登陆注册
5370200000101

第101章

IT was after my residence at Timor-Coupang that I visited the northeastern extremity of Celebes, touching Banda, Amboyna, and Ternate on my way. I reached Menado on the 10th of June, 1859, and was very kindly received by Mr. Tower, an Englishman, but 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 around 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 6,000or 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 or less disfigured as age increases by projecting check-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 the purity of their blood has been destroyed by the intermixture of other races, they approach to the ordinary types of the wild inhabitants of the surrounding countries.

In mental and moral characteristics they are also highly peculiar. They are remarkably quiet and gentle in disposition, submissive to the authority of those they consider their superiors, and easily induced to learn and adopt the habits of civilized people. They are clever mechanics, and seem capable of acquiring a considerable amount of intellectual education.

Up to a very recent period these people were thorough savages, and there are persons now living in Menado who remember a state of things identical with that described by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The inhabitants of the several villages were distinct tribes, each under its own chief, speaking languages unintelligible to each other, and almost always at war. They built their houses elevated upon lofty posts to defend themselves from the attacks of their enemies. They were headhunters like the Dyaks of Borneo, and were said to be sometimes cannibals. When a chief died, his tomb was adorned with two fresh human heads; and if those of enemies could not be obtained, slaves were killed for the occasion. Human skulls were the great ornaments of the chiefs' houses. Strips of bark were their only dress. The country was a pathless wilderness, with small cultivated patches of rice and vegetables, or clumps of fruit-trees, diversifying the otherwise unbroken forest. Their religion was that naturally engendered in the undeveloped human mind by the contemplation of grand natural phenomena and the luxuriance of tropical nature. The burning mountain, the torrent and the lake, were the abode of their deities; and certain trees and birds were supposed to have special influence over men's actions and destiny. They held wild and exciting festivals to propitiate these deities or demons, and believed that men could be changed by them into animals--either during life or after death.

Here we have a picture of true savage life; of small isolated communities at war with all around them, subject to the wants and miseries of such a condition, drawing a precarious existence from the luxuriant soil, and living on, from generation to generation, with no desire for physical amelioration, and no prospect of moral advancement.

Such was their condition down to the year 1822, when the coffee-plant was first introduced, and experiments were made as to its cultivation. It was found to succeed admirably from fifteen hundred feet, up to four thousand feet above the sea. The chiefs of villages were induced to undertake its cultivation. Seed and native instructors were sent from Java; food was supplied to the labourers engaged in clearing and planting; a fixed price was established at which all coffee brought to the government collectors was to be paid for, and the village chiefs who now received the titles of "Majors" were to receive five percent of the produce. After a time, roads were made from the port of Menado up to the plateau, and smaller paths were cleared from village to village; missionaries settled in the more populous districts and opened schools; and Chinese traders penetrated to the interior and supplied clothing and other luxuries in exchange for the money which the sale of the coffee had produced.

同类推荐
  • 十尾龟

    十尾龟

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 摄大乘论二译

    摄大乘论二译

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 寄张十七校书李仁行

    寄张十七校书李仁行

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Bittermeads Mystery

    The Bittermeads Mystery

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • At the Back of the North Wind

    At the Back of the North Wind

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 我们有天终将会长大

    我们有天终将会长大

    也许在未来的某一天你会突然意识到自己长大了。
  • 苍狼宝钻

    苍狼宝钻

    13世纪中期,威尼斯人马可·波罗随父亲尼科洛一行人抵达元上都(今内蒙古正蓝旗闪电河北岸)后,忽必烈以”不曾见到你们教皇承诺的神父“为由欲将其一行人全部驱逐出境,马可·波罗的父亲在情急之中请求忽必烈准许其在丝绸之路沿途经商,回报是为忽必烈献上自己年轻的儿子……
  • 超级丧尸工厂

    超级丧尸工厂

    意外获得一家丧尸工厂,工厂的产品有些骇人听闻。产品琳琅满目:丧尸、舔食者、地狱犬、暴君、追击者、暴君T002型、肉盾、裁决者、母体……将丧尸、地狱犬、舔食者、暴君……等等制造出来,指挥它们,为你攻城掠地,将末世里的财富变成你的小金库?黄金、钻石、古董。稀缺资源。无数的科技资料。全都是你的。不服?一列列的丧尸,它们全副武装,如同军队一样出现在你面前时,如果你是幸存者,你的眼珠要不要瞪掉下来?抱着火神炮的暴君,浑身缠满子弹,随时带来一阵狂风骤雨般的金属风暴。就问你,服不服。放开你们的思维,因为书中无所不包,将你想要的一切统统都展现出来。
  • 大小姐今日又昏倒了

