(*Footnote. Peron tome 1 pages 119, 151, 161, and 162.)

My inquiries were made partly by signs and partly by a few terms in the
Malay language that we had collected from Captain Cook,* and from
Labillardiere's account of D'Entrecasteaux's voyage. Aer (water) was
among the foremost of our inquiries, to which we added the terms for
pigs, sheep, fowls, and coconuts, (vavee, doomba, mannu, and nieu).
Everything but water was plentiful and could be supplied by paying for
them in rupees or bartering them for gunpowder. On repeating the question
for water, their constant reply was, trada aer! trada aer! (no water, no
water). No misunderstanding could have taken place, for on our inquiry,
thinking it was for present use, they brought us some to drink. They
afterwards conducted us to a shallow well or spring in which there were
about ten or fifteen gallons; and this was all there was near the sea.

(*Footnote. Hawkesworth Coll. volume 3 page 298.)

Amadima, on our landing, sent a horseman to the town with a message, who
soon after returned with a paper which was shown to us; but, the
substance being in Dutch, we could not understand its purport; the sum of
seventy-four rix-dollars was, however, sufficiently plain to show that
money was wanted, and this conjecture was afterwards strengthened by a
petition whispered in my ear by Amadina himself for sato rupee (one
rupee); but, not having provided myself with any, I could not satisfy his
wants.

Gunpowder was in great request among them and we were given to understand
that we might obtain everything we required, excepting water, for money
or for gunpowder. Trada aer was so often repeated that we re-embarked
quite disappointed.