to the eastward of Arru, consisting of two
large islands called the greater and lesser Ki, and a number of small
islands lying to the westward of the latter.

The great Ki is about sixty miles long, high, and mountainous; the lesser
Ki and the small islands are low, few parts of the group attaining an
elevation of more than fifty feet.

Owing to the light airs and unsettled weather attendant on the change of
the monsoon, it was not till the 3rd that we arrived off the village of
Ki Illi, situated on the north-east end of the great Ki, and finding no
anchorage, the brig stood on and off, while we landed in the boats at the
village which is built close down on the beach and surrounded by a wall,
but not so strongly protected by its position as the villages in Timor
Laut. The houses, like those at Oliliet, were raised on piles above the
ground, but were not surmounted by the carved gables which seem to be
peculiar to the Tenimber group.

In the centre of the village we noticed a large building, evidently a
place of worship, surrounded by a grass plot, on which a number of stones
were ranged in a circle with some taller ones in the middle. Ki Illi is
celebrated for its manufacture of pottery, of which we saw many
specimens, formed with great taste, of a coarse porous material, which
being unglazed is well adapted for cooling by evaporation, in the manner
so much used in the east.

BOAT-BUILDING AT KI ILLI.

We had also an opportunity of seeing the boats, which are built in great
numbers from the excellent timber with which all the islands of this
group abound. They are much used by the traders frequenting the Arru
Islands, and were highly spoken of for their durability and speed. The
boats we saw, though they varied considerably in size, were all built on
the same plan, having a considerable beam, a clean entrance and run, a
flat floor, and the stem and stern post projecting considerably above the
gunwales. They were all built of planks cut out of solid timber to the
form required, dowelled together by wooden pegs, as a cooper fastens the
head of a cask, and the whole afterwards strengthened by timbers, lashed
with split rattan to solid cleats left for the purpose in each plank,
during the process of hewing it into shape.

Four of the smallest of these boats were purchased for the use of the
colony, for about 2 1/2 dollars each, and were found to answer very well.

After leaving Ki Illi we sailed to the southward, a