542 Voyage from Waigiou 



of the island to try and buy something to eat, but could only 

 get smoked turtle meat as black and as hard as lumps of coal. 

 A little farther on there was a plantation belonging to Guebe 

 people, but under the care of a Papuan slave, and the next 

 morning we got some plantains and a few vegetables in 

 exchange for a handkerchief and some knives. On leaving 

 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 

 Avas squally, with thunder, but after midnight it got tolera- 

 bly 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 increased, 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 simi- 

 lar phenomena. Dampier encountered 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 seem- 

 ed all broken, and tossed the ship so that she would not an- 

 swer her helm. These ripjDlings commonly lasted ten or 

 twelve minutes, and then the sea became as still and smooth 

 as a millpond. We sounded often when in the midst of 

 them, but found no ground, neither could we perceive that 

 they drove us any way. We had in one night several of 

 these tides, that came mostly from the west, and the wind 

 being from that quarter we commonly heard them a long 

 time before they came, and sometimes lowered our topsails, 

 thinking it was a gust of wind. They were of great length, 



