540 Voyage fkom Waigiou to Ternate. 



CHAPTER XXXVIL 



VOYAGE FKOM WAIGIOU TO TEENATE. 

 SEPTEMBER 29 TO NOVEMBER 5, 1860. 



I HAD left the old pilot at Waigiou to take care of my house 

 and to get the prau into sailing order — to calk her bottom, 

 and to look after the upper works, thatch, and rigging. When 

 I returned I found her nearly ready, and immediately began 

 packing up and preparing for the voyage. Our mainsail had 

 formed one side of our house, but the spanker and jib had 

 been put away in the roof, and on openmg them to see if any 

 repairs were wanted, to our horror we found that some rats 

 had made them their nest, and had gnawed through them in 

 twenty places. We had therefore to buy matting and make 

 new sails, and this delayed us till the 29th of September, when 

 we at length left Waigiou. 



It took us four days before we could get clear of the land, 

 having to pass along narrow straits beset with reefs and shoals, 

 and full of strong currents, so that an unfavorable wind 

 stopped us altogether. One day, when nearly clear, a con- 

 trary tide and head-wind drove us ten miles back to our an- 

 chorage of the night before. This delay made us afraid of 

 running short of Avater if we should be becalmed at sea, and 

 we therefore determined, if possible, to touch at the island 

 where our men had been lost, and which lay directly in our 

 proper course. The wind was, however, as usual, contrary, 

 being S.S.W, instead of S.S.E., as it should have been at 

 this time of the year, and all we could do was to reach the 

 island of Gagie, where we came to an anchor by moonlight 

 under bare volcanic hills. In the morning we tried to enter 

 a deep bay, at the head of which some Galela fishermen told 

 us there was water, but a head-wind prevented us. For the 

 reward of a handkerchief, however, they took us to the place 

 in their boat, and we filled up our jars and bamboos. We 

 then went round to their camping-place on the north coast 



