dead coral above the water, which is here and there high enough to support a few
low bushes. This was the first example I had met with of a true barrier reef due
to subsidence, as has been so clearly shown by Mr. Darwin. In a sheltered
archipelago they will seldom be distinguishable, from the absence of those huge
rolling waves and breakers which in the wide ocean throw up a barrier of broken
coral far above the usual high-water mark, while here they rarely rise to the
surface.
On reaching the end of the southern island, called Uta, we were kept waiting
two days for a wind that would enable us to pass over to the next island, Teor,
and I began to despair of ever reaching Ke, and determined on returning. We left
with a south wind, which suddenly changed to north-east, and induced me to
turn again southward in the hopes that this was the commencement of a few
days' favourable weather. We sailed on very well in the direction of Teor for
about an hour, after which the wind shifted to WSW., and we were driven much
out of our course, and at nightfall found ourselves in the open sea, and full ten
miles to leeward of our destination. My men were now all very much frightened,
for if we went on we might be a. week at sea in our little open boat, laden almost
to the water's edge; or we might drift on to the coast of New Guinea, in which
case we should most likely all be murdered. I could not deny these probabilities,
and although I showed them that we could not get back to our starting-point with
the wind as it was, they insisted upon returning. We accordingly put about, and
found that we could lay no nearer to Uta than to Teor; however, by great good
luck, about ten o'clock we hit upon a little coral island, and lay under its lee till
morning, when a favourable change of wind brought us back to Uta, and by
evening (April 18th) we reached our first anchorage in Matabello, where I
resolved to stay a few days, and then return to Goram. It way with much regret
that I gave up my trip to Ke and the intervening islands, which I had looked
forward to as likely to make up for my disappointment in Ceram, since my short
visit on my voyage to Aru had produced me so many rare and beautiful insects.
The natives of Matabello are almost entirely occupied in making cocoanut oil,
which they sell to the Bugis and Goram traders, who carry it to Banda and
Amboyna. The rugged coral rock seems very favourable to the growth of the
cocoa-nut palm, which abounds over the whole island to the very highest points,
and produces fruit all the year round. Along with it are great numbers of the
areca or betel-nut palm, the nuts of which are sliced, dried, and ground into a
paste, which is much used by the betel-chewing Malays and Papuans. All the
little children here even such as can just run alone, carried between their lips a
mass of the nasty-looking red paste, which is even more disgusting than to see