IQ TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



and this phenomenon Avas repeated each morning that 

 we were trying to enter the Strait of Sunda. As we 

 had arrived during the changing of the monsoons, 

 calms were so continuous that for six days we tried 

 in vain to gain fifty miles. When a breeze would 

 take us up near the mouth of the channel, it would 

 then die away and let a strong cm^rent sweep us 

 away to the east, and one time we were carried most 

 unpleasantly near the high, threatening crags at Pa- 

 lembang Point, near Java Head. Those who have 

 passed Sunda at this time of the year, or Ombay 

 Strait in the beginning of the opposite monsoon, will 

 readily recall the many weary hours they have passed 

 waiting for a favorable breeze to take them only a 

 few miles farther on their long voyage. 



During those six days, at noon the sun poured 

 down his hottest rays, the thermometer ranging from 

 88° to 90° Fahr. in the shade, and not the slightest air 

 moving to afford a momentary relief. Although con- 

 stantly for a year I was almost under the equator, 

 these six days were the most tedious and oppressive 

 I ever experienced. 



The mountain back of Java Head seemed to be 

 King Eolus's favorite seat. Clouds would come from 

 every quarter of the heavens and gather round its 

 summit, while the sun was reaching the zenith ; but 

 soon after he began to pass down the western sky, 

 lightnings would be seen darting their forked tongues 

 around the mountain-crest : and then, as if the mnds 

 had broken from the grasp of their king, thick cloud - 

 masses would suddenly roll down the mountain-sides, 

 lightnings dart hither and thither, and again and 



