MACASSAR, Celebes, the capital of a dis-* trict of the same name in the island of Celebes' on the west coast of the southern peninsula near the southern end of Macassar Strait sep arating Celebes from Borneo. It is the chief town of the Dutch government of Celebes. Ma cassar consists of the Dutch town and port, Vlaardingen, where the governor of Celebes resides, and the Malay town, which lies inland. The Portuguese claim to have visited Macassar in 1512; but there was no permanent Portuguese settlement until the 17th century when the Eng lish and Dutch also appeared on the scene. In 1660-68 the Dutch, after decisive victories on land and sea, succeeded in driving the Latins from Celebes and establishing themselves. All attempts of the English to supplant the Dutch were unsuccessful and the Dutch have been masters for two centuries and a half, with the exception of one short period of British occu pation in the early 19th century. The import ant buildings are the official residence of the governor of Celebes; the new museum, con taining a valuable collection of objects illustra tive of the native arts and industries, arms, armor, costumes, choice fabrics and jewelry; and Fort Rotterdam, a relic of the time of Por tuguese supremacy and its capture by the Dutch. "Aside from the military forces quartered in Fort Rotterdam," writes A. S. Walcott, "Ma cassar has a population of about 27,000, includ ing about 1,000 Europeans and 5,000 Chinese; but so many of the inhabitants live in the out lying kampongs to the north and south of the city proper, that it is hard to realize that the figures have not been greatly exaggerated. The
houses of the kamJongs vary in many details from those to which we have become accus tomed in Java. They are generally raised sev eral feet above the ground on poles, and have gabled roofs, shuttered windows and consider able ornamentation in the way of carved woodwork. The walls are of ratting of of neatly plaited bamboo, the roofs of nipa, or palm-leaf thatch. The people of this southern end of Celebes are nearly all either Macassarese, or Bugis. They resemble the Javanese in face and figure, but are more Sturdily built and are decidedly less polite and pleasing in bearing and manners. The Bugis are the seamen -of the Archipelago, the greatest navigators and the most enterprising traders to-day and in times gone by the greatest pirates as well. All the people of the coast districts of southern Celebes are in religious proclivities Mohametan Animists — Mohametans in their profession of faith, Animists and fetish-worshippers in their practices.* Macassar trades in coffee, rice, copra, trepang, spices, gum, rubber, pearls, mother-of-pearl, cocoa oil, maize, sandal wood and valuable timber. Pop. about 27,000. Con sult Gervaise, N., 'Description historique du royaume de Macacarq (Ratisbon 1700) • Wal cott, Arthur S., 'Java and her Neighbors> (New York 1914).