CHAP. XXXII. J 



WB RETURN rOTJOK 



483 



had the hottest sunshine and tlie finest days, they were 

 always flowing. The driest time of all the year in Am 

 occurs in September and October, just as it does in Java 

 and Celebes. The rainy seasons agree, therefore, with 

 those of the western islands, although the weather is very 

 different The Molucca sea is of a very deep bine colour, 

 quite distinct from the clear light blue of the Atlantic. In 

 cloudy and dull weather it looks absolutely black, and 

 when crested with foam has a stern and angry aspect. 

 The wind continued fair and strong during our whole 

 voyage, and we reached ilacassar in perfect safety on the 

 evening of the llth of July, ha%Tug made the passage 

 from Aru (more than a thousand miles) in nine and a half 

 days. 



My expedition to the Am Islands had been eminently 

 BucceBsfuh Although I had been for months confined to 

 the house by illness, aud had lost much time by the mmt 

 of the means of locomotion, and by missing the right 

 season at the right place, I brought away with me more 

 than nine thousand specimens of natural objects, of about 

 sixteen hundred distinct species. I had made the acquaint- 

 ance of a strange aud little-knoi^Ti race of men ; 1 Itad 

 become familiar with the trader.^ of the fiir East ; I had 

 revelled in the delights of exploring a mw fimna aud flora, 

 one of the most remarkable and most beautiful and least- 

 known in the world ; and I had succeeded in the main 

 object for which I had undertaken the journey— namely, 

 to obtain fine specimens of the maguificent Birds of Para- 

 dise, and to be enabled to observe them in their native 

 forests. By this success I was stimulated to continue my 

 researches in the Moluccas and Now Guinea for nearly 

 five years longer, and it is still the portion of ray travels U» 

 which I look back with the most complete satisfactioiL 



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