CHAPTER XIV. 



AMBOIXA, BAXDA, AND THE AEU ISLANDS. 



Amboina — The town— Tomb of Rumphius— The clove trade — " Sea-gardens "—The 

 climate — Microcjlossus — Banda — The harbour and volcano — View from Papenberg 

 — Nutmegs — Banda Neira and its forts — Leave for Aru— Non-existent islands — 

 Dobbo — The village and its trade — The pearl-fishery — Paradisea a2)oda — Trading 

 praus — Fruit-eating pigeons — Perils of a collector — Ornithojdera arnicma — Our 

 hunters return from "Wanumbai — We begin the homeward voyage. 



Leaving Misol and our hunters beliind us, it was not long before a 

 W.S.W. course brought us in sight of the great island of Ceram, 

 with whose high mountains we had previously but uninten- 

 tionally made acquaintance on our voyage to Ef be. We rounded 

 its western end, and gliding almost motionless over a glassy sea 

 which reflected the blaze of sunshine too accurately for pleasure, 

 arrived in tliii'ty-six hours' steaming at Amboina. 



The town, which, par jMrentMsc, gives its name to the whole 

 island, lies some little distance up an inlet, whose surrounding 

 gi-assy hills are a relief to the heavy jungle that nearly every- 

 where in Malaysia greets the traveller's eye. Such harbours hold 

 out a prospect of good anchorage, but we were destmed to be 

 disappointed, and the usual operation of running a cable ashore, 

 so as to make fast head and stern, had to be gone through. The 

 Dutch gun -boats Merapi and Samarang lay at anchor near us. 

 Their of&cers were by this time old friends of ours, for we had 

 met in several ports of the archipelago. We did not venture to 

 disturb them, for it was siesta time, and we knew that, clad in 



