CHAPTEE I. 



FROM KAJELI TO THE LAKE. 



Prom Amboina to Buiu — Xajeli — Trade of Kajeli — ^Birds — Eiyer Apu — Wiii 

 Bloi village — Village of Wai Gelan — The Matakau — ^Forced encampments 

 — ^Wai Klaba^ — ^A Pomalied mountain — Wasilale — Hospitable reception 

 — Houses — ^Musical performance — Pomali signs — Arrive at Laha. 



Having packed up and despatched my Timor-laut collections 

 to Europe, I left Araboina on the afternoon of the 7th of 



November (A remaining behind with our kind hosts) for 



Burn, an island a short distance to the west, with the inten- 

 tion of reaching the central region round the rarely visited 

 Lake of Wakolo. Next morning at daybreak we were steam- 

 ing under the shade of the " Mother and Daughter " mountains 

 of the Dutch maps, whose picturesquely rugged peaks, stand- 

 ing out against the sky like giant minster towers, mark the 

 eastern promontory of the Bay of Kajeli, in whose southern 

 bend lies the town of the same name, where I landed in the 

 forenoon, and was kindly offered a room in the house of Post- 

 holder Bergmann. 



The town is situated on a low morassy plain, which, during 

 the rainy season, is often wholly inundated, and has the 

 reputation of being very unhealthy, the people being afflicted 

 with malarial and rheumatic fevers, and I am told also with 

 sterility. Its most conspicuous edifice is the Fori., enclosed in 

 massive embrasured walls erected in 1778 by the Dutch close 

 to the shore, to protect the Bay from the pirate hordes who 

 used to make Bum their special slave-kidnapping ground. 

 There is now, however, a distance of from seven hundred to 

 eight hundred yards of a tall grass covered sandy flat separat- 

 ing it from the margin of the water, which has been gained 

 from the sea in little over 100 years. 



Its great items of export are fisli (which, during the latter 

 months of the year are driven into the Bay in enormous 



