which
separates Borneo from Java and Sumatra. Our compass had never been very
trustworthy. An injury it had received had still further put it out of
order, while thick cloudy weather had prevented us from taking an
observation. Mr Hooker had also for some days been unwell. He had
caught a fever while we were at Macassar, the effects of which he began
to feel directly he came on board, and we were now very anxious about
him. Several of the men also had been ill for some time before we
reached Macassar. Two of them died. I will not stop to describe the
particulars of their funeral. We felt very sad as we committed them to
their ocean grave. Mr Hooker, who had studied medicine, was too ill to
visit the rest. He, however, got Mr Thudicumb and I to describe their
symptoms as far as we were able, and sent the medicine accordingly. As
soon as he was able to move he insisted upon being carried forward to
see the men, when, somewhat altering his treatment of them, they
appeared to be getting better.

I was on deck one day, and Roger Trew was aloft, when he shouted out,
"Land ahead!" Not knowing exactly our position, we were glad that it
had been seen during the day. I ran aloft, and after a time I could
distinguish the land stretching away to the north and south, where it
seemed to terminate. We therefore concluded that it was an island.
This became a certainty as we stood on, as no land could be
distinguished beyond the two distant points we had discovered. We were
rather nearest the north end, and Mr Thudicumb determined therefore to
go round it. It was a land of dense forest, with here and there
mountainous points; high bold capes standing out into the ocean,
affording every possible variety of scenery.

"Why, there must be a fort somewhere thereabouts," observed Mr
Thudicumb, who had been examining it through his glass. "I see a flag
flying!"

There, sure enough, as we drew nearer, we discovered on the summit of a
bold rock, standing out into the sea, a flagstaff with a large flag
flying from it. What the flag was, we could not well make out, from its
somewhat battered condition. As we stood on, a bay opened out, the
headland I have spoken of forming the westernmost point. Mr Thudicumb
considered that it would afford sufficient shelter to us should we bring
up. He was anxious to do this, that we might go ashore and ascertain
whether any Europeans were living there.

"Perhaps some people have been c