■176 The Aru Islands. 



CHAPTER XXXn. 



THE AKU ISLANDS — SECOND EESIDENCE AT DOBBO.' 



BIAY AND JUNE, 1857. 



DoBBO was full to overflowing, and I was obliged to occupy 

 the court-house where the Commissioners hold their sittings. 

 They had now left the island, and I found the situation 

 agreeable, as it was at the end of the village, with a view 

 down the principal street. It was a mere shed, but half of it 

 had a roughly-boarded floor, and by putting up a partition 

 and opening a window I made it a very pleasant abode. In 

 one of the boxes I had left in charge of HeiT Warzbergen, a 

 colony of small ants had settled and deposited millions of 

 eggs. It was lucidly a fine hot day, and by carrying the 

 box some distance from the house, and placing every article 

 in the sunshine for an hour or two, I got rid of them with- 

 out damage, as they were fortunately a harmless species. 



Dobbo now presented an animated appearance. Five or 

 six new houses had been added to the street ; the praus were 

 all brought round to the western side of the point, where 

 they were hauled up on the beach, and were being calked 

 and covered with a thick white lime-plaster for the home- 

 ward voyage, making them the brightest and cleanest look- 

 ing things in the place. Most of the small boats had returned 

 from the " blakang-tana " (back country), as the side of the 

 islands toward New Guinea is called. Piles of firewood 

 were being heaped up behind the houses ; sail-makers and 

 carpenters were busy at work ; mother-of-pearl shell was be- 

 ing tied up in bundles, and the black and ugly smoked tri- 

 pang was having a last exposure to the sun befoi-e loading. 

 The spare portion of the crews were employed cutting and 

 squaring timber, and boats from Ceram and Coram were con- 

 stantly unloading their cargoes of sago-cake for the traders' 

 homeward voyage. The fowls, ducks, and goats all looked 

 fat and thriving on the refuse food of a dense population, and 



