ed to be ready at three in the morning, instead of which none
appeared till five, we having all been kept waiting in the dark and
cold for two hours. When at length they came they were scolded by their
master, but only in a bantering manner, 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 and sailing we
reached our destination, Sedingole, where there is a house belonging to
the Sultan of Tidore, who sometimes goes there hunting. It was a dirty
ruinous shed, with no furniture but a few bamboo bedsteads. On taking
a walk into the country, I saw at once that it was no place for me.
For many miles extends a plain covered with coarse high grass, thickly
dotted here and there with trees, the forest country only commencing
at the hills a good way in the interior. Such a place would produce few
birds and no insects, and we therefore arranged to 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 refused 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 di