A CRUSHING DISAPPOINTMENT. 
67 
You would in due time take your leave, with a 
dazed feeling somewhat as if you had been 
forcibly ejected; after a little you would pro- 
bably come to yourself and say, " What shall I 
do ? I can only go home. I shall go mean- 
while to some hotel and enjoy a good dinner, 
and to-morrow morning I shall take the first 
train back." But suppose there were no hotel, 
and no way of getting back? You read my 
parable ? If I had had good news, I should not 
have held it back so long. This is to break to 
you that we have had a crushing disappointment 
in Amboina, and I should be heartily glad to 
shake its dust from my feet. But that is not 
easy on an island. 
There is no hotel in Amboina, chance travellers 
being so very rare that there is no inducement 
to maintain one. Any new arrivals are officials 
ordered here, who take the place of the one who 
has left, and step iuto his house, or receive the 
hospitality of some other until they can arrange 
their own home. It was about mid-day when we 
called on the Resident of Amboina, and during 
that long walk back from the Residency to 
the ship it is impossible to describe our feel- 
ings. Neither of us dared look the other in the 
face. But where were we going ? To the ship ? 
