A Little Way Inside It Becomes Bounded By
Precipitous Rocks, After Winding Among Which For About Two Miles,
We Emerged Into What Seemed A Lake, But Which Was In Fact A Deep
Gulf Having A Narrow Entrance On The South Coast.
This gulf was
studded along its shores with numbers of rocky islets, mostly
mushroom shaped, from the `eater having worn away the lower part
of the soluble coralline limestone, leaving them overhanging from
ten to twenty feet.
Every islet was covered will strange-looping
shrubs and trees, and was generally crowned by lofty and elegant
palms, which also studded the ridges of the mountainous shores,
forming one of the most singular and picturesque landscapes I
have ever seen. The current which had brought us through the
narrow strait now ceased, and we were obliged to row, which with
our short and heavy prau was slow work. I went on shore several
times, but the rocks were so precipitous, sharp, and honeycombed,
that Ifound it impossible to get through the tangled thicket with
which they were everywhere clothed. It took us three days to get
to the entrance of the gulf, and then the wind was such as to
prevent our going any further, and we might have had to wait for
days or weeps, when, much to my surprise and gratification, a
boat arrived from Muka with one of the head men, who had in some
mysterious manner heard I was on my way, and had come to my
assistance, bringing a present of cocoa-nuts and vegetables.
Being thoroughly acquainted with the coast, and having several
extra men to assist us, he managed to get the prau along by
rowing, poling, or sailing, and by night had brought us safely
into harbour, a great relief after our tedious and unhappy
voyage. We had been already eight days among the reefs and
islands of Waigiou, coming a distance of about fifty miles, and
it was just forty days since we had sailed from Goram.
Immediately on our arrival at Muka, I engaged a small boat and
three natives to go in search of my lost men, and sent one of my
own men with them to make sure of their going to the right
island. In ten days they returned, but to my great regret and
disappointment, without the men. The weather had been very bad,
and though they had reached an island within sight of that in
which the men were, they could get no further. They had waited
there six days for better weather, and then, having no more
provisions, and the man I had sent with them being very ill and
not expected to live, they returned. As they now knew the island,
I was determined they should make another trial, and (by a
liberal payment of knives, handkerchiefs, and tobacco, with
plenty of provisions) persuaded them to start back immediately,
and make another attempt. They did not return again till the 29th
of July, having stayed a few days at their own village of Bessir
on the way; but this time they had succeeded and brought with
them my two lost men, in tolerable health, though thin and weak.
They had lived exactly a month on the island had found water, and
had subsisted on the roots and tender flower-stalks of a species
of Bromelia, on shell-fish. and on a few turtles' eggs. Having
swum to the island, they had only a pair of trousers and a shirt
between them, but had made a hut of palm-leaves, and had
altogether got on very well. They saw that I waited for them
three days at the opposite island, but had been afraid to cross,
lest the current should have carried them out to sea, when they
would have been inevitably lost. They had felt sure I would send
for them on the first opportunity, and appeared more grateful
than natives usually are for my having done so; while I felt much
relieved that my voyage, though sufficiently unfortunate, had not
involved loss of life.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
WAIGIOU.
(JULY TO SEPTEMER 1860.)
THE village of Muka, on the south coast of Waigiou, consists of a
number of poor huts, partly in the water and partly on shore, and
scattered irregularly over a space of about half a mile in a
shallow bay. Around it are a few cultivated patches, and a good
deal of second-growth woody vegetation; while behind, at the
distance of about half a mile, rises the virgin forest, through
which are a few paths to some houses and plantations a mile or
two inland. The country round is rather flat, and in places
swampy, and there are one or two small streams which run behind
the village into the sea below it. Finding that no house could be
had suitable to my purpose, and hawing so often experienced the
advantages of living close to or just within the forest, I
obtained the assistance of half-a-dozen men; and having selected
a spot near the path and the stream, and close to a fine fig-
tree, which stood just within the forest, we cleared the ground
and set to building a house. As I did not expect to stay here so
long as I had done at Dorey, I built a long, low, narrow shed,
about seven feet high on one side and four on the other, which
required but little wood, and was put up very rapidly. Our sails,
with a few old attaps from a deserted but in the village, formed
the walls, and a quantity of "cadjans," or palm-leaf mats,
covered in the roof. On the third day my house was finished, and
all my things put in and comfortably arranged to begin work, and
I was quite pleased at having got established so quickly and in
such a nice situation.
It had been so far fine weather, but in the night it rained hard,
and we found our mat roof would not keep out water.
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