It Is Always In The Great Sea - Its Name Is Jong;
Tell Us All About It." In Vain I Inquired
What they knew about
it; they knew nothing but that it was called "Jong," and was
always in the sea,
And was a very great ship, and concluded with,
"Perhaps that is your country?" Finding that I could not or would
not tell them anything about "Jong," there came more regrets that
I would not tell them the real name of my country; and then a
long string of compliments, to the effect that I was a much
better sort of a person than the Bugis and Chinese, who sometimes
came to trade with them, for I gave them things for nothing, and
did not try to cheat them. How long would I stop? was the next
earnest inquiry. Would I stay two or three months? They would get
me plenty of birds and animals, and I might soon finish all the
goods I had brought, and then, said the old spokesman, "Don't go
away, but send for more things from Dobbo, and stay here a year
or two." And then again the old story, "Do tell us the name of
your country. We know the Bugis men, and the Macassar men, and
the Java men, and the China men; only you, we don't know from
what country you come. Ung-lung! it can't be; I know that is not
the name of your country." Seeing no end to this long talk, I
said I was tired, and wanted to go to sleep; so after begging -
one a little bit of dry fish for his supper, and another a little
salt to eat with his sago - they went off very quietly, and I went
outside and took a stroll round the house by moonlight, thinking
of the simple people and the strange productions of Aru, and then
turned in under my mosquito curtain; to sleep with a sense of
perfect security in the midst of these good-natured savages.
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