CHAPTER XXVIII. MACASSAR TO THE
ARU ISLANDS IN A NATIVE PRAU.
(DECEMBER, 1856.)
IT was the beginning of December, and the rainy season at Macassar had just
set in. For nearly three months had beheld the sun rise daily above the palm-
groves, mount to the zenith, and descend like a globe of fire into the ocean,
unobscured for a single moment of his course. Now dark leaden clouds had
gathered over the whole heavens, and seemed to have rendered him permanently
invisible. The strong east winds, warm and dry and dust-laden, which had
hitherto blown as certainly as the sun had risen, were now replaced by variable
gusty breezes and heavy rains, often continuous for three days and nights
together; and the parched and fissured rice stubbles which during the dry
weather had extended in every direction for miles around the town, were already
so flooded as to be only passable by boats, or by means of a labyrinth of paths on
the top of the narrow banks which divided the separate properties.
Five months of this kind of weather might be expected in Southern Celebes,
and I therefore determined to seek some more favourable climate for collecting
in during that period, and to return in the next dry season to complete my
exploration of the district. Fortunately for me I was in one of the treat
emporiums of the native trade of the archipelago. Rattans from Borneo, sandal-
wood and bees'-was from Flores and Timor, tripang from the Gulf of
Carpentaria, cajputi-oil from Bouru, wild nutmegs and mussoi-bark from New
Guinea, are all to be found in the stores of the Chinese and Bugis merchants of
Macassar, along with the rice and coffee which are the chief products of the
surrounding country. More important than all these however is the trade to Aru,
a group of islands situated on the south-west coast of New Guinea, and of which
almost the whole produce comes to Macassar in native vessels. These islands are
quite out of the track of all European trade, and are inhabited only by black mop-
headed savages, who yet contribute to the luxurious tastes of the most civilized
races. Pearls, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell find their way to Europe, while
edible birds' nests and "tripang" or sea-slug are obtained by shiploads for the
gastronomic enjoyment of the Chinese.