1844.] " SLIME ISLAND." 121 



us to fetch to windward of Cape Rivers. My object 

 was to endeavour to pass between Celebes and Borneo, 

 touching at Macassar and thence to Singapore, but on 

 the 5th of May we had merely fetched in with the 

 land about fifteen miles to the eastward of Cape Rivers ; 

 the north-western extremity of Celebes. On the 6th we 

 had beat up to the Cape, when I landed and obtained 

 observations for fixing this important head-land. The 

 position was selected upon the outer extreme islet, a high 

 rocky pile of, apparently, upheaved grey basalt, about 

 eighty feet above the sea level, and presenting the 

 appearance of a pile of loose stones just deposited from a 

 cart. The few shrubs or trees upon it were of the Fig 

 tribe ; and the whole island being coated and whitened 

 by the dung of marine birds, it received the appellation of 

 ' Slime Island'. Immediately within this, about 200 yards 

 distant, was another islet of similar construction, but 

 about 150 feet in height, and a space of half a mile, with 

 a deep channel, intervened between it and the main 

 island of Celebes, or Cape Rivers. The reefs extend 

 southerly from these islets as far as the eye could reach 

 from the summit of Slime Island, and the coast from the 

 Cape, suddenly receding into deep and lonely bays, leaves 

 a good channel or harbour within, where, had I been sure 

 of obtaining water, I should have placed the ' Samarang '. 

 Villages were noticed in the adjacent bays, and some few 

 natives approached sufficiently near in their canoes to re- 

 connoitre, but could not be induced to make our acquaint- 

 ance. Knowing the jealousy of the Dutch Government, 

 and not having time to spare for an experiment upon 

 the courtesy of the Bugis, which is not unfrequently as 

 doubtful as that of the Illations, we endeavoured to beat 



