"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."
"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 a.s.sist 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 sh.o.r.e, 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.
"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 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 anch.o.r.ed 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 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 quant.i.ty 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 a.s.sisted 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 pa.s.sage 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 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.
CHAPTER XV
ON THE VOYAGE TO POINT CAMBODIA
The Blanchita moored as usual in front of the town, while the steamer anch.o.r.ed in the river. She proved to be the Delhi, from Calcutta; and it was ascertained when the party went on sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.e 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 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 pa.s.sage 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."
"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."