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Letter from Ternate
British biogeographer Alfred Russel Wallace arrived in what was then known as the Malay Archipelago (now Indonesia and Malaysia) in 1854, at the age of 31
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British biogeographer Alfred Russel Wallace arrived in what was then known as the Malay Archipelago (now Indonesia and Malaysia) in 1854, at the age of 31.
He traveled through the archipelago to collect specimens for sale and to study nature until 1862.
During his exploration, he collected more than 125,000 specimens, including more than 80,000 beetles alone. More than a thousand of them represented species new to science.
In September 1856, Wallace first set foot in Makassar, South Sulawesi. During his stay, he found abundant raptorial birds, the rare parrot and several butterflies.
Some of the well-known species he found during the trip are Wallace's Flying Frog Rhacophorus nigropalmatus and Wallace's Standard-Wing Bird of Paradise Semioptera wallacei.
During his exploration, he noted that while Sulawesi was poor in the number of species it was home to, it was wonderfully rich in peculiar forms, many of which were singular or beautiful and, in some cases, absolutely unique.
He also concluded that Sulawesi "must be the oldest part of the Archipelago", because the amount of the individuality meant the district had been isolated from other islands surrounding it.
In February 1858, Wallace sent to his colleague Charles Darwin a letter from Maluku's Ternate island attached with his essay On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type, elaborating his theory on natural selection.
"There is a tendency in nature to the continued progression of certain classes of varieties further and further from the original type," he wrote.
The letter contributed to Darwin's famous work On the Origin of Species, first published in 1859.
In conducting his observations, Wallace worked alongside local leaders, such as sultans and kings, which gave him a full picture of the culture and way of life of the residents.
He tasted some of the exotic meals served by his hosts -- in Sulawesi, he was served bats, fowls and wild pigs for dinner.
He learned that "gongs, small brass cannon and elephants tusk constitutes the wealth of Maluku's Aru people, with which they pay for their wives' dowries, or which they hoard as real property". -- JP/Tifa Asrianti
