CH. I FIBST GLIMPSES OF CELEBES 3 



and I could add but little that would be of interest to the 

 general reader or valuable to scientific men. 



My own travels and researches were mainly carried on 

 in the Minahassa district of North Celebes and the chain 

 of little islands connecting it with Mindanao. To those 

 regions, therefore, I wiU endeavour to confine myself in these 

 pages. 



Anyone glancing at a map of the Malay Archipelago 

 must be struck with the curious spider-like shape of the 

 island called Celebes. It is divided into four long peninsulas 

 or arms and a central continent or nucleus by three deep 

 bays — the Bay of Tomini and the Bay of Tomori, facing east, 

 and the Bay of Boni, facing south. It has an area of 

 70,000 square mUes, being in this respect rather larger than 

 England and Wales. Its greatest length is 800 miles, 

 rather longer than Great Britain, and it has the enormous 

 coast line of 2,000 mUes. 



Its population — who can estimate its peoples ? The 

 central continent of the island has not yet seen the face 

 of the white man, and by far the greater part of the four 

 peninsulas is almost unknown and undescribed; in fact, 

 the only parts which are thoroughly explored and utilised 

 by Europeans are not much larger in area than the Isle of 

 Wight and the Isle of Man. 



It may seem strange to those who live in crowded cities, 

 where the struggle for mere existence is ever keen and bitter, 

 that there still exists a land nearly as large as Great Britain 

 itself, famous for its healthy equable climate and capable of 

 producing in abundance all the necessities and most of the 

 luxuries of our hfe, still unknown, unclaimed, untUled. 



It is true that the Dutch flag flies in name over the whole 

 island, but the only parts which are really governed by 

 the Dutch are a small region round Makassar in the south, 

 Minahassa in the north, and the district of Gorontalo in the 



