ALL-OVER-THE-WORLD LIBRARY

[i]

"Your first shot, Louis," said Scott.

Page 30.

[ii]

Four Young Explorers

OR

SIGHT-SEEING IN THE TROPICS

BY

OLIVER OPTIC

[iii]

[iv]

[v]

PREFACE

"FOUR YOUNG EXPLORERS" is the third
volume of the third series of the "All-Over-the-World
Library." When the young millionaire and
his three companions of about his own age, with a
chosen list of near and dear friends, had made the
voyage "Half Round the World," the volume with
this title left them all at Sarawak in the island
of Borneo. The four young explorers, as they became,
were permitted to spend three weeks there
hunting, fishing, and ascending some of the rivers,
while the rest of the party proceeded in the Guardian-Mother
to Siam. The younger members of
the ship's company believed they had seen enough
of temples, palaces, and fine gardens in the great
cities of the East, and desired to live a wilder life
for a brief period.

They were provided with a steam-launch, prepared
for long trips; and they ascended the Sarawak,
the Sadong, and the Simujan Rivers, and had all
the hunting, fishing, and exploring they desired.
They visited the villages of the Sea and Hill Dyaks,
and learned what they could of their manners and
customs, penetrating the island from the sea to[vi]
the mountains. They studied the flora and the
fauna of the forests, and were exceedingly interested
in their occupation for about a week, when
they came to the conclusion that "too much of a
good thing" became wearisome; and, more from the
love of adventure than for any other reason, they
decided to proceed to Bangkok, and to make the
voyage of nine hundred miles in the Blanchita, as
they had named the steam-launch, which voyage
was accomplished without accident.

After the young explorers had looked over the
capital of Siam, the Guardian-Mother and her consort
made the voyage to Saigon, the capital of
French Cochin-China, where the visit of the tourists
was a general frolic, with "lots of fun," as the
young people expressed it; and then, crossing the
China Sea, made the port of Manila, the capital of
the Philippine Islands, where they explored the
city, and made a trip up the Pasig to the Lake of
the Bay. From this city they made the voyage
to Hong-Kong, listening to a very long lecture on
the way in explanation of the history, manners, and
customs, and the peculiarities of the people of China.
They were still within the tropics, and devoted themselves
to the business of sight-seeing with the same
vigor and interest as before. But most of them
had read so much about China, as nearly every
American has, that many of the sights soon began
to seem like an old story to them.[vii]

Passing out of the Torrid Zone, the two steamers
proceeded to the north, obtaining a long view of
Formosa, and hearing a lecture about it. Their
next port of call was Shang-hai, reached by ascending
the Woo-Sung. From this port they made an
excursion up the Yang-tsze-Chiang, which was an exceedingly
interesting trip to them. The ships then
made the voyage to Tien-tsin, from which they
ascended by river in the steam-launch to a point
thirteen miles from Pekin, going from there to the
capital by the various modes of conveyance in use
in China. They visited the sights of the great city
under the guidance of a mandarin, educated at Yale
College. Some of the party made the trip to the
loop-wall, near Pekin. Returning to Tien-tsin, with
the diplomatic mandarin, who had accepted an invitation
to go to Japan in the Guardian-Mother, they
sailed for that interesting country, where the next
volume of the series will take them.

It may be necessary to say that the Guardian-Mother,
now eighteen months from New York, and
half round the world, reached Tien-tsin May 25,
1893; and therefore nothing relating to the late war
between China and Japan is to be found in this
volume. Possibly the four young explorers would
have found more sights to see, and more adventures
to enjoy, if they had struck either of the belligerent
nations during the war; but the ship sailed for the
United States before hostilities were begun.[viii]

Of course the writer has been compelled to consult
many volumes in writing this book; and he takes
great pleasure in mentioning among them the very
interesting and valuable work of Mr. W. T. Hornaday,
the accomplished traveller and scientist, "Two
Years in the Jungle." This book contains all that
one need know about Borneo, to say nothing of the
writer's trip in India among the elephants. His
researches in regard to the orang-outang appear to
have exhausted the subject; though I do not believe
he has found the "missing link," if he is looking
for it. Professor Legge contributed several articles
to "Chambers's Encyclopædia," which contain the
most interesting and valuable matter about China to
be derived from any work; for he lived for years in
that country, travelled extensively, and learned the
language. I am under great obligations to these
authors.

The author is under renewed obligations to his
readers, young and old, who have been his constant
friends during more than forty years, for the favor
with which they have received a whole library of
his books, and for the kind words they have spoken
to him, both verbally and by letter.

Dorchester, Mass.

[ix]

CONTENTS

[xiii]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[1]

FOUR YOUNG EXPLORERS

CHAPTER I

THE BORNEO HUNTERS AND EXPLORERS

The Guardian-Mother, attended by the Blanche,
had conveyed the tourists, in their voyage all over
the world, to Sarawak, the capital of a rajahship
on the north-western coast of the island of Borneo.
The town is situated on both sides of a river of the
same name, about eighteen miles from its mouths.

The steamer on which was the pleasant home of
the millionaire at eighteen, who was accompanied by
his mother and a considerable party, all of whom
have been duly presented to the reader in the former
volumes of the series, lay in the middle of the
river. The black smoke was pouring out of her
smokestack, and the hissing steam indicated that
the vessel was all ready to go down the river to the
China Sea. Her anchor had been hove up, and
the pilot was in the pilot-house waiting for the commander
to strike the gong in the engine-room to start
the screw.

Just astern of the Guardian-Mother was a very[2]
trim and beautiful steam-launch, fifty feet in length.
The most prominent persons on board of her were
the quartette of American boys, known on board of
the steamer in which they had sailed half round the
world as the "Big Four." Of this number Louis
Belgrave, the young millionaire, was the most important
individual in the estimation of his companions,
though happily not in his own.

Like a great many other young men of eighteen,
which was the age of three of them, while the fourth
was hardly sixteen, they were fond of adventure,—of
hunting, fishing, and sporting in general. They had
gone over a large portion of Europe, visited the
countries on the shores of the Mediterranean, crossed
India, and called at some of the ports of Burma, the
Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and had
reached Sarawak in their explorations.

They had visited many of the great cities of the
world, and seen the temples, monuments, palaces, and
notable structures of all kinds they contain; but
they had become tired of this description of sight-seeing.
When the island of Borneo was marked on
the map as one of the localities to be visited, the
"Big Four" had a meeting in the boudoir, as one of
the apartments of the Guardian-Mother was called,
and voted that they had had enough of temples,
monuments, and great cities for the present.

They agreed that exploring a part of Borneo, with
the incidental hunting, fishing, and study of natural
history, would suit them better. Louis Belgrave was[3]
appointed a committee of one to petition the commander
to allow them three weeks in the island for
this purpose. Captain Ringgold suggested to Louis
that it was rather selfish to leave the rest of the
party on the steamer, stuck in the mud of the Sarawak,
while they were on the rivers and in the woods
enjoying themselves.

But the representative of the "Big Four" protested
that they did not mean anything of the sort.
They did not care a straw for the temples and other
sights of Siam, Cambodia, and French Cochin-China;
and while they were exploring Borneo and shooting
orang-outangs, the Guardian-Mother should proceed
to Bangkok and Saigon, and the rest of the tourists
could enjoy themselves to the full in seeing the wonders
of Farther India.

It required a great deal of discussion to induce
the commander, and then the mothers of two of the
explorers, to assent to this plan; but the objections
were finally overcome by the logic and the eloquence
of Louis. The Blanche, the consort of the Guardian-Mother,
having on board the owner, known as General
Noury, his wife and his father-in-law, had
nothing to do with this difficult question; but the
general had a steam-launch, which he was kind
enough to grant for the use of the explorers.

The third engineer of the ship was to go with the
quartette, in charge of the engine; five of the youngest
of the seamen were selected to make the venture
safer than it might otherwise have been. Achang[4]
Bakir, a native Bornean, who had been picked up
off the Nicobar Islands, after the wreck of the dhow
of which he had been in command, was to be the
guide and interpreter.

The youngsters and their assistants had taken
their places on board of the "Blanchita," as Louis
had christened the craft, and she was to accompany
the two large steamers down the river. But the
farewells had all been spoken, the hugging and
kissing disposed of, and the tears had even been
wiped away. The mothers had become in some
degree reconciled to the separation of three weeks.

The Guardian-Mother started her screw, and began
to move very slowly down the river, amid the cheers
and salutations of the officers, soldiers, and citizens
of the town. The Blanche followed her, and both
steamers fired salutes in honor of the spectators to
their departure. The Blanchita secured a position
on the starboard of the Guardian-Mother, and for
three hours kept up a communication with their
friends by signals and shouts.

Off the mouth of the Moritabas, one of the outlets
of the stream, the steamers stopped their screws, and
the "Big Four" went alongside of the Guardian-Mother;
the adieux were repeated, and then the
ships laid the course for their destination. Both of
the latter kept up an incessant screaming with their
steam whistles, and the party on board of them
waved their handkerchiefs, to which the "Big Four,"
assisted by the sailors, responded in like manner,[5]
while the engineer gave whistle for whistle in feeble
response.

When the whistles ceased, and the signals could
no longer be seen, the Blanchita came about, and
headed for the Peak of Santubong on the triangular
island formed by the two passes of the Sarawak
River. The explorers watched the ships till they
could no longer be seen, and then headed up the river.

"Faix, the bridges betune oursels and civiloization
are all broke down!" exclaimed Felix McGavonty,
who sometimes used his Milesian dialect in order,
as he put it, not to lose his mother's brogue.

"Not so bad as that, Felix; for there is considerable
civilization lying around loose in Borneo," replied
Louis Belgrave.

"Not much of it here is found," added Achang
Bakir, the Bornean.

"Is found here," interposed Morris Woolridge,
who had been giving the native lessons in English,
for he mixed with it the German idiom.

"Rajah Brooke has civilized the region which he
governs, and the Dutch have done the same in portions
of their territory. Professor Giroud gave us
the lecture on Borneo, and we shall have occasion to
review some of it," added Louis. "But I think we
had better give some attention to the organization of
our party for the trip up the Sarawak River."

"I move, Mr. Chairman, that we have the same
organization we had on board of the Maud," interposed
Felix, dropping his brogue. "That means[6]
that Mr. Scott shall be captain, and Morris mate,
while Louis and myself shall be the deck-hands."

"Mr. Chairman, I move an amendment to the motion,
to the effect that Louis shall be captain, while
I serve as deck-hand," said Scott.

"I hope the amendment will be voted down, and
that the original motion will prevail," Louis objected.
"Captain Scott, in command of the Maud,
on a voyage of two thousand miles, proved himself
to be an able and skilful commander, as well as a
prudent and successful leader in several difficult situations.
He is the right person for the position.
Question! Those in favor of the amendment of
Mr. Scott will signify it by raising the right hand."

Scott voted for his own motion, and he was the
only one.

"Contrary minded, by the same sign," continued
Louis, raising his right hand, Felix and Morris voting
the same. "The amendment is lost. The question
is now on the original motion of Felix. Those
in favor of its adoption will signify it."

Three hands appeared, the motion was carried,
and the chairman informed Scott and Morris that
they were chosen captain and mate. Scott was outvoted,
and he made no further objection. Of the
five seamen on board he appointed Pitts cook and
steward, in which capacity he had served on board
of the Maud. The starboard is the captain's watch;
though the second mate, when there is one, takes his
place for duty, and the port is the mate's watch.[7]

"I select Clingman for the first of my watch,"
continued Scott. "Your choice next, Morris."

"Wales," said the mate.

"Lane for the starboard," added Scott.

"Hobson's choice," laughed Morris, as he took
the last man. "Clinch for the port; the last, but
by no means the least."

"I fancy the watches will have an easy time of
it; for I suppose we shall not do much running up
and down these rivers, and through dark forests, in
the night," suggested Louis.

"If we lie up in the night, I shall divide them
both into quarter-watches, and have one man on
duty all the time; for we may be boarded by a huge
crocodile or a boa-constrictor if we are not on the
lookout. But Achang is a pilot for these rivers.
Isn't that so, Captain Bakir?"

"I have been up and down all the rivers in this
part of the island, though I was not shipped as a
pilot then," replied Achang, who had been the captain
of a dhow, and on board the ship he had been
called by his first name or the other with the title.

"All right; we shall use you for pilot or interpreter
as occasion may require; and I suppose you
can tell us all we want to know about the country
and the people," added the captain.

Clinch, one of the ablest seamen on board, was
steering the launch, and Scott kept the run of the
courses; but as long as the craft had three feet of
water under her, she was all right. The conversation[8]
took place in the cabin, as the explorers called the
after part of the steamer, though no such apartment
had been built there.

A frame constructed of brass rods, properly
braced, extended the entire length of the launch.
A stanchion at the bow and another at the stern,
with five on each side set in the rail, supported a rod
the whole distance around the craft. Another extended
from the bow to the stern stanchion, directly
over the keel, about six inches higher than those at
the sides. Ten rods led from the central down to
the side rods, like the rafters of a house.

Over the whole, of this structure above was extended
a single piece of painted canvas, serving as a
roof, and keeping out both sun and rain. It was
laced very taut to the rods, and had slope enough to
make the water run off. On the sides were curtains,
which could be hauled down tight. The launch had
been used by the rajah on the Ganges, and when
closed in the interior was like "a bug in a rug."

Thus closed in, the standing-room was called the
cabin. It was surrounded by wide cushioned seats,
which made very good beds at night. Between these
divans was a table where the meals of the explorers
were to be served. Under the seats were many
lockers for all sorts of articles, the bedding, and the
arms and ammunition.

Just forward of the cabin were the engine and
boiler, with bunkers on each side for the coal. In
the middle of the craft was abundant space. The[9]
forward part of the boat was provided with cushioned
divans, where passengers could sit by day or
sleep at night; and this space was appropriated to
the sailors. In the centre of it was the wheel.
Next to it was the galley, with a stove large enough
to cook for a dozen persons, and all needed utensils.

The ship's company had looked the craft over
with great interest, and all of them were well
pleased with the arrangements. The launch had
been put into the water and fitted up for use the
day before. The party from both ships had visited
her, and almost wished they were to go to the interior
of the country in her.

The Blanchita continued on her course up the
river. Pitts was at work in the galley; and as soon
as the launch was made fast off the "go-down," or
business building of the town, dinner was served to
the seamen, and later to the denizens of the cabin.
The afternoon was spent in examining the place,
and in obtaining such supplies as were needed; for
the boat was to sail on her voyage up the river early
the next morning.

With the assistance of Achang, a small sampan, a
kind of skiff, was purchased; for the Bornean declared
that it would be needed in the hunting excursions
of the party, for much of the country was
flooded with water, a foot or two in depth.[10]

CHAPTER II

A VOYAGE UP THE SARAWAK RIVER

The young hunters slept on board of the Blanchita,
and they were delighted with their accommodations.
Sarawak, or Kuching, the native name of
the town, is only about one hundred and fifty miles
north of the equator, and must therefore be a very
warm region, though away from the low land near
the sea-coast it is fairly healthy. The party slept
with the curtains raised, which left them practically
in the open air.

Achang had given them a hint on board of the
ship that mosquitoes were abundant in some localities
in Borneo. The Guardian-Mother was provided with
the material, and the ladies had made a dozen mosquito
bars for the explorers. They were canopies,
terminating in a point at the top, where they were
suspended to the cross rods on which the canvas roof
was supported. The netting was tucked in under the
cushions of the divan, and the sleepers were perfectly
protected.

Captain Scott had carried out his plan in regard
to the watches. The cook was exempted from all
duty in working the little steamer; but each of the
other seamen was required to keep a half-watch of[11]
two hours during the first night on board. Clinch
was on watch at four in the morning. He called the
engineer at this hour, and Felipe proceeded at once
to get up steam. It was still dark, for the sun rises
and sets at six o'clock on the equator.

As soon as there was a movement on board, all
hands turned out forward. There were no decks to
wash down; and, if there had been, the water was
hardly fit, in the judgment of the mate, for this purpose,
for it was murky, and looked as though it was
muddy; but it was not so bad as it appeared, for the
dark color was caused by vegetable matter from the
jungles and forest, and not from the mud, which
remained at the bottom of the stream.

"The top uv the marnin' to ye's!" shouted Felix,
as he leaped from his bed about five o'clock,—for all
hands had turned in about eight o'clock in the evening,
as the mosquitoes, attracted by the lanterns,
began to be very troublesome,—and the Milesian
could sleep no longer.

"What's the matter with you, Flix?" demanded
the captain.

"Sure, if ye's mane to git under way afore night,
it's toime to turn out," replied Felix. "Don't ye's
hear the schtaym sizzlin' in the froy'n pan?"

"But it isn't light yet," protested Scott.

"Bekase the lanthern in the cab'n bloinds your
two oyes, and makes the darkness shoine broighter
nor the loight," said Felix, as he looked at his
watch. "Sure, it's tin minutes afther foive in the[12]
marnin'. These beds are altogidther too foine,
Captain."

"How's that, Flix?" asked Scott, as he opened the
netting and leaped out of bed.

"They're too comfor-ta-ble, bad 'cess to 'em, and
a b'y cud slape till sundown in 'em till the broke o'
noight."

"Dry up, Flix, or else speak English," called Louis,
as he left his bed. "There is no end of 'paddies'
along this river, and I'm sure they cannot understand
your lingo."

"Is it paddies in this haythen oisland?" demanded
Felix, suspending the operation of dressing himself,
and staring at his fellow deck-hand. "I don't belayve
a wurrud of ut!"

"Are there no paddies up this river, Achang?"
said Louis, appealing to the Bornean.

"Plenty of paddies on all the streams about here,"
replied the native.

"And they can't oondershtand Kilkenny Greek!
They're moighty quare paddies, thin."

"They are; and I am very sure they won't answer
you when you speak to them with that brogue,"
added Louis.

"We will let that discussion rest till we come to
the paddies," interposed the captain, as he completed
his toilet, and left the cabin.

By this time all the party had left their beds and
dressed themselves; for their toilet was not at all
elaborate, consisting mainly of a woollen shirt, a pair[13]
of trousers, and a pair of heavy shoes, without socks.
Felipe had steam enough on to move the boat; and
the seamen had wiped the moisture from all the
wood and brass work, and had put everything in
good order.

"Are you a pilot for this river, Achang?" asked
Scott, as the party came together in the waist, the
space forward of the engine.

"I am; but there is not much piloting to be done,
for all you have to do is to keep in the middle of the
stream," replied the Bornean. "I went up and down
all the rivers of Sarawak in a sampan with an English
gentleman who was crocodiles, monkeys, mias,
snakes, and birds picking up."

"Wrong!" exclaimed Morris. "You know better
than that, Achang."

The native repeated the reply, putting the verb
where it ought to be.

"He was a naturalist," added Louis.

"Yes; that was what they called him in the
town."

"I think we all know the animals of which you
speak, Achang, except one," said Louis. "I never
heard of a mias."

"That is what Borneo people call the orang-outang,"
replied the native.

"Orang means a man, and outang a jungle, and
the whole of it is a jungle man," Louis explained,
for the benefit of his companions; for he was better
read in natural history than any of them, as he had[14]
read all the books on that subject in the library of
the ship. "In Professor Hornaday's book, 'Two
Years in the Jungle,' which was exceedingly interesting
to me, he calls this animal the 'orang-utan,'
which is only another way of spelling the second
word."

"Excuse me, Louis, but I think we will get under
way, and hear your explanations at another time,"
interposed Captain Scott.

"I have finished all I had to say."

"Take the wheel, Achang," continued the captain.

The sampan was sent ashore to cast off the fasts.
The river at the town is over four hundred feet
wide, and deep enough in almost any part for the
Blanchita. As soon as the lines were hauled in, the
captain rang one bell, and Felipe started the engine.
The helmsman headed the boat for the middle of the
stream, and the captain rang the speed-bell. When
hurried, the Blanchita was good for ten knots an
hour, but her ordinary speed was eight.

On the side of the river opposite Kuching, or Sarawak,
was the kampon of the Malays and other natives;
and the term means a division or district of
a town. Many of the natives of this village had
visited the Blanchita,—some for trade, some for employment,
and some from mere curiosity. None of
them were allowed to go on board of the launch; for,
while the Dyaks are remarkably honest people, the
Malays and Chinese will steal without any very
heavy temptation.[15]

Achang headed the boat up the river. For five
miles the banks were low, with no signs of cultivation,
and bordered with mangroves. At this point
the captain called Lane to the wheel, with orders to
keep in the middle of the river. The "Big Four"
had taken possession of the bow divans, the better
to see the shores. They were more elevated, which
simply means higher above the water.

"When shall we come across the paddies, Achang?"
asked Felix; "for I am very anxious to meet them,
and maybe we shall have a Kilkenny fight with
them."

"No, you won't, for you speak English," replied
Louis.

"The paddies are here on both sides of the river,"
added Achang.

"I don't see a man of any sort, not even a Hottentot,
and I am sure there is not a Paddy in sight."

"Your education has been neglected, Flix, and you
did not read all the books in the ship's library," said
Louis. "I only told you the paddies would not answer
you if you spoke to them with a brogue. You
can try them now if you wish."

"But I don't see a single Paddy to try it on."

"Here is one on your left."

"I don't see anything but a field of rice."

"That's a paddy in this island."

"A field of rice!"

"Achang will tell you that is what they call them
in Borneo."[16]

"Bad luck to such Paddies as they are! But it
looks as though there might be some Paddies here,
for the houses are very neat and nice, just as you see
in old Ireland."

"Certainly they are; but I never saw any such in
Ireland," added Louis. "You remember the old
woman on the road from Killarney to the lakes who
told us she lived in the Irish castle, to which she
pointed; and it looked like a pig-sty."

"Of course it didn't have the bananas and the
cocoanut-palms around it."

"I admit that we saw many fine places in Ireland,
and very likely your mother lived in one of them.
But, Achang, is there any game in the woods we see
beyond the paddies?"

"Sometimes there is plenty of it; at others there
is scarcely any. You can get squirrels here and
some birds."

"Any orang-outangs?"

"We found none when we came up the river, for
this is not the best place for them. If we run up
the Sadong and Samujan Rivers, you will find
some," replied the Bornean. "I don't think it will
pay to go very far up the Sarawak, if it is game you
want; but you can see the country. There is quite
a village on the right."

The party were very much interested in examining
the houses they saw on the borders of the
stream. Like those they had seen in Java and in
Sumatra, they were all set up on stilts. A Malay or[17]
Dyak will not build his home on dry land, as they
noticed in coming up the lower part of the river,
though there was plenty of elevated ground near.
The dwellings were all built on the soft mud.

The village ten miles up-stream was constructed on
the same plan. The houses were placed just out of
the reach of the water when it was higher than usual.
The material was something like bamboo, as in India,
with roofs of kadjang leaves, which abound in
the low lands. In front of every one of them was a
flat boat—sampan; and one was seen which was
large enough to have a roof of the same material as
the house. The boats were made fast to a pole set in
the mud.

"There is a bear on the shore!" shouted Morris,
with no little excitement in his manner, as he pointed
to the woods on the shore opposite the houses, to
which the attention of all the rest of the party had
been directed.

At the same time he seized his repeating rifle, and
all the others followed his example. The animal
was fully three feet high, and at a second glance it
did not look much like a bear. Whatever it was, it
took to its heels when the sound of the steamer's
screw reached its ear. But Morris fired before the
boat started, and the others did the same.

"That is not a bear, Mr. Morris," interposed
Achang, laughing as he spoke.

"What is it, then?" demanded Morris.

"A pig."[18]

"A pig three feet high!" exclaimed the hunters
with one voice.

"A wild pig," added the Bornean.

"Is he good for anything?" inquired Scott.

"He is good to eat if you like pork."

"He dropped in the bushes when we fired. Can't
we get him?" asked Morris.

Under the direction of the captain the steamer
was run up to the shore; and the bank in this place
was high enough to enable the party to land without
using the sampan. All hands, including the seamen,
rushed in the direction of the spot where the pig
had been seen. The game was readily found. The
animal was something like a Kentucky hog, often
called a "racer," because he is so tall and lank.
He was a long-legged specimen; and Achang said
that was because they hunted through swamps and
shallow water in search of food, and much use had
made their legs long. He added that they were a
nuisance because they rooted up the rice, and farmers
had to fence their fields.

He was carried on board by the sailors, and Pitts
cut out some of the nicer parts of the pig. They
had roast pork for dinner, but it was not so good as
civilized hogs produce.[19]

CHAPTER III

SOMETHING ABOUT BORNEO AND ITS PEOPLE

"I don't think we know much of anything about
Borneo," said Scott, as the Blanchita continued on
her course up the Sarawak, after the dinner of roast
pork.

"We all heard the lecture of Professor Giroud on
board the ship," replied Louis.

"I should like to hear it over again, now that we
are on the ground," added the captain.

"Sure, we're not on the ground, but on the
wather," suggested Felix.

As the reader did not hear the lecture, or see it
in print, it becomes necessary to repeat it for the
benefit of "whom it may concern." The professor,
after being duly presented to his audience in Conference
Hall, proceeded as follows:—

"Australia is undoubtedly the largest island in
the world, and some geographers class it with the
continents; but Chambers makes Borneo the third
in size, while most authorities rate it as the second,
making Papua, or New Guinea, the second in extent.
Lippincott says Papua disputes with Borneo the
claim to the second place among the great islands of
the world; and I do not propose to settle the question.[20]
Chambers gives the area of Borneo at 284,000
square miles, the population in the neighborhood of
200,000, and the dimensions as 800 by 700 miles.

"It has a coast-line of about 3,000 miles, nearly
the whole of which is low and marshy land. A
large portion of the island is mountainous, as you
may see by looking at the map before you;" and
the professor indicated the several ranges with the
pointer. "One chain extends nearly the whole
length of the island, dividing in the middle of it
into two branches, both of which almost reach the
sea on the south. Near the centre of the island
are two cross ranges, one extending to the east, and
the other to the south-west. It would be useless to
mention the Malay names of these ranges, for you
could not remember them over night. The general
idea I have given you is quite enough to retain.

"The interior of Borneo is but little known; and
when Mr. Gaskette makes another map of the island
twenty or thirty years hence, it will probably differ
considerably from the one before you. In the extreme
north is the peak of Kini Balu, the height of
which is set down at 13,698 feet, with an interrogation
point after it. Other mountains are estimated
to be from 4,000 to 8,000 feet high. There are no
active volcanoes.

"In the low lands on the coast, it is hot, damp, and
unhealthy for those who are not acclimated; but in
the high lands among the mountains, the temperature
is moderate, from 81° to 91° at noon, and it is sometimes[21]
worse than that in New York. From November
to May, which is the rainy season, violent storms
of wind with thunder-showers prevail on the west
coast. In hot weather the sea-breezes extend a considerable
distance inland. Vegetation is remarkably
luxuriant, as our young hunters will find in their
explorations. The forests produce all the woods of
the Indian Archipelago, of which you know the
names by this time. Bruneï, on the north-west
coast, produces the best camphor in Asia, which is
about the same as saying in the world."

"What is camphor, Professor?" asked Mrs. Belgrave.
"I have used it all my life, but I have not
the least idea what it is."

"Camphor is an oil found in certain plants, mostly
from the camphor laurel. This oil is separated from
the plant, and then undergoes the process of refining.
It is mixed with water, and then boiled in a sort of
retort. It makes steam, which is allowed to escape
through a small aperture, which is then closed, and
the camphor becomes solid in the upper part of the
vessel. This is the article which is sent to market.

"All the spices and fruits of the Torrid Zone are
produced in Borneo, with cotton and sugar-cane in
certain parts. The animals of the island are about
the same as in other parts of the Archipelago. The
monkey tribe is the most abundant, including the
simia, the gibbon, the orang-outang, found in no
other island, except very rarely in Sumatra, where
our hunters did not find even one; tapirs"[22]—

"What are they?" asked Uncle Moses.

