CHAP. XXV) II.] 



IN A NATiFE FRAU, 



411 



and fine, ■ It is simply a bucket half filled with water, in 

 which lloata the half of a well-scraped cocoa-nut shell 

 In the bottom of this shell is a very small hole, so that 

 when placed to float in the bucket a fine thread of water 

 squirts up into it This gradually fills the shell, and the 

 size of the hole is so adjusted to the capacity of the vessel 

 that, exactly at the end of an hour, plump it goes to the 

 bottom. The watch then criea out the number of hours 

 from sunrise, and sets the shell a6oat a<rain empty. This 

 is a very good metusurer of time. I tesled it with my 

 w^ateh and found that it hardly varied a minute from one 

 hour to another, uor did the motion of the vessel have any 

 effect upon it, as the water in the bucket of course ke]jfc 

 level It lias a great advantage for a rude people in being 

 easily understood, in being rather bulky and easy to see, 

 and in the fiual snbmergence being accompanied with a 

 little bubbling and commotion of the water, wliich calls 

 the attention to it. It is also quickly replaced il' lost while 

 in harbour. 



Our captain and owner I find to be a quiet, good- 

 tempered man, who seems to get on very well with all 

 about him. When at sea he drinks no wine or spirits, 

 but indulges only in coifee and cakes, morning and after- 

 noon, in company with his supei^rgo and assistants. He 

 is a man of yome little education, cnn read and write 

 well both Dutch and Malay, uses a compa.ss, and has a 

 chart He hti^ been a trader to Am for many years, and 

 is well known to both Europeans and natives in this part 

 of the world, 



Dm. 2Uh, — Fine, and little wind. No land in sight for 

 the fii-st time since we left Macassar. At noon calm, with 

 heavy showers, in which our crew wash their clothes, and 

 in the afternoon the prau is a>vered with shirts, trousei'S, 

 and sarongs of various gay colours. I made a discovery 

 to-duy which at first rather alarmed me. The two ports, 

 or openings, through which the tillers enter from the 

 latenil rudders are nob more than tliree or four feet above 

 the suriace of the water, which thus has a free entrance 

 into the vessel. I of course had imagined that this open 

 epace from one side to the other was separated from the 

 hold by a water-tight bulkhead, so that a sea entering 



