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

316 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.ant, seemed to have no idea of Christmas-day as a festival.Our dinner was of rice and curry as usual, and an extra glass ofwine was all I could do to celebrate it.Dec. 26th.—Fine ^•iew of the mountains of Bouru, which wehave now approached considerably. Our crew seem rather aclumsy lot. They do not walk the deck with the easy swing ofEnglish sailors, but hesitate and stagger like landsmen. In thenight the lower boom of our mainsail broke, and they were allthe morning repairing it. It consisted of two bamboos lashedtogether thick end to thin, and was about seventy feet long.The rigging and arrangement of these praus contrasts strangelywith that of European vessels, in which the various ropes andspars, though much more numerous, are placed so as not tointerfere with each other's action. Here the case is quite different; for though there are no shrouds or stays to comiDlicatethe matter, yet scarcely anything can be done without firstclearing something else out of the way. The large sails cannotbe shifted round to go on the other tack without first haulingdown the jibs, and the booms of the fore and aft sails haveto be lowered and completely detached to jierform the sameoperation. Then there are always a lot of ropes foul of eachother, and all the sails can never be set (though they are so few)without a good part of tlieir surface having the wind keptout of them by others. Yet jDraus are much liked even by thosewho have had European vessels, because of their cheapness both\/ in first cost and in keeping up ; almost all repairs can be doneby the crew, and very few EuroiDean stores are required.Dec. 28th.—This day we saw the Banda group, tlie volcanofirst appearing—a jDerfect cone, having very much the outlineof the Egyptian pyramids, and looking almost as regular. Inthe evening the smoke rested over its summit like a smallstationary cloud. This was my first view of an active volcano,but pictures and panoramas have so impressed such things onone's mind, that when we at length behold them they seemnothing extraordinary.Dec. 30th.—Passed the island of Teor, and a group near it,which ai'e very incorrectly marked on the charts. Flying-fishwere numerous to-day. It is a smaller species than that of theAtlantic, and more active and elegant in its motions. As theyskim along the surface they turn on their sides, so as fully todisplay their Ijeautiful fins, taking a flight of about a hundredyards, i-ising and falling in a most graceful manner. At alittle distance they exactly resemble swallows, and no one whoV^ sees them can doubt that they really do fiy, not merely descendin an oblique direction from the height they gain by their firstspring. In tlie evening an aquatic bird, a species of booby(Sula fiber.) rested on our hen-coop, and was caught by theneck by one of my boys.Dec. Zlst.—At dayl)reak tlie Ke Islands (pronounced kay)wei'e in sight, where we are to stay a few days. About noon