THE MOLUCCAS 
325 
Still farther south, but in the same north and south 
line, lie the two distinct and compact groups of Batjan 
and Obi. In ancient times the former constituted an 
independent Sultanate, surrounded in every direction by 
the vast domains of the Sultans of Ternate and Tidor. 
The island has other reasons to be considered distinct, as, 
although volcanic in its northern portion, it is in the 
main composed of ancient rocks, as is also the Obi group. 
In length it exceeds 50 English miles, and the great 
mountain mass of Labua, at the southern end, is 7150 
feet in height, and is believed to be non-volcanic. The 
interior is uninhabited, or nearly so, and the small littoral 
population, two or three thousand only in number, is 
composed of Ternate Malays, Galela men, and immi¬ 
grants from the west coast of Celebes. The clove is said 
to grow wild. The black Celebesian monkey, Cynopi- 
thecus nigrescens , is found—the most eastern point of the 
distribution of the Quadrumana—but, as before stated, it 
is considered by Mr. Wallace to have been most probably 
imported by man. Here, too, is the beautiful and curious 
bird-of-paradise, Wallace’s Standard - wing (,Semioptera 
wallacei ), the only representative of the Paradiseidae found 
in the Moluccas. The Dutch have a Controleur and a small 
garrison stationed at the village of Batjan, on the west 
coast, and the present fort—Fort Barneveld—-was built 
as long ago as 1615 upon the site of one erected many 
years before by the Portuguese. Hear Batjan are some 
coal - mines which have been worked intermittently, 
though to no great profit, for nearly half a century; and 
gold and copper are also found in small quantities. A 
Dutch company has established plantations of coffee and 
cacao, which have been only partly successful. Mr. 
Wallace considers that the island is one which would 
perhaps repay the researches of a botanist better than 
