14 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGU. 



to illustrate a part of his own wiitings. When Hol- 

 land became a province of France, in 1811 , and it was 

 designed to make Paris the centre of science and lit- 

 erature in Europe, it is said that this collection was 

 taken from Leyden to that city, and afterward re- 

 turned, and that during these two transfers a large 

 proportion of the specimens disappeared ; and that, 

 iina.lly, what was left of this valuable collection was 

 scattered through the great museum at Leyden. It 

 was "partly to restore Rumphius's specimens, and 

 partly to bring into our own countiy such a standai*d 

 collection, that I was going to search myself for the 

 shells figured in the " Rai-iteit ICamer," on the very 

 points and headlands, and in the very bays, where 

 Humphius's specimens were found. 



As we neared the coast of Java, cocoa-nuts and 

 fragments of sea-washed palms, tbiftiug by, indicated 

 our approach to a land very different at least from 

 the temperate shores we had left behind; and we 

 could in some degree experience Columbus's pleasure, 

 when he first saw the new branch and its vermilion 

 berries. Strange, indeed, must be this land to which 

 we are comiug, for here we see snakes swimmiug on 

 the water, and occasionally fragments of rock drifting 

 over the sea. New birds also appear, now sailing 

 singly thi'ough the sky, and now hovering in flocks 

 over certain places, hoping to satisfy then- hnngiy 

 maws on the small fishes that follow the floating diift- 

 wood. Here it must be that the old Dutch sailors 

 fal)led could be seen the tree — then unknown — ^that 

 bore that strange fruit, the double cocoa-nut. They 

 always represented it as rising up from a great depth 



