Here The Case Is Quite Different; For Though
There Are No Shrouds Or Stays To Complicate The Matter, Yet
Scarcely Anything Can Be Done Without First Clearing Something
Else Out Of The Way.
The large sails cannot be shifted round to
go on the other tack without first hauling down the jibs, and the
booms of the fore and aft sails have to be lowered and completely
detached to perform the same operation.
Then there are always a
lot of ropes foul of each other, and all the sails can never be
set (though they are so few) without a good part of their surface
having the wind kept out of them by others. Yet praus are much
liked even by those who have had European vessels, because of
their cheapness both in first cost and in keeping up; almost all
repairs can be done by the crew, and very few European stores are
required.
Dec. 28th. - This day we saw the Banda group, the volcano first
appearing, - a perfect cone, having very much the outline of the
Egyptian pyramids, and looking almost as regular. In the evening
the smoke rested over its summit like a small stationary cloud.
This was my first view of an active volcano, but pictures and
panoramas have so impressed such things on one's mind, that when
we at length behold them they seem nothing extraordinary.
Dec. 30th. - Passed the island of Teor, and a group near it, which
are very incorrectly marked on the charts.
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