Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Soon after we had returned to Dobbo, my Macassar boy, Baderoon, took his wages and
left me, because I scolded him for laziness. He then occupied himself in gambling, and at
first had some luck, and bought ornaments, and had plenty of money. Then his luck turned;
he lost everything, borrowed money and lost that, and was obliged to become the slave of
his creditor till he had worked out the debt. He was a quick and active lad when he pleased,
but was apt to be idle, and had such an incorrigible propensity for gambling, that it will very
likely lead to his becoming a slave for life.
The end of June was now approaching, the east monsoon had set in steadily, and in anoth-
er week or two Dobbo would be deserted. Preparations for departure were everywhere vis-
ible, and every sunny day (rather rare now) the streets were as crowded and as busy as bee-
hives. Heaps of tripang were finally dried and packed up in sacks; mother-of-pearl shell, tied
up with rattans into convenient bundles, was all day long being carried to the beach to be
loaded; water-casks were filled, and cloths and mat-sails mended and strengthened for the
run home before the strong east wind. Almost every day groups of natives arrived from the
most distant parts of the islands, with cargoes of bananas and sugar-cane to exchange for to-
bacco, sago, bread, and other luxuries, before the general departure. The Chinamen killed
their fat pig and made their parting feast, and kindly sent me some pork, and a basin of
birds'-nest stew, which had very little more taste than a dish of vermicelli. My boy Ali re-
turned from Wanumbai, where I had sent him alone for a fortnight to buy Paradise birds and
prepare the skins; he brought me sixteen glorious specimens, and had he not been very ill
with fever and ague might have obtained twice the number. He had lived with the people
whose house I had occupied, and it is a proof of their goodness, if fairly treated, that al-
though he took with him a quantity of silver dollars to pay for the birds they caught, no at-
tempt was made to rob him, which might have been done with the most perfect impunity.
He was kindly treated when ill, and was brought back to me with the balance of the dollars
he had not spent.
The Wanumbai people, like almost all the inhabitants of the Aru Islands, are perfect sav-
ages, and I saw no signs of any religion. There are, however, three or four villages on the
coast where schoolmasters from Amboyna reside, and the people are nominally Christians,
and are to some extent educated and civilized. I could not get much real knowledge of the
customs of the Aru people during the short time I was among them, but they have evidently
been considerably influenced by their long association with Mahometan traders. They often
bury their dead, although the national custom is to expose the body on a raised stage till it
decomposes. Though there is no limit to the number of wives a man may have, they seldom
exceed one or two. A wife is regularly purchased from the parents, the price being a large
