382 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHirELAGO. 



January X^tli. — Sailed for Surabaya in Java. 

 This morning tliere is only sLicb. a wind as sailors 

 would call a fresh, but not a heavy gale. In all 

 the wide area between Java and the line of islands 

 east to Timur on the south, and the tenth degree of 

 north latitude, none of those frightful gales known in 

 the Bay of Bengal as cyclones, and in the China Sea as 

 " typhoons," have ever been experienced. The chief 

 sources of solicitude to the navio-ator of the Java and 

 the Banda Seas are the strong currents and many 

 reefs of coral. 



Our large steamer is little else than a great float- 

 ing menagerie. We have, as usual, many native sol- 

 diers on board, and each has with him two or three 

 pet parrots or cockatoos. Several of our passengers 

 have dozens of large cages, containing crested pigeons 

 from New Guinea, and representatives of nearly every 

 species of parrot in that part of the archipelago. We 

 have also more than a dozen different kinds of odd- 

 looking monkeys, two or three of w^hich are contin- 

 ually getting loose and upsetting the parrot-cages, 

 and, before the sluggish Malays can approach them 

 with a " rope's end " unawares, they spring up the 

 shrouds, and escape the punishment which they 

 know their mischief deserves. These birds and mon- 

 keys are mostly purchased in the Spice Islands ; and 

 if all now on board this ship could be safely trans- 

 ported to New York or London, they would far ex- 

 cel the collection on exhibition in the Zoological Gar- 

 dens of the latter city. 



Besides the Chinese, Arabs, Malays, and other 

 passengers forward, there is a Buginese woman, a 



