CHAPTER I. 



FROM JAVA TO AMBOINA, 



Sojourn in Buitenzor^, Java — Leave for Amboina accompanied by my wife 

 Friends on board — Call at Samarang and Sourabaya in Java— Macassar in 

 Celebes — ^Bima in Suinbawa — Larantuka in Flores — Ciipang and Dilly in 

 I'imor — ^Banda, the island of nutme:: gardens. 



Arriving in Batavia from Sumatra on tlie 27tli of December, 

 1881, I was engaged for many weeks in botanical investigations 

 in the Laboratory of tlie Buitenzorg Botanicral Gardens, in 

 packing up tny very large Herbarium, and in making the 

 necessary arrangements for my expedition to Timor-laut. 



At the end of March, the future companion of my travels 

 arrived from Europe, to whom I was married on the 5th* of 

 April, and henceforth the record of those wanderings must 

 pass from the singular to the plural pronoun, while the ob- 

 servations hereunder recorded are those sometimes of the 

 one, sometimes of the other of us. 



On the 15th of the month we left Batavia en 7'oute for 

 Timor-laut via Amboina. On board the steamer ther^ was a 

 large complement of passengers, among whom was Major Van 

 der Weide, the directing medical officer of the Moluccas, and 

 u most charming Portuguese fomily, tliat of 3Iajor da Franca, 

 who was on his way to assume the Governorship of their 



possessions in East-Timor. 



The steamers of the N'etherlands India Company circum- 

 navigate the Archipelago every month; and as they often lie 

 to as long as a couple of days at the more important islands 

 along its southern belt, we had therefore the opportunity of 

 forming a slight acquaintance with many interesting places 

 and races of men. After a call at the two Javan ports of 

 Samarang and Sourabaya, we anchored for several days in 