"They are a sort of cross between an elephant and
a hog. They are found all over South American
tropical regions and in this part of Asia. The animal
is more like a hog than like an elephant, though
it has the same kind of a skin as the latter. It is
about the size of the average donkey. It has a snout
which is prehensile, like the trunk of an elephant,
but on a very small scale.

"What does that mean?" asked Mrs. Blossom.

"Capable of taking hold of anything, as the elephant
does with his proboscis. The tapir is one of
the gentler animals, and may be easily tamed; though
it will fight and bite hard when attacked, or harried
by dogs. They take to the water readily, though the
American swims, while the Asiatic only walk on the
bottom. One book I consulted calls the tapir a kind
of tiger, to which he bears hardly any resemblance.

"The other animals are small Malay bears, wild
swine, horned cattle, and puny deer. The elephant
and rhinoceros are found, few in number, in the
north. The birds are the eagle, vulture, argus-pheasant,—a
singular and beautiful bird,—peacocks,
flamingoes, and swifts."

"What in the world are swifts?" inquired Mrs.
Woolridge.

"They are a kind of swallow, of which you may
have seen some as we came down from Rangoon.
They make the edible birds'-nests which are so great
a delicacy among the Chinese when made into soup.[23]
The rivers, lakes, and swamps swarm with crocodiles,
the real man-eaters. Leeches are a nuisance when
you bathe in the rivers and ponds, and various kinds
of snakes abound. There are plenty of fish in the
sea, lakes, and rivers. Diamonds, gold, coal, copper,
are mined in the island.

"All of New England and the Middle States, with
Maryland, could be set down in Borneo, still leaving
a considerable border of swamp and jungle all around
them. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland could be slapped down upon it like a flapjack,
and there would still be more than space for
another United Kingdom, without covering up all the
mud of Borneo. We do not see how big it is when
we look on the map.

"The larger portion of the island is included in
the Dutch possessions. Banjermassin, of which
something was said as we passed the mouth of the
Barito River, on which it is located, contains 30,000
inhabitants, and is the most important in the island.
Borneo proper is in the north-west, and is under the
government of the Sultan of Bruneï. He lost nearly
one-half of his territory, taken by the North Borneo
Company, and that in the west, which is now Sarawak,
of which I shall have something more to say
later. The island of Labuan lies six miles west of
the northern portion of Bruneï. It was ceded to
the English by the sultan, and is principally valuable
as a coaling-station, though it has a considerable
trade.[24]

"Sabah is the country of the North Borneo Company.
An American obtained the right to this
territory in 1865, and transferred it to the present
company. It has an area somewhat larger than the
State of Maine. No doubt they will develop and
improve the country.

"Sarawak has a territory nearly as large as that
of the State of Pennsylvania, and larger than the
State of Ohio. Its history is involved in the life
of Sir James Brooke, who was originally created the
rajah, or governor of the country, by the Sultan of
Bruneï, and retained the title till his death in 1868.
He was born in Benares in 1803, and educated at
Norwich, England. In 1819 he entered the East
Indian army, and was severely wounded in the Burmese
war. He returned to England; and his furlough
lapsed before he could rejoin his regiment,
and with it his appointment. He left the service.
He next conceived a plan for putting down piracy
in the Indian Archipelago, and of civilizing the savage
inhabitants of these islands, a grand and noble
scheme to be carried out by a single individual on
his own responsibility.

"He bought a small vessel, and made a voyage
to China, probably with the intention of improving
his finances for the work he had in view. In 1835
he inherited $150,000 at the death of his father.
After a cruise in the Mediterranean, he sailed in a
schooner-yacht from London for Sarawak, where he
arrived in 1839. The uncle of the sultan was engaged[25]
in a war with some tribes of rebels, and
Brooke rendered him important assistance. He
returned to Kuching with the title of rajah, his
predecessor, a native, having been compelled to
resign.

"The new governor immediately went to work
very vigorously to establish a better government,
introducing free trade, and framing a new code of
laws. At this time the atrocious custom of head-hunting
prevailed in the island. Enemies killed in
battle were decapitated simply for the sake of the
head, and the Dyak who obtained the greatest
number of them was esteemed the most valiant
warrior.

"A Dyak girl would not accept the addresses of
a young man who had not obtained a head, in the
earlier time; and murders were often committed for
the sole purpose of obtaining the head of the victim,
either to conciliate some dusky maiden, or as a
trophy for the head-house, of which there is one
in every village. The heads were 'cooked,' as they
called it, though the operation was merely drying
and cleaning the skull. Rajah Brooke made the
penalty of this kind of murder death, without regard
to the customs and antecedents of the natives; and
he soon abolished head-hunting in his dominion.

"The sultan, either directly or by 'winking at it,'
encouraged piracy; and the crime was as common as
in the vicinity of the Malay states fifty years ago.
Sir James Brooke resolutely attacked the pirates,[26]
and with the means at his command soon vanquished
and drove them from the sea and the land. The
Dyaks, in spite of their head-hunting propensities,
were rather a simple people; while the Malays of
the island were cunning, dishonest, treacherous, and
cruel. The simple Dyaks were no match for them,
and were cheated and abused in every possible way.
There was no such thing as justice in the land. The
new rajah corrected all these abuses.

"Having established his government on the basis
of right and justice to all, Brooke went to England
in 1847. He was invited to Windsor by the Queen,
and created a K. C. B. (Knight Commander of the
Bath), a distinguished honor in Great Britain. The
next year he was made governor of Labuan. He
was charged in the House of Commons with receiving
head-money for pirates killed; but the charge
was disproved.

"Brooke continued to hold his position as Rajah of
Sarawak while at Labuan; but in 1857 he was superseded
at the latter, and returned to his government.
The Chinese, of whom there are a great many in
Borneo, became incensed against him because he prevented
the smuggling of opium into his territory. A
large body of them attacked his house in the night,
and destroyed a great amount of his property.

"But the rajah was not a man to submit quietly
to such an outrage. He immediately collected a
force of Dyaks and Malays, and attacked the Celestials.
He razed a fort they had constructed, and[27]
thoroughly defeated them in several successive battles.
He was very prompt and decided in action,
and to see an abuse was to remedy it without unnecessary
delay. He established and maintained a
model government, and the country prospered greatly
under his mild but decisive rule.

"He found a town with 1,000 inhabitants, and left
it with 25,000. He died in 1868, and was succeeded
by his nephew, Sir C. T. Brooke, who extended his
territory, and ten years ago placed it under the protection
of the United Kingdom. This is the history
of a noble man and a model colony."

"But what are Dyaks, Professor?" inquired Mrs.
Belgrave.

"They are natives of Borneo, though all the people
are not known by this name. They are divided
into Hill Dyaks and Sea Dyaks. At the present
time they are a high-toned class of savages; for they
do not steal or rob, and they have many social virtues
which might be copied by the people of enlightened
nations. Head-hunting and piracy are known
among them no more. They are the farmers and
producers of the island. There is much that is very
interesting about them. They build peculiar houses,
some of them occupied by a dozen or more families,
though they always live in peace, and do not quarrel
with their neighbors. The young women select their
own husbands, and a head is no longer necessary to
open the way to an engagement.

"If any of the party wish to learn more of the[28]
Dyaks, their manners and customs, present and past,
you will find a work in two volumes, by the Rev.
J. G. Wood, entitled, 'The Uncivilized Races of
Men;' and you will find that the author often
quotes from Rajah Brooke."[29]

CHAPTER IV

A SPECULATION IN CROCODILES

The Blanchita continued on her course up the
river with Clingman at the wheel. There was no
table in the fore cabin; and the dinner of the six
men, including the engineer, was served astern after
the "Big Four" had taken the meal. Louis attended
to the engine while Felipe was at his meals
and occasionally at other times. A table is not a
necessity for the crew of a ship, and one is not used
on board a merchant vessel; but Louis insisted that
all hands should fare equally well on board of the
little steamer.

The dinner was disposed of, and Wales was at the
wheel. The men had nothing to do, and a couple of
them had assisted Pitts in washing the dishes and
putting the after cabin in order. It was an idle
time, and the "Big Four" were anxious to have
something more exciting than merely sailing along
the river, the novelty of which had worn off; and
they had not long to wait for it.

"A crocodile ahead, Captain, on the port bow,
sir!" exclaimed Wales, the wheelman, whose duty
required him to keep a sharp lookout for any obstructions
in the stream.[30]

All of the party had their weapons within reach,
including the three seamen who were disengaged;
but the latter were not expected to use the rifles
till they were ordered to do so by the captain or
any one of the hunters. The occupants of the fore
cabin, the principal personages on board, had the
exclusive use of the forward part of the boat, though
the hands were at liberty to use the seats when they
were not required by any of the "Big Four." No
order to this effect had been given; but the men,
under the influence of the discipline on board of
the ship, had involuntarily adopted the system.

"Slow her down, Wales," said Scott, after he had
observed the situation of the saurian.

The wheelman rang the jingle-bell, and the boat
soon came down to half-speed. The five hunters,
including Achang, had their rifles ready for use,
though they still retained their seats. The reptile
was not asleep; and he appeared to have some
notions of his own, for he was not disposed to wait
for the coming of the boat. He settled down in the
dark water so that he could not be seen, but the
surface was disturbed by his movements.

"Port the helm, Wales," said the captain quietly.
"He is going across the river."

Presently he came to the surface again, and was
swimming towards the opposite shore. He kept his
head and a small portion of his back next to it above
the surface of the water, as the young hunters had
seen in Sumatra before.[31]

"Full speed; give her a spurt, Wales," said the
captain.

The wheelman rang the speed-bell, and then spoke
through the tube to the engineer. The boat suddenly
darted ahead under this instruction, and was
soon abreast of the reptile, who was not at first
disposed to change his tactics. He evidently realized
that he was pursued, and it seemed to make
him angry.

"The rascal has put his helm to port," said Wales.

"Look out there, in the waist!" shouted Scott to
the seamen, a couple of whom were seated on the
rail, with their legs dangling over the side of the
boat. "Never sit in that way, men, unless you
want to be carried to the hospital with a leg bitten
off."

"Will they bite, Captain?" asked Clinch.

"Bite? They are regular man-eaters on these
rivers."

"I used to go in swimming with the alligators on
the Alabama River; but they all kept their distance,"
added the seaman.

The two men drew in their legs and moved inboard.
Alligators, which are generally considered harmless
in the rivers of the Southern States, will bite at anything
hanging in the water. As Wales had suggested,
the crocodile had changed his course, and was now
headed directly for the Blanchita. He seemed to
have concluded that there was no safety for him in
flight, and he had decided to fight.[32]

"Your first shot, Louis," said Scott, who had not
even taken up his rifle, as if he thought there would
be no chance for him after the millionaire had fired.

Louis waited a minute or more till he could distinctly
see the eye of the crocodile, and then he fired.
As has so often been said before, he had been thoroughly
trained in a shooting-gallery, and was a dead
shot, as he had often proved during the voyage.
The bullet had evidently gone to his brain, for the
reptile floundered about for an instant, and then
moved no more. As Felix put it, he was "very
dead," though the word hardly admits of an intensifier.

"What are you going to do with him now?" asked
the Milesian.

"I don't think we want anything more of him;
but, like a poison snake, he is a nuisance that ought
to be abated," replied the captain. "I dare say the
rajah will be much obliged to us for making the
number of them even one less."

"How long is he?" Achang inquired, as he returned
his rifle to its resting-place.

"About ten feet," replied Louis.

"More than that," the captain thought. "I should
say twelve feet."

"Then he is worth eighteen shillings to you," added
the native.

"What is he good for, Achang?" asked Morris.

"He is good for nothing," replied the Bornean.
"The crocodile here eats men and women. Some are[33]
killed every year, and the government pays one and
sixpence apiece for the heads."

"That looks like a war of extermination upon
them," said Morris.

"I don't know what that is; but they want to kill
them all off," replied Achang, who had improved his
language so that his tutor seldom had to correct it.

"That is the same thing. They pay by the foot
for crocodiles here."

"The bigger they are, the more dangerous," suggested
Louis. "Let us haul him alongside, and see
how long he is."

The boat had stopped her screw before Louis
fired; and the captain directed Wales to lay her
alongside the saurian, which was done in a few
minutes. Ropes were passed under his head and
tail; and with a couple of purchases made fast to
the horizontal rods over the rail, close to the stanchions,
the carcass was hoisted partly out of the
water. The measure was taken with a line first, to
which Lane, who was a carpenter's assistant, applied
his rule, which gave twelve feet and two inches as
the length of the crocodile.

"That makes him worth eighteen shillings," said
Achang.

"About four dollars and a half," added Morris.
"We could make something hunting crocodiles. If
we could kill ten of them like that fellow it would
give us forty-five dollars."

Louis and Scott laughed heartily at this calculation,[34]
and thought the idea was derogatory to the
character of true sport, though they did not object
to turning their victims of this kind into money.

"Must we carry the carcass of this beast down
to Kuching in order to get the reward, Achang?"
asked Morris.

"The head will be enough; and they can tell how
long he is by the size of it."

"How shall we saw the head off? Can you do it,
Lane?"

"I can do that," interposed the Bornean, as he
went to a bundle of implements he had procured in
the town and from the natives.

He drew from it a very heavy sword, from which
he took off the covering of dry leaves, and applied
his thumb to the edge of the weapon. Then he
picked out a straw from some packing, and dropped
it off in pieces, as one tries his razor on a hair. It
appeared to be as sharp as the shaving-tool, and he
was satisfied. All hands watched his movements
with deep interest. He secured a position with one
foot on the side of the boat, and the other on the
back of the crocodile. With two or three blows of
his sword, he severed the head from the body, and
a seaman secured it with a boathook.

All hands applauded when the deed was done, as
the Bornean washed his keen blade. The operation
excited the admiration of all the lookers-on, it was
so quickly and skilfully done. Louis wished to examine
the weapon, and it was handed to him. It[35]
was heavy enough to require a strong arm to handle
it; and it was sharp enough for a giant's razor, if
giants ever shave, for most of them are pictured
with full beards.

"I suppose this is a native's sword," said Louis,
as he passed it to the captain.

"Dyak parong latok; parong same thing, not so
long," Achang explained.

"I suppose that is what the Dyaks used when
they went head-hunting," said Felix.

"No head-hunting now; used to use it, the Hill
Dyaks. Used in battle too; split head open with it,
or cut head off."

"What other weapons did the fighting men use?"
asked Louis.

"They carried a shield, and used a spear with
the parong latok; no other weapons. Two kinds of
Dyaks, the Sea and the Hill."

While the native was talking, the seamen, by order
of the captain, had hoisted the head of the saurian
into the sampan towing astern, placing it on a piece
of tarpaulin. The carcass was cast loose, and probably
was soon devoured by others of its own kind.

"We might find some eggs in the crocodile," said
Achang, as the body floated past the boat.

"We don't want the eggs," replied the captain,
turning up his nose.

"Good to eat, Captain. My naturalist used to
eat them. Very nice, like turtles' eggs, which Englishmen
always put in the soup."[36]

"None in my soup!" exclaimed Scott, with a wry
face, to express his disgust.

"I suppose they would be all right if we only got
used to them," suggested Louis.

"As the man's horse did when he fed him on shavings,"
sneered Scott.

"I did not take very kindly to turtles' eggs when
we were in the West Indies; but I got used to them,
and then liked them," added Louis. "In Africa the
natives eat boa-constrictors, and think they are a
choice morsel. Some of our Indians eat clay, and
I suppose they like it."

"Something up in the trees yonder, Captain,"
said Wales, as the boat approached some higher
ground, which was not overflown with water, as
most of the shore below had been.

"Monkeys," added Achang, not at all excited.

"I don't think I care to shoot monkeys unless it
is for the purpose of examining them," said Louis.
"They are too small game, and they are harmless
creatures."

"Strange monkeys in here," continued Achang.
"Not these," he added when he had obtained a sight
of one of them. "These no good."

All eyes were directed to the tree; and at least a
dozen common monkeys were there, such as they
had seen in the museums at home. The steamer
continued on her course, and a couple of miles farther
on the forest was inundated. Some of the trees
appeared to be inhabited.[37]

"Plenty of elephant monkeys in here," said
Achang.

"Elephant monkeys!" exclaimed Louis. "I never
heard of any such animals. Are they called so because
they are so large?"

"No, sir," said Achang; "because they have such
long noses."

"There are a dozen monkeys in that tree, and
they look very queer," said Louis, as he elevated
his double-barrelled fowling-piece, loaded with large
shot, and fired.

One of them dropped, and another when he discharged
the second barrel. The boat was run in the
direction of the tree till it grounded in the mud.
The captain proposed to go for them in the sampan,
when Clingman volunteered to wade to the tree for
the game, and soon returned with the two victims of
the millionaire's unerring aim. They were placed in
the waist, and all were curious to see them. The
rest of the tribe scampered away over the tops of the
trees, crying, "honk, honk, kehonk!"

"They are proboscis monkeys, and old males at
that; for they have very long noses, which is the
reason for the name, and why Achang calls them
elephant monkeys," said Louis, as he turned the
creatures over. "The noses of these two reach
down below the chin. They stand about three feet
high, but are rather lank, like the tall pigs."

While the party were examining them, the captain
gave the order to back the boat, and then to go[38]
ahead. She was moored for the night soon after.
The next morning, by the advice of Achang, the
Blanchita was headed down the river, for the native
declared that they would find no different game on
the banks of the Sarawak.[39]

CHAPTER V

A HUNDRED AND EIGHT FEET OF CROCODILE

The party were stirring as soon as it was daylight;
for in the tropics the early hours are the pleasantest,
and they had fallen into the habit of early rising in
India. The trees were alive with monkeys of several
kinds, though the proboscis tribe seemed to be in the
majority. Felix came out of the cabin with his gun
in his hand, and began to regard the denizens of
the tree-tops with interest.

"What are you going to do, Flix?" asked Louis,
who was sitting on the rail, busily cutting out a notch
in the end of a long piece of board.

"Don't you see there is plenty of game here, my
darling?" demanded Felix, pointing up into the
trees.

"Game!" exclaimed Louis contemptuously.
"Monkeys!"

"Didn't you shoot a couple of them yesterday
afternoon, Louis?"

"I did; but I wanted them in order to study the
creature. Now every fellow knows what a proboscis
monkey is, as he did not before except by name. I
got my books out, and read him up with the animal
before me. I am glad I did; for the picture of him[40]
I had seen was nothing like him in his nasal appendage,
which gives him his name."

"What is the reason of that?"

"The portrait was taken from a young one, before
his nose had attained its full growth. But I don't
believe in shooting monkeys for the fun of it. Our
party are not inclined to eat them."

"I'd as soon eat a cat as a monkey," added Felix.

"Then, don't shoot those long-nosed fellows, for
we have all the specimens of them we need," said
Louis.

"What are you going to do with them, my darling?
You can't keep them much longer, and you will have
to throw them overboard, for they won't smell sweet
by to-morrow."

"Achang learned something about taxidermy from
the naturalist he travelled with, and he has promised
to skin and mount one of them for me."

"But what's that you are making, Louis?" asked
Felix, who had been trying to take the measure of
the implement the young Crœsus was fashioning.

Its use was not at all evident. A triangular piece
had been sawed out of the end of a strip of board four
inches wide, and the rest of it had been cut down and
rounded off, and the thing looked more like a pitchfork
than anything else.

"Is it to pitch hay with?" persisted Felix.

"What have you got there, Mr. Belgrave?"

Page 41.

"No, it is not; when you see me use it, you will
know what it is for. You must wait till that time
before you know," replied Louis, who appeared to[41]
have finished the implement just as the other brought
his gun to his shoulder.

"That's the handsomest schnake I iver saw since
me modther, long life to her, left ould Ireland before
I was bahrn."

"Don't shoot him, Flix!" protested Louis vigorously.
"Where is he?"

"Jist forninst the bow of the boat. Sure, Oi'm
the schnake-killer of the party, and he's moi game."

"I don't want him killed yet," replied Louis, as he
moved forward from the waist with the forked stick
in his hand. "He is handsome, as you say, Flix."

Creeping very cautiously till he could see over the
bow, he discovered the serpent, which was nearly six
feet long, working slowly down a dead log towards
the water. Springing to his feet on the bow, he
struck down with his weapon, directing the fork at
the neck of the reptile. The outside of the log was
nothing but punk, or the operation would have been
a failure. As it was, the two points of the implement
sunk into the wood, and the snake was pinned in the
opening at the end of the stick.

"What have you got there, Mr. Belgrave?" asked
Achang, hurrying to the side of the operator.

"A snake; do you know him?" demanded Louis,
as the reptile struggled to escape.

"I saw one like it years ago;" and he gave a long
Dyak name to it which the others did not understand.
"Wait a minute or two, and I will bring him on
board for you."[42]

"I don't know that we want him on board," added
Louis.

"He is not poison, and he won't hurt you," said
the Bornean, as he made a slip-noose at the end of a
piece of cord.

Hanging over the bow, he passed the noose over
the head of the snake, and hauled it taut, and then
made the end he held fast to the boat. Louis lifted
his implement from the neck of the snake, and he
squirmed and wriggled as though he "meant business."
Achang leaped to the shore, and seizing the
serpent by the tail, tossed him into the boat. He
struck on one of the cushions, and the cord prevented
him from going any farther.

Scott and Morris had just reached the fore cabin at
this moment, and they started back as though they
had been bitten by the snake. His head, tail, and
belly were bright red, with white stripes upon a dark
ground along his back and sides. No one but Achang
had ever seen such a serpent, even in a museum. His
snakeship was disposed to make himself comfortable
on the cushion, and the Bornean loosed the cord
around his neck.

"I saw a small snake, not more than two feet long,
swimming near the shore of Lake Cobbosseecontee, in
Maine, that had nearly all the colors of the rainbow
in his skin," said Morris. "I tried to knock him
over with my fishing-rod, and catch him; but I
failed. I told the people where we boarded about
him, but no one had ever seen a snake like him."[43]

"There are plenty of such snakes in South America,
some that are not poisonous, which the native
women tame and wear as necklaces," added Louis.

"Well, what are you going to do with him?"
asked Captain Scott. "I think you had better kill
him, and throw him into the river, pretty as he is.
He isn't a very desirable fellow to have as a companion
on board."

"What is the use of killing him? He would only
be food for the crocodiles," protested Louis.

"Do what you like with him, Louis," added the
captain.

"I certainly will not have him killed. If Achang
never saw but one of the kind, there cannot be a
great many of them in this part of the island. Put
him ashore, Achang," said the humane young gentleman.

The Bornean complied with this request; and the
handsome snake skurried off in the woods, none the
worse for his adventure. But the others were not
quite satisfied with the policy of the young millionaire.
They wanted to shoot whatever they could
see in the nature of game, including monkeys, and
he was opposed to this destructive action. Of course
they could kill whatever they pleased, but the moral
influence of the real leader prevailed over them.

"Steam enough!" shouted Felipe from the engine.

"Take the wheel, Clingman, back her out and go
ahead," said the captain; and in a few moments they
were steaming down the river.[44]

"I suppose you haven't any tenderness for crocodiles,
have you, Louis?" inquired Scott, with a smile.

"You seem to believe that I am as chicken-hearted
as a girl; but I believe in killing all harmful animals,
including poisonous snakes; but I do not like
to see these innocent monkeys shot down for the fun
of it," replied Louis. "You can kill them if you
choose, but I will not."

"The rest of us will not, if you are opposed to it,"
added Scott.

"Crocodile on the port hand!" exclaimed Clingman.
"He is swimming across the river, about
three boats' lengths from us."

"Stop her!" said the captain.

"I shot the last one, and I will not fire at this
one," added Louis, who was not disposed to monopolize
the fun.

"All right; then I will be number two, Morris
three, Flix four, and Achang five; and if you are all
satisfied, we will fire in this order hereafter," continued
Scott, as he took aim at the saurian.

He missed the eye of the reptile, and the bullet
from the rifle glanced off and dropped into the
water.

"How many shots is a fellow to have before he
loses his chance?" asked the captain, as he aimed
again.

"I suggest three," said Louis. "Those in favor of
three say ay."

They all voted "ay," and Scott fired twice more.[45]
"Your turn, Morris;" and he appeared to be very
much chagrined at his ill luck. "I could hardly see
the eye of the varmint."

Morris fired his three shots with no better success.
Felix took a different position from the others, placing
himself on the stem. He fired, and the saurian
still kept on his course. He did better the second
time; and the reptile floundered for a moment, and
then turned over dead. The boat was run up alongside,
and Achang was required to bring out his parong
latok, with which he decapitated the game at a
single blow this time; but the creature was only nine
feet long.

Pitts called the cabin party to breakfast at this
time. The Blanchita went ahead again, and the
repeating rifles were left on the cushions. At
Louis's suggestion the captain gave the four men off
duty permission to use the arms on crocodiles, but
not on monkeys.

Ham and eggs, with hot biscuit and coffee, was the
bill of fare; and the young men had sharpened their
appetites in the sports of the morning. Before they
were half done they heard the crack of a rifle. They
listened for the second shot, but none followed it.

"Who fired that shot, Pitts?" asked the captain,
as the steward brought in another plate of biscuit.

"Clinch, sir," replied the man. "He knocked the
crocodile over at the first shot, sir."

"Then he is a better shot than I am," said Scott,
laughing.[46]

"Or any of the rest of us who had their turns,"
added Felix. "Louis is the only fellow that brings
'em down the first time trying."

"The rest of you would have done better if the
sun had not reflected on the water, and shaken your
aim," said Louis.

Before the meal was finished, another shot was
heard, followed by two more. When the party went
forward they found that the little steamer had gone
around a bend so that the forest shaded the surface
of the water. Wales had fired the last three times
at a crocodile still in sight; but he declared that he
could not hit the side of a barn twenty feet from him,
and did not care to fire again. The men went to
breakfast, and the cabin party picked up the rifles.
It was Achang's turn; and he missed twice, but killed
the game at the third shot.

"I can see four more of them. We seem to have
come to a nest of them, and the family are out for
a morning airing," said Louis, as he picked up his
rifle, while Felix was filling the other chambers with
cartridges. "They have all started to go across the
river."

"That must be the father of the family at the
head of the procession," added the captain. "It is
your turn now, Louis."

"Go ahead a little, Pitts," said the next one in
turn; for the cook had taken the wheel while Clingman
went to his morning meal. "I can't see his eye
yet."[47]

"That will do; stop her. I can see his eye now,
and there is no reflection on the water."

As soon as the boat lost her headway, Louis fired.
The saurian leaped nearly out of the water, and came
down wrong side up. There were three dead reptiles
lying on the water. It was the captain's next
shot, and when he placed the yacht in a position to
suit him he fired. The crocodile lifted his head out
of the water, and did not move again.

"Bravo, Captain!" cried Louis. "You did not
have a fair chance last time, and you have redeemed
yourself."

"I thought I could shoot better than before, and
now I feel better. But there are two more, and your
turn, Morris."

He killed the game with the third shot, and Felix
finished the last in sight with the second. Achang
had brought out his formidable weapon, and the six
dead reptiles were decapitated. The last three killed
were each nine feet long, while the one Louis had
shot was fourteen. The heads were all put in the
sampan, and they made a full load for it. The Blanchita
arrived at Kuching early in the afternoon, and
the chief of police measured the heads, and took the
figures from Felix. He made one hundred and eight
feet of crocodile, which the official approved as correct,
and paid not quite forty dollars for the bounty.[48]

CHAPTER VI

THE VOYAGE UP THE SADONG TO SIMUJAN

The money received for the heads of the crocodiles
was in the hands of Felix, who was the clerk of the
captain on board the ship, and it was proper to make
him purser of the Blanchita. What to do with it
was the next question. Louis's advice was asked
for, and he promptly suggested that it should be
divided into ten parts, and a share given to all but
himself; and this was done. He refused to accept a
penny, but all the others received about four dollars
apiece.

