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

;XXV.] CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS. 281when there is a little swell on the sea ; in other places there is aridge of dead coral above the water, which is here and therehigh enough to sujDport a few low buslies. This was the firstexample I had met with of a true barrier reef due to subsidence,as has been so clearly shown by Mr. Darwin. In a shelteredarchipelago they will seldom be distinguishable, from the absenceof those huge rolling waves and breakers which in the wideocean throw up a barrier of broken coral far above the usualhigh-water mai-k, while here they rarely rise to the surface.On reaching the end of the southern island, called Uta, wewere kept waiting two days for a wind that would enable us topass over to the next island, Teor, and I began to despair of everreaching Ke, and determined on returning. We left with asouth wind, wliich suddenly changed to north-east, and inducedme to turn again southward in the hopes that tliis was thecommencement of a few days' favourable weather. We sailedon very well in tlie direction of Teor for about an hour, afterwhich the wind shifted to W.S.W., and we were driven muchout of our course, and at nightfall found ourselves in tlie opensea, and full ten miles to leeward of our destination. ]\Iy menwere now all very much friglitened, for if we went on we mightbe a week at sea in our little open boat, laden almost to thewater's edge ; or we might drift on to the coast of New Guinea,in which case we should most likely all be murdered. I couldnot deny these probabilities, and although I showed them thatwe could not get back to our starting-point with the wind as itwas, they insisted upon returning. We accordingly put about,and found that we could lay no nearer to Uta than to Teorhowever, by great good luck, about ten o'clock we hit upon alittle coral island, and lay under its lee till morning, when afavourable change of wind brought us back to Uta, and byevening (April 18th) we reached our first anchorage in ]\Iatal)ello,where I resolved to stay a few days, and then return to Goram.It was with much regret that I gave up my trip to Ke and theintervening islands, which I had looked forward to as likely tomake up for my disapiDointment in Ceram, since my short visiton my voyage to Aru had produced me so many rare andbeautiful insects.The natives of Matabello are almost entirely occupied inmaking cocoa-nut oil, which they sell to the Bugis and Goramtraders, who carry it to Banda and Amboyna. The ruggedcoi'al rock seems very favourable to the growth of the cocoa-nutpalm, which abounds over the whole island to the very highestpoints, and produces fruit all the year round. Along with it aregreat numbers of the areca or betel-nut palm, the nuts of whichare sliced, dried, and ground into a paste, whicli is much used bythe betel-chewing Malays and Papuans. All tlie little cliildrenhere, even such as can just run alone, carried between tlieir lipsa mass of the nastj^-looking red paste, whicli is even more disgustingthan to see them at the same age smoking cigars, which