888681-The-Malay-Archipelago-by-Alfred-Russell-Wallace

forest. We had very light winds, and it therefore took us thirty
hours to make the passage of sixty miles to the low, or flat, but
equally forest-covered Aru Islands, where we anchored in the
harbour of Dobbo at nine in the evening of the next day.
My first voyage in a prau being thus satisfactorily terminated, I
must, before taking leave of it for some months, bear testimony
to the merits of the queer old-world vessel. Setting aside all
ideas of danger, which is probably, after all, not more than in
any other craft, I must declare that I have never, either before
or since, made a twenty days' voyage so pleasantly, or perhaps,
more correctly speaking, with so little discomfort. This I
attribute chiefly to having my small cabin on deck, and entirely
to myself, to having my own servants to wait upon me, and to the
absence of all those marine-store smells of paint, pitch, tallow,
and new cordage, which are to me insupportable. Something is also
to be put down to freedom from all restraint of dress, hours of
meals, &c., and to the civility and obliging disposition of the
captain. I had agreed to have my meals with him, but whenever I
wished it I had them in my own berth, and at what hours I felt
inclined. The crew were all civil and good-tempered, and with
very little discipline everything went on smoothly, and the
vessel was kept very clean and in pretty good order, so that on
the whole I was much delighted with the trip, and was inclined to
rate the luxuries of the semi-barbarous prau as surpassing those
of the most magnificent screw-steamer, that highest result of our
civilisation.
174