468 NATIVES OF KT DOULAN. 



was a considerable space in which the houses were 

 built without any regularity, resembling those at 

 Oliliet, with the exception of the carved horns at 

 the gable. We visited the chief's, and found it 

 tolerably clean : it consisted of one story only ; the 

 high pitched roof being used as a store room, to the 

 rafters of which all sorts of miscellaneous articles 

 were suspended. The chief himself, who was an 

 old man, dressed in the black serge denoting his 

 rank, was very civil, and offered us arrack and 

 cocoa nuts. The natives of this group differ con- 

 siderably from those of Arru, and more resemble 

 those of Timor Laut, but are not so much inclined 

 to treachery. The population is said to amount to 

 8 or 10,000. 



Christianity has not made the same progress 

 here as at Arru, and many of the natives profess 

 the Mahometan faith, to which they have been con- 

 verted by the Mahometans of Coram, who have 

 several priests in the islands. 



They pay great attention to cultivation, and pro- 

 duce considerable quantities of cocoa-nut oil of a 

 superior quality. Tortoise-shell is also found, but 

 their chief source of trade consists in the number of 

 boats and proas, of various sizes, they build of the 

 timber which abounds in both islands. Outside the 

 walls we noticed several burial places ; and in a 

 small shed, not very highly ornamented, was a rude 

 figure of a man, nearly the size of life, holding a 

 spear in his hand ; and near this shed was a build- 



