tain their liberty. I have met some of those unhappy men who had been detained in the island more than twenty years; although, in conformity with the terms of their agreement, they ought to have been then free.
The Island of Amboyna is divided into several districts, which in many places, form so many villages, called nygri. The command of each nygri is conferred on a native, who is decorated with the title of orancaye. This man, to whom the police of his little canton is entrusted, is himself altogether subordinate to the Dutch government, to whom all weighty cases are referred. The Dutch commonly chuse for orancayes, natives who profess the Protestant religion, preferring the ancient chiefs, or their nearest relations, and above all those who are richest.
Each of those orancayes has the government of about one hundred natives. The Dutch Company, when they invest them with their authority, present them with a silver-hilted sword. Those chiefs are cloathed in the European stile, all in black, and they wear three-cocked hats, very much pointed and depressed. Of this dress of ceremony, shoes form a part, which they wear when they are obliged to appear in public, or in the presence of their Dutch superiors.
The title orancaye is compounded of two Ma-
layan
