uHAP. XXVIII.] IN A NATIVE PRAU. 159 



native vessels can only make the voyage once a year, 

 owing to the monsoons. They leave Macassar in Decem- 

 ber or January at the beginning of the west monsoon, and 

 return in July or August witli the full strength of the 

 east monsoon. Even by the Macassar people themselves, 

 the voyage to the Aru Islands is looked upon as a rather 

 wild and romantic expedition, full of novel sights and 

 strange adventures. He who has made it is looked up to 

 as an authority, and it remains with many the unachieved 

 ambition of their lives. I myself had hoped rather than 

 expected ever to reach this " Ultima Thule " of the East ; 

 and when I found that I really could do so now, had I but 

 courage to trust myself for a thousand miles' voyage in a 

 Bugis prau, and for six or seven months among lawless 

 traders and ferocious savages, — I felt somewhat as I did 

 when, a schoolboy, I was for the first time allowed to 

 travel outside the stage-coach, to visit that scene of all that 

 is strange and new and wonderful to young imaginations 

 — London ! 



By the help of some kind friends I was introduced to 

 the owner of one of the large praus which was to sail in a 

 few days. He was a Javanese half-caste, intelligent, mild, 

 and gentlemanly in his manners, and had a young and 

 pretty Dutch wife, whom he was going to leave behind 

 during his absence. When we talked about passage money 

 he would fix no sum, but insisted on leaving it entirely to 



