When in the house during the heat of the day, and even at dinner, they use a loose cotton dress, only putting on a suit of thin European-made clothes for out of doors and evening wear.
They often walk about after sunset bareheaded, reserving the black hat for visits of ceremony.

Life is thus made far more agreeable, and the fatigue and discomfort incident to the climate greatly diminished.
Christmas day is not made much of, but on New Year's day official and complimentary visits are paid, and about sunset we went to the Governor's, where a large party of ladies and gentlemen were assembled.
Tea and coffee were handed around, as is almost universal during a visit, as well as cigars, for on no occasion is smoking prohibited in Dutch colonies, cigars being generally lighted before the cloth is withdrawn at dinner, even though half the company are ladies.

I here saw for the first time the rare black lory from New Guinea, Chalcopsitta atra.

The plumage is rather glossy, and slightly tinged with yellowish and purple, the bill and feet being entirely black.
The native Amboynese who reside in the city are a strange half-civilized, half-savage lazy people, who seem to be a mixture of at least three races--Portuguese, Malay, and Papuan or Ceramese, with an occasional cross of Chinese or Dutch.

The Portuguese element decidedly predominates in the old Christian population, as indicated by features, habits, and the retention of many Portuguese words in the Malay, which is now their language.