218 TRAVELS LV THE EAST INDIAN ARCHlPELAGa 



it is diflScult for them to caiTj, hut is design ed, like 

 the State-prison dress in our country, to show that 

 they are common felons. The one on board our 

 ship, who will be executed on our anival, killed a 

 secretary of the government — a European — in cold 

 blood, at Banda, where he had already been banished 

 for murder, like moat of his fellows. The secretary^ 

 ha^'ing occasion to arrange some papers in a box at 

 the farther end of his room, noticed this common 

 coolie disturbing some letters on his desk, and natu- 

 rally ordered him to let them alone, and then leaned 

 forward to continue his work. Instantly the Java^ 

 nese, without further provocation, sprang forward^ 

 and, striking him on the back of the head with a 

 hea\'y cleaver, killed him on the spot. Afterward, 

 when this villain was seized and tried, he could as- 

 sign no other reason for his committing the murder 

 than the order from his superior to attend to his 

 own business. When he heard that he was seoi- 

 tenced to death, he coolly remarked that he cared 

 veiy little, as they would hang him, and not take 

 off his head, so that what he had done would in no 

 way affect his entering Paradise I 



In 1852 some natives came from Timur, Timur- 

 laut, and the neighboring islands, to work on the 

 nutmeg-plantations, or, as the Dutch prefer to call 

 them, parks." In two years these people numbered 

 two bundled and thirteen, but they have not in- 

 creased since to such a degree as to form a laige 

 fraction of the whole population. 



But while we have been glancing back over the 

 eventful history of the Bandas, our fast yacht has 



