Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/176

166 The first course of the ship was to the Antarctic in search of whale. The hunt in these waters proved disappointing, and it became necessary to seek port, in order to recruit ship. They had drifted toward the Azores, and here making harbor, took on supplies of water and other necessary provisions, and deposited what little oil had been secured to be shipped to market, and started off on a new cruise. Mr. Holden recalls with great interest the Portuguese people that he saw here, and the natural scenery, over which Mount Pico-pico loomed up. It was a long drift now, bringing the Mentor at length into the Indian Ocean, and through the Mozambique Channel; and at length into Banda Sea and the shores of Timor, a big Island, where they stopped to recruit ship in the harbor Kupang.

Sailing proved quite difficult in these latitudes, the wind being uncertain and often fitful, and the currents among the various straits and islands often opposing. In making the Straits of Malone [Ombay Pass?], they were often set back, and finally gave up the attempt; but just at this moment were struck with favoring breezes and borne through into the Banda Sea, crossing which, were forwarded on the main ocean, and then took their course toward the Ladrones. This is a chain of tropical islands, being like Hawaiian group, of volcanic origin; or more exactly, being a submerged mountain chain, with the mere points and crests of the elevation piercing the surface of the almost universal sea, and thus offering specks or juts of land, around which the corals of the Pacific have been gradually built. The coral makers usually build some distance off shore, according to the depth of the water, and form reefs; and between the reefs and the island itself is a stretch, wider or narrower, according to circumstances, of enclosed water, forming a lagoon. There are passages, often rocky and dangerous, from