Convicts are employed to guard the Government
stores when the boat arrives from Ternate.
Two of them watch all
night, and often take the opportunity to roam about and commit
robberies.
The next day I received my money, and secured it well in a strong
box fastened under my bed. I took out five or six hundred cents
for daily expenses, and put them in a small japanned box, which
always stood upon my table. In the afternoon I went for a short
walk, and on my return this box and my keys, which I had
carelessly left on the table, were gone. Two of my boys were in
the house, but had heard nothing. I immediately gave information
of the two robberies to the Director at the mines and to the
Commandant at the fort, and got for answer, that if I caught the
thief in the act I might shoot him. 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.
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