214 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



Sept. ^th. — ^At 5 p. M. steamed down tlie beautiful 

 bay of Amboina for Banda. Our company is com- 

 posed of tlie governor, wlio is going on a tour of 

 inspection, our captain, myself, an " officer of jus- 

 tice," and a lieutenant witli a detaclmient of soldiers 

 in charge of a native of Java, who is sentenced to be 

 banged as soon as we reach our port. The worst of 

 the rainy season is now over, and this evening is 

 cool, clear, and delightful. 



Early the next morning Banda appeared on the 

 horizon, or more correctly the Bandas — for they are 

 ten in number. The largest, Lontar, or Great Banda, 

 is a crescent-shaped island, about six miles long and 

 a mile and a half wide in the broadest parts. The 

 eastern horn of its crescent turns toward the north 

 and the other points toward the west. In a prolon- 

 gation of the former lie Pulo Pisang, "Banana Isl- 

 and," and Pulo Kapal, " Ship Island." The first is 

 about two-thirds of a mile long, and half as wide ; 

 the last is merely a rock about three hundred feet 

 high, and somewhat resembling the poop of a ship, 

 hence its name. Within the circle of which these 

 islands form an arc, lie three other islands. The 

 highest and most remarkable is the Gunong Api,'^ or 

 " Burning Mountain," a conical, active volcano, about 

 two thousand three hundred feet high. Between Gu- 

 nong Api and the northern end of Lontar lies Banda 

 Neira, about two miles long and less than a mile 



* This Gunong Api must not be confounded with another similar 

 volcano of the same name north of Wetta, and still another near 

 the western end of Sumbawa, at the northern entrance to the Sapi 

 Strait. 



