the other boats take away perhaps about £3,000, worth, so that the whole exports
may be estimated at £18,000. per annum. The largest and most bulky items are
pearl-shell and tripang, or "beche-de-mer," with smaller quantities of tortoise-
shell, edible birds' nests, pearls, ornamental woods, timber, and Birds of
Paradise. These are purchased with a variety of goods. Of arrack, about equal in
strength to ordinary West India rum, 3,000 boxes, each containing fifteen half-
gallon bottles, are consumed annually. Native cloth from Celebes is much
esteemed for its durability, and large quantities are sold, as well as white English
calico and American unbleached cottons, common crockery, coarse cutlery,
muskets, gunpowder, gongs, small brass cannon, and elephants' tusks. These
three last articles constitute the wealth of the Aru people, with which they pay
for their wives, or which they hoard up as "real property." Tobacco is in
immense demand for chewing, and it must be very strong, or an Aru man will
not look at it. Knowing how little these people generally work, the mass of
produce obtained annually shows that the islands must be pretty thickly
inhabited, especially along the coasts, as nine-tenths of the whole are marine
productions.
It was on the 2d of July that we left Aru, followed by all the Macassar praus,
fifteen in number, who had agreed to sail in company. We passed south of
Banda, and then steered due west, not seeing land for three days, till we sighted
some low islands west of Bouton. We had a strong and steady south-east wind
day and night, which carried us on at about five knots an hour, where a clipper
ship would have made twelve. The sky was continually cloudy, dark, and
threatening, with occasional drizzling showers, till we were west of Bouru, when
it cleared up and we enjoyed the bright sunny skies of the dry season for the rest
of our voyage. It is about here, therefore that the seasons of the eastern and
western regions of the Archipelago are divided. West of this line from June to
December is generally fine, and often very dry, the rest of the year being the wet
season. East of it the weather is exceedingly uncertain, each island, and each side
of an island, having its own peculiarities. The difference seems to consist not so
much in the distribution of the rainfall as in that of the clouds and the moistness
of the atmosphere. In Aru, for example, when we left, the little streams were all
dried up, although the weather was gloomy; while in January, February, and
March, when we had the hottest sunshine and the finest days, they were always
flowing. The driest time of all the year in Aru occurs in September and October,
just as it does in Java and Celebes. The rainy seasons agree, therefore, with those
of the western islands, although the weather is very different. The Molucca sea is
of a very deep blue colour, quite distinct from the clear light blue of the Atlantic.