Written in the hope of
exciting an interest in the various questions connected with the
origin of species and their geographical distribution. In some
cases I have been able to explain my views in detail; while in
others, owing to the greater complexity of the subject, I have
thought it better to confine myself to a statement of the more
interesting facts of the problem, whose solution is to be found
in the principles developed by Mr. Darwin in his various works.
The numerous illustrations will, it is believed, add much to the
interest and value of the book. They have been made from my own
sketches, from photographs, or from specimens - and such, only
subjects that would really illustrate the narrative or the
descriptions, have been chosen.
I have to thank Messrs. Walter and Henry Woodbury, whose
acquaintance I had the pleasure of making in Java, for a number
of photographs of scenery and of natives, which have been of the
greatest assistance to me. Mr. William Wilson Saunders has kindly
allowed me to figure the curious horned flies; and to Mr. Pascoe
I am indebted for a loan of two of the very rare Longicorns which
appear in the plate of Bornean beetles. All the other specimens
figured are in my own collection.
As the main object of all my journeys was to obtain specimens of
natural history, both for my private collection and to supply
duplicates to museums and amateurs, I will give a general
statement of the number of specimens I collected, and which
reached home in good condition. I must premise that I generally
employed one or two, and sometimes three Malay servants to assist
me; and for nearly half the time had the services of an English
lad, Charles Allen. I was just eight years away from England, but
as I travelled about fourteen thousand miles within the
Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy separate journeys, each
involving some preparation and loss of time, I do not think that
more than six years were really occupied in collecting.
I find that my Eastern collections amounted to:
310 specimens of Mammalia.
100 specimens of Reptiles.
8,050 specimens of Birds.
7,500 specimens of Shells.
13,100 specimens of Lepidoptera.
83,200 specimens of Coleoptera.
13,400 specimens of other Insects.
125,660 specimens of natural history in all.
It now only remains for me to thank all those friends to whom I
am indebted for assistance or information. My thanks are more
especially due to the Council of the Royal Geographical Society,
through whose valuable recommendations I obtained important aid
from our own Government and from that of Holland; and to Mr.
William Wilson Saunders, whose kind and liberal encouragement in
the early portion of my journey was of great service to me. I am
also greatly indebted to Mr. Samuel Stevens (who acted as my
agent), both for the care he took of my collections, and for the
untiring assiduity with which he kept me supplied, both with
useful information and with whatever necessaries I required.
I trust that these, and all other friends who have been in any
way interested in my travels and collections, may derive from the
perusal of my book, some faint reflexion of the pleasures I
myself enjoyed amid the scenes and objects it describes.
THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
From a look at a globe or a map of the Eastern hemisphere, we
shall perceive between Asia and Australia a number of large and
small islands forming a connected group distinct from those great
masses of land, and having little connection with either of them.
Situated upon the Equator, and bathed by the tepid water of the
great tropical oceans, this region enjoys a climate more
uniformly hot and moist than almost any other part of the globe,
and teems with natural productions which are elsewhere unknown.
The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are
Indigenous here. It produces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia,
the great green-winged Ornithoptera (princes among the butterfly
tribes), the man-like Orangutan, and the gorgeous Birds of
Paradise. It is inhabited by a peculiar and interesting race of
mankind - the Malay, found nowhere beyond the limits of this
insular tract, which has hence been named the Malay Archipelago.
To the ordinary Englishman this is perhaps the least known part
of the globe. Our possessions in it are few and scanty; scarcely
any of our travellers go to explore it; and in many collections
of maps it is almost ignored, being divided between Asia and the
Pacific Islands. It thus happens that few persons realize that,
as a whole, it is comparable with the primary divisions of the
globe, and that some of its separate islands are larger than
France or the Austrian Empire. The traveller, however, soon
acquires different ideas. He sails for days or even weeks along
the shores of one of these great islands, often so great that its
inhabitants believe it to be a vast continent. He finds that
voyages among these islands are commonly reckoned by weeks and
months, and that their several inhabitants are often as little
known to each other as are the native races of the northern to
those of the southern continent of America. He soon comes to look
upon this region as one apart from the rest of the world, with
its own races of men and its own aspects of nature; with its own
ideas, feelings, customs, and modes of speech, and with a
climate, vegetation, and animated life altogether peculiar to
itself.
From many points of view these islands form one compact
geographical whole, and as such they have always been treated by
travellers and men of science; but, a more careful and detailed
study of them under various aspects reveals the unexpected fact
that they are divisible into two portions nearly equal in extent
which differ widely in their natural products, and really form
two parts of the primary divisions of the earth.
