The Malay Archipelago
Alfred Russel Wallace, 1869
(Annotated version edited by John van Wyhe, 2015, NUS Publishing)
On the 18th of April 1854, after a seven week voyage from England, a 31 year old Alfred Russel Wallace arrived in Singapore. An experienced collector (having previously spent four years collecting in Brazil), Wallace was planning on sampling the fauna of the myriad islands that make up the Malay Archipelago, later known as the Dutch East Indies, and later still Indonesia. In the mid-1800’s collecting specimens of birds and insects was a popular hobby, not just of Museums but also of the wealthy, and Wallace planned not just on collecting for himself, but to sell to others. Over the next eight years he zig-zagged haphazardly back-and-forth across the archipelago, his movements dictated by available passages on vessels, visiting as many of the islands as possible. Finally, in February of 1862 he departed Singapore for his return to England. He records that he returned with 125,660 specimens – 310 mammals, 100 reptiles, 8050 birds, 7500 shells, 13100 Lepidoptera, 83200 beetles and 13400 other insects (Wallace was quite fond of beetles). In 1869 he published the first edition of The Malay Archipelago, in two volumes, and with many reprints and some revisions the final fourth edition was published in 1890.
The copy I purchased last year in Singapore is a reprint of the first edition, but annotated and edited by Dr John van Wyhe of the National University of Singapore (NUS) who is an expert on Wallace and Charles Darwin. The book I have is actually titled “
The Annotated Malay Archipelago”, because as well as the original footnotes by Wallace, van Wyhe has added more than 800 extra footnotes that shed more light on the text by including later events, identifying people or boats in the text, noting errors, or simply identifying species by the scientific names by which they are now known. Van Wyhe has published a number of books on Wallace and as an historian has access to Wallace’s original notebooks (those still in existence) which has helped with the annotations. Interestingly, Wallace doesn’t always appear to have referred to his notebooks as some statements in the book conflict with his notes, such as dates he departed or arrived at locations (sometimes out by a week or more).
Because the book would get confusing if it was written chronologically (because of his back-and-forth travels) he has written the book geographically with the first chapter on the physical geography of the region, then subsequent chapters starting with Singapore and Malacca, and then working his way eastwards through Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Bali & Lombok, Timor, Celebes, the Moluccas and the Papuan Islands (Kai and Aru). Some islands get more than one chapter as he focuses on his travels in the first chapter, and then maybe a chapter on particular species - like the Orangutan, or the Birds of Paradise - and finally a third on the zoology or natural history of that particular island (Wallace also seemed interested in plants). And some chapters are simply about his adventures travelling from one island to the next. However, by writing the book in this geographic manner, it is easier to understand his discussions about the differences in the fauna of the two regions, leading to what later became known as Wallace’s Line, an imaginary line delineating the Australo-papuan and Asian faunas. The final chapter (Chapter 40) records his observations of the races of man in the archipelago, and is followed by an appendix with details of the crania of the various races, and the different languages used throughout the archipelago.
Wallaces writings are in a style typical of the mid-1800’s, using languages and phrases you wouldn’t see in writings today. The word ‘rude’ he used to describe not people, but objects like tables, chairs, huts, villages and boats. Obviously it is an abbreviation of ‘rudimentary’. Things we might describe as rude – like carvings of naked people with overemphasized genitalia – he described as ‘disgusting’. The flora and fauna of an island were referred to as the ‘island’s productions’. He described the different peoples by their races, the islands from which they originated, or their religion. Individuals with mixed race parentage he occasionally referred to as half-caste but more often as ‘mongrels’, and he also describes the local inhabitants as ‘savages’. In fact, in his description of the King Bird of Paradise – a species whose beauty of which he was particularly enamoured – he says:
“The emotions excited in the minds of a naturalist, who has long desired to see the actual thing which he has hitherto known only by description ... Especially when that thing is of surpassing rarity or beauty, require the poetic faculty fully to express them. The remote island on which I found myself situated, in an almost unvisited sea; the wild luxuriant forests; the rude uncultured savages who gathered round me – all had their influence in determining the emotions with which I gazed upon this ‘thing of beauty’. I thought of the long ages of the past, during which successive generations of this little creature had run their course … with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness; to all appearance such a wanton waste of beauty … It seems sad, that on the one hand such exquisite creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms only in these wild inhospitable regions, doomed for ages yet to come to hopeless barbarism; while on the other hand , should civilised man ever reach these distant lands … we may be sure he will so disturb the nicely-balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature as to cause the disappearance, and finally the extinction of these very beings whose wonderful structure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy.”
I have edited the above passage to remove some superfluous statements, but essentially he is saying that only the civilised man can fully appreciate the beauty of the bird. This is probably based upon the fact that the locals hunt the bird and were not as excited to see it as he was. But they probably saw the bird on a semi-regular basis and had no concept of its rarity, only that it was good eating. However, Wallace’s attitude was the typical colonialist attitude of the day.
(Note: I can appreciate the ‘savages’ point of few in this respect. For instance, I have seen literally hundreds of kangaroos in the wild in Australia where they sometimes become pests in great numbers, plus many more in zoos. When I was attending Zoo Keeper conferences in the USA in the 80’s and 90’s I would visit a zoo and the keepers would proudly show me a pair of kangaroos in a simple grassed enclosure, expecting me to get excited at seeing an Australian animal on display. My complete underwhelm-ment at ‘roos, but excitement at seeing a skunk, puzzled them).
Earlier this year Wallace’s Giant Bee – the world’s largest bee – was rediscovered while I was reading this book, so I looked forward to Wallace’s description of the bee and his discover of it. Sadly, it rates only half a sentence:
“Among my insects the best were the rare Pieris aruna – perhaps the very finest butterfly of the genus; and a large black wasp-like insect, with immense jaws like a stag beetle, which has been named Megachile pluto by Mr F. Smith.”
However, in contrast, his discovery of the bird later to be known as Wallace’s Standardwing was detailed in a single lengthy paragraph that took up almost a whole page, and included an illustration of the bird.
Overall this book is a long read; excluding the appendix it’s over 750 pages in length, but that includes a lengthy introduction by van Whye on Wallace, his travels to Singapore and his itinerary throughout the archipelago, his records (the notebooks and letters) and the eventual publication of the book and its subsequent editions, reprints and illustrations. However, this book is good reading and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in zoological history, the wildlife of the region, or travel journals to see what it was like travelling almost 180 years ago. I particularly recommend this annotated version, published in 2015, as the footnotes contain extra information for anyone who is interested in learning more.
