is a very good measurer of time. I tested it with my
watch and found that it hardly varied a minute from , one
hour to another, nor did the motion of the vessel have any
effect upon it, as the water in the bucket of course kept
level. It has a great advantage for a rude people in being
easily understood, in being rather bulky and easy to see,
and in the final submergence being accompanied with a
little bubbling and commotion of the water, which calls
the attention to it. It is. also, quickly replaced if lost while
in harbour.
Our captain and owner I find to be a quiet, good-
tempered man, who seems to» get on very well with all
about him. When at sea he drinks no wine or spirits,
but indulges only in coffee and cakes,, morning and afternoon,
in company with his supercargo, and assistants. He
is a man of some little education, can read and write
well both Dutch and Malay, uses a compass, and has a
chart. He has been a trader to Aru for many years, and
is well known to both Europeans and natives in this part
of the world.
Bee. 24th.—Fine, and little wind. Ho land in sight for
the first time since we left Macassar. At noon calm, with
heavy showers, in which our crew wash their clothes, and
in the. afternoon the prau is covered with , shirts, trousers,
and sarongs of various gay-colours. I made a discovery
to-day .which at first rather alarmed me. The two ports,
or openings, through which the tillers enter from the
lateral rudders are not more than three or four feet above
the surface of the water, which thus has a free entrance
into the vessel. I of course had imagined that this open
space from one side to the other was separated from the
hold by a water-tight bulkhead, so that a sea entering
might wash out at the further side, and do no more harm
than give the steersmen a drenching. To my surprise
and dismay, however, I find that it is completely open to
the hold, so that half-a-dozen seas rolling in on a stormy
night would nearly, or quite, swamp us. Think of a vessel
going to sea for a month with two holes, each a yard
square, into the hold, at three feet above the water-line,—
holes, too, which cannot possibly be closed! But our
captain says all praus. are so; and though he acknowledges
the danger, “ he does not know how to alter it—the people
are used to i t ; he does not understand praus so well as
they do, and if such a great alteration were made, he
should be sure to have difficulty in getting a crew! ” This
proves at all events that praus must be good sea-boats,
for the captain has been continually making voyages in
them for the last ten years, and says he has never known
water enough enter to do any harm.
Bee. 25th.—Christmas-day dawned upon us with gusts
of wind, driving rain, thunder and lightning, added to
which a short confused sea made our queer vessel pitch