46 WHITE— A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 



piece of cloth round their waist, with the exception of the 

 Chief, who had a dirty piece of plaid about his shoulders. 

 They were extremely quiet, and made no attempt to come on 

 board until they were invited, when the chief stepped over the 

 side the rest followed. Unfortunately they knew not a word 

 of English, nor did they understand Malay, at least they 

 showed no sign of doing so when addressed in that language. 

 In the evening the Chief and several others paddled out to the 

 yacht, when they saw the owner go on board. It was amus- 

 ing to watch the chief and his son, who were invited to par- 

 take of tea, they sat up to the table with knife and fork imita- 

 ting all the white man's movements, and behaving in a most 

 discreet and temperate manner. At dusk the natives were all 

 sent on shore. They would not give or sell cocoanuts. The 

 Chief had three half bottles of cocoanut oil, and refused three 

 new coloured handkerchiefs for them. Samuel White again 

 writes under January 25th: 'T did not get far from the coast 

 to-day, but the country I saw was very low and wet; there was 

 a bank of sand along the beach covered with a dense mass of 

 bushes, vines, and long grass, and directly beyond this a low, 

 swampy scrub begins, and the water lay everywhere, from just 

 below the surface, to knee deep. The scrub was dense, and I 

 observed growing amongst it, the cane vine, cycus, casuarina, 

 the latter grew to an enormous height and size, some of them 

 200 feet tall, with spurred buts that would measure more than 

 20 feet round. These are the largest swamp oaks I ever saw. 

 Good numbers of cocoanut palms grew all along the coast, we 

 observed them all day when sailing along the coast of Tragan, 

 as well as My core, this must be a comparatively new ft ature 

 in the Aru Islands, for when Wallace visited these 

 Islands in 1857 there was not a single tree, 

 the nature of the country prevented me from 

 feeling that amount of satisfaction that I should 

 have, upon being on a new field where every sound was new, 

 but I distinguished many old and well known voices, among 

 them Ralina tricolour, White Cockatoo, Blue Mountain Parrot, 

 Oriole, Leather-head, and I shot a specimen of Glariola gral- 

 larea. The wind has been light all day, and it is quite calm 

 this evening." Next day, Saturday 26th, there was not a 

 breath of air, and very soon a light drizzly rain set in, the 

 specimens taken on the previous day were preserved. At 10 

 ia.m. a light wind sprang up, so all sail was made, but very 

 soon the boat was becalmed, and a light rain set in and con 

 tinued for some time. Late in the afternoon a light breeze 



