Again, I Heard The Word "Jafui" Often
Repeated, And Could See, Without Inquiry, That Its Meaning Was
"He's Gone," As In Portuguese.
"Porco," too, seems a common name,
though the people have no idea of its European meaning.
This
cleared up the difficulty. I at once understood that some early
Portuguese traders had penetrated to these islands, and mixed
with the natives, influencing their language, and leaving in
their descendants for many generations the visible
characteristics of their race. If to this we add the occasional
mixture of Malay, Dutch, and Chinese with the indigenous Papuans,
we have no reason to wonder at the curious varieties of form and
feature occasionally to be met with in Aru. In this very house
there was a Macassar man, with an Aru wife and a family of mixed
children. In Dobbo I saw a Javanese and an Amboyna man, each with
an Aru wife and family; and as this kind of mixture has been
going on for at least three hundred years, and probably much
longer, it has produced a decided effect on the physical
characteristics of a considerable portion of the population of
the islands, more especially in Dobbo and the parts nearest to
it.
March 28th. - The "Orang-kaya" being very ill with fever had
begged to go home, and had arranged with one of the men of the
house to go on with me as his substitute. Now that I wanted to
move, the bugbear of the pirates was brought up, and it was
pronounced unsafe to go further than the next small river. This
world not suit me, as I had determined to traverse the channel
called Watelai to the "blakang-tana;" but my guide was firm in
his dread of pirates, of which I knew there was now no danger, as
several vessels had gone in search of them, as well as a Dutch
gunboat which had arrived since I left Dobbo. I had, fortunately,
by this time heard that the Dutch "Commissie" had really arrived,
and therefore threatened that if my guide did not go with me
immediately, I would appeal to the authorities, and he would
certainly be obliged to gig a back the cloth which the "Orang-
kaya" had transferred to him in prepayment. This had the desired
effect; matters were soon arranged, and we started the next
morning. The wind, however, was dead against us, and after rowing
hard till midday we put in to a small river where there were few
huts, to cook our dinners. The place did not look very promising,
but as we could not reach our destination, the Watelai river,
owing to the contrary wind, I thought we might as well wait here
a day or two. I therefore paid a chopper for the use of a small
shed, and got my bed and some boxes on shore. In the evening,
after dark, we were suddenly alarmed by the cry of "Bajak!
bajak!" (Pirates!) The men all seized their bows and spears, and
rushed down to the beach; we got hold of our guns and prepared
for action, but in a few minutes all came back laughing and
chattering, for it had proved to be only a small boat and some of
their own comrades returned from fishing.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 108 of 213
Words from 55870 to 56418
of 111511
