on the islands,
situated close to the landing-place, to which all the inhabitants come
for drinking water. The men are good boat-builders, and they make a
regular trade of it and seem to be very well off.

After five days at Kaioa we continued our journey, and soon got among
the narrow straits and islands which lead down to the town of Batchian.
In the evening we stayed at a settlement of Galela men. These are
natives of a district in the extreme north of Gilolo, and are great
wanderers over this part of the Archipelago. They build large and roomy
praus with outriggers, and settle on any coast or island they take a
fancy for. They hunt deer and wild pig, drying the meat; they catch
turtle and tripang; they cut down the forest and plant rice or maize,
and are altogether remarkably energetic and industrious. They are very
line people, of light complexion, tall, and with Papuan features, coming
nearer to the drawings and descriptions of the true Polynesians of
Tahiti and Owyhee than any I have seen.

During this voyage I had several times had an opportunity of seeing my
men get fire by friction. A sharp-edged piece of bamboo is rubbed across
the convex surface of another piece, on which a small notch is first
cut. The rubbing is slow at first and gradually quicker, till it becomes
very rapid, and the fine powder rubbed off ignites and falls through the
hole which the rubbing has cut in the bamboo. This is done with great
quickness and certainty. The Ternate, people use bamboo in another way.
They strike its flinty surface with a bit of broken china, and produce a
spark, which they catch in some kind of tinder.

On the evening of October 21st we reached our destination, having been
twelve days on the voyage. It had been tine weather all the time, and,
although very hot, I had enjoyed myself exceedingly, and had besides
obtained some experience in boat work among islands and coral reefs,
which enabled me afterwards to undertake much longer voyages of the same
kind. The village or town of Batchian is situated at the head of a wide
and deep bay, where a low isthmus connects the northern and southern
mountainous parts of the island. To the south is a fine range of
mountains, and I had noticed at several of our landing-places that the
geological formation of the island was very different from those around
it. Whenever rock was visible it was either sandstone in thin layers,
dipping south, or a pebbly conglomerate. Sometimes t