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The night of the 5th was squally, with thunder, but after midnight it got tolerably fair, and we were going along with a light wind and looking out for the coast of Gilolo, which we thought we must be nearing, when we heard a dull roaring sound, like a heavy surf, behind us.
This is rendered more probable by the fact that the animal is not found in Gilolo, which is only separated from Batchian by a very narrow strait. The introduction may have been very recent, as in a fertile and unoccupied island such an animal would multiply rapidly. The only other mammals obtained were an Eastern opossum, which Dr.
The island of Morty, close to the north-eastern extremity of Gilolo, was visited by my assistant Charles Allen, as well as by Dr. Bernstein; and the collections obtained there present some curious differences from those of the main island.
Close opposite is the rugged promontory and beautiful volcanic cone of Tidore; to the east is the long mountainous coast of Gilolo, terminated towards the north by a group of three lofty volcanic peaks, while immediately behind the town rises the huge mountain, sloping easily at first and covered with thick groves of fruit trees, but soon becoming steeper, and furrowed with deep gullies.
This is found only in the island of Batchian; and it seems so much out of place there as it is difficult to imagine how it could have reached the island by any natural means of dispersal, and yet not have passed by the same means over the narrow strait to Gilolo that it seems more likely to have originated from some individuals which had escaped from confinement, these and similar animals being often kept as pets by the Malays, and carried about in their praus.
The people of Waigiou are not truly indigenes of the island, which possesses no "Alfuros," or aboriginal inhabitants. They appear to be a mixed race, partly from Gilolo, partly from New Guinea.
The islands of Obi, Batchian, and the three southern peninsulas of Gilolo, possess no true indigenous population; but the northern peninsula is inhabited by a native race, the so-called Alfuros of Sahoe and Galela. These people are quite distinct from the Malays, and almost equally so from the Papuans.
These are: Timor, for Sandal-wood; Java, for Benzoin;* Borneo and Celebes, for Camphor; Amboyna, for Mace and Nutmegs; and last, not least, Gilolo, for Cloves. Let us now consider some other features of this map. The overlapping of territorial boundaries to which I have alluded, is apparent here in the repetition of the western coast line of Gilolo.
It was now resolved to continue their course to the island of Gilolo, and thence to Ternate. They arrived at Malaya, the principal place in Ternate, on the 4th in the evening. The 5th, or, according to the computation of the inhabitants, the 6th, Jacob Le Feare, governor of the Moluccas, came to visit the admiral, from Taluco, where he then resided.
The people of Kaioa interested me much. They are evidently a mixed race, having Malay and Papuan affinities, and are allied to the peoples of Ternate and of Gilolo. They possess a peculiar language, somewhat resembling those of the surrounding islands, but quite distinct.
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