coast of New Guinea from Oetanata to Salwatty, and the island of Waigiou and
Mysol. They also extend their voyages to Tidore and Ternate, as well as to
Banda and Amboyna, Their praus are all made by that wonderful race of
boatbuilders, the Ke islanders, who annually turn out some hundreds of boats,
large and small, which can hardly be surpassed for beauty of form and goodness
of workmanship, They trade chiefly in tripang, the medicinal mussoi bark, wild
nutmegs, and tortoiseshell, which they sell to the Bugis traders at Ceram-laut or
Aru, few of them caring to take their products to any other market. In other
respects they are a lazy race, living very poorly, and much given to opium
smoking. The only native manufactures are sail-matting, coarse cotton cloth, and
pandanus-leaf boxes, prettily stained and ornamented with shell-work.
In the island of Goram, only eight or ten miles long, there are about a dozen
Rajahs, scarcely better off than the rest of the inhabitants, and exercising a mere
nominal sway, except when any order is received from the Dutch Government,
when, being backed by a higher power, they show a little more strict authority.
My friend the Rajah of Ammer (commonly called Rajah of Goram) told me that
a few years ago, before the Dutch had interfered in the affairs of the island, the
trade was not carried on so peaceably as at present, rival praus often fighting
when on the way to the same locality, or trafficking in the same village. Now
such a thing is never thought of-one of the good effects of the superintendence of
a civilized government. Disputes between villages are still, however, sometimes
settled by fighting, and I one day saw about fifty men, carrying long guns and
heavy cartridge-belts, march through the village. They had come from the other
side of the island on some question of trespass or boundary, and were prepared
for war if peaceable negotiations should fail.
While at Manowolko I had purchased for 100 florins (£9.) a small prau, which
was brought over the next day, as I was informed it was more easy to have the
necessary alterations made in Goram, where several Ke workmen were settled.
As soon as we began getting my prau ready I was obliged to give up
collecting, as I found that unless I was constantly on the spot myself very little
work would be clone. As I proposed making some long voyages in this boat, I
determined to fit it up conveniently, and was obliged to do all the inside work
myself, assisted by my two Amboynese boys. I had plenty of visitors, surprised
to see a white man at work, and much astonished at the novel arrangements I
was making in one of their native vessels. Luckily I had a few tools of my own,
including a small saw and some chisels, and these were now severely tried,
cutting and fitting heavy iron-wood planks for the flooring and the posts that
support the triangular mast. Being of the best London make, they stood the work