Java Sea. It was then nearly calm, and yet I saw
flying-fish come out of the water and go a considerable
distance before plunging into it again, thus
proving that they must sustain themselves in the air
chiefly by a vibrating motion of their great pectoral
fins. The sun was now sinking behind the high,
dark peaks of the island of Pintar.
At daylight next morning we were steaming
into a little bay surrounded by hills of fifteen hundred
to two thousand feet. At the head of the bay
and around its southern shore extended a narrow
strip of level land, bordering the bases of these high
hills. On the low land are two miserable forts,
and a few houses and native huts. These comprise
the city of Dilli, the Portuguese capital in all these
waters. Of all the nations in Europe, the Portuguese
were the first to discover the way to the Indies
by sea. Then, for a time, they enjoyed an undisputed
monopoly over the Eastern trade; but now
the northern half of this island, the eastern end of
Floris, the city of Macao in China, and Goa in Hindustan,
are the only places of importance in all the
East that continue in their hands. The common, or
low Malay language, has been more affected by the
Portuguese than any other nation, for the simple
reason that those early navigators brought with them
many things that were new to the Malays, who therefore
adopted the Portuguese names for those articles.
The last governor of this place had run away a few
months before we arrived, because he had received
no pay for half a year, though his salary was only
five hundred guilders per month; and a merchant
at Macassar told me that, when he arrived at that
city, he did not have the means to pay his passage
back to Europe. The first inquiry, therefore, that
was made, was whether we had brought a new governor.
The captain’s reply was, that he had but one
passenger in the first cabin, and the only place he
appeared to care to see in that region was the coral
reef at the mouth of the harbor.
The native boats that came off with bananas,
cocoa-nuts, oranges, and fowls, were all very narrow,
only as wide as a native at the shoulders. Each was
merely a canoe, dug out of a single small tree, and
built up on the sides with pieces of wood and palm-
leaves. They were all provided with outriggers. It
was then low water, and the reef was bare. It had
not been my privilege to visit a coral reef, and I
was most anxious to see one, but I could not make
up my mind to risk myself in such a dangerous skiff.
The captain, with his usual kindness, however, offered
me the use of one of his large boats; and as
we neared the reef, and passed over a wide garden
richly-tinted with polyps, with here and there vermilion
star-fishes scattered about, and bright-hued
fishes darting hither and thither like flashes of light,
a deep thrill of pleasure ran along my nerves, which
I shall never forget to the end of my days. Here in
an hour I collected three species of beautiful starfishes,
and sixty-five kinds of shells, almost all of
the richest colors. The coral rocks, thus laid bare
by the receding tide, were all black, and not white,
like the fragments of coral seen on shores. This reef
is scarcely covered at high water, and therefore breaks