CHAP, mth] NEARLY SWAMPED, 



187 



nice whicli liaa much improved their features. I saw in 

 Conpang some chiefs from the island of Savu further west, 

 who preaented characters very distiuct from eitlier the 

 ^lalay or Papuan races. They most resembled Hindoos, 

 having fine well-formed features and straight thin noses 

 with clear brown complexions. As the Bmhminical 

 religion once spread over all Java, and even now exists in 

 Bali and Lombock, it n not at all improbable that some 

 natives of India should have reached this island, either 

 by accident or to escape persecution, and formed a per- 

 manent settlement there. 



I stayed at Oea-ssa four days, when, not finding any 

 insects and very few new birds, I returned to Conpang to 

 await the next maQ steamer. On the way I hatl a nan-ow 

 escape of being swamped. The deep coffin-like Iwat was 

 filled up with my baggage, and with vegetables cocoa-nuts 

 and other fruit for Coupang market, and wlien we had got 

 some way across into a rather rough sea, we found that a 

 quantity of water was coming in which we had no means 

 of baling out. This caused us to sink deeper in the water, 

 and then we shipped seas over our sides, and the rowers 

 who had before declared it was nothing now became alarmed, 

 and turned the boat round to get back to the coast of 

 Semao, which was not far olt By clearing away some of 

 the baggage a little of the water could be baled out, but 

 hardly so fast as it came in, and when we neared the coast 

 we found notliing but vertical walls of rock against which 

 the sea was violently beating. We coasted along some 

 distance till we found a little cove, into which we ran the 

 boat, hauled it on shore, and emptying it found a large 

 hole in the bottom, which had been temporarily stopped 

 up with a plug of cocoa-nut which had come out. Had we 

 been a quarter of a mde further off before wo discovered 

 the leak, we should certainly have been obliged to throw 

 most of our baggage overboard, and might easily have lost 

 our lives. After we had put all straight and secure we 

 again started, and when we were half-way across got into 

 such a strong current and high cross sea that we were very 

 nearly being swamped a second time, which made me ^'ow 

 never to trust myself again in such small and miserable 

 vessels. 



