Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
this place our anchor had got foul in some rock or sunken log in very deep water, and after
many unsuccessful attempts, we were forced to cut our rattan cable and leave it behind us.
We had now only one anchor left.
Starting early, on the 4th of October, the same S.S.W. wind continued, and we began to
fear that we should hardly clear the southern point of Gilolo. The night of the 5th was
squally, with thunder, but after midnight it got tolerably fair, and we were going along with
a light wind and looking out for the coast of Gilolo, which we thought we must be nearing,
when we heard a dull roaring sound, like a heavy surf, behind us. In a short time the roar in-
creased, and we saw a white line of foam coming on, which rapidly passed us without doing
any harm, as our boat rose easily over the wave. At short intervals, ten or a dozen others
overtook us with great rapidity, and then the sea became perfectly smooth, as it was before. I
concluded at once that these must be earthquake waves; and on reference to the old voy-
agers we find that these seas have been long subject to similar phenomena. Dampier en-
countered them near Mysol and New Guinea, and describes them as follows: 'We found
here very strange tides, that ran in streams, making a great sea, and roaring so loud that we
could hear them before they came within a mile of us. The sea round about them seemed all
