64 UNPLEASANT ‘^BACKING AND FILLING.” 
and the sun so hot as to make the deck unbearable for a 
person with thin soled-shoes. I again turn to my 
journal: — 
“At 1.45 p.M. we heat through the narrow passage 
that separates the small island of Amsterdam from that 
of Java, and escaped going on shore by the skin of our 
teeth: the fine working'-qualities of our ship were all 
that saved us. There are more small islands around us 
now than I ever saw before, — mere knots of earth with 
little or no elevation, a very dense growth of wood, and 
averaging probably five hundred feet in circumference.” 
I subsequently learned that these islands are let out 
by the Dutch authorities to the highest bidder, who then 
cuts the wood and supplies the market of Batavia. 
“They seem to be densely populated : and the houses — 
which are low, and built of bamboo and grass — are 
situated in snug-looking, shady nooks, and seemed so 
cool and airy from our heated decks, that one almost 
forgot the half-blistered feet upon which he w^as back- 
ing and filling around in search of a shady spot upon 
which to put them. As I write, I hear the laughing 
voice of our assistant hydrographer : — say, doctor, you 
should have been with us when we landed at Anger this 
morning: there were more than a hundred Malays on 
the beach to receive us, and I know I could have carried 
all the clothes they had on, on my left arm, at a single 
load. They seemed to think that nature, like beauty, 
“when unadorned was adorned the most.” ’ ” 
Boor fellows ! One of them now slumbers in the 
fathomless depths of the coral sea; and the other, — his 
honest heart beat its final throb upon the unknown shore 
