United States or Sint Maarten ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They also went below and sealed up all our chests, after which the two orambies towed us farther into the harbour, so that by noon we were up as high as the town of Amboina, where they moored our bark in the ordinary anchorage.
The rear-squadron consists also of twenty orambies, and is commanded by the fiscal, having a red flag. The rest form the centre-squadron, and attend the governor, who has a serjeant and corporal, with twelve Dutch soldiers, for his body guard, and carries a blue flag. The governor is also attended by the Malay king and all their princes or chiefs, lest they should rebel in his absence.
We stood into the harbour that night, and next morning, which, according to our account, was Tuesday, but with the Dutch Wednesday, two Dutch orambies, as they call the vessels used at that place, came on board us, each of which was paddled by forty men. In these vessels came the fiscal and several Dutch gentlemen, with eighty soldiers, who immediately took possession of our bark.
Once every year the Dutch have to send a large force from Amboina on the following business, about the 20th of October. On this occasion the governor is attended by about seventy-five orambies, or boats of the country, some rowed by 100 paddles, some eighty, fifty, or forty paddles each, and in each of which there are two Dutch soldiers.
I reckon therefore in this fleet 150 to 160 Dutch soldiers, and about 5250 Malays, allowing seventy to each oramby on the average. These seventy-five orambies are divided into three squadrons. The van-division of twenty orambies, is always commanded by a member of the council, who carries a yellow flag.
Word Of The Day