We were not very long in getting to the harbour, a snug landlocked cove
where the great prahu in which we had come could lie well protected from
the rollers. Our passage in was made easy, as the great sails were
lowered by the men in a couple of canoes, who paddled out, shouting and
singing, and splashing the water; and then, after ropes had been made
fast to their sterns, they paddled away again, drawing us steadily
inshore.
I began to wonder directly whether these would be anything like the
savages who came to Robinson Crusoe's island; but a moment's reflection
told me that Juan Fernandez was supposed to be his island, and that was
on the other side of the world.
"Well, Nat, what do you think of our visitors?" said my uncle, as I
leaned over the prow of our vessel and watched the men in the canoe.
"I was thinking, uncle, that it can't cost them much for clothes," I
said, laughing.
"No, Nat," he replied, joining in my mirth; "but do you see how
different they are to our sailors here?"
"Yes, they are blacker, uncle, and have different shaped noses, and
their hair curls instead of being straight."
"Good!" he exclaimed; "that's the way to become a naturalist. Observe
everything. You are quite right; we are going to leave one race of men
now, Nat, the Malays, to travel amongst the Papuans, a people who are
wonderfully different in every way."
I felt a little nervous at first on going ashore, for we were surrounded
by quite a crowd of fierce-looking blacks, all chattering,
gesticulating, and pressing on us in their eagerness to get close up,
but I soon found that it was only excitement and delight at seeing us
among them, and that they wanted to barter ornaments and shells, for
tobacco and sugar, or knives.
They were just like children, and though, had they been so disposed,
they could have overpowered us and taken possession of everything we
possessed in an instant, nothing seemed farther from their thoughts.
The captain of the prahu came ashore with us, and we explained to one of
the chief men that we wanted to have a hut on shore and stay with them
for a time, and his countenance expanded into a broad grin of pleasure,
one which seemed to increase as we both shook hands with him, and uncle
gave him a handful of tobacco, and I a small common one-bladed knife.
He looked at both in turn, and then seemed puzzled as to what he ought
to give us in exchange, while, when he was made to understand that they
were presents and nothing was wanted back, he attached himself to us,
and very soon we found ourselves the possessors of a very dark, little
well-thatched hut, with no windows, and nothing to close the door, but
it answered our purpose in giving us shelter, and to it the chief
willingly helped with a couple of dozen of his men, in getting our
chests, boxes, and stores.
The next thing was to find a place for our boat, which was towed ashore
behind a canoe; and on the chief understanding the want, he very soon
pointed out to us a shady nook where it could be run ashore and beached
in safety, away from the waves, he helping himself to make the rope fast
to a large cocoa-nut tree.
This done, the chief walked, or rather strutted, round our boat, and
looked under it, over it, and about it in all directions, making
grimaces expressive of his disgust, and ending by kicking its sides and
making derisive gestures, to show that he thought it a very poor boat
indeed.
The prahu was going away the next day, so a busy scene of trading went
on till night, when the captain sought us out, and in his broken English
enquired very earnestly whether we had landed everything, including
sundry stores which my Uncle Dick had purchased of the Scotch merchants
at Singapore, they being able to tell him what was most likely to find
favour amongst the savages with whom we should have to deal.
In answer to a question, the Malay captain assured us that we might feel
quite safe amongst the Ke islanders, and also with those in the Aru and
neighbouring isles; but he said that he would not trust the men of New
Guinea, unless it was in a place where they had never seen white men
before.
He promised to be on the look-out for us as he was trading to and fro
during the next year or two, for my uncle assured him that we should be
about that time among the islands, and with the promise to meet us here
in a year's time if we did not meet before, and to come from Singapore
provided with plenty of powder and shot for our use, and ready to take
back any cases of specimens we might have ready, he parted from us with
the grave courtesy of a Mohammedan gentleman. The next time we saw him
was in the morning, as he waved his scarlet headkerchief to us from the
deck of his prahu, which was floating away on the current, there being
barely wind enough to fill the sails.
Some very beautifully shaped canoes filled with the naked black
islanders paddled out for some little distance beside the prahu, singing
and shouting, and splashing the sea into foam with their paddles, making
it sparkle like diamonds in the glorious morning sunshine.
But after a while my uncle and I, in spite of the delightful sensation
of being ashore in such a glorious climate, began to feel so very human
that we set to and made a fire; then I fetched water from a spring in
the rock that ran over in a cascade towards the sea, and after rigging
up three pieces of bamboo, gypsy fashion, the kettle soon began to sing,
the coffee was measured out, a box dragged outside the hut door to act
as a table, and just as the canoes approached the shore we began upon
biscuit, a couple of toasted red herrings, of which we got a couple of
boxes at Singapore, and what seemed to me the most delicious cup of
coffee I had ever tasted.
"There," uncle said to me at last, "we are regularly launched now, Nat.
Those Malays were not savages, but people of law and order. Now we are
left alone in the wilds indeed."
"Yes, uncle, and here come the black fellows," I said with my mouth full
of biscuit.
In fact, as soon as they had run their beautiful canoes up on to the
sands they were starting in a body to come and look at us; but there was
a loud shout and some gesticulating, and we saw one tall savage
flourishing a spear, when they all went off in other directions, while
the savage with the spear came sidling towards us in a slow, awkward
way, keeping his face turned in the opposite direction, but gradually
coming nearer.
