170 The Malay Archipelago. [April, 



ing him into sympatliy with a cold-blooded reptUe, and enabling the 

 two for an instant to appreciate each other's instinctive sensations. 



However, we must not harrow the feelings of our readers, and 

 therefore conclude by stating that the hero was victorious, and not 

 only survived to tell his own tale, but went on to China, "and passed 

 through more continued dangers and yet greater hardships than in 

 the East Indian Archipelago." We should be harsh critics if we 

 concluded Mr. Bickmore's work in his own words, for it might 

 leave an impression on the reader's mind that it has nothing to 

 recommend it except his sensational adventures. For the sake 

 of science, as well as his own, we would advise the author, if he 

 pubhshes another work, to keep such matter distinct from the more 

 sober details of his experience. The fact is, that he spent a year 

 very comfortably in the Dutch settlements of the Ai'chipelago, 

 possessing ample means for the attainment of his object, wliich was 

 to make a collection of shells. He carried letters of introduction 

 from his Government to the leading authorities, and usually travelled 

 with an armed escort. He appears to have been no sportsman, 

 although there are one or two passages in his work which would 

 lead his readers to think the contrary, and almost always secured 

 his game with a silver bullet. The headings of his pages are 

 often sensational, as — " Among the Cannibals ;" * " Kiding along the 

 Edge of a Precipice;"! "Among Tigers ;"| "We come upon an 

 Elephant ; "§ " The Head-hunters of Ceram ; "|| All these horrors 

 (excepting the " precipice," which resembles one of those winding 

 roads round a marine chff which our readers have, no doubt, 

 frequently met with nearer home than Java, and the " Head- 

 hunters," of whom "the Eesident kindly" sent to invite a few 

 to dance before liim, as we see Kaffirs dance at Wombwell's mena- 

 gerie) were only heard of by the author,1[ and it would have been 

 better to reserve them for a Christmas story for boys, as an emi- 

 nent African traveller has recently done, and in which they would 

 have shone to more advantage than in a scientific work, the value of 

 which depends upon its trustworthiness. 



But whilst we feel bound, in the interests of science, to censm-e j\[r. 

 Bickmore's sensational statements of facts, and in that of literature, 

 to draw attention to his Yankee phraseology, as when he speaks of 

 what he saw " back of the village," and tells us that children " help 

 support then- parents ;" or that he stood " half querying ;" in con- 

 sequence of Avhich imperfections his book is not "quite all a 

 European palate could desire," we still tender to him our thanks 



* Bicknioie, p. 125. t P. 419, J T. 515. § P. 513. || P. 203. 



1 A "liead-liuiiter," nlon^ witli one of Ihe Leautiful palms, the " Peuaug, or 

 Bttel-iiut Paliu," whicli ilhistmtf IMr. IJickiiiorc's work, have been introduced by 

 our artist into liis viguetio. Mr. ■\\'allac'o, we may liorc observe, slept in a Dyak- 

 hut in Borneo, "very comfortably with half-a-dozeu smoke-dried human skulls 

 suspended over his head." 



