cnAp, xxsvii.] 



FOr.lGE FROM WJIGIOU, 



539 



coast of tlie islaad to try and buy soiuetliiyg to eat, but 

 wa\A only get smoked turtle meat as black and iis hard 

 as liuiips of coal, A little further on there wa5 a plati- 

 tation IjL'lougiug to Guebc people, but under ttie care of 

 a Papuan slave, and the next morning we got some plan- 

 tains and a few vegetables in exchange for a liatitlkerchief 

 uiid some kuives. On leaWog this place our anchor had 

 got fold in some rock or sunken log in very deep water, 

 and after many unsuccessful attempta, we were forced 

 to cut our rattan cable and leave it behind us. We had 

 now only one anchor left. 



Starting early, on the 4th of October, the same S.S,W. 

 wind continued, and w«3 began to fear that we slmuld 

 liardly clear the southern point of Gilolo. The night of 

 the 5th was squally, with thunder, but after midnight it 

 got tolerably fair, and we were going along with a light 

 wind and looking out for the coiist of Gilolo, which we 

 thought we must be neaiing, when we heard a dull roaring 

 sound, like a heavj-' surf, behind us. In a short time tho 

 roar increased, and we saw a white line of foam coming on, 

 which rapidly passed us without doing any harm, as our 

 boat rose easOy over the wave. At ahoit intervals, ten or a 

 dozen others overtook us with great rapidity, and then the sea 

 became perfectly smooth, as it was before. I concluded at 

 once that tlie^e must be earthquake waves ; and oo refer- 

 ence to the old voyagers we find that these seas have been 

 long subject to similar phemimena. Dampier encountered 

 them near Mysol and Xew Guinea, and describes them \xa 

 follows: "We found here very strauge tides, that ran in 

 streams, making a great sea, and roaring so loud that we 

 could hear them before they came within a mile of us. 

 The seA i-ound about them seemed all broken, ami tossed 

 the ship so that she would not answer her heluL These 

 ripplings commonly lasted teu or twelve minutes, and then 

 the sea Imcauie as still and smooth as a millpond. We 

 sounded often when iii the midst of them, but found no 

 ground, neither could we perceive that they drove us any 

 \vay. We had in one night several of these tides, that 

 came mostly from the west, and the wind being from that 

 quarter we corainonly heard them a long time before they 

 came, and sometimes lowered our topsails, thinking it was 



