great regret and disappointment, without the men.
The weather had been very bad, and though they had reached an island
within sight of that in which the men were, they could get no further.
They had waited there six days for better weather, and then, having no
more provisions, and the man I had sent with them being very ill and
not expected to live, they returned. As they now knew the island, I was
determined they should make another trial, and (by a liberal payment of
knives, handkerchiefs, and tobacco, with plenty of provisions) persuaded
them to start back immediately, and make another attempt. They did not
return again till the 29th of July, having stayed a few days at their
own village of Bessir on the way; but this time they had succeeded and
brought with them my two lost men, in tolerable health, though thin and
weak. They had lived exactly a month on the island had found water,
and had subsisted on the roots and tender flower-stalks of a species of
Bromelia, on shell-fish and on a few turtles' eggs. Having swum to the
island, they had only a pair of trousers and a shirt between them, but
had made a hut of palm-leaves, and had altogether got on very well. They
saw that I waited for them three days at the opposite island, but had
been afraid to cross, lest the current should have carried them out to
sea, when they would have been inevitably lost. They had felt sure I
would send for them on the first opportunity, and appeared more grateful
than natives usually are for my having done so; while I felt much
relieved that my voyage, though sufficiently unfortunate, had not
involved loss of life.

CHAPTER XXXVI. WAIGIOU.

(JULY TO SEPTEMBER 1860.)

THE village of Muka, on the south coast of Waigiou, consists of a number
of poor huts, partly in the water and partly on shore, and scattered
irregularly over a space of about half a mile in a shallow bay. Around
it are a few cultivated patches, and a good deal of second-growth woody
vegetation; while behind, at the distance of about half a mile, rises
the virgin forest, through which are a few paths to some houses and
plantations a mile or two inland. The country round is rather flat,
and in places swampy, and there are one or two small streams which run
behind the village into the sea below it. Finding that no house could
be had suitable to my purpose, and hawing so often experienced the
advantages of living close to or just within the forest, I obtained the
assistan