146 TRAVELS IN THE EAST IJTDUN ARCHrPELAGO. 



sun was sinking behind the high, jagged peaks of 

 Ceranij and his last golden and purple rays seemed 

 to waver as they shot over the ghissy but gently- 

 undulating surface of the bay, and the broad, deeply- 

 innged leaves of the cocoa-nut palms on the beach 

 took a deeper and richer hue in the glowing sun- 

 light. Then a dull, heavy booming came out of a 

 small Mohammedan mosque, which was picturesque- 

 ly placed on a little projecting point, almost sur- 

 rounded by the purple sea. This was the low roll- 

 ing of a heavy drum, calling all the faithful to assem- 

 ble and return thanks to their Prophet at the close 

 of the departing day. The raj all then left me to 

 wander along the shore alone, and enjoy the endless 

 variety of the changing tints in the sea and sky while 

 the daylight faded away along the western horizon. 



It was in this bay that the Dutch first cast an- 

 chor in these seas, and this thought natui^aUy car- 

 ries us back to the early history of the Moluccas, so 

 famous for their spices, and so coveted by almost 

 every nation of Europe, as soon as enterprise and ac- 

 tion began to dispel the dark clouds of ignorance and 

 superstition which had enveloped the whole of the 

 so-called civilized world during the middle ages. 

 Antonio d'Abreu, a Portuguese captain, who came 

 here from Malacca, in 1511, is generally regarded as 

 the discoverer of Amboina and Banda, but Ludovico 

 Barthema (Vartoma), of Bologna, after visiting Ma^ 

 lacca and Pedii', in Sumatra, according to his own 

 account, reached this island as early as 1506, yet his 

 description of the Moluccas is so faulty that Valentyn 

 thinks he never came to this region, but obtained his 



