the
little boys shot with their bows and arrows, kept them all well supplied
with tobacco and gambir, besides enabling them to accumulate a stock
of beads and coppers for future expenses. The owner of the house was
supplied gratis with a little rice, fish, or salt, whenever he asked for
it, which I must say was not very often. On parting, I distributed among
them my remnant stock of salt and tobacco, and gave my host a flask
of arrack, and believe that on the whole my stay with these simple
and good-natured people was productive of pleasure and profit to
both parties. I fully intended to come back; and had I known that
circumstances would have prevented my doing so, shoed have felt some
sorrow in leaving a place where I had first seen so many rare and
beautiful living things, and bad so fully enjoyed the pleasure which
fills the heart of the naturalist when he is so fortunate as to discover
a district hitherto unexplored, and where every day brings forth new and
unexpected treasures. We loaded our boat in the afternoon, and, starting
before daybreak, by the help of a fair wind reached Dobbo late the same
evening.

CHAPTER XXXII. THE ARU ISLANDS.--SECOND RESIDENCE AT DOBBO.

(MAY AND JUNE 1857.)

DOBBO was full to overflowing, and I was obliged to occupy the
court-house where the Commissioners hold their sittings. They had now
left the island, and I found the situation agreeable, as it was at the
end of the village, with a view down the principal street. It was a mere
shed, but half of it had a roughly boarded floor, and by putting up a
partition and opening a window I made it a very pleasant abode. In one
of the boxes I had left in charge of Herr Warzbergen, a colony of small
ants had settled and deposited millions of eggs. It was luckily a fine
hot day, and by carrying the box some distance from the house, and
placing every article in the sunshine for an hour or two, I got rid of
them without damage, as they were fortunately a harmless species.

Dobbo now presented an animated appearance. Five or six new houses
had been added to the street; the praus were all brought round to the
western side of the point, where they were hauled up on the beach, and
were being caulked and covered with a thick white lime-plaster for the
homeward voyage, making them the brightest and cleanest looking
things in the place. Most of the small boats had returned from the
"blakang-tana" (back country), as the side of the islands toward