X.] SAIL FOR BATCHIAN. 231 



of fair in miniature was held, and Malays squatted in all directions 

 selling food and cigarettes for the coolies, cockatoos and lories of 

 every hue and size. Bird of Paradise skins, and the huge Crowned 

 Pigeons of New Guinea. Cockatoos screamed, officers shouted 

 their orders, the donkey engine rattled, and an endless stream of 

 l)ales and packages clattered over the rickety pier. By and by 

 the steamer gave its final whistle, and the gangway w^as cast off; 

 the crowd waited to see her slowly disappear, and half an hour 

 later the town was once more plunged in its wonted condition of 

 somnolence. The monthly transformation scene was over. 



]Mr. Van Bruijn ]Morris having to pay an official visit to the 

 island of Batchian, and the Kontroleur — ]Mr. Monod de Froideville 

 — bein<T also bound south with the intention of searchincj for coal 

 reported to exist in the uninhabited Obi group, we arranged to 

 sail in company. Accordingly we weighed anchor at 5.30 p.m. on 

 the evening of October 9th, running up the Dutch ensign at the 

 fore as the Resident stepped aboard. His yacht, the Sing-Tjin, 

 preceded us with the Kontroleur, and we steered our course 

 between the little chain of islands to which I have alluded and 

 the coast of Halmaheii'a. From a little to the south the volcano 

 of Ternate revealed itself as a mathematically accurate and 

 business-like looking cone. A band of fleecy cloud hung half-way 

 down the mountain, and from the summit, which was just tipped 

 by the setting sun, a light streamer, more of steam than smoke, 

 floated away to the north-west. The sea was as calm as glass, and 

 as we steamed past Mare, ]\Iotir, and Makian their outlmes show^ed 

 sharp and clear in the bright moonlight. The two former are 

 extinct volcanic islands, but jMakian was in 1862 the scene of a 

 frightful eruption, in which nearly 4000 people lost their lives. 

 ]\I(ist of them, however, were not actually killed by the eruption, 

 but perished by drowning, overcrowding the praus in their frantic 

 efforts to escape. The mountain had been quiescent for more than 

 two centuries, and, as is so often the case, but little warning of the 

 outburst was given. Xow it has returned to its former peacefu 



