for
my return to Ternate. When I first came I had sent back my boat by the
pilot, with two or three other men who had been glad of the opportunity.
I now took advantage of a Government boat which had just arrived with
rice for the troops, and obtained permission to return in her, and
accordingly started on the 13th of April, having resided only a week
short of six months on the island of Batchian. The boat was one of
the kind called "Kora-kora," quite open, very low, and about four tons
burthen. It had outriggers of bamboo about five feet off each side,
which supported a bamboo platform extending the whole length of the
vessel. On the extreme outside of this sit the twenty rowers, while
within was a convenient passage fore and aft. The middle portion of the
boat was covered with a thatch-house, in which baggage and passengers
are stowed; the gunwale was not more than a foot above water, and from
the great top and side weight, and general clumsiness, these boats are
dangerous in heavy weather, and are not unfrequently lost. A triangle
mast and mat sail carried us on when the wind was favourable,--which
(as usual) it never was, although, according to the monsoon, it ought to
have been. Our water, carried in bamboos, would only last two days, and
as the voyage occupied seven, we had to touch at a great many places.
The captain was not very energetic, and the men rowed as little as they
pleased, or we might have reached Ternate in three days, having had fine
weather and little wind all the way.

There were several passengers besides myself: three or four Javanese
soldiers, two convicts whose time had expired (one, curiously enough,
being the man who had stolen my cash-box and keys), the schoolmaster's
wife and a servant going on a visit to Ternate, and a Chinese trader
going to buy goods. We had to sleep all together in the cabin, packed
pretty close; but they very civilly allowed me plenty of room for my
mattrass, and we got on very well together. There was a little cookhouse
in the bows, where we could boil our rice and make our coffee, every one
of course bringing his own provisions, and arranging his meal-times as
he found most convenient. The passage would have been agreeable enough
but for the dreadful "tom-toms," or wooden drums, which are beaten
incessantly while the men are rowing. Two men were engaged constantly at
them, making a fearful din the whole voyage. The rowers are men sent by
the Sultan of Ternate. They