178 LOMBOCK. 



for you to stay." This settled the matter. Move talk, more 

 delay, and another eight or ten hours' consultation were not 

 to be endured ; so we started at once, the poor interpreter al- 

 most weeping at our obstinacy and hurry, and assuring us 

 " the pumbuckle would be very sorry, and the Rajah would be 

 very sorry, and if we would but wait, all would be right." I 

 gave Ali my horse, and started on foot, but he afterward 

 mounted behind Mr. Ross's groom, and we got home very 

 well, though rather hot and tired. 



At Mataram we called at the house of Gusti Gadioca, one 

 of the princes of Lombock, who was a fi-iend of Mr. Carter's, 

 and who had promised to show me the guns made by native 

 workmen. Two guns Were exhibited, one six, the other seven 

 feet long, and of a proportionably large bore. The barrels 

 were twisted and well finished, though not so finely worked 

 as ours. The stock was well made, and extended to the end 

 of the barrel. Silver and gold ornament was inlaid over most 

 of the surface, but the locks were taken from English muskets. 

 The gusti assured me, however, that the Rajah had a man 

 who made locks and also rifle barrels. The workshop where 

 these guns are made and the tools used were next shown us, 

 and were very remarkable. An oj)en shed with a couple of 

 small mud forges were the chief objects visible. The bellows 

 consisted of two baiiiboo cylindei:s, with pistons "worked by 

 hand. They move very easily, having a loose stuffing of feath- 

 ers thickly set round the piston so as to act as a valve, and 

 produce a regular blast. Both cylinders communicate with 

 the same nozzle, one piston rising whUe the other falls. An 

 oblong piece of iron on the ground was the anvil, and a small 

 vise was fixed on the projecting root of a tree outside. These, 

 with a few files and hammers, were literally the only tools 

 with which an old man makes these fine guns, finishing them 

 himself from the rough iron and wood. 



I was anxious to know how they bored these long barrels, 

 which seemed perfectly true, and are said to shoot admirably; 

 and, on asking the gusti, received the enigmatical answer : 

 " We use a basket full of stones." • Being utterly unable to im- 

 agine what he could mean, I asked if I coiild see how they did 

 it, and one of the dozen little boys around us was sent to fetch 

 the basket. He soon returned with this most extraordinary 



