TRAVELS 



EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 



CHAPTER I. 



THE STRAIT OF SUNDA AXD BATAVIA. 



Ox the 19tli of April, 1865, I was fifty miles east 

 of Christmas Island, floating on the good ship " Mem- 

 non " toward the Strait of Sunda. 



I was going to Bata^da, to sail thence to the Spice 

 Ishmds, which lie east of Celebes, for the purpose of 

 collectino; the beautiful shells of those seas. 



I had chosen that in preference to any other part 

 of the world, because the first collection of shells 

 from the East that was ever described and fio-ui'ed 

 with sufficient accuracy to be of any scientific value 

 was made by Rumphius, a doctor who lived many 

 years at Amboina, the caj)ital of those islands. His 

 great work, the " Rariteit Kamer," or Chamber of 

 Curiosities, was published in 1705, more than sixty 

 years before the twelfth edition of the " Systema Na- 

 turoe " was issued ])y Linnseus, " the Father of Natural 

 History," who referred to the figures in that work 



