VIII.] MEN ADO. 167 



We had been told that the wind would drop about noon, but 

 this prognostication proved incorrect, for it increased in violence 

 during the day, and in the evening the surf was so heavy that two 

 of our party who had gone ashore were unable to get off to the 

 ship. Had we failed in our final endeavour the Marclicsa w^ould 

 have made her last voyage. The natives of the place, who had 

 seen more than one vessel lost here, were rather surprised at our 

 good fortune. The so-called harbour -master, who had been the 

 sole cause of the occurrence, took good care to keep out of our way. 

 Our only consolation was that the yacht, which was a very strongly- 

 built vessel, appeared to be quite uninjured.^ 



Our misfortunes had caused us early to become acquainted 

 with the chief Dutch residents in the place, and through their 

 kindness we had but little difficulty in procuring horses and oxen 

 to take us to the Tondano lake, which lies in the mountainous 

 district in the middle of the peninsula. We started early on the 

 morning of the 1st of September, and as we crawled slowly through 

 the village in an ox waggon we had every opportunity of admiring 

 its beauties. It is, I think, the prettiest settlement in the whole 

 of the Dutch East Indies. Each little cottage is surrounded with 

 its garden and fruit orchard, and the neatly-trimmed hedges fairly 

 blaze with scarlet hibiscus. Pink ixoras and magnificent crotons 

 of many varieties, some of them five and twenty feet or more in 

 height, add to the colouring. The village is in reality a vast 

 garden, and an exceedingly productive one to boot. 



The road for nearly five miles was excellent, and we walked 

 along shooting by the way, for our bullocks went but slowly, 

 and the gardens of fruit-trees, nutmegs, and cacao were full of 

 birds. The latter tree has lately been a failure, owing to a 



- , ^ The method adopted by the captain of the brig foi* anchoring in Menado ■will 

 amuse my nautical readers. On approaching the port — with which he was well ac- 

 quainted — he let down his anchor with 60 fathoms of cable attached and went in 

 under all plain sail. Directly the anchor took the ground he shortened sail, and 

 as the ship swung to the sea-breeze, the hawsers were got out, and she was soon fast 

 head and stern. 



