EAST 



TRAVELS 



tJJ THE 



INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



CHAPTER 1. 



THE &XEAIT OE eilNDA AKB BATAVIA. 



On the 19tli of April, 1865, 1 was fifty miles eaat 

 of Cliiistmas Island, floating on the good ship Mem- 

 non " toward the Strait of Simda 



I was going to Batavia, to sail thence to the Spice 

 Islaads, which lie east of Celebes, for the purpose of 

 colleeting the beautiful shells of those seas. 



I had chosen that in preference to any other part 

 of the world, because the first collection of shells 

 fiom the East that was ever described and figured 

 with sufficient accuracy to be of any scientific value 

 was made by Rumphius, a doctor who lived many 

 years at Amboina, the capital of those islands. His 

 great work, the " Rariteit Kamer," or Chamber of 

 Curiosities, was published in 1705, more than sixty 

 years before the twelfth edition of the " Systema Na- 

 tune " was issued by Linnasus, " the Father of Natural 

 History," who referred to the figures in that work 



