ON returning to Ternate from Sahoe, I at once began making
preparations for a journey to Batchian, an island which I had
been constantly recommended to visit since I had arrived in this
part of the Moluccas.
After all was ready I found that I should
have to hire a boat, as no opportunity of obtaining a passage
presented itself. I accordingly went into the native town, and
could only find two boats for hire, one much larger than I
required, and the other far smaller than I wished. I chose the
smaller one, chiefly because it would not cost me one-third as
much as the larger one, and also because in a coasting voyage a
small vessel can be more easily managed, and more readily got
into a place of safety during violent gales, than a large one. I
took with me my Bornean lad Ali, who was now very useful to me;
Lahagi, a native of Ternate, a very good steady man, and a fair
shooter, who had been with me to New Guinea; Lahi, a native of
Gilolo, who could speak Malay, as woodcutter and general
assistant; and Garo, a boy who was to act as cook. As the boat
was so small that we had hardly room to stow ourselves away when
all my stores were on board, I only took one other man named
Latchi, as pilot. He was a Papuan slave, a tall, strong black
fellow, but very civil and careful. The boat I had hired from a
Chinaman named Lau Keng Tong, for five guilders a month.
We started on the morning of October 9th, but had not got a
hundred yards from land, when a strong head wind sprung up,
against which we could not row, so we crept along shore to below
the town, and waited till the turn of the tide should enable us
to cross over to the coast of Tidore. About three in the
afternoon we got off, and found that our boat sailed well, and
would keep pretty close to the wind. We got on a good way before
the wind fell and we had to take to our oars again. We landed on
a nice sandy beach to cook our suppers, just as the sun set
behind the rugged volcanic hills, to the south of the great cone
of Tidore, and soon after beheld the planet Venus shining in the
twilight with the brilliancy of a new moon, and casting a very
distinct shadow. We left again a little before seven, and as we
got out from the shadow of the mountain I observed a bright light
over one part of the edge, and soon after, what seemed a fire of
remarkable whiteness on the very summit of the hill. I called the
attention of my men to it, and they too thought it merely a fire;
but a few minutes afterwards, as we got farther off shore, the
light rose clear up above the ridge of the hill, and some faint
clouds clearing away from it, discovered the magnificent comet
which was at the same time, astonishing all Europe. The nucleus
presented to the naked eye a distinct disc of brilliant white
light, from which the tail rose at an angle of about 30° or 35°
with the horizon, curving slightly downwards, and terminating in
a broad brush of faint light, the curvature of which diminished
till it was nearly straight at the end. The portion of the tail
next the comet appeared three or four tunes as bright as the most
luminous portion of the milky way, and what struck me as a
singular feature was that its upper margin, from the nucleus to
very near the extremity, was clearly and almost sharply defined,
while the lower side gradually shaded off into obscurity.
Directly it rose above the ridge of the hill, I said to my men,
"See, it's not a fire, it's a bintang ber-ekor" ("tailed-star,"
the Malay idiom for a comet). "So it is," said they; and all
declared that they had often heard tell of such, but had never
seen one till now. I had no telescope with me, nor any instrument
at hand, but I estimated the length of the tail at about 20°, and
the width, towards the extremity, about 4° or 5°.
The whole of the next day we were obliged to stop near the
village of Tidore, owing to a strong wind right in our teeth. The
country was all cultivated, and I in vain searched for any
insects worth capturing. One of my men went out to shoot, but
returned home without a single bird. At sunset, the wind having
dropped, we quitted Tidore, and reached the next island, March,
where we stayed till morning. The comet was again visible, but
not nearly so brilliant, being partly obscured by clouds; and
dimmed by the light of the new moon. We then rowed across to the
island of Motir, which is so surrounded with coral-reefs that it
is dangerous to approach. These are perfectly flat, and are only
covered at high water, ending in craggy vertical walls of coral
in very deep water. When there is a little wind, it is dangerous
to come near these rocks; but luckily it was quite smooth, so we
moored to their edge, while the men crawled over the reef to the
land, to make; a fire and cook our dinner-the boat having no
accommodation for more than heating water for my morning and
evening coffee. We then rowed along the edge of the reef to the
end of the island, and were glad to get a nice westerly breeze,
which carried us over the strait to the island of Makian, where
we arrived about 8 P.M, The sky was quite clear, and though the
moon shone brightly, the comet appeared with quite as much
splendour as when we first saw it.
The coasts of these small islands are very different according to
their geological formation.
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