The authority of our Government here was more necessary than one would be led to suppose, from the state of society which exists among these people. The chiefs are respected by the common men as the oldest, the most experienced, and the richest among the inhabitants; they are consulted when differences occur, and their decision is usually respected; but they still want, to give force to their authority, an act of appointment from our Government. The considerate reader, who will already have perceived in the particulars previously related, how fond these simple people are of outward show, will not be surprised to find that such an installation is considered as an important epoch in the history of their country, and that they wished to celebrate the day on which they were visited by an officer of the Netherlands Government, after so long a period of neglect, with all joy and solemnity, as a national festivity. The want of a formal act of appointment from the Dutch Government has been attended with results very detrimental to the welfare of the natives, especially those of Watidal. In the time of the Ceramese Hongie-togten,[36] the chiefs of Watidal had been presented with sticks provided with knobs, on which the arms of the Company were engraven. This token of alliance with us was not sufficient to prevent the covetous Ceramese from practising extortion upon them, and when the chiefs complained openly to the Company, and stedfastly refused all irregular contributions, the Ceramese did not hesitate to plunder and rob them in open enmity. This would not have taken place had the chiefs been appointed with more solemnity, and provided with regular acts of appointment, in which case their subjects would have been more subordinate to their control, and the Ceramese rovers would have been withheld from plundering by dread of punishment. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 34: These are called imitation calicoes, from their being European imitations of the pattern and material of the cotton manufactures of India.--_Ed._] [Footnote 35: In Marsden's Malayan Grammar, among the letters given in the Appendix, will be found a remarkable example of these English tricks. An English captain came to the King of Tringanu, with a pretended letter of recommendation from the Governor-General of India; asked permission to enter the river to repair, and smuggled several chests of opium on shore!] [Footnote 36: Expedition for the extirpation of the spice trees, undertaken in the time of the old (Dutch) East India Company.] CHAPTER XIV. THE TENIMBER ISLANDS.