Having Written To The Assistant Resident Of Saparua (Who Has
Jurisdiction Over The Opposite Part Of The Coast Of Ceram) For A
Boat To Pursue My Journey, I Received One Rather Larger Than
Necessary With A Crew Of Twenty Men.
I therefore bade adieu to my
kind friend Captain Van der Beck, and left on the evening after
its arrival for the village of Elpiputi, which we reached in two
days.
I had intended to stay here, but not liking the appearance
of the place, which seemed to have no virgin forest near it, I
determined to proceed about twelve miles further up the bay of
Amahay, to a village recently formed, and inhabited by indigenes
from the interior, and where some extensive cacao plantations
were being made by some gentlemen of Amboyna. I reached the place
(called Awaiya) the same afternoon, and with the assistance of
Mr. Peters (the manager of the plantations) and the native chief,
obtained a small house, got all my things on shore, and paid and
discharged my twenty boatmen, two of whom had almost driven me to
distraction by beating tom-toms the whole voyage.
I found the people here very nearly in a state of nature, and
going almost naked. The men wear their frizzly hair gathered into
a flat circular knot over the left temple, which has a very
knowing look, and in their ears cylinders of wood as thick as
one's finger, and coloured red at the ends. Armlets and anklets
of woven grass or of silver, with necklaces of beads or of small
fruits, complete their attire.
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