FIB8T GLIMPSES OF CELEBES 



The principal street in Makassar, running parallel with 

 the coast line, is nearly a mile in length and very narrow 

 all the way. In the business quarter of the town it is 

 lined by the warehouses of the European merchants, a few 

 good general shops, and the smaller tokos of the China- 

 men and Arabs. Here may be purchased to the greatest 

 advantage all the products of the Moluccas, from such 

 things as spice and copra, coffee and cocoa to living birds 

 of Paradise and ethnological curios. For the traveller, too, 

 who is bound for little-known parts, where the stolid 

 Holland dollar (2^ f.) is valuable only as a lump of silver, 

 there is no market like this ; for here he may obtain the 

 surest information about the form of ' trade ' which is m.ost 

 likely to be favoured by the tribes with whom he comes ia 

 contact. Beads and looking-glasses, wooden combs, knives 

 and cloths may be purchased in Makassar at a price 

 but httle higher than that which is charged for them in 

 Birmingham or Manchester. 



Makassar is the seat of the Governor of Celebes, whose 

 substantial whitewashed palace forms a conspicuous object 

 on the wide plain behind Fort Orange. Close by the palace 

 is the club ' Harmonic,' where, after the heat of the day, 

 the civil and official Dutchmen meet together to play a 

 game of billiards or to gossip over their cigars and 

 ' pijtjes.' 



One of the most striking features of Makassar is a 

 magnificent avenue of tamarind trees which throws a 

 grateful shade over the long road running from the ' plein ' 

 through the ' villadom ' of the town. On the evening of 

 our arrival I was invited to attend a social entertainment 

 at the Vereeniging Unitas, a large whitewashed hall in the 

 tamarind avenue. 



Two short farces were performed by amateurs with 

 much spirit and no little dramatic force. They were en- 



