out five miles from Coepang; although
Babao Road on the north side of the bay, of which Dampier speaks, was
said to be a more secure and convenient anchorage. The commander of the
American ship Hunter had gone under Samow, because he found the Dutch
brig there; and although assured there was almost nothing to be
apprehended in the bay, he feared to come up till encouraged by our
example.

This ship was upon a trading speculation, and the commander was buying
here sandel wood and bees-wax. For the best kind of wood he paid twenty
dollars per picol, for the inferior sort thirteen, and seven dollars for
the refuse; and bees-wax cost him twenty-five dollars. Upon all these he
expected to make three hundred per cent. at Canton, besides the advantage
of paying for them with cutlasses, axes, and other iron tools, at an
equally great advance; he reported, however, that iron was still more
valuable at Solor, Flores, and the neighbouring islands; and that
supplies of fresh provisions were more plentiful. The usual profits of
trade here, seemed to be cent. per cent. upon every exchange; and this
the commander of the Hunter proposed to make many times over, during his
voyage. At Solor he had bought some slaves for two muskets each, which
muskets he had purchased at the rate of 18s. in Holland, at the
conclusion of the war; these slaves were expected to be sold at Batavia,
for eighty, or more probably for a hundred dollars individually, making
about thirty capitals of the first price of his muskets. If such
advantages attend this traffic, humanity must expect no weak struggle to
accomplish its suppression; but what was the result of this trading
voyage? That the commander and his crew contracted a fever at Diely, and
nearly the whole died before they reached Batavia.

Spanish dollars were rated at 5s. 4d. according to the Dutch company's
regulations, but their currency at Coepang was sixty stivers or pence;
whence it arose that to a stranger receiving dollars, they would be
reckoned at 5s. 4d. each, but if he paid them it was at 5s. Besides
dollars, the current coins were ducatoons, rupees, and doits, with some
few gold rupees of Batavia; but the money accounts were usually kept in
rix dollars, an imaginary coin of 4s.

I made many inquiries concerning the Malay trepang fishers, whom we had
met at the entrance of the Gulph of Carpentaria, and learned the
following particulars. The natives of Macassar had been long accustomed
to f