The power of the native chiefs is more or less in proportion to their riches. An ancient Ceramese saying is to this effect:--"If he is a Raja, I am one also. While I have vessels, slaves, _lelahs_, powder and shot, with money to pay warriors, I will make war on the first chief who offends me, and if I gain the victory all Rajas will come and kiss my feet." The chiefs take care that none of their subjects shall collect too much property, as they know well how to reduce his wealth by imposing fines, and other modes of extortion. The contributions, or as they are called here, as well as by us, the tithes paid to the chiefs by the people, forms by no means so ample a portion of their income as that derived from the hereditary services performed by them, such as building their houses, and keeping them in repair, and from the presents of stock, fruit and other productions wrung from the unwilling hands of the peasants. These extortions, which render the native rule so burthensome to the people, are enforced, indeed, throughout India. Ceram-Laut is encompassed by several smaller islands, the whole being surrounded by an extensive coral reef, on the edge of which, at low water, is found a depth of from two to four fathoms. The reef runs steep off, there being an unfathomable depth a little beyond it, which renders it dangerous of approach. The centre, which is also the largest of the islands, is high and hilly. An exceedingly high tree upon it, under which the chiefs of Kilwari are interred, raises itself far above the others, and forms a good land-mark for seamen. The population is small. The fugitives from Ghissa are settled on the west side, and over the face of the island are scattered some natives of Tehor (an island about midway between Ceram and the Ki Islands), who have been driven from their country by their powerful neighbours, together with a number of other unfortunates who have been forced to leave their native island, Sumbawa, from the destruction caused by the eruption of the Timboro Mountain in 1814. The condition of these strangers is little better than that of slaves to the people of Kilwari, to whom they are obliged to deliver the fruits of their labour, consisting of rice, Indian corn, oil, &c.; while they are also forced to attend their oppressors as rowers in their prahus, whenever they fit out their flotillas for a warlike excursion. The slaves obtained from the adjacent coasts of New Guinea, who are not quickly sold at Kilwari, are also kept upon Ceram-Laut until the state of the market becomes more favourable.[42]