They Saw That I Waited For Them
Three Days At The Opposite Island, But Had Been Afraid To Cross,
Lest The Current Should Have Carried Them Out To Sea, When They
Would Have Been Inevitably Lost.
They had felt sure I would send
for them on the first opportunity, and appeared more grateful
than natives usually are for my having done so; while I felt much
relieved that my voyage, though sufficiently unfortunate, had not
involved loss of life.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
WAIGIOU.
(JULY TO SEPTEMER 1860.)
THE village of Muka, on the south coast of Waigiou, consists of a
number of poor huts, partly in the water and partly on shore, and
scattered irregularly over a space of about half a mile in a
shallow bay. Around it are a few cultivated patches, and a good
deal of second-growth woody vegetation; while behind, at the
distance of about half a mile, rises the virgin forest, through
which are a few paths to some houses and plantations a mile or
two inland. The country round is rather flat, and in places
swampy, and there are one or two small streams which run behind
the village into the sea below it. Finding that no house could be
had suitable to my purpose, and hawing so often experienced the
advantages of living close to or just within the forest, I
obtained the assistance of half-a-dozen men; and having selected
a spot near the path and the stream, and close to a fine fig-
tree, which stood just within the forest, we cleared the ground
and set to building a house.
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