MALAY MODE OF MAKING MATCHLOCKS. 473 



tors. They were manufactured here and sold to the 

 more warlike nations at the northern end of the isl- 

 and. The barrels of their matchlocks were made by 

 Avinding a flat bar of iron s])irally around a circular 

 rod and welding it into one piece ; and Marsden, who 

 probably saw some of these guns, describes them as 

 being of the " justest bore." They also manufactured 

 an inferior kind of pov»^der. These arts they may 

 have learned from the Chinese, who practised them 

 long before they were known in Europe, and who 

 probably came down the coast to the Malay penin- 

 sula and this island centuries before the Portuguese 

 sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. 



xVt present, all the natives, except the militia, 

 within the limits of the Dutch territory, are abso- 

 lutely forbidden by the Dutch Government to have 

 powder or fire-arms of any description in their pos- 

 session, and the penalty against importing them and 

 selling them to the natives is very severe. Without 

 such a law, no foreigner would be safe in any part of 

 the archipelago. The iron that these people now use 

 appears to be wholly imported from Europe. They 

 need little except for knives, and the steel for those 

 comes mostly from Padano;. 



This evening the guard rejioiied a fire in a neigh- 

 boring kam])ong, and a bright light was seen some 

 miles off on the flanks of the Merapi. Although I 

 have now been in the archipelago nearly a year, it 

 is the first fire I have seen ; and this appears the more 

 remarkable, when we consider the highly iuflannnable 

 materials of which the native huts are built, the walls 

 being of bamboo and tlie roof of atap. However, 



