456 The Aru Islands. 



often hilly country. The scene was exactly such as might be 

 expected in the interior of a continent. The channel contin- 

 ued of a uniform average width, with reaches and sinuous 

 bends, one bank being often precipitous, or even forming ver- 

 tical cliffs, while the other was flat and apparently 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 occa- 

 sional assistance from our oars, till about three in the after- 

 noon, when we landed where a little brook formed two or thi-ee 

 basins in the coral rock, and then fell in a miniature cascade 

 into the salt-water river. Here we bathed and cooked our 

 dimier, and enjoyed ourselves lazily till sunset, when we pur- 

 sued 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, containing the " commissie," who had 

 come from Dobbo to make their ofiicial tour round the isl- 

 ands, 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 ai-e enabled to do by having 

 iibout 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 Ughten 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 