The money was all in silver, as it is all over India
and the Archipelago for general use. The engineer
and the seamen shared with the four hunters; for the
former had done all the work and some of the shooting.
The steamer was made fast at the shore, and
all hands except Pitts landed for a walk through the
town. Their first visit was to a fruit-store kept by
a Chinaman; and most of the shops in the place were
in the hands of the Celestials.

Bananas and oranges were the principal, though
there were also nearly all the tropical fruits in season.
Many of the party purchased useful articles in
other places. They had learned in Singapore and[49]
Batavia how to deal with Chinese traders, and they
seldom gave even more than one-third or one-half of
what was demanded. After diligent search Achang
found a certain Dyak tool he wanted,—a sort of axe,
which Lane, the carpenter's assistant, ridiculed without
mercy.

The young men visited the English Mission, where
they were kindly received, and went to the school.
The American missionaries are also active in Borneo,
and one of them has made a vocabulary of the Dyak
language.

It was decided to start down the river the next
morning on the way to the Sadong and Simujan
Rivers, the latter being a branch of the former. In
the early morning, as the hands were casting off the
fasts, two Malays came alongside in a sampan, and
asked to be towed to the Sadong. Achang had some
talk with them, and made the request of the captain
for them. He learned that they were engaged in the
business of catching crocodiles for the reward.

"They don't shoot crocodiles, and they have no
rifles," added Achang.

"How do they get them then?" asked Louis.

"They fish for them."

"What, with a hook and line?" demanded Captain
Scott.

"With a line, but have no fish-hook," replied the
Bornean. "You must see them catch one."

"All right," replied the captain; "we will tow
them down the river."[50]

After the yacht had been moving about an hour,
they came to a colony of saurians apparently, for
several of them were in sight at once. Achang directed
the reptile-hunters to catch one of them, and
they paddled their sampan towards a large one. The
Blanchita kept near enough to enable all hands to
witness the operation, which the Bornean described
to them as the Malays made their preparations, for
they had all their fishing-gear in their boat.

The line they used was a rattan about forty feet
long. At the "business end," as Scott called it, they
attached a float to keep it on the top of the water.
The steamer just crawled along on the river in order
not to disturb the game, though the reptiles were
accustomed to the sight of vessels.

"Now you see that stick the hunter has in his
hand," said Achang, though each of them had one.
"'Most a foot long, like a new moon."

"Crescent-shaped," added Louis.

"Called an alir in Malay. Made of green wood,
very tough, pointed at the ends; they fasten the
rattan line to the middle of the stick."

Some tough green bark, braided together, was then
wound around the stick so that the game could not
bite it in two. A big fish for bait was then attached
to the alir, and carefully fastened to it so that the
reptile could not tear it off.

Thus prepared, the apparatus was thrown overboard,
and the sampan paddled away from it to give
the game an opportunity to approach it, the Malays[51]
each paying out his forty feet of line, one on each
side of the boat. The spectators watched the result
with great interest. As the sampan receded from
the saurians, they approached the bait. Crocodiles
and alligators do not nibble at their prey, but bolt
it as a snake does a frog.

The bait nearest to the observers on the yacht was
soon gobbled up by the hungry crocodile, who appeared
not to have been to breakfast that morning;
and the Malay at the other end of the line gave a
sharp jerk to his gear, the effect of which was to
draw the pointed crescent "athwart ships," as the
sailors would say, or across his stomach; and the
harder it was pulled the more the pointed ends would
penetrate the interior of the organ.

The first Malay had hardly hooked his game before
the second had another ready to haul in. Both of
the saurians struggled and lashed the dark water into
a foam; but both of the men in the sampan kept the
line as taut as they could with all their strength; and
this is the rule in hauling in all gamey fish.

"Tell them we will go ahead, Achang, and all they
need to do is to make fast their rattans to the sampan,"
said Captain Scott, when he had taken in the
situation.

In reply to the message the Bornean delivered to
them, the Malays nodded their heads vigorously, and
smiled their assent.

"Go ahead, down the river, Clinch," added the captain
to the helmsman.[52]

"I fancy there will be a lively kick-up on the part
of the game," said Louis, as the boat came up to her
course.

"Not much," added Scott. "If we put them
through the water at the rate of eight knots an
hour, the crocs will not feel much like doing any
gambolling. We are not making more than four
knots now."

"They are as lively now as a parched pea in a
hot skillet."

"I will ring the speed-bell now, and see how that
will affect them," replied the captain, suiting the
action to the word.

The Blanchita darted ahead at her usual speed.
Clingman began to overhaul the painter of the sampan,
for it did not look strong enough for the present
strain. He had scarcely got hold of it before it
snapped in the middle, and relieved the strain on
the crocodiles. The steamer backed at the order of
the captain; and a strong line was thrown into the
sampan, which one of the Malays seized and made
fast.

When the strain upon them was thus removed,
the saurians made violent struggles to escape. The
yacht then went ahead again, and the speed-bell was
rung immediately. The pressure on the game was
renewed, and they ceased to struggle. The apparatus
held fast, for the saurian fishers were experienced
in their business, and had done their work
well.[53]

At eight o'clock the Blanchita reached the mouth
of the river. The crocodiles were not dead, but their
stomachs must have been in a terrible condition. To
Louis it seemed to be cruel to prolong their sufferings;
and he wished Achang to request the Malays
to kill them, and Scott agreed with him. The Bornean
said they could not kill them while they were
towing behind, and that, if the lines were slacked,
they might get away.

The captain took the matter in hand, and told
Achang what he intended to do, which he communicated
to the reptile-hunters. On the starboard
hand Scott fixed his gaze on a small tongue of land
extending out into the river. Taking the wheel himself,
he run her close to the land some distance above
the point, and worked the sampan and its tow close
to the shore. The tow-line of the sampan was then
lengthened out to a hundred feet or more, and the
yacht went ahead again, rounding the point, so
that the peninsula lay between the steamer and
her tow.

Then she went ahead again, and the result was
that she pulled the sampan upon the point; and as
she was flat-bottomed, there was no difficulty in doing
so. The Blanchita continued on her course, and
the two crocodiles were landed after her. One of
the Malays then produced a parong latok; and even
more skilfully than Achang had done the job, he cut
off the heads of both reptiles. They were out of
misery then, and Louis was satisfied.[54]

The yacht was then run up to the point, and Lane
was sent on shore to measure the reptiles, while the
fishermen proceeded to recover the apparatus from
the stomachs of the defunct reptiles. The larger
crocodile was twelve feet and four inches long, and
the other ten feet and seven inches. The voyage
was resumed on the sea to the mouth of the Sadong;
and in three hours more she entered the stream,
which was a large one, averaging half a mile wide
for twenty miles.

"Bujang!" called Achang, as instructed by the
captain. "Do you want to go any farther?"

The head man replied in his own language that
they wished to go to Simujan, or till they came to
plenty of game. The Bornean said Bujang was a
great hunter, for he had killed fifty-three crocodiles
that year. The yacht, with the sampan still in tow,
started up the river, keeping in the middle of it.
Just before sunset she reached the junction of the
Simujan and Sadong.

On one side of the branch stream there was a considerable
Malay village, backed by an abundance of
cocoanut palms; and, of course, the houses were
built on stilts close to the water. On the other
side was the Chinese kampon, or quarter, consisting
largely of shops and trading-houses. Louis Belgrave
had been presented to the officials at Sarawak as the
owner of the Guardian-Mother, and that established
him as a person of great distinction.

After the ship departed on her voyage to Siam,[55]
many attentions were bestowed upon him; and when,
after the return of the yacht from up the Sarawak,
they learned that she was going to the Simujan, one
of the officials had given him a letter of introduction
to the Chinese half-cast government official, who was
the magnate of the place. Figuratively, he took the
"Big Four" in his arms, and there was nothing he
was not ready to do for them.

He conducted them to the government house, and
insisted that they should live there during their stay
at Simujan. It had been erected to receive such officials
as might have occasion to remain there at any
time. It was well built and comfortable, and each
chamber had a veranda in front of it. It was set
on posts six feet from the ground, like all the other
dwellings near it. It was the police station of the
region; and the two Malays collected eight or nine
dollars for their game, which they did not offer to
share with the crew of the yacht—no Malay would
do such a thing.

The agent's tender of the rooms to the party was
accepted, for the members wished to sleep in a four-posted
bedstead once more for a change. The chief
Malay of the place called upon them, and treated
them very handsomely. The Chinese official gave
them much information as they were seated on a
veranda of the house.

"You may find the orang-outang up the Simujan;
but I don't know that you want such large game,"
said he.[56]

"We have shot tigers in India, and Mr. McGavonty
has shot more cobras than all the rest of us.
He has a talent for killing snakes."

"Show me the snakes, and I will finish them,"
added Felix.

"You will not find many of them in the jungle.
There are some water snakes taken occasionally,
and people here eat them. They make a very fine
curry."

"I should ask to be excused from partaking of
that dish," said Scott.

"That is all prejudice," said the agent. "Perhaps
you would like to go a-fishing in the Sadong and its
branches. We have a peculiar way of taking fish
here. We use the tuba plant, which the Malays
prepare for use. It is a climbing-plant, the root
of which has some of the properties of opium. It
is reduced to a pulp, mixed with water. I cannot
fully explain the process of preparation, in which
the Malays are very skilful. At the right time of
tide, the fluid is thrown into the stream. The effect
is to stupefy and sometimes kill the fish. With dip-nets
the fish are picked up, though some of them are
so large that they can be secured only with a kind
of barbed spear."

"I don't think I care to fish in that way," said
Louis, with some disgust in his expression. "It is
very unsportsmanlike, and it looks to me to be a
mean way to do it."

"Just what some Englishmen who were here a[57]
while ago said, and perhaps you are right; but it is
a Malay art, and not English."

The party slept very comfortably on bedsteads
that night, but they were up before the sun the
next morning.[58]

CHAPTER VII

A SPIRITED BATTLE WITH ORANG-OUTANGS

The civilized people of Simujan were not stirring
when the party came from their chambers. Felipe
had steam up at half-past five, for the captain intended
to begin the ascent of the river; but he did
not care to leave without bidding adieu to the kindly
agent. But they got under way at his order, and
ran up the river for a morning airing. The boat
had not gone more than a mile when the young
men discovered a sampan containing two Malays
paddling with all their might for the shore.

They had no guns, and could not shoot their game,
whatever it was; but each of them had a biliong.
This was the implement Achang had bought in Sarawak.
It looked something like a pickaxe with only
one arm, the end of which was fashioned like a mortising
chisel, and was used as an axe.

The edge of the chisel portion was parallel to the
handle; but Achang explained that the Dyaks had
another kind of biliong, with the cutting part at
right angles with the handle, and this was used as
an adze. While Lane, the carpenter, was ridiculing
the tool, the Malays on shore moved to a tree in[59]
sight of the steamer, which had stopped her screw
close to the sampan.

"They are going to cut down a tree with the biliongs,"
said Achang. "Sometimes do that to get
the game."

"They couldn't cut down a tree a foot through
with those things in a week!" exclaimed Lane.

"So quick as you could cut it down," insisted the
Bornean stoutly.

"Dry up, now, and let us see the Malays work
with the thing," interposed the captain.

"Lane, you shall have a trial with a Dyak or a
Malay, and I will give a prize of three dollars to the
one that fells the tree first," said Louis.

"I should like to try that with any Dyak or Malay,"
replied Lane good-naturedly; and he was a
stout Down-Easter, who had been a logger in the
woods before he was a carpenter or a seaman.

"There are two animals in that tree where they
are at work," cried Morris, as he pointed to the scene
of operations. "One of them is a big one, and the
other is a little one," he added, when he obtained a
better view of the game the Malays were trying to
obtain. "What are they, Achang?"

"Mias! Mias!" exclaimed the native, as a movement
of the boat ahead gave him a full view of the
creatures. "One is a big one, and the other is her
baby."

"But what are the Malays doing now?" asked
Louis.[60]

"Make a stage to stand on," replied Achang.

"What do they want of a stage?" demanded
Lane contemptuously.

"You will see if you wait," added the captain.

They were picking up poles where they could find
them, and cutting saplings, which they dropped with
a single blow of the biliong. In a few minutes they
had constructed a rude framework on crotched sticks,
driven into the soft ground, with a platform of poles
on the top. On this one of the two men mounted
with his biliong, with which he began his work with
a blow at the tree about four feet above the level of
the ground. The other Malay brought from the
sampan a couple of spears, a parong latok, and a
bundle of ropes and rattans.

"Do they use the sumpitan in Borneo now,
Achang?" asked Louis.

"Not Dyaks, Mr. Belgrave; Kyans use it; shoot
poison arrows; sure death; very bad."

The sumpitan is a kind of blow-gun, like the
"bean-blower" formerly used by American boys,
which was a tin pipe, or the "pea-shooter," an English
plaything. It was used, it is said, by the Dyaks
in former times; but recent travellers do not mention
it as used by them. It is about eight feet
long, and less than an inch in diameter, made of
very hard wood, skilfully and accurately bored, and
smoothed inside.

The parong latok, already described, is a heavy
sword. It has a head, sometimes carved as an orna[61]ment,
so that it cannot slip from the hand. At
about one-third of its length from this head, it bends
at an abrupt angle of about thirty-five degrees, and
it makes a very ugly-looking weapon.

"I suppose you all know that a mias is an orang-outang,"
said Louis. "No doubt the weapons carried
up to the tree are to be used in killing the game
when the tree comes down. We could easily bring
down both; but we won't fire at them, for I think
we are all curious to see how the Malays will manage
the affair. The chopper has already made a big cut
in the tree, and I doubt if Lane could have done the
work any quicker."

The carpenter did not say anything, but no doubt
he was greatly surprised at the rapid progress the
native made with the biliong. He had cut the tree
more than half-way through the trunk; and it was
evident that he intended it should fall towards the
river, for the second Malay was clearing away the
ground on that side so that they might have a fair
field for the fight that was to ensue. The chopper
attacked the other side of the tree, and seemed to
deal his blows with even more vigor than before.

The old orang kept up a constant growling. She
had a nest just above the limb where she sat, which
was quite green, indicating that it had been recently
built. It was composed of the branches of the tree
small enough to be easily broken off by the "jungle
man." They were simply placed in a heap on the
limb, with no particular shaping of the resting-place.[62]

"She makes a new nest when the branches of the
old one get dry; she like a soft bed," said Achang.
"But the tree will come down now; big fight, they
kill her."

He had hardly spoken these words before the tree
suddenly toppled over, and fell upon the ground with
a heavy crash. The orangs seemed to have no idea
of what was going on at the foot of the tree, and
they were pitched out. The chopper seized one of
the spears, and rushed after the old one. The tree
prevented the party on board the yacht from seeing
the expected battle; and with their rifles in their
hands, the "Big Four" sprang ashore, and secured a
favorable position. The crew followed them, though
the engineer remained at his post.

The first Malay, who had done the chopping, had
confronted the orang, and they stood facing each
other. Suddenly the animal made a spring towards
her enemy, and was received on the point of his
spear. The orang was wounded, but this only increased
her wrath, and she made a furious onslaught
upon the man; but the spear was too much for her,
and she was wounded again.

The orang opened her mouth, and showed a terrible
double row of teeth flanked by four long tusks.
They were enough to intimidate one unaccustomed to
the creature's appearance. She made repeated attempts
to reach her enemy; but the spear, very
adroitly handled, foiled her every time, and gave her
a new wound. This sparring, as it were, was kept[63]
up for some time, and the Americans wondered that
the Malay did not drive his weapon to the heart of
the infuriated animal. Doubtless he would have
done so if he could; but the orang had hands as well
as feet, and she grasped the spear every time it punctured
her skin, and seemed to prevent it from inflicting
a fatal wound.

It was a mystery to the observers how the Malay
contrived to detach his weapon from the grasp of the
orang, though he did so every time. But at last the
brute seemed to change her tactics, or she got a better
hold of the spear; for she suddenly snapped the
weapon into two pieces as though it had been a pipe-stem.
Deprived of his arm, the Malay ran a few
rods. The orang is very clumsy on its feet, and
she could not catch him. The man only went a few
rods to the place where the parong latok had been
placed, and with this weapon he returned to the
attack.

The skirmishing with this weapon continued for
some time longer, and the beast was wounded every
time she attempted to get hold of her opponent. In
the meantime the other Malay had not been idle.
He used no deadly weapons, but substituted for them
a long cord he had brought from the sampan. He
made a slip-noose in one end of it, and was trying to
catch the young one. It might have run away if it
had been so disposed, but it seemed to be determined
to stay by its mother.

"He wants you, or needs your skill with the lasso,[64]
Captain Scott," said Morris, recalling the feats with
the lasso of the commander.

"He is doing very well, and he handles the line
well," replied Scott. "Now he has him!" he exclaimed,
as the Malay passed the cord over the head
of the young orang, and hauled it taut around his
neck.

With the line he dragged the orang to a sapling
near the fallen tree, and, with other lines he had left
there, tied his hands and feet together, and fastened
him to the small tree.

He had hardly secured his victim before a yell
from the first hunter startled him, and he ran with
his lasso and a spear to his assistance. The old one,
badly wounded by the sharp weapon of her enemy,
had suddenly dropped upon all fours, and crawled to
the man; seizing him by his legs, she set her villanous
teeth into the calf of one of them. It looked as
though the human was to be the victim of the brute.

The Malay, howling with the sharp pain, slashed
away with all his might at the hind quarters of the
orang; but she did not relax her grip on his leg. His
companion arrived at the scene of the conflict. He
dropped his lasso then, and began to use his parong
latok. After he saw that blows with the weapon accomplished
nothing, he plunged the blade into the
body of the brute several times in quick succession.
These stabs ended the battle. The orang rolled over,
and then did not move again.

Both of the human combatants then walked down[65]
to the Blanchita, one of them limping badly. They
showed their wounds, and through Achang asked to
be "doctored." Pitts had some skill as a leach, and
the medicine-chest was in his care. He laid out the
patient with the wounded leg, washed the wound, and
then applied some sticking-plaster to the lacerated
member, after he had restored the parts to their natural
position. Then he bandaged the leg quite skilfully,
so as to keep all the parts in place. The hands
of the other were covered with sticking-plaster and
bandaged.

With the assistance of the seamen, the carcass of
the old orang was dragged down to the river, and put
in the sampan of the Malays. The young one was as
ugly as sin itself, and tried to get at the men to bite
them. Finally Clingman stuffed a piece of rope into
his mouth, and tied it around his head so tight that
he could not shut his mouth. He was mad, but he
could not bite. He was put into the sampan, and
made fast there.

The yacht got under way again, and with the
Malay sampan in tow, headed down the river. The
tide was running out at a mill-stream pace, for the
water in the stream had risen far beyond its usual
level. Achang shook his head as he looked at the
rapid outward flow of the water; but the steamer
went at railroad speed, and the boys enjoyed it
hugely.

"What is the matter, Achang?" asked the captain,
as he observed the uneasy movements of the[66]
Bornean as the yacht approached the junction with
the Sadong.

"Have bore soon; better go no farther," replied
the native. "Upset all boats and sampans."

Captain Scott ordered the helmsman to go to the
shore, and there the painter of the Malay sampan was
cast off, and her men got to the land.

"There it goes up the Sadong!" cried Achang, as
he pointed to the broad stream.

A wave, estimated to be about ten feet high, fringing,
curling, and lashed into foam, and roaring in its
wrath, rolled up the river. It struck two small sampans,
upset them, and spilled the men in them into
the angry, boiling waters. With less fury it rolled
up the Simujan, and Scott rushed to the wheel himself.
He "faced the music," and headed the yacht
into the wave. She rose some feet in the air at the
bow, and passed over it. She was too far from the
banks to be thrown ashore, and no harm was done.

These bores are not uncommon on the Sadong; and
they were not a new thing to those on board of the
Blanchita, for they had seen one in the Hoogly at
Calcutta; but even Scott, who was a bold navigator,
would not have cared to be in the river when a wave
ten feet high swept on his craft.[67]

CHAPTER VIII

A PERFORMANCE OF VERY AGILE GIBBONS

The cabin party went on shore and breakfasted
with their Chinese friend, who had invited them to
the meal the evening before. It was a very pleasant
occasion, and it occupied half the forenoon. The
host gave them useful information, and listened with
interest to their account of the battle with the orang-outangs.
When they left the house they found the
two Malays who had been their companions in the
morning waiting for them.

One of them presented a tarsier to Scott. It was
a very pretty and curious little creature, belonging
to the monkey tribe. It had very large eyes, and
was certainly very cunning. It appeared to be playful,
but his new owner got a nip from its teeth
which warned him to be careful. The most curious
part of the animal was its legs, the hind ones being
much the longer.

Its five slender toes ended in what looked like
balls, which proved to be flat, and acted like the foot
of a fly, retaining by suction its hold upon the tree
where it lived. The spine of its neck was so constructed
that it could describe a circle with its head.
Its long hind legs enabled it to leap like a kangaroo.[68]

The other Malay brought with him a flying dragon,
a king of lizards, said to be the reptile from which
the fables of the original dragons originated. It has
a pair of membranes with the semblance of wings,
with which it sustains itself in the air in its leaps
from one tree or branch to another, as the flying-fish
does in its flights over the water.

The party took leave with many thanks of the
Chinese agent, and promised to visit him on their
return from up the river. Louis stated that they
wanted to kill one full-sized orang-outang, for the
one killed by the Malays was so cut up and chopped
in the fight that she was not in condition to be
stuffed and kept as a good specimen.

"You will find them on the Simujan, but hardly
anywhere else in the island except in this vicinity,
on the Sadong, Batang Lupar, and their branches,"
replied the agent. "The orangs have been hunted
so much, especially by naturalists, that they are becoming
scarce; and they are likely to become extinct,
for the scientists are looking for the 'missing link,'
as they call it."

The speaker laughed as he made the last remark;
and it was evident that he was not a Darwinian, or
at least that he had not followed out the theory of
evolution. Taking their places in the yacht, the
captain gave the order to cast off the fasts, the
boat stood up the river, and soon passed the scene
of the morning's conflict.

"Gibbons!" exclaimed Achang, pointing to a por[69]tion
of the forest where the trees were sparsely
scattered.

There were half a dozen of them, and they seemed
to be engaged in a frolic. This ape has been described
in a former volume, for it is abundant in
Sumatra. Louis wished to observe the movements
of the animal, which has very long arms, is wonderfully
agile, and a gymnast of the first order. It
could travel all over Borneo where forests exist without
touching the ground, passing from tree to tree
in long leaps. The boat was stopped in the river, in
order to permit the party to witness the exhibition
which was in process, without the payment of any
admission fee.

Every branch was a trapeze, and no troupe of artists
could compare with them in the agility of their
movements. Their long arms appeared to be the key
to their marvellous feats, for their legs were comparatively
short, and for the size of their bodies the
animals possessed immense strength.

"If some enterprising manager of a theatre devoting
himself to athletic exhibitions could secure
the services of the half dozen gibbons which are
giving us a free show, he would make his fortune
in our country," said Louis. "Don't try to see them
all at once, but watch that fellow on the right."

The one indicated grasped a horizontal branch
with his hands, his arms looking like the ropes of
a swing. He was swaying to and fro with great
rapidity, apparently trying to see how fast he could[70]
go, for he put a tremendous amount of vigor into
his efforts. In an exhibition hall he would have
"brought down the house," and would certainly
have received an "encore."

Suddenly, while he was swinging at a dizzy speed,
he let go his hold upon the branch, and seemed to
be flying through the air; but with his fingered feet
he seized another branch, not less than forty feet
from the first, and, with his long arms extended to
the utmost, continued to swing in this inverted position.
The observers were so delighted with this
skilful performance that they applauded lustily by
clapping their hands. The noise did not disturb the
performers, and the actor that had so distinguished
himself appeared to put even greater vigor into his
movements.

Possibly he was getting up a momentum; for he
soon released the hold of his feet on the branch,
went flying through the air with his long arms extended
ahead of him in the direction of another
favorable limb of a tree, and grasped it with his
hands. After swinging for a moment, he drew himself
up on the branch, and proceeded to walk up to
a greater height, using his hands to assist in keeping
his equilibrium. This was a fair specimen of the
performance of every member of the troupe.

One of the company appeared to see something on
the ground that attracted his attention; and he made
a flying leap to a lower branch, and then dropped
himself upon the soil. Looking about him for a[71]
moment, he apparently discovered a bush with some
sort of fruit on it, for he immediately began to walk
towards it. As a walkist he was far from being a
success, and his awkward movements excited the
laughter of the interested spectators. In his present
rôle he would have made an excellent clown in a circus
ring.

His short legs seemed to be incapable of fully
supporting his body, and he behaved like an inexperienced
athlete walking on a tight rope without
a balancing-pole. His long arms served as this implement,
and with a bend at the elbows and the
hands dropped down, he waddled along very slowly.

"It's heavy sea for that fellow, and he looks like
a landlubber trying to walk the deck in a rough sea,"
said Captain Scott. "But I fancy the performance
is over, and it is time to shoot some of the actors if
that is what you intend to do."

"For one, I don't intend to do anything of the
sort," replied Louis, with considerable energy in his
tones. "I don't believe in killing for the sake of
killing, or for the fun of it. My admiration of the
skilful performance we have just witnessed will not
allow me to kill the actors or any of them."

"What did we come to Borneo for, Louis?" asked
the captain.

"To see the country, and explore some of its rivers."

"I thought we came here to hunt and fish," added
Scott.

"I did not come here to kill harmless creatures[72]
for the fun of it. We want a full-grown orang, and
I am ready to hunt for him," replied Louis. "We
want him for the purpose of study, and to show to
our friends on board of the ship. I don't object to
shooting any bird or animal to extend our information."

Louis had his double-barrelled fowling-piece in his
hand. Suddenly he brought it to his shoulder and
fired. All eyes were directed to the shore, and a
large bird was seen to drop upon the ground. The
captain started the boat, and ran her up to the bank.
Clinch leaped ashore, and soon brought the bird on
board. Its plumage was highly colored and very
beautiful.

"What do you call that bird, Louis?" asked
Morris.

"Chambers calls it simply the argus, but the
more common name is the argus-pheasant," replied
Louis.

"Faix, he's a magnificent crayter; and what a long
tail our cat has got," added Felix, as he spread the
bird out on the gunwale.

The last remark referred to the long tail of the
bird, which made the entire length from the bill to
the end of it about five feet. Only two of the
feathers were thus prolonged, adding about three
feet to the dimension. The variety of colors were
jet black, deep brown, fawn, white, and a number of
secondary hues. The bird, deprived of his feathers,
is about the size of an ordinary hen.[73]

"But you can't see him at his best now that he is
dead," continued Louis, who had read up the animal
life he expected to find in Borneo. "Like a peacock,
though to a less extent, he can spread out his pretty
feathers, but not in the same manner; for they open
out in the form of a circle, making a sort of round
disk on his back and concealing his head. If you
could see the bird alive with his wings spread out
you would find every feather had a number of marks
that look like eyes, and seventeen have been counted
on one of them. Each of these marks consists in
part of a jet-black ring, with other different colored
rings inside of it, which make the whole figure like
an eye.

"You remember a fellow who was called Argus in
mythology, who had a hundred eyes, of which only
two were ever asleep at the same time. This bird
gets his name from him; though the story is that
Mercury killed him, and Venus transferred his eyes
to the tail of the peacock."

"Thanks for the lecture, Louis," said Scott when
he had finished his description. "It was certainly a
part of our plan in coming to Borneo to study natural
history; and we are doing so instead of shooting all
the time."

Just at this moment Felix, who had wandered
from the fore cabin to the waist, discharged his fowling-piece.
The Milesian was as good a shot as Louis,
for both of them had been trained in the same shooting-gallery
in New York. All hands rushed to the[74]
rail to ascertain what the hunter had brought down.
On the bank of the river they discovered a creature
about two feet long, lying on its back, and struggling
in its death-throes.

