The Chief Men Of Each Village Came
To Visit Me, Clothed In Robes Of Silk And Flowered Satin, Though
Their Houses And Their Daily Fare Are No Better Than Those Of The
Ether Inhabitants.
What a contrast between these people and such
savages as the best tribes of bill.
Dyaks in Borneo, or the
Indians of the Uaupes in South America, living on the banks of
clear streams, clean in their persons and their houses, with
abundance of wholesome food, and exhibiting its effect in healthy
shins and beauty of form and feature! There is in fact almost as
much difference: between the various races of savage as of
civilized peoples, and we may safely affirm that the better
specimens of the former are much superior to the lower examples
of the latter class.
One of the few luxuries of Matabello is the palm wine; which is
the fermented sap from the flower stains of the cocoa-net. It is
really a very mice drink, more like cyder than beer, though quite
as intoxicating as the latter. Young cocoa-nuts are also very
abundant, so that anywhere in the island it is only necessary to
go a few yards to find a delicious beverage by climbing up a tree
for it. It is the water of the young fruit that is drunk, before
the pulp has hardened; it is then more abundant, clear, and
refreshing, and the thin coating of gelatinous pulp is thought a
treat luxury. The water of full-brown cocoa-nuts is always thrown
away as undrinkable, although it is delicious in comparison with
that of the old dry nuts which alone we obtain in this country.
The cocoa-nut pulp I did not like at first; but fruits are so
scarce, except at particular seasons, that one soon learns to
appreciate anything of a fruity nature.
Many persons in Europe are under the impression that fruits of
delicious flavour abound in the tropical forests, and they will
no doubt be surprised to learn that the truly wild fruits of this
brand and luxuriant archipelago, the vegetation of which will vie
with that of any part of the world, are in almost every island
inferior in abundance and duality to those of Britain. Wild
strawberries and raspberries are found in some places, but they
arc such poor tasteless things as to be hardly worth eating, and
there is nothing to compare with our blackberries and
whortleberries. The kanary-nut may be considered equal to a
hazel-nut, but I have met with nothing else superior to our
crabs, oar haws, beech-nuts, wild plums, and acorns; fruits
which would be highly esteemed by the natives of these islands,
and would form an important part of their sustenance. All the
fine tropical fruits are as much cultivated productions as our
apples, peaches, and plums, and their wild prototypes, when
found, are generally either tasteless or uneatable.
The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan
villages of East Ceram and Goram, amused me much by their strange
ideas concerning the Russian war. They believe that the Russians
were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were
absolutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism! And they can
hardly be convinced that such is not the case, and that had it
not been for the assistance of France and England, the poor
Sultan world have fared ill. Another of their motions is, that
the Turks are the largest and strongest people in the world - in
fact a race of giants; that they eat enormous quantities of meat,
and are a most ferocious and irresistible nation. Whence such
strangely incorrect opinions could have arisen it is difficult to
understand, unless they are derived from Arab priests, or hadjis
returned from Mecca, who may have heard of the ancient prowess of
the Turkish armies when they made all Europe tremble, and suppose
that their character and warlike capacity must be the same at the
present time.
GORAM
A steady south-east wind having set in, we returned to Manowolko
on the 25th of April, and the day after crossed over to Ondor,
the chief village of Goram.
Around this island extends, with few interruptions, an encircling
coral reef about a quarter of a mile from the shore, visible as a
stripe of pale green water, but only at very lowest ebb-tides
showing any rock above the surface. There are several deep
entrances through this reef, and inside it there is hood
anchorage in all weathers. The land rises gradually to a moderate
height, and numerous small streams descend on all sides. The mere
existence of these streams would prove that the island was not
entirely coralline, as in that case all the water would sink
through the porous rock as it does at Manowolko and Matabello;
but we have more positive proof in the pebbles and stones of
their beds, which exhibit a variety of stratified crystalline
rocks. About a hundred yards from the beach rises a wall of coral
rock, ten or twenty feet high, above which is an undulating
surface of rugged coral, which slopes downward towards the
interior, and then after a slight ascent is bounded by a second
wall of coral. Similar walls occur higher up, and coral is found
on the highest part of the island.
This peculiar structure teaches us that before the coral was
formed land existed in this spot; that this land sunk gradually
beneath the waters, but with intervals of rest, during which
encircling reef's were formed around it at different elevations;
that it then rose to above its present elevation, and is now
again sinking. We infer this, because encircling reefs are a
proof of subsidence; and if the island were again elevated about
a hundred feet, what is now the reef and the shallow sea within
it would form a wall of coral rock, and an undulating coralline
plain, exactly similar to those that still exist at various
altitudes up to the summit of the island.
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