44 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



— a pleasure I did not fancy at tliat time it would be 

 my good fortune to enjoy before I left the arcMpel- 

 ago. 



All day tlie sky was very liazy, but we obtained 

 several grand views of liigli volcanoes, especially two 

 steep cones that can be seen in the west fi'om the 

 road at Batavia. A light, but steady breeze came 

 from the east, for it was as yet only the early part 

 of the eastern monsoon. When the sun sank in the 

 west, the fall moon rose in the east, and spread out 

 a broad band of silver over the sea. The air was 

 so soft and balmy, and the whole sky and sea so en- 

 chanting, that to recall it this day seems like fancy- 

 ing anew a part of some fascinating dream. 



This word monsoon is only a corruption of the 

 Arabic word ^inusim, " season," which the Portu- 

 guese learned from the Arabians and their de- 

 scendants, who were then navigating these seas. 

 It first occurs in the writings of De Barros, where 

 he speaks of a famine that occurred at Malacca, be- 

 cause the usual quantity of rice had not been brought 

 from Java ; and " the mugao " being adverse, it was 

 not possible to obtain a sufficient supply. The Ma- 

 lays have a peculiar manner of always speaking of 

 any region to the west as being " above the wind," 

 and any region to the east as being " below the wind." 



rlune Sth. — Went on deck early this morning to 

 look at the mountains which we might be passing ; 

 and, while I was absorbed in viewing a fine head- 

 land, the captain asked me if I had seen that gigan- 

 tic peak, pointing upward, as he spoke, to a moun- 

 tain-top, rising out of such high clouds that I had not 