Lane leaped ashore, and soon laid the animal on
the gunwale of the boat by the side of the argus. It
was a queer-looking creature about the head, and no
one on board except Achang had ever seen one like
it. For the length of the head, the muzzle was very
broad, hardly less than three inches. It was covered
with a soft and rather long fur on its body, dark
brown in color.

"What do you call my game, Mr. Naturalist?"
demanded Felix, addressing Louis, who was looking
the animal over.

"Cynogale Bennetti," replied the young naturalist
very gravely.

"Faix, that's jist what I thought he was whin Oi
foired at him," added Felix. "Sin O, gal! But
what had Ben Netty to do wid it? Or was Netty
the name of the gal?"

"I gave you the scientific name because this creature
has no plain English name, though the natives
here call it the mampalon," added Louis.

"That's what we call it; but I forgot the name,"
said Achang.

"He is one of the otter family; and Mr. Hornaday,
whose book I hope you will all read when you return
to the ship, thought it might be called the otter-cat.
I wish we could have taken him alive, for it would[75]
have made a very nice specimen to set up in the
cabin of the Guardian-Mother."

"I should like to knock over the big orang-outang
you want, Louis, my darling," continued Felix.
"There comes a covered sampan up the river," he
added, pointing down the stream.

Many such covered boats are used on the rivers.
On a frame of bamboo or other wood was a covering
of leaves, each of which is six to seven feet long, and
two inches wide. They are sewed together with a
thread of rattan, overlaying each other, like tiles or
shingles, thus shedding the rain. They were in strips
or squares, so that they could be readily removed.
The sides were sometimes curtained with the same
material. The long leaves are taken from the nipa
palm, which grows abundantly in the island, and
serves a great many useful purposes.

The boat waited to see the covered sampan, and
later there appeared to be two of them. As they
approached, the familiar voice of the Chinese agent
was heard hailing the party. It appeared that this
gentleman was bound up the river to a Dyak village,
a few miles farther up.

"You had better go with us," said the agent, as
his sampan stopped abreast of the steamer. "I
spoke to you about a Dyak long-house; and you will
have an opportunity to examine one, and to sleep in
it if you are disposed to do so. You will be received
very kindly, and have a chance to see the people as
well as the houses."[76]

"Thank you, Mr. Eng Quee; we will certainly go
with you," replied Captain Scott, prompted by Louis.
"We will heave you a line, and tow you up."

In a few minutes more the steamer moved up the
river with the two sampans in tow.[77]

CHAPTER IX

A VISIT TO A DYAK LONG-HOUSE

As the Blanchita approached her destination many
Dyaks appeared on the shores. They were Sea Dyaks
in this region; and the name seems to have come
down from a former era in the history of the island,
for at the present time they have little or no connection
with a sea-faring life, and their sampans are
mainly if not entirely used on the rivers. But formerly
they built large war-boats, or bankongs, some
of which were seventy feet long.

These craft did not go to sea. The naval battles
were fought on rivers and lakes; for the boats were
not adapted to heavy weather, and could not have
lived even in a moderate gale. They were propelled
entirely by oars, single banked, and twenty-four
rowers were all that could work. The largest of
them had a platform or elevated deck, under which
the oarsmen sat, and on which the warriors engaged
the enemy.

Some sort of strategy was used; for the small boats
were sent ahead sometimes to skirmish with the foe,
and lure their canoes to a point where the larger
craft were concealed, which then came out and fell
upon the enemy. If the craft were used for purposes[78]
of piracy, as they were in the northern part of the
island, in attacking foreign vessels, it could only be
when the strangers were caught within a short distance
of the shores.

Mr. Eng came on board of the yacht when his sampans
were taken in tow, and was seated with the
cabin party on the forward seats. He spoke English
perfectly, and explained everything that needed it as
the boat proceeded. The explorers had seen Dyaks
enough, but had not before taken the trouble to study
them; for they seemed not to be in touch with the
civilization of Sarawak, and were "hewers of wood
and drawers of water," and not proper specimens of
the race.

"The men here, Mr. Eng, do not appear to be very
powerful physically," said Louis, as they passed several
laborers at work in a paddy.

"They are not as strong as Englishmen and Americans,"
replied the agent, glancing at the seamen in
the waist. "The tallest man I have seen among the
Sea Dyaks was not more than five and a half feet in
height. Five feet three inches is a more common
figure, though the average is less than that. They
are not men of great strength; but they are active, of
great endurance, and in running they exhibit great
speed."

"These people are not ruined by their tailors'
bills," said Scott.

"They do not need much clothing in this climate;
and a piece of bark-cloth a yard wide is full dress[79]
here. The chawat, as they call this garment, is about
five feet long, and is wound around the waist tightly,
and drawn between the legs, one end hanging down
in front, and the other behind. They wear a sort of
turban on the head; and some of them have as many
as four rings, large and small, hanging from their
ears, through which they pass. Some of them use
white cotton instead of bark-cloth, like the Hindoos
in India."

The yacht was now approaching the landing-place
pointed out by the agent. A crowd of women and
children were hurrying to the riverside. They appeared
to be lighter in complexion than the men. As
a rule they were not handsome, though a few of them
were rather pretty. The American visitors were not
likely to fall in love with any of the young women
on the shore. They were all in "full dress," which
means simply a petticoat, reaching from the waist to
the knees, made of bark-cloth embroidered with various
figures.

A few of the females wore a sort of red jacket and
the conical Malay hat; but those are used only on
"state occasions." The single garment was secured
at the waist by being drawn into a belt of rattans, colored
black. Above this was worn a coil of many
rings of large brass wire; and all of them seemed to
be provided with this appendage. There was some
variety in the use of this ornament; for some wore it
tightly wound around the body, while others had it
quite loose.[80]

In addition to this some of the young girls had a
dozen rings of various sizes hanging loosely around
their necks, and falling upon the chest, which had no
other covering. Their eyes were black, as was also
their hair, which was very luxuriant, and generally
well cared for, being tied up in a cue behind.

The village did not consist of a great number of
small buildings, but from the landing-place could be
seen the end of an immense structure with a forest
of palms behind it. The rear of it was not perpendicular,
but slanted outward, like many of the walls
of corn-houses in New England, doubtless to keep the
rain from the roof from penetrating. All the party,
including the sailors, landed; for Mr. Eng declared
that the Dyaks were honest, and even in Sarawak
were never known to steal anything, though the
Malays and Chinamen were given to pilfering.

The crowd of men, women, and children gathered
on the shore had looked the Blanchita over with the
closest attention while the Americans were looking
them over. The party landed under the escort of
the agent, and took up the line of march for the big
house. The entire crowd of Dyaks followed them,
though they did not intrude upon them; on the contrary,
they treated all of the visitors with a respect
and deference bordering on homage.

"That 'long-house,' as we call it here, is nearly
two hundred feet in length," said Mr. Eng. "It is
thirty feet wide. Now you can see more of it; and
you notice that it is set upon a multitude of posts,[81]
like all Malay and Dyak houses. These posts are
firmly set in the ground; and being about six inches
in diameter, you can readily see that the house rests
on a solid foundation. It is not likely to be blown
down in any ordinary gale, though a hurricane might
sweep it away. Not a nail, not a wooden pin or peg,
is used in the construction of such buildings."

"Then, I should think any ordinary gale would
level them to the ground," suggested Louis.

"But the Dyaks have a substitute for nails or
pins," replied the guide. "All the poles and sticks
and boards are tightly bound together with rattans;
and I believe they hold together better than if they
were nailed."

"I observed in England and France that the stagings
used in the erection of buildings were made
partly of round poles, tied together with ropes. I
talked with a man who told me they were stronger
than if put together with nails," said Morris.

"I think he was right. I can't tell you how the
Malays and Dyaks manage the rattan to render it so
flexible, but it seems to me they make better work
than ropes. On the back of this house, there is not a
single window or other opening," continued Mr. Eng,
as the party stood at the end of the structure, near
the rear corner. "The disagreeable feature of the
building, or rather of the habits of the occupants, is
that the space under it, ten feet between the ground
and the floor, is a catch-all for all refuse matter, and
you notice that an unpleasant odor comes from it."[82]

"Is this the only entrance to it?" asked Scott,
pointing to a door, which was reached by a log notched
like a flight of stairs.

"There is a door at the other end also; and there
may be ways of mounting the platform, or veranda,
which forms the front of the building, as climbing a
post, or dropping from a tree. Some of the posts, of
which you see a multitude under the house, are cut
off at the first floor, while many of them reach up to
the roof, and support it. We will go in now, if you
like; and, being sailors, I suppose you can climb the
log."

"No doubt of that," replied Scott, who was the first
to ascend. "Are all that crowd coming up?"

"Certainly; they are the occupants of the long-house,
and they must be at home in order to do the
honors of the occasion," laughed the guide.

The villagers followed the party, and immediately
manifested their politeness in various ways. The
prettiest girl in the crowd spoke to Louis; though he
did not understand a word she said, but replied to her
in English, when she was as much at sea as he had
been.

"What does she say, Achang?" he asked of the
Bornean.

"Tabet, tuan," replied the native.

"I heard her say that; but what does it mean?"

"It means, 'Good-day, sir,'" answered the Bornean;
and he proceeded to tell her that Louis was the "head
man," very rich, and owned a big ship.[83]

She made a very graceful obeisance to him, and
then rushed away through a door on the side of the
grand hall, as it may well be called. But she returned
immediately, bringing a very elaborately worked mat,
which she spread on the floor at the feet of the "head
man." Then she spread out her hands, and bowed
low, saying something which was Greek to him.

"She invites you to take a seat on the mat,"
Achang explained.

As a matter of politeness Louis seated himself, and
looked at the maiden who treated him with so much
consideration. By this time the other women were
bringing mats for the rest of the party, making no
distinction between the seamen and the cabin party.
The latter followed the example of the young millionaire,
and seated themselves. The foremast hands declined
the proffered courtesy; and Achang explained
to the ladies that only the four young men who were
seated were the magnates of the company, while the
others were inferior personages, for the Bornean was
not strictly democratic in his ideas.

"We will look at the house now, if you please,"
said Mr. Eng, after the "Big Four" had been seated a
few minutes; and all of them rose to their feet, bowing
low to the young ladies who had treated them
with so much distinction.

About forty or fifty of the posts extended from
the ground, for the visitors had not time to count
them; and most of them had suspended upon them
various trophies of the hunt, including the antlers[84]
of deer, crocodiles' heads, weapons, paddles, and
spears. In the middle of the long hall a fire was
burning on a foundation of soil, enclosed by a border
of wood. In the roof was a sort of scuttle, which
was fastened open to admit the air, and to allow
some of the smoke to escape, though there was
plenty of it remaining in the apartment.

"What is that overhead, Mr. Eng?" asked Louis,
pointing to a black mass suspended near the fire,
though he had a suspicion of its nature.

"That is a collection of human skulls, relics of the
days of head-hunting; for they are generally kept
in a building erected for the purpose, though appropriated
at the present time partly to other uses.
There are about twenty of them, which is not a large
number for a village like this. Not one of them is
less than twenty years old; for Rajah Brooke put an
end to head-hunting long ago, though some of it has
been done in spite of his edicts. A lady beckons
to you, Mr. Belgrave."

The pretty girl—by comparison—stood by his
side, pointing to one of the numerous doors at the
closed side of the house. Louis followed her, and
she conducted him into a room. A portion of the
floor was covered with mats on which the occupants
sleep, with an earth section for a fire. There
was no furniture of any kind. The roof of the
building was covered with square pieces of palm
like those used on the sampans, and these could be
raised in each room when necessary for air.[85]

"This apartment is occupied by one family, or by
a married couple, and unmarried men and boys sleep
in the attic overhead," said Mr. Eng. "It has but
one door, the one opening into the main hall. This
is a house of sixteen doors; and by this enumeration
the size of the village is stated, and this number
gauges the taxes to be paid."

"Citizens cannot dodge their taxes here, then, as
some of them do in the United States," said Scott.

The party walked the entire length of the hall,
and then passed out upon the platform, which was
not covered, and was used for various purposes, such
as drying rice or other articles. The floors were
composed of strips of palm, not more than an inch
and a half wide, and placed an inch apart. They
were lashed to the floor joists, or poles, with rattan.

"Those doors, which indicate the taxable rate of
the village, look as though they were cut out of
single planks," said Scott.

"And so they are," replied the agent.

"I have seen no saw-mills here, and I suppose
they bring the lumber from England or India."

"Not at all, though some may be obtained in that
manner. They are made from the buttress of the
tapang-tree, which you must have seen."

"I have not noticed any such thing, though perhaps
none of us could identify it," replied the captain.

"It is found growing out in triangular form from
just above the roots of the tree. In a large one it is[86]
twelve or fifteen feet long. It makes a natural plank
two inches thick, which may be trimmed into any
shape with the biliong."

The party were ready to depart; and they made all
sorts of courteous gestures to their hosts, especially
the ladies. The women asked them for tobacco, as
Achang interpreted the requests. They had none,
but some of the seamen supplied them with all they
had about them.[87]

CHAPTER X.

THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE DYAKS.

After seeing the sleeping accommodations of the
Dyaks, consisting of a mat on a rather uneven floor,
the Americans concluded to pass the night on board
of the yacht. They invited Mr. Eng to supper on
board, and he passed the evening with them in the
cabin.

"You have seen the Dyaks at home now, young
gentlemen; how do you like the looks of them?"
asked the guest, after the meal had been disposed of.

"I think they are the pleasantest savages I have
ever met," replied Louis.

"I am afraid you did not appreciate the young
women who were so attentive to you, Mr. Belgrave,"
continued the agent.

"Regarding them as uncivilized maidens, they are
about the best specimens. The expression on their
faces was pleasant, a few of them were pretty,
though as a whole they were not handsome, and they
seemed to be kind-hearted. I could not admire them,
though their eyes were as brilliant as they were
black. Their long hair would be the envy of many
an English or American belle."

"The women are very vain of their hair. They[88]
bestow a great deal of attention upon it," added Mr.
Eng. "The fever of the island sometimes deprives
them of their hair, as it may in your country, and
that is the greatest calamity that can overtake the
younger women."

"I suppose it all right here; but they disfigure and
spoil one of the principal attractions of ladies in enlightened
nations, the teeth, which they blacken by
chewing betel."

"It also makes their lips look as though they had
daubed them with blood or red paint; but they do it
here, as in India, to make themselves more beautiful.
Tastes differ, and the practice makes them ugly
to you. The betel-vine grows here, and the leaves
are used for chewing. The nut of a certain palm
produces the same effect on the teeth."

"I don't admire the brass rings they wear on
their waists and around their necks. If I were old
enough to get married, I should not look for a wife
among the Dyak girls," said Louis, laughing and
shaking his head.

"The Dyak women are generally well treated; but
they have to work very hard, and much that you
would think the men ought to do is done by them.
The lords of creation here are inclined to be lazy,
while their wives and daughters are engaged in the
rice-fields, though their husbands and brothers are
driven to labor.

"But the women are not the abject slaves you
sometimes find them in the savage state. They have[89]
their influence, and exercise a degree of control in
household matters. The females are fond of fish,
and insist that their husbands shall supply them with
this diet. On account of the bores which sweep up
the rivers, this is often a dangerous occupation, and
the men are unable to procure any fish. Instances
are known in which the women bar the door of the
house against them if they are unsuccessful."

"I believe the Malays are generally Mohammedans.
What is the religion of the Dyaks?" inquired Louis.

"It has been said by some travellers that they
have no religion of any kind; but I don't think this
is quite true, though it is not far from it," replied
Mr. Eng. "Religion is a very indefinite idea among
the Dyaks, and they are chary in speaking of what
there is of it. Some who have been among them
maintain that they believe in a Supreme Being, who
has a great many different names among the various
tribes. They have almost as many inferior deities
as the Hindus.

"They are very superstitious; and there are all
sorts of omens, among which there is a particular
bird which has obtained the name of the omen bird.
His cry on the right of, or behind, a person engaged
in any enterprise is an unlucky sign, and he abandons
his object; while the cry heard on the left is
a favorable omen, and the individual is duly encouraged
to go forward.

"I had a story from a Kyan head man which had
come down to him as a tradition. A great head-hunting[90]
expedition, consisting of a thousand warriors,
had set out many years ago. It had not gone far
when a little muntjac, which you know is a kind of
deer, ran across the path of the warriors. This was
a bad omen; and they gave up the enterprise, and
returned to their villages.

"I know of a couple just married who separated
because they heard a deer-cry within three days after
their union, which was a sign that one of them would
die within a year. Even little insects intimidate
doughty warriors, or assure them that they are far
from danger, by their appearance or their cry."

"There is not a little of similar superstition in
enlightened nations, though there is vastly less of it
than formerly," added Louis.

"I have heard my grandfather say that the ticking
of a death-watch used to scare him so that he could
not sleep when he was a boy," said Morris.

"What is a death-watch?" asked Scott.

"It is a kind of beetle that conceals itself in the
walls of old houses," replied Louis. "The noise it
makes is really the call of the bug for his mate, and
is the cry of love instead of death, as many ignorant
people believe. The breaking of a looking-glass is
also a sign of death in the family."

"Mrs. Blossom wouldn't break a looking-glass for
a fortune," added Felix. "She says she broke one
nine years before her husband died, and therefore it
was a sure sign."

"But the death must come within a year to make[91]
the sign hold good," replied Louis. "But if enlightened
people have faith in such stuff, it is no
wonder that Dyaks believe in omens. I want to ask,
Mr. Eng, if these Dyaks are regularly married?"

"They are, though with very little ceremony, and
no vows, oaths, nor promises. In fact, the marriage
consists of such rites as the parties please, and often
with no rites at all. Sometimes the betrothed are
married by exchanging bracelets in public, or by eating
a meal of rice together. In some communities
the affianced are seated on a couple of bars of iron,
and the head man shakes a couple of live chickens
over their heads, invoking many blessings upon them,
and the birds are afterwards killed and eaten."

"Do these people drink liquor, or have they anything
in the shape of intoxicating fluids?" asked
Scott.

"The national drink of Borneo is tuak, about the
vilest tipple that ever was invented. I went to a
Dyak feast when I first came to the island, which
proved to be nothing but a series of drunken orgies.
The principal actors at the feast were a number of
pretty girls, such as you saw this afternoon. Their
office was to induce the men present to drink this vile
liquid till they dropped on the floor of the open platform;
and they even poured it down the throats of
their victims when no longer able to drink for themselves."

"What sort of rum is it?" inquired Scott.

"It looks like the milk of the cocoanut, and I sup[92]pose
that it is made from that; but I did not taste
it," replied the agent. "It is about my bedtime,
and I think I will go to my sampan and retire."

But Captain Scott invited him to sleep on board
of the Blanchita; and he accepted after a little pressing,
evidently believing that the soft cushions of the
yacht made a better bed than the mats of the sampan.
Felipe was instructed to have steam on at daylight,
and the anchor watch was to call him in season
to do so. Fully protected by their nettings from the
mosquitoes, which had troubled them to some extent
in the evening, all hands slept like tired boys.

When the steam from the gauge-cocks hissed as
the engineer examined into the condition of the
water in the boiler, the sound waked the captain,
and he jumped from his bed. This movement roused
all the others; and they went out into the waist,
following the example of Scott, who wore nothing
but his nightdress.

"I am going to have a swim this fine morning,"
said he.

"Look out for crocodiles," Morris interposed.
"You know they are man-eaters in these rivers."

"I haven't seen any of them around here," replied
the captain. "But call all hands, Lane; and tell
the men to bring out their rifles."

"I think you are very imprudent to go into the
water here," interposed Mr. Eng. "The reptiles
are on the watch; and if you must go in, I warn
you to keep near the boat."[93]

But the boys all dived from the gunwale into
the river, and swam out a few rods. The men
placed themselves on the rail, and kept a sharp
look out for saurians, though it was still too dark
to enable them to see very distinctly. Scott had
reasoned that he could not take his bath after it
was fully light, for a crowd of Dyak men and women
would be on the bank at that time.

The swimmers had not been in the water more
than five minutes when the cry of "Crocodiles!"
came from Achang, who had stationed himself just
forward of the engine. Probably he had a keener
vision for the reptiles than the Americans; for the
seamen had not yet seen anything that looked like
one. He could tell by the appearance of the water
that the enemy was approaching, though the disturbance
of its surface was near the other side of
the stream.

The party in the water turned about, and headed
for the boat, swimming with all the vigor they could
command. Achang had his rifle in his hand; but
even he could not make out the crocodile clearly
enough to be sure of his aim. Five minutes more
elapsed; for it required that time for the swimmers
to reach the yacht. The seamen assisted the party
into the boat, and they rushed with all speed into
the cabin; for a quartet of Dyak maidens had already
reached the bank of the river, and were begging the
men for more tobacco.

Achang fired his rifle; but three crocodiles could[94]
now be seen moving towards the yacht. Their approach
was not impeded by the shot, for it was
impossible to see the eyes of the reptiles in the
semi-darkness. But the cabin party were safe, and
it was as useless to fire at them as it would have
been at a stone wall.

"I advise you not to try that experiment again,
young gentlemen," said Mr. Eng as the bathing
party came out into the waist.

"I don't think we shall, though we were protected
by half a dozen rifles," replied the captain, who had
been the leader in the venturesome exploit.

"If you do try it again, do so in the daylight,
when your riflemen can see the eyes of the enemy,"
added the agent. "I must bid you good-by now, for
I have business on shore here. I don't think the
crocodiles will come any nearer to you, but be prudent.
I shall hope to see you at Simujan on your
return."

Mr. Eng shook hands with all the cabin party, and
went ashore. The captain gave the order to cast off
the fasts, and Lane was ordered to take the wheel.
The two sampans had before made fast to the shore;
and as the Blanchita got under way, one of them put
off, and paddled towards the crocodiles. The last
that was seen of the craft, it had a saurian hooked
after the Malay mode of fishing for them.

After breakfast had been served in the cabin, and
the party had gone to their seats forward, the character
of the river began to change, becoming much nar[95]rower.
They came to another Dyak village, where
the jungle was cleared off and paddies were near the
stream. It looked as though all the inhabitants had
gathered on the bank, male and female. A long-house
was to be seen on a knoll, and the wheelman
was ordered to take the boat within a couple of rods
of the shore.

"Are you going to make a landing at this village,
Captain Scott?" asked Louis.

"No; we have seen enough of these people, but
we will see what we can as we pass along. They are
all beckoning us to go ashore; but we won't do so,
for any more Dyak maidens would be rather monotonous."

"I quite agree with you, Captain, though there is
one with a big stick of bamboo in her hand, who
looks more graceful and pretty than any we saw in
the village we visited," replied Louis.

"I wonder what that cane is for," added Scott.

"That's to contain some kind of liquid; and she
may have four feet of tuak in it," answered the millionaire,
laughing at the idea of measuring a fluid by
Long Measure. "I think the girl comes nearer to
being a beauty than any girl I have seen before."

"She is hooped with brass like all the rest of
them," added Scott, as the boat proceeded beyond
the group on the shore.

In another half-hour great trees, with an abundant
undergrowth of bushes, extended down to the river,
and in places some distance into the water.[96]

CHAPTER XI

STEAMBOATING THROUGH A GREAT FOREST

Although there was a wall of green on each side
of the boat, and the river was not more than sixty
feet wide, the explorers found that everything close to
the earth was under water. If the dense jungle had
not prevented, they might have sailed inland, they
knew not how many miles. As the stream became
narrower the current increased in force. The trees
were full of monkeys, and hundreds of them appeared
to be in sight all the time. They were of the most
common kind to be found in Borneo, and the yacht
created no excitement among them. They were so
tame that any number of them could have been
brought down by the hunters.

"The water is not so dirty as it has been everywhere
below," said Captain Scott, as the Blanchita
stemmed the current without any difficulty, where
paddling a sampan must have been a laborious occupation.
"It is tolerably clear along here, and we
might take our morning bath very comfortably."

"We might if a big crocodile did not break his way
through the bushes to pay us a visit," replied Louis.

"After the experience of this morning, I am not
disposed to try it again, and I shall take my bath in a[97]
wash-bowl with a sponge, though I am very fond of
swimming. But, Louis, don't you think we have had
about enough of hunting in Borneo?"

"Enough! Why, we have not yet been a week on
the island," replied Louis, not a little astonished at
the captain's question. "I have enjoyed myself very
well so far, and I certainly do not wish to leave till
we have killed at least one good-sized orang."

"It is rather stupid hunting here, for about all
the country is under water," added Scott. "There
seems to be nothing but monkeys here; and they are
very small game, even if we were disposed to shoot
them."

"But there are some lakes up the river, Mr. Eng
told me; and I think we shall get out of this tangle
very soon; and when we come to higher ground we
will go on shore, and try our luck on foot."

The captain talked as though he had some scheme
in his head which he was not yet prepared to unfold
to his companions. But what could he do? Nothing
had been said on board of the ship about coming back
to Sarawak for the hunters, and to give up hunting
and exploring would be simply to return to Kuching,
and idle away the time for the next two weeks.
Louis did not like this idea at all; and yet it seemed
to be the alternative which Scott must have in his
mind.

"Mias!" shouted Achang, when the conversation
had proceeded so far.

"Where is your mias?" demanded Louis; for[98]
most of the party had come to calling the orang by
his Malay name.

The Bornean pointed into the forest, the trees of
which were growing in the water, though there was
an undergrowth of screw-pines, which had been abundant
all along the river. They were not pines as the
explorers understood the word at home. The plant
is a bush or small tree with half a dozen or more
branches angling upward from the trunk, and twisting
a little towards it, from which feature it takes its
name. It has long, lanceolated leaves, and therefore
is not at all like the American pine.

"Stop her, Lane!" called the captain in a tone
that "meant business." "Back her!"

The last order was given because there was an
opening through the screw-pines which afforded a
full view of the taller trees about twenty rods farther
from the stream. The captain then took the wheel
from Lane, rang the gong to go ahead; and, putting
the helm hard-a-starboard, the boat came about,
headed into the opening. Looking forward, there
seemed but very few trees or bushes compared with
the number along the flowing stream.

"Do you see the mias, Louis?" asked Scott.

"I do; and he is in a very favorable position. He
is a big one, and must be a male," replied Louis, who
stood at the stem with a repeating-rifle in his hand.

"Do you see him, Flix?"

"I do; and he has a green nest in the same tree
with him."

"You are near enough, Captain."

Page 99.

[99]

By this time all the party had taken their rifles.
The boat moved very slowly. A seaman sounded
the depth with a boathook, and reported eight feet.
As she approached the orang, the brute showed
his teeth, and uttered several successive growls, as
though he understood that danger was near; but
he did not attempt to escape.

"I wonder can the blackguard swim," said Felix,
who had his rifle ready to fire.

"I have read that he is a poor swimmer," replied
Louis.

"How does he get about here where the water
is eight feet deep?"

"He is not as agile as the gibbon; but he can
make his way from one tree to another in the same
manner, and his road is through the trees, and not
on the ground."

"Here I am, and I can't go any farther," said
the captain, as he rang to stop her. "I can't get
the boat through this clump of bushes."

"You are near enough, Captain; let her rest where
she is," replied Louis, as he aimed his rifle at the
orang, which was sitting on a branch holding on with
both hands.

Louis fired, and the creature fell with a loud
splash into the water at the foot of the tree. But
he was not dead, and was struggling to escape. He
was evidently wounded very badly, and when the
hunter saw his opportunity he fired again. The
orang had grasped a screw-pine, and he held on, but[100]
he struggled no more. The captain had ordered the
sampan to be brought alongside, and two men were
at the paddles. Louis and Felix joined them, and
they paddled towards the game.

"I think he is dead though he still holds on at
the bush," said Louis.

