CHAPTER XVII.
CELEBES.
(MENADO. JUNE TO SEPTEMBER, 1859.)
J T was after my residence at Timcr-Conpang that I
visited the north-eastern extremity of Celebes, touching
on my way at Banda, Amboyna, and Ternate. I reached
Menado on the ] Oth of June,- 1859, and was very kindly
received by Mr. Tower, an Englishman, hut a very old
resident in Menado, where he carries on a general business.
He introduced me to Mr. L. Duivenboden (whose father
had been my friend at Ternate),- who had much taste for
natural history; and to Mr. Neys, a native of Menado,
but who was educated at Calcutta, and to whom Dutch,
English, and Malay were equally mother-tongues. All
these gentlemen showed me the greatest kindness, accompanied
me in my earliest walks about the. country, and
assisted me by every means in their power. I spent a
week in the town very pleasantly, making explorations
and inquiries after a good collecting station, which I had
much difficulty in finding, owing to the wide cultivation
of coffee and cacao, which has led to the clearing away of
the forests for many miles round the town, and over
extensive districts far into the interior.
The little town of Menado is one of the prettiest
in the East. It has the appearance of a large garden
containing rows of rustic villas, with broad paths between,
forming streets generally at right angles with each other.
Good roads branch off in several directions towards the
interior, with a succession of pretty cottages, neat gardens,
and thriving plantations, interspersed with wildernesses
of fruit trees. To the west and south the country is
mountainous, with groups of fine volcanic peaks 6,000 or
7,000 feet high, forming grand and picturesque backgrounds
to the landscape.
The inhabitants of Minahasa (as this part of Celebes is
called) differ much from those of all the rest of the island,
and in fact from any other people in the Archipelago.
They are of a light-brown or yellow tint, often approaching
the fairness of a European; of a rather short stature,
stout and well-made ; of an open and pleasing countenance,
more òr less disfigured as age increases by projecting
cheek-bones ; and with the usual long, straight, jet-black,
hair of the Malayan races. In some of the inland villages*
where they may be supposed to be of the purest race, both:
men and women are remarkably handsome ; while nearer
the coasts where thè purity of their blood has been de-.