The End Of June Was Now Approaching, The East Monsoon Had Set In
Steadily, And In Another Week Or Two Dobbo Would Be Deserted.
Preparations For Departure Were Everywhere Visible, And Every
Sunny Day (Rather Rare Now) The Streets Were As Crowded And As
Busy As Beehives.
Heaps of tripang were finally dried and packed
up in sacks; mother-of-pearl shell, tied up with rattans
Into
convenient bundles, was all day long being carried to the beach
to be loaded; water-casks were filled, and cloths and mat-sails
mended and strengthened for the run home before the strong east
wind. Almost every day groups of natives arrived from the most
distant parts of the islands, with cargoes of bananas and sugar-
cane to exchange for tobacco, sago, bread, and other luxuries,
before the general departure. The Chinamen killed their fat pig
and made their parting feast, and kindly sent me some pork, and a
basin of birds' nest stew, which had very little more taste than
a dish of vermicelli. My boy Ali returned from Wanumbai, where I
had sent him alone for a fortnight to buy Paradise birds and
prepare the skins; he brought me sixteen glorious specimens, and
had he not been very ill with fever and ague might have obtained
twice the number. He had lived with the people whose house I had
occupied, and it is a proof of their goodness, if fairly treated,
that although he took with him a quantity of silver dollars to
pay for the birds they caught, no attempt was made to rob him,
which might have been done with the most perfect impunity.
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