Three days later we were lying in Singapore harbour, and I had one or
two runs ashore to have a good look at the town, with its busy port full
of all kinds of vessels, from the huge black-sided steamer and trim East
Indiaman, to the clumsy high-sterned, mat-sailed, Chinese junk, and long
narrow Malay prahu.
I could have stayed there a month staring about me at the varied scenes
in the bright sunshine, where hundreds of Chinamen in their blue cotton
loose clothes and thick-soled shoes were mingled with dark-looking
Hindoostanees, Cingalese, and thick-lipped, flat-nosed, fierce-looking
Malays, every man in a gay silk or cotton sarong or kilt, made in plaids
of many colours and with the awkward-looking, dangerous kris stuck at
the waist.
I say I could have stopped here for a month, enjoying the change, and
wondering why the Malays should be so constantly chewing betel-nut and
pepper leaves. I learned, too, that there was much to be seen in the
island, and that there were tigers in the jungle near the plantations;
but my uncle said there was no time to waste, and we must get on.
"We don't want civilisation, Nat, or the works of man; we want to go far
away into the wilds."
"But don't you mean to go to Malacca, uncle?" I said. "That is where
so many birds come from."
"I did think of going there, Nat; but I want to get to less-frequented
spots, and I have found to-day a great prahu that is going right away to
the Ke Islands, which will be well on our route to Aru and New Guinea.
The Malay captain says he will take us, and tow our boat behind."
"Our boat, uncle?"
"Yes, Nat; while you have been staring about at the heathen I have been
busy looking out for a boat, and I have found one that I think will do.
Come and see."
I went with him to a creek outside the busiest part of the town, where
the principal part of the people seemed to be fishermen, and here, after
threading our way amongst dozens of clumsy-looking boats, my uncle
showed me one that I should have thought would be the last to suit us.
"Why, you don't admire my choice, Nat!" he said smiling.
"It is such a common-looking thing, and it isn't painted," I replied.
"No, my boy, but it is well varnished with native resin. It is Malay
built, very strong, and the mast and sails are well-made, though rough;
better still, it will carry us, and a man or two for crew if we like,
and give plenty of room for our treasures as well."
"But it is differently rigged to the boats on the Thames, uncle," I said
disparagingly.
"Naturally, my boy," he said laughing; "but the sails will require the
same management."
"And what an anchor, uncle!" I said. "Why, it is made of bamboo and a
stone."
"We can easily buy a small grapnel and some cord, Nat," he said smiling;
"and when you have found out how our boat will sail, you will think
better of it, I am sure."
On the following day but one we were on board the prahu surrounded by
fierce-looking Malays, every man being armed with his kris, and looking
as bloodthirsty a lot as I thought I had ever seen. Our boat was towing
behind as the men used long oars to get us out of the port, and then the
great matting sails were hoisted, and we began to go swiftly through the
surging sea.
"There, Nat," said my uncle gleefully, "good-bye to civilisation, for we
are fairly off. How do you feel now?"
"I was thinking, uncle, suppose that, now they have us safely on board,
and away from all help--"
"They were suddenly to rise up, draw their knives, which are said to be
poisoned, Nat."
"Yes, uncle, and stab us."
"Rob us," he said laughing.
"And throw us overboard, uncle."
"Ah! Nat; suppose they did. What would Uncle Joe say?"
"It would kill him, uncle," I said, with tears in my eyes.
"And Aunt Sophy?" he said.
"Well, I don't know about Aunt Sophy," I replied; "but I hope she would
be very sorry."
"Ah! well, you needn't be nervous, Nat, for I don't think the Malays are
such bloodthirsty fellows as people say; and our captain here, in spite
of his fierce aspect, is very gentlemanly and pleasant."
I could not help looking at our captain, whom Uncle Dick called
gentlemanly, for to my eyes he seemed to be a fierce savage, with his
scarlet kerchief bound round his head, beneath which his dark eyes
seemed to flash angrily.
"Shall you keep your loaded gun with you always, uncle, while we are
with these people?" I said.
"No, my boy, certainly not," he replied; "and you may take it for
granted, Nat, that even the most savage people are as a rule inoffensive
and ready to welcome a white man as a friend, except where they have
been ill-treated by their civilised visitors. As for the Malays, I have
met several travellers who have been amongst then and they all join in
saying that they are a quiet superior race of people, with whom you may
be perfectly safe, and who are pleased to be looked upon as friends."
"But I thought, uncle," I said, "that they were very dangerous, and that
those krises they wore were poisoned?"
"Travellers' tales, my boy. The kris is the Malay's national weapon
that everyone wears. Why, Nat, it is not so very long since every
English gentleman wore a sword, and we were not considered savages."
We had rather a long and tiresome voyage, for the prahu, though light
and large, did not prove a very good sea-boat. When the wind was fair,
and its great sail spread, we went along swiftly, and we were seldom for
long out of sight of land, coasting, as we did, by the many islands
scattered about the equator; but it was through seas intersected by
endless cross currents and eddies, which seemed to seize upon the great
prahu when the wind died down, and often took us so far out of our
course one day, that sometimes it took the whole of the next to recover
what we had lost.
