CHArTER XXV. 



CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS. 



(OCTOBER 1859 TO JUNK 1860.) 



T LEFT Amboyna for my first visit to Ceram at three 

 o'clock in the morning of October 29th, after having 

 been delayed several days hy the boat's crew, who could 

 not be got together. Captain Van der Beck, who gave me 

 a passage in his boat, had been running after them all day, 

 and at midnight we had to search for two of my men who 

 had disappeared at the last moment. One we found at 

 supper in his own house, and rather tipsy with his parting 

 libations of arrack, bu,t the other was gone across the bay, 

 and we were obliged to ^eaye without him. We stayed 

 some hours at two villages near the east end of Amboyna, 

 at one of which we had to discharge ^ome wood for the 

 missionaries' house, jind on the third ,^fternoon reached 

 Captain Van der Beck's plantation, situated at Hatosiia, 

 in that part of Cer^ni opposite to the isla-nd of Amboyna. 

 This was a clearing in flat and rather sw{i,nipy forest, about 

 twenty acres in extent, and mostly planted with cacao and 



