Them up in a small dark shed to digest their meal,
whence they gave forth occasionally a melancholy quack. Every
night a watch was set, principally for the sake of the horses -
the people of Goa, only two miles off, being notorious thieves,
and horses offering the easiest and most valuable spoil. This
enabled me to sleep in security, although many people in Macassar
thought I was running a great risk, living alone in such a
solitary place and with such bad neighbours.
My house was surrounded by a kind of straggling hedge of roses,
jessamines, and other flowers, and every morning one of the women
gathered a basketful of the blossoms for Mr. Mesman's family. I
generally took a couple for my own breakfast table, and the
supply never failed during my stay, and I suppose never does.
Almost every Sunday Mr. M. made a shooting excursion with his
eldest son, a lad of fifteen, and I generally accompanied him;
for though the Dutch are Protestants, they do not observe Sunday
in the rigid manner practised in England and English colonies.
The Governor of the place has his public reception every Sunday
evening, when card-playing is the regular amusement.
On December 13th I went on board a prau bound for the Aru
Islands, a journey which will be described in the latter part of
this work.
On my return, after a seven months' absence, I visited another
district to the north of Macassar, which will form the subject of
the next chapter.
CHAPTER XVI.
CELEBES.
(MACASSAR. JULY TO NOVEMBER, 1857.)
I REACHED Macassar again on the 11th of July, and established
myself in my old quarters at Mamajam, to sort, arrange, clean,
and pack up my Aru collections. This occupied me a month; and
having shipped them off for Singapore, had my guns repaired, and
received a new one from England, together with a stock of pins,
arsenic, and other collecting requisites. I began to feel eager
for work again, and had to consider where I should spend my time
until the end of the year; I had left Macassar seven months
before, a flooded marsh being ploughed up for the rice-sowing.
The rains had continued for five months, yet now all the rice was
cut, and dry and dusty stubble covered the country just as when
I had first arrived there.
After much inquiry I determined to visit the district of Maros,
about thirty miles north of Macassar, where Mr. Jacob Mesman, a
brother of my friend, resided, who had kindly offered to find me
house-room and give me assistance should I feel inclined to visit
him. I accordingly obtained a pass from the Resident, and having
hired a boat set off one evening for Maros.
