Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/440

412 the inhabitants of Ceram exceedingly value, converting it into bracelets, ear-rings, &c. Some of those articles are again sold at Amboyna.

The Dutch have two factories at Ceram, one of them at its north-west extremity, and the other at Savay. General Bougainville had been misinformed when he said, that they had been expelled from this last post. They have lost, it is true, very extensive possessions in other parts of that large island; but they still retain their establishment at Savay.

The resident who entertained General Bougainville, during his stay at Bourou, had been dead several years. At Amboyna, we had the pleasure of seeing his widow, who has preserved an agreeable remembrance of that French gentleman. Such is her taste for our language, that she has employed all the means in her power, at that distance from Europe, to have her children instructed in it.

The Chinese are almost the only strangers who are permitted to reside at Amboyna; but they are obliged to submit to naturalization, and thus can never return to their own country. They are permitted to trade among the Moluccas; but it is only at Macassar and Batavia, where vessels from China are permitted to enter, that they can procure Chinese commodities. They are all of a com-