advantageously stay a few days. I accordingly visited Makariki
with him the next day, and he instructed the chief of the village
to furnish me with men to carry my baggage, and accompany me on
my excursion. As the people of the village wanted to be at home
on Christmas-day, it was necessary to start as soon as possible;
so we agreed that the men should be ready in two days, and I
returned to make my arrangements.

I put up the smallest quantity of baggage possible for a six
days' trip, and on the morning of December 18th we left Makariki,
with six men carrying my baggage and their own provisions, and a
lad from Awaiya, who was accustomed to catch butterflies for me.
My two Amboyna hunters I left behind to shoot and skin what birds
they could while I was away. Quitting the village, we first
walked briskly for an hour through a dense tangled undergrowth,
dripping wet from a storm of the previous night, and full of mud
holes. After crossing several small streams we reached one of the
largest rivers in Ceram, called Ruatan, which it was necessary to
cross. It was both deep and rapid. The baggage was first taken
over, parcel by parcel, on the men's heads, the water reaching
nearly up to their armpits, and then two men returned to assist
me. The water was above my waist, and so strong that I should
certainly have been carried off my feet had I attempted to cross
alone; and it was a matter of astonishment to me how the men
could give me any assistance, since I found the greatest
difficulty in getting my foot down again when I had once moved it
off the bottom. The greater strength and grasping power of their
feet, from going always barefoot, no doubt gave them a surer
footing in the rapid water.