178 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



read and re-read. Tlie pages of the Boston papers 

 seemed like tlie faces of familiar friends, and it 

 was difficult not to peruse the advertisements, col- 

 umn by column, before I could lay them aside. I, 

 in turn, was able to write my friends that already I 

 possessed a full series of nearly all the species of 

 shells I had come to seek. 



East of Amboina lie three islands, sometimes 

 called the "Uliassers." The first and nearest to 

 Amboina is Haruku (in Dutch Haroekoe) ; it is 

 also known to the natives as Oma, or Buwang-bessi, 

 " Ejecting-iron." The second is Saparua (in Dutch 

 Saparoea) ; but according to Mr. Crawfurd it should 

 be Sapurwa, or Sapurba, fi'om the native numeral 

 8a standing as an article, and the Sanscrit, puriva, 

 " source," a name probably given it by the Malay 

 and Javanese traders, who came here to buy cloves 

 long before the Portuguese reached such a remote 

 region, and this is made more probable by the 

 name of the third island Nusalaut (in Dutch Noesa- 

 laoet), which is compounded of the Javanese word 

 nusa^ "an island," and the Malay word laut, "the 

 sea." Nusalaut, therefore, means Sea Island, and was 

 evidently so named because it is situated more nearly 

 in the open sea. The Javanese word nusa^ which is 

 applied, like the Malay word pulo, only to small 

 islands, enables us to trace out the early course of 

 the Javanese traders. At the southern end of Laiti- 

 mur is a kampong named Nusaniva (niba), " Fallen 

 Island," perhaps because some island, or a part 

 of Amboina itself, had sunk in that vicinity. Near 

 the Banda group is Nusatelo (better taluh), " Magic 



