CHAPTEB I. 



FROM JAVA TO AMBOINA, 



Sojourn in Buitenzorj, Java — Leave for Amboina accompanied by my wife — 

 Friends on board — Call at Samarang and Sourabaya in Java — ^Macassar in 

 Celebes — Bima in Sumbawa^ — ^Larantuka in Flores — Cupang and Dilly in 

 'i'imor — ^Banda, the island of nutmeg gardens. 



Aekiving in Batavia from Sumatra on the 27th of Decembbr, 

 -1881, 1 was engaged for many weeks in botanical investigations 

 -in the Laboratory of the Buitenzorg Botani(^al Gardens, in 

 packing up my very large Herbarium, and in making the 

 necessary arrangements for my expedition to Timor-laut. 



At the end of March, the future companion of my travels 

 arrived from Europe, to Avhom I was married on the 5th of 

 April, and henceforth the record of those wanderings must 

 pass from the singular to the plural pronoun, while the ob- 

 servations hereunder recorded are those sometimes of the 

 one, sometimes of the other of us. 



On the 15th of the month we left Batavia en route for 

 Timor-laut via Amboina. On board the steamer there was a 

 large complement of passengers, among whom was Major Van 

 der VVeide, the directing medical ofScer of the Moluccas, and 

 a most charming Portuguese family, that of Major da Franpa, 

 who was on his way to assume the Governorship of their 

 possessions in East-Timor. 



The steamers of the Netherlands India Company circum- 

 navigate the Archipelago every month ; and as they often lie 

 to as long, as a couple of days at the more important islands 

 along its southern belt, we had therefore the opportunity of 

 forming a slight acquaintance with many interesting places 

 and races of men. After a call at the two Javan ports of 

 Samarang and Sourabaya, we anchored for several days in 