"We shall soon find out," added Clingman, as
he threw a slip-noose over his head. "Heave ahead
now!" he continued, as Clinch grasped the line
with him, and they pulled together.

The orang did not make any movement, and it
was certain that he was dead. When they had
drawn him within a few feet of the sampan, the line
was made fast, and the men paddled to the steamer.
A purchase was rigged to the top of one of the stanchions,
and the dead animal was hoisted into the
sampan.

"Now, Lane, measure him," said the captain.

The body was laid out at full length in the bottom
of the boat; and the carpenter took his length on a
boathook, which he notched to indicate the height of
the animal. He was directed to take several other
measurements; in fact, Louis kept him at work for
over an hour, with another hand to assist him in
spreading out the limbs. The captain became quite
impatient; for he was less a scientist than the young
millionaire, though he had a taste for natural history.

"Have you finished, Louis?" asked Scott as the
former returned to the yacht.[101]

"All done; but Lane must sum up the results,"
replied Louis.

"What good will all those measurements do you?"
demanded the captain rather contemptuously.

"They will not put any money in my pocket, but I
want to know the size of the game I have killed,"
answered Louis, somewhat nettled by the manner of
Scott. "When a man has caught a fish he wants to
know what his prize weighs."

"All right; but I want to get a little farther into
the woods here, and I can get around the bushes
ahead of her," replied the captain, who had been
studying up a course by which he could go a considerable
distance farther inland.

He backed the boat, and then went ahead very
slowly, with Clingman feeling of the bottom with the
boathook. It was novel sailing through the forest in
a steam-launch, and all hands enjoyed it. The screw-pines
were rather scattered, and the forest of large
trees was quite open. After the boat had gone about
half a mile, as the captain judged, Clingman made
a report.

"By the mark, one," said he, as the depth is given
with the lead, in fathoms.

"Six feet; we are shoaling," added Captain Scott.
"Try it again."

"Five feet," returned the seaman.

The steamer continued on her course, with Scott at
the wheel, for some time longer. The dry land could
be seen through the trees at no great distance ahead.[102]
The boat continued on her course for a quarter of an
hour, when Clingman call out a depth which caused
the captain to ring the gong to stop her. The last
report was three feet, and the keel was evidently
grinding through the soft mud. Then he rang to
back her; and when she had increased her depth to
four feet, he struck the gong to stop her.

"Dinner is ready, gentlemen," said Pitts.

"We must attend to that before we do anything
more," added the captain. "Keep a sharp lookout
ahead, Clingman."

The party went into the after cabin, and the novelty
of dining on board of a steamer in the woods was
sufficiently inspiring to add a big interest to the occasion.

"What have you got for dinner, Pitts?" asked
Felix, as he entered the cabin. "Have you got any
stewed crocodiles?"

"Not a croc, Mr. McGavonty," replied the cook.

"Any boiled orang-outang?"

"Not an orang. The captain bought six dozens of
eggs at the village where we stopped yesterday, and
I have ham and eggs for dinner, which I hope will
suit you," replied Pitts.

"The best thing in the world for me. Whisper!
Are they crocodiles' eggs?"

"Not a bit of it, sir."

The principal dish proved to be very satisfactory
to the boys, whose appetites had been sharpened by
the exercise of the forenoon. The cuisine had been[103]
very good along the rivers, for Pitts had generally
been the caterer as well as the cook and steward.
Chickens and eggs had been plentiful enough, and at
the town he had obtained some fish. There was no
fresh beef or mutton. They had a barrel of excellent
salt beef from the stores of the ship; and Pitts made
a splendid hash, which suited all hands better than
almost anything else.

While they were at dinner the steward brought in
Lane's report of the measurements of the orang Louis
had shot. It was given to the Captain at the head
of the table; and he read it off: "Height, 4 feet, 5¼
inches; arms spread out full length, from end to end
of longest fingers, 7 feet, 10 inches; length of arm,
3 feet, 3 inches; length of hand, 10½ inches; length
of foot, 12¼ inches; round the waist, 4 feet, 2 inches.
Four men estimated on the weight, and the average
is 185 pounds.'"

"Big mias," said Achang.

"Do you think you can skin and stuff him,
Achang?" asked Louis.

"Know I can; have done it with naturalist."

"Then you may go to work on it as soon as you
please, and I will give you five dollars for the job,"
added Louis. "Take your time, and do it well."

"Where I work? Sampan no good."

"I can make a place in the waist," said the captain;
"besides, I want the small boat, for we can see
higher land farther in, and I wish to go ashore there;
we may find some shooting."[104]

The boxes and barrels were moved farther forward
and aft, and a workshop made for the Bornean.
The sampan was cleaned out when the hands had finished
their dinner, and the "Big Four," embarked in
it. They did their own paddling, for there was not
room enough for any more in the boat without crowding.
Each of them carried a rifle. It was but a
short distance, and the party were soon on the dry
land.

Louis had hardly put his feet on the shore when
he levelled his gun and fired. A moment later Felix
followed his example; and each of them had brought
down a deer. They rushed forward to secure their
game; and then the other two hunters discharged
their rifles, and a couple of wild pigs rolled over
on the ground. It was plain that they had struck
a spot where hunters seldom came. If there was
any more game near, the report of the guns had
driven it off.

"That was pretty well for a five minutes' hunt,"
said Louis when he and Felix had dragged the two
deer to the water. "I think we had better stay here
over night, and hunt on high ground to-morrow."

"That wouldn't do, Louis, and I should not dare
to keep the Blanchita here over night," replied
Captain Scott.

"Why not?"

"The water is high and low up here by turns, and
I am afraid I should find the yacht on the bottom
in the morning," replied Scott. "Then we could[105]
not get her out of the woods, and might have to stay
here a week or two, waiting for water to float her.
No, no; I won't take the risk."

The game was dragged to the shore, and loaded
into the sampan; for the appalling picture the captain
had made of low water induced them all to hurry
on board of the yacht.[106]

CHAPTER XII

A FORMIDABLE OBSTRUCTION REMOVED

The deer shot by Felix was a little fellow, though
he was full grown, Achang said, when it was taken
on board the yacht. The one killed by Louis was
much larger. The pigs were in better condition than
the one shot before. The men were set at work to
skin the deer, and the cook cut out the best parts
of the two swine. There was plenty of salt pork in
the stores, so that the sides were not needed.

Achang kept himself very busy in his workshop.
He had a difficult job on his hands; for he had to skin
the fingers and toes of the animal, and to keep every
part in its original shape. Captain Scott went to
the wheel as soon as he came on board, and started
the engine. Clingman reported the depth of water the
same as when the party went on shore. By backing
and going ahead a short distance at a time, he
got the boat about, and headed her for the river.

The water was deep enough, and there was no
particular difficulty in the navigation, though he was
to follow the course he had taken at first. He had
carefully observed the shape and location of the trees,
and the stream was reached in a short time. Louis
declared that it was a great pity they could not re[107]main
near the high ground, for he had no doubt that
plenty of game would have been found.

"It seems to me that we have got all the game we
want," said Scott. "What could we do with a couple
more deer and a brace of wild hogs?"

"Perhaps you are right; but the fellows want to
hunt, though I think I have had enough of it. I
enjoy the sailing up this river, and it will be pleasant
to explore the lakes farther up the stream," added
Louis.

"I hope we shall get to some place where we can
do some fishing for a change; besides, I am fish
hungry," replied Scott.

"Most of the fishing here is done with the tuba
plant; and I think it is mean to stupefy the fish,
and then pick them up on the top of the water. But
the river is clearer up this way, and we will drop
our lines when we come to a good place."

"If you want to do any more shooting just now,
there is a flock of long-noses" (by which he meant
proboscis monkeys), said the captain, as he pointed
to them.

"We have one good specimen of that creature, and
I don't want any more at present; but I would give
something to know why they prefer to be in trees
which grow out of the water," added Louis.

"I give it up, for I don't see any reason for it;
but I suppose the long-nose understands the matter
himself, and he won't tell us. Here we are at the
river."[108]

The captain rang the speed-bell as the steamer entered
the stream where it was only thirty feet wide.
There was a considerable current, and the screw-pines
were densely packed together on both sides.
The boat continued on her course for half an hour
longer, when she seemed to have come to the end
of all things, and the gong rang to stop her.

"Here we are!" exclaimed Scott. "And here
we are likely to remain, unless we back down stream
till we find a place wide enough to turn in."

The obstruction which closed the passage of the
river against the Blanchita was a bridge of dead pines
which the current had brought down, and they had
caught at the sides till they formed the barrier. It
was not more than six feet wide, though it might as
well have been a hundred so far as blocking up the
river was concerned.

"I don't like the idea of stopping here, for I want
to see the lakes above; and I hoped we might get
some fishing there," said Louis.

"What the matter is?" called Achang from his
workshop.

He moved to one side so that he could see the
obstruction.

"You can go through that, Captain," he continued,
after Morris had corrected his English. "I have
come up here before, and we have cut a way through."

"All right; we will see what the bridge is made
of," said the captain, as he rang to back the boat.

She backed down the stream about twenty rods,[109]
and then he stopped her. He then ordered Clingman
to draw a piece of sailcloth over the stem, to prevent
the dead pines from scratching the paint on the bow.
As soon as this was done, she went ahead again at
full speed, and the captain called to the engineer to
give her all the steam he could. She went ahead
at a furious rate, and Scott pointed her to what
seemed to be the weakest place in the barrier.

"Now hold on, fellows, or she will tip you over!"
shouted the captain as the boat approached the obstruction.

She struck the mass of pines, and drove her bow
far into it, but stopped without going through it.
The barrier was not solid, and was held together by
the entanglement of the bushes as they were driven
into the nucleus of the mass by the current.

"We can't cut through in that way," said Scott,
as he looked at the half-sundered bridge.

"We don't want to take the back track," added
Louis.

"There are more ways than one to skin a mosquito,
and we haven't half tried yet," replied the captain.
"The thing is softer than I supposed, and yielded
when the boat hit it. I could go through, but it
would take all the paint off the sides. Get out the
anchor, Clingman, and we will see what can be done."

"I think we shall stick fast enough without anchoring,"
said Morris with a laugh.

"Wait a few minutes, my hearty; for I was not
thinking of coming to anchor just now," answered[110]
Scott, as he went forward to the stem, and mounted
the rail.

The anchor was stowed under the forward seat;
and Clingman, after overhauling the cable, passed it
up to the captain. It was not very heavy, and with
a skilful toss he threw it just over the edge of the
barrier on the up-stream side. All wondered what
he was going to do, for they saw no way to get
through by means of the anchor; but they were willing
to believe that the captain knew what he was
about, and they said nothing.

"Now pay out about fifty feet of cable," continued
Scott, as he rang the gong to back her. "Haul
steady on it till you are sure it is fast in the stuff,
Clingman."

The seaman humored the cable till he was unable
to haul the rope home, and then reported the situation.
The boat continued to back till the cable was
hauled taut, when he stopped her. Then he spoke
through the tube to the engineer, and rang the gong.
The craft moved again, but very gently, for Scott
was afraid the anchor would not hold; but it did, and
speaking through the tube, he gradually increased
the speed. The cable swayed and groaned, and it
was evident that a heavy strain was upon it. The
barrier was shaking and quivering under the pressure,
and it was plain that something would yield
very soon.

"Hurrah!" shouted Felix, who was looking over
the bow at the bridge of pines; and the cry was[111]
repeated by the rest of the cabin party, and taken up
by the sailors. "Bully for you, Captain Scott!
Upon me wurrud, ye's have skinned the muskitty!"

This demonstration was called forth by the rupture
of the barrier in two places, so that about one-half of
it gave way, and was towed down stream by the
steamer. Scott kept the craft moving till he found a
place in the green banks of the river to leave the
tow, for it was wide enough to obstruct the channel.

"Clingman and Wales, jump on the raft with the
boathooks, and crowd the stuff over to the starboard
side," said the captain when he had found the place
he wanted.

He stopped the boat, and then went ahead, to enable
the men to get upon the mass, after they had
thrown a couple of boards upon it to stand on.
Backing her again, he hugged the starboard side of
the stream, and drew the raft abreast of the place,
and close to it, where it was to be left. The men on
it hooked into the screw-pines, and hauled it into the
opening. Pulling vines from the trees, they moored
it where it was. As soon as the two men came
aboard the boat, the captain went ahead again.

"You did that job handsomely, Captain Scott,"
said Louis. "I thought the only way we could
get through was by cutting a passage for the boat."

"That would have taken too long," replied Scott,
as he called Clinch to the wheel. "Mind your eye!
for the river is very crooked up here. Look out
for the swing as she goes around the bends."[112]

The boat had not gone a great distance when she
came to a considerable expanse of territory which
had been swept over by fire. The party did not
think that the green bushes would burn; but they
had burned so that nothing was left of them but
the blackened stems, and there was no room for an
argument.

"When the fire gets started, it scorches and dries
the bushes till they will burn," Louis explained.
"But what are we coming to now?" he asked,
looking ahead where the country seemed to be level,
and covered with a sheet of water, in which the screw-pines
were abundant.

"That must be one of your lakes, Louis," added
the captain.

"If it is mine, I will sell it to you," replied
he.

"I don't want to buy; but I am not so sure that
we can get through as shoal a place as that seems
to be, for it is only the spreading out of the river.
The greater the expanse, the less the depth. How
is that, Achang?"

"Plenty water; float the boat," answered the Bornean.
"Little Padang Lake. Plenty pandanus."

"What are pandanuses?" asked Scott.

"The plural of the word is pandanaceæ; and they
are the same thing as the screw-pines, and sometimes
are found thirty feet high. There is one; and you
can see roots starting out of the stem, and heading
downward. The leaves are very useful to the na[113]tives.
We shall get tied in a hard knot if we follow
the twists of this stream much farther."

Presently the boat came to the lake. The captain
was considerably exercised about the depth of water;
and as they entered the lake, which was not very
different from the overflowed region they had visited
that day, he ordered the wheelman to stop her.

"There must be some sort of a channel through
this pond," said he, looking about him. "There is
a bigger lake than this one farther up. There are
mountains in sight in the distance, and the water
from them must find an outlet to the sea."

"I have no doubt you are right; and probably
there is a channel through this lake, for its water
must get to the sea, unless it dries up on the way,"
added Louis.

"It will be easier to find this channel near the
river than it will when we are half-way across the
lake;" and the captain sent two men with Morris
in the sampan to search for it.

The water was tolerably clear; and they went to
the mouth of the outlet, sounding all the time with
the boathooks. They found the channel at this
point, and then followed it up beyond the steamer.
Morris shouted that the sampan was in the channel,
and the Blanchita moved into it. The searching-party
returned to the steamer. Morris was the
mate; and, with the two men who had gone with
him, he was directed to keep the run of the deeper
water.[114]

In another half-hour they came to the forest again,
though the trees were growing in the shallow lake.
Achang was hard at work all the time, taking all the
pains with his operation which Louis had required
of him; but his occupation did not prevent him from
looking about him, and he soon made a discovery.

"Mias! Mias!" he shouted, pointing to a tall
tree a few rods from the boat. "Mias fast asleep!"

All the party looked in the direction indicated,
and saw the orang. He was lying on his back in
the crotch of the tree, holding on with both hands
to the branches. He must have been a heavy sleeper
or the puffing of the engine would have aroused him.
But Louis would not fire at him, as Scott suggested.
He had a bigger orang than the one in the tree, and
he did not want another. As he would not fire,
Felix refused to do so, and the mias was left to
finish his nap.

A little later in the day the boat came to Padang
Lake; but they were disappointed when they found
it was filled with screw-pines, though they could
see open water, in one direction quite a large sheet
of it. Following the channel, they reached the open
space. The boat had hardly passed the limit of
the screw-pines before Clingman shouted, "Fish!"

The captain rang the gong, the boat stopped, and
fishlines were in demand. The flesh of the orang
was used for bait; and in a few minutes Morris
hauled up a fish so large that it taxed all his strength
and skill to get him into the boat.[115]

CHAPTER XIII

THE CAPTAIN'S ASTOUNDING PROPOSITION

All the cabin party had their lines out, but not
another fish was caught. The place where they
fished seemed to be a hole, and the water was deep
and clear. Perhaps Morris's struggle with the big
fish had scared the others away, for not another
could be seen. The day was done, and it was growing
dark. It was decided to anchor where they were,
and spend the night there; and they hoped the fish
would be in biting condition the next morning.

Achang called the fish the gourami, or something
like that; but beyond this nothing was known about
him. Louis, who was generally posted, could tell his
companions nothing about it. But Pitts had cut it
up, and it was fried for supper. The flesh was hard,
and the flavor excellent. There was enough of it
for all hands, and the supper amounted to a feast.
A heavy thunder-shower made the evening very
gloomy; but the canvas roof and curtains of the
Blanchita fully protected the party from the rain,
which fell in sheets for full two hours.

The next morning when the party turned out,
the weather was as pleasant as they could desire,
and the air was cleared and freshened by the shower.[116]
The first thing they did was to throw over their
lines; for they could see the fish through the clear
water of the lake. In about as many minutes they
had hooked four fish, though not one of them was
so large as the one Morris had caught the evening
before. But at that point they ceased to bite, and
not another nibble was had. Either the fish did not
like the looks of the boat, handsome as she was,
which would have been very bad taste on their part,
or the struggles of those which had been hauled in
frightened them away. Very likely the fish could
have explained the reason for their sudden disappearance;
but they did not, and it remained a mystery.

They had an ice-chest on board, and Mr. Eng had
replenished it at Simujan. Pitts dressed the fish,
and put them in the refrigerator. For breakfast
they had fresh pork, and it was much better than
that they had had before. They had learned to
drink coffee without milk, for it was not often that
it could be procured away from the larger towns.

"I say, fellows, don't you think there can be too
much of a good thing?" asked Captain Scott at the
head of the table.

"Of course there can be too much of a good thing;
for a fellow might eat ice-cream till his throat was
frozen," replied Felix.

"Almost anything becomes a bad thing when you
have too much of it," added Louis. "But I think
we could have stood about four more of those nice
fish. What is the moral of all this, Captain?"[117]

"With me the moral is that I have had hunting
enough for the present," replied Scott. "I should
like a little more variety in our daily life."

"I don't think I should care to go hunting more
than one day in a week, or, at most, two," replied
Louis. "We have had it right along for a week;
and, as you suggest, that's too much of a good
thing."

"But it was you, Louis, who went in for three
weeks of it," added the captain.

"Simply because I thought it would take the
Guardian-Mother and the Blanche about that time
to visit Siam and French Cochin-China."

"I suppose if we had made our trip up these rivers
in a sampan, we should not have got so far inland in
another week," added Morris.

"I don't think we should have come up here at all
if the Blanchita had not been available," said Louis.
"But we are close to the mountains now, and I am
in favor of a tramp on shore."

"All right; and after breakfast we will get under
way, for I must attend to the navigation," replied
Scott; "and I suppose Felipe has steam enough by
this time."

They left the table, and Scott went to the wheel.
To save time and trouble, the men took their meals
in the after cabin, and the engineer had the head of
the table. Both Louis and Felix had run the engine
of the Maud a portion of the time on her memorable
voyage from Funchal to Gibraltar, and the former[118]
was sent to the engine-room. The boat went ahead;
and after passing through a section of pandanus, they
came to an open lake, which they judged to be five
miles long.

The water was shallow, though deep enough for
the steamer. The captain opened the binnacle, and
headed the Blanchita to the north. It was a very
quiet time, and the boat went along at her usual
speed. In little less than half an hour she reached
the head of the lake; but there was no convenient
landing-place for a craft of her draught, and she
was anchored at a considerable distance from the
shore. Achang and two of the seamen were directed
to attend the "Big Four," and they were
landed in the sampan.

Each of the cabin party took his fowling-piece,
while Achang had a rifle, and each of the sailors
carried one, the latter to be used by the young men
if they were wanted. They had walked but a short
distance before they came to a steep precipice about
twenty feet high, at which a notched log had been
placed by some former visitors, as they supposed;
but as soon as they had mounted it, they came upon
a Dyak long-house, which might have been better
called a short-house, for it contained but six doors,
and therefore the tax upon the village need not
have caused any grumbling.

The dwelling was not now a novelty, neither were
the Dyak men and maidens; for the latter were not
as pretty as several they had seen on the river.[119]
They were very hospitable, and invited the party to
enter the house, which they did; but there was little
to interest them there. Achang talked with them,
and the head man said they caught plenty of fish in
the lake, and they snared pigs, deer, monkeys, and
other game. He engaged a couple of guides for the
mountains.

The game was plentiful, and the hunters shot several
deer, a pig, and a Malay bear; but they were not
enthusiastic hunters, considering that they had come
to Borneo for that purpose. After a four hours'
tramp they all thought they had had enough of it.
Felix declared that he preferred to hunt cobras and
tigers, for all the game seemed to be very tame to
him. Seating themselves on the ground, they rested
for an hour, and then started on their return to the
boat. All the game was given to the Dyak guides,
who were very glad to get it. They swung it on a
pole, and trotted along with their load as though it
had been no burden at all.

"They do that all day," said Achang. "Never get
tired."

"They have load enough to feed the village for a
week," added the captain. "I should not care for the
fun of feeding them another week, for I find hunting
here very tame business."

"My sintimints also," added Felix.

After a walk of another hour they reached the
Dyak house, and the whole population of the place
followed them to the shore. They were filled with[120]
wonder and admiration at the sight of the Blanchita,
and went off to her in their sampans. They were
permitted to go on board; but when Felipe fed the
fire in the furnace, and the steam began to hiss, some
of them were frightened, and fled to their boats.

Dinner was all ready when the party went on
board; and Achang was instructed to send off the
guests, for the boat was to get under way at once.
They got into their sampans; but they remained near
the Blanchita, evidently desirous to see her sail.
They had not to wait long, for the anchor was
weighed, and the captain rang the gong. She went
off at her usual speed, and the Dyaks expressed their
astonishment in various ways.

"Dinner all ready, gentlemen," said Pitts as soon
as the steamer was well under way.

"What have you for dinner, Pitts?" asked the
captain.

"Baked fish, Captain, in two pieces; for he was
too long to go into my oven," replied the cook.

"All right. Take the wheel, Clingman, and make
the course due south."

"Due south, sir," repeated the wheelman.

The party hastened to the after cabin; for they
were hungry after their long tramp, though they had
taken a light lunch with them. The fish, "in two
pieces," was placed before the captain; while Pitts
stood by his side, ready to pass the plates, and hear
any comments the captain might make on the principal
viand.[121]

The odor from the steaming fish was emphatically
agreeable to the hungry hunters, and so was the soft
divan to their tired legs. Scott helped the members
of the party to liberal portions of the dainty dish,
and without pausing for manners they began to
partake. When the captain had tasted the fish, he
stopped short, and looked at Pitts. Then he reached
out his right hand to him.

"Your hand, Pitts!" and the cook took it, his face
wreathed in smiles. "You have cooked a dish here,
Pitts, which is fit for any king on the continent of
Europe, to say nothing of Asia."

The rest of the party applauded vigorously, and
every one of them, following the example of the
captain, took the cook by the hand, and bestowed
additional praise upon him; and Louis declared that
he could not have done better if he had served his
time as a cuisinier in the Grand Hotel in Paris.
But the most telling tribute to the skill of the cook
was in the amount consumed; and the captain expressed
a fear that the engineer and five seamen
would have to "kiss the cook."

"It is only a woman cook that gets served in that
way, and then not unless she is good looking," replied
Pitts, laughing. "But you need have no fear,
Captain, and the second table will have no occasion
to kiss the cook, even it were one of the pretty girls
we saw at the long-house below; for I have another
fish in the oven, and it will be done by the time they
are ready for it."[122]

"That's right, Pitts; look out for the men as well
as you do for the rest of us," added the captain.
"Now, fellows, I am going to the wheel; and I want
to see all of you in the fore cabin, for I have something
to say, and we may have occasion to vote."

"Vote on what, Captain?" inquired Felix.

"There is no motion before the house, Flix; and
when morning comes the sun will rise, not before,"
replied Captain Scott.

As soon as a plum-pudding had been disposed of,
the party hastened to the fore cabin; for their curiosity
had been excited by what had been said. The
captain took the wheel; and Louis went to the engine,
though he could hear what was said while near
enough to the levers to act in case of need. Scott
had brought from his berth in the after cabin a blue-colored
roll, which all understood was a chart, though
of what sea they did not know.

"Now, fellows, I have come to the conclusion that
we are all tired of paddling about the muddy rivers
of Borneo," the captain began, after he had scrutinized
the compass in the binnacle. "I have said so
before; though I have not enlarged on the subject, or
spoken half as strongly as I might. The rest of you
may not take my view of the situation; but I do not
ask you to do so, and I hope you will all speak out
just what you think, as I have done, and shall do
stronger than before. We want something that is
not quite so tame as shooting pigs and crocodiles at
thirty-six cents a foot."[123]

"I am quite of your opinion, Captain," added
Morris. "I don't think there is any more fun in
shooting orangs, for we are not naturalists nor scientists
of any sort. If we had brought a naturalist
with us, we should have done better."

"I have had enough of it for the present; but
we have two weeks yet before the ship will come to
Kuching for us, and what are we to do during that
time?" said Louis, walking a little nearer to the
wheel.

"That is precisely the conundrum I intend to guess
on the present occasion, and for which I have called
this meeting without consulting Mr. Belgrave," replied
Captain Scott, giving the wheel to Morris, with the
course, and unfolding the blue roll. "The Guardian-Mother
will go to Saigon before she comes back to
Sarawak. That is about a two days' run for her.
From Sarawak, or the mouth of the river, the distance
is five hundred sea miles. Now, to flash it on
you all at once, I propose to sail in the Blanchita to
Point Cambodia, where the ship will pick us up as
she comes down the Gulf of Siam. Now I am ready
to hear you all groan."

"It looks like a risky voyage in such a craft as
this steam-launch," said Louis, when there was a
prolonged silence.

"I wish you all to look over the chart of the
China Sea; this meeting is adjourned to the after
cabin at four o'clock, and you may do your groaning
there."[124]

The men soon came out of the after cabin, and
Pitts was busy removing the dishes and putting
everything in order. At the time stated, the party
were seated around the table in the after cabin, ready
to consider the captain's astounding proposition.[125]

CHAPTER XIV

DOWN THE SIMUJAN AND UP THE SARAWAK

The proposition of Captain Scott was certainly an
astounding one, not unlike the daring of those men
who have crossed the Atlantic in a dory or in small
sailboats; and so it struck the other members of the
cabin party. Scott was not a reckless navigator; and
his companions had voyaged with him on stormy seas
several times in the Maud, though she was a better
sea-going craft than the Blanchita. She was decked
over her entire length, so that she could be closed as
tight as the inside of a barrel, while the steam-launch
was an open boat.

Scott did not regard the venture as an extremely
perilous one, though he would not have thought of
such a thing as crossing the Atlantic in a craft like
the Blanchita, principally because she could not
carry coal enough to render the trip a prudent risk.
The distance from land to land was about five hundred
miles, and the little steamer could easily make
this distance inside of three days. But the captain
must speak for himself.

"Now, fellows, you can study the chart for yourselves,"
said he, as he put the point of his pencil on
the mouth of the Sarawak River. "If the Blanchita[126]
were a sailing-craft instead of a steamer, I should
not have a moment's hesitation; for though she is
not heavy and clumsy, she is very strongly built. I
have looked her over several times, with this trip in
my head."

"But she can be rigged as a sailing-craft, and has
a short mast and a sail," interposed Morris. "I
talked with the rajah about her, and he told me that
he had been out to sea in her. He said he had never
had occasion to use the sail, but he carried it in case
anything should happen to the engine."

"That betters the situation very materially," replied
the captain. "If we have anything to depend
upon if the engine should break down or the coal
should give out we should be all right."

"There must be heavy seas out in the China Sea,"
added Louis, as he looked over the chart.

