Viewing page 62 of 185

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-49-

April 14 - At sea

All day long loafing along on the Van Imhoff, cool and pleasant.  Have made friends with two German couples, the Stillers and the Ahrs, both of whom have their own islands off the New Guinea coast, and raise coconuts.  They are miles and miles from any Europeans , and lead what must be a lonely life.  Everything they have comes off the plantation, and they have been living this way for nearly thirty years.

In the evening we passed miles of lighted shore-line, and thought there must be so e big city there that we had never heard of.  But it was not an electric-lighted main street;  it was an almost endless line of fishing boats, each one with a kerosene lantern hung on the mast.  The shore line of Moena and of Butan took three hours to pass, and was illuminated the whole way.

April 15 - Amboina

We came into the beautiful bay of Ambon at daybreak.  The harbor runs deep into the mainland, almost cutting the island in half, and the forested mountain sides rise steeply on both sides.  About eight o'clock we went ashore, and walked through the town to the Esplanade Hotel.  It is a funny little town, with a big market, and any number of barber shops.  The natives must live by cutting each others' hair [[strikethrough]] In [[/strikethrough]] Next to the market there were ten barber shops in a row, each advertising a different kind of hair-cut -Ambonese, Celebes, Japanese, etc.

The Hotel is built on the same plan as all these Dutch East Indian Hotels, but is run in what seems like a very casual manner.  There is no manager in sight, and everything is left to the boys.  The head boy is a young Javanese, and there is an elderly Ambonese hovering about.  No telephone and no bar give an added distinction.  However, the Club next door is apparently always open to strangers, and we get drinks there and sign chits (only they are Bons here) just as though we were members in good standing.  And why have a telephone, when one can always "send a boy"

Our first duty was to call on the Resident, ^[[D]]r. B. ^[[J.]] Haga, who was very pleasant and anxious to be helpful, although he did not know just how he could be of service to us.  He did tell us about a rest house up in the mountains where we could stay, and Bill quoted Wallace to the effect that "the Resident secured for me a house not far from the city".  He had three crowned pigeons in his garden and a paddock containing a number of  Molucca deer.

From the Residency we went to the little library, where the works of Rumphius and Valentine are preserved in the original editions - 1724 and 1750 respectively.  Rumphius is buried in Ambon, and we visited his grave, in a private garden.

We had sent out a request for an Ambonese who spoke English and would like the join the expedition for the next week or two, as Coenraad, who has been a tower of strength, is leaving us here, while he goes on to New 
Guinea to collect birds of Paradise.  In answer to our broadcast, a young Dutch-Ambonese, Fritz Buitenbos, came scurrying up [[right margin]] ^[[ [F.J.B.]] [[/right margin]] to the hotel, and we engaged him.  He seems like a bright young chap and speaks excellent English in addition to Malay and Dutch. He is of dark complexion, with freckles and blue eyes that were inherited from his Dutch ancestor.

A heavy rain began at one'clock and lasted all afternoon

Transcription Notes:
From what I remember of my trip in Asia in 1980, these barber shops may have indeed given haircuts, but there were prostitutes in the back. That is probably why she saw so many of them.