Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
XXXII
The ARU Islands—Second Residence at Dobbo
(
MAY AND JUNE
1857)
Dobbo was full to overflowing, and I was obliged to occupy the court-house where the Com-
missioners hold their sittings. They had now left the island, and I found the situation agree-
able, as it was at the end of the village, with a view down the principal street. It was a mere
shed, but half of it had a roughly boarded floor, and by putting up a partition and opening a
window I made it a very pleasant abode. In one of the boxes I had left in charge of Herr War-
zbergen, a colony of small ants had settled and deposited millions of eggs. It was luckily a
fine hot day, and by carrying the box some distance from the house, and placing every article
in the sunshine for an hour or two, I got rid of them without damage, as they were fortunately
a harmless species.
Dobbo now presented an animated appearance. Five or six new houses had been added to
the street; the praus were all brought round to the western side of the point, where they were
hauled up on the beach, and were being caulked and covered with a thick white lime-plaster
for the homeward voyage, making them the brightest and cleanest looking things in the place.
Most of the small boats had returned from the 'blakang-tana' (back country), as the side of
the islands towards New Guinea is called. Piles of firewood were being heaped up behind the
houses; sail-makers and carpenters were busy at work; mother-of-pearl shell was being tied
up in bundles, and the black and ugly smoked tripang was having a last exposure to the sun
before loading. The spare portion of the crews were employed cutting and squaring timber,
and boats from Ceram and Goram were constantly unloading their cargoes of sago-cake for
the traders' homeward voyage. The fowls, ducks, and goats all looked fat and thriving on the
refuse food of a dense population, and the Chinamen's pigs were in a state of obesity that
foreboded early death. Parrots and lories and cockatoos, of a dozen different kinds, were sus-
pended on bamboo perches at the doors of the houses, with metallic green or white fruit-pi-
geons which cooed musically at noon and eventide. Young cassowaries, strangely striped
