CHAPTER XXV. CERAM, GORAM, AND
THE MATABELLO ISLANDS.
(OCTOBER 1859 To JUNE 1860.)
I LEFT Amboyna for my first visit to Ceram at three o'clock in the morning of
October 29th, after having been delayed several days by the boat's crew, who
could not be got together. Captain Van der Beck, who gave me a passage in his
boat, had been running after them all day, and at midnight we had to search for
two of my men who had disappeared at the last moment. One we found at supper
in his own house, and rather tipsy with his parting libations of arrack, but the
other was gone across the bay, and we were obliged to leave without him. We
stayed some hours at two villages near the east end of Amboyna, at one of which
we had to discharge some wood for the missionaries' house, and on the third
afternoon reached Captain Van der Beck's plantation, situated at Hatosua, in that
part of Ceram opposite to the island of Amboyna. This was a clearing in flat and
rather swampy forest, about twenty acres in extent, and mostly planted with
cacao and tobacco. Besides a small cottage occupied by the workmen, there was
a large shed for tobacco drying, a corner of which was offered me; and thinking
from the look of the place that I should find good collecting ground here, I fitted
up temporary tables, benches, and beds, and made all preparations for some
weeks' stay. A few days, however, served to show that I should be disappointed.
Beetles were tolerably abundant, and I obtained plenty of fine long-horned
Anthribidae and pretty Longicorns, but they were mostly the same species as I
had found during my first short visit to Amboyna. There were very few paths in
the forest; which seemed poor in birds and butterflies, and day after day my men
brought me nothing worth notice. I was therefore soon obliged to think about
changing my locality, as I could evidently obtain no proper notion of the
productions of the almost entirely unexplored island of Ceram by staying in this
place.