    大小姐今日又昏倒了

    一朝重生,怎可让悲剧再次重演,一双异瞳,傲世天下,缜密布局,步步为营,前世的仇恨,该还了,死?不可能,会是生不如死。可谁能想到,心思多端的她,却因为重生,换来一副薄弱的身体。“大小姐昏倒了!”“大小姐又昏倒了?”孟家众人看着昏倒在某男子怀里的孟倾城,眼神各异。孟倾城醒来,小手勾着男子的领口,糯糯的开口:“娶我。”男子:“……好。”终究是我一个人抗下了所有。孟家大小姐出嫁,再次昏倒在马车里,往日应该担心她身体的孟家众人,这次却在担心,她能否洞房……孟倾城:“……”(本文以温馨为主,甜虐参半,新手文,需要呵护。)
  • 东唐我说了算

    东唐我说了算

    东土之上,繁荣大国名唤大唐。偶然回到东唐,竟然醒来就被祭天,大难不死得元灵,从此开启了开挂的人生。皇帝要和我结拜?我考虑考虑吧!什么竟然让我娶公主?我才不要娶公主呢!东唐我罩着,谁敢不服?我有特种兵,有飞机分分钟炸了你。蛮族之人也敢跟我叫嚣?让你尝尝炮弹子弹的味道!!让你知道什么叫血色浪漫!!神挡杀神,佛挡杀佛。动了我的人就让你痛不欲生。别跟我扯什么梦回东唐,就要听话上朝。这地方我说的算,让我上朝,我看是你不想当皇帝了吧!
  • 长公主的盛世计划

    长公主的盛世计划

    一场女权的游戏,权力至上。文韬武略,琴棋书画,歌咏女工…女人之间光明正大的比赛。由此牵扯而出的一世纠缠,以及…
  • 慢步灵途

    慢步灵途

    开新书啦,指路云起——《天道总想抱我大腿》,热血升级流玄幻文,无玛丽苏无脑残有男主主剧情,南平小霸王元潇来啦! ———————— 千华山上,仇敌来袭,冷静脱身,却遭遇师父跑路,无奈的朝雨独自踏上仙途,从夹缝求生到横渡苍穹,靠的,不是虚无飘渺的气运,而是在一次次危机中的坚守与变通。生死一线,绝处逢生!身负轮回令,手执噬魂刀。问魂虚缘由,寻身世浮沉。渡天地怨煞,驭万灵为尊。入忘川,闹神道,破生死桎梏,步至尊仙途。女主正统修仙文,无穿越无重生无玛丽苏无脑残无男主,朝雨姑娘的修仙故事。生为蜉蝣,欲渡沧海,尘埃万里,乘鸾御风――
  • 海贼之海军雷神

    海贼之海军雷神

    新书《海贼世界的死灵法师》已上传,大家有空来看看啊!沙雕大树又忘了完本不能发新章节通知了!…………千帆竞发、波澜壮阔的大海贼时代,一名来自地球的少年吃下了响雷果实,成为了一名海军。正义与邪恶的碰撞自由与暴政的对立思想的浪潮永不停息……但这一切……“关我屁事!!”顶上战争,于十万人围观中,罗恩手持雷戟,虎步狼行,一步步靠近黑胡子:“人的梦想是不会结束的?或许吧……但你的梦想,将在此终结!”狭路相逢、唯有成王败寇!想谈梦想?先打赢我再说!Ps:果实开发路线,无系统。Ps兔:新书上路,依旧简介无力,请诸位多多包涵。Ps3:书友群【8、3、4、6、5、1、2、4、3】
  • 名门贵女破苍穹

    名门贵女破苍穹

    生父无情不认她?那咱也不认他!娘亲是下堂妇?那还犹豫什么?立刻改嫁!修仙,建宫门,扩势力,旁有妖孽美男妖王啸月相辅;回家,有娘亲疼,有哥哥爱,还胜过亲父的继父,谁也别想破坏她的幸福生活!八年后,她回到京城。当年的弃妇之女已经是官家千金。喜欢扮猪吃老虎的她又怎能容那些欺辱过她们母女的人继续逍遥下去?。。。。。。凤凰涅盘,重生的夏晨曦是曙光的女神,驾驭着神兽青龙,风华绝代,光芒万丈!。。。。。。结局一对一。。。。。。。
  • 特别行动组探案录

    特别行动组探案录

    借调的FBI探员、狙击队的神枪手还有其他几位身怀绝技的探员一起组成了-----特别行动组专门负责侦办变态杀人案和连环凶杀案。看几人如何在破案中不断成长破茧成蝶。看几人如何处理工作之外的感情生活。菜鸟团队如何成为犯罪终结者,让我们拭目以待!!!