412 Macassar to the Aru Islands 



with them, cand spoke to them always with perfect politeness ; 

 yet they were most of them a kind of slave debtors, bound 

 over by the police magistrate to work for him at mere nominal 

 wao-es for a term of years till their debts were liquidated. 

 This is a Dutch institution in this part of the world, and seems 

 to work well. It is a great boon to traders, who can do noth- 

 ing in these thinly-populated regions without trusting goods 

 to agents and petty dealers, who frequently squander them 

 away in gambling and debauchery. The lower classes are al- 

 most all in a chronic state of debt. The merchant trusts 

 them again and again, till the amount is something serious, 

 when he brings them to court, and has their services allotted to 

 him for its liquidation. The debtors seem to think this no 

 disgrace, but rather enjoy their freedom from responsibility, 

 and the dignity of their position under a wealthy and well- 

 known merchant. They trade a little on their own account, 

 and both parties seem to get on very well together. The plan 

 seems a more sensible one than that which we adopt, of effect- 

 ually preventing a man from earning any thing toward pay- 

 ing his debts by shutting him up in a jail. 



My own servants were three in number. Ali, the Malay 

 boy whom I had picked up in Borneo, was my head man. He 

 had already been with me a year, could turn his hand to any 

 thing, and was quite attentive and trustworthy. He was a 

 good shot, and fond of shooting, and I had taught him to skin 

 birds very well. The second, named Baderoon, was a Macas- 

 sar lad, also a pretty good boy, but a desperate gambler. 

 Under pretense of buying a house for his mother and clothes 

 for himself, he had received four months' wages about a week 

 before we sailed, and in a day or two gambled away every 

 dollar of it. He had come on board with no clothes, no betel, 

 or tobacco, or salt fish, all which necessary articles I Avas 

 obliged to send Ali to buy for him. These two lads were 

 about sixteen, I should suppose ; the third was younger, a 

 sharp little rascal named Baso, who had been with me a month 

 or two, and had learned to cook tolerably. He was to fulfill the 

 important office of cook and house-keeper, for I could not get 

 any regular servants to go to such a terribly remote country ; 

 one might as well ask a chef de cuisine to go to Patagonia. 



On the fifth day that I had spent on board (Dec. 15th) the 



