IN TEM COCOS-KEELINO ISLANDS. 



11 



CHAPTER n. 



SOJOURN IN THE C0008-KEELIKO ISLANDS. 



Stsirt for the Cooo&-KecliQg Lsliinds — !n llie Straits (>f SiukIu— An utiex- 

 pectod nilot— Arrival— Hktory of the colmy tlitsre--'rerrihle cydones— 

 Home life of ibe culotiirit'^ now — The nef and its biiilderfi— Fishes in the 

 lagfHJD— Crabs and tii«r oixjrationd— Plant life— Insect lifu — MammaJii 

 — Birde. 



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

 wLich in the moutb of Deceiiiber were at tlicir worst. Trans- 

 port and travel were not only difficult, but in many districts 

 impossible. Just as I was getting ratlier pnz7,led as to how 

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

 sailing craft, on which I was offered a passiige, wm on the point 

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

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

 familar from his * Coral Eeefs/ It did not, therefore, take me 

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

 was unexpected. 



After a wearisome figbt 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 stoppetl a day to 

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

 Year's fefist in the picturesque inn there, whose verandah 

 conmitmded a deJightful view of the island-studded strait and 

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

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

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

 difficulty that we could haul clear ofl' 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 



