A Light
Breeze, However, Sprang Up, And About Midnight We Found Ourselves
Again Bumping Over A Coral Reef.
As it was very dark, and we knew
nothing of our position, we could only guess how to get off
again, and had there been a little more wind we might have been
knocked to pieces.
However, in about half an hour we did get off,
and then thought it best to anchor on the edge of the reef till
morning. Soon after daylight on the 7th, finding our prau had
received no damage, we sailed on with uncertain winds and
squalls, threading our way among islands and reefs, and guided
only by a small map, which was very incorrect and quite useless,
and by a general notion of the direction we ought to take. In the
afternoon we found a tolerable anchorage under a small island and
stayed for the night, and I shot a large fruit-pigeon new to me,
which I have since named Carpophaga tumida. I also saw and shot
at the rare white-headed kingfisher (Halcyon saurophaga), but did
not kill it. The next morning we sailed on, and having a fair
wind reached the shores of the large island of Waigiou. On
rounding a point we again ran full on to a coral reef with our
mainsail up, but luckily the wind had almost died away, and with
a good deal of exertion we managed get safely off.
We now had to search for the narrow channel among islands, which
we knew was somewhere hereabouts, and which leads to the villages
on the south side ofWaigiou.
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