CHAPTER XL 



SEYCHELLE AND AM1RANTE ISLANDS. 



OUR voyage from Port Darwin to Singapore took place 

 during the interval of calms which separates the north- 

 west and the south-east monsoons, so that we were enabled 

 to steam the entire distance of 2,000 miles in smooth water. 

 Our course lay among the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. 

 On the 5th of November we sighted Timor Island, and on 

 the following morning passed to the northward of its eastern 

 extremity, and then steered westward, having Timor on our 

 port hand, and the small island of Wetter to starboard. From 

 that date, the chain of islands which extends in a north-west 

 direction from Timor right up to the Malay Peninsula was 

 continually in sight. After dusk on the 7th, we saw away on 

 our port beam, and towering up into the blue and starlit sky, the 

 conical mountain which forms the island of Komba. On the 1 oth, 

 as we passed to the northward of Sumbawa, we had a fine view of 

 Tambora, a great volcanic pile 9,040 feet in height. On the same 

 day a handsome bird of the Gallinula tribe flew on board, and 

 came into my possession. On the following day a large swift of 

 the genus Chcetura shared the same fate. On the morning of the 

 1 2 th we passed through the strait which separates the islands of 

 Sapodie and Madura, and as we emerged from its northern outlet 

 found ourselves in the midst of a large fleet of Malay fishing boats, 

 of which no less than seventy were in sight at one time. These 

 boats were long narrow crafts, fitted with double outriggers, and 



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