These Advantages, With Its Situation In The Centre Of
The Papuan Trading District, Lead To Its Being So Much Frequented
By The Bugis Traders.
Here the Goram men bring the produce of
their little voyages, which they exchange for cloth, sago cakes,
and opium; and the inhabitants of all the surrounding islands
visit it with the game object.
It is the rendezvous of the praus
trading to various parts of New Guinea, which here assort and dry
their cargoes, and refit for the voyage home. Tripang and mussoi
bark are the most bulky articles of produce brought here, with
wild nutmegs, tortoiseshell, pearls, and birds of Paradise; in
smaller quantities. The villagers of the mainland of Ceram bring
their sago, which is thus distributed to the islands farther
east, while rice from Bali and Macassar can also be purchased at
a moderate price. The Goram men come here for their supplies of
opium, both for their own consumption and for barter in Mysol and
Waigiou, where they have introduced it, and where the chiefs and
wealthy men are passionately fond of it. Schooners from Bali come
to buy Papuan slaves, while the sea-wandering Bugis arrive from
distant Singapore in their lumbering praus, bringing thence the
produce of the Chinamen's workshops and Kling's bazaar, as well
as of the looms of Lancashire and Massachusetts.
One of the Bugis traders who had arrived a few days before from
Mysol, brought me news of my assistant Charles Allen, with whom
he was well acquainted, and who, he assured me; was making large
collections of birds and insects, although he had not obtained
any birds of Paradise; Silinta, where he was staying, not being a
good place for them.
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