The Malay Archipelago, vol 2 | Page 7

length of time before I
left the East, the Dutch emancipated all their slaves, paying their
owners a small compensation. No ill results followed. Owing to the
amicable relations which had always existed between them and their
masters, due no doubt in part to the Government having long accorded
them legal rights and protection against cruelty and ill-usage, many
continued in the same service, and after a little temporary difficulty in
some cases, almost all returned to work either for their old or for new,
masters. The Government took the very proper step of placing every
emancipated slave under the surveillance of the police- magistrate.
They were obliged to show that they were working for a living, and had
some honestly-acquired means of existence. All who could not do so
were placed upon public works at low wages, and thus were kept from
the temptation to peculation or other crimes, which the excitement of
newly-acquired freedom, and disinclination to labour, might have led
them into.
CHAPTER XXII.
GILOLO.
(MARCH AND SEPTEMBER 1858.)

I MADE but few and comparatively short visits to this large and little
known island, but obtained a considerable knowledge of its natural
history by sending first my boy Ali, and then my assistant, Charles
Allen, who stayed two or three months each in the northern peninsula,
and brought me back large collections of birds and insects. In this
chapter I propose to give a sketch of the parts which I myself visited.
My first stay was at Dodinga, situated at the head of a deep-bay exactly
opposite Ternate, and a short distance up a little stream which
penetrates a few miles inland. The village is a small one, and is
completely shut in by low hills.
As soon as I arrived, I applied to the head man of the village for a
house to live in, but all were occupied, and there was much difficulty in
finding one. In the meantime I unloaded my baggage on the beach and
made some tea, and afterwards discovered a small but which the owner
was willing to vacate if I would pay him five guilders for a month's rent.
As this was something less than the fee-simple value of the dwelling, I
agreed to give it him for the privilege of immediate occupation, only
stipulating that he was to make the roof water-tight. This he agreed to
do, and came every day to tally and look at me; and when I each time
insisted upon his immediately mending the roof according to contract,
all the answer I could get was, "Ea nanti," (Yes, wait a little.) However,
when I threatened to deduct a quarter guilder from the rent for every
day it was not done, and a guilder extra if any of my things were wetted,
he condescended to work for half an hour, which did all that was
absolutely necessary.
On the top of a bank, of about a hundred feet ascent from the water,
stands the very small but substantial fort erected by the Portuguese. Its
battlements and turrets have long since been overthrown by
earthquakes, by which its massive structure has also been rent; but it
cannot well be thrown down, being a solid mass of stonework, forming
a platform about ten feet high, and perhaps forty feet square. It is
approached by narrow steps under an archway, and is now surmounted
by a row of thatched hovels, in which live the small garrison, consisting
of, a Dutch corporal and four Javanese soldiers, the sole representatives
of the Netherlands Government in the island. The village is occupied

entirely by Ternate men. The true indigenes of Gilolo, "Alfuros" as
they are here called, live on the eastern coast, or in the interior of the
northern peninsula. The distance across the isthmus at this place is only
two miles, and there, is a good path, along which rice and sago are
brought from the eastern villages. The whole isthmus is very rugged,
though not high, being a succession of little abrupt hills anal valleys,
with angular masses of limestone rock everywhere projecting, and
often almost blocking up the pathway. Most of it is virgin forest, very
luxuriant and picturesque, and at this time having abundance of large
scarlet Ixoras in flower, which made it exceptionally gay. I got some
very nice insects here, though, owing to illness most of the time, my
collection was a small one, and my boy Ali shot me a pair of one of the
most beautiful birds of the East, Pitta gigas, a lame ground-thrush,
whose plumage of velvety black above is relieved by a breast of pure
white, shoulders of azure blue, and belly of vivid crimson. It has very
long and strong legs, and hops about with such activity in the dense
tangled forest,