Eastern trade as Singapore
is now. The following description of it by Linschott, who wrote
two hundred and seventy years ago, strikingly exhibits the change
it has undergone:
"Malacca is inhabited by the Portuguese and by natives of the
country, called Malays. The Portuguese have here a fortress, as
at Mozambique, and there is no fortress in all the Indies, after
those of Mozambique and Ormuz, where the captains perform their
duty better than in this one. This place is the market of all
India, of China, of the Moluccas, and of other islands around
about - from all which places, as well as from Banda, Java,
Sumatra, Siam, Pegu, Bengal, Coromandel, and India - arrive ships
which come and go incessantly, charged with an infinity of
merchandises. There would be in this place a much greater number
of Portuguese if it were not for the inconvenience, and
unhealthiness of the air, which is hurtful not only to strangers,
but also to natives of the country. Thence it is that all who
live in the country pay tribute of their health, suffering from a
certain disease, which makes them lose either their skin or their
hair. And those who escape consider it a miracle, which occasions
many to leave the country, while the ardent desire of gain
induces others to risk their health, and endeavour to endure such
an atmosphere. The origin of this town, as the natives say, was
very small, only having at the beginning, by reason of the
unhealthiness of the air, but six or seven fishermen who
inhabited it. But the number was increased by the meeting of
fishermen from Siam, Pegu, and Bengal, who came and built a city,
and established a peculiar language, drawn from the most elegant
nodes of speaking of other nations, so that in fact the, language
of the Malays is at present the most refined, exact, and
celebrated of all the East. The name of Malacca was given to this
town, which, by the convenience of its situation, in a short time
grew to such wealth, that it does not yield to the most powerful
towns and regions around about. The natives, both men and women,
are very courteous and are reckoned the most skillful in the
world in compliments, and study much to compose and repeat verses
and love-songs. Their language is in vogue through the Indies, as
the French is here.
At present, a vessel over a hundred tons hardly ever enters its
port, and the trade is entirely confined to a few petty products
of the forests, and to the fruit, which the trees, planted by the
old Portuguese, now produce for the enjoyment of the inhabitants
of Singapore. Although rather subject to fevers, it is not at
present considered very unhealthy.
The population of Malacca consists of several races. The
ubiquitous Chinese are perhaps the most numerous, keeping up
their manners, customs, and language; the indigenous Malays are
next in point of numbers, and their language is the Lingua-franca
of the place. Next come the descendants of the Portuguese - a
mixed, degraded, and degenerate race, but who still keep up the
use of their mother tongue, though ruefully mutilated in grammar;
and then there are the English rulers, and the descendants of the
Dutch, who all speak English. The Portuguese spoken at Malacca is
a useful philological phenomenon. The verbs have mostly lost
their inflections, and one form does for all moods, tenses,
numbers, and persons. Eu vai, serves for "I go," "I went," or, "I
will go." Adjectives, too, have been deprived of their feminine
and plural terminations, so that the language is reduced to a
marvellous simplicity, and, with the admixture of a few Malay
words, becomes rather puzzling to one who has heard only the pure
Lusitanian.
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