CHAPTER I, 



PROM JAVA TO AMEOINA. 



Sojouro in Baiten^org, JaTa—Tjeave for Amboma accompanied by my wife— 

 Friends on board — Call at Samarang and Soumbaya in Java — Macassar in 

 Celebes — Bima in Sumlmwa— LaraotiJta in Fbres — Cupang and Dilty in 

 Timor — Banda, tlie i Bland of nutmeg gardens. 



Abri^^nq in BatAYia from Sumatra ou the 27th of December^ 

 1881, I was engaged for many weeks in botamcal investigations 

 in the Laboratory of the Buitenzorg Botanical 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 trayela 

 arrived from Europe, to whom 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 tho 

 one, sometimes of the other of us. 



On the loth of the month we left Battivia en route for 

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

 large complement of paasengers, among whom was JIajor Van 

 der Weide, the directing medical officer of the Moluccas, and 

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

 who vTas on his way to assume the Governorship of their 

 possessions in East-Timor, 



The steamers of the Netherlands India Company cireum- 

 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 

 Siimarang and Soiirabayu, we anchored for several days in 



