Amboina

In our coffee we soaked biscuits, made in Amboina of sago and canary nut: they are like stones until soaked, but then with considerable risk to the teeth you can manage to masticate them.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

I was fortunate enough to procure one in Amboina, and I do not know how we should have managed without it.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

We are still in Amboina, in hourly expectation of the steamer.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

On arriving in Amboina, we found that the regular mail of the Moluccas was due in a day or two.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

A celebrated Dutch specialist has given a catalogue of 780 species found in Amboina, a number almost equal to those of all the seas and rivers of Europe.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

Although market produce is cheaper in Amboina than in large centres, tinned meat and other kinds of preserved food are very dear, since they have to be brought such a distance.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

There is no hotel in Amboina, chance travellers being so very rare that there is no inducement to maintain one.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

This is to break to you that we have had a crushing disappointment in Amboina, and I should be heartily glad to shake its dust from my feet.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

These friends never cease to mourn that they did not know us when we lived so uncomfortably in Amboina on our first arrival, – a regret which we heartily share.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887

Before I tell you of social life in Amboina, I must turn for a few minutes to speak of our voyage here from the Tenimber Islands, and particularly to mention one person to whom we owe much, the chief officer of the vessel, an ideal sailor of the old type.

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887