IMANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



447 



to the Ternate ; the raft, also, 

 with four officers and forty-six 

 men, and a cow, got under sail, 

 and, after a comfortable cold-bath 

 navigation of eight hours, reached 

 the ship after dark. Every article 

 which could not be carried off, and 

 was thought might be of the 

 slightest use to the savages, was 

 piled into a heap, on the top of the 

 hill, and made into a bonfire. 



At midnight the boats returned 

 to bring off Captain Maxwell, and 

 those remaining with him 5 the 

 whole arriving safe on board the 

 Ternate on the morning of the 7th 

 March, where we were most hos- 

 pitably received by Captain David- 

 son and his officers. 



The island of Pulo Leat is about 

 six miles long, and five broad; 

 situate about two degrees and a 

 half to the southward of the equa- 

 tor : it lies next to Banca, and is 

 in the line of islands between it 

 and Borneo. As far as we could 

 explore, (and exploring was no 

 easy task) it appeared to produce 

 nothing for the use of man. We 

 found a great number of the rinds 

 of what we afterwards discovered 

 at Batavia to be the far famed and 

 delicious mangustin, which only 

 thrives near the Line ; but the 

 baboons, who manage to live here, 

 had previously monopolized all the 

 fruit. Had we found any entire, 

 we might have indulged in them, 

 even without knowing their na- 

 ture ; as, more especially in a case 

 of short commons like ours, there 

 could be no great danger in fol- 

 lowing the example of a monkey. 

 We found a number of oysters 

 adhering to the rocks along the 

 sea-shore, which at first we were 

 afraid to eat, from their exciting 



thirst; but as soon as we were* 

 happy enough to obtain a suffici • 

 ent supply of water, they very 

 speedily disappeared. 



The soil of the island appears 

 to be capable of affording any pro- 

 duction of the torrid zone, and, if 

 cleared and cultivated, would be 

 a very pretty place; the tree wltich 

 produces the caoutchouc or Indian 

 rubber grows here. 



From something like smoke 

 having been repeatedly observed 

 rising at one particular place 

 among the trees, about a mile from 

 the head of our creek, it was by 

 some imagined that either the is- 

 land was peopled, or that the sa- 

 vages had taken post there. In 

 various attempts, however, to re- 

 connoitre this spot, no trace of 

 human footstep could be found, 

 being in every direction an impe- 

 netrable thicket; and we ultimately 

 ascertained that it was entirely un- 

 inhabitetl. 



The small stock of provisions 

 saved from the wreck, and the 

 uncertainty of our stay there, ren- 

 dered economy in their distribu- 

 tion, as well as the preventing 

 any waste or abase, a most impor- 

 tant duty. The mode adopted by 

 Captain Maxwell, to make things 

 go as far as possible, was to 

 chop up the allowance for the 

 day into small pieces, whether 

 fowls, salt beef, pork, or flour, 

 mixing the whole hotch-potch, 

 boiUng them together, and serving 

 out a measure of this to each, 

 publickly and openly, and without 

 any distinction. By these means no 

 nourishment was lost ; it could 

 be more equally divided than by 

 any other way : and, although 

 necessarily a scanty, it was not an 



unsavoury 



