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. The women wear similar ornaments,
but have their hair loose. All are tall, with a dark brown skin,
and well marked Papuan physiognomy. There is an Amboyna
schoolmaster in the village, and a good number of children attend
school every morning. Such of the inhabitants as have become
Christians may be known by their wearing their hair loose, and
adopting to some extent the native Christian dress-trousers and a
loose shirt. Very few speak Malay, all these coast villages
having been recently formed by inducing natives to leave the
inaccessible interior. In all the central part of Ceram there new
remains only one populous village in the mountains. Towards the
east and the extreme west are a few others, with which exceptions
all the inhabitants of Ceram are collected on the coast. In the
northern and eastern districts they are mostly Mahometans, while
on the southwest coast, nearest Amboyna, they are nominal
Christians. In all this part of the Archipelago the Dutch make
very praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of the