DEPARTURE FROM WAKATIMI 255 



where they were received with immense enthusiasm. 

 They came from the Dutch gunboat Mataram, which had 

 been despatched to take away the native escort, and 

 the next day came boats from the Zivaan, which had 

 come to transport us and our men and the remaining 

 stores of the expedition to Amboina. There foUowed 

 two da3^s of busy loading and coming and going of boats, 

 during which our impatience to be off was a httle 

 allayed by the forethought of one of the officers of 

 the Mataram, who stayed ashore with us and had brought 

 with him that rare luxury, bread, and one or two 

 other welcome delicacies. 



Before sunset on April 7th the last boat was loaded 

 and ready to go, and we had an amusing leave-taking 

 with the people of Wakatimi. It was known that 

 we were going to depart and for some days people from 

 other villages had been crowding into Wakatimi. A 

 large number of men were waiting outside the fence 

 of the camp, but when we invited them to come inside 

 they became unaccountably shy and would not venture. 

 So I went outside and took one bolder fellow, a man 

 whom we knew well, and led him by the arm to a hut, 

 where there were a quantity of old mosquito nets ; he 

 seized one and bolted as fast as he could run, apparently 

 thinking that there was something suspicious in this 

 unw^onted generosity. Then a few more came very 

 warily after him and then fifty or sixty men dashed 

 into the house and out again as soon as they had 

 snatched up something, it mattered not what. Most of 

 them were armed with spears or bows and arrows, and 

 as there were men fighting to get into and out of the 



