S PI CT I S LANDS I
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T T 7 E now proceed to the Molucca iflands, and taking a courfe
“ ’ due north, pafs between thofe o f Pimor-laut and Arrou.
The laft is the moll eaitern o f the Titnorian chain, and forms a
group conlilting o f three or four larger ifles, anda multitude o f
little rocks and reefs clofely cluttered, adjoining the eaft end o f
Arrou proper. We are now arrived within reach o f the
perfumed air o f the Molucca, or famous fpicy iflands, a land
o f romance, where nature affumes a new lhape in pidturefque
fcenery, and in the beautiful and Angular form o f numbers of
the animal and vegetable creation, whether inhabitants o f land
or water.
T h e long celebrated Manucodiata, or birds o f paradife, firft
begin to appear in thefe iflands. Thefe birds, fo lingular in the
ftrudtureand difpofition o f their feathers, lo elegantln their form,
and fo romantic in their hiftory, gave occafion, foon after their
difcovery, to the fuppofition o f their having been the celebrated
Phoenix of the antients. The learned Forjler, with his ufual'depth
o f judgment, hath colledted every thing relating to that ideal bird,
in
in his Latin and German trahflation of the Indian Zoology, and
effectually difproved that the invention originated from any one
o f this genus. I refer the reader to his dilfertation, and barely
mention, that the antient defcribers o f the Phoenix, give it the
form and fize o f an eagle, with an exquifite richnefs of coloring;
they fay that it lived Dclx years, and at the completion of that
period, formed its nett with the twigs o f the mott odoriferous
trees, and died upon them. .A young one fprung from its remains,
and conveyed them to Pancbaia, the city of the fun, performed
the funeral rites, and placed them on the altar. Pliny,
from whom this relation was taken, adds, that it was reported
one had been brought to Rome, but, with his ufuál good fenfe,
ttamps on it the charge o f fidlion.
N o tw ith s t a n d in g the rémotenefs o f the native country
o f this whole genus, I cannot abfolutely affirm the impoffibility
o f the antients being acquainted with fome o f the fpecies.
They had from diftant times a regular trade with India. Before
the days of Ptolemy, they puttied their navigation beyond the .
peninfula of Malacca to Cattigara, the modern Ponteamos, and
the Metropolis Sina, the prefent Cambodia. Notwithftanding the
antients might have penetrated no farther, yet, as the Indians
were extremely commercial, the Romans might receive from
them accounts of the mott dittant ifles, their commodities, and
even their curiofities. The birds of India were known to the
Romans ', it is poffible that they might have leen, or at leaft heard
o f thofe o f Paradife: no words could better fuit thefe mott Angular
fpecies, than difcolores máxime et inenarrabiles *, birds of
* Plin. Lib. 10. cap, I r.
different