This Year
There Were Fifteen Large Praus From Macassar, And Perhaps A
Hundred Small Boats From Ceram, Goram, And Ke.
The Macassar
cargoes are worth about £1,000.
Each, and the other boats take
away perhaps about £3,000, worth, so that the whole exports may
be estimated at £18,000. per annum. The largest and most bulky
items are pearl-shell and tripang, or "beche-de-mer," with
smaller quantities of tortoise-shell, edible birds' nests,
pearls, ornamental woods, timber, and Birds of Paradise. These
are purchased with a variety of goods. Of arrack, about equal in
strength to ordinary West India rum, 3,000 boxes, each containing
fifteen half-gallon bottles, are consumed annually. Native cloth
from Celebes is much esteemed for its durability, and large
quantities are sold, as well as white English calico and American
unbleached cottons, common crockery, coarse cutlery, muskets,
gunpowder, gongs, small brass cannon, and elephants' tusks. These
three last articles constitute the wealth of the Aru people, with
which they pay for their wives, or which they hoard up as "real
property." Tobacco is in immense demand for chewing, and it must
be very strong, or an Aru man will not look at it. Knowing how
little these people generally work, the mass of produce obtained
annually shows that the islands must be pretty thickly inhabited,
especially along the coasts, as nine-tenths of the whole are
marine productions.
It was on the 2d of July that we left Aru, followed by all the
Macassar praus, fifteen in number, who had agreed to sail in
company.
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