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

868 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.customs, especially as these people often settle in their villagesand many native women.The trade carried on at Dobbo is very considei'able. Thisyear there were fifteen large praus from Macassar, and perhapsa hundred small boats from Ceram, Goram, and K^. TheMacassar cargoes are worth about 1,000/. each, and the otherboats take away perhaps about 3,000Z. worth, so that the wholeexports may be estimated at 18,000/. per annum. The largestand most bulky items are pearl-shell and trijDang, or hcchc-demer,with smaller quantities of tortoise-shell, edible birds'nests, pearls, ornamental woods, timber, and Birds of Paradise.These are purchased with a variety of goods. Of arrack, aboutequal in strength to ordinary West India rum, 3,000 boxes, eachcontaining fifteen half-gallon bottles, are consumed annually.Native cloth from Celebes is much esteemed for its durability,and large quantities are sold, as well as white English calico andAmei'ican unbleached cottons, common crockery, coarse cutlery,muskets, gunpowder, gongs, small brass cannon, and elejohants'tusks. These three last articles constitute the wealth of theAru people, with which they pay for tlieir wives, or which theyhoard up as " real property." Tobacco is in immense demandfor chewing, and it must be very strong, or an Aru man will notlook at it. Knowing how little these jDeople generally work, themass of produce obtained annually shows that the islands mustbe pretty thickly inhabited, especially along the coasts, as ninetenthsof the whole are marine productions.It was on the 2nd of July that we left Aru, followed by all theMacassar praus, fifteen in number, who had agreed to sail incompanj^ We passed south of Banda, and then steered duewest, not seeing laud for three days, till we sighted some lowislands west of Bouton. We had a strong and steady south-eastwind day and night, which carried us on at about five knots anhour, where a clipper ship would have made twelve. The skywas continually cloudy, dai'k, and threatening, with occasionaldrizzling showers, till we were Avest of Bouru, when it clearedup and we enjoyed the bright sunny skies of the dry season forthe rest of our voyage. It is about here, therefore, that theseasons of the eastern and western regions of the Archipelagoare divided. West of this line from June to December isgenerally fine, and often very dry, the rest of the year beingthe wet season. East of it the weather is exceedingly uncertain,each island, and each side of an island, having its own peculiarities.The difference seems to consist not so much in thedistribution of the rainfall as in that of the clouds and themoistness of the atmosphere. In Aru, for example, when weleft, the little streams were all dried up, although the weatherwas gloomy ; while in January, February, and March, wlien wehad the hottest sunshine and the finest days, they were alwaysflowing. The driest time of all the year in Aru occurs inSeptember and October, just as it does in Java and Celebes.