The Malay Archipelago, vol 1 | Page 4

the larger portion of them to be described by good
entomologists. The Hymenoptera alone amounted to more than nine
hundred species, among which were two hundred and eighty different
kinds of ants, of which two hundred were new.
The six years' delay in publishing my travels thus enables me to give
what I hope may be an interesting and instructive sketch of the main
results yet arrived at by the study of my collections; and as the
countries I have to describe are not much visited or written about, and
their social and physical conditions are not liable to rapid change, I
believe and hope that my readers will gain much more than they will
lose by not having read my book six years ago, and by this time
perhaps forgotten all about it.
I must now say a few words on the plan of my work.
My journeys to the various islands were regulated by the seasons and
the means of conveyance. I visited some islands two or three times at
distant intervals, and in some cases had to make the same voyage four
times over. A chronological arrangement would have puzzled my
readers. They would never have known where they were, and my
frequent references to the groups of islands, classed in accordance with
the peculiarities of their animal productions and of their human
inhabitants, would have been hardly intelligible. I have adopted,
therefore, a geographical, zoological, and ethnological arrangement,
passing from island to island in what seems the most natural succession,
while I transgress the order in which I myself visited them, as little as
possible.
I divide the Archipelago into five groups of islands, as follows:
I. THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS: comprising the Malay Peninsula
and Singapore, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra.
II. THE TIMOR GROUP: comprising the islands of Timor, Flores,
Sumbawa, and Lombock, with several smaller ones.

III. CELEBES: comprising also the Sula Islands and Bouton.
IV. THE MOLUCCAN GROUP: comprising Bouru, Ceram, Batchian,
Gilolo, and Morty; with the smaller islands of Ternate, Tidore, Makian,
Kaióa, Amboyna, Banda, Goram, and Matabello.
V. THE PAPUAN GROUP: comprising the great island of New
Guinea, with the Aru Islands, Mysol, Salwatty, Waigiou, and several
others. The Ke Islands are described with this group on account of their
ethnology, though zoologically and geographically they belong to the
Moluccas.
The chapters relating to the separate islands of each of these groups are
followed by one on the Natural History of that group; and the work
may thus be divided into five parts, each treating one of the natural
divisions of the Archipelago.
The first chapter is an introductory one, on the Physical Geography of
the whole region; and the last is a general sketch of the paces of man in
the Archipelago and the surrounding countries. With this explanation,
and a reference to the maps which illustrate the work, I trust that my
readers will always know where they are, and in what direction they are
going.
I am well aware that my book is far too small for the extent of the
subjects it touches upon. It is a mere sketch; but so far as it goes, I have
endeavoured to make it an accurate one. Almost the whole of the
narrative and descriptive portions were written on the spot, and have
had little more than verbal alterations. The chapters on Natural History,
as well as many passages in other parts of the work, have been written
in the hope of exciting an interest in the various questions connected
with the origin of species and their geographical distribution. In some
cases I have been able to explain my views in detail; while in others,
owing to the greater complexity of the subject, I have thought it better
to confine myself to a statement of the more interesting facts of the
problem, whose solution is to be found in the principles developed by
Mr. Darwin in his various works. The numerous illustrations will, it is
believed, add much to the interest and value of the book. They have

been made from my own sketches, from photographs, or from
specimens--and such, only subjects that would really illustrate the
narrative or the descriptions, have been chosen.
I have to thank Messrs. Walter and Henry Woodbury, whose
acquaintance I had the pleasure of making in Java, for a number of
photographs of scenery and of natives, which have been of the greatest
assistance to me. Mr. William Wilson Saunders has kindly allowed me
to figure the curious horned flies; and to Mr. Pascoe I am indebted for a
loan of two of the very rare Longicorns which appear in the plate of
Bornean beetles. All the other specimens figured are in my own
collection.
As the main object of all my journeys was to obtain specimens