jya S P I C V I S L A N D S. 



Governor Loten gave a curious anecdote in refpe^l to the 

 fate of his drawings and defcription of the fillies of the illand. 

 There is reafon to fuppofe that they were font into the world 

 in 1726, in a work pubhflicd by Francis Falentyn, a Dutch clergy- 

 man who had refided in the Molucca and Banda iflands. Baron 

 Jmboff, governor general of the Indies, communicated to Mr. 

 Loten his fufpicions, that Valentyn got the materials out of the 

 India houfe by means of his fon-in-law, who was firft clerk to 

 the fecretary of the company ; thefe Valentyn bafely applied to 

 his own ufe, not daring to make the acknowlegement ; certain it 

 is, they never could be found, notwithftanding the moft diligent 

 fearch has been made after them. Valentyn^ work was pub- 

 liflied under the title of India Orientalis antiqua et nova, in five 

 volumes folio. The figures of the fifhes lie under the impu- 

 tation of being fidlitious, from the extravagancy of their forms ; 

 but I am told it is far from being the cafe, nature having fported 

 wonderfully in the conftrudion of thofe of the Amboineje feas. 



The other works of the great Rumpbius were the imagines 

 pifcium tejlaceorum, firft printed at Ley den in 171 1, and re2:)rinted 

 in 1739 • '^^^ figures are finely executed. He might have added 

 crujlaceorum, for there are belides in that work numbers of the 

 lobfter and crab kind. No fort of letter-prefs attends this work, 

 except a catalogue of the fubjedts, with the names in different 

 languages, efpecially the Indian. From the immenlity of his 

 labors, he juftly left behind him the title of the Pliny of the 

 h^dies. 

 Ceram. The weft end of Ceram is at a very fmall diftance from 



Amboina. That ifland ftretches acrofs the channel from eaft to 



weft. 



