people are so docile and so willing to adopt the manners and customs of
Europeans, that the change might be easily effected by merely showing
them that it was a question of morality and civilization, and an
essential step in their progress towards an equality with their white
rulers.
After a fortnight's stay at Rurukan, I left that pretty and interesting
village in search of a locality and climate more productive of birds and
insects. I passed the evening with the Controlleur of Tondano, and the
next morning at nine, left in a small boat for the head of the lake, a
distance of about ten miles. The lower end of the lake is bordered by
swamps and marshes of considerable extent, but a little further on, the
hills come down to the water's edge and give it very much the appearance
of a greet river, the width being about two miles. At the upper end is
the village of Kakas, where I dined with the head man in a good house
like those I have already described; and then went on to Langowan, four
miles distant over a level plain. This was the place where I had been
recommended to stay, and I accordingly unpacked my baggage and made
myself comfortable in the large house devoted to visitors. I obtained
a man to shoot for me, and another to accompany me the next day to the
forest, where I was in hopes of finding a good collecting ground.
In the morning after breakfast I started off, but found I had four miles
to walk over a wearisome straight road through coffee plantations before
I could get to the forest, and as soon as I did so, it came on to rain
heavily and did not cease until night. This distance to walk every day
was too far for any profitable work, especially when the weather was so
uncertain. I therefore decided at once that I must go further on, until
I found someplace close to or in a forest country. In the afternoon my
friend Mr. Bensneider arrived, together with the Controlleur of the next
district, called Belang, from whom I learned that six miles further on
there was a village called Panghu, which had been recently formed and
had a good deal of forest close to it; and he promised me the use of a
small house if I liked to go there.
The next morning I went to see the hot-springs and mud volcanoes, for
which this place is celebrated. A picturesque path among plantations
and ravines brought us to a beautiful circular basin about forty feet in
diameter, bordered by a calcareous ledge, so uniform and truly curved,
that it looked like a work of art. It was filled with clear water
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