"And then," said he, "whether you give me one dollar or a hundred, I shall be satisfied, and shall ask no more." The remainder of my stay was fully occupied in laying in stores, engaging servants, and making every other preparation for an absence of seven months from even the outskirts of civilization.

On the morning of December 13th, when we went on board at daybreak, it was raining hard.
We set sail and it came on to blow.

Our boat was lost astern, our sails damaged, and the evening found us hack again in Macassar harbour.

We remained there four days longer, owing to its raining all the time, thus rendering it impossible to dry and repair the huge mat sails.

All these dreary days I remained on board, and during the rare intervals when it didn't rain, made myself acquainted with our outlandish craft, some of the peculiarities of which I will now endeavour to describe.
It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped something like a Chinese junk.