inding no new birds, and very few insects, I left early on
the morning of April 1st, and in the evening entered a river on the
main island of Batchian (Langundi, like Kasserota, being on a distinct
island), where some Malays and Galela men have a small village, and have
made extensive rice-fields and plantain grounds. Here we found a good
house near the river bank, where the water was fresh and clear, and the
owner, a respectable Batchian Malay, offered me sleeping room and the
use of the verandah if I liked to stay. Seeing forest all round within
a short distance, I accepted his offer, and the next morning before
breakfast walked out to explore, and on the skirts of the forest
captured a few interesting insects.

Afterwards, I found a path which led for a mile or more through a very
fine forest, richer in palms than any I had seen in the Moluccas. One of
these especially attracted my attention from its elegance. The stein was
not thicker than my wrist, yet it was very lofty, and bore clusters
of bright red fruit. It was apparently a species of Areca. Another of
immense height closely resembled in appearance the Euterpes of South
America. Here also grew the fan-leafed palm, whose small, nearly
entire leaves are used to make the dammar torches, and to form the
water-buckets in universal use. During this walk I saw near a dozen
species of palms, as well as two or three Pandani different from those
of Langundi. There were also some very fine climbing ferns and true wild
Plantains (Musa), bearing an edible fruit not so large as one's thumb,
and consisting of a mass of seeds just covered with pulp and skin.
The people assured me they had tried the experiment of sowing and
cultivating this species, but could not improve it. They probably did
not grow it in sufficient quantity, and did not persevere sufficiently
long.

Batchian is an island that would perhaps repay the researches of a
botanist better than any other in the whole Archipelago. It contains
a great variety of surface and of soil, abundance of large and small
streams, many of which are navigable for some distance, and there being
no savage inhabitants, every part of it can be visited with perfect
safety. It possesses gold, copper, and coal, hot springs and geysers,
sedimentary and volcanic rocks and coralline limestone, alluvial plains,
abrupt hills and lofty mountains, a moist climate, and a grand and
luxuriant forest vegetation.

The few days I stayed here prod