CHAP. XXIV.] BOBBERY. 45 



traveller might flatly contradict every statement and arrive 

 at exactly opposite conclusions. 



Soon after I arrived here the Dutch Government intro- 

 duced a new copper coinage of cents instead of doits (the 

 100th instead of the 120th part of a guilder), and all the 

 old coins were ordered to be sent to Ternate to be changed. 

 I sent a bag containing 6,000 doits, and duly received the 

 new money by return of the boat. When Ali went to 

 bring it, however, the captain required a written order ; so 

 I waited to send again the next day, and it was lucky 

 I did so, for that night my house was entered, all my boxes 

 carried out and ransacked, and the various articles left on 

 the road about twenty yards off, where we found them 

 at five in the morning, when, on getting up and finding the 

 house empty, we rushed out to discover tracks of the thieves. 

 Not being able to find the copper money which they 

 thought I had just received, they decamped, taking nothing 

 but a few yards of cotton cloth and a black coat and 

 trousers, which latter were picked up a few days afterwards 

 hidden in the grass. There was no doubt whatever who 

 were the thieves. Convicts are employed to guard the 

 Government stores when the boat arrives- from Ternate. 

 Two of them watch all night, and often take the oppor- 

 tunity to roam about and commit robberies. 



The next day I received my money, and secured it well in 

 a strong box fastened under my bed. I took out five or six 



