Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A little further the path divided into two, one leading along the beach, and across man-
grove and sago swamps, the other rising to cultivated grounds. We therefore returned, and
taking a fresh departure from the village, endeavoured to ascend the hills and penetrate into
the interior. The path, however, was a most trying one. Where there was earth, it was a de-
posit of reddish clay overlying the rock, and was worn so smooth by the attrition of naked
feet that my shoes could obtain no hold on the sloping surface. A little farther we came to
the bare rock, and this was worse, for it was so rugged and broken, and so honeycombed
and weatherworn into sharp points and angles, that my boys, who had gone barefooted all
their lives, could not stand it. Their feet began to bleed, and I saw that if I did not want them
completely lamed it would be wise to turn back. My own shoes, which were rather thin,
were but a poor protection, and would soon have been cut to pieces; yet our little naked
guides tripped along with the greatest ease and unconcern, and seemed much astonished at
our effeminacy in not being able to take a walk which to them was a perfectly agreeable
one. During the rest of our stay in the island we were obliged to confine ourselves to the vi-
cinity of the shore and the cultivated grounds, and those more level portions of the forest
where a little soil had accumulated and the rock had been less exposed to atmospheric ac-
tion.
The island of Ké (pronounced exactly as the letter K, but erroneously spelt in our maps
Key or Ki) is long and narrow, running in a north and south direction, and consists almost
entirely of rock and mountain. It is everywhere covered with luxuriant forests, and in its
bays and inlets the sand is of dazzling whiteness, resulting from the decomposition of the
coralline limestone of which it is entirely composed. In all the little swampy inlets and val-
leys sago trees abound, and these supply the main subsistence of the natives, who grow no
rice, and have scarcely any other cultivated products but cocoa-nuts, plantains, and yams.
From the cocoa-nuts, which surround every hut, and which thrive exceedingly on the porous
limestone soil and under the influence of salt breezes, oil is made which is sold at a good
price to the Aru traders, who all touch here to lay in their stock of this article, as well as to
purchase boats and native crockery. Wooden bowls, pans, and trays are also largely made
here, hewn out of solid blocks of wood with knife and adze; and these are carried to all parts
of the Moluccas. But the art in which the natives of Ké pre-eminently excel is that of boat-
building. Their forests supply abundance of fine timber, though probably not more so than
many other islands, and from some unknown causes these remote savages have come to ex-
cel in what seems a very difficult art. Their small canoes are beautifully formed, broad and
low in the centre, but rising at each end, where they terminate in high-pointed beaks more or
less carved, and ornamented with a plume of feathers. They are not hollowed out of a tree,
