168 MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS [chap, xxviii. 



and dry, but very palatable. In the evening the sun set 

 in a heaAy bank of clouds, which, as darkness came on, 

 assumed a fearfully black appearance. According to 

 custom, wlien strong wind or rain is expected, our large 

 sails were furled, and with their yards let down on deck, 

 and a small square foresail alone kept up. The great mat 

 sails are most awkward things to manage in rough weather. 

 The yards which support them are seventy feet long, and 

 of course very heavy ; and the only way to furl them being 

 to roll up the sail on the boom, it is a very dangerous 

 thing to have them standing when overtaken by a squall. 

 Our crew, though numerous enough for a vessel of 7(J(> 

 instead of one of 70 tons, have it very much their own 

 way, and there seems to be seldom more than a dozen at 

 work at a time. When anything important is to be done, 

 however, aU start up willingly enough, but then all think 

 themselves at liberty to give their opinion, and half a 

 dozen voices are heard giving orders, and there is such a 

 shrieking and confusion that it seems wonderful anything 

 gets done at all. 



Considering we have fifty men of several tribes and 

 tongues on board, wild, half-savage looking fellows, and few 

 of them feeling any of the restraints of morality or educa- 

 tion, we get on wonderfully well. There is no fighting or 

 quarrelling, as there would certainly be among the same 

 number of Europeans with as little restraint upon their 



