ain streams in the
interior. He indicated a spot about the centre of the island where he
thought I might advantageously stay a few days. I accordingly visited
Makariki with him the next day, and he instructed the chief of the
village to furnish me with men to carry my baggage, and accompany me
on my excursion. As the people of the village wanted to be at home on
Christmas-day, it was necessary to start as soon as possible; so we
agreed that the men should be ready in two days, and I returned to make
my arrangements.

I put up the smallest quantity of baggage possible for a six days'
trip, and on the morning of December 18th we left Makariki, with six men
carrying my baggage and their own provisions, and a lad from Awaiya,
who was accustomed to catch butterflies for me. My two Amboyna hunters
I left behind to shoot and skin what birds they could while I was away.
Quitting the village, we first walked briskly for an hour through a
dense tangled undergrowth, dripping wet from a storm of the previous
night, and full of mud holes. After crossing several small streams we
reached one of the largest rivers in Ceram, called Ruatan, which it was
necessary to cross. It was both deep and rapid. The baggage was first
taken over, parcel by parcel, on the men's heads, the water reaching
nearly up to their armpits, and then two men returned to assist me. The
water was above my waist, and so strong that I should certainly have
been carried off my feet had I attempted to cross alone; and it was a
matter of astonishment to me how the men could give me any assistance,
since I found the greatest difficulty in getting my foot down again when
I had once moved it off the bottom. The greater strength and grasping
power of their feet, from going always barefoot, no doubt gave them a
surer footing in the rapid water.

After well wringing out our wet clothes and putting them on, we again
proceeded along a similar narrow forest track as before, choked with
rotten leaves and dead trees, and in the more open parts overgrown with
tangled vegetation. Another hour brought us to a smaller stream flowing
in a wide gravelly bed, up which our road lay. Here w e stayed half an
hour to breakfast, and then went on, continually crossing the stream, or
walking on its stony and gravelly banks, till about noon, when it became
rocky and enclosed by low hills. A little further we entered a regular
mountain-gorge, and had to clamber over rocks, and every moment cros