and stained with the juice of another kind of bark,
which gives it a dark red colour and renders it nearly waterproof.

Here are four very distinct kinds of people who may all be seen any
day in and about the town of Batchian. Now if we suppose a traveller
ignorant of Malay, picking up a word or two here and there of
the "Batchian language," and noting down the "physical and moral
peculiarities, manners, and customs of the Batchian people"--(for
there are travellers who do all this in four-and-twenty hours)--what an
accurate and instructive chapter we should have' what transitions would
be pointed out, what theories of the origin of races would be developed
while the next traveller might flatly contradict every statement and
arrive at exactly opposite conclusions.

Soon after I arrived here the Dutch Government introduced a new copper
coinage of cents instead of doits (the 100th instead of the 120th part
of a guilder), and all the old coins were ordered to be sent to Ternate
to be changed. I sent a bag containing 6,000 doits, and duly received
the new money by return of the boat. Then Ali went to bring it, however,
the captain required a written order; so I waited to send again the next
day, and it was lucky I did so, for that night my house was entered, all
my boxes carried out and ransacked, and the various articles left on the
road about twenty yards off, where we found them at five in the morning,
when, on getting up and finding the house empty, we rushed out to
discover tracks of the thieves. Not being able to find the copper money
which they thought I had just received, they decamped, taking nothing
but a few yards of cotton cloth and a black coat and trousers, which
latter were picked up a few days afterwards hidden in the grass. There
was no doubt whatever who were the thieves. Convicts are employed to
guard the Government stores when the boat arrives from Ternate. Two of
them watch all night, and often take the opportunity to roam about and
commit robberies.

The next day I received my money, and secured it well in a strong box
fastened under my bed. I took out five or six hundred cents for daily
expenses, and put them in a small japanned box, which always stood upon
my table. In the afternoon I went for a short walk, and on my return
this box and my keys, which I had carelessly left on the table, were
gone. Two of my boys were in the house, but had heard nothing. I
immediately gave information of the two ro