roceeded as before under steam. This little
experiment delayed us somewhat, but gave everybody on board some
exercise.

[Illustration: Under the Sun]

_Tuesday, April 19th._--At daybreak we found that we had drifted far
to the southward during the sudden squalls and constant shifts of wind
in the night. The currents hereabouts are exceedingly strong, and the
soundings taken early in the morning proved that we were in
unpleasantly shallow water--in fact, almost touching what we made out
to be the edge of the Spermonde (?) Archipelago. Tom was at the
masthead, endeavouring to pick up some landmark. At last he was able
to distinguish the highest peak marked on the chart to the south of
Macassar; whereupon he fearlessly gave the order to go full speed
ahead in a NN.E. direction between that island and Satanga. This was
much pleasanter than groping about by means of soundings, and it was a
great relief to think that we were at last fairly on our course for
Macassar. The scenery became lovely, and at 12.15 A.M. we reached our
destination, and dropped anchor near the lighthouse.

The approach to the Dutch town of Macassar is very fine, and no doubt
the beauty of its situation, as well as its convenience as a place of
call for ships of all nations, caused it to be selected as the first
European port in the East Indies. The roadstead was fairly full of
shipping, which included a gunboat, one or two steamers, and several
large sailing-ships. Pratt went ashore the instant the health-officer
and harbour-master (these officers being combined in one person) had
left, in order to find out the capabilities of the place; for we had
been unable to gather anything from our first visitor, who could not
speak a word of anything but Dutch, and contented himself with handing
in a bundle of ship's papers, printed in every known language under
the sun, and allowing us to select therefrom the one which suited us.
Pratt soon returned, reporting, to our joy, that there was an
ice-making machine ashore, and that, although it was only a little
one, and would take nearly thirty-six hours to make the required
quantity, we were promised a thousand pounds of ice by 7 A.M.
to-morrow, or half as much again by one o'clock. After some
deliberation the latter arrangement was agreed to.

About four o'clock we all landed, and under the guidance of the best
interpreter to be found--a Chinaman who could speak nearly twelve
words of English--we set off to in