170 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCOIPELAGO. 



series of earthquakes ocetirred among tlte mountains 

 where the river that flows tkrough Batavia takes its 

 rise. During these shocks a land-slide occurred, and 

 the water was so filled with mud that the canals and 

 ramifications of the river in the city were silted up, 

 and tlieir currents completely stopped. The iimne- 

 diate consequence was, a large proportion of the 

 population of that city fell victims to a fever en- 

 gendered hj the great quantities of stagnant water. 

 No similai' cause could have operated here on the 

 island of Amboiiia. As the quantity of rain, the 

 strength and direction of the wind, and all other 

 meteorological phenomena, appear to have been the 

 same as in other years, it is evident that the disease 

 was connected in some way with the earthquakes, 

 and the view has heen advanced that it was caused 

 by quantities of poisonous gases which are supposed 

 to have risen out of the earth dui'ing the violent 

 shocks. 



Many fine shells were now brought me fi^om Tu- 

 lahUj a hctmpomj on the northeast coast of Hitu, so I 

 determined to go on my next excursion in that diree- 

 tion* Two miles up the bay from the city of Am- 

 boina a tongue of land projects out from either shore, 

 until a passage only five hundred yards wide is left 

 between them. Within this passage the sea again 

 expands into a bay about three miles long and a mile 

 and a half wide. The depth of the water in the pas- 

 sage is sufficient for the largest ships, yet inside it 

 is nowhere more than twenty or twenty-five fathoms. 

 A large navy could anchor here, and be perfectly 

 sheltered from all winds and seas ; but vessels rarely 



