places
is only half a league from the town, and as there are always some
Christian sailors there, the Bishop built a small house and a chapel
there in order to perform mass.1
CHAPTER XIX
Concerning the Kingdom of Macassar and the Dutch Embassy to China
The Kingdom of Macassar, otherwise called the Island of Celebes,2
commences at the 5th degree of south latitude. The heat is excessive
during the day, but the nights are fairly temperate, and the land is
beautiful and very fertile ; but the people of this island do not know
how to build well. The capital town bears the same name as the kingdom,
and is situated close to the sea. The port is free ; and the vessels
which carry thither a quantity of merchandise from the neighbouring
islands do not pay any custom dues. The inhabitants poison their
weapons, and the most dangerous poison which they use is made of the
juice of certain trees which grow in the island of Borneo ; they temper
it according to the effect, whether slow or quick, which they wish the
poison to produce.3 It is said that the King alone knows the
secret of weakening its effect, and he boasts of having some of it so
quick that there is no remedy in the world capable
1
On the whole, this must be allowed to be an excellent account of Siam.
Very probably Tavernier obtained his information from the bishops and
Jesuit priests. The reader is referred to Crawfurd's Dictionary of the Indian Islands for
a valuable epitome of information on this subject, and to other
authorities referred to on p. 224 above. Full bibliographies will be
found in Ency. Brit., 11th ed., xxv. 8 f. ; Hastings, Ency. Religion and Ethics, xi. 488. Finlayson's Account of the Mission to Siam, p.
379, London, 1826, contains an interesting account referring to a
period when Siam had scarcely been affected by European nations. On
Siam as it now is, there are numerous authorities.
2 The Island of Celebes extends from Lat. 1° 45' north to 5° 45' south (Ency. Brit., v. 596 if.). For Macassar, ibid., xvii. 193.
3 The reference is perhaps to the upas poison, for which see Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 952 ff. ; Journal Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxii. 239 ff. ; Skeat & Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, i. 263, ii. 315.
