CHAPTER I. 



FROM KAJELI TO THE LAKE. 



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From Amboina to Buru — Knjeli — Trade of Kajeli — Birds — Eiver Apu — "Wni 

 Bloi village — Villa.^e of Wai Gelan — The ]\Iatakau — -Forced encampments 

 — -Wai Klaba — -A Pomalied mountain — "Wasilale — Hospitable reception 

 — llouscs — Musical performance — Pomali signs — Arrive at Laha. 



Having packed up and despatclied my Timor-laut collections 

 to Europe, I left AniLoina on the afternoon of the 7th of 



November (A 



remaining behind with our kind hosts) for 



Buru, an island a short distance to the west, with the inten- 

 tion of reaching the centra! region round the rarely visited 

 Lake of Wakolo. Next morning at daybreak w^e Avere steam- 

 ing under the shade of the '' Mother and Daughter " mountains 

 of the Dutch maps, whose picturesquely rugged peaks, stand- 

 ing out against the sky like giant minster towers, mark the 

 eastern promontory of the Bay of Kajeli, in whose southern 

 bend lies the town of the same name, where I landed in the 

 forenoon, and was kindly offered a room in the house of Tost- 

 holder Bergmann. 





The town is situated on a low morassy plain, vvhich, durin 

 the rainy season, is often wholly inundated, and has the 

 reputation of being very unhealthy, the people being afflicted 



urn 



with malarial and 

 sterility. Its most conspicuous edifice is the Fort, enclosed in 

 massive embrasured walls erected in 1778 by the Dutch close 

 to the shore, to protect the Bay from the pirate hordes who 

 used to make Buru their special slave-kidnapping ground. 

 There is now, however, a distance of from seven hundred to 

 eight hundred yards of a tall grass covered sandy flat separat- 

 ing it from the margin of the water, which has been gained 

 from the sea in little over 100 years. 



Its great items of export are fish (which, during the latter 

 months of the year are driven into the Bay in enormous 



