SANDAI^WOOD ISLJKD. 



113 



family. The captain of an American whale-ship, 

 which was wrecked on one of the southern points, 

 complained to me that the natives stole every thing 

 he brought on shore, and threatened him and his 

 crew with violence; but I think it was only be- 

 cause he could not speak Malay, and because each 

 party misunderstood the intentions of tlie othen 



At noon the next day we saw the lofty peak of 

 Mount Komba rising up on Floris. It is said to be 

 only seven thousand feet in height, but it appeared 

 to ua as high as Mount Slamat in Java. At the 

 eastern end of the island, opposite Adenara and 

 Solor, is a small Portuguese settlement, called Larun- 

 tuka. The extreme lengtb of the island is about two 

 hundred geogi-aphical miles, and its area a fraction 

 larger tlian Sandal-wood Island, It yields much 

 sandal-wood, and the natives state that copper is 

 found there, but gold and iron are not known to 

 occur. While in this part of the Indian Ocean, gen- 

 erally in the moniing, we had strong breezes from 

 the southeast, which moderated at noon, and in- 

 creased again at sunset. They varied considerably 

 in the hour they began, and in their strength and 

 duration, and were quite unlike the steady trades. 



At 2 p. M., on oui- thii-d day from Macassar, we 

 sighted the island of Semao, off the bay of Kupang. 

 Its northern end is only a rock, sparsely covered 

 with trees. It hag no mountains, and most of its 

 beaches are composed of coral sand. 



After dark that evening ^ve anchored near the 

 %^illage of Kupang, which is situated on the south side 

 of a great bay, some twelve miles wide and twenty 



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