The People Of Waigiou Are Not Truly Indigenes Of The Island,
Which Possesses No "Alfuros," Or Aboriginal Inhabitants.
They
appear to be a mixed race, partly from Gilolo, partly from New
Guinea.
Malays and Alfuros from the former island have probably
settled here, and many of them have taken Papuan wives from
Salwatty or Dorey, while the influx of people from those places,
and of slaves, has led to the formation of a tribe exhibiting
almost all the transitions from a nearly pure Malayan to an
entirely Papuan type. The language spoken by them is entirely
Papuan, being that which is used on all the coasts of Mysol,
Salwatty, the north-west of New Guinea, and the islands in the
great Geelvink Bay, - a fact which indicates the way in which the
coast settlements have been formed. The fact that so many of the
islands between New Guinea and the Moluccas - such as Waigiou,
Guebe, Poppa, Obi, Batchian, as well as the south and east
peninsulas of Gilolo - possess no aboriginal tribes, but are
inhabited by people who are evidently mongrels and wanderers, is
a remarkable corroborative proof of the distinctness of the
Malayan and Papuan races, and the separation of the geographical
areas they inhabit. If these two great races were direct
modifications, the one of the other, we should expect to find in
the intervening region some homogeneous indigenous race
presenting intermediate characters. For example, between the
whitest inhabitants of Europe and the black Klings of South
India, there are in the intervening districts homogeneous races
which form a gradual transition from one to the other; while in
America, although there is a perfect transition from the Anglo-
Saxon to the negro, and from the Spaniard to the Indian, there is
no homogeneous race forming a natural transition from one to the
other. In the Malay Archipelago we have an excellent example of
two absolutely distinct races, which appear to have approached
each other, and intermingled in an unoccupied territory at a very
recent epoch in the history of man; and I feel satisfied that no
unprejudiced person could study them on the spot without being
convinced that this is the true solution of the problem, rather
than the almost universally accepted view that they are but
modifications of one and the same race.
The people of Muka live in that abject state of poverty that is
almost always found where the sago-tree is abundant. Very few of
them take the trouble to plant any vegetables or fruit, but live
almost entirely on sago and fish, selling a little tripang or
tortoiseshell to buy the scanty clothing they require. Almost all
of them, however, possess one or more Papuan slaves, on whose
labour they live in almost absolute idleness, just going out on
little fishing or trading excursions, as an excitement in their
monotonous existence. They are under the rule of the Sultan of
Tidore, and every year have to pay a small tribute of Paradise
birds, tortoiseshell, or sago. To obtain these, they go in the
fine season on a trading voyage to the mainland of New Guinea,
and getting a few goods on credit from some Ceram or Bugis
trader, make hard bargains with the natives, and gain enough to
pay their tribute, and leave a little profit for themselves.
Such a country is not a very pleasant one to live in, for as
there are no superfluities, there is nothing to sell; and had it
not been for a trader from Ceram who was residing there during my
stay, who had a small vegetable garden, and whose men
occasionally got a few spare fish, I should often have had
nothing to eat. Fowls, fruit, and vegetables are luxuries very
rarely to be purchased at Muka; and even cocoa-nuts, so
indispensable for eastern cookery, are not to be obtained; for
though there are some hundreds of trees in the village, all the
fruit is eaten green, to supply the place of the vegetables the
people are too lazy to cultivate. Without eggs, cocoa-nuts, or
plantains, we had very short commons, and the boisterous weather
being unpropitious for fishing, we had to live on what few
eatable birds we could shoot, with an occasional cuscus, or
eastern opossum, the only quadruped, except pigs, inhabiting the
island.
I had only shot two male Paradiseas on my tree when they ceased
visiting it, either owing to the fruit becoming scarce, or that
they were wise enough to know there was danger. We continued to
hear and see them in the forest, but after a month had not
succeeded in shooting any more; and as my chief object in
visiting Waigiou was to get these birds, I determined to go to
Bessir, where there are a number of Papuans who catch and
preserve them. I hired a small outrigger boat for this journey,
and left one of my men to guard my house and goods. We had to
wait several days for fine weather, and at length started early
one morning, and arrived late at night, after a rough and
disagreeable passage. The village of Bessir was built in the
water at the point of a small island. The chief food of the
people was evidently shell-fish, since great heaps of the shells
had accumulated in the shallow water between the houses and the
land, forming a regular "kitchen-midden "for the exploration of
some future archeologist. We spent the night in the chief's
house, and the next morning went over to the mainland to look out
for a place where I could reside. This part of Waigiou is really
another island to the south of the narrow channel we had passed
through in coming to Muka. It appears to consist almost entirely
of raised coral, whereas the northern island contains hard
crystalline rocks. The shores were a range of low limestone
cliffs, worn out by the water, so that the upper part generally
overhung. At distant intervals were little coves and openings,
where small streams came down from the interior; and in one of
these we landed, pulling our boat up on a patch of white sandy
beach.
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