KALAY MODE OF MAKINQ MATCHLOCKS. 4Y3 



tors. They were manufactured here aud sold to the 

 more warlike nations at tlie northera end of the isl- 

 and. The barrels of their matclilocks were made by 

 winding a flat bar of iron spirally around a circular 

 rod and welding it into one piece ; and Marsden, who 

 probably saw some of these guns, describes them as 

 being of the " justest bore." They also manufactured 

 an infciior kind of powder. These arts they may 

 have learned from the Chinese, who practised them 

 long before they were known in Europe, and who 

 probably came down the coast to the Malay penin- 

 sula and this island centuries before the Portuguese 

 sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. 



At present, all the natives, except the militia, 

 within the limits of the Dutch territory, are abso- 

 lutely forbidden by the Dutch Government to have 

 powder or fire-arms of any description in their pos- 

 session, and the penalty against importing them and 

 selling them to the natives is very severe. Without 

 such a law, no foreigner would be safe in any part of 

 the ai'cliipelago. The ii-on that these people now use 

 appears to be wholly imported from Europe. They 

 need little except tor knives, and the steel for those 

 comes mostly from Padang. 



This evening the guard reported a fire in a neigh- 

 boring kampong, and a bright light was seen some 

 miles off on the flanks of the Mcrapi. Although I 

 have now been in the archipelago nearly a year, it 

 is the first fire I have seen ; and this appears the more 

 remarkable, when we consider the liighly inflammable 

 materials of which the native huts are built, the walls 

 being of l)araboo and the roof of atap. However, 



