Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

CELEBES. 229importance. Menado (Manado), tlie Wenang of the natives, lies on a spaciousinlet open to the -west and sheltered on the north by several islets, one of which,Mcnado Tinea, or " Old Menado," marks the site of the old town, which wasabandoned in 1682 for the present more secure position on the mainland. Herea pleasant little Dutch quarter gradually sprang up roimd about the foot ofKieuic-Ainsterdam. But the town itself is little more than a vast garden dottedover with rural dwellings and crossed by shady avenues, each terminating with alovely view of sea, islands, and extinct or still smouldering volcanoes.The district is enriched by cultivated grounds, which have replaced the primitiveforests, and which are traversed by good roads giving access to the magnificentplateau of Tondano, with its coffee plantations, its woodlands, romanticwinding lake, and waterfall of the river Menado. A little to the west of Tondanostands the village of Rurukau, 3,y00 feet above the sea, being the highest groupof habitations in Minahassa, if not in the whole of Celebes.The political and administrative in no way correspond with the naturaldivisions of Celebes.' Thus Sumbawa, one of the lesser Sunda Islands, forms partof the Macassar " government," while the petty states on the Gulf of Tolo belongto the Sultanate of Ternate, and consequently depend politically on a remoteeastern islet. The greater part of Celebes is still divided amongst local rulers,some classed as direct or indirect feudatories, others as allies, and others again asstill completely independent. Thus the districts under direct Dutch administrationoccupy but a relatively small part of the territory ; and even here the old administrativemeasures have been partly maintained, the authoritj- being exercised bynative regents under the control of Dutch Eesidents or Assistants. The systemof government varies also in the numerous native " kingdoms," most of which a^eelectoral monarchies limited by custom, the authority of the notables, and priestlyinfluence. Wajo, on the east coast of Macassar, is an oligarchy of powerfid families,with a prince elected as nominal chief, and a council of forty delegates, includingsome women. The various Bugi states constitute similar oligarchies, where thenominal sovereign merely executes the pleasure of his vassals.The Southern MoLrccAS :Bueu, Ceram, Amboyxa, Baxda.A submarine bed less than 100 fathoms deep connects Celebes and the Xula(Sula) Archipelago with Burn, westernmost member of the Moluccas. On theother hand this oval island forms a Knk in a chain disposed in the form of anarc comprising Ceram, Goram, sundry islets, and in the Kei group intersectinganother chain of upheaved lands, the already described South-Eastern Islands.The chain of the Southern Moluccas, sweeping round some 450 miles first west andeast, then south-east parallel with Xew Guinea, is well defined by deep watersboth north and south. Thus Ceram is separated from the Korthern Moluccas byan abyss of over 1,500 fathoms, while on the opposite side the Banda Sea has adepth of 3,000, and at one point near the Banda volcano 4,280 fathoms. Preciselyin the centre of this sea rises the submarine plateau of Lucipara, marked by a few