Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
While at Manowolko I had purchased for 100 florins (9
l
.) a small prau, which was
brought over the next day, as I was informed it was more easy to have the necessary altera-
tions made in Goram, where several Ké 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 done. As I pro-
posed 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 ar-
rangements 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 well, and without them it would
have been impossible for me to have finished my boat with half the neatness, or in double
the time. I had a Ké workman to put in new ribs, for which I bought nails of a Bugis trader,
at 8
d
. a pound. My gimlets were, however, too small; and having no augers we were obliged
to bore all the holes with hot irons, a most tedious and unsatisfactory operation.
Five men had engaged to work at the prau till finished, and then go with me to Mysol,
Waigiou, and Ternate. Their ideas of work were, however, very different from mine, and I
had immense difficulty with them; seldom more than two or three coming together, and a
hundred excuses being given for working only half a day when they did come. Yet they
were constantly begging advances of money, saying they had nothing to eat. When I gave it
them they were sure to stay away the next day, and when I refused any further advances
some of them declined working any more. As the boat approached completion my diffi-
culties with the men increased. The uncle of one had commenced a war, or sort of faction
fight, and wanted his assistance; another's wife was ill, and would not let him come; a third
had fever and ague, and pains in his head and back; and a fourth had an inexorable creditor
who would not let him go out of his sight. They had all received a month's wages in ad-
vance; and though the amount was not large, it was necessary to make them pay it back, or I
should get no men at all. I therefore sent the village constable after two, and kept them in
custody a day, when they returned about three-fourths of what they owed me. The sick man
also paid, and the steersman found a substitute who was willing to take his debt, and receive
only the balance of his wages.
About this time we had a striking proof of the dangers of New Guinea trading. Six men
arrived at the village in a small boat almost starved, having escaped out of two praus, the re-
mainder of whose crews (fourteen in number) had been murdered by the natives of New
