CHAP. XIV.] AMBOINA. 327 



pyjamas, tliey were slumberiug peacefully in their cabins until the 

 hour of the ante-prandial " pijtje " should arrive. The climate had 

 not been without its effect even upon ourselves, but the desire to 

 get our mails, and to taste bread and vegetables once more was too 

 strong for us, and we landed in the full glare of the early afternoon 

 sun intent on this and other business. "We might have saved our- 

 selves the trouble. Amboina slept, and we did but get hot and 

 impatient. 



Our walk was not quite fruitless, however. The town boasts of 

 a hackney carriage, which we were fortunate enough to secure, 

 and we drove in it later to pay our visit to the Eesident. Almost 

 all the Dutch officials are excellent linguists, and we were therefore 

 rather surprised to find that our host spoke no English, and only a 

 few words of French. Our chief concern was to secure coal, for 

 the supply in our bunkers was nearly exhausted, but it was at first 

 refused us, and we were referred to the Netherlands India Shipping 

 Company, though, thanks to the letters we carried from the Dutch 

 Admiral, we eventually succeeded in obtaining it. Officialism — 

 contrary to what we had experienced in Ternate and elsewhere — 

 appeared to be in the ascendant at Amboina, and, like the 

 Challengers people, we did not succeed in foregathering with the 

 authorities. The Eesident indeed, possibly deterred by linguistic 

 difficulties, did not even return our call. Perhaps there were 

 other reasons, for the society in the town had been for some time 

 rent by many schisms, owing to a feud existing between the civil 

 and military authorities, while the third class, the merchants, 

 occupied an uncomfortable position between the two. 



The town itself and its surroundings — the old fort through 

 which one passes to emerge on the wide green plein ; the red 

 laterite roads leading past the cool-looking huts, well-nigh hidden 

 by the masses of dark green foliage of the fruit-trees ; the orang 

 Sirani, in whose veins flows the blood of half a dozen nations — 

 Portuguese, Malay, Dutch, Chinese and Kling, dressed in their 

 gloomy and utterly unsuitable costume of black, — all these have 