"We haven't seen any very heavy seas in any of
these waters. The south-west monsoons prevail at
this season of the year in these waters. I don't find
any decided ocean current laid down on the charts of
the southern and western portions of the China Sea.
They strike in at the eastward of Java, and flow
to the eastward of Borneo, through the Macassar
Strait," said Scott, pointing out the direction on the
chart.

"That looks favorable; and if there is any current
to speak of, it runs in the direction of the monsoons,
and therefore will not be likely to cause heavy
winds."[127]

"If I thought the trip was a very dangerous one, I
certainly should not propose to make it," added the
captain.

"Fish!" shouted Clingman at the wheel.

In spite of their interest in the discussion, all the
party rushed forward at this cry. The captain ordered
the wheelman to stop her, though her headway
kept her moving for some minutes after the screw
ceased to revolve. The men baited the hooks as soon
as fish were indicated. The boat had reached the
locality where the catch of the day before had been
obtained, and all hands were on the lookout. The
lines were thrown over, and the fish bit quickly as
soon as the steamer was at rest. In half an hour
they had taken seven.

"Keep her moving, Clingman," said Captain Scott,
as the party hurried back to the cabin to continue
the discussion.

Pitts dressed the fish, and put them in the ice-chest.
Achang had completed the skinning of the
orang, and the skin was now drying in the sun.
The voyage to Siam or Cambodia looked very much
like an adventure, and the young men were deeply
interested in it.

"I don't think we are likely to encounter any
very heavy weather in the western part of the China
Sea," said Captain Scott, as he put his pencil on
the chart again. "We may be overhauled by a
typhoon."

"And what is a typhoon?" asked Felix. "I[128]
know it is some sort of a storm, and that is all
I do know."

"There are different names for a storm in different
parts of the earth," replied Scott. "What is
a hurricane in the West Indies is a cyclone in the
northern part of the Indian Ocean, and a typhoon
in the China Sea. They are all alike in substance,
being revolving storms, in which the wind whirls
around in a circle, and at the same time has a
forward movement as a whole towards some point
of the compass. But there are various signs which
indicate the approach of a typhoon or a hurricane;
and in these seas the barometer has to be watched
constantly."

"I suppose we should be out of sight of land about
all the time on the passage," suggested Morris.

"Not at all, my lad; for the first two hundred
miles of the course we should not be out of sight
of land half of the time, or only for a few hours
at a time. Now look at the chart, all of you.
Here we are at the mouth of the Sarawak River.
About a hundred miles west of that is Cape Datu,
the most western point of Borneo. Then for two
hundred miles there is a chain of islands extending
to the north-west, which is our course. These
are the Natuna Islands; the largest one takes the
same name, and is forty miles long. There are
several other small islands north of this one, and
if the weather came on very bad we could make
a lee under one of them."[129]

"Channel, sir!" shouted Clingman.

"I think you have got an idea of the whole
thing, and we have a couple of days to think of
it," said the captain, as he rose from his seat. "I
will leave the chart here, and you can all study it."

Scott went forward to the wheel. He had caused
a red rag to be tied to the top of a screw-pine
while the sampan was looking for a channel through
the lake, and Clingman had stopped the boat abreast
of it. The captain took the helm himself; and he
had carefully observed various marks, and obtained
the bearings of the mountain, and other prominent
objects which might assist him in taking the steamer
through the shallow lake. He started her at once,
and rang the speed-bell confidently, as though he
had been through the lake a dozen times before.

It was sunset when the boat entered the narrow
river, and they were called to supper. Clinch was
placed at the wheel. It was a good moon, and the
boat continued on her course till she came to the
Dyak village where they had visited the long-house.
She had been seen or heard as she approached;
and the whole village was on the shore, including
Mr. Eng.

"We are not going to lie up to-night," said Captain
Scott when asked to land. "We are somewhat
in a hurry to get back to Kuching, and we shall
run down to Simujan this evening."

"I am going in the morning, Captain," added
the agent.[130]

"I will tow you down, and you can sleep on
board if you wish."

"Thank you; my men will come down with the
sampans to-morrow, and I gladly accept your offer,"
replied Mr. Eng. "But I must first go over to
the pangah."

"To what? Will it take long?" inquired the
captain.

"The pangah, or head-house of the village. I
left my portmanteau there, and must get it."

"The head-house! May we go with you? for
we did not stop to look at it when we were here
before."

"Certainly you may go with me; I will have
some torches so that you can see it as well as in the
daytime," replied the agent, as he started with the
cabin party, attended by four Dyaks who had come
to the river with torches. "No head-hunting has
been done for many years, as you are aware, and
not many heads are on exhibition. In some villages
you will find them by the hundred, though the people
here were never much given to the barbarous practice.
It was not necessary in this part of the island
that a young man should get a head before a girl
would accept him as her husband. Here it is."

It was a circular building not far from fifty feet
in diameter, with a conical roof. In the centre was
a place for a fire, which was perhaps required in
cleaning the abominable trophies of war or individual
murders. All around the apartment was a sort of[131]
divan, or bench, while over it were hung up the
skulls, all nicely cleaned in the first instance, but
now darkened by the smoke.

"This is the public building of the village, and
the council when it meets has its place here for deliberation
and action," said Mr. Eng, when he had
pointed out what was to be seen in the building.

"Rather a sombre place, I should say, for such a
purpose," suggested Louis.

"When you got used to the skulls you would not
mind them any more than you would any other dry
bones," laughed the agent. "I slept here last night,
and the young men and boys lodge here. If you
were to remain over night, young gentlemen, you
would be quartered here; for it is the home of the
stranger who visits the village."

"Then, I should be very thankful that we had a
cabin in our steamer," replied Louis. "But there
is no accounting for tastes."

The agent gave his baggage to a Dyak, and the
party returned to the boat. A bed in the cabin was
prepared for Mr. Eng, who said he was very tired,
for he had walked a great distance that day, and he
retired at once. The captain took the first watch,
with two of the men. It was plain sailing, and in
the middle of the night the Blanchita was anchored
in the river in front of the kampon. Scott turned
in then, with one of the port watch on duty.

In the morning they could not be induced to accept
Mr. Eng's pressing invitation to remain a day[132]
or two at Simujan. He promised to take them to
the coal and gold mine if they would remain; but
all of them were so full of the great project that
the invitation was declined. Three of the fish were
presented to the agent, who told them something
about it, and declared that it was the finest fish on
the island.

A quantity of ice was obtained at the town; and
Pitts carefully packed the rest of the fish, which
were still hard and in nice condition. The captain
desired to present a couple of them to Rajah Brooke,
and some of the others to officers who had been
very kind to them, and had assisted them in many
ways. In the early morning they bade a grateful
adieu to the agent, and departed on the trip to
Kuching.

The tide was going out, and they made a quick
passage to the sea. On their arrival there they
found a stiff south-west wind blowing, and the bay
covered with white-caps. They had not tried the
Blanchita in anything like a heavy sea, though the
rajah had declared that she was a very able and
weatherly sea-boat. Captain Scott was very glad of
the opportunity to test her behavior in rough weather.
He went to the helm himself as the boat came out of
the Sadong. The very first wave that broke on her
bow scattered the spray from stem to stern.

The boat rose gracefully on the billows.

Page 132.

Scott ordered the men to batten down the curtains
on the weather side. But the boat rose gracefully
on the billows, and did not scoop up any water in[133]
doing so. Boxes, barrels, and other movable articles
were secured, and the captain was delighted with
the working of the boat.

"I don't want any better sea-boat than the Blanchita,"
said he with great enthusiasm. "I doubt if
we get it any rougher than this on the voyage to
Cambodia Point."

"Unless we run into a typhoon," said Morris, who
was observing the conduct of the boat with quite as
much interest as his superior officer.

"We won't run into a typhoon," replied the captain.

"How can you help yourself? As sailors we
must take things as they come."

"If navigators have a thousand miles or more of
ocean ahead of them, they must face the music.
But among these islands, if the weather looks typhoony,
we can get under a lee, or make a harbor
in some bay. But don't try to cross the bridge till
we get to it, Morris."

"Sail, ho!" shouted Clingman.

It was a steamer about as far off as she could be
made out. The two craft were approaching each
other, and the steamer from the west went into the
Sarawak ahead of the Blanchita. She was a small
vessel, apparently of not more than three hundred
tons. It soon became evident that she was not a fast
sailer, for the Blanchita held her own with her all
the way up the river to Kuching.[134]

CHAPTER XV

ON THE VOYAGE TO POINT CAMBODIA

The Blanchita moored as usual in front of the
town, while the steamer anchored in the river. She
proved to be the Delhi, from Calcutta; and it was
ascertained when the party went on shore later, that
she was to sail for Saigon the next day. The first
care of the cabin party was to send the fish to Rajah
Brooke and two officers whose acquaintance they had
made.

Pitts overhauled the ice-chest, and found them in
excellent condition; and Achang was appointed to be
the bearer of them, with the compliments of the
Americans, to the gentlemen who were to receive
them. Two native porters were to carry them; and
the party knew that the fish were a rarity in the
town, and they were in season for the dinner of that
day.

The four went on shore together just as a party
from the Delhi landed with a boat. The captain of
the steamer hailed them in the street in front of the
government house, and asked if they belonged to the
steam-launch which had just come up the river.
He was curious to know something more about the
explorers, and Captain Scott told him what they had[135]
been doing in the island. He was invited on board
of the Blanchita, and was much interested in the
young men.

They showed him over the boat; and he was
greatly pleased with the craft, and with the excellent
accommodations for sleeping, eating, and making the
voyagers generally comfortable. They came to the
ice-chest, in which two of the choice fish still remained;
and Scott presented one of them to their
guest.

"We intend to sail for Point Cambodia to-morrow
to rejoin our ship," said the captain of the Blanchita,
after the fish had been sent on board.

"In this little tub of yours?" asked the commander
of the Delhi with a smile of incredulity.

"Is this part of the China Sea subject to violent
seas?"

"Not at just this season of the year. With the
south-west monsoons smart squalls come up sometimes,
but they are not very bad. I don't think you
will find it any rougher than we had it outside the
river to-day on your passage to the Point," replied
Captain Rayburn, who stated then that he had seen
the Guardian-Mother when she was at Calcutta.

"You are bound to Saigon, I think you said."

"To Saigon, but a portion of my cargo goes to
Kampot. If I found a sailing-vessel here that was
going up the Gulf of Siam, I was ordered to reship
my freight for Kampot in her; if not, I was to take
it there in the Delhi. I find no such vessel here."[136]

"Then you will make your course direct for Point
Cambodia, Captain Rayburn?" said Scott.

"Precisely so; and if you can keep up with my
steamer, we need not part company on the voyage."

"I think we can keep up with you," replied the
captain of the Blanchita with a smile.

The party went on shore again, and arrangements
were made for taking in a supply of coal early the
next morning. Everything on board of the yacht
had been stowed very carefully on the passage from
Simujan, in order to make all the room possible for
coal; but the boat could carry a supply for four
days, and Scott was not at all afraid that he should
come short of this needed article. Pitts purchased
all the provisions and stores needed for the voyage.

After dinner the four paid their respects to the
rajah, and visited the two officers whose acquaintance
they had made. They were heartily thanked for the
welcome gift of the fish, which the officers declared
were a great luxury; and Governor Brooke said that
he should make a trip to the lake where they were
caught, in the government steam-yacht. These
gentlemen thought the young men were rather venturesome
to undertake the voyage before them in so
small a craft; but the best wishes of all of them
went with the party.

At daylight in the morning the coaling was begun;
the provisions and stores were all looked over, and
all deficiencies were supplied. By nine o'clock everything
was in readiness for sailing. Captain Rayburn[137]
sent word that the Delhi would sail at ten o'clock,
and afterwards went on board of the Blanchita.

"You seem to be well supplied with coal," said
he, as he looked about him.

"I think we have a five-days' supply on board,"
replied Scott. "As I figure it up, we shall make the
run to the Point inside of three days."

"The Delhi's time is sixty-three hours," added her
commander. "If your coal should come short, I can
help you out; but I think you won't need it."

"Thank you, Captain Rayburn; that kind offer
removes the only doubt I have in regard to the voyage,"
replied Captain Scott.

"The Delhi, as you have seen for yourself, is not
a fast steamer; but the only fear I have is that you
will not be able to keep up with her," added Captain
Rayburn. "I am obliged to sail in the interest of
my owners, and I must make the best time I can.
The south-west monsoons prevail at this season; and
by carrying sail I may add half a knot, or perhaps
a knot, to her speed. I should be sorry to run away
from you, but I must do my duty."

"Certainly; that is understood. If you run away
from me, I shall still wish you bon voyage. But suppose
I should run away from you?" suggested Scott,
laughing.

"You will be quite welcome to do so. The Delhi
is an old steamer, and not up to modern-built ones;
but with a breeze I have made nine knots in her."

"I shall try to keep up with you, for I should be[138]
very sorry to have to part company with so pleasant
a captain as you are."

"Thank you, Captain Scott; and if we part company
on the voyage, I hope we shall meet again. I
am liable to be detained some time in Saigon; for
mine is a tramp steamer, and I have to look up a
cargo for some port," said Captain Rayburn, as he
shook hands with the four, and went into his boat
alongside.

The first thing Scott did was to look up the mast
and sail of the Blanchita. It had not been covered
up with coal, as he had feared; for Clingman had
suspended it inboard under the rail. The sail had
been stowed away in the bow of the boat, and it
was brought out and overhauled. It was nearly new,
and needed no repairs. It was a lug-foresail, with a
gaff, but no boom. It was stepped just abaft the
galley, and the sail could be set in two or three minutes
when it was required.

The statement of the captain of the Delhi that he
could gain a knot or less in a good breeze had stimulated
Scott to be ready for such an emergency. The
wind would be on the port quarter during the whole
voyage, and the sail would certainly add something
to the speed of the yacht. In the crowd that collected
at the government storehouse were the rajah
and most of the officers of the place. The handshaking
was all done over again, and pleasant wishes
were extended to the "Big Four" as the Blanchita
cast off her fasts.[139]

The Delhi was already under way, and going at
full speed down the river. Clingman was at the
wheel, and Scott went aft to the engine-room, as it
was called, though there was no such room, and the
word applied simply to the locality; and the same
was true of the galley. The boat had been delayed
a little while the party were making and receiving
the parting salutations of their friends, and the
Delhi had a lead of nearly half a mile.

"Give her a spurt, Felipe," said the captain. "I
want to know if that craft has the ability to run
away from us."

The engineer threw more coal into the furnace; and
in a few minutes he "let her out," as the captain
called it. It was very soon perceived that the yacht
was gaining on the old steamer, and Scott became
correspondingly happy. She was farther down in
the water than usual on account of the extra quantity
of coal in her bunkers, and all along her sides, to
trim her properly.

"I don't believe the Delhi will run away from us,
Louis," said the captain as the millionaire joined
him, curious to know what he was doing. "She
isn't loaded for her best sailing, but she is doing first-rate
for her present trim."

"This is smooth water, Captain; what will she do
when we get out to sea?" asked Louis.

"We had a chance to try her yesterday in more
than half a gale, and she behaved like a lady on a
dancing-floor."[140]

"But she was not loaded down with coal then as
she is now."

"The extra weight will not disturb her; on the
contrary, I think it will make her steadier."

"I talked with the rajah on board, who has used
her for over a year, and has made a trip to Rangoon
in her. He said she was usually run at eight knots
an hour; but on his return voyage, when he was in
a hurry, she made nine knots for twelve hours together,"
Louis explained.

"That is all I want of her; but I shall not drive
her up to that unless the Delhi is likely to run away
from us; and not then till after I have added the
sail to our power of locomotion. We are coming
up with her now, and probably Captain Rayburn's
fears that his steamer may run away from us
are beginning to abate," said the captain, rubbing
his hands in his delight at the performance of the
Blanchita.

Rather for the occupation it gave him, Scott took
the wheel himself, directing Clingman to call the
men, and remove the stanchions and connecting-rods
on the starboard side of the boat from the galley to
the length of the mast aft, so that the sail might not
be obstructed when it was set.

Then, while the Blanchita was still making her
nine knots, he ran her alongside the Delhi on the
port side, keeping at a safe distance from her. Then
he called to Felipe to reduce the speed to eight knots.
He had gained nearly half a mile in going half-way[141]
down the river to the sea; and this fully satisfied
him.

"Bully for you, Captain!" shouted Captain Rayburn
from the quarter-deck of his steamer.

"I won't run away from you!" returned Scott, as
the noise of escaping steam when the engineer reduced
the speed must have reached his ears.

"Wait till we get out to sea!" called the captain
of the Delhi.

"All right."

The two craft kept abreast of each other till they
had passed the mountain at the mouth of the river.
The captain laid the course north-west half-west;
and this was to be the course for half the distance
to Point Cambodia, as he remarked to Louis, who was
at his side observing the progress of the yacht.

"How do you spell that word, Captain Scott?"
asked Louis.

"Just as I spelled it when I went to school, and it
is so put down on my chart; but I noticed in Black's
"Atlas" that it was spelled Camboja instead of
Cambodia," replied Scott. "I am a sailor, and I
stick to the chart."

"I see that Captain Rayburn has laid his course;
how does it agree with yours, Captain?" inquired
Louis, when they were a mile off the mountain.

"I should say that it was identically the same. I
will hail him."

"North-west half-west," was the answer returned
by the captain of the Delhi.[142]

"I make it the same," replied Scott.

The cabin party were summoned to dinner at this
time, and Clingman was called to the wheel.

"What's the bill of fare to-day?" asked Scott as
he took his seat at the table.

"Baked fish and roast venison," replied Pitts,
"with plum-duff."

"Very good," returned the captain. "We don't
get so much breeze off here as we did yesterday,
Louis."

"It does not look at all rough off at sea," added
the captain. "But when we get Cape Datu on the
beam, we may feel it more."

The Delhi had not yet set her foresail, for she was
schooner-rigged, and there was not wind enough to
help her much; all the rest of the day the two craft
kept abreast of each other, as they had in coming
down the river. After supper the watches were
arranged for the night. The captain, with Clingman
and Lane, had the first, or starboard watch, while
Morris, the mate, had the port watch, with Wales
and Clinch.

Louis and Felix were appointed second engineers,
as the seamen on board relieved them from duty as
deck-hands; and the three in that department were to
keep four-hour watches, like the officers and seamen.
Achang wanted something to do; and he was given
the berth of second mate, and as such he served in
charge of the captain's watch.[143]

CHAPTER XVI

AN EXCITING RACE IN THE CHINA SEA

Everything worked as smoothly on board of the
Blanchita as though she had been in commission for
years, for there was not a green hand in the cabin or
forecastle. The experience obtained by the "Four" in
the Maud had made them proficients in the duties of
their present positions. Louis and Felix were not
trained engineers or machinists; though they were
familiar with the machine, which was of very simple
construction. Both of them were competent to run
the engine, and had served their watches in the
Maud. If there was any trouble, the chief engineer
was close at hand.

From eight to twelve it was the captain's watch.
Achang, who had been the master of a vessel, had
been regularly installed as second mate, and was in
charge of this watch; though Scott remained on deck
all the time, for he was anxious to observe the movements
of the Delhi. Clingman and Lane had their
two-hour tricks at the wheel, and there was no hard
work for anybody.

The breeze was good, though not heavy from the
south-west; but the Delhi had not yet set a sail. The
Blanchita passed Cape Datu at ten in the evening,[144]
and the second mate made a note of it on the log-slate.
Both craft were still making their eight knots,
and remained abreast of each other. The wind increased
slightly in force, but the conditions were
about the same all night. At twelve the watch was
changed, and Morris came on duty, with Louis in the
engine-room. The captain turned in at this time.

At three in the morning the yacht was off the
island of Sirhassen, of which a note was made on
the log-slate. Morris had studied the chart enough
to enable him to recognize the island, distant as it
was, at six bells, or three o'clock in the morning. Of
course he could not identify it by its looks, never
having seen it before; but the captain had given him
the distances between the islands on the course. Sirhassen
was forty sea miles from Cape Datu, or five
hours as the yacht was running; and when land was
reported on the beam, bearing about west, he knew
what it was. The chart gave the island as one of
considerable size compared with the multitude of
small ones in that locality; and this indication afforded
him a further clew to the identification.

At eight bells, or four o'clock, the morning watch
came on duty, with Achang as its officer. Captain
Scott did not turn out when the second mate was
called, with Felix to take his place at the engine, and
it was six o'clock when he made his appearance.
Except when there is only one mate, as in small vessels,
the captain keeps no watch; but he is liable to
be called at any hour of the night in case of a squall[145]
or other peril. His responsibility may induce him to
spend the entire night on deck.

When he came out of the cabin, his first care
was to observe the signs which indicate the coming
weather. Then he went to the wheel, and read the
entries made on the log-slate. The sea was about
the same as it had been when he left the deck. He
had looked at the barometer before he left the cabin.
There were no signs of bad weather in any direction.

"What do you think of the weather, Mr. Achang?"
he asked of the officer of the deck.

"It will be fine, Captain," replied the second
mate. "I have come all the way from Banjermassin
to Calcutta with the weather just like this always;
but I think we have more wind when the
sun come up."

"We can stand more than we have now," added
Scott.

"Some of the young gentlemen fear to go to sea
in open boat like this yacht; but the dhows and
the proas have not much decks," said the Bornean.

"Then you think we shall have weather like this
all the way to Point Cambodia?"

"May blow a little more hard some time."

The sun was coming up in the east, and in the
course of half an hour Achang's prophecy of more
wind was realized. It freshened rapidly for a short
time; but it did not come in flaws or squalls, and
was a steady breeze. A table had been set up in
the fore cabin; and at half-past seven, or seven[146]
bells, which is the usual hour for breakfast at sea,
the meal was served to the watch below.

"Land on the port bow, sir!" reported Clingman,
who was the lookout man, just before eight
bells.

"That is Subi," said Achang, looking at the paper
Morris had given him when the watch was changed.

"That's right, Mr. Achang," added the captain.
"I see the Delhi is setting her foresail, and that
means wind enough to add something to her eight
knots an hour."

Lane at the wheel struck eight bells a few minutes
later; and the officer and engineer of the port watch
came promptly on deck from the cabin, as did the
seamen from the fore cabin. Breakfast had been
served at both ends of the yacht to the watch
below, so that they were in readiness to come on
duty at the striking of the bell. Breakfast was
ready for those who came off watch as soon as
they were relieved.

Pitts had his hands more than full in supplying
the two tables, but he was assisted by the idlers
about the boat. The seamen were served as on
board of the Guardian-Mother, where they had a
table and a regular meal. On ordinary sea-going
vessels the men get their "grub" at the galley in
tins, or kids, and eat it seated on the deck, or where
they choose.

Captain Scott had graciously ordained, as there
was nothing to be done outside of the working of[147]
the yacht, that "watch and watch" should be the
rule on board; which means that the hands shall
have all their time to themselves when not on watch,
though they were to respond when all hands were
called.

"The Delhi means to run away from us, I suppose,
for she has put on all sail," said Louis as he
came on deck when he had finished his breakfast.

"But I don't believe she will do it," replied the
captain. "We have a sail; but I am waiting to
see what she can do under her present conditions,
and I have told Felipe to hurry her up a little,
just enough to keep up with our consort."

"She is gaining on us a little," added Louis.

"I see she is; but the engineer has thrown another
shovelful of coal into the furnace, and I wish
to see the effect it will produce. He has opened
his valve a little, but he has not steam enough
yet."

But it was soon evident to all who understood
the matter that the Blanchita was gaining on her
consort. It was plain, too, that Captain Rayburn
had noticed the fact, for his crew were setting the
gaff-topsails on the fore and main masts. Something
of the enthusiasm of a race was aroused on board.
Felipe had worked up his machine to the nine-knot
gauge; and in spite of the added sail on the Delhi,
the boat was overhauling her.

"I think that Captain Rayburn must be recalling
his talk to us at Sarawak about running away from[148]
us," said Louis. "What is he doing now, Captain
Scott?"

"He appears to be hoisting a yard on his foremast,"
replied Scott.

"What is that for?"

"If you watch the steamer for a little while
longer, you will see him shake out a fore squaresail,
and that will be the sharpest move he has
made yet. Morris, have the mast stepped, and set
the sail," continued the captain.

Clinch was at the wheel; and Clingman was called
upon to do the work, with the assistance of the
other two hands. The great squaresail of the Delhi
had been shaken out, and it was drawing for all
it was worth. The effect was simply to prevent
the Blanchita from passing her, as she would have
done in a few minutes more. The enthusiasm of a
race was fully developed on board the yacht, among
the seamen as well as the cabin party. Clingman
and the others had worked very lively, and in a
few minutes the sail was set. The captain gave
the orders for trimming it; and as soon as the
sheet was made fast the yacht heeled over till her
rail was nearly down to the water.

"Our sail is a big one," said Scott, who saw it
spread out for the first time; "and if we desire to
run away from the Delhi, I am satisfied that we
could do it."

The boat dashed the spray at her bow, and proved
to be very wet in the fore cabin. The captain or[149]dered
the curtains to be hauled down to keep the water
out, and the forward part of the craft was then as
dry as it had been on the river.

Scott was not quite satisfied with the steering
under the altered conditions, and he went to the
wheel himself. He was a very skilful boatman in
a sailing-craft, as had been fully proved by his bringing
his yacht, the Seahound, from New York through
the Bahama Islands. The seaman was inclined to
follow the compass too closely, while Scott regarded
the effect of the sail.

"We are gaining on the Delhi," said Louis, as he
seated himself near the captain.

"Of course we are; I knew she would do it with
the sail in this wind," replied Scott. "The Blanchita
is a light craft, and skims over the water like a
racer."

"But it is a little too much sail for her," suggested
Louis. "She is taking in a bucket of water
over her lee rail once in a while."

"Try the pump, Lane," added the captain. "I
don't believe she has shipped more than a teaspoonful
or two."

"We are pretty well down in the water," added
Louis.

"Clingman, let off about six inches of the sheet,"
continued Scott; and the order was promptly obeyed.
"I think you are getting a little nervous, my dear
fellow," he added to Louis.

"Perhaps I am; I should not like to see the yacht[150]
heel over and take in a couple of hogsheads of water,
for she is loaded so heavily with coal that she would
go to the bottom."

"But I should not let her ship such a sea as that.
The wind is quite steady, with no heavy flaws, and
the boat is under perfect control. I should like it
better to sail the Blanchita with less cargo in her,
but she is doing splendidly."

"But a flaw might come, even if we have had none
to-day; what could you do in that case?" asked
Louis.

"Clingman, stand by the sheet!" called the captain.

The seaman was seated on a box not more than
three feet from the cleat at which the sheet was
made fast. He took his place within reach of it.

"Now she heels over again!" exclaimed Louis, as
the water came quite up to the rail, though she took
none in.

"Cast off the sheet, Clingman!" called the captain;
and the order was obeyed in an instant.

The boat flew up to an even keel almost as though
she had been hoisted up by some giant power.

"That is how I should keep her from shipping a
big sea," said Scott, as he looked at his companion
with a smile on his brown face.

"I give it up, Captain Scott. Of course you know
what you are about every time, and I won't say a
word again about the boat. But suppose you were
not looking when the flaw came?"[151]

"It is not necessary to be looking; for a skipper
steers more by the feeling of the boat than by sight.
Make fast the sheet, Clingman."

The Blanchita went ahead again; and by this time
she was abreast of the Delhi, and gaining upon her.
Captain Rayburn was on his quarter-deck.

"Don't run away from me, and I won't run away
from you!" he shouted.

But he had hardly spoken before a noise like the
distant report of a cannon was heard on board of the
yacht.

"He has split his fore squaresail; and if his game
was not up before, it is now," said Captain Scott.
"The sail was old and rotten, and I don't believe he
would have attempted to carry it except on an occasion
like the present."

