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.
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