CHAPTER XV 



CELEBES. 



(MACASSAR. SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER, 1856.) 



T LEFT Lombock on the 30th of August, and reached 

 Macassar in three days. It was with great satisfaction 

 that I stepped on a shore which I had been vainly trying 

 to reach since February, and where I expected to meet 

 with so much that was new and interesting. 



The coast of this part of Celebes is low and flat, lined 

 with trees and villages so as to conceal the interior, except 

 at occasional openings which show a wide extent of bare 

 and marshy rice-fields. A few hills, of no great height, 

 were visible in the background ; but owing to the per- 

 petual haze over the land at this time of the year, I could 

 nowhere discern the high central range of the peninsula, 

 or the celebrated peak of Bontyne at its southern ex- 

 tremity. In the roadstead of Macassar there was a fine 

 42-gun frigate, the guardship of the place, as well as a 

 small war steamer and three or four little cutters used for 

 cruising after the pirates which infest these seas. There 