"He was a little too pronounced when he expressed
his fears that the Blanchita would not be able to
keep up with him, and I fancy he is sorry he said
anything about it by this time," added Louis.

The split sail could not be repaired at once; and
if it could it was not strong enough to be of any use
in the fresh breeze. The crew took it in at once, the
yard being lowered to enable them to do so. The
captain of the yacht ordered the engineer to reduce
his speed to the ordinary rate, though the sail was
not furled. Between the steam and the wind the
Blanchita ran ahead of the Delhi. The sheet was
slacked off as far as it could be without permitting
the sail to shake, and the two craft kept well together[152]
the rest of the day, passing Great Natuna Island at
four in the afternoon.

The captain took the sun at noon, and worked up
the position of the boat. The run from the mouth of
the Sarawak at that time was two hundred and four
sea miles.[153]

CHAPTER XVII

THE END OF THE VOYAGE TO BANGKOK

The routine of daily duty on board of the Blanchita
has been given; and after the race in the China
Sea had proved that she could run away from the
Delhi, there was no further excitement on the voyage.
On the contrary, it was rather monotonous, and there
were no incidents worthy of record. After passing
Great Natuna on the afternoon of the second day
from the mouth of the Sarawak, no land was seen
again till the island of Pulo Obi, about twenty miles
south-west of Point Cambodia, was seen on the third
day; and the Point on the mainland was passed a
little later.

At noon on this day the two vessels were forty-four
miles up the Gulf of Siam. The prophecies
of Captain Rayburn and Achang in regard to the
weather proved to be correct. The monsoon blew
steadily all the way, and the yacht carried her sail.
Not even a squall disturbed the serenity of the voyage,
and everything went on as during the first and
second days. The "Four" would have been glad to explore
the Great Natuna Island, and determine whether
or not it was inhabited; for they could obtain no information
in regard to it from any of the books they[154]
had brought from the ship, and they forgot to inquire
about it at Kuching.

At noon on the third day, in the Gulf, the captain
of the Delhi hailed the yacht, and came on board of
her.

"I shall have to bear more to the eastward now,
Captain Scott, and we shall soon part company," said
the commander of the Delhi. "We had quite a lively
race on our second day out, and you beat me handsomely.
I had no idea that your yacht could sail so
fast. I was afraid you could not keep up with me;
but I found that you could run away from me, as you
suggested before we sailed."

"I did not know myself what speed the Blanchita
could make, though I was informed that she
had gone nine knots for twelve hours together,"
replied Scott.

"I am very glad that I met you, and I hope I
shall see you again. You have a very agreeable
party, and I should think you might enjoy yourselves."

"I think we are likely to meet again at Saigon.
The Guardian-Mother will be there, and I hope you
will come on board of her," replied Captain Scott, as
they shook hands at parting, and the visitor returned
to the Delhi.

The Blanchita started her screw again; and the
captain gave out north-west as the course for the
mouth of the Menan River, on which Bangkok is situated.[155]

"Where do you expect to find the Guardian-Mother,
Captain Scott?" asked Louis.

"At Bangkok," replied the captain, as he took
his memorandum-book from his pocket. "Captain
Ringgold gave me his time for leaving there, and
also of sailing from Saigon."

"When was he to leave the capital of Siam?"

"On the first tide Monday morning. This is
Saturday, a little after noon," replied Scott. "We
have three hundred and twenty-five miles to make.
The monsoon is about as fresh here as it has been
all the voyage; and we have used up about half of
our coal, so that we are considerably lighter than
when we left Kuching, and with the sail we can
easily log nine knots an hour. We shall go into
the Menan River before sundown to-morrow, and it
will take two or three hours to go up to the city.
We shall be alongside the ship some time in the
evening; and that is just the time I should like to
be there."

"We shall give our friends a tremendous surprise,"
added Louis.

"That is so; for while your anxious mamma is
worrying for fear you have been chewed up by an
orang-outang, and Flix's grandma is dreaming that
he has been swallowed whole by a big boa-constrictor,
we shall drop in on them while they are singing
gospel hymns in the music-room."

"I shall be sorry to disappoint grandma; but if
she insists upon dreaming such nonsense, it is not[156]
my fault," added Felix. "She ought to know by
this time that snakes don't swallow me till they get
a bullet through their heads."

"I don't think my mother has been greatly worried
about me, for she has learned that I am able to
take care of myself," said Louis.

"But the mothers will hug their boys as soon as
they get hold of them."

"I wish the hugging might be confined to the
mothers, for it is perfectly proper for them to do
that thing; but when it comes to a grandma who
hasn't a drop of Irish blood in her veins, I beg to
be excused, and, what is more, I won't stand it,"
protested Felix, making a very comical face.

"But you can't help yourself, Flix," laughed the
captain.

"You see if I don't!" replied the Milesian, shaking
his head as though his plan to avoid the endearing
reception had already been formed.

"We shall see what we shall see," added the
captain. "It seems to me that the breeze is stronger
here than it was out at sea."

"There is a hot country to the east of us, and
perhaps the wind is hurrying up to fill a partial
vacuum there," suggested Louis.

"You are a philosopher, my darling Louis, and
that must be the reason," added Felix.

The Blanchita seemed to be flying through the
water, for her speed had sensibly increased since
she came into the Gulf. There were several large[157]
islands along the coast of Cambodia; but the course
was fifty miles outside of the mainland, which could
not be seen.

"Why do you keep so far from the shore, Captain
Scott?" asked Louis; for all the party would have
been glad to observe the shore.

"Because we all wish to get to Bangkok to-morrow
evening. What is the shortest way between two
points, Louis?"

"A straight line, of course."

"That's the reason we keep her so far from the
land. A north-west course from a point outside of
Obi Island to Cape Liant takes the yacht on the
course we are running now."

"That explains it all," replied Louis.

The watches were regularly kept, and the captain
was satisfied that the Blanchita was making over
nine knots an hour. There was no excitement of
any kind on board, and the rest of the day was without
anything worthy of note. The Delhi had gone
in behind an island, and in a few hours she was no
longer to be seen. And so it was all day Sunday.
Cape Liant was passed about one o'clock. A river
pilot was taken about five o'clock. He could not
speak English, but Achang spoke to him in Malay.

"Ask him if the Guardian-Mother is in the river,
Achang," said the captain.

The pilot could not make out the name, and the
interpreter described the ship so that he understood
him at last. The face of the Siamese lighted up[158]
when he got the idea, and it was seen by the four
that the ship was there. Achang informed them
that the Guardian-Mother was anchored in the river.

The river was full of boats, and on many of them
houses were built. The people were new to the
Americans, though they were not very different to
the ordinary observer from the Burmese and other
natives they had seen. Before the yacht was half-way
up to the city, it was too dark to see anything
distinctly, and the party were more interested in the
expected surprise of their friends on board the ship
than anything else.

When the yacht was within a short distance of
the ship, the pilot pointed her out. The singing
in the music-room could be distinctly heard, and
everything was working precisely as Scott had said
it would. At the gangway the barge of the Blanche
was made fast; and it was evident that General
Noury and his wife were on board, and perhaps
Captain Sharp and his lady. The boat was worked
very carefully and noiselessly up to the platform of
the gangway, where several sailors were seated.

"The Blanchita!" exclaimed Quartermaster Bangs,
as he recognized the craft. "Captain Scott! I will
inform the captain that you are alongside."

"Don't do anything of the kind, Bangs!" replied
Scott. "Don't say a word, and don't make any
noise, any of you. We want to drop in on the party
without any notice."

The quartermaster was a very intelligent fellow,[159]
and he took in the situation at a glance. The "Big
Four" stepped lightly on the platform, and Felix
had taken pains to be the last one to mount the
gangway. Scott led the way, and halted at the door
of the music-room. He waited there till the hymn
they were singing was finished, and then threw open
the door, and marched in. He took off his cap, and
bowed as gracefully as a dancing-master to the
assembly.

Louis and Morris followed him, and imitated the
example he had given them; but Felix had disappeared,
and they did not know what had become
of him. The musical party seemed to be so utterly
confounded at the sudden and unexpected appearance
of the hunters from Borneo that they seemed
to be struck dumb with amazement.

"Louis, my son!" Mrs. Belgrave screamed as she
rushed upon her boy, and folded him in her arms,
kissing him as though he had come back to her from
a tomb or a grave beneath the ocean.

"Morris!" cried Mrs. Woolridge, as she imitated
the example of Mrs. Belgrave.

"My brother!" exclaimed Miss Blanche, as she
divided the neck and arms of the returned hunter
with her mother.

"This is somewhat unexpected, Captain Scott,"
said Captain Ringgold, as he came forward, and took
the hand of the captain of the Blanchita, who alone
of the trio was not in the arms of a mother.

"I should say that it might be, Captain," replied[160]
Scott as coolly as though the meeting was nothing
unusual.

"But how under the sun did you get here, Scott?"
demanded the commander, scrutinizing the expression
of the third officer,—which was his rank on
board of the ship,—to ascertain if there were any
signs of a calamity there.

"We came by water, Captain," answered the young
officer, with a cheerful smile, which indicated anything
but a disaster.

"Of course you did, inasmuch as there is no other
way to get here. In what steamer did you come?
for I believe there is no regular line from Sarawak
to Bangkok," added Captain Ringgold.

"We came by the steamer Blanchita."

"I don't understand it at all," said the commander
with a perplexed look on his face. "Do you mean
that you made the voyage in the steam-yacht, Mr.
Scott?" and there was a decided expression of incredulity
on his face.

"That is exactly what I mean to assert; and if
you have any doubts about the truth of what I say,
I appeal to Louis and Morris to substantiate my
assertion."

"If you really say so, I do not doubt the truth
of what you declare. It looks like a foolhardy
risk, but boys will be boys. I will not detain you
now; for others wish to welcome you back, and I
know they are all glad to see you, unexpected as
your return is."

"But where is Felix?" demanded Mrs. Blossom.

Page 161.

[161]

As soon as his mother released him from the
bondage of her loving arms, Louis hastened to Miss
Blanche, and she grasped his hand as he approached.
No loving expressions passed between them, but
what they might have said that could be classed
under this head was seen on their telltale faces.

"But where is Felix?" demanded Mrs. Blossom,
who had been looking for him since Scott came into
the room. "Where is he, Mr. Scott?"

"I am sorry to say that he was swallowed by a
big boa-constrictor one hundred and sixty feet long,
and twelve feet in circumference," replied the captain
of the Blanchita, as seriously as though there
had been such a monster snake in existence.

The poor lady was impervious to a joke; she
screamed once, and then dropped in a sitting posture
on a divan. Nearly all the rest of the party laughed
heartily. At this point the head of Felix dropped
down a foot through the skylight over the centre
of the room. He had made his way to the upper
deck, and stationed himself where he could see and
hear all that passed in the apartment.

"Good-mahrnin' to ye's all this foine avenin'!" he
shouted. "Don't ye's make a row, Aunty. The
schnake was a bit troubled wid indigestion of the
brain, and, faix! I was too much for him! Loike
the sodjers surrounded by the inimy, Oi cut me way
out, and here Oi am."

"I don't believe you were swallowed by a snake,"
protested Mrs. Blossom.[162]

"Don't you believe that Jonah swallowed the
whale, Aunty?" demanded Felix.

"Of course I believe that because it is in the Bible.
If you had told me that you had swallowed the
snake, I might have believed that," added the good
lady.

At this point General Noury came forward, and
grasped the hand of Scott, passing from him to Louis
and Morris, and then doing the same with Felix, who
had dropped down from his perch at the skylight.
As soon as Mrs. Blossom saw him on the floor, she
rushed towards him with outspread arms; but the
Milesian warded off the assault, and took her right
hand.

"Don't hug me, Aunty, for the snake swallowed
me clothes and all, and you may get some of the
poison on you," said he.

For some time longer there was a general handshaking,
and Louis was kissed by the Princess Zuleima.[163]

CHAPTER XVIII

LOUIS'S DOUBLE-DINNER ARGUMENT

After the welcome of the Bornean hunters had
spent itself in kissing and handshaking, the question
came up as to why the "Big Four" had abandoned
their explorations after one week in the island instead
of three, the time arranged for them to remain
there; and they had fixed the time themselves.

"I thought three weeks was a rather long time for
you to be in the island," said Captain Ringgold after
the question had been opened for discussion.

"We fixed the time before we knew anything
about the island," replied Louis. "But I want to
say, in order to counteract the impression which appears
to prevail in this company, that our trip was
not a failure; for we had a fine time, and enjoyed our
trips on the rivers."

"If you had a good time, why did you cut it short
by two-thirds of the period allotted to the excursions?"
asked Uncle Moses.

"We went up the Sarawak, the Sadong, and the
Simujan, up the last to the mountains, passing through
Lake Padang, and we have shot an orang-outang, and
might have killed more of them, to say nothing of
other game," replied Louis, whom Scott had requested[164]
to do the talking. "We visited three Dyak villages,
sailed the Blanchita through a forest, and killed a
good many crocodiles."

"You seem to have had sport enough," added
Uncle Moses. "Why did you give it up in the
cream of the thing?"

"I believe you like a good dinner, Uncle Moses;
such a dinner as you always have on board of the
Guardian-Mother," continued Louis, who was evidently
pluming himself to make a point.

"I do like a good dinner, and enjoy one very
much," replied the worthy trustee of the young millionaire.
"But I doubt if I am any more devoted to
such a banquet as we get every day than my beloved
friend, Brother Adipose Tissue, and all the rest of
the voyagers all over the world."

"I plead guilty to the charge of Brother Avoirdupois;
and I acknowledge myself to be a worshipper
at the shrine of Mr. Melancthon Sage, and I invoke
a blessing upon the head of Monsieur Odervie, the
chief cook. Our life on the ocean wave is a constant
promotive of the appetite. If the proof of the pudding
is not in the eating of the bag, it is in the eating
of the dinners; and I think we pay an abundant tribute
to the talent of Mr. Sage, the prince of stewards,
in the quantity of the well-cooked food he causes to
be placed before us."

"We get through dinner about seven o'clock. I
see that the accomplished chief steward is standing
at the door," continued Louis. "Now, Mr. Sage,[165]
would it be possible and convenient for you to have
another dinner on the table, say at eight o'clock, an
hour after the first feast had been finished?"

"Quite possible, and even convenient; the only persons
to complain of such an arrangement would be
the cooks and stewards," replied Mr. Sage.

"Captain Ringgold, might I so far presume upon
any influence I may have with you as the owner of
the Guardian-Mother to request you to order a second
dinner to be served at eight in the evening, beginning,
say, with to-morrow evening?" asked the
young millionaire, looking as serious as though he
was about to preach a sermon, though the party
were generally laughing.

"As I have always told you, I take my orders
from the owner; and if you desire such a dinner,
I shall certainly give Mr. Sage an order to that
effect," replied the commander.

"But who is to eat the dinner after it is provided,
an hour after the passengers have gorged themselves
at the table?" demanded Dr. Hawkes. "Is this a
conspiracy to make more work for the surgeon?"

"Not at all," protested Louis. "It is to give the
gentlemen who question so closely an opportunity to
have an abundance of a good thing."

"But we could not eat the dinner," said Uncle
Moses. "We are not hogs."

"Oh, you are not!" chuckled the owner.

"But what has all this to do with hunting and
exploring in Borneo?" inquired Mr. Woolridge.[166]

"Well, sir, after we had taken a full dinner in
Borneo, Uncle Moses and the commander ask us
why we did not eat another dinner immediately on
the top of it, as I observe that they are not disposed
to do on board of the ship," returned Louis.

Some of the party had penetrated to the conclusion
of Louis's argument, but most of them did not see
the point of his illustration till he made his last
remark; then Mr. Woolridge began to clap his hands,
and the whole company applauded vigorously.

"I suppose the interpretation of the whole matter
is, that the hunters in Borneo were gorged with hunting,"
said Captain Ringgold; "and that when they
stipulated for three weeks of the sport, they overdid
the matter."

"That was precisely the situation, Mr. Commander;
and if you had been with us on the waters of Padang
Lake, you could not have defined it better," replied
Louis.

"But it is almost incredible that a quartet of such
Nimrods should have become disgusted with their
favorite sport in a single week," added Captain
Ringgold.

"We are not hogs, as Uncle Moses gently suggested,
and we could not eat a second dinner on top
of the first so soon. If we had gone to Borneo a
second time, after a reasonable interval, I am confident
we should have enjoyed a second week of hunting,
even along the muddy rivers and inundated
jungles," Louis explained.[167]

"In other words, you bit off a bigger mouthful
than you could swallow," said the commander with
a hearty laugh; for he had predicted that three weeks
of hunting at one time was too much. "But we understand
the situation now up to the time of the departure
of the Nimrods from their happy hunting-ground.
It was a rather daring enterprise to make a voyage of
nine hundred miles in an open boat; and I should
like to ask who was the originator of the idea."

"If there is any blame for this trip, we were all
in the same boat, and we share the responsibility,"
answered Louis. "Captain Achang Bakir was with
us; and he has sailed in all the seas of the Archipelago
in an open boat, and we had his advice.
Then we sailed all the way to the entrance of the
Gulf of Siam in company with the steamer Delhi,
whose captain agreed to stand by us, and to supply
us with coal if we came short."

"That puts a new face on the matter."

"It was in the head waters of the Simujan that
the plan was discussed, and Captain Scott was the
originator of the idea," continued Louis. "I was in
favor of it first because it would save the Guardian-Mother
the voyage from Saigon back to Kuching,
about a thousand miles."

"Where is Kuching?" asked Dr. Hawkes.

"It is the native name for Sarawak."

"I am heartily glad you have come to us, Louis,
for the reason you have given," added the commander.[168]

"How did the steam-yacht work, Mr. Belgrave?"
asked the rajah.

"Exceedingly well, sir; nothing could have done
any better; but Mr. Scott can answer you better
than I can, sir."

The third officer of the ship, late captain of the
Blanchita, described the working of the yacht, and
gave her liberal praise. He related in what manner
she had beaten the Delhi in the race, and that he had
carried sail all the way nearly from the start. He
gave the party the routine of the boat,—how they had
taken their meals, and how they had slept on board.

"But I think it is time for us to return to the
Blanche," interposed Captain Sharp, as the clock
struck eleven.

"I must make an announcement before you go,"
said Captain Ringgold. "We shall not be able to
sail for Saigon to-morrow morning, as arranged before.
We have to clean the Blanchita in the morning,
and she has to be put on the upper deck of the
Blanche. As the Nimrods have come to Bangkok, I
wish to give them a day on shore to see the temples,
and call on the king if they are so disposed. We
will sail on Tuesday morning on the early tide."

"But we have not had any account of the adventures
of the Nimrods in Borneo," suggested Uncle
Moses.

"We shall do so at eight o'clock in the morning;
and you will all assemble for the purpose at that
time. The lecture on Siam and Cambodia has been[169]
postponed till all hands could hear it; and if General
Noury is ready, that shall follow the adventures,"
replied the captain.

"I will be here at the time stated, for we all desire
to know what the Nimrods have been doing," replied
the general, as the party from the Blanche retired
from the music-room.

The rest of the company went to their staterooms,
while the commander gave his orders for the work
of the morning. All hands were called at daylight;
and the young adventurers shook hands with the officers
they found on deck, and spoke a pleasant word
to the seamen on duty. The latter were hoisting the
coal, provisions, and stores of the Blanchita on board
of the ship; and by breakfast-time the yacht was as
clean as a Dutch chamber.

At the appointed time the company, including the
party from the Blanche, were seated in the arm-chairs
of Conference Hall; and Louis went through
his narrative of the adventures of the Nimrods in
Borneo. During the morning, Achang had placed
the stuffed orang-outang on a shelf the carpenter had
erected at the head of the platform, with the proboscis
monkey on one side, and the argus-pheasant on
the other. The Bornean had had some experience as
a taxidermist, and Dr. Hawkes declared that he had
done his work well.

Louis explained these specimens, and gave the
measurements of the orang. The proboscis monkey
and the bird were also described. When he said he[170]
had not been disposed to shoot monkeys and other
harmless animals for the fun of it, the audience applauded.
He had killed a specimen of several animals,
and several pigs, deer, and one bear, most of
the latter for food. The cook had packed the last of
the fish in the ice, so that it had kept well, and it
had been served for breakfast that morning. Everybody
had praised it. The surgeon called it the gourami,
and said that some successful attempts had
been made to introduce the fish in American waters.

The audience laughed heartily when Louis related
in what manner they had killed and sold one hundred
and eight feet of crocodile for about forty dollars.
He told what he had learned about the Dyaks, and described
the long-house they had visited, and the head-house,
and gave the story in full of Rajah Brooke,
and their visits to his nephew and successor, the present
rajah. He might have gone on with his narrative
till lunch-time if he had not known that General
Noury was waiting for him to finish his account.

"Did you see the Dyak women, Louis?" asked
his mother.

"Plenty of them. The older ones reminded me of
the French women; for when they begin to grow old,
they wrinkle and dry up. The morality of the Dyaks
is much higher in tone, even among the laboring-classes,
men and women, than in civilized countries.
They are all honest; and they steal nothing, even in
Kuching, though the Malays and Chinamen do it for
them."[171]

"Were the young women pretty, Mr. Belgrave?"
inquired Mrs. Woolridge.

"To a Dyak gentleman I suppose they are; but I
was not fascinated with them, though I saw some on
the Simujan who were not bad looking. The prettiest
one I saw was at a village near the mountains.
But the general is waiting for me to finish, and I
must answer no more questions at present," replied
the speaker, as he bowed, and hastened from the rostrum.

Then it was found that Mr. Gaskette had not hung
up the map of Cochin China, for Achang and the carpenter
had taken up the space before appropriated to
it. Mr. Stevens, the carpenter, suggested a way to
get over the difficulty; but it would take him half
an hour to put up a frame in front of the orang.

"I shall not be able to get half through Cochin
China before lunch-time," said General Noury, consulting
his watch.

"I am afraid your audience will be scatterbrained,
General, there is so much going on about the decks.
Perhaps we had better postpone the lecture till after
we have sailed to-morrow morning, especially as the
Nimrods will be on shore this afternoon," suggested
the commander.

"I approve the suggestion; let it be adopted."

The Blanche party lunched on board, and spent the
afternoon there.[172]

CHAPTER XIX

A HASTY GLANCE AT BANGKOK

While the carpenter and the second officer were
busy making a place for the large map of Cochin
China, the returned hunters from Borneo were invited
to the cabin of the commander. They were pleased
with the change of scene from the mud and water
of their week in Borneo; though they felt that they
would like to go there for another week—not more
than that—at another time.

"After lunch you will visit the city of Bangkok,
and spend the afternoon there; for you ought to see
the place, as you are here," said Captain Ringgold.
"It is a large city."

"How large is it, Captain?" asked Louis.

"That is more than anybody in Siam, or anywhere
else, can tell you. In these Oriental countries, when
they count the people, they do not include the females
in the enumeration, so that we get but half an idea
of the whole number. Chambers puts it at 300,000;
the 'Year Book' does not give it at all; Bradshaw
puts it down at 500,000; Lippincott the same.
Probably the larger number is the nearer correct,
and the authorities quoted are issued the present
year."[173]

"I see no end of Chinamen flitting about the river,"
said Scott.

"They compose about one-half of the population of
the city; and most of the trade of the place is in their
hands, as you have found it to be, though to a less
degree, in other cities you have visited in the East.
The Celestials are taxed three dollars when they
come into Siam, and pay the same amount every three
years. But there is the lunch-bell. If you have
no objection, Professor Giroud will go on shore with
you."

"I should be delighted to have his company," replied
Louis; and the others said the same thing.

The conversation at the table related more to Borneo
than to anything else, and the Nimrods had all
the questions they could answer put to them; and
some of the ladies wished they had remained there a
few days.

"If I had supposed the Nimrods would stay there
only a week, I should have been quite willing to remain
at Sarawak that time," added the commander.

"We fixed the time at three weeks because we
thought it would take you all of that time to see
Siam and Cambodia, and get back to Sarawak," replied
Scott.

"I think it would have been delightful to sail on
those rivers, and see the uncivilized people of the
island," added Mrs. Belgrave. "But I suppose we
should have been in the way of the hunters."

"Not at all, madam," answered Scott. "We had[174]
a sampan, in which we could have done our hunting,
while you were examining the long-houses and the
head-houses. I don't know but that we should have
wished to remain the whole three weeks if the ladies
had been with us."

"Gallant Captain Scott!" exclaimed the lady.

"We did not go up the Rajang River as we intended,
and we should have done that if you had been
with us. I am very sure the Dyak ladies would have
been delighted to see you, more than you would have
been to see them," replied Scott.

"The steam-yacht must have been very delightful
on the rivers and lakes; but the crocodiles, the
snakes, and the savage orang-outangs would not
have been pleasant to us."

"But with eleven Winchester repeating-rifles ready
for use, you would have had nothing to fear."

Captain Ringgold rose from the table; and this
terminated the conversation, and the party went
on deck.

"Captain Ringgold said you had offered to go
on shore with us, Professor Giroud," said Louis, as
he joined the instructor. "We shall be delighted
with your company."

"Thank you, Mr. Belgrave. I have been on shore
every day, with or without the party, and have
learned something about Bangkok. I may be of
service to you," replied the professor.

"I am sure you will," said Scott.

The first cutter was in the water when they[175]
reached the gangway, with the crew in their places.
They went on board, and the bowman shoved off.
Stoody, the coxswain, gave the orders, and the boat
was immediately under way. She was steered towards
the shore till she came abreast of the various
craft moored there, and then headed up the river.

"Where are you going, Stoody?" asked Scott.

"Captain Ringgold told me to take the party
up the river, to show them the boats and houses,"
replied the coxswain.

"That is a good idea, Mr. Scott," added the professor.

"The houses here are all afloat," said Morris.
"They are three or four deep."

"Everybody is not allowed to build his house
on shore; for that is a royal privilege, doled out to
a few of the highest nobility," said the professor.
"I suppose there is not room enough in the city
for much besides the palaces and the temples, but
beyond its limits we shall find plenty of land-houses."

"But I should think these floating houses would
be smashed to pieces in a heavy blow; and I see
there are plenty of steamers and tugboats in the
river, which might bump against them," Morris
objected.

"You see that the middle of the river is kept
open, though it is very crooked; and these things
regulate themselves."

"These houses are no better than card-boxes.[176]
They seem to be built of bamboos, with wicker-work
and plants. Each of them has a veranda
in front, which is a nice place to sit and read,
with a kind of ell at each end. I think I should
like to live in one of them for a week or two,"
continued Morris.

"You would not like it," said Achang, who had
come with them to act as interpreter.

"This is a walled town, with six miles of fortifications
around it."

"A little less than two miles across it; and we
shall not have to take any very long walks, for I
have read that carriages are seldom seen except
among the palaces, and probably belong to the
nobility," said Louis; "but we are good for six
miles this afternoon."

"The river is the great thoroughfare for business
and for pleasure. It is covered with boats
of all sorts and kinds. The walls of the city are
from fifteen to thirty feet high, and twelve feet
thick; but I suppose the heavy guns of modern
times could knock them down in a very short
time," added the professor.

"What is that opening into the river?" asked
Felix, who had kept his tongue very quiet so far.

"That is a canal," replied Achang, as the professor
did not reply. "I have been here three
times, and once I went up that canal. There are
only a few good streets in the city, and inside
business is carried on by the canals."[177]

"As Paris is to France, and Paris is France, so
Bangkok is Siam; and that is the reason why the
commander goes no farther. Now we have come
to the wall, and you can see the outside town."

"The houses here are all on stilts, as in Sumatra
and Borneo," observed Scott. "Some of them are
built over the water."

"It is said here that the city suffered terribly
from the ravages of cholera; and when the king
found out that the disease was caused by the bad
drainage of the houses, he ordered his people to
build on the river, where the drainage would dispose
of itself," said Professor Giroud. "This story
was told me by a Frenchman here, but I cannot
vouch for the truth of the statement."

