CHAPTER XXXVII. VOYAGE FROM
WAIGIOU TO TERNATE.
(SEPTEMBER 29 To NOVEMBER 5, 1860.)
I HAD left the old pilot at Waigiou to take care of my house and to get the
prau into sailing order—to caulk her bottom, and to look after the upper works,
thatch, and ringing. When I returned I found it nearly ready, and immediately
began packing up and preparing for the voyage. Our mainsail had formed one
side of our house, but the spanker and jib had been put away in the roof, and on
opening them to see if any repairs were wanted, to our horror we found that
some rats had made them their nest, and had gnawed through them in twenty
places. We had therefore to buy matting and make new sails, and this delayed us
till the 29th of September, when we at length left Waigiou.
It took us four days before we could get clear of the land, having to pass along
narrow straits beset with reefs and shoals, and full of strong currents, so that an
unfavourable wind stopped us altogether. One day, when nearly clear, a contrary
tide and head wind drove us ten miles back to our anchorage of the night before.
This delay made us afraid of running short of water if we should be becalmed at
sea, and we therefore determined, if possible, to touch at the island where our
men had been lost, and which lay directly in our proper course. The wind was,
however, as usual, contrary, being S.S.W. instead of S.S.E., as it should have
been at this time of the year, and all we could do was to reach the island of
Gagie, where we came to an anchor by moonlight under bare volcanic hills. In
the morning we tried to enter a deep bay, at the head of which some Galela
fishermen told us there was water, but a head-wind prevented us. For the reward
of a handkerchief, however, they took us to the place in their boat, and we filled
up our jars and bamboos. We then went round to their camping-place on the
north coast of the island to try and buy something to eat, but could only get
smoked turtle meat as black and as hard as lumps of coal. A little further on
there was a plantation belonging to Guebe people, but under the care of a Papuan
slave, and the next morning we got some plantains and a few vegetables in
exchange for a handkerchief and some knives. On leaving this place our anchor
had got foul in some rock or sunken log in very deep water, and after many