While we lay off Tepa a number of canoes came daily alongside, loaded with fowls, hogs, fruit and vegetables, to sell to the ship's company. A fowl was given for an empty bottle; two or three for a common pocket knife; while the price of a hog of from twelve to fifteen pound weight, was a small quantity of calico, or a piece of coarse red chintz lining-stuff, of the value of a couple of guilders (3_s._ 4_d._) As on the adjacent islands, money is not valued by the natives, with the exception of gold coin, which they melt down and form into ear-rings or other ornaments. Men as well as women have often three or four holes bored, one above the other, in their ears, in each of which they wear a golden ornament. Atkins, one of the English seamen we had taken on board at Banda, died here, in consequence of the fatigues he had endured during his captivity among the natives. When the people of Baba heard of his decease, they immediately offered to provide a coffin, and to bring him on shore; but for particular reasons, among which was a fear that they might disinter the body after our departure, I preferred committing it to the deep with the usual ceremony. Early in the morning of the 15th of August we weighed anchor and left the island, amid the farewells of the people, who had assembled on the beach to witness our departure. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 19: The island of Keffing, near the east extremity of Coram, is probably here alluded to.] [Footnote 20: The Malay language is the _Lingua Franca_ of the entire Indian Archipelago, but it is only generally understood in those places which enjoy some commerce. The natives, who reside in the mountains, and those who have no communication with strangers, speak only a dialect of their own.] [Footnote 21: Lime is generally used for this purpose among the natives of these islands. It may, perhaps, be serviceable in preventing eruptions of the skin, to which they are very subject. Whenever they are afflicted with the headache they apply a plaster of lime to the temples as a remedy.] [Footnote 22: This vessel, in all probability, was either the British colonial brig "_Lady Nelson_," or the trading schooner "_Stedcombe_," both of which left Melville Island in the year 1824, soon after the formation of our settlement there, to procure stock, and were never heard of afterwards. It will be seen in Chapter XIII. that the other was cut off by the natives of the east side of Timor Laut.--_Translator._] CHAPTER X. THE ARRU ISLANDS. Daai Island.--Singular Change in the Colour of the Sea.--Festivities on Board.--The Arru Islands.--Description of these remarkable Regions.--Customs of the Arafuras.--Total Absence of Religion.--Proofs of the Mildness of their Form of Government.--Singular Treatment of their Dead.