Of course we were expected, and our dinner was prepared in the best style, but I was assured that the chiefs all take a pride in adopting European customs, and in being able to receive their visitors in a handsome manner.
After dinner and coffee, the Controlleur went on to Tondano, and I strolled about the village waiting for my baggage, which was coming in a bullock-cart, and did not arrive until after midnight.

Supper was very similar to dinner, and on retiring I found an elegant little room with a comfortable bed, gauze curtains with blue and red hangings, and every convenience.

Next morning at sunrise the thermometer in the verandah stood at 69 deg., which I was told is about the usual lowest temperature at this place, 2,500 feet above the sea.

I had a good breakfast of coffee, eggs, and fresh bread and butter, which I took in the spacious verandah amid the odour of roses, jessamine, and other sweet-scented flowers, which filled the garden in front; and about eight o'clock left Tomohon with a dozen men carrying my baggage.
Our road lay over a mountain ridge about 4,000 feet above the sea, and then descended about 500 feet to the little village of Rurukan, the highest in the district of Minahasa, and probably in all Celebes.

Here I had determined to stay for some time to see whether this elevation would produce any change in the zoology.