nction about eating a white man. They live upon the number of
dead animals and offal which come floating down the river. They are
useful as acting the part of scavengers to the stream they inhabit. The
streets of Batavia run for the most part in a north or south direction,
are kept in neat order, regularly watered, and planted with rows of
trees in the Dutch style. Formerly canals intersected the streets in
all directions, rendering the city the most pestilential place within
the tropics; but by the orders of Sir Stamford Raffles, while the
English had possession of the island, they were all filled up, except
the Grand Canal and its tributaries. The city is still far from
healthy, and no one who can help it remains there; the government
officers and merchants all going out to their country houses in the
afternoon. My stay in Batavia was so short, that I had not time to make
many remarks about the place. In consequence of the recommendations I
had received from Sourabaya, the Resident forwarded my views in every
way, giving me passes to facilitate my search throughout all the Dutch
settlements I might visit.

Fairburn and Van Graoul were in the meantime making inquiries among the
masters of all the trading vessels in the harbour, whether they had seen
or heard of a vessel which might prove to be the _Emu_. They, however,
could only obtain rumours of her, and no one was met who had actually
been attacked by her. For some time past it appeared that she had not
even been heard of; and the opinion was, either that her career had by
some means or other been brought to a close, or that she had altogether
quitted those seas and gone to commit her depredations in another
quarter of the globe. This last idea was the most distressing, because,
if such was the case, I could not tell for what length of time my search
might be prolonged. As, however, Timor was the last place she had been
known to touch at, I determined to proceed there, and thence to steer a
course as circumstances might direct.

We were once more at sea. It is very delightful to sail over the ocean
when the breeze is fresh, and sufficiently strong to send the vessel
skimming along over the water, and yet not sufficiently so to throw up
waves on the surface. Many such days I remember, and many nights, when
the moon, in tranquil majesty was traversing the pure dark-blue sky, her
light shed in a broad stream of silver across the purple expanse, on
which t