So far, in spite of the novelty of many of the sights we had seen, I had
met with nothing like that which I had pictured in my boyish dreams of
wondrous foreign lands. The sea was very lovely, so was the sky at
sunrise and sunset; but where we had touched upon land it was at ports
swarming with shipping and sailors of all nations. I wanted to see
beautiful islands, great forests and mountains, the home of strange
beasts and birds of rare plumage, and to such a place as this it seemed
as if we should never come.
I said so to Uncle Dick one day as we sat together during a calm, trying
to catch a few fish to make a change in our food.
"Wait a bit, Nat," he said smiling.
"Yes, uncle, but shall we see wonderful lands such as I should like?"
"You'll see no wonderful lands with giants' castles, and dwarfs and
fairies in, Nat," he replied smiling; "but before long I have no doubt
that I shall be able to show you beauties of nature glorious enough to
satisfy the most greedy imagination."
"Oh! of course I did not expect to see any of the nonsense we read of in
books, uncle," I said; "only we have been away from home now three
months, and we have not got a single specimen as yet, and I want to
begin."
"Patience, my boy, patience," he said. "I am coming all this distance
so as to get to quite new ground. So far we have not landed on a tropic
island, for I shall not count civilised Singapore; but very soon we
shall take to our own boat and coast along here and there, landing where
we please, and you shall have nature's wonders and natural history to
your heart's content. Look there," he said softly; "there is a
beginning for you. Do you see that?"
He pointed down into the gloriously blue clear water, illumined by the
sunshine, which made it flash wherever there was the slightest ripple.
"Yes, I can see some lovely little fish, uncle," I said. "Why, they are
all striped like perch. There's one all blue and scarlet. Oh! I wish
I could catch him."
"No, no; farther down there, where those pink weeds are waving on that
deep-brown mass of coral. What's that?"
"Why, it's a great eel, uncle. What a length! and how thin! How it is
winding in and out amongst the weed! Is it an eel?"
"No, Nat; it is a snake--a sea-snake; and there is another, and another.
They are very dangerous too."
"Are they poisonous, then?" I said.
"Extremely. Their bite is often fatal, Nat, so beware of them if ever
you see one caught."
We had a fine opportunity for watching the movements of these snakes,
for several came into sight, passing through the water in that peculiar
waving manner that is seen in an eel; but a breeze springing up soon
after, the sail filled out, and once more we glided rapidly over the
beautiful sea.
I call it beautiful sea, for those who have merely looked upon the ocean
from our own coasts have no conception of the grandeur of the tropic
seas amongst the many islands of the Eastern Archipelago, where the
water is as bright as lapis lazuli, as clear as crystal, and the
powerful sun lights up its depths, and displays beauties of submarine
growth at which the eye never tires of gazing.
It used to worry me sometimes that we had not longer calms to enable me
to get down into the little boat and lie flat, with my face as close to
the water as I could place it, looking into what was to me a new world,
full of gorgeous corals and other Zoophytes, some motionless, others all
in action. Scarlet, purple, blue, yellow, crimson, and rich ruddy
brown, they looked to me like flowers amongst the singular waving weeds
that rose from the rocks below.
Here fishes as brilliant in colours, but more curious in shape, than the
pets of our glass globes at home, sailed in and out, chasing the insects
or one another, their scales flashing every now and then as they turned
on one side or dashed up towards the surface and leaped clean out of the
water.
In some places the sand was of a beautiful creamy white and as pure as
could be, Uncle Dick saying that it was formed out of the corals which
were being constantly pounded up by the waves.
But whenever the breeze rose I had to be quickly on board again, and on
we sailed till, after a long dreamy voyage, we came one morning in sight
of some mountains; and as we drew nearer I could see that the rocks rose
straight up from the sea, which, calm as it was, sent up columns of
spray where the waves broke upon the solid stone.
"There, Nat," said my uncle, "that is our present destination."
"What! that rocky place, uncle?" I said, with a tone of disappointment
in my voice.
"Yes, my quick young judge," he said laughing. "Wait till we get closer
in," he continued, using his glass; "or no, you can see now; look, Nat."
He handed me the glass, and as I looked through, my heart seemed to give
a great throb, for the lovely picture I gazed upon seemed to more than
realise my dreams.
For what at a distance looked to be a sunlit rocky shore, proved through
the glass to be a land with lovely shaped trees growing to the edges of
the cliffs, which were covered with wonderful shrubs and creepers. Even
the rocks looked to be of beautiful colours, and every here and there I
could see lovely little bays and nooks, edged with glistening white
sand, upon which the crystal water played, sparkling like diamonds and
sapphires in the sun.
"Oh, uncle!" I cried.
"Well, Nat, will that place do for a beginning?"
"How soon can we get ashore?" I cried excitedly in answer.
"In a couple of hours, now, Nat; but I said will this place do?"
"Oh, uncle!" I cried, "it was worth coming all the way to see. I could
wander about there for months. Shall I get the guns out of the cases?"
"Gently, gently," he said laughing; "let's get into harbour first."