The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

;276 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.permission to take these boats on to Tobo, where I intended tostay a wliile, and therefore got on pretty quickly, changing menat the village of Laiemu, and arriving in a heavy rain at Ahtiago.As there was a good deal of surf here, and likely to be more ifthe wind blew hard during the night, our boats were pulled upon the beach ; and after supping at the Orang-kaya's house,and writing down a vocabulary of the language of the Alfuros,who live in the mountains inland, I returned to sleep in theboat. Next morning we proceeded, changing men at Warenama,and again at Hatometen, at both of which places there wasmuch sui'f and no harbour, so that the men had to go on shoreand come on board by swimming. Arriving in the evening ofMarch 7th at Batuassa, the first village belonging to the Rajahof Tobo, and under the government of Banda, the surf was veryheavy, owing to a strong westward swell. We therefore roundedthe rocky point on which the village was situated, but found itvery little better on the other side. We were obliged, however,to go on shore here ; and waiting till the people on the beachhad made preparations, by placing a row of logs from thewater's edge on which to pull up our boats, we rowed as quicklyas we could straight on to them, after watching till the heaviestsurfs had passed. The moment we touched ground our men alljumped out, and, assisted by those on shore, attempted to haulup the boat high and dry, but not having sufficient hands, thesurf repeatedly broke into the stern. The steepness of thebeach, however, prevented any damage being done, and theother boat having both crews to haul at it, was got up withoutdifiiculty.The next morning, the water being low, the breakers were atsome distance from shore, and we had to watch for a smoothmoment after bringing the boats to the water's edge, and so gotsafely out to sea. At the two next villages, Tobo and Ossong,we also took in fresh men, who came swimming through thesurf ; and at the latter place the Bajah came on board andaccompanied me to Kissa-laut, where he has a house which helent me during my stay. Here again was a heavy surf, and itwas with great difficulty we got the boats safely hauled up. AtAmboyna I had been promised at this season a calm sea and thewind off shore, but in this case, as in every other, I had beenunable to obtain any reliable information as to the winds andseasons of places distant two or three days' journey. It appears,however, that owing to the general direction of the island ofCeram (E.S.E. and XV.N.W.), there is a heavy surf and scarcelyany shelter on the south coast during the west monsoon, whenalone a journey to the eastward can be safely made ; whileduring the east monsoon, when I proposed to return along thenorth coast to Wahai, I should probably find that equallyexposed and dangerous. But although the general direction^ ofthe west monsoon in the Banda sea causes a heavy swell, withbad surf on the coast, yet we had little advantage of the wind