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The island is coralline and sandy, and we must therefore believe it to have been separated from Gilolo at a somewhat remote epoch; while we learn from its natural history that an arm of the sea twenty-five miles wide serves to limit the range even of birds of considerable powers of flight.
When daylight came, we saw the land of Gilolo a few miles off, but the point was unfortunately a little to windward of us. We tried to brace up all we could to round it, but as we approached the shore we got into a strong current setting northward, which carried us so rapidly with it that we found it necessary to stand off again, in order to get out of its influence.
New Guinea, Aru Islands, Mysol, Salwatty. New Guinea, Mysol, Salwatty. Waigiou. New Guinea. New Guinea. Batchian, Gilolo. New Guinea New Guinea. North Australia. East Australia. North-East Australia. New Guinea. New Guinea. New Guinea, Salwatty.
That same day we passed two small islands, each about a league in length, which were very low, and well clothed with small green trees. At the same time we saw part of the great island of Gilolo, at the distance of eight leagues, and held our course W.S.W. intending to pass through between that island and New Guinea, into the East Indian Sea.
This chief is pensioned by the Dutch Government, but retains the sovereignty over the native population of the island, and of the northern part of Gilolo. The sultans of Ternate and Tidore were once celebrated through the East for their power and regal magnificence. When Drake visited Ternate in 1579, the Portuguese had been driven out of the island, although they still had a settlement at Tidore.
We saw the Lascars clustered forward. What they were about to do we could not tell. Still we drove on. Land appeared on either hand in the far distance. It was evident that we were between two islands. The chart showed me that one was Gilolo, and the other the island of Batchian.
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.
My dear Mother, ... I have just returned from a short trip, and am now about to start on a longer one, but to a place where there are some soldiers, a doctor and engineer who speak English, so if it is good for collecting I shall stay there some months. It is Batchian, an island on the south-west side of Gilolo, about three or four days' sail from Ternate.
They chew betel or smoke cigarettes incessantly; eat dry sago and a little salt fish; seldom sing while rowing, except when excited and wanting to reach a stopping-place, and do not talk a great deal. They are mostly Malays, with a sprinkling of Alfuros from Gilolo, and Papuans from Guebe or Waigiou.
In the great island of Ceram there is also an indigenous race very similar to that of Northern Gilolo. Bourn seems to contain two distinct races, a shorter, round-faced people, with a Malay physiognomy, who may probably have come from Celebes by way of the Sula islands; and a taller bearded race, resembling that of Ceram.
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