"Can you tell me, Achang, why they build their
houses on piles in this country?" asked Morris.

"Because they have waterations here."

"Have what?" demanded the questioner, while
all the party laughed except the Bornean. "I never
heard of waterations before."

"When the water rise up high," Achang explained.

"Inundations, you mean."

"Yes; thunderations," added Achang.

"Inundations!" roared the Bornean's preceptor.

"That's what I say; and that's the first reason.
The second is that there are many snakes"—

"Then, it's the place for me!" exclaimed Felix.

"Many snakes and wild beasts; the stilts help to
keep them out of the house."[178]

"But most snakes can climb trees," Scott objected.

"Fixed so that snake can't get off the post into
house," the Bornean explained.

"The little corn-houses in New England and other
places are protected in the same way from rats.
Four posts are set up for it to rest on, with a flat
stone, or sometimes a large tin pan turned upside
down, placed on the post. When the building is
erected with the corners on the large, flat stone or
the pans, rats or other rodents cannot get over these
obstructions, and the corn is safe from them," continued
Louis, illustrating his subject with a pencil for
the post, and his hand for the stone or the pan.

Scott, who was an officer of the ship, ordered
Stoody to take the party to the landing nearest to
the Temple of Wat Chang, as the professor requested.

"The religion of Siam, like that of Burma, is
Buddhist, in whose honor most of the temples whose
spires you can see are erected," said the professor, as
he pointed to several of them.

"We don't care to see them in detail, even if we
had the time," suggested Louis. "I know they are
magnificent pieces of architecture, and wonderful to
behold; but we have had about enough of that sort
of thing."

The party landed, and walked to the temple. It
looked like an exaggerated bell, the spire being the
handle, and the lower portion looking like an enormous
flight of circular stairs for the roof. It was[179]
over two hundred feet high. Attached to it in the
rear was a structure with a pitched roof. They
bought photographs of it at the stand of a native
who spoke a little French. At this point Achang procured
a guide who spoke French, and he conducted
them to the Temple of the Sleeping Idol.

"It is not much of a temple compared with the
one we have just visited," said the professor. "We
must go into it."

They entered, conducted by the guide. The building
looked like three pitched-roof structures set
together, the middle one into the largest at the
bottom, and the smallest into the middle one. It
contains an enormous figure of Buddha, one hundred
and sixty feet long, which about fills the interior of
the temple. It is constructed of brick, plastered and
then gilded, so that it looks like a golden statue in
a reclining posture. The feet are sixteen feet long,
and the arms six feet in diameter.

The party looked in at another temple, which contains
a brass statue of Buddha fifty feet high, with
other smaller statues, and a variety of objects that
were unintelligible to the visitors. Various other temples
were examined hastily on the way to the royal
palace, but they were only a repetition of what they
had often seen before.

The palace was a magnificent building, or series
of buildings, for a half-civilized country. The tourists
were permitted to enter at the gate, though the
guide was excluded. They saw a squad of the royal[180]
guards who were drilling on the pavement, and they
regarded them with great interest. They wore a
Zouave uniform, though with a short frock-coat buttoned
to the chin, with round caps in cylindrical form,
and visors. They were armed with muskets, and
commanded by native officers.

"This palace is a big thing," said the professor,
"and is a mile in circumference, surrounded by
walls."

It contained, besides the palace of the king, the
public offices, temples, a theatre, barracks for several
thousand soldiers, and apartments for three thousand
women, six hundred of whom are the wives of the
king. But what interested them more than most of
the sights was the famous white elephant. He is said
to be of equal rank with the king, and is treated with
all possible deference and respect. He has a palatial
stable; and being a king, he lives like one. His servants
and attendants are all priests. But he is not
a pleasant sprig of royalty, and the visitors were
warned not to go too near him.

But it was time to return to the ship, and they
found the boat in the canal which Achang had indicated.
At dinner the conversation was concerning
the city, and the party mentioned many things the
Nimrods had not seen. On Tuesday morning the
ship sailed on her voyage to Saigon.[181]

CHAPTER XX

A VIEW OF COCHIN CHINA AND SIAM

The ship sailed at six o'clock in the morning, but
nearly all the passengers were on deck as soon as
the screw began to turn. They were still in the
Torrid Zone; and they saw the sun rise, though the
days had become a trifle longer. The Menam River
is the great thoroughfare of Bangkok, and the floating
houses lined the river three or four deep for a
considerable distance below the city. The party
found plenty of objects to engage their attention as
the steamer slowly made her way towards the Gulf.
Breakfast was served at the usual hour; and as soon
as the pilot was discharged, the company gathered at
Conference Hall for the lecture.

The siamangs and the baby were still great favorites
with all on board; and Mr. Mingo, Mrs. Mingo,
and Miss Mingo, as they had been named, had made
great progress in civilization. All of them were
regular attendants at the meetings in Conference
Hall, and always behaved themselves with the greatest
propriety. The mother usually occupied one of
the arm-chairs, while the baby was held in the lap
of one of the ladies. They looked at the speaker
just as though they understood what he was saying.[182]
They joined in the applause when the lecturer presented
himself before his audience with their "Ra,
ra, ra!" finishing with the squeak which was a
part of their language.

General Noury took his place on the platform after
he had shaken hands with Mrs. Mingo, who gave
him an encouraging smile as he mounted the rostrum.
The Sumatra lady looked at him very earnestly,
and Miss Blanche declared that she understood
everything that was going on. Mrs. Noury, the
Princess Zuleima, had the baby; and the little siamang
seemed to take as much interest in the proceedings
as her mother. Mr. Mingo was not literary, and
perched in the fore-rigging.

The great map seemed to have been drawn and
colored with even unusual care, perhaps because Mr.
Gaskette had had more time to attend to it. It
was displayed on the new frame which the carpenter
had built for it, and included the entire peninsula
east of the Burmese possessions, and south of China
and the Shan States. When the applause which
greeted the general had subsided, he directed the
pointer at the map.

"Perhaps some of you will be considerably confused
by the various names of the territory we are engaged
in visiting at the present time," he began; and Mrs.
Mingo gave a louder squeak than usual as a special
greeting to the distinguished gentleman. "Cochin
China, I think, is the most common name, though
Indo-China is very generally used. It is also called[183]
Farther India and Annam. Its various divisions are
the Shan States, tributary to Siam, taking their name
from a race of people who are of the same descent
as the natives of China. You observe that there are
more of these states in the territory of Burma, to
which they are subject. These states tributary to
Siam contain a population of about two millions.

"Next south comes Siam proper. Lying east of
the Shan States and Siam is a territory called the
Little Lao States, which are subject to the several
countries around them. On the east, bordering on
the China Sea, is Annam, a part of which is sometimes
labelled Cochin China. A part of Annam is
Tonquin, in the north, next to China. What is
called Cambodia, next south of Siam, and appearing
to be a part of it, is an indefinite factor of Cochin
China, and may properly enough be counted in with
Siam. What is called Independent Cambodia, if it
is independent, is a triangular country south-east of
Siam. French Cochin China occupies the most southern
portion of the peninsula.

"Nearly the whole of the territory of Cochin
China is under the protection of France; and in my
judgment, which you can accept for what it is worth,
the whole peninsula will eventually become French,
under whatever form it may be accomplished. Very
recently the relations between France and Siam were
very much strained over a disputed boundary question.
France had ships of war at the mouth of the
Menam, and sent some of the smaller craft up the[184]
river. It looked very much like war; but before the
ships bombarded Bangkok, Siam yielded, and gave
up the portion of territory claimed; and no doubt
it will be the same story told over again from time
to time, until Siam exists only as a dependency of
France.

"Though you see mountains laid down on Mr.
Gaskette's map, the elevations hardly deserve that
name; for nearly the whole of Cochin China is low
ground, almost flat. The Mekhong River is the largest
in the peninsula, being 2,800 miles long. It
rises in Thibet, and is navigable only in its lower
waters. On account of the low level of the country
there are many canals, or bayous as you call them in
Louisiana, which connect many of the rivers. Let
us now return to Siam. By the way, I find the latest
map I have seen of this region in Chambers's, published
last year; and it is quite different from the
one before you."

"But not from the one that will be before you in
half a minute more," interposed Mr. Gaskette, as he
unrolled and hung up a smaller one which he had
just completed. "I made this one this morning,
after the commander had shown me the one to which
you allude; and you can see that it is a very crude
one."

"I thank you, Mr. Gaskette, for the new map;
and though you took it from a book not more than
a year old, I am afraid that it is not entirely correct
for to-day. You observe, my friends, that Siam[185]
occupies nearly the whole of the peninsula east of
Burma. Annam is cut down to a very thin slice on
the China Sea; and Tonquin, where France has kept
many soldiers employed for several years, is swelled
into a considerable territory. I doubt if the last
change in the boundary of Siam is shown before you.
The limits of Cambodia are closely defined.

"Nearly the whole of the peninsula was included
in the ancient kingdom of Cambodia, existing at
the Christian era; and Buddhism is believed to have
been introduced into it in the fourth century. Some
remarkable ruins, with interesting sculptures, have
been found as testimonials to the greatness of this
ancient country. The Temple of Angkor had 1,532
columns, and the stone for the structure was brought
from a quarry thirty-two miles distant. Massive
bridges, so solidly built that they have resisted the
ravages of time and the inundations of more than
a thousand years, are still to be seen. One of them
is four hundred and seventy feet long, and has
thirty-four arches. An account of these wonders
was given by a Chinese traveller of the thirteenth
century, and they seem to bear some comparison
with the works of the ancient Egyptians.

"The native name of Siam is Muang Thái, which
you will please to remember; and I mention it only
to tell you that it means 'The Land of the Free,'
and it must be a first cousin of your country, Mr.
Commander; but I suppose you will not accept the
relationship because 'The Home of the Brave' is[186]
not included. Siam has an area of about 250,000
square miles, as estimated by geographers; and one
authority gives it a population of 6,000,000, and
another 8,000,000, but they agree in giving it 2,000,000
Siamese, and 1,000,000 Chinese. The rest of
the number is made up with Malays, Laosians, and
other tribes.

"The Menam River is six hundred miles long, and
it has several branches. On the banks of these
streams very nearly all the people live, for the
regions away from them are a wild jungle which is
not cultivated. The country is healthy enough for
a tropical region, though malarial fevers are very
trying to European residents and visitors. The wet
season is from May to November, when it rains
about every day; and the rest of the year it does not
rain at all. The average rainfall is fifty-four inches
a year, and the average temperature 81°, though the
glass goes up to 94° in April; but New York beats
that in summer.

"Agriculture stands at a low ebb; but the abundant
rains and the rich soil produce very large
harvests of rice, the principal crop, and all the
productions of the Torrid Zone thrive. The labor
of Siam is done by Chinese coolies; for the native
workers are hampered by a law which requires them
to give one-fourth of their labor to the state. Domestic
elephants are used in hauling timber,—for teak
is one of the products of the forests,—and also for
travel and as bearers of burdens. Wild elephants are[187]
hunted and trapped in Siam; and tigers, bears, deer,
monkeys, and wild pigs abound in the jungles. Crocodiles
live at the mouths of the rivers; and the cobra,
python, and other reptiles are plentiful enough.

"The Siamese are peaceable people, lazy, and without
what you call 'snap.' They are fond of jewelry
and high colors. They are rather small in stature,
and very like the natives of the several islands you
have visited. They live for the most part on rice,
used largely in various curries, dried fish in small
quantities, though the rivers and sea swarm with
fish. Tea is the favorite beverage, taken without
sugar or milk. Though they distil an intoxicating
liquor from rice, a tipsy person is rarely seen. They
chew betel-nut, males and females; and their teeth
are always black, which is their ideal of beauty, and
they use other materials to make them black and
shining.

"The worst vice of the Siamese is gambling; but
it can be practised only in houses licensed by the
government, though on certain holidays, New Year's
in April especially, the people are privileged to
gamble at home, or even in the streets. Marriages
are arranged by women of mature age. The birthdays
of the contracting parties must be agreeable;
for the people are superstitious, and consult the stars
for their horoscopes. The old ladies agree upon the
amount of money the parents of the bride and groom
must pay to set up the young couple in life. The
ceremonies last three days or more; and the principal[188]
observance is the chewing of betel, winding up with
a feast to all the friends. Priests are sometimes
called in to say prayers, and sprinkle the couple with
consecrated water.

"The Siamese believe that the arteries of the body
are filled with air, and that disease is caused by
some disturbance in these internal breezes. A wind
blows on the heart, and bursts it, causing death by
'heart failure.' Almost everything is pressed into
the materia medica for service, including such things
as cats' eyes, the bile of snakes, sea-shells, horns,
and probably dogs' tails, kittens' teeth, and monkeys'
tongues. Doctors are paid by the job, and not by
the number of visits. The price of a cure is agreed
upon; and if the patient dies, or fails to get better,
the physician gets nothing.

"After poor people, dying, have been kept a few
days, they are cremated, as in India; but they keep
a high noble nearly a year before they commit his
remains to the fire. When called upon, a Siamese
farmer or other person is compelled by law to furnish
transportation and board to travelling officials.
The law of debit and credit is curious, and amounts
to actual slavery. A man may borrow money, and
give his person for security. If he fails to pay as
agreed, the creditor can put him in irons, if need
be, and compel him to work for him till the debt is
discharged,—the principal only, for his labor is the
equivalent of the interest.

"Missionaries are sent here from America, includ[189]ing
many female physicians; and they have a great
deal of influence among the natives.

"The present king of Siam is Chulalongkorn I.
The former system of having the country ruled by
two kings has been abolished, and the present monarch
is the only king; and I never could find out
what the second king was for. The throne is now
hereditary, but the king formerly had the privilege of
naming his own successor. Chulalongkorn is an amiable
and dignified ruler, well educated, and speaks
English fluently. The laws are made by the king
in connection with a council of ministers. The forty-one
provinces of the kingdom are in charge of commissioners
appointed by the king. Such a thing as
justice is hardly known, and what there is of it is
very badly managed. Thieving and plundering are
carried on almost without check in Bangkok, which
includes about all there is of Siam except a great
deal of spare territory, and property is very unsafe
there. I think I have wearied you, Mr. Commander,
and ladies and gentlemen."

"Not at all!" shouted several.

"Did you ever see the Siamese twins, General
Noury?" inquired Uncle Moses.

"I never did; but I have read about them, and
looked them up this morning," replied the lecturer.
"They were born in Siam in 1811, but their parents
were Chinese. I don't quite understand in what
manner they were united."

"There was a ligament, which looked something[190]
like a small wrist, reaching from one to the other at
the breast-bones. Their garments were open enough
to enable the spectators to see this connection.
There was a great deal of speculation among the
doctors about them, I remember, and it was even
proposed to separate them with the knife; but that
was never done, for it would have spoiled the exhibition
business," the trustee explained.

"They were purchased of their mother at Meklong
by an American in 1829, and taken to the
United States, where they were exhibited all over
the country, and then taken to England. It was
a good speculation to Mr. Hunter and to Chang and
Eng, the twins; for they all made their fortunes.
They were married to two sisters, and settled in
North Carolina, where they had children. They lost
their property in the Civil War, and again exhibited
themselves in England in 1869. They died in 1874,
one living two hours and a half after the death of
the other."

The general retired from the rostrum; and the
party separated, Mrs. Mingo ascending the fore-rigging,
while the others went to various parts of the
ship to see the shores, which were still in sight.[191]

CHAPTER XXI

ON THE VOYAGE TO SAIGON

The steamer was obliged to descend the Menam at
less than half speed, to avoid running down any of
the multitude of boats and vessels that thronged the
river, and because the stream was so crooked.

"How far do you think Bangkok is from the Gulf,
Captain Ringgold?" asked the general, at the close
of the session.

"About twenty miles," replied the commander.

"One description of the city that I have read
makes it forty miles, another twenty-six, and three
others make it twenty miles," added the pacha;
"and I suppose the last is the right distance."

"I have come to that conclusion after consulting
all the books we have on the subject. You have
said the second king of Burma had been abolished,
General; are you confident that such is the case?
We certainly did not see him, and I did not hear
anything about him," added the captain.

"In the first place, I consider Chambers excellent
authority, and you have the latest edition in the
library, and the date is last year; and it says in
so many words that the second has been done away
with. The king who was the father of Chulalong[192]korn
died in 1868. His prime minister was a progressive
man, who introduced many reforms in Siam;
and I am sure that he could not have helped seeing
the absurdity of the second king. The present king
is well educated, and also a progressive man, as his
father was not. I am sorry we did not look the
matter up, which we might easily have done with
the assistance of the missionaries. But I am satisfied
that I was correct in regard to the statement."

In the course of another hour the ship came to
the mouth of the river. Crocodiles appear to prefer
the mouth of a stream, and a considerable number
were seen at the entrance to a canal or cut-off.
The pilot stopped the screw, and backed it, in order
to avoid a collision with a couple of vessels in the
channel. As the two vessels were under sail, it
looked as though it would be some time before the
channel was clear; and the "Big Four" hastened to
their staterooms for their repeating-rifles.

Their appearance thus armed created a sensation
on the upper deck, and all the party secured positions
where they could see the sport. Mrs. Belgrave manifested
some anxiety when she saw the arms, for she
was somewhat afraid of such weapons.

"What are you going to do, Louis?" she asked
as her son passed her.

"Don't you see that there are a dozen crocodiles
at the mouth of that cut-off, mother?" replied Louis.
"We are going to shoot some of them."

"But you can't get them if you do kill them."[193]

"We don't want to get them. They are not good
for anything to us."

"Then, why do you want to kill them? They do
you no harm," protested the lady.

"But they would if they got the chance. Suppose
by any accident some one should fall overboard;
those brutes would snap the person up as a fish snaps
the bait," answered Louis. "In Borneo they are regular
man-eaters, more dangerous than sharks; and
I have no doubt they are the same here. As I told
you, they pay so much a foot for killing them in that
island. Ask the pilot how it is here, mother."

Achang was called, and was asked to inquire of
the Siamese if the crocodiles were dangerous. He
promptly replied that they were not only dangerous,
but a nuisance; for they went ashore and swallowed
all small animals, and even attacked a cow. The
lady offered no further objection. She only hoped
the Nimrods would not shoot each other; and they
descended to the platform of the gangway, which
had not yet been hoisted up, and the crack of their
rifles was soon heard.

Each of the rifles could send out nine bullets, fixed
ammunition, contained in cartridges, nine of which
was the capacity of the magazine. Those on deck
watched the group of saurians; but Louis fired the
first shot, and immediately there was a sensation
among the reptiles. One of them made a spring,
and came over on his back.

"Mr. Belgrave fired that shot," said Achang to[194]
the hunter's mother. "He is dead shot, and he
never miss his aim."

"There is another turning over on his back,"
added the lady.

"I think Mr. McGavonty fired that one; for he is
a dead shot too, but not quite so sure as Mr. Belgrave,"
said Achang; and he was correct in his
supposition. Both of them hit the crocodile in
the eye.

The next report that reached the ears of the party
was followed by five more in quick succession; and
the Bornean explained that the hunter had missed
his aim five times out of six, but his victim turned
over after the last one.

"Mr. Scott is better with lasso than with rifle,"
criticised Achang, with a smile.

The next shot caused the fourth of the reptiles to
upset himself on the water, and then the screw of
the ship began to turn again. The crocodile's reasoning
powers did not seem to be well developed, as
Mrs. Belgrave suggested when she saw one of their
number killed; for they might have known there
was mischief in the air. The Nimrods came on deck,
and then carried their rifles to their staterooms,
where the commander required them to lock up the
weapons in their closets.

The third officer was ordered to have the gangway
hoisted up when he returned to the deck, and
the ship proceeded to sea. The weather was pleasant,
and not very warm for the tropics; in fact, they[195]
had suffered more from the heat in New York and
in Von Blonk Park than in Bangkok, though it is
sometimes extremely hot there. The south-west
monsoon cooled the air where they were, though the
sun poured down its blistering rays.

There was an awning over the platform where the
conferences were held, and another over the after
part of the promenade deck. But the former, with
its arm-chairs, was the most desirable location to be
had; and in a short time the company had seated
themselves there without any call to attend a lecture.
As soon as deep water was indicated by the soundings,
the pilot was discharged, and the captain then
gave out the course south by east. Everything was
in working order on board; and the commander
joined the party on the promenade, as it had always
been called before Conference Hall was located there.
It commanded the best view on both sides, though
not forward, where it was obstructed by the pilot-house.

"What have you seen in Bangkok, Miss Blanche,
that the absentees have not seen?" asked Louis,
who had seated himself at her side, after patting
Miss Mingo, whom she was holding in her lap.

"A great many things," she replied. "One was
the royal barge, which they said was rowed or
paddled by one hundred and fifty men; but a good
many of us did not believe it contained so many."

"I have read about it, though I did not see it.
It is said to be one hundred and fifty feet long, and[196]
the book I read said it was paddled by one hundred
and twenty men," added Louis. "But it does not
make much difference, and the books do not agree in
regard to a great many things in this part of the
world. What did you think of the people you saw,
Miss Blanche?"

"A lady and gentleman were pointed out to us
by one of the kind missionaries who guided us, and
I could hardly tell which was the lady and which
the gentleman till I had studied them a while,"
returned the fair maiden. "Both of them wore what
appeared to be trousers; but it proved to be a cloth
as big as a sheet wound around the waist, and so
disposed about the legs as to look like trousers; but
the garment was the same on both of them. The
lady had something like a shawl, which was passed
over the left shoulder, and under the right arm,
with some kind of a jacket under it. The gentleman
wore a sort of tunic, which was regularly buttoned
up in front like a coat. The hair of each was
shaved off close to the head, except a tuft on the
crown, which was bunched up. They wore no ornaments
of any kind, perhaps because it was not a
dress occasion. I saw one woman who had a kind
of necklace on the top of the shawl."

"I saw a woman's band of five pieces, and the
music they made was not bad," added Louis.

"I heard a band like that; but I could not tell
whether they played a tune or improvised their
music. The missionaries took us into the garden of[197]
a nobleman, where we saw what was called a theatrical
exhibition; but it was no more like a theatre
than it was like a cattle-show. We saw the king
too, and he was a nice-looking man forty years old.
He had what looked like a tunnel on his head. He
was sitting in a kind of big arm-chair on poles, and
eight men were bearing him to a temple. All the
natives in the street dropped on their knees as he
passed, and some lay flat on their stomachs. That
is the way they always do before him. But he
chews betel; and his mouth was as black as though
he had just eaten a piece of huckleberry-pie, and it
looked horrid. That is all the fault I have to find
with him."

"It is a bad habit the people here have; but it
is not so bad as drinking whiskey, and we must be
charitable while our country has its faults; and theirs
only spoils their looks, though I have been told there
is a 'kick,' or exhilaration, in the use of betel. I
don't think I should ever fall in love with a girl
who chewed betel-nut. Some Dyak maidens would
have been passably good-looking if their teeth and
lips had not been blackened with this drug."

"The missionaries took some of us into the private
chapel of a nobleman. There were about a hundred
priests, all clothed in yellow robes, with their heads
shaven; the service consisted of the constant repetition
of a sentence, which a missionary told me meant
'So be it.' It reminded me of the howling dervishes
we visited at their monastery, whose service was a[198]
monotonous repetition of 'Allah il Allah,' You went
to some of the temples, Mr. Belgrave, and they seem
to me to be all alike. Now can you tell me how far
it is to the place where we are going next?"

"It is about six hundred miles to Saigon, the chief
town of French Cochin China, and we shall get there
to-morrow," replied Louis. "You must brush up
your French, Miss Blanche, for we have not used
it lately."

"We are off Cape Liant now, and I must give out
a new course," said the commander, rising from his
chair by the side of Mrs. Belgrave.

"South-east half-south!" called the captain at the
side window of the pilot-house.

"South-east half-south," repeated the quartermaster
at the wheel.

"We are going to Saigon, you said, Mr. Belgrave;
but I cannot pronounce the name," added the young
lady.

"As to that, you pays your money, and takes
your choice," laughed Louis. "The French call it
Sah-gong, shutting out the full sound of the last g,"
added the speaker, pronouncing it several times with
the proper accent. "The English call it Sy-goń, I
believe; but I have heard it called variously at
Sarawak."

"But we want to know something about it before
we go there," said the young lady. "We had to
ask no end of questions about Siam because the
lecture was postponed for the absentees."[199]

"After lunch to-day a short talk will be given in
relation to Saigon," replied Louis, as the bell rang
for that meal.

When the company gathered in Conference Hall,
Louis was introduced as the speaker for the occasion,
and promptly presented himself before his audience.

"I have very little to say, Mr. Commander, for
General Noury has covered the whole subject under
the head of Cochin China," he began. "What is
more particularly known as French Cochin China
contains 23,000 square miles, and a population of
1,800,000. The part in the north is called French
Indo-China. The country is precisely that described
so carefully by the general, and I need not repeat it.
The Cambodia, or Mekhong River, flows through it
with many bayous or cut-offs. On one of these,
which is called the Saigon River, is the city of Saigon,
the capital of the French possessions in the
East, Lippincott says thirty-five miles, and Chambers
sixty miles, from the China Sea; and of course both
of them cannot be right, and you are all at liberty
to take your choice. The town has grown up within
the last thirty-two years; and, after the style of
French cities, it is handsomely laid out, with fine
streets, squares and boulevards. It contains numerous
canals, with stone or brick quays; and perhaps it
will remind you of Paris along the Seine. It is said
to be one of the handsomest cities of the East. It
has a navy-yard and citadel, and is the most important
port between Hong-Kong and Singapore. The[200]
people are French, Annamese, and Chinese. It has
a large trade, and contains two colleges, an orphan
asylum, a splendid botanical garden, to say nothing
of convents and other institutions. The population
is put by one at ninety thousand, and by another
at about half that number. I have nothing more to
say."

Louis retired, and the next day the ship arrived
at Saigon.[201]

CHAPTER XXII

IN THE DOMINIONS OF THE FRENCH

It was not a long voyage from Bangkok to the
mouth of the Mekhong River; and the sight of land
was not as thrilling an incident as it had often been
in the experience of the voyagers, and they were
not in condition to appreciate the feelings of Captain
Columbus when Watling's Island broke on his vision
four hundred years before. It had been smooth sailing
all the way; the Gulf of Siam had been as gentle
and affectionate as a maiden among the flowers, and
the China Sea was scarcely more ruffled.

Mr. Gaskette had finished up his new map of
Cochin China, so that it was as creditable to his skill
and taste as his former efforts had been; and it was
displayed on the frame in Conference Hall, which
was the usual sitting apartment of the company,
though some of them did a great deal of walking on
the promenade deck. The water was deeper inshore
than farther out at sea, where several spots were
marked at eight fathoms; and the passengers had
a view of the land before they were within a hundred
miles of the entrance of Saigon River.

"There is a broad opening in the coast, which must
be the Cambodia, or Mekhong River," said Morris.[202]

"That is Batac Bay, with a large island in the
middle of it," replied Captain Ringgold. "It is one
of the mouths of the Mekhong; for there is a Delta
here extending about a hundred miles, the Saigon
River being the most easterly."

"Mekhong seems to me a new word, though doubtless
it was the native name of the great river; but
when I went to school we never called it anything
but the Cambodia," added Uncle Moses.

"It is now called by both names, and both are
usually found on the maps and charts," said the commander.

A couple of hours later he pointed out the mouth
of the great river. All the land was very low, and
much of it was sometimes under water. Felix had
become the owner of an excellent spy-glass, which he
had purchased at second-hand at Aden; and he made
abundant use of it. It was too large to be worn in
a sling at his side, and he always carried it in his
hand when the ship was in sight of land. After
lunch, in the middle of the afternoon, he stationed
himself in front of the pilot-house, and kept a sharp
lookout ahead.