and laughed and joked with him in reply. Then, just as we
were starting, one of the strongest men refused to go at all, ■>
and his master had to beg and persuade him to go, and
only succeeded by assuring him that I would give him
something; so with this promise, and knowing that there
would be plenty to eat and drink and little to do, the black
gentleman was induced to favour us with his company and
assistance. In three hours’ rowing and1 sailing we reached
our destination, Sedingole, where there is a house belonging
to the Sultan, of Tidore, who1 sometimes- goes there
hunting. It was a dirty ruinous shed; withi no furniture
but a few bamboo bedsteads: On taking a walk into the
country, I saw at once that it was no1 place for me. For
many miles extends-a plain covered1 with' coarse high grass,
thickly dotted here and there with trees, the forest country
cnly commencing at the hills a good- way in the interior.
Such a place would' produce few birds and no insects, and
we therefore arranged to1 stay only two days, and then go
on to Dodinga,. at the narrow central isthmus of Gilolo,
whence my friends would return to Ternate. We amused
ourselves shooting parrots, lories, and pigeons, and trying to
shoot deer, of which* we saw plenty, but could not get one ;
and our crew went out fishing with a net, so we did not
want for provisions;. When the .time came-for us to continue
our journey,, a* fresh difficulty presented itself, for our
gentlemen slaves refttsed in a body to go with us, saying
very determinedly that they would return to Ternate. So
their masters were obliged to submit, and I was left
behind to get to Dodinga as I could. Luckily I succeeded
in hiring a small boat, which took me there the same night,
with my two men and my baggage.
Two or three years after this, and about the same length
of time before I left the East, the Dutch emancipated all
their slaves, paying their owners a small compensation.
No ill results followed. Owing to the amicable relations
which had always existed between them and their
masters, due no doubt in part to the Government having
long accorded them legal rights and protection against
cruelty and ill-usage, many continued in the same service,
and after a little temporary difficulty in some cases, almost
all returned to work either for their old or for new
masters. The Government took the very proper step of
placing every emancipated slave under the surveillance of
the police-magistrate. They were obliged to show that
they were working for a living, and had some honestly-
acquired means of existence. All who could not do so
were placed upon public works at low wages, and thus
were kept from the temptation to peculation or other
crimes, which the excitement, of newly-acquired freedom,
and disinclination to labour, might have led them into.