CHAPTER XV. CELEBES.
(MACASSAR, SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER, 1856.)
I LEFT Lombock on the 30th of August, and reached Macassar in three days.
It was with great satisfaction that I stepped on a shore which I had been vainly
trying to reach since February, and where I expected to meet with so much that
was new and interesting.
The coast of this part of Celebes is low and flat, lined with trees and villages
so as to conceal the interior, except at occasional openings which show a wide
extent of bare and marshy rice-fields. A few hills of no great height were visible
in the background; but owing to the perpetual haze over the land at this time of
the year, I could nowhere discern the high central range of the peninsula, or the
celebrated peak of Bontyne at its southern extremity. In the roadstead of
Macassar there was a fine 42-gun frigate, the guardship of the place, as well as a
small war steamer and three or four little cutters used for cruising after the
pirates which infest these seas. There were also a few square-rigged trading-
vessels, and twenty or thirty native praus of various sizes. I brought letters of
introduction to a Dutch gentleman, Mr. Mesman, and also to a Danish
shopkeeper, who could both speak English and who promised to assist me in
finding a place to stay, suitable for my pursuits. In the meantime, I went to a
kind of clubhouse, in default of any hotel in the place.
Macassar was the first Dutch town I had visited, and I found it prettier and
cleaner than any I had yet seen in the East. The Dutch have some admirable local
regulations. All European houses must be kept well white-washed, and every
person must, at four in the afternoon, water the road in front of his house. The
streets are kept clear of refuse, and covered drains carry away all impurities into
large open sewers, into which the tide is admitted at high-water and allowed to
flow out when it has ebbed, carrying all the sewage with it into the sea. The town
consists chiefly of one long narrow street along the seaside, devoted to business,
and principally occupied by the Dutch and Chinese merchants' offices and
warehouses, and the native shops or bazaars. This extends northwards for more
than a mile, gradually merging into native houses often of a most miserable
description, but made to have a neat appearance by being all built up exactly to