IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 11 



CHAPTER II. 



SOJOURN IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 



Start for the Cocos-Keeling Mauds— In tlie Straits of Siinda — An unex- 

 pected pilot— Arrival— History of the colony there — Terrible cyclones — 

 Home life of the colonists now — The reef and its builders — Fishes in the 

 lagoon— Crabs and thtir operations— Plant life— Insect life— Mammals 

 — Birds. 



The end of the year 1878 was noted for its very heavy rains, 

 which in the month of December were at their worst. Trans- 

 port and travel were not only difficult, \>\\t in many districts 

 impossible. Just as I was getting rather puzzled as to how 

 to get away anywhere out of Batavia, I learned that a small 

 sailing craft, on which I was offered a passage, was on the point 

 of leaving for the Cocos-Keeling Islands. With this outlying 

 spot, made famous by Mr. Darwin's visit in 1836, I was 

 familar from his ' Coral Reefs.' It did not, therefore, take me 

 long to decide to accept an offer which was as gratifying as it 

 was unexpected. 



After a wearisome fight of fourteen days with the Monsoon 

 wind at the entrance of the Sunda Straits, we succeeded in 

 reaching the little village of Anjer, where we stopped a day to 

 replenish our failing stores of provisions, and to eat our New 

 Tear's feast in the picturesque inn there, whose verandah 

 commanded a delightful view of the island-studded strait and 

 of the rugged mountains of Sumatra on the other side. The 

 wind, which had opposed us so persistently, had on the day we 

 again set sail subsided altogether, and it was with the greatest 

 difBculty that we could haul clear off the land. Day after day 

 brought us a monotonous calm. 



It was something, however, that at this season the forest 

 along the slowly passing shores and isles was in the full burst 

 of spring, when it wears in the morning light its most charming 

 aspect, of surpassing beauty to my novitiate eyes ; the piping 



