Malay Archipelago, Volume 2

This is one of the greatest adventure narratives in the English language. Alfred Russel Wallace spent eight years traversing the Malay Archipelago, over 14,000 miles of islands between Asia and Australia, collecting specimens and observing the natural world that would help him independently discover evolution by natural selection. Volume 2 takes readers into the Moluccas and New Guinea: the spice islands of Ternate and Tidore where the Dutch East India Company once wielded absolute power, the bird-of-paradise-rich skies of Aru, and the wild coasts of New Guinea where distant memories of cannibalism lingered. Wallace brings the archipelago to vivid life, its volcanic landscapes and astonishing biodiversity where Asian and Australian species collide, its peoples with their startling variety of customs and appearances. This is science writing that reads like the finest travel literature, populated by corrupt Dutch governors, treacherous boatmen, headhunters, and the ghost of an ancient spice trade. The book captures a world that would vanish within decades of Wallace's departure, making it both a scientific landmark and a portal to a lost era.