We Had A Light Breeze, A Calm Sea, And A Fine
Morning, A Prosperous Commencement Of Our Voyage Of About A
Thousand Miles To The Far-Famed Aru Islands.
The wind continued light and variable all day, with a calm in the
evening before the land breeze sprang up, were then passing the
island of "Tanakaki "(foot of the land), at the extreme south of
this part of Celebes.
There are some dangerous rocks here, and as
I was standing by the bulwarks, I happened to spit over the side;
one of the men begged I would not do so just now, but spit on
deck, as they were much afraid of this place. Not quite
comprehending, I made him repeat his request, when, seeing he was
in earnest, I said, "Very well, I suppose there are 'hantus'
(spirits) here." "Yes," said he, "and they don't like anything to
be thrown overboard; many a prau has been lost by doing it." Upon
which I promised to be very careful. At sunset the good
Mahometans on board all repeated a few words of prayer with a
general chorus, reminding me of the pleasing and impressive "Ave.
Maria" of Catholic countries.
Dec. 20th.-At sunrise we were opposite the Bontyne mountain, said
to be one of the highest in Celebes. In the afternoon we passed
the Salayer Straits and had a little squall, which obliged us to
lower our huge mast, sails, and heavy yards. The rest of the
evening we had a fine west wind, which carried us on at near five
knots an hour, as much as our lumbering old tub can possibly go.
Dec. 21st.-A heavy swell from the south-west rolling us about
most uncomfortably. A steady wind was blowing however, and we got
on very well.
Dec. 22d.-The swell had gone down. We passed Boutong, a large
island, high, woody, and populous, the native place of some of
our crew. A small prau returning from Bali to the, island of
Goram overtook us. The nakoda (captain) was known to our owner.
They had been two years away, but were full of people, with
several black Papuans on board. At 6 P.M. we passed Wangiwangi,
low but not flat, inhabited and subject to Boutong. We had now
fairly entered the Molucca Sea. After dark it was a beautiful
sight to look down on our rudders, from which rushed eddying
streams of phosphoric light gemmed with whirling sparks of fire.
It resembled (more nearly than anything else to which I can
compare it) one of the large irregular nebulous star-clusters
seen through a good telescope, with the additional attraction of
ever-changing form and dancing motion.
Dec. 23d.-Fine red sunrise; the island we left last evening
barely visible behind us. The Goram prau about a mile south of
us. They have no compass, yet they have kept a very true course
during the night. Our owner tells me they do it by the swell of
the sea, the direction of which they notice at sunset, and sail
by it during the night.
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