which we lay
was lined with cocoa-nut and other palm-trees, rivulets were seen
flowing down the sides of the hills, which were clothed with
spice-bearing and other shrubs, the whole landscape presenting a scene
of great tropical beauty.

"If I ever had to cast anchor anywhere on shore, that's the sort of
country I should choose, now," observed Benjie Stubbs, our second
officer, who had been examining the coast for some time through his
glass.

"I wouldn't change one half-acre of any part of our principality for a
thousand of its richest acres," said David Gwynne, our surgeon, to whom
he spoke. "Poets talk of the spicy gales of these islands; in most
cases they come laden with miasma-bearing fevers and agues on their
wings; while it a fellow has to live on shore he gets roasted by day,
with a good chance of a sunstroke, and he is stewed at night, and bitten
by mosquitoes and other winged and crawling things, and wakes to find a
cobra de capella or green snake gliding over his face."

"Oh, a man would soon get accustomed to those trifling inconveniences,
as the natives must do; and money goes a long way in these regions for
all the necessaries of life," answered Stubbs.

I must confess that, lovely as I had heard are many parts of those
eastern isles, I was inclined to agree with the surgeon.

It was discovered this evening that in consequence of the heat, or from
careless coopering, our water-casks had let out their contents, and that
we had scarcely any fresh water in the ship. At Batavia it was very
bad, and it might be some days before we should get there, or we could
not tell when, should the expedition not have succeeded. It was
therefore necessary to get water without delay, and as a river was
marked on the chart near to where we lay, we agreed the next morning to
go up, and, should we see no fort, to run in and obtain water and any
fresh provisions we might require. Accordingly we weighed by sunrise,
and, standing in, ran along the coast till we arrived off the mouth of
the river we hoped to find. Some native houses were seen, but no
fortifications and no buildings of an European character. We therefore
thought that we should be perfectly safe in going ashore. On dropping
our anchor, several canoes came off laden with turtles, ducks, fowls,
cockatoos, monkeys, and other small animals and birds; besides sweet
potatoes, yams, and other vegetables, grown by the natives for the
supply of the ships passing