Instead of remaining only a few days as I had planned, I had now lived more than three months in exile here at Buru, when one morning it was announced that the governor’s yacht, the Telegraph, had arrived, to my great delight, for I had already engaged a prau to call in for me while on her way from Amboina to Ternate. The Telegraph came from Ceram to afford me an opportunity of going to Ternate, the very place I was anxious to reach, and at the same time to leave an order for sapis, which she would take to Ceram on her return. The sapi or Madura cattle have been introduced into all these islands by the government to be used as food for the soldiers, but only in cases of emergency. I immediately prepared to continue my travels to other islands, and that day, September 6th, we steamed out of Kayéli Bay. For two months I had wandered over hills and mountains, penetrating the densest jungles, and picking my way through bogs filled with thorny vines. Again and again the natives entertained me with descriptions of the great pythons with which the whole island abounds, but whenever I saw a bird that I wanted, I always followed it as long as I could see it. The result was, that I had collected eighty-one species,[42] which were represented by over four hundred specimens, nine-tenths of which I had shot myself.
This bay is a good harbor for our whalers, and, before the war, several came here every year. It is a free port, and there is a safe anchorage, plenty of good water and wood, and vegetables can be obtained at cheap rates.
For the last time I looked back on the mountains rising behind in the interior of the village. Many and many an hour, as the sun was setting, I used to stand by the shore of the bay where a large cannon was planted erect in the sand, and, leaning against its dumb, rusty mouth, watch the changing of beautiful colors in the clouds that rested on the high peaks in the south, while the day was fading into twilight, and the twilight into a pure, starlight night. Near this spot the sand-pipers came and tripped to and fro on the beach when the tide was full, and many long-winged night-hawks swooped back and forth, feasting on multitudes of insects that came out as evening approached. Far back of those mountains, near the centre of the island, there is a lake, and on its shores, according to the ancient belief of the natives, grows a plant which possesses the wondrous power of making every one who holds it in his hand young again, even when his locks have grown white with years, and his hand is already palsied with old age. This must be the fountain of youth, which, according to Mohammedan tradition, is situated in some dark region in the distant East, and which Moore in his “Lalla Rookh” refers to as—
“—— youth’s radiant fountain,
Springing in some desolate mountain.”
CHAPTER IX.
TERNATE, TIDORE, AND GILOLO.
As we steamed out of the bay of Kayéli a heavy rain came on, for the rainy season, which had been prevailing on the south side of Buru, was now beginning on the north side.
The same alternation of seasons is seen in Ceram. When I was on the south side of that island, there was one continuous rain; but when I came soon after to Wahai on the north coast, the grass was dry, and in many places completely parched. The cause of this interchange of seasons is, that the clouds which come up from the southeast are heavily charged with moisture, and when they strike against the high mountain-chain which extends from the eastern to the western end of that island, the larger part of their moisture is condensed and falls in heavy torrents, so that when they pass over the water-shed they pour out few or no showers.[43] When the wind changes and comes from the northeast, the north sides of Ceram and Buru are deluged, while it is dry weather on their southern coasts.