vi Preface. 



which at least nine hundred were previously undescribed, and new 

 to European cabinets. 



The remaining orders of insects, comprising probably more than two 

 thousand species, are in the collection of Mr. William Wilson Saun- 

 ders, who has caused 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 gam much more 

 than they will lose, by not having read my book six years ago, and 

 by this time perhaps forgotten all aljout it. 



I must now say a few w^ords 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 

 tunes 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 frecj^uent references to the groups of islands, classed in 

 accordance with the peculiarities of theu' animal productions and of 

 their human inhabitants, would have been hardly intelligible. I have 

 adopted, therefore, a geographical, zoological, and ethnological ar- 

 rangement, passing jfrom 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 follow : 



I. The Indo-Malay Islakds : comprising the Malay Peninsula 

 and Singapore, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. 



II. The Timor Group : comprising the islands of Timor, Flores, 

 Sumbawa, and Lombock, vdth several smaller ones. 



III. Celebes : comprising also the Sula Islands and Bouton. 



IV. The Molttccan Group : comprising Bouru, Ccram, Batchian, 

 Gilolo, and Morty ; with the smaller islands of Ternate, Tidore, Maki- 

 an, Kaioa, 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 a^-e described vdth 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 



