observed a bright light over one part of the edge, and soon after, what seemed a
fire of remarkable whiteness on the very summit of the hill. I called the attention
of my men to it, and they too thought it merely a fire; but a few minutes
afterwards, as we got farther off shore, the light rose clear up above the ridge of
the hill, and some faint clouds clearing away from it, discovered the magnificent
comet which was at the same time, astonishing all Europe. The nucleus
presented to the naked eye a distinct disc of brilliant white light, from which the
tail rose at an angle of about 30° or 35° with the horizon, curving slightly
downwards, and terminating in a broad brush of faint light, the curvature of
which diminished till it was nearly straight at the end. The portion of the tail next
the comet appeared three or four tunes as bright as the most luminous portion of
the milky way, and what struck me as a singular feature was that its upper
margin, from the nucleus to very near the extremity, was clearly and almost
sharply defined, while the lower side gradually shaded off into obscurity.
Directly it rose above the ridge of the hill, I said to my men, "See, it's not a fire,
it's a bintang ber-ekor" ("tailed-star," the Malay idiom for a comet). "So it is,"
said they; and all declared that they had often heard tell of such, but had never
seen one till now. I had no telescope with me, nor any instrument at hand, but I
estimated the length of the tail at about 20°, and the width, towards the
extremity, about 4° or 5°.
The whole of the next day we were obliged to stop near the village of Tidore,
owing to a strong wind right in our teeth. The country was all cultivated, and I in
vain searched for any insects worth capturing. One of my men went out to shoot,
but returned home without a single bird. At sunset, the wind having dropped, we
quitted Tidore, and reached the next island, March, where we stayed till
morning. The comet was again visible, but not nearly so brilliant, being partly
obscured by clouds; and dimmed by the light of the new moon. We then rowed
across to the island of Motir, which is so surrounded with coral-reefs that it is
dangerous to approach. These are perfectly flat, and are only covered at high
water, ending in craggy vertical walls of coral in very deep water. When there is
a little wind, it is dangerous to come near these rocks; but luckily it was quite
smooth, so we moored to their edge, while the men crawled over the reef to the
land, to make; a fire and cook our dinner-the boat having no accommodation for
more than heating water for my morning and evening coffee. We then rowed
along the edge of the reef to the end of the island, and were glad to get a nice
westerly breeze, which carried us over the strait to the island of Makian, where
we arrived about 8 P.M, The sky was quite clear, and though the moon shone
brightly, the comet appeared with quite as much splendour as when we first saw