since they have visited Aru, and by thus making their attacks at long and
uncertain intervals the alarm dies away, and they find a population for the most
part unarmed and unsuspicious of danger. None of the small trading vessels now
carry arms, though they did so for a year or two after the last attack, which was
just the time when there was the least occasion for it. A week later one of the
smaller pirate boats was captured in the "blakang tana." Seven men were killed
and three taken prisoners. The larger vessels have been often seen but cannot be
caught, as they have very strong crews, and can always escape by rowing out to
sea in the eye of the wind, returning at night. They will thus remain among the
innumerable islands and channels, till the change of the monsoon enables them
to sail westward.
March 9th.-For four or five days we have had a continual gale of wind, with
occasional gusts of great fury, which seem as if they would send Dobbo into the
sea. Rain accompanies it almost every alternate hour, so that it is not a pleasant
time. During such weather I can do little, but am busy getting ready a boat I have
purchased, for an excursion into the interior. There is immense difficulty about
men, but I believe the "Orang-kaya," or head man of Wamma, will accompany
me to see that I don't run into danger.
Having become quite an old inhabitant of Dobbo, I will endeavour to sketch
the sights and sounds that pervade it, and the manners and customs of its
inhabitants. The place is now pretty full, and the streets present a far more
cheerful aspect than when we first arrived. Every house is a store, where the
natives barter their produce for what they are most in need of. Knives, choppers,
swords, guns, tobacco, gambier, plates, basins, handkerchiefs, sarongs, calicoes,
and arrack, are the principal articles wanted by the natives; but some of the
stores contain also tea, coffee, sugar, wine, biscuits, &c., for the supply of the
traders; and others are full of fancy goods, china ornaments, looking-glasses,
razors, umbrellas, pipes, and purses, which take the fancy of the wealthier
natives. Every fine day mats are spread before the doors and the tripang is put
out to dry, as well as sugar, salt, biscuit, tea, cloths, and other things that get
injured by an excessively moist atmosphere. In the morning and evening, spruce
Chinamen stroll about or chat at each other's doors, in blue trousers, white
jacket, and a queue into which red silk is plaited till it reaches almost to their
heels. An old Bugis hadji regularly takes an evening stroll in all the dignity of
flowing green silk robe and gay turban, followed by two small boys carrying his
sirih and betel boxes.
In every vacant space new houses are being built, and all sorts of odd little
cooking-sheds are erected against the old ones, while in some out-of-the-way