378 GoRAM. 



bore all the holes with hot irons — a most tedious and unsatis- 

 factory operation. 



Five men had been engaged to work at the prau till finish- 

 ed, and then go with me to Mysol, Waigiou, and Ternate. 

 Their ideas of work were, however, very different from mine, 

 and I had immense difficulty with them ; seldom more than 

 two or three coming together, and a hundred excuses being 

 given for working only half a day when they did come. 

 Yet they were constantly begging advances of money, saying 

 they had nothing to eat. When I gave it them they were sure 

 to stay away the next day, and when I refused any further 

 advances some of them declined working any more. As the 

 boat approached completion my difficulties with the men in- 

 creased. The uncle of one had commenced a war, or sort of 

 faction fight, and wanted his assistance ; another's wife was 

 Ul, and would not let him come ; a third had fever and ague, 

 and pains in his head and back ; and a fourth had an inexora- 

 ble creditor who would not let him go out of his sight. They 

 had all received a month's wages in advance ; and though the 

 amount was not large, it was necessary to make them pay it 

 back, or I should get no men at all. I therefore sent the vil- 

 lage constable after two, and kept them in custody a day, 

 when they returned about three-fourths of what they owed 

 me. The sick man also paid, and the steersman found a sub- 

 stitute who was willing to take his debt, and receive only the 

 balance of his wages. 



About this time we had a striking proof of the dangers of 

 New Guinea trading. Six men arrived at the village in a 

 small boat almost starved, having escaped out of two praus, 

 the remainder of whose crews (fourteen in number) had been 

 murdered by the natives of New Guinea. The praus had left 

 this village a few months before, and among the murdered 

 men were the Rajah's son, and the relations or slaves of many 

 of the inhabitants. The cry of lamentation that arose when the 

 news arrived was most distressing. A score of women, who 

 had lost husbands, brothers, sons, or more distant relatives, 

 set up at once the most dismal shrieks and groans and wailings, 

 which continued at intervals till late at night ; and as the chief 

 houses in the village were crowded together round that which 

 I occupied, our situation was any thing but agreeable. 



