CHAP. XXXI.] MIXTURE OF RACES. 233 



influencing their language, and leaving in their descendants 

 for many generations the visible characteristics of their 

 race. If to this we add the occasional mixture of Malay, 

 Dutch, and Chinese with the indigenous Papuans, we have 

 no reason to wonder at the curious varieties of form and 

 feature occasionally to be met with in Aru. In this very 

 house there was a Macassar man, with an Aru wife and a 

 family of mixed children. In Dobbo I saw a Javanese and 

 an Amboyna man, each with an Aru wife and family ; and 

 as this kind of mixture has been going on for at least 

 three hundred years, and probably much longer, it has 

 produced a decided effect on the physical characteristics 

 of a considerable portion of the population of the islands, 

 more especially in Dobbo and the parts nearest to it. 



March 28ifA.— The " Orang-kaya " being very ill with 

 fever had begged to go home, and had arranged with one of 

 the men of the house to go on with me as his substitute. 

 Now that I wanted to move, the bugbear of the pirates was 

 brought up, and it was pronounced unsafe to go further 

 than the next small river. This would not suit me, as I 

 had determined to traverse the channel called Watelai to 

 the " blakang-tana ;" but my guide was firm in his dread 

 of pirates, of which I knew there was now no danger, as 

 several vessels had gone in search of them, as well as a 

 Dutch gunboat which had arrived since I left Dobbo. I 

 had, fortunately, by this time heard that the Dutch " Com- 



