disappointed, as he was struck nearly every time the spear was thrown.

NATIVE SPORTS.

After the dance was over sundry gymnastics followed, and the evening was
wound up by an exhibition of the Ombres Chinoises, in which the soldiers
seemed to take very great delight. The moving figures were very cleverly
managed; and, to judge from the shouts of laughter which accompanied the
storyteller in his tale, it must have been a very amusing one.

July 5.

The Resident having invited us to visit the nutmeg plantations on Great
Banda, we accompanied him to the landing-place at Lontar, where we found
chairs waiting for us, fitted with long poles, like those of a sedan, and
were carried by eight men, who placed the poles on their shoulders, thus
raising the chair, with its occupant, above their heads, a position which
we found at first anything but pleasant.

In these conveyances we ascended to the summit of the island by a broad
flight of stone steps, leading up from the landing-place, at the top of
which we saw a ruined fort, and a church, that still retains traces of
having been a fine building, though it had been much shaken by an
earthquake. After passing the church, we entered the nutmeg plantations.

NUTMEG PLANTATIONS.

The scenery was most beautiful. Under the shade of large kanari trees,
whose luxuriant foliage most effectually excluded the sun's rays, were
thousands of nutmeg trees loaded with blossom and fruit in every stage of