LIFE AT AMBOINA. 211 



least. Unfortunately, a strong gust struck us just as 

 we floated, and for some minutes we remained mo- 

 tionless in one spot, the sea rolling up until what 

 Virgil says, with a poet's license, was literally true 

 of us, the naked earth could be seen beneath our 

 keel. 



Again all that day we pitched and tossed, and 

 the distance we had to go seemed endless, until, as 

 the sun sank, the high land of Saparua rose before us 

 and we entered a broad bay. The natives saw us 

 coming, and quickly kindled on the shore huge blazing 

 fires, which were repeated in the form of long bands 

 of bright light on the miiTor-like surface of the quiet 

 sea, and now we were welcomed wdth shouts to the 

 same place where the native belles had sung such a 

 plaintive song at our departure. 



From Saparua I returned directly to Amboina, 

 for one who has been accustomed to the mail facili- 

 ties of our land will subject himself to almost any 

 inconvenience in order to reach the place where the 

 mail-boat touches. 



Life at Amboina, and at almost every other place 

 in the Dutch possessions, at the best is dull. Once 

 or twice a month, in accordance with an established 

 custom, the governor gives a reception on Sunday 

 evenings, when all the Europeans and most of the 

 mestizoes come and dance till late ; and as there are 

 some seven hundred of these people in the city, and 

 the larger portion attend, such parties are quite bril- 

 liant affairs. The music is famished by a small band 

 connected with the detachment of soldiers stationed 

 here. 



