and roll very uncomfortably. About nine o’clock, however,
it cleared up, and we then saw ahead of us the fine island
of Bouru, perhaps forty or fifty miles distant, its mountains
wreathed with clouds, while its lower lands were
still invisible. The afternoon was fine, and the wind got
round again to the west; but although this is really the
west monsoon, there is no regularity or steadiness about
it, calms and breezes from every point of the compass
continually occurring. The captain, though nominally a
Protestant, seemed to have no idea of Ghristmas-day as a
festival. Our dinner was of rice and curry as usual, and
an extra glass of wine was all I could do to celebrate it.
Bee. 2 6th.—Fine view of the mountains of Bouru,
which we have now approached considerably. Our crew
seem rather a clumsy lot. They do not walk the deck
with the easy swing of English sailors, but hesitate and
stagger like landsmen. In the night the lower boom of
our mainsail broke, and they were all the morning repairing
it. It consisted of two bamboos lashed together,
thick end to thin, and was about seventy feet long. The
rigging and arrangement of these praus contrasts strangely
with that of European vessels, in which the various ropes
and spars, though much more numerous, are placed so as
not to interfere with each other’s action. Here the case is
quite different; for though there are no shrouds or stays to
complicate the matter, yet scarcely anything can be done
without first clearing something else out of the way. The
large sails cannot be shifted round to go on the other tack
without first hauling down the jibs, and the booms of the
fore and aft sails have to be lowered and completely
detached to perform the same operation. Then there are
always a lot of ropes foul of each other, and all the sails
can never be set (though they are so few) without a good
part of their surface having the wind kept out of them by
others. "Yet praus are much liked even by those who
have had European vessels, because of their cheapness
both in first cost and in keeping u p ; almost all repairs
can be done by the crew, and very few European stores
are required.
Bee. 28th.—This day we saw the Banda group, the
volcano first appearing,-—a perfect cone, having very
much the outline of the Egyptian pyramids, and looking
almost as regular. In the evening the smoke rested over
its summit like a small stationary cloud. This was my
first view of an active volcano, but pictures and panoramas
have so impressed such things on one’s mind, that
when we at length behold them they seem nothing
extraordinary.
Bee. 30th.—Passed the island of Teor, and a group
near it, which are very incorrectly marked on the charts.
Flying-fish were numerous to-day. It is a smaller species
than that of the Atlantic, and more active and elegant in