d
a few years since.

About five o'clock a pack-horse bearing my guns and clothes arrived,
with my men Ali and Manuel, who had come on foot. The sun set, and it
soon became dark, and we got rather hungry as we sat wearily under the
shed and no one came. Still hour after hour we waited, until about nine
o'clock, the Pumbuckle, the Rajah, some priests, and a number of their
followers arrived and took their seats around us. We shook hands, and
for some minutes there was a dead silence. Then the Rajah asked what
we wanted; to which Mr. Ross replied by endeavouring to make them
understand who we were, and why we had come, and that we had no sinister
intentions whatever; and that we had not brought a letter from the
"Anak Agong," merely because we had thought it quite unnecessary. A long
conversation in the Bali language then took place, and questions were
asked about my guns, and what powder I had, and whether I used shot or
bullets; also what the birds were for, and how I preserved them, and
what was done with them in England. Each of my answers and explanations
was followed by a low and serious conversation which we could not
understand, but the purport of which we could guess. They were evidently
quite puzzled, and did not believe a word we had told them. They then
inquired if we were really English, and not Dutch; and although we
strongly asserted our nationality, they did not seem to believe us.

After about an hour, however, they brought us some supper (which was
the same as the breakfast, but without the fish), and after it some very
weak coffee and pumpkins boiled with sugar. Having discussed this,
a second conference took place; questions were again asked, and
the answers again commented on. Between whiles lighter topics were
discussed. My spectacles (concave glasses) were tried in succession by
three or four old men, who could not make out why they could not see
through them, and the fact no doubt was another item of suspicion
against me. My beard, too, was the subject of some admiration, and many
questions were asked about personal peculiarities which it is not the
custom to allude to in European society. At length, about one in the
morning, the whole party rose to depart, and, after conversing some time
at the gate, all went away. We now begged the interpreter, who with a
few boys and men remained about us, to show us a place to sleep in, at
which he seemed very much surprised, saying he thought we were very wel