TKADING PORTS. 
96 
people are evidently of a mised race^ the natural result of 
Bti-angers from the west having married and settled 
among them during an intercourse wliicb appears to have 
extended over several centuries. The characteristics of 
the aboriginal inhabitants will therefore have to be sought 
among the islands remote from the trading ports ; and in 
order to furnish the most authentic information concera- 
ing them, it will be necessary to borrow very considerably 
from Lieutenant KolflPs narrative of his voyage in 1826. 
The writer visited Dobbo, the chief port of the group, 
in lS41j in Her Majesty's Ship 'Britomart/ but as his 
attention was chiefly directed towards ascertaining the 
commercial resources of the islands, the particulars he 
was able to gather respecting the aborigines only served 
to confirm the general correctness of Lieutenant KolfiPs 
details on all those points which came under his obser- 
vation. 
The expedition of Lieutenant Kolff in the ' Dourga' 
had been planned by the Governor-general of Netherlands 
India, Baron Van der Capellen, during a visit be made to 
the principal settlements of the IMoluccas in 1824, and 
which has been attended with so many beneficial results 
to the native inhabitants of these eastern islands. This 
was the first occasion in which the Moluccas had been 
honoured by the presence of a Governor-general since 
the days of Van Dicmen, the pati-on of Tasman and 
Australian discovery; and, as might be expected, the 
event created great enthusiasm among all classes, which 
seems to have extended to the Arms, the most remote 
group that had come tmder the influence of the Dutch 
establishments* Lieutenant Kolff says : 
