By Inquiry In The Village, We
Afterwards Found That One Of The Convicts Who Was On Duty At The
Government
Rice-store in the village had quitted his guard, was
seen to pass over the bridge towards my house, was
Seen again
within two hundred yards of my house, and on returning over the
bridge into the village carried something under his arm,
carefully covered with his sarong. My box was stolen between the
hours he was seen going and returning, and it was so small as to
be easily carried in the way described. This seemed pretty clear
circumstantial evidence. I accused the man and brought the
witnesses to the Commandant. The man was examined, and confessed
having gone to the river close to my house to bathe; but said he
had gone no farther, having climbed up a cocoa-nut tree and
brought home two nuts, which he had covered over, _because he was
ashamed to be seen carrying them!_ This explanation was thought
satisfactory, and he was acquitted. I lost my cash and my box, a
seal I much valued, with other small articles, and all my keys-
the severest loss by far. Luckily my large cash-box was left
locked, but so were others which I required to open immediately.
There was, however, a very clever blacksmith employed to do
ironwork for the mines, and he picked my locks for me when I
required them, and in a few days made me new keys, which I used
all the time I was abroad.
Towards the end of November the wet season set in, and we had
daily and almost incessant rains, with only about one or two
hours' sunshine in the morning. The flat parts of the forest
became flooded, the roads filled with mud, and insects and birds
were scarcer than ever. On December Lath, in the afternoon, we
had a sharp earthquake shock, which made the house and furniture
shale and rattle for five minutes, and the trees and shrubs wave
as if a gust of wind had passed over them. About the middle of
December I removed to the village, in order more easily to
explore the district to the west of it, and to be near the sea
when I wished to return to Ternate. I obtained the use of a good-
sized house in the Campong Sirani (or Christian village), and at
Christmas and the New Year had to endure the incessant gun-
firing, drum-beating, and fiddling of the inhabitants.
These people are very fond of music and dancing, and it would
astonish a European to visit one of their assemblies. We enter a
gloomy palm-leaf hut, in which two or three very dim lamps barely
render darkness visible. The floor is of black sandy earth, the
roof hid in a smoky impenetrable blackness; two or three benches
stand against the walls, and the orchestra consists of a fiddle,
a fife, a drum, and a triangle. There is plenty of company,
consisting of young men and women, all very neatly dressed in
white and black - a true Portuguese habit.
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