318 



For AGE TO BATCHUN. Ichap. xxm. 



tensia), are tjuite distinct from allied species ibimd in 

 Gilolo. The island is coralline and sandy, and we must 

 therefore believe it to have been separated Irom Gilolo 

 at a somewhat remote epoch ; while we learn from its 

 natural history that an arm of the aea twenty-live miles 

 wide serves to limit the range even of biitls of consider- 

 able powers of tiight 



CHAPTER XXIir. 



TEENATE tO THE EAI(5a ISLANDS AND BATCHIAN. 

 (OCrrovER 185S.) 



OK returning to Ternate from Sahoe, I at once began 

 making preparations for a journey to Batchian, an 

 island which 1 had been constantly recnmrnended to visit 

 since I had arrived in tliis part of tlie Moluccas, After all 

 was ready I found that 1 should have to hire a boat, aa 

 no opportunity of obtaining a passage j>resented iteelf. I 

 accordingly went into the native town, and could only find 

 two boats for hire, one much larger than 1 required, and 

 the other far smaller than I wished 1 chose the smaller 

 one, chiefly because it would not cost me one-third as 

 much as the larger one, and also because in a coasting 

 voyage a small vessel can be more easily managed, and 

 more readily got into a place of safety during violent 

 giiles, than a large one. I took with me my Bornean lad 

 Ali, who was now very useful to me ; Lahagi, a native 

 of Ternate, a very good steady man^ and a fair shooter, 

 who had been with me to New Guinea; Labii a native of 

 Gilolo, who could speak Malay, as woodcutter and general 

 assistant j and Garo, a boy who was to act aa cook. As 

 the boat was so small that we had hardly room to stow 

 ourselves away when all my stores were on board, 1 only 

 took one other man named Latclii, as pilot. He was a 

 Papuan slave, a tall, strong black fellow, but very civil and 

 careful The boat I had hired from a Chinaman named 

 Lau Keng Tong, for five guilders a month. 



