locked, but so were others which I required to open immediately.
There was, however, a very clever blacksmith employed to do
ironwork for the mines, and he picked my locks for me when I
required them, and in a few days made me new keys, which I used
all the time I was abroad.

Towards the end of November the wet season set in, and we had
daily and almost incessant rains, with only about one or two
hours' sunshine in the morning. The flat parts of the forest
became flooded, the roads filled with mud, and insects and birds
were scarcer than ever. On December Lath, in the afternoon, we
had a sharp earthquake shock, which made the house and furniture
shale and rattle for five minutes, and the trees and shrubs wave
as if a gust of wind had passed over them. About the middle of
December I removed to the village, in order more easily to
explore the district to the west of it, and to be near the sea
when I wished to return to Ternate. I obtained the use of a good-
sized house in the Campong Sirani (or Christian village), and at
Christmas and the New Year had to endure the incessant gun-
firing, drum-beating, and fiddling of the inhabitants.

These people are very fond of music and dancing, and it would
astonish a European to visit one of their assemblies. We enter a
gloomy palm-leaf hut, in which two or three very dim lamps barely
render darkness visible. The floor is of black sandy earth, the
roof hid in a smoky impenetrable blackness; two or three benches
stand against the walls, and the orchestra consists of a fiddle,
a fife, a drum, and a triangle. There is plenty of company,
consisting of young men and women, all very neatly dressed in
white and black--a true Portuguese habit. Quadrilles, waltzes,