100 MATABELLO. [chap. xxv. 



case we should most likely all be murdered. I could not 

 deny these probabilities, and although I showed them that 

 we could not get back to our starting-point with the wind 

 as it was, they insisted upon returning. We accordingly 

 put about, and found that we could lay no nearer to Uta 

 than to Teor ; however, by great good luck, about ten 

 o'clock we hit upon a little coral island, and lay under 

 its lee till morning, when a favourable change of wind 

 brought us back to Uta, and by evening (April 18th) we 

 reached our first anchorage in Matabello, where I resolved 

 to stay a few days, and then return to Goram. It was 

 with much regret that I gave up my trip to Ke and the 

 intervening islands, which I had looked forward to as 

 likely to make up for my disappointment in Ceram, since 

 my short visit on my voyage to Am had produced me 

 so many rare and beautiful insects. 



The natives of Matabello are almost entirely occupied 

 in making cocoa-nut oil, which they sell to the Bngis and 

 Goram traders, who carry it to Banda and Amboyna. 

 The rugged coral rock seems very favourable to the growth 

 of the cocoa-nut palm, which abounds over the whole island 

 to the very highest points, and produces fruit all the year 

 round. Along with it are great numbers of the areca or 

 betel-nut palm, the nuts of which are sliced, dried, and 

 ground into a paste, which is much used by the betel- 

 chewing Malays and Papuans. All the little children here. 



