CHAPTER ly. 



CELEBES AND TI.AIUE. 



Juine l^th, — We ancliored this evening close in to 

 the coast of Celebes on a shallow plateau, which is 

 really only a slightly-submerged part of the island 

 itself. This word Celebes is not of native origin, 

 and was probably introduced by the Portuguese, who 

 were the earliest Europeans that visited this island. 

 It first appears in the historical and descriptive ^\Tit- 

 inijs of De Barros * who informs us that it was not 

 discovered until 1525, fourteen years after the Portu- 

 guese first came to the Moluccas ; but at that time 

 they were only anxious to find the regions where the 

 clove and the nutmeg grew. Afterward they were 

 induced to search for this island from the rumors that 

 came of the gold found here; and, indeed, to this 

 day, gold is obtained in the northern and southwest- 

 ern peninsulas. At first, Celebes was supposed to 



* Jao de Barros, who wrote a classical history of the regions dis- 

 covered and conquered by the Portuguese in the East, was born in 1496, 

 and died in 1570. He never visited the Indies, but carefully and faith- 

 fully compiled his descriptions from the official records, which were all 

 intrusted to his care, in 1532. The lirst decade of his work was pub- 

 lished in 1552, the second in 1553, the third in 1563, and the fourth after 

 his death. He was, therefore, a contemporary of most of the early navi 

 gators whose history he narrates. 



