edges of the planks, very strong and elastic, but having nothing but the adhesion
of these pins to prevent the planks gaping. In the smaller boats seats, in the
larger ones cross-beams, are now fixed. They are sprung into slight notches cut
to receive them, and are further secured to the projecting pieces of the plank
below by a strong lashing of rattan. Ribs are now formed of single pieces of
tough wood chosen and trimmed so as exactly to fit on to the projections from
each plank, being slightly notched to receive them, and securely bound to them
by rattans passed through a hole in each projecting piece close to the surface of
the plank. The ends are closed against the vertical prow and stern posts, and
further secured with pegs and rattans, and then the boat is complete; and when
fitted with rudders, masts, and thatched covering, is ready to do battle with, the
waves. A careful consideration of the principle of this mode of construction, and
allowing for the strength and binding qualities of rattan (which resembles in
these respects wire rather than cordage), makes me believe that a vessel carefully
built in this manner is actually stronger and safer than one fastened in the
ordinary way with nails.
During our stay here we were all very busy. Our captain was daily
superintending the completion of his two small praus. All day long native boats
were coming with fish, cocoa-nuts, parrots and lories, earthen pans, sirip leaf,
wooden bowls, and trays, &c. &e., which every one of the fifty inhabitants of
our prau seemed to be buying on his own account, till all available and most
unavailable space of our vessel was occupied with these miscellaneous articles:
for every man on board a prau considers himself at liberty to trade, and to carry
with him whatever he can afford to buy.
Money is unknown and valueless here—knives, cloth, and arrack forming the
only medium of exchange, with tobacco for small coin. Every transaction is the
subject of a special bargain, and the cause of much talking. It is absolutely
necessary to offer very little, as the natives are never satisfied till you add a little
more. They are then far better pleased than if you had given them twice the
amount at first and refused to increase it.
I, too, was doing a little business, having persuaded some of the natives to
collect insects for me; and when they really found that I gave them most fragrant
tobacco for worthless black and green beetles, I soon had scores of visitors, men,
women, and children, bringing bamboos full of creeping things, which, alas! too
frequently had eaten each other into fragments during the tedium of a day's
confinement. Of one grand new beetle, glittering with ruby and emerald tints, I
got a large quantity, having first detected one of its wing-cases ornamenting the
outside of a native's tobacco pouch. It was quite a new species, and had not been