etly enjoying
themselves--some are sleeping under the shadow of the sails; others,
in little groups of three or four, are talking or chewing betel; one is
making a new handle to his chopping-knife, another is stitching away
at a new pair of trousers or a shirt, and all are as quiet and
well-conducted as on board the best-ordered English merchantman. Two or
three take it by turns to watch in the bows and see after the braces
and halyards of the great sails; the two steersmen are below in the
steerage; our captain, or the juragan, gives the course, guided partly
by the compass and partly by the direction of the wind, and a watch of
two or three on the poop look after the trimming of the sails and call
out the hours by the water-clock. This is a very ingenious contrivance,
which measures time well in both rough weather and fine. It is simply
a bucket half filled with water, in which floats the half of a
well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. In the bottom of this shell is a very
small hole, so that when placed to float in the bucket a fine thread of
water squirts up into it. This gradually fills the shell, and the size
of the hole is so adjusted to the capacity of the vessel that, exactly
at the end of an hour, plump it goes to the bottom. The watch then cries
out the number of hours from sunrise and sets the shell afloat again
empty. This 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.

Dec. 24th.-Fine, and little wind. No land in sight for the first time
since we le