A VOYAGE TO SULU.
Sulu Archipelago--Long drought--Jungle fires--Sandakan--Good
water supply--Insects and birds--How an alligator was
utilised--A boat excursion--Visit to the shore--A Chinese
trader--Chinese hospitality--Slavery--A walk by the river--Manilla
hemp--Native tombs--Frangipane--or the "dead man's flower"--Rough
walking--Interesting birds.
After having spent some time on the north-west coast of Borneo, varied
by collecting expeditions further in the interior of the Murut and
Dusun countries, I took a passage on the small trading steamer Far
East, bound for Sandakan and the Sulu Archipelago. An intelligent
young Scotchman, Mr. W. C. Cowie, part owner and engineer, was on
board, and enlivened the voyage with a fund of information relating
to the habits, customs, and trade of the natives among whom we were
going. We were accompanied by his brother, who was going to reside
in Sulu for trading purposes, and several Chinese and Malay traders
also had taken deck passages. We sailed about 7 A.M. on April 5th,
and the weather being fine we obtained capital views of the Bornean
coast as we steamed along.
This was the greatest season of drought which had been known here
for some time, nearly five months without rain, and this under a
tropical sun, and in several places we could see jungle fires raging
along the coast. The monsoon was dead against us, and we met numerous
native boats flying down to Labuan before the wind. These were laden
with pearl-shell, trepang, etc., and were mostly from the islands
of Balabac and Palawan; some, however, had come round from the
north-east coast of Borneo, and even from the Sulu isles. In about
a fortnight the monsoon is expected to change, when they will find
no difficulty in returning safely. At sunset, and again at sunrise,
we saw "Kina Balu" towering up into the clouds, and apparently very
near to the coast, but the distance is very deceptive. It was dark
when we entered Sandakan Bay, and about three o'clock on the morning
of the 8th, I was awakened by the rattling of the anchor-chains,
and found we were at Sandakan itself. It is merely a small trading
station consisting of about a dozen "ataps," or palm thatched houses
built over the water, and a long "jimbatan," or jetty, also on piles,
serves as a roadway and a landing stage for produce.
At the time of my visit the only European residents were
Mr. W. B. Pryer, who acted as agent and resident for the company,
who had just obtained cessions of territory from the Sultans of
Brunei and Sulu respectively, and Mr. Martin, a trader. There was
formerly a depôt here belonging to the "Labuan Trading Company,"
managed by a Mr. Sachze, who died rather suddenly, as is believed by
poison administered by his wife, a beautiful native woman given to
intrigue. We landed at daybreak, and Mr. Cowie and myself took our guns
and went for a walk in the forest behind the little group of houses. We
followed a path which had been recently cut, and which led us in a
northerly direction for about half a mile until we came to a stream
descending the steep hill-side in a series of little falls. Pigeons
were plentiful here, but the trees were too high to allow of our
shooting them. We also disturbed a colony of large red monkeys, who
were breakfasting on a tall fig-tree in fruit. We clambered up the
hill-side and walked along the ridge for some distance. The surface
vegetation was very meagre, only a few ferns being obtained, all of
which I had seen before, with the exception of a bipinnate form of
Blechnum orientalis, having fronds five feet in length.
We retraced our steps along the ridge and descended near the
houses, following for some distance the little stream which supplies
beautifully clear and cool water to the houses, and ships which call
in here occasionally. This stream falls over the sandstone rocks
about a hundred yards from the houses, to which it is conveyed by
a large bamboo aqueduct. Quite near to the rocks a neat little bath
house has been erected, and through the upper part of this structure
the bamboo water-pipe is carried, and by blocking it up with a plug
a delicious shower-bath is obtainable. We sent for our towels and
clean clothes from the ship, and enjoyed our morning ablutions very
much. The noble Dipteris Horsfieldii was luxuriant on the rocks here,
and a fine scarlet ixora was a perfect mass of bloom. While searching
for plants on the wet rocks near the bath-house, I was startled by a
snake popping its head out of a bunch of herbage just level with my
face! I struck at it with a stick I had in my hand, but it made its
escape apparently unhurt, and perhaps more frightened than I was,
although I entertain a horror of these creatures. Returning to the
ship I shot a fine fish hawk as it flew overhead on its way to the
forest. After breakfast we paid Mr. Pryer a visit, and enjoyed looking
over splendid collections of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera which he had
made here. Some of the butterflies and beetles were especially fine,
and several were supposed to be new to science. He had also a small
collection of bird skins made here, but I noted nothing among them
different to those of the north-west coast.
