CHAPTER XXIII. TERNATE TO THE
KAIOA ISLANDS AND BATCHIAN.
(OCTOBER 1858.)
ON returning to Ternate from Sahoe, I at once began making preparations for
a journey to Batchian, an island which I had been constantly recommended to
visit since I had arrived in this part of the Moluccas. After all was ready I found
that I should have to hire a boat, as no opportunity of obtaining a passage
presented itself. I accordingly went into the native town, and could only find two
boats for hire, one much larger than I required, and the other far smaller than I
wished. I chose the smaller one, chiefly because it would not cost me one-third
as much as the larger one, and also because in a coasting voyage a small vessel
can be more easily managed, and more readily got into a place of safety during
violent gales, than a large one. I took with me my Bornean lad Ali, who was now
very useful to me; Lahagi, a native of Ternate, a very good steady man, and a
fair shooter, who had been with me to New Guinea; Lahi, a native of Gilolo,
who could speak Malay, as woodcutter and general assistant; and Garo, a boy
who was to act as cook. As the boat was so small that we had hardly room to
stow ourselves away when all my stores were on board, I only took one other
man named Latchi, as pilot. He was a Papuan slave, a tall, strong black fellow,
but very civil and careful. The boat I had hired from a Chinaman named Lau
Keng Tong, for five guilders a month.
We started on the morning of October 9th, but had not got a hundred yards
from land, when a strong head wind sprung up, against which we could not row,
so we crept along shore to below the town, and waited till the turn of the tide
should enable us to cross over to the coast of Tidore. About three in the
afternoon we got off, and found that our boat sailed well, and would keep pretty
close to the wind. We got on a good way before the wind fell and we had to take
to our oars again. We landed on a nice sandy beach to cook our suppers, just as
the sun set behind the rugged volcanic hills, to the south of the great cone of
Tidore, and soon after beheld the planet Venus shining in the twilight with the
brilliancy of a new moon, and casting a very distinct shadow. We left again a
little before seven, and as we got out from the shadow of the mountain I