Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Two days were spent here, but the place was unproductive of insects or birds of interest,
so we made another attempt to get on. As soon as we got a little away from the land we had
a fair wind, and in six hours' sailing reached the entrance of the Watelai channel, which di-
vides the most northerly from the middle portion of Aru. At its mouth this was about half a
mile wide, but soon narrowed, and a mile or two on it assumed entirely the aspect of a river
about the width of the Thames at London, winding among low but undulating and often
hilly country. The scene was exactly such as might be expected in the interior of a continent.
The channel continued of a uniform average width, with reaches and sinuous bends, one
bank being often precipitous, or even forming vertical cliffs, while the other was flat and ap-
parently alluvial; and it was only the pure salt water, and the absence of any stream but the
slight flux and reflux of the tide, that would enable a person to tell that he was navigating a
strait and not a river. The wind was fair, and carried us along, with occasional assistance
from our oars, till about three in the afternoon, when we landed where a little brook formed
two or three basins in the coral rock, and then fell in a miniature cascade into the salt-water
river. Here we bathed and cooked our dinner, and enjoyed ourselves lazily till sunset, when
we pursued our way for two hours more, and then moored our little vessel to an overhanging
tree for the night.
At five the next morning we started again, and in an hour overtook four large praus con-
taining the 'Commissie,' who had come from Dobbo to make their official tour round the is-
lands, and had passed us in the night. I paid a visit to the Dutchmen, one of whom spoke a
little English, but we found that we could get on much better with Malay. They told me that
they had been delayed going after the pirates to one of the northern islands, and had seen
three of their vessels but could not catch them, because on being pursued they rowed out in
the wind's eye, which they are enabled to do by having about fifty oars to each boat. Having
had some tea with them, I bade them adieu, and turned up a narrow channel which our pilot
said would take us to the village of Watelai, on the west side of Aru. After going some miles
we found the channel nearly blocked up with coral, so that our boat grated along the bottom,
crunching what may truly be called the living rock. Sometimes all hands had to get out and
wade, to lighten the vessel and lift it over the shallowest places; but at length we overcame
all obstacles and reached a wide bay or estuary studded with little rocks and islets, and
opening to the western sea and the numerous islands of the 'blakang-tana.' I now found that
the village we were going to was miles away; that we should have to go out to sea, and
round a rocky point. A squall seemed coming on, and as I have a horror of small boats at
sea, and from all I could learn Watelai village was not a place to stop at (no Birds of
Paradise being found there), I determined to return and go to a village I had heard of up a
