The Chief Here, Wonderful To Relate, Did Not Make Any
Excuses For Delay, But Immediately Ordered Out The Boat Which
Was
to carry me on, put my baggage on hoard, set up mast and sails
after dark, and had the
Men ready that nigh; so that we were
actually on our way at five the next morning, - a display of
energy and activity I scarcely ever saw before in a native chief
on such an occasion. We touched at Cepa, and stayed for the night
at Tamilan, the first two Mahometan villages on the south coast
of Ceram. The next day, about noon, we reached Hoya, which was as
Far as my present boat and crew were going to take me. The
anchorage is about a mile east of the village, which is faced by
coral reefs, and we had to wait for the evening tide to move up
and unload the boat into the strange rotten wooden pavilion kept
for visitors.
There was no boat here large enough to take my baggage; and
although two would have done very well, the Rajah insisted upon
sending four. The reason of this I found was, that there were
four small villages under his rule, and by sending a boat from
each he would avoid the difficult task of choosing two and
letting off the others. I was told that at the next village of
Teluti there were plenty of Alfuros, and that I could get
abundance of Tories and other birds.
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