Having thus passed a considerable time in India, without experiencing the lassitude of which Europeans in that part of the world so generally complain, I was appointed adjutant to my former chief, Captain Van Schuler, who had now become Commandant and Director of the Colonial Marine. Although I was much pleased by the honourable notice with which my brave chief favoured me, I soon became tired of an idle life at Batavia. I had been so long accustomed to the navigation of these seas, that I could not refrain from soliciting the Governor General, Van Der Capellen, to place me again in active service. While performing a journey overland from Batavia to Sourabaya in company with Captain Van Schuler, I took the opportunity of visiting Bantjar, in the district of Rembang, where I saw the beautiful frigate _Javaan_, with several brigs and schooners, then in the course of construction for the Colonial Navy.[2] The command of one of these was promised to me on this occasion. I will pass over the description of this part of Java, as being unconnected with the object of the work. We met with few occurrences worthy of remark, for I do not consider our adventure in crossing the Sumadang Mountains, where our carriage was overturned, of sufficient importance to detain me in my narrative. On my return to Batavia I was promoted to a Lieutenancy of the first class in the Colonial Marine, and at my urgent request was suffered to throw up my appointment as Adjutant, when I was invested with the command of H.M. Brig _Dourga_,[3] with orders to ship a crew, and fit her out in readiness to accompany the Governor General on his expedition to the Moluccas in 1824. So recently promoted, invested with a new command, and about to become a fellow-voyager with his Excellency, it will readily be conceived that my zeal was of the strongest, and that I exerted myself to the utmost to show myself worthy of the favours that had been conferred upon me. After remaining a considerable time at Amboyna, a settlement distinguished by the courtesy and hospitality of its European inhabitants, we sailed for Banda in the train of the Governor General, (who was embarked in the frigate _Eurydice_), where we arrived on the 18th of April. The Gunung Api volcano was in a state of violent action at the time, filling the atmosphere with fire and smoke, the volumes of the latter being ejected with such force, that their collision caused constant vivid flashes of lightning, accompanied by a rumbling noise like that of thunder. This outbreak of nature was indescribably fine and majestic, and is memorable for having formed a new crater in the north-west side of the mountain. The town of Banda, remained, however, uninjured. From Banda we sailed for Sapanua, an island well known from the war which took place there in 1817, and I subsequently proceeded to Menado and Macassar, where I took part in the expedition called forth by the war that had broken out in Celebes.