The Return Voyage. 485 



native customs, especially as these people often settle in their 

 villages and marry native women. 



The trade carried on at Dobbo is very considerable. This 

 year there were fifteen large praus from Macassar, and per- 

 haps a hundred small boats from Ceram, Gorara, and Ke. 

 The Macassar cai'goes are worth about £1000 each, and the 

 other boats take away perhaps about £3000 worth, so that 

 the whole exports may be estimated at £18,000 per annum. 

 The largest and most bulky items are pearl-shell and tri- 

 pang, or " beche-de-mer," wnth smaller quantities of tortoise- 

 shell, edible birds' nests, pearls, ornamental woods, timber, 

 and birds of paradise. These are purchased with a variety 

 of goods. Of arrack, about equal in strength to ordinary 

 West India rum, 3000 boxes, each containing fifteen half-gal- 

 lon bottles, are consumed annually. Native cloth from Cele- 

 bes is much esteemed for its durability, and large quantities 

 are sold, as well as white English calico and American un- 

 bleached cottons, common crockery, coarse cutlery, muskets, 

 gunpowder, gongs, small brass cannon, and elephants' tusks. 

 These three last articles constitute the wealth of the Aru peo- 

 ple, with which they pay for their wives, or which they hoard 

 up as "real jDroperty." Tobacco is in immense demand for 

 chewing, and it must be very strong, or an Aru man will not 

 look at it. Knowing how little these people generally work, 

 the mass of produce obtained annually shows that the islands 

 m.ust be pretty thickly inhabited, especially along the coasts, 

 as. nine-tenths ot the whole are marine productions. 



It was on the 2d of July that we left Aru, followed by all 

 the Macassar praus, fifteen in number, who had agreed to 

 sail in company. We passed south of Banda, and then steer- 

 ed due west, not seeing land for three days, till we sighted 

 some low islands west of Bouton. We had a strong and 

 steady south-east wind day and night, which carried us on 

 at about five knots an hour, Avhere a clipper shi^s would have 

 made twelve. The sky was continually cloudy, dark, and 

 threatening, with occasional drizzling showers, till we were 

 west of Bouru, when it cleared up and we enjoyed the bright 

 sunny skies of the dry season for the rest of our voyage. It 

 is about here, therefore, that the seasons of the eastern and 

 western regions of the Archipelago are divided. West of 



