At about six bells in the afternoon, the wind fell away, and the
rain came down in torrents, leaving us to pitch about on the rapidly
decreasing waves, wet to the skin and unequal to another effort. We
were within a mile of a rocky island that rose like a half-ruined
castle from the ocean. The Dyak soldiers called it Satang Island,
and I have sailed past it many a time since. Without waiting for
the word, we rowed to it and around it, before we found a suitable
beach on which to land. One end of the island rose precipitous and
sheer above the beach a hundred feet, and ended in a barren plateau
of some two dozen acres. The remainder comprised some hundred acres
of sand and rocks, on which were half a dozen cocoanut trees and a
few yams. Along the beach we found a large number of turtles' eggs.
The captain, remembering the Rajah's caution in regard to pirates,
decided not to make a light, but we were wet and hungry and overcame
his scruples, and soon had a huge fire and a savory repast of coffee,
turtles' eggs, and yams. At midnight it was extinguished, and a
watch stationed on top of the plateau. Toward morning I clambered
grumblingly up the narrow, almost perpendicular sides of the rift
that cut into the rocky watch-tower. I did not believe in pirates
and was willing to take my chances in sleep. I paced back and forth,
inhaling deep breaths of the rich tropical air; below me the waves
beat in ripples against the rugged beach, casting off from time to
time little flashes of phosphorescent light, and mirroring in their
depths the hardly distinguishable outline of the Southern Cross. The
salt smell of the sea was tinged with the spice-laden air of the
near coast. Drowsiness came over me. I picked up a musket and paced
around the little plateau. The moon had but just reached its zenith,
making all objects easily discernible. The smooth storm-swept space
before me reflected back its rays like a well-scrubbed quarter-deck;
below were the dark outlines of my sleeping mates. I could hear the
light wind rustling through the branches of the casuarina trees that
fringed the shore. I paused and looked over the sea. Like a charge
of electricity a curious sensation of fear shot through me. Then an
intimation that some object had flashed between me and the moon. I
rubbed my eyes and gazed in the air above, expecting to see a night
bird or a bat. Then the same peculiar sensation came over me again,
and I looked down in the water below just in time to see the long,
keen, knife-like outline of a pirate prau glide as noiselessly as a
shadow from a passing cloud into the gloom of the island. Its great,
wide-spreading, dark red sails were set full to the wind, and hanging
over its sides by ropes were a dozen naked Illanums, guiding the
sensitive craft almost like a thing of life. Within the prau were
two dozen fighting men, armed with their alligator hide buckler,
long, steel-tipped spear, and ugly, snake-like kris. A third prau
followed in the wake of the other two, and all three were lost in
the blackness of the overhanging cliffs.
With as little noise as possible, I ran across the plain and warned my
companion, then picked my way silently down the defile to the camp. The
captain responded to my touch and was up in an instant. The men were
awakened and the news whispered from one to another. Gathering up
what food and utensils we possessed, we hurried to get on top of
the plateau before our exact whereabouts became known. The captain
hoped that when they discovered we were well fortified and there was
no wreck to pillage, they would withdraw without giving battle. They
had landed on the opposite side of the island from our boat and might
leave it undisturbed. We felt reasonably safe in our fortress from
attacks. There were but two breaks in its precipitous sides, each a
narrow defile filled with loose boulders that could easily be detached
and sent thundering down on an assailant's head. On the other hand,
our shortness of food and water made us singularly weak in case of
siege. But we hoped for the best. Two men were posted at each defile,
and as nothing was heard for an hour, most of us fell asleep.