and boats of various sizes were drawn up on the beaeli,
and one or two idlers, with a few children and a dog, gazed
at our prau as we came to an anchor,
s When we went on shore the first thing that, attracted us
■was- a large and well-constructed shed, under which a loneto
boat was being built, while, others in various stages of completion
were placed at intervals along the beach. Our
captain, who wanted two of moderate size for the trade
among the islands at Aru, immediately began bargaining
for them, and in a short time had arranged the number
of ¡ brass guns, gongs, sarongs, handkerchiefs, axes, , white
plates,1 tobacco, and arrack, which he was to give for a pair
which: could be got ready in four days. 5 We then went to
the ¡village, which consisted only of three, or four huts,
situated immediately above the beach on an irregular
rocky piece of ground overshadowed with cocoa-nuts,
palms, bananas, and other fruit trees. The houses were
veriy rude, black, and half rotten, raised a few feet on posts
with low sides of bamboo or planks, and high thatched
roofs. They had small doors and no windows, an, opening
under: the projecting gables letting the smoke Cut and
a little light in. The floors were of strips of bamboo,
thin,, slippery, and elastic, and so weak that my feet
W e in danger of plunging through at every step. Native
boxes of pandanus-leaves and slabs of palm pith, very
neatly constructed, mats of the same, jars and cooking
póts of native pottery, and a few European plates and
basins, were the whole furniture, and the interior was
throughout' dark and "smoke-blackened, and dismal in the
extreme, ojps hi-yj
Accompanied by Ali and Baderoon, I now attempted to
make some, explorations, and we were followed by.a train
of boys eager to see what we were going to do. The most-
trodden path from the beach led us into a shady ..hollow,
where the trees were of immense height and the undei^
growth scanty. ¡From the summits of these trees came at
intervals’ a deep booming sound, which at first puzzled
as, but which wè soon found to proceed from some large
pigeons. My boys shot at them, and after one or two
misses, brought one down. It was f a magnificent bird
twenty inches long, of a bluish white, colour, with the
back wings and tail intense metallic green, with golden,
blue, and violet reflexions, the feet coral red, and the eyes
golden yellow. It is a rare species, which I have named
Garpophaga concinna, and is found only in a few small
islands, where, however, it abounds. It is the same species
which in the island of Banda is called thè nutmeg-pigeon,
from its habit of dèvouring the fruits, the seed or nutmeg
being thrown up entire and uninjured. Though'these
pigeons have a narrow'beak, yet their jaws and throat are
so extensible that, they can swallow fruits of very large
size. I had before shot a species much smaller than this