xiv PREFACE.
Charles Allen. I was just eight years away from England,
hut as I travelled about fourteen thousand miles within
the Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy separate
journeys, each involving some preparation and loss of
time, I do not think that more than six years were really
occupied in collecting.
I find that my Eastern collections amounted to :
310 specimens of Mammalia.
100 — Reptiles.
8,050 — Birds.
7,500 — Shells.
13,,'100 — Lepidoptera,
83,200 — Coleoptera.
13,400 — other Insects.
125,660 specimens of natural history.
I t now only remains for me to thank all those friends
to whom I am indebted for assistance or information. My
thanks are more especially due to the Council of the Royal
Geographical Society, through whose valuable recommendations
I obtained important aid from our own Government
and from that of Holland; and to Mr. William
Wilson Saunders, whose kind and liberal encouragement
in the early portion of my journey was of great service to
PREFACE. xv
nie. I am also greatly indebted to Mr. Samuel Stevens
(who acted as my agent), both for the care he took of my
collections, and for the untiring assiduity with which he
kept me supplied, both with useful information, and with
whatever necessaries I required.
I trust that these, and all other friends who have been
in any way interested in my travels and collections, may
derive from the perusal of my book, some faint reflexion
of the pleasures 1 myself enjoyed amid the scenes
and objects it describes.