not discover it amid the dense forest vegetation which everywhere covers these
islands to the water's edge. A little way inside it becomes bounded by precipitous
rocks, after winding among which for about two miles, we emerged into what
seemed a lake, but which was in fact a deep gulf having a narrow entrance on the
south coast. This gulf was studded along its shores with numbers of rocky islets,
mostly mushroom shaped, from the `eater having worn away the lower part of
the soluble coralline limestone, leaving them overhanging from ten to twenty
feet. Every islet was covered will strange-looping shrubs and trees, and was
generally crowned by lofty and elegant palms, which also studded the ridges of
the mountainous shores, forming one of the most singular and picturesque
landscapes I have ever seen. The current which had brought us through the
narrow strait now ceased, and we were obliged to row, which with our short and
heavy prau was slow work. I went on shore several times, but the rocks were so
precipitous, sharp, and honeycombed, that I found it impossible to get through
the tangled thicket with which they were everywhere clothed. It took us three
days to get to the entrance of the gulf, and then the wind was such as to prevent
our going any further, and we might have had to wait for days or weeps, when,
much to my surprise and gratification, a boat arrived from Muka with one of the
head men, who had in some mysterious manner heard I was on my way, and had
come to my assistance, bringing a present of cocoa-nuts and vegetables. Being
thoroughly acquainted with the coast, and having several extra men to assist us,
he managed to get the prau along by rowing, poling, or sailing, and by night had
brought us safely into harbour, a great relief after our tedious and unhappy
voyage. We had been already eight days among the reefs and islands of
Waigiou, coming a distance of about fifty miles, and it was just forty days since
we had sailed from Goram.
Immediately on our arrival at Muka, I engaged a small boat and three natives
to go in search of my lost men, and sent one of my own men with them to make
sure of their going to the right island. In ten days they returned, but to my great
regret and disappointment, without the men. The weather had been very bad, and
though they had reached an island within sight of that in which the men were,
they could get no further. They had waited there six days for better weather, and
then, having no more provisions, and the man I had sent with them being very ill
and not expected to live, they returned. As they now knew the island, I was
determined they should make another trial, and (by a liberal payment of knives,
handkerchiefs, and tobacco, with plenty of provisions) persuaded them to start
back immediately, and make another attempt. They did not return again till the
29th of July, having stayed a few days at their own village of Bessir on the way;