254 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
villages, talking and chatting all the time, and assiduously direct- 
ing the attention of his visiter to whatever he thought would be 
deemed worthy of notice. He finally accompanied the officer to 
the water's edge, lingering and delaying his departure to the last 
moment. All this friendly attention was voluntarily bestowed, 
apparently without any interested motive or expectation of re- 
ward, as he appeared to experience unanticipated pleasure on re- 
ceiving a few toys in requital for his kindness. They all appear 
very fond of trinkets, thoiigh possessing very few. 
At our watering-place on shore, and also on board the ship, we 
were daily visited by small parties from the neighbouring villages, 
with fruits and other articles for sale or barter. In exchange they 
received knives, handkerchiefs, and naval buttons ; some of our 
middies stripping their jackets to buy cocoanuts, chickens, and 
other palatable productions. These natives seem to have some, 
though very imperfect, knowledge of the value of money. If 
one of them with half a dozen fowls was asked the price of the 
lot, his reply was, invariably, " dollar," and precisely the same 
answer would be made by another with a lot of double the num- 
ber. Though very shy at first, their boats were now almost con- 
stantly alongside the frigate, with every kind of refreshment that 
this part of the island could furnish. 
Independent of a great variety of fruits and vegetables, they 
have the flesh of buffaloes, goats, and sheep ; pork of course is 
forbidden in the Mahommedan code. Their buffaloes are large 
and fat, and are kept tied by small cords, passed through a per- 
foration made between the animals' nostrils. They are tame and 
docile to the natives, but wild and restiff whenever any of our 
countrymen approached them. 
The canoes of the natives are constructed of a single piece 
of timber, the trunk of a large tree, cut or burned out, and ele- 
vated at the head and stern. The mast, yard, and paddles are 
made of bamboo, and the sail of matting ; they will carry two or 
three, and sometimes four persons. They have also larger boats, 
OT proas, some of which were daily seen passing along the coast, 
probably from Bantam, filled with Malays, and bearing the Dutch 
flag. 
On Tuesday, the thirteenth of March, not having yet completed 
her supply of wood and water, the Potomac still lay at her an- 
