24 VOYAGE TO BJTCHIJN. [chap, xxiii. 



Gilolo, who could speak Malay, as woodcutter and general 

 assistant ; and Garo, a boy who was to act as cook. As 

 the boat was so small that we had hardly room to stow 

 ourselves away when all my stores were on board, I only 

 took one other man named Latchi, as pilot. He was a 

 Papuan slave, a tall^ strong black feUow, but verj^ civil and 

 carefid. The boat I had hired from a Chinaman named 

 Lau Keng Tong, for five guilders a month. 



We started on the morning of October 9th, but had 

 not got a hundred yards from land, when a strong head 

 wind sprung up, against which we could not row, so we 

 crept along shore to below the town, and waited till the 

 turn of the tide should enable us to cross over to the coast 

 (jf Tidore. About three in the afternoon we got off, and 

 found that our boat sailed well, and would keep pretty 

 close to the wind. We got on a good way before the wind 

 fell and we had to take to our oars again. We landed 

 on a nice sandy beach to cook our suppers, just as the 

 sun set behind the rugged volcanic hills, to the south of 

 the great cone of Tidore, and soon after beheld the planet 

 Venus shining in the twilight with the brilliancy of a new 

 moon, and casting a very distinct shadow. We left again 

 a little before seven, and as we got out from the shadow of 

 the mountain I observed a bright light over one part of the 

 ridge, and soon after, what seemed a fire of remarkable 

 whiteness on the very summit of the hill. I called the 



