212 CELEBES. [chap. 



us, we eucouiitered a strong stream of the colour of pea -soup, 

 which led us to conclude that a considerable body of water was 

 debouchmg here. On reversing the engines, however, the screw 

 suddenly revealed deep water of a clear sapphire blue, having 

 washed aside wliat proved to be merely a shallow surface layer of 

 the muddy river. Anchoring was even more anxious work than 

 usual, owing to the depth of water and its sudden shoaling, and the 

 strong eddies we experienced, but we eventually found ourselves 

 in a fairly secure, although somewhat extraordinary berth. We 

 had seven fathoms of water at our bow, and six at the stern, whilst 

 amidships our keel must have been almost touching. Astern of us 

 the trees were less than twenty yards off, and within thirty feet, on 

 our starboard side, the water was only ankle deep ! Truly, one be- 

 comes acquainted with strange anchorages in this part of the world. 

 Landing the Kontroleur and his policemen for their interview 

 with the chief, we continued our way up the river in the boats. 

 The scenery w^as extremely pretty. The bareness of the country 

 round Gorontalo had disappeared, and we found ourselves once more 

 in the midst of tropical vegetation of the usual type. The river 

 flowed between abrupt, forest-clad hills of considerable height, but 

 at a distance of about four or five miles from the mouth became 

 beset with rapids and shallows, the passage of wliich was difficult 

 even in a native canoe. There was no distinct \illage, the houses 

 being scattered at intervals along the banks. They were built on 

 land, but each was pro%ided with a little stage or pier erected over 

 the stream, where the natives could be seen embarking and dis- 

 embarking in their canoes, or dipping up water from the river b}' 

 means of a long bamboo. The Pogoyama people speak a dialect 

 of the Gorontalo language, and, though probably free from any 

 admixture of Papuan blood, seemed to us taller and darker than is 

 usual among those of Malayan race. Those whom we saw were not 

 of particularly prepossessing appearance, and offered a marked con- 

 trast to the mild-eyed Minahasans we had left only three or four 

 weeks before. 



