The Molucca Sea
Is Of A Very Deep Blue Colour, Quite Distinct From The Clear
Light Blue Of The Atlantic.
In cloudy and dull weather it looks
absolutely black, and when crested with foam has a stern and
angry aspect.
The wind continued fair and strong during our whole
voyage, and we reached Macassar in perfect safety on the evening
of the 11th of July, having made the passage from Aru (more than
a thousand miles) in nine and a half days.
My expedition to the Aru Islands had been eminently successful.
Although I had been for months confined to the house by illness,
and had lost much time by the want of the means of locomotion,
and by missing the right season at the right place, I brought
away with me more than nine thousand specimens of natural
objects, of about sixteen hundred distinct species. I had made
the acquaintance of a strange and little-known race of men; I had
become familiar with the traders of the far East; I had revelled
in the delights of exploring a new fauna and flora, one of the
most remarkable and most beautiful and least-known in the world;
and I had succeeded in the main object for which I had undertaken
the journey-namely, to obtain fine specimens of the magnificent
Birds of Paradise, and to be enabled to observe them in their
native forests. By this success I was stimulated to continue my
researches in the Moluccas and New Guinea for nearly five years
longer, and it is still the portion of my travels to which I look
back with the most complete satisfaction.
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