46 BARTEEING SCENE. 



had been brought from Dowde or New Guinea, many 

 years ago. Siwai and his sons, at their own urgent 

 request, were allowed a passage with us to the ship, 

 and remained all night there, sleeping among the 

 folds of a sail upon the poop. 



Dec. 12th. — In the morning a party landed at 

 Bikar (abreast of the ship) to look for water, but the 

 pool which on several occasions supplied the Fly, 

 Bramble, and Prince George, was now dry. At 

 this season too, during the prevalence of N.W. 

 winds, landing is difficult on account of the surf, 

 and we had much trouble in keeping our guns dry 

 while up to the waist in water. In the afternoon 

 both cutters were sent to Mogor to procure vege- 

 tables for the ship's company by barter with the 

 natives, and I accompanied the party, but, contrary 

 to expectation, no one was allowed to land, the 

 person in authority " having seen something"" on 

 shore to alarm him, the nature of which continued 

 to us a mystery. The second cutter laid off, and 

 the first remained in water about knee-deep, sur- 

 rounded by a crowd of unarmed natives. The scene 

 was at that time very animated — groups of men, 

 women, and children, were to be seen staggering 

 under a load of cocoa-nuts, wading out to the boats, 

 scrambling to be first served, and shouting out to 

 attract attention to their wares, which in addition 

 included some tortoise-shell, a few yams, bananas 

 and mangos. Siwai was present in the boat, and 

 by exercising his authority in our behalf, matters 



