The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

—XXIV.] BATCHIAK 255a written order ;so I waited to send again the next day, and itwas lucky I did so, for that night my house was entered, all royboxes carried out and ransacked, and the various articles left onthe road about twenty yards ofl", where we found them at five inthe morning, wlien, on getting up and finding the house empty,we rushed out to discover tracks of the thieves. Not being ableto find the copper money wliich they thought I had ju.st received,they decamped, taking nothing but a few yards of cottoncloth, and a black coat and trousers, wliich latter were pickedup a few days afterwards hidden in the grass. There was nodoubt whatever who were the thieves. Convicts are employedto guard the Government stores when the boat arrives fromTernate. Two of them watch all night, and often take theopportunity to roam about and commit robberies.The next day I received my money, and secured it well in astrong box fastened under my bed. I took out five or sixliundred cents for daily expenses, and put them in a smalljapanned box, which always stood upon my table. In theafternoon I went for a short walk, and on my return this boxand my keys, which I had carelessly left on the table, were gone.Two of my boys were in the house, but had heard nothing. Iimmediately gave information of the two robberies to theDirector at the mines and to the Commandant at the fort, andgot for answer, that if I caught the thief in the act I mightshoot him. By inquiry in the village, we afterwards found thatone of the convicts who was on duty at the Government ricestoi'ein the village had quitted his guard, was seen to pass overthe bridge towards my house, was seen again within two hundredyards of my house, and on returning over the bridge into thevillage carried something under his arm, carefully covered withhis sarong. My box was stolen between the hours he was seengoing and returning, and it was so small as to be easily carriedin the way described. This seemed pi'etty clear circumstantialevidence. I accused the man and brought the witnesses to theCommandant. The man was examined, and confessed havinggone to the river close to my house to bathe ; but said he liadgone no further, having climbed up a cocoa-nut tree and broughthome two nuts, whicli he had covered over, because he ivas ashamedto he seen carrying them ! This explanation was thought satisfactory,and he was acquitted. I lost my cash and my box, aseal I much valued, with other small articles, and all my keysthe severest loss by far. Luckily my large cash-box was leftlocked, but so were others which I required to o^^xv immediately.Tliere was, however, a very clever blacksmith employed to doironwork for the mines, and he picked my locks for me when Irequired them, and in a few days made me new keys, which Iused all the time I was abroad.Towards the end of November the wet season set in, and wehad daily and almost incessant rains, with only about one ortwo hours sunshine in the morning. The flat parts of the forest