334 AMBOINA. 



pigeons eject the whole fruits, and they habitually eject the 

 hard kernels, as I saw quantities of them lying about under 

 the trees on a small island at the Admiralty Islands, on which 

 the birds roost in vast numbers. 



As soon as ever a few littoral trees, such as Barriiigfonia 

 and Calophyllum inophyllu/ii, have established themselves by 

 means of their drifting seeds on a freshly dry coral islet, the 

 Fruit-Pigeons alight in the branches in their flight from place 

 to place, and drop the seeds of all kinds of other trees with 

 succulent fruits. I have seen the Pigeons thus resting on two 

 or three small littoral trees, which as yet form almost the only 

 vegetation of Observatory Island, a very small islet in Nares 

 Bay, Admiralty Islands. 



Hearing the sound of music in the native district of the 

 town of Banda one evening, I made my way towards a house 

 from which it came, in the hopes of seeing a Malay dance. 

 Instead of this I found Malays indeed dancing, but to my dis- 

 appointment, they were dancing the European waltz. 



I saw a Mahommedan's dancing-party in one of the houses ; 

 the performers were of course all men. The room in which 

 they danced was widely open to the street, and lighted up. 

 About twenty men dressed in their best sat on mats placed 

 against the wall round the room, the host occupying a place at 

 one end ; two members of the party rose at a time and danced. 

 The movements were very slow, and frequently the two dancers 

 led one another by the hand and, presenting themselves to 

 different sides of the assembly in turn, bowed with great cere- 

 mony ; the whole reminded me somewhat of a quadrille. 



Amboina, October 5th to 10th, 1874.— On the ship anchor- 

 ing at Amboina, it was found necessary that a salute should be 

 fired. The " Challenger " being, as a surveying ship, provided 

 with very few guns, was usually excused this ceremony, but it 

 was thought by the Dutch authorities that the natives would not 

 properly understand the arrival of a foreign man-of-war, without 

 the usual honour being paid to the Dutch flag ; so two small 

 Armstrong breech-loaders were let off alternately through the 

 bow ports. 



The old Dutch saluting guns on the fort seemed to return 

 the unpleasant noisy compliment with some difficulty, and one 

 of them leapt off the parapet into the ditch, in the excitement 

 of unwonted exercise. It is to be hoped, that before long the 

 intolerable nuisance of saluting will be done away with ; it is 

 most astonishing that civilized persons can be so much the 

 slaves of habit, as to make a painful noise of this kind when 

 necessity does not require it ; every one concerned dislikes the 

 noise, and there is a great waste of material. 



