CHAP. XXII.] BODING A. 1 5 



owner was willing to vacate if I would pay him five 

 guilders for a month's rent. As this was something less 

 than the fee-simple value of the dwelling, I agreed to 

 give it him for the privilege of immediate occupation, only 

 stipulating that he was to make the roof water-tight. 

 This he agreed to do, and came every day to talk and 

 look at me ; and when I each time insisted upon his 

 immediately mending the roof according to contract, all 

 the answer I could get was, " Ea nanti," (Yes, wait a little.) 

 However, when I threatened to deduct a quarter guilder 

 from the rent for every day it was not done, and a guilder 

 extra if any of my things were wetted, he condescended to 

 work for half an hour, which did all that was absolutely 

 necessary. 



On the top of a bank, of about a hundred feet ascent from 

 the water, stands the very small but substantial fort erected 

 by the Portuguese. Its battlements and turrets have long 

 since been overthrown by earthquakes, by which its mas- 

 sive structure has also been rent ; but it cannot well be 

 thrown down, being a solid mass of stonework, forming a 

 platform about ten feet high, and perhaps forty feet square. 

 It is approached by narrow steps under an archway, and 

 is now surmounted by a row of thatched hovels, in which 

 live the small garrison, consisting of a Dutch corporal and 

 four Javanese soldiers, the sole representatives of the 

 Netherlands Government in the island. The village is 



