Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/442

414 in the apartment where he received us, and his bed was hung round with them.

His house, like those of his countrymen, was in no respect similar to those of the natives. The Chinese build much more solidly. Their houses are constructed like those of the Europeans, with some difference in the distribution of the apartments. The body of the building is of wood, and the walls of clay, thickly rough-cast, and afterwards covered with several coats of lime.

The frequency of earthquakes and hurricanes makes the inhabitants prefer wooden houses; and scarcely any other than the public buildings are of stone. It almost always happens, that in those moments of consternation the inhabitants are obliged to quit their habitations, and to betake themselves to little cabins very slightly constructed, where they are much more safe than in their houses, which the tempests and the earthquakes sometimes overturn.

We enjoyed excellent weather at Amboyna; the winds were never violent, and those which we had from the south-east and north-west, were very weak.

The market for the different fruits of the country is in the Chinese quarter. The Malays, like the Arabians, call it by the name of bazar. The dealers assemble there, chiefly in the evening, and remain