PULO GILLI RAJAH 



397 



of hills in the interior, rising to a height of about 

 1,000 or 1,500 feet. These had a very peculiar 

 outline, seldom peaked, but excessively rugged- 

 looking, with square blocks and jagged precipices 

 in all directions. These hills were bare and brown, 

 except the precipices, which were as while as 

 chalk : and the country had rather a barren ap- 

 pearance, except near the coast, where a rich belt 

 of tropical vegetation seemed to encircle the island. 

 On the Java side we could dimly see through the 

 haze the outline of mountains, varying from four to 

 ten or twelve thousand feet in height. At noon we 

 anchored, having drifted near to a small island off 

 the Madura shore, called Pulo Gilla Rajah, and 

 when the ship's company had had their dinner, 

 Captain Blackwood and I landed on it. We passed 

 over a small fringing coral reef to a sandy beach, 

 on which great numbers of canoes were lying. Bo- 

 hind the beach was a row of cocoa-nut trees, under 

 which we could see some cottages. A lot of half- 

 naked children were gazing at us from behind the 

 trees, who, as we approached them, ran away laugh- 

 ing, and we followed them along a footpath which 

 led us to a cottage built of bamboo. Here some 

 men and women received us very civilly, and we 

 made them understand by signs that we wanted to 

 buy some fowls and cocoa-nuts. A small path ran 

 along the island about a hundred yards behind the 

 beach, through a succession of plots of ground, 

 divided from each other by lines of stones or low 



