SKILFUL DIVING. 



103 



goes, cMefly of coffee, from Menado and the interior, 

 are exported each year directly to Em'ope, but ships 

 usually have to go to China for a return-freight. In 

 1847 Macaasar was made a free port^ in imitation of 

 Singapore. 



Our steamer came alongside a vreU-huilt iron pier, 

 the only one of any kind I had yet seen in the East. 

 Though the mail then came but once a month, there 

 seemed to be no great excitement. A small group 

 of soldiers, with red and yellow epaulets, came down 

 and looted on in a most uneoncemed manner, while 

 a number of coolies gathered and began caiTying the 

 cargo on shore — ^for trucks and drays are modem 

 innovations that have not yet appeared in these dis- 

 tant regions, not even to any considerable degree in 

 Batavia. The sea-water here is remarkably pure and 

 clear. As we were hauling in to the pier, several 

 boys kept swimming round and round the ship, and 

 shoutii^ out, " Kepiiig iuan ! heping tuan ! " that is, 

 *^A small piece of money, sir! a small piece of 

 money, sir ! " and I found that when I threw a cop* 

 per coin as large as a cent, so that it would strike the 

 water edgewise, even at a distance of ten feet fi*om 

 them, some one would invariably catch it before it 

 reached the bottom. This is quite as wonderful 

 skill as is shown by any of the natives in the South 

 Seas. 



From the pier a street leads up to a large common, 

 and on the right side is Fort Rotterdam, which ^v^as 

 built soon after 1640, when the Dutch fii-st fonned a 

 settlement on the island, though they had been trad- 

 ing with the natives since 1607. In 1660 they had 