"I hope he does not mean to throw that spear at us, Nat," said my uncle.
"Where did the others go?"
"They seemed to go into the woods there," I said.
"Humph! And they might get round to the back of our hut," said my
uncle, looking rather uneasy. "But we will not show any distrust. Have
you recognised that chief this morning?"
"I think this is he, uncle," I said, "but I can't see his face."
"Well, we will soon see," said my uncle, as we went on with our
breakfast, and kept on watching the black till he came about fifty yards
away, apparently searching for something amongst the shrubs and plants
with the handle of his spear.
"Shout at him, Nat," said my uncle.
"Eh?"
The savage must have seen us from the first, but he looked up, then
down, then turned himself and _gazed_ in every direction but that in
which we were; and I shouted again, but still he would not look our way.
"He is shamming, Nat, like a very bashful boy," said Uncle Dick. "He
wants us to ask him to breakfast. Hallo! Get my rifle, Nat; I can see
a lot of heads in the trees there. No, sit still; they are only boys."
The savage evidently saw them at the same moment, for he made a rush
towards the dark figures that were stealing from tree trunk to tree
trunk, and we saw them dash away directly out of sight, after which the
savage came sidling in our direction again.
"Hi!" I shouted, as the childish pantomime went on, and the savage
stared in all directions as if wonder-stricken at a strange noise coming
he knew not whence, and ending by kneeling down and laying his ear to
the ground.
"Hi!" I shouted again; but it was of no use, he could not possibly see
either us, our chest, our fire, or the hut, but kept sidling along,
staring in every direction but the right.
"Go and fetch him, Nat, while I toast another bloater. We'll give him
some breakfast, and it will make him friendly."
I got up and went off, wondering what Uncle Joe and Aunt Sophia would
have said to see me going to speak to that great spear-armed savage, and
for a moment I wondered what would happen if he attacked me.
"Uncle Dick would shoot him dead with his rifle," I said to myself by
way of comfort, and I walked boldly on.
Still he would not see me, but kept sidling on till I got close up to
him and gave him a smart spank on his naked shoulder.
In an instant he had spun round, leaped to a couple of yards away, and
poised his spear as if to hurl. Then, acting his astonishment with
great cleverness, his angry countenance broke up into a broad smile, he
placed his spear into the hollow of his left arm, and stepped forward to
shake hands, chattering away eagerly, though I could not understand a
word.
"Come and have some breakfast," I said, and he chattered again. "Come
and have some breakfast," I shouted; and then to myself: "How stupid I
am! He can't understand."
So I took him by the arm, and pointed towards where my uncle was
watching us with his rifle leaning against the table; and I knew that he
must have been looking after my safety.
The savage stared here and there and everywhere, but he could not see my
uncle till I dragged him half-way to the fire and pointed again, when he
uttered a shout of surprise, as much as to say, "Well, who would have
thought of seeing him there!"
He then walked up with me, grinning pleasantly, shook hands, and looked
astonished as we pointed to the ground for him to sit down.
He seated himself though, at last, after sticking his spear in the sandy
earth, and then watched us both as I spread some salt butter out of a
pot on a piece of biscuit, and then handed him over some hot coffee,
which I made very sweet, while my uncle, after shaking hands, had gone
on toasting the bloater upon a stick of bamboo.
"Don't give him the coffee too hot, Nat," said my uncle. "There, that's
done, I think."
"I could drink it myself, uncle," I replied, and we placed the food
before our guest, pointing to it, but he kept on shaking his head, and
put his hands behind him.
"Perhaps he thinks it is not good, uncle," I said, after we had several
times partaken of our own to set him an example.
"Or that it is poisoned," said my uncle. "Taste it to show him it is
good, Nat."
I took up the tin mug of coffee and tasted it twice, then broke a piece
off the biscuit, put a little of the herring upon it, and ate it, the
savage watching me closely the while.
Then his face broke into a broad smile once more, and he made believe to
have suddenly comprehended that the food was meant for him, for, taking
a good draught of the coffee, he leaped up, tossing his arms on high,
and danced round us, shouting with delight for quite a minute before he
reseated himself, and ate his breakfast, a good hearty one too,
chattering all the while, and not troubling himself in the least that we
could not understand a word.
"I'm sorry about one thing, Nat," my uncle said. "He would not eat that
food because he was afraid that it was poisoned."
"Well, wasn't that right of him, uncle?" I said, "as we are quite
strangers."
"Yes, my boy; but it teaches us that he knows what poison is, and that
these savages may make use of it at times."
Our black guest looked at us intently whenever we spoke, and seemed to
be trying to comprehend what we said, but began to laugh again as soon
as he saw that we observed him, ending by jumping up and shaking hands
again, and pointing to the rifle, seizing his spear, holding it up to
his shoulder, and then making a very good imitation of the report with
his mouth.
He then pointed to a bird flying at a distance, and laughed and nodded
his head several times.
"That relieves us of a little difficulty, Nat," said my uncle. "The
Malay captain seems to have told him why we have come; but there is
another difficulty still, and that is about leaving our stores."
"It seems to me, uncle, that what we ought to do first is to learn the
language."
"Yes, Nat, and we must. It would be more useful to us now than your
Latin and French."
"Yes, uncle, and we shall have to learn it without books. Hallo! what's
he going to do?"