MR. .VESMJN'S FARM, 



227 



This consisted of a coffee plantation and an orchard 

 of fruit trees, a do^;en horses aod a score of cattle, with 

 a small %'illa«xe of Timorese slaves and Macassar servants. 

 One family looked after the cattle and supplied the house 

 with milk, hriuging me also a large glassful every mom- 

 iiig, one of my greatest luxuries. Others had charge of 

 the horses, which were bi-ought in every afternoon and fed 

 with cut grass. Others had to cut grass for their master'-^ 

 horses at Macassar — imt a very easy task in the dry 

 season, when all the country looks like haked mtid; or 

 in the rainy season, when miles in every direction are 

 flooded. Ilow they managed it was a mystery to me, 

 liiit they know grass must be had, and they get it One 

 lame woman had charge of a flock of ducks. Twice a day- 

 she took tliem out to feed in the marshy places, let them 

 waddle and gobble for an hour or two, and then drove 

 them hack and shut them np in a small dark shed to 

 digest their meal, whence they gave forth occasionally a 

 melancholy quack. Every night a watch was set, principally 

 for the sake of the horses, the people of Goa, only two 

 miles off, being notorious thieves, and horses offering the 

 easiest and most valuable spoil. This enabled me t-o sleep 

 in security, althougli many people in Macassar thought I 

 was running a great risk, living alone iu such a solitary 

 place and with such bad neighbours. 



]\Iy house was surrounded by a kind of straggling hedge 

 of roses, jessamines, and other flowers, and every morning 

 one of the women gathered a bsisketful of the blossoms for 

 Mr. Mesman's family. 1 generally took a couple for my 

 own breakfast table, and the supply never faded during 

 my stay, and I suppose never does. Almost every Sunday 

 Mr. M. made a shooting e.xciirsion with his eldest son, a 

 lad of fifteen, and I generally accompanied him ; for 

 though the Dntch are Protestants, they do not obser\'e 

 Sunday in the rigid manner practised in Knn;land and 

 English colonies. Tlie Goveraor of the place has his 

 public reception every Sunday evening, when card-playing 

 13 tlie regular amusement. 



On December 13th I went on beard a pran bound for 

 the Am Islatids, a journey which vilW be described in the 

 latter part of this work, 



q2 



