158 MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS [chap, xxviii. 



Five months of this kind of weather might be expected 



in Southern Celebes, and I therefore determined to seek 



some more favourable climate for collecting in during that 



period, and to return in the next dry season to complete 



my exploration of the district. Fortunately for me I was 



in one of the great emporiums of the native trade of the 



Archipelago. Eattans from Borneo, sandal- wood and bees'- 



wax from Flores and Timor, tripang from the Gulf of 



Carpentaria, cajuputi-oil from Bouru, wild nutmegs and 



mussoi-bark from ISTew Guinea, are all to be found in the 



stores of the Chinese and Bugis merchants of Macassar, 



along with the rice and coffee which are the chief products 



of the surrounding country. More important than all these 



however is the trade to Aru, a group of islands situated on 



the south-west coast of New Guinea, and of which almost 



the whole produce comes to Macassar in native vessels. 



These islands are quite out of the track of all European 



trade, and are inhabited only by black mop-headed savages, j 



who yet contribute to the luxurious tastes of the most 



civilized races. Pearls, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell, 



iind their way to Europe, while edible birds' nests and j 



"tripang" or sea-slug are obtained by shiploads for the] 



gastronomic enjoyment of the Chinese. 



The trade to these islands has existed from very early 

 times, and it is from them that Birds of Paradise, of the 

 two kinds known to Linnaeus, were first brought. The 



