302 
AMBOINA. 
route, however, is available, and we had to go 
up to Amboina, and round the north of Celebes. 
We were all too ill to enjoy the trip ; quite half 
of us were generally down with fever, so that 
the captain used to call the poop the hospital. 
But there were no passengers except ourselves, 
the captain was most thoughtful for our com- 
fort, and altogether we got through the discom- 
forts of suffering illness on a tropical voyage with 
greater advantages than are generally available. 
We had no time to advise our friends in 
Amboina that we should touch there in the 
course of our voyage. I happened to be free of 
fever the morning we arrived, and with great 
glee at the surprise I should give Mrs Machik, 
walked off to her house as soon as the vessel 
moored. All the front was shuttered, and the 
doors closed against the heat, as is usual after 
the early morning has passed. I walked through 
the saloon, opened a second door, and was in the 
large cool dining-hall ere she heard me. She just 
seized me and danced up and down the room 
for about three minutes, calling out, “ Children ! 
come ! Frau Forbes has come back again \ ” H. 
went to the ship for as many of the Da Franga 
family as were not prostrated by fever, and we 
spent together a most happy day. 
