THE VOYAGE UP THE SADONG TO SIMUJAN
The money received for the heads of the crocodiles was in the hands of
Felix, who was the clerk of the captain on board the ship, and it was
proper to make him purser of the Blanchita. What to do with it was the
next question. Louis's advice was asked for, and he promptly suggested
that it should be divided into ten parts, and a share given to all but
himself; and this was done. He refused to accept a penny, but all the
others received about four dollars apiece.
The money was all in silver, as it is all over India and the Archipelago
for general use. The engineer and the seamen shared with the four
hunters; for the former had done all the work and some of the shooting.
The steamer was made fast at the shore, and all hands except Pitts
landed for a walk through the town. Their first visit was to a
fruit-store kept by a Chinaman; and most of the shops in the place were
in the hands of the Celestials.
Bananas and oranges were the principal, though there were also nearly
all the tropical fruits in season. Many of the party purchased useful
articles in other places. They had learned in Singapore and Batavia how
to deal with Chinese traders, and they seldom gave even more than
one-third or one-half of what was demanded. After diligent search Achang
found a certain Dyak tool he wanted,--a sort of axe, which Lane, the
carpenter's assistant, ridiculed without mercy.
The young men visited the English Mission, where they were kindly
received, and went to the school. The American missionaries are also
active in Borneo, and one of them has made a vocabulary of the Dyak
language.
It was decided to start down the river the next morning on the way to
the Sadong and Simujan Rivers, the latter being a branch of the former.
In the early morning, as the hands were casting off the fasts, two
Malays came alongside in a sampan, and asked to be towed to the Sadong.
Achang had some talk with them, and made the request of the captain for
them. He learned that they were engaged in the business of catching
crocodiles for the reward.
"They don't shoot crocodiles, and they have no rifles," added Achang.
"How do they get them then?" asked Louis.
"They fish for them."
"What, with a hook and line?" demanded Captain Scott.
"With a line, but have no fish-hook," replied the Bornean. "You must see
them catch one."
"All right," replied the captain; "we will tow them down the river."
After the yacht had been moving about an hour, they came to a colony of
saurians apparently, for several of them were in sight at once. Achang
directed the reptile-hunters to catch one of them, and they paddled
their sampan towards a large one. The Blanchita kept near enough to
enable all hands to witness the operation, which the Bornean described
to them as the Malays made their preparations, for they had all their
fishing-gear in their boat.
The line they used was a rattan about forty feet long. At the "business
end," as Scott called it, they attached a float to keep it on the top of
the water. The steamer just crawled along on the river in order not to
disturb the game, though the reptiles were accustomed to the sight of
vessels.
"Now you see that stick the hunter has in his hand," said Achang, though
each of them had one. "'Most a foot long, like a new moon."
"Crescent-shaped," added Louis.
"Called an _alir_ in Malay. Made of green wood, very tough, pointed at
the ends; they fasten the rattan line to the middle of the stick."
Some tough green bark, braided together, was then wound around the stick
so that the game could not bite it in two. A big fish for bait was then
attached to the alir, and carefully fastened to it so that the reptile
could not tear it off.
Thus prepared, the apparatus was thrown overboard, and the sampan
paddled away from it to give the game an opportunity to approach it, the
Malays each paying out his forty feet of line, one on each side of the
boat. The spectators watched the result with great interest. As the
sampan receded from the saurians, they approached the bait. Crocodiles
and alligators do not nibble at their prey, but bolt it as a snake does
a frog.
The bait nearest to the observers on the yacht was soon gobbled up by
the hungry crocodile, who appeared not to have been to breakfast that
morning; and the Malay at the other end of the line gave a sharp jerk to
his gear, the effect of which was to draw the pointed crescent "athwart
ships," as the sailors would say, or across his stomach; and the harder
it was pulled the more the pointed ends would penetrate the interior of
the organ.
The first Malay had hardly hooked his game before the second had another
ready to haul in. Both of the saurians struggled and lashed the dark
water into a foam; but both of the men in the sampan kept the line as
taut as they could with all their strength; and this is the rule in
hauling in all gamey fish.
"Tell them we will go ahead, Achang, and all they need to do is to make
fast their rattans to the sampan," said Captain Scott, when he had taken
in the situation.
In reply to the message the Bornean delivered to them, the Malays nodded
their heads vigorously, and smiled their assent.
"Go ahead, down the river, Clinch," added the captain to the helmsman.
"I fancy there will be a lively kick-up on the part of the game," said
Louis, as the boat came up to her course.
"Not much," added Scott. "If we put them through the water at the rate
of eight knots an hour, the crocs will not feel much like doing any
gambolling. We are not making more than four knots now."
"They are as lively now as a parched pea in a hot skillet."
"I will ring the speed-bell now, and see how that will affect them,"
replied the captain, suiting the action to the word.
The Blanchita darted ahead at her usual speed. Clingman began to
overhaul the painter of the sampan, for it did not look strong enough
for the present strain. He had scarcely got hold of it before it snapped
in the middle, and relieved the strain on the crocodiles. The steamer
backed at the order of the captain; and a strong line was thrown into
the sampan, which one of the Malays seized and made fast.
When the strain upon them was thus removed, the saurians made violent
struggles to escape. The yacht then went ahead again, and the speed-bell
was rung immediately. The pressure on the game was renewed, and they
ceased to struggle. The apparatus held fast, for the saurian fishers
were experienced in their business, and had done their work well.
At eight o'clock the Blanchita reached the mouth of the river. The
crocodiles were not dead, but their stomachs must have been in a
terrible condition. To Louis it seemed to be cruel to prolong their
sufferings; and he wished Achang to request the Malays to kill them, and
Scott agreed with him. The Bornean said they could not kill them while
they were towing behind, and that, if the lines were slacked, they might
get away.
The captain took the matter in hand, and told Achang what he intended to
do, which he communicated to the reptile-hunters. On the starboard hand
Scott fixed his gaze on a small tongue of land extending out into the
river. Taking the wheel himself, he run her close to the land some
distance above the point, and worked the sampan and its tow close to the
shore. The tow-line of the sampan was then lengthened out to a hundred
feet or more, and the yacht went ahead again, rounding the point, so
that the peninsula lay between the steamer and her tow.
Then she went ahead again, and the result was that she pulled the sampan
upon the point; and as she was flat-bottomed, there was no difficulty in
doing so. The Blanchita continued on her course, and the two crocodiles
were landed after her. One of the Malays then produced a parong latok;
and even more skilfully than Achang had done the job, he cut off the
heads of both reptiles. They were out of misery then, and Louis was
satisfied.
The yacht was then run up to the point, and Lane was sent on shore to
measure the reptiles, while the fishermen proceeded to recover the
apparatus from the stomachs of the defunct reptiles. The larger
crocodile was twelve feet and four inches long, and the other ten feet
and seven inches. The voyage was resumed on the sea to the mouth of the
Sadong; and in three hours more she entered the stream, which was a
large one, averaging half a mile wide for twenty miles.
"Bujang!" called Achang, as instructed by the captain. "Do you want to
go any farther?"
The head man replied in his own language that they wished to go to
Simujan, or till they came to plenty of game. The Bornean said Bujang
was a great hunter, for he had killed fifty-three crocodiles that year.
The yacht, with the sampan still in tow, started up the river, keeping
in the middle of it. Just before sunset she reached the junