The Minahassa people, of the Malay family, up to the early part of the 19th century were head-hunters • like the Dyaks of Borneo, and, like them, built their houses on posts 20 feet or more above the ground, and 90 to 200 feet long, and 48 feet broad, to contain 16 or 20 households.
Around the coasts, a fishing and seafaring race, the Orang Laut, dwell in boats.
The languages current are the Bugi, Macassar, Bouton, Salayer, Tomore, Tomohow, Langowen, Ratahan, Belang, Tanawauko, Kema, Bautek, Menado, and Bolanghitam.
Batchian, in lat. 0° 30' S., and long. 127° 30' E., 54 miles long and 20 miles broad, is separated from Gilolo by a narrow channel. Its inhabitants profess Muhammadanism. The interior is un inhabited, there are only a few villages on the coasts. The Batchiau Malays differ very little from those of Ternate. Their language, however, has more of the Papuan element in it, with a mixture of pure Malay, showing that they are formed from stragglers of various races, almost homogeneous. The Orang Sirani (qu. Nasrani or Suryani) are Christians of Portuguese descent, like those of Ternate. Many of these have a Portuguese physiognomy, but their skin is generally darker than that of the Malays. They speak Malay, with a large number of Portuguese words and idioms. The Orang •Sirani are very fond of dancing. In 300 years, they have changed their language and lost all knowledge of their nationality, but in manners and appearance they are almost pure Portuguese. Everywhere in the east, where the Portuguese have mixed with the native races, the offspring are darker in colour than either of the parent stocks. This is the case with the Orang Sirani, and with the Portu guese of Malacca and Goa. This is not the case in South America, where the Mameluco, the offspring of the Portuguese and Indian, is often fairer than either race, but always fairer than the Indian. The Orang Sirani are as civil, obliging, and industrious as the Malay, but they consider themselves of a superior order, and are inclined to trade and commerce rather than to manual labour.
The Galela men from Gilolo is a third race, and a gurth race is a colony from Timor, in the Eastern Peninsula of Celebes, who were brought there many years ago, at their own request, to avoid extermination by another tribe. They have a very light complexion, open Tartar physiog nomy, low stature, and a language of the Bugis type. They are an industrious agricultural people, and supply the town with vegetables.
They make a good deal of bark cloth, similar to the tapa of the Polynesians. A cylinder of bark is taken off and soaked and beaten till it be as thin and as tough as parchment. It is used for wrapping up clothes ; also dyed with a bark dye, and sewed into jackets.
Gold has been washed for in the island of Batchian ever since 1774. Batchian and Tawali Islands are separated by a narrow strait.
The Keffing Islands is a little group of 17 islands, in the Molucca Sea, encircled by very extensive reefs projecting into deep water, and rendering them difficult of approach. The cachalot or spermaceti whale abounds in the ocean, and might support an extensive fishery. Some of the islets are low, sandy, girdled by reefs, and, as in Ghissa, with a lagoon in the centre, absolutely swarming with fish, while the shores are peopled by ducks and snipes. Their inhabitants resemble those of the S. coast of Ceram, and are not of the Papuan or Negro race. They are great traders, and constantly visit New Guinea, and purchase birds of paradise, luri, crows, pigeons, mega podiidm, and scented woods.
Pulo ]flank, or Bird Island, lies midway between Ceram and the Serwatty group. It is a high solitary mountain resting on the bosom of the sea, with a truncated cone, desert, and the refuge only of myriads of birds, which deposit such vast quantities of eggs, that many of the natives of the neighbouring islands visit the place and subsist for whole days on this wholesome food. Sulphur is also found on the rocks.
The little communities existing in these scattered groups present curious phases of social life. Dwelling in houses erected on posts, they in many instances surround their villages with rough walls of coral, occasionally carrying a similar fortification \ all along the shore. Many of them, apparently peaceful traders, were a\ secretly addicted to pir y, though some bore a character for innocence nd love of industry altogether inconsistent with t is pursuit. Among these are the inhabitants of roar, a trachytic cone south of Makian, a gentle, tranquil, sober tribe, following the occupation of potters, and supplying the neighbouring islands with vessels and utensils of various kinds made of red clay, elegantly moulded and of good quality. These compete in the markets of the Molucca Sea with the plates and pans brought by the traders of Keffing from the Ki Islands.