472 



THE AEU ISLJXDS, 



with their bowa and arrowaj kept them all well supplied 

 with tobacco and garabir, basides enabling them to accu- 

 mulate a stock of beads and coppers for future expenaea. 

 The owner of the house was supplied gratis with a little 

 rice, fish, or salt, whenever he asked for it, which I must 

 say was not very often. On parting, I distributed among 

 them my remnant stock of salt and tobacco, and .gave my 

 host a tlask of an*ack, ami believe that on t he whide my 

 stay ^vith these simple and good-natured people was pro- 

 ductive of pleasure and pmtifc to both parties. I fully 

 intended to come back; and hail I known that eircuin- 

 stances woidd have prevented my doing so, should have 

 felt some sorrow in lea^g a place where I had first seen 

 90 many rare and beautiful living things, and had so fully 

 enjoyed the pleasure which fills the heart of the naturalist 

 when he is so fortunate as to discover a district hitherto 

 unexplored, and where every day brings forth new and 

 unexpected treasures. We lomled our boat in the after- 

 noon, and, starting before daybreak, by the help of a fair 

 wind reached Dobbo late the same evening. 



CHAPTER XXXIL 



THE AEU ISLANDS. — SECOND EEStDEHCE AT DOBBO. 

 (mat asd jttkb 1857.) 



DOBBO was full to overflowing, and I waa obliged to 

 occupy the court-house where the Commissioners 

 hold their sittings. They had now left the island, and I 

 found the situation agreeable, as it was at the end of the 

 village, with a view down the principal street. It was a 

 mere shed, but half of it had a roughly boarded floor, and 

 by putting up a partition and opening a %vindow I made it 

 a very pleasinit aboik. In one of the boxes I bad left 

 in charge of Herr Warjibergen, a colony of small ant^ had 

 settled and deposited millions of eggs. It was luckily a 

 fine hot day, and by carrying the box some distance fiom 



