THE MOLUCCA PASSAGE. 317 



liave a small sleeping-lioiise in tlie rear of the one 

 occupied by day. The walls of the larger one are 

 usually of brick or stone, but those of the sleeping- 

 house are always made of gaha-gaha^ the dried mid- 

 ribs of large palm-leaves, which, when placed on end, 

 ^^dll support a consideral^le weight, and yet are al- 

 most as light as cork. The roof is of atai?^ a thatch- 

 ing of dry palm-leaves, and the whole structure is 

 therefore so light that no one would be seriously 

 injured should it fall on its sleeping occupants. 

 Such continual, torturing solicitude changes this 

 ])lace, fitted, by its fine climate, luxuriant vegetation, 

 and beautiful scenery, for a paradise, into a perfect 

 ])urgatory. 



On the morning of the 12th of December we 

 steamed out of the roads for Kema. Soon we 

 passed near the southeast end of Ternate, and the 

 commander pointed out to me a small lake only 

 separated from the sea by a nan'o^v wall, and in- 

 formed me that when the Portuguese held the island 

 they attempted to cut a canal through the wall or 

 dike, and use this lake as a dock — certainly a very 

 feasible plan ; but for some reason, probably because 

 they were so continually at war with their rivals, the 

 Spaniards, they did not carry it out. This lake is 

 said to be deep enough to float the largest ships, and 

 is, I believe, nothing more than an old, extinct crater. 

 On our larboard hand now was IVIitarra, a steep a^oI- 

 canic cone as high as the Gunong Api at Banda, but 

 appearing much smaller from being, as it were, be- 

 neath the lofty peak of Tidore. It also is of volcanic 

 formation. We now came out into the Molucca Pas- 



