e harbor master at
Makassar told us that the crews of many of the rakish looking sailing
craft which were anchored in close proximity to the _Negros_ were
reformed buccaneers. Certainly they looked it. They may have reformed,
but that did not prevent Captain Galvez from doubling the deck-watch at
night while we were in Celebes waters. He believed in safety first.

[Illustration: Some strange subjects of Queen Wilhelmina

Native women of the interior of Dutch Borneo]

The Winsome Widow had been very enthusiastic about going to the Celebes
because Makassar is the greatest market in the world for those
ornaments so dear to the feminine heart--bird-of-paradise plumes. I
explained to her that it was against the law to bring them into the
United States, but no matter, she wanted to buy some. To visit Makassar
without buying bird-of-paradise plumes, she said, would be like
visiting Japan without buying a kimono. The bird is usually sold
entire, the prices ranging from twenty-five to thirty dollars,
according to size and condition, though, owing to the ruthless
slaughter of the birds to meet the demands of the European market,
prices are steadily advancing. The Winsome Widow bought four of the
finest birds I have ever seen--gorgeous, flame-colored things with
plumes nearly two feet long. How she proposed getting them into the
United States she did not tell me, and I thought it as well not to ask
her. She had them carefully packed in a wooden box made for the purpose
which she did not open until nearly two months later, when we were
steaming down the coast of Siam on a cargo boat, long after I had sent
the _Negros_ back to Manila. Imagine her feelings when, upon opening
the box to feast her eyes on her contraband treasures, she found it to
contain nothing but waste paper! I suspect that the sweetheart of one
of our Filipino cabin-boys is now wearing a hat fairly smothered in
bird-of-paradise plumes.

The Bugis' love of the sea has given them almost a monopoly of the
trade around Celebes. Despite their fierce and warlike dispositions
they are industrious and ingenious--qualities which usually do not go
together; they practise agriculture more than the neighboring tribes
and manufacture cotton cloth not only for their own use but for export.
They also drive a thriving trade in such romantic commodities as gold
dust, tortoise shell, pearls, nutmegs, camphor, and bird-of-paradise
plumes. They dwell for the most part in walled en