X PREFACE,
book six years ago, and by this time perhaps forgotten all
ahout it.
I must now say a few words on the plan of my work.
My journeys to the various islands were regulated by
the seasons and the means of’ conveyance. I visited some
islands two or three times at distant intervals, and in
some cases had to make the same voyage four times over.
A chronological arrangement would have puzzled my
readers. They would never have known where they were;
and my frequent references to the groups of islands,
classed in accordance with the peculiarities of their
animal productions and of their human inhabitants,
would have been hardly intelligible. I have adopted,
therefore, a geographical, zoological, and ethnological
arrangement, passing from island to island in what seems
the most natural succession, while I transgress the order
in whieh I myself visited them as little as possible.
I divide the Archipelago into five groups of islands,
as follow:—
L The I ndo-Malay I slands : comprising th e Malay
Peninsula and Singapore, Borneo, Java, apd
Sumatra.
PREFACE. xi
II. The Timor Gr o u p ; comprising the islands oi
Timor, Flores, Sumbawa, and Lombock, with
several smaller ones.
I I I . C e l e b e s : comprising also the Sula -Islands and
Bouton.
IY. The Moluccan Group ; comprising Bouru, Ceram,
Batchian, GilolO, and Morty; with the smaller
islands of Ternate, Tidore, Makian, Kaioa, Am-
boyna, Banda, Goram, and Matabello.
Y. The P apuan Group ; comprising the great island
of New Guinea, with the Aru Islands, Mysol,
Salwatty, Waigiou, and several others. The Kd
Islands are described with this group on account
of their ethnology, though zoologically and geographically
they belong to the Moluccas.
The chapters relating to the separate islands of eaeh
of these groups' are followed by one on the Natural History
of that group; afid the work may thus be divided
into five parts, each treating of one of the natural
divisions of the Archipelago.
The first chapter is an introductory one, on the Physical
I 2