Comforts of a Prau. 431 



iutelligible, and, except in words that have evidently been in- 

 troduced during a long-continued commercial intei'course, seem 

 to have no affinity whatever with the Malay languages. 



tTan. Qth. — The small boats being finished, we sailed for 

 Aru at 4 p.m., and as we left the shores of Ke had a fine view 

 of its rugged and mountainous character ; ranges of hills, three 

 or four thousand feet high, stretching southward as far as the 

 eye could reach, everywhere covered with a lofty, dense, and 

 unbroken forest. We had very light winds, and it therefore 

 took us thirty hours to make the passage of sixty miles to the 

 low, or flat, but equally forest-covered Aru Islands, where we 

 anchored in the harbor of Dobbo at nine in the evening of 

 the next day. 



My first voyage in a prau being thus satisfactorily termi- 

 nated, I must, before taking leave of it for some months, bear 

 testimony to the merits of the queer Old-world vessel. Set- 

 ting aside all ideas of danger, which is probably, after all, not 

 more than in any other craft, I must declare that I have never, 

 either before or since, made a twenty days' voyage so pleasant- 

 ly, or, perhaps more correctly speaking, with so little discom- 

 fort. This I attribute chiefly to having my small cabin on 

 deck, and entirely to myself, to having my own servants to 

 wait upon me, and to the absence of all those marine-store 

 smells of paint, pitch, tallow, and new cordage, which are to 

 me insupportable. Something is also to be put down to free- 

 dom from all restraint of dress, hours of meals, etc., and to 

 the civility and obliging disposition of the captain. I had 

 agreed to have my meals with him, but whenever I wished it 

 I had them in my own berth, and at what hours I felt inclined. 

 The crew were all civil and good-tempered, and with very lit- 

 tle discipline every thing went on smoothly, and the vessel was 

 kept very clean and in pretty good order, so that on the whole 

 I was much delighted with the trip, and was inclined to rate 

 the luxuries of the semi-barbarous prau as surpassing those of 

 the most magnificent screw-steamer, that highest result of our 

 civihzation. 



