170 TRAVELS IN THE EAST IXDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



series of earthquakes occurred among tlie mountains 

 where the river that flows through Batavia takes its 

 rise. During these shocks a land-slide occurred, and 

 the water was so filled with mud that the canals and 

 ramifications of the river in the city were silted uj), 

 and their currents completely stopped. The imme- 

 diate consequence was, a large proportion of the 

 population of that city fell victims to a fever en- 

 gendered hj the great quantities of stagnant water. 

 'No similar cause could have operated here on the 

 island of Amboina. As the quantity of rain, the 

 strength and direction of the wind, and all other 

 meteorological phenomena, appear to have been the 

 same as in other years, it is evident that the disease 

 was connected in some way with the earthquakes, 

 and the view has been advanced that it was caused 

 by quantities of poisonous gases which are supposed 

 to have risen out of the earth during the violent 

 shocks. 



Many fine shells were now brought me from Tu- 

 lahu, a kampong on the northeast coast of Hitu, so I 

 determined to go on my next excursion in that direc- 

 tion. Two miles up the bay from the city of Am- 

 boina a tongue of land projects out fr'om either shore, 

 until a passage only five hundred yards vdde is left 

 between them. AYithin this passage the sea again 

 expands into a bay about three miles long and a mile 

 and a half wide. The depth of the water in the pas- 

 sage is sufficient for the largest ships, yet inside it 

 is nowhere more than twenty or twenty-five fathoms. 

 A large navy could anchor here, and be perfectly 

 sheltered from all Avinds and seas ; but vessels rarely 



