to Dobbo to see about it, and the owner of the house, who was now
speaking to me, was one who went; but the Bugis man would not let them
see the children, and threatened to kill them if they came into his
house. He kept the children shut up in a large box, and when he went
away he took them with him. And at the end of each of these stories,
they begged me in an imploring tone to tell them if I knew where their
chief and their people now were.

By dint of questioning, I got some account of the strangers who had
taken away their people. They said they were wonderfully strong, and
each one could kill a great many Aru men; and when they were wounded,
however badly, they spit upon the place, and it immediately became well.
And they made a great net of rattans, and entangled their prisoners in
it, and sunk them in the water; and the next day, when they pulled
the net up on shore, they made the drowned men come to life again, and
carried them away.

Much more of the same kind was told me, but in so confused and rambling
a manner that I could make nothing out of it, till I inquired how long
ago it was that all this happened, when they told me that after their
people were taken away the Bugis came in their praus to trade in Aru,
and to buy tripang and birds' nests. It is not impossible that something
similar to what they related to me really happened when the early
Portuguese discoverers first came to Aru, and has formed the foundation
for a continually increasing accumulation of legend and fable. I have
no doubt that to the next generation, or even before, I myself shall be
transformed into a magician or a demigod, a worker of miracles, and
a being of supernatural knowledge. They already believe that all the
animals I preserve will come to life again; and to their children it
will be related that they actually did so. An unusual spell of fine
weather setting in just at my arrival has made them believe I can
control the seasons; and the simple circumstance of my always walking
alone in the forest is a wonder and a mystery to them, as well as my
asking them about birds and animals I have not yet seen, and showing
an acquaintance with their form, colours, and habits. These facts are
brought against me when I disclaim knowledge of what they wish me to
tell them. "You must know," say they; "you know everything: you make the
fine weather for your men to shoot, and you know all about our birds and
our animals as well as we do; and y