ought we were going to have fine
weather. It soon changed, however, to its old quarter, the west; dense
clouds gathered over the sky, and in less than half an hour we had the
severest squall we had experienced during our whole voyage. Luckily we
got our great mainsail down in time, or the consequences might have been
serious. It was a regular little hurricane, and my old Bugis steersman
began shouting out to "Allah! il Allah!" to preserve us. We could only
keep up our jib, which was almost blown to rags, but by careful handling
it kept us before the wind, and the prau behaved very well. Our small
boat (purchased at Gani) was towing astern, and soon got full of water,
so that it broke away and we saw no more of it. In about an hour the
fury of the wind abated a little, and in two more we were able to hoist
our mainsail, reefed and half-mast high. Towards evening it cleared up
and fell calm, and the sea, which had been rather high, soon went down.
Not being much of a seaman myself I had been considerably alarmed, and
even the old steersman assured me he had never been in a worse squall
all his life. He was now more than ever confirmed in his opinion of the
unluckiness of the boat, and in the efficiency of the holy oil which all
Bugis praus had poured through their bottoms. As it was, he imputed
our safety and the quick termination of the squall entirely to his own
prayers, saying with a laugh, "Yes, that's the way we always do on board
our praus; when things are at the worst we stand up and shout out our
prayers as loud as we can, and then Tuwan Allah helps us."

After this it took us two days more to reach Ternate, having our usual
calms, squalls, and head-winds to the very last; and once having to
return back to our anchorage owing to violent gusts of wind just as we
were close to the town. Looking at my whole voyage in this vessel from
the time when I left Goram in May, it will appear that rely experiences
of travel in a native prau have not been encouraging. My first crew
ran away; two men were lost for a month on a desert island; we were
ten times aground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; the sails were
devoured by rats; the small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight
days on the voyage home, which should not have taken twelve; we were
many times short of food and water; we had no compass-lamp, owing to
there not being a drop of oil in Waigiou when we left; and to crown all,
during the whole of our voyages fr