Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
met with. I saw not a single ground-thrush, or kingfisher, or pigeon; and, in fact, have never
been in a forest so utterly desert of animal life as this appeared to be. Even in all other
groups of insects, except butterflies, there was the same poverty. I had hoped to find some
rare tiger beetles, as I had done in similar situations in Celebes; but, though I searched
closely in forest, river-bed, and mountain-brook, I could find nothing but the two common
Amboyna species. Other beetles there were absolutely none.
The constant walking in water, and over rocks and pebbles, quite destroyed the two pair
of shoes I brought with me, so that, on my return, they actually fell to pieces, and the last
day I had to walk in my stockings very painfully, and reached home quite lame. On our way
back from Makariki, as on our way there, we had storm and rain at sea, and we arrived at
Awaiya late in the evening, with all our baggage drenched, and ourselves thoroughly un-
comfortable. All the time I had been in Ceram I had suffered much from the irritating bites
of an invisible acarus, which is worse than mosquitoes, ants, and every other pest, because it
is impossible to guard against them. This last journey in the forest left me covered from
head to foot with inflamed lumps, which, after my return to Amboyna, produced a serious
disease, confining me to the house for nearly two months,—a not very pleasant memento of
my first visit to Ceram, which terminated with the year 1859.
It was not till the 24th of February, 1860, that I started again, intending to pass from vil-
lage to village along the coast, staying where I found a suitable locality. I had a letter from
the Governor of the Moluccas, requesting all the chiefs to supply me with boats and men to
carry me on my journey. The first boat took me in two days to Amahay, on the opposite side
of the bay to Awaiya. The chief here, wonderful to relate, did not make any excuses for
delay, but immediately ordered out the boat which was to carry me on, put my baggage on
board, set up mast and sails after dark, and had the men ready that night; so that we were ac-
tually on our way at five the next morning,—a display of energy and activity I scarcely ever
saw before in a native chief on such an occasion. We touched at Cepa, and stayed for the
night at Tamilan, the first two Mahometan villages on the south coast of Ceram. The next
day, about noon, we reached Hoya, which was as far as my present boat and crew were go-
ing to take me. The anchorage is about a mile east of the village, which is faced by coral
reefs, and we had to wait for the evening tide to move up and unload the boat into the
strange rotten wooden pavilion kept for visitors.
There was no boat here large enough to take my baggage; and although two would have
done very well, the Rajah insisted upon sending four. The reason of this I found was, that
there were four small villages under his rule, and by sending a boat from each he would
avoid the difficult task of choosing two and letting off the others. I was told that at the next
