I informed them, that the only object of my visit to these parts was to offer the friendship of the Dutch Government to the natives, and at the same time to afford protection to the traders who frequent the neighbourhood. They shouted in praise of the Company and of the Ceramese, especially the Raja of Kilwari; and, on the other hand, expressed their detestation of the Chinese, the Bughis, and the Macassars. On my enquiry whether any of the last-mentioned people were in the habit of visiting them, they answered that they were not, but that they gained much information concerning them from the Ceramese.[48] I mentioned to the Raja and his friends, that I should send the boats on shore next morning to obtain water, and that our men, as usual, would be armed, which they must not suppose to arise from any want of confidence. I also stated my intention of visiting their village in person towards noon, at which they expressed much satisfaction, and taking leave, with a hearty shake of the hand, promised that the villagers should employ themselves in fishing, and send the greater part of the produce on board the brig. At seven o'clock the boat carried them ashore, after they had received a parting present of arrack and tobacco. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 45: In the chart prepared by M. Kolff, the longitude assigned for this bank is 136 deg. 48 min. east.--_Translator._] [Footnote 46: This opening was also entered two years subsequently by the Dutch corvette _Triton_ and schooner _Iris_, when it was still supposed to be a river; but in 1835, Lieut. Kaal, of the Dutch navy, passed through it out to sea, proving the Dourga and St. Bartholomew Rivers to be the north-west and south-east entrances of a strait which cuts off the south-west extreme of New Guinea, and forms an island about one hundred miles long and sixty broad.--_Translator._] [Footnote 47: Captain Cook, during his first voyage, touched at a village on the south-west coast of New Guinea, whose position agrees with this, and had an encounter with the natives, in which lives were lost on the part of the latter. The people of the _Endeavour_ observed, also, the singular proceeding above alluded to, and at first supposed that the natives had fire-arms. From the remarks of M. Modera, of the Dutch corvette _Triton_, it appears that the composition thrown out of the bamboos consists of lime, ashes and sand, which were ejected for the purpose of making signals to friends at a distance.--_Translator._] [Footnote 48: This disgraceful information of the Ceramese was influenced, probably, by their envy and jealousy of the others.] CHAPTER XX. NEW GUINEA.