When Mr. Pryer first came to live here the natives had annoyed
him a good deal by coming below the house at night and stealing
rice. This they did by making a hole through the bags with a spear,
so that the rice ran through the interstices of the lath floor, and
was caught in a vessel held below for that purpose. One day, however,
a tolerably large and healthy alligator was brought in for sale, and
with the eye of a naturalist, Mr. Pryer at once saw his chance. The
ugly creature was purchased and confined beneath the house, and it
is needless to add that the nocturnal pilfering in that direction was
immediately discontinued. Alligators of enormous dimensions are said
to be very common here, but we had to be satisfied with a glimpse of
a shark in the bay. Elephants are said to come down to the banks of
the Sagaliad river, and a young rhinoceros was actually shot there a
few months only after the time of our visit. Having borrowed a boat
and obtained a native crew we landed on two of the islands in the bay,
and found them equally barren. The only plants of interest we noticed
were one or two species of palms, which I had not seen elsewhere, and
of one of these I obtained a large quantity of seeds. We saw plenty of
curlew, and large flocks of milk white cranes or "padi birds," rested
on the trees near the shore. It was nearly dusk when we returned to
the ship, and being wet and dirty, as one almost invariably is on
exploring tours in the forest and jungle, we were glad to visit the
little bath-house once more, and change our clothes before dinner on
the cool upper deck of the little steamer.
At daybreak I was awoke by the rattling of the chains as the anchor
was weighed, and in a few minutes afterwards Sandakan was behind us
as we steamed away to the Sulu Archipelago. We reached Meimbong on
the evening of the 10th, and anchored just off the traders' houses,
which, as is usual here, are built on piles far enough out from the
shore for vessels to anchor at the little jetty before the doors. Sulu
is about thirty-six hours steaming from Sandakan, but in this case we
were longer. We reached the islands at the entrance to the harbour of
Meimbong just at sundown, and were much impressed by the indications
of cultivation and fertility which they presented. We could also
see the cultivated patches and the fruit groves on the Sulu hills
quite plainly, while the cool fresh evening air was deliciously
perfumed, with what we afterwards found to be a mint-like plant
(Hyptis suaveolens), very common throughout the island, especially
in waste places and cornfields.
After dinner we went ashore to see an old Chinaman named "Peah," one
of the principal traders in the place. His house was half house and
half warehouse, consisting of a large front room the entire length
of the house with some private apartments behind, the kitchen, as is
usual, being a separate structure at the end of the dwelling. Half
the large front room consisted of a raised platform about four feet
in height, carpeted with finely-worked pandan mats, and covered
with a fancy chintz canopy, fringed in front. Cushions were piled
up on the parti-coloured mats, and between these and the partition
behind fancy coloured boxes were piled ostentatiously, each secured
by a brass lock of Chinese manufacture. On entering we found "Peah"
sitting on the platform talking to some Sulu traders, his wife, a
neat little Chinese woman, and about a dozen slaves and attendants,
mostly Sulu girls. The room was but dimly illuminated with cocoa-nut
oil lamps, but a couple of composite candles were brought on our
arrival, and installed in two fancy glass holders. The girls ran away
to the kitchen to prepare chocolate, which, together with biscuits,
was soon handed round, after which one of the dusky belles brought
us nipa leaf cigarettes very deftly made.
A long "bichara," or talk on trading and other topics now took place,
gin and water being handed round at intervals. We afterwards had
some music on a kind of harmonica, formed of about a dozen small
gongs of graded sizes, arranged in a bamboo frame, these being beaten
dulcimer-like by two sticks to an accompaniment of five or six larger
gongs and of some Malay drums. The whole made a deafening noise as I
thought, but at a distance some very pleasant effects are produced,
the smaller gongs sounding quite sweet and bell-like in tone.
It is not an uncommon practice for Sulu parents to sell their
children, or for them to be taken into slavery, as payment for some
debt previously contracted by their parents or guardians. It is a kind
of slavery, however, like that in Borneo, which is not so objectionable
as it sounds, since they enjoy pretty much liberty, and are often far
better off in the way of food and clothing than if they were free;
nor are they torn from their home and friends as in the case of the
poor African of years ago. As I have said they are well treated and are
rarely chastised, but we had one instance of this being done during the
time we lay in harbour here. A well-known Chinese trader from Labuan
"Cheng Ting" had brought with him a young Chinese servant, or "boy"
about twenty years of age, and for a Chinaman remarkably handsome,
with a jet black pig-tail hanging nearly as low as his heels. This
"boy" was a great favourite with "Peah's" Sulu girls, especially
with one whom we, not knowing by name, had christened the "gipsy," a
remarkably well made girl with expressive eyes, high cheek-bones, and
luxuriant hair, all of which was, doubtless, altogether too much for
the tender susceptibilities of a young oriental. We lay close alongside
the pile wharf, and one night were awoke by a woman's piercing shrieks,
and the loud voices of several men, and on our going to see the cause
we found the youthful oriental in the hands of a couple of "Peah's"
coolies, who stripped this celestial Adonis, and tying him to a post
by his queue, they gave him a dozen or so with a rattan, at which he
did bawl most lustily, much to the amusement of his captors. And she,
the dusky Venus, was handed over to Mrs. "Peah," who corrected her
privately in the women's apartment, and afterwards chained the erring
damsel in a space below her own bed, so as to prevent her stealing
out to midnight meetings again during our stay. I do not think either
of the culprits were hurt much, and despite the yells of the "boy,"
the rascal was jolly enough and full of bravado when he came on board
in the morning.
The first morning after our arrival I and Mr. Cowie took a boat
at sunrise and pulled down to the market place. Leaving our boat
at the Orang Kayu's house we walked through the narrow gateway,
and crossing the place where the market is held, just outside the
barricade, we followed the course of the river for some distance,
and obtained capital shooting at the large blue pigeons, evidently
the same species as that so common in Borneo. We should have had much
better sport, only that about a dozen of the "lads of the village"
followed like curs at our heels, and they ran riot as soon as ever
they saw a bird fall, and in their eagerness to clutch it they did
a good deal of damage to a long-tailed rufous brown pigeon which I
shot here for the first time and wished to preserve. Their frantic
leaping, splashing and yelling in the little stream and on its
banks also frightened away many birds before we could get within
range, while anything like remonstrance was so much labour thrown
away. White and green paroquets flew screaming overhead as they left
the tall trees near the coast, where they had evidently roosted for
the night, and were now most probably on their way to their feeding
grounds, the fruit trees in the forest further inland. We crossed
several cultivated patches, and growing in clumps near the native
houses we saw quantities of Musa textilis cultivated here, and also
in the Philippines, the fibre being used for cordage, and it is also
largely imported into this country under the name of "manilla hemp." On
waste places beside the river, Quisqualis indica was very abundant,
forming bushes about four feet in height, its slender branches being
literally borne down to the ground by the weight of its flowers,
which hung in immense clusters from the points of its branches.
On our return we made a detour to the right and came upon several
graves, a few of which were fenced in with bushes and had rude
headstones, or a post to mark the spot. Other graves were neglected and
overgrown with weeds. Here a variety of the "Frangipane" (Plumieria
acuminata), was very lovely, bearing immense clusters of its waxy
flowers which exhale a most delicious odour. These flowers are white
with a yellow centre, and are flushed with purple behind. This plant,
or, as seen here in Sulu, small tree, is common throughout the Malay
region, and is by the natives esteemed as a suitable decoration for
the graves of their friends. Its Malay name of "Bunga orang sudah
mati," meaning literally, "Dead man's flower." We returned to the
river near the market-place and obtained a nice cool bath previous to
returning for breakfast on board. About two o'clock we all returned,
and leaving the boat in a creek a little beyond the headman's house,
we bore across the plain to the right through an orchard-like grove of
teak-trees. I had stopped to load my gun before starting, and when I
hastened on to rejoin my friends, I found them at the foot of a dead
teak-tree, where they had kindly awaited my coming to point out a
pretty pink-flowered orchid which was clinging to the naked branches
right in the blazing sunshine, and flowering most profusely.
We at last came to an undulating plain of coarse "lallang" grass
four feet in height, while the soil at our feet was thickly paved
with vitrified slag or scoriæ, the product of the island during its
volcanic epoch. It was very hot, and the walking over the sharp stones,
hidden as they were in the tall grass, was, to say the least of it,
very troublesome. We had expected to find deer or wild pig in the
patches of thick jungle which occur here and there, but the dogs
were too wild and did not hunt the ground well. Along the edge of a
bit of old forest we obtained an occasional shot at a bird or two,
and amongst others we secured a golden oriole with black wing, tips
and tail, a small hawk, and a large greenish paroquet, together with
several pigeons. The black and white and large blue pigeons were
extremely plentiful here, as also were white paroquets, but these
last were too wary to allow us within range.
I made several dips into the patches of old forest in search of plants,
but nothing of interest was seen. Orchids appeared to be very rare, and
with the exception of a dingy yellow-flowered cleisostoma which grew
rather plentifully on the teak-trees, nothing more was seen. We had had
a long and wearying walk, and it was about half-an-hour before sundown
when we returned to the boat and pulled to the ship for dinner. I
was very tired, but altogether pleased at having secured at least one
new species of orchid as well as two or three birds that I had never
seen before. After dinner I occupied myself in sketching my new pink
orchid and in helping my "boy" skin the birds I wished to preserve.
I was happy in the labour, and no description could possibly convey
any idea of that delight which fills one when new and beautiful
objects of natural history are discovered for the first time.