When M. Bik was here he was presented with two slave boys, to whom, as I was informed by the natives, he gave their liberty, and caused them to be sent back to their village. Shortly after the departure of this gentleman these liberated slaves fell into a state of great poverty, so that, to pay the debts they had incurred for provisions and necessaries, they had again pledged or sold themselves as slaves, and they now regard themselves as fortunate in having found a good master. On my asking them if they wished to become free again? they answered, that they would like it well if I would take them with me, and provide for their future maintenance, but that otherwise they would prefer living in their present state of servitude. I allowed my interpreter to redeem a couple of orphans who had been sold here by the Arafuras, and did not seem to have derived much good from their master, for which he paid eighty guilders. At their own request I took them with me to Amboyna, where, with the cognizance of the Government, I set them at liberty, so that they became in a condition to gain their livelihood by daily labour.[33] On the 4th of September the chiefs of Maykor and Wama came to take their leave, and to present us with some stock and fruit, after which we weighed anchor and steered for the island Wadia. A number of prahus accompanied us a considerable distance, the natives in them displaying their friendship by the music of their gongs and songs of joy. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 31: So early as 1640, F. Corsten entered into a treaty with the people of the Arrus, especially those of Wokan, Wadia, Wama, Duryella and Maykor, in which the latter agreed to acknowledge the supremacy of the Dutch East India Company. Afterwards, in 1645, the Fiscal Dorstman obtained from them an agreement to trade exclusively with Banda, while the monopoly of the pearl fishery was given to the East India Company.] [Footnote 32: M. Kolff, whose opinion upon this point is totally at variance with that of Sir Stamford Raffles, and of every other writer on the Indian Archipelago, who has really taken an interest in the welfare of the natives, appears to have mistaken effect for cause; as in this part of the world it has invariably been found that the slave trade alone has been sufficient to render a people, previously mild and industrious, poor, idle and vicious. As to the slave trade preventing the natives from engaging in piracy, M. Kolff _must_ have been aware that by far the greater number of piratical expeditions fitted out by the natives are intended solely for the capture of slaves, other plunder being in their eyes of minor importance only; and this is especially the case in the parts visited by M. Kolff, where the inhabitants possess nothing of sufficient value to tempt the cupidity of pirates.--_Ed._]