t entire absence of Mammalia, and of such wide-spread groups of
birds as woodpeckers, thrushes, jays, tits, and pheasants, must convince
him that he is in a part of the world which has, in reality but little
in common with the great Asiatic continent, although an unbroken chain
of islands seems to link them to it.

CHAPTER XXVIII. MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS IN A NATIVE PRAU.

(DECEMBER, 1856.)

IT was the beginning of December, and the rainy season at Macassar had
just set in. For nearly three months had beheld the sun rise daily above
the palm-groves, mount to the zenith, and descend like a globe of fire
into the ocean, unobscured for a single moment of his course. Now dark
leaden clouds had gathered over the whole heavens, and seemed to have
rendered him permanently invisible. The strong east winds, warm and dry
and dust-laden, which had hitherto blown as certainly as the sun had
risen, were now replaced by variable gusty breezes and heavy rains,
often continuous for three days and nights together; and the parched
and fissured rice stubbles which during the dry weather had extended in
every direction for miles around the town, were already so flooded as
to be only passable by boats, or by means of a labyrinth of paths on the
top of the narrow banks which divided the separate properties.

Five months of this kind of weather might be expected in Southern
Celebes, and I therefore determined to seek some more favourable climate
for collecting in during that period, and to return in the next dry
season to complete my exploration of the district. Fortunately for me
I was in one of the treat emporiums of the native trade of the
archipelago. Rattans from Borneo, sandal-wood and bees'-was from Flores
and Timor, tripang from the Gulf of Carpentaria, cajputi-oil from Bouru,
wild nutmegs and mussoi-bark from New Guinea, are all to be found in the
stores of the Chinese and Bugis merchants of Macassar, along with the
rice and coffee which are the chief products of the surrounding country.
More important than all these however is the trade to Aru, a group of
islands situated on the south-west coast of New Guinea, and of which
almost the whole produce comes to Macassar in native vessels. These
islands are quite out of the track of all European trade, and are
inhabited only by black mop-headed savages, who yet contribute to the
luxurious tastes of the most civilized races. Pearls, mother-of-pearl,
and tortoiseshell find their