Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
kins. As the weather was still very uncertain, I got four extra men to accompany me to Tern-
ate, for which place we started on the afternoon of the 20th.
Malay anchor
We had to keep rowing all night, the land breezes being too weak to enable us to sail
against the current. During the afternoon of the 21st we had an hour's fair wind, which soon
changed into a heavy squall with rain, and my clumsy men let the mainsail get taken aback
and nearly upset us, tearing the sail, and, what was worse, losing an hour's fair wind. The
night was calm, and we made little progress.
On the 22d we had light head-winds. A little before noon we passed, with the assistance
of our oars, the Paçiençia Straits, the narrowest part of the channel between Batchian and
Gilolo. These were well named by the early Portuguese navigators, as the currents are very
strong, and there are so many eddies, that even with a fair wind vessels are often quite un-
able to pass through them. In the afternoon a strong north wind (dead ahead) obliged us to
anchor twice. At night it was calm, and we crept along slowly with our oars.
On the 23d we still had the wind ahead, or calms. We then crossed over again to the main-
land of Gilolo by the advice of our Gani men, who knew the coast well. Just as we got
across we had another northerly squall with rain, and had to anchor on the edge of a coral
reef for the night. I called up my men about three on the morning of the 24th, but there was
no wind to help us, and we rowed along slowly. At daybreak there was a fair breeze from
the south, but it lasted only an hour. All the rest of the day we had nothing but calms, light
winds ahead, and squalls, and made very little progress.
