CHAPTER XXV. CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS.

(OCTOBER 1859 To JUNE 1860.)

I LEFT Amboyna for my first visit to Ceram at three o'clock in the
morning of October 29th, after having been delayed several days by the
boat's crew, who could not be got together. Captain Van der Beck, who
gave me a passage in his boat, had been running after them all day, and
at midnight we had to search for two of my men who had disappeared at
the last moment. One we found at supper in his own house, and rather
tipsy with his parting libations of arrack, but the other was gone
across the bay, and we were obliged to leave without him. We stayed some
hours at two villages near the east end of Amboyna, at one of which we
had to discharge some wood for the missionaries' house, and on the
third afternoon reached Captain Van der Beck's plantation, situated at
Hatosua, in that part of Ceram opposite to the island of Amboyna. This
was a clearing in flat and rather swampy forest, about twenty acres
in extent, and mostly planted with cacao and tobacco. Besides a small
cottage occupied by the workmen, there was a large shed for tobacco
drying, a corner of which was offered me; and thinking from the look of
the place that I should find good collecting ground here, I fitted up
temporary tables, benches, and beds, and made all preparations for
some weeks' stay. A few days, however, served to show that I should be
disappointed. Beetles were tolerably abundant, and I obtained plenty of
fine long-horned Anthribidae and pretty Longicorns, but they were mostly
the same species as I had found during my first short visit to Amboyna.
There were very few paths in the forest; which seemed poor in birds and
butterflies, and day after day my men brought me nothing worth notice.
I was therefore soon obliged to think about changing my locality, as I
could evidently obtain no proper notion of the productions of the almost
entirely unexplored island of Ceram by staying in this place.

I rather regretted leaving, because my host was one of the most
remarkable men and most entertaining companions I had ever met with.
He was a Fleeting by birth, and, like so many of his countrymen, had a
wonderful talent for languages. When quite a youth he had accompanied a
Government official who was sent to report on the trade and commerce
of the Mediterranean, and had acquired the colloquial language of every
place they stayed a few weeks at. He had afterwards made voyages