Besides trepang, they trade in sharks' fins and birds'
nests."
Their method of curing is thus described by Flinders:--
"They get the trepang by diving in from three to eight fathoms of water,
and where it is abundant a man will bring up eight or ten at a time. The
mode of preserving it is thus--the animal is split down on one side,
boiled and pressed with a weight of stones, then stretched open by slips
of bamboo, dried in the sun and afterwards in smoke, when it is fit to
put away in bags, but requires frequent exposure to the sun. There are
two kinds of trepang, the black and the white or grey slug."
From Dramah's information, it would seem a perpetual warfare raged
between the natives and Malays, which was unfortunate for King, as it
would make it a very difficult matter to establish friendly communication
with people who could not be expected to distinguish between the English
and Malays. After a short stay in Timor, he sailed for Sydney by way of
the west coast, and anchored in Port Jackson on the 29th of July, 1818.
The early loss of the anchors had not allowed King so much opportunity of
detailed examination as would otherwise have been the case; but much of
the work that he had been sent to do had been carried out; the
examinations of the opening behind Rosemary Island, and of Van Dieman's
Gulf, beside the survey of the numerous smaller openings and islands.
Pages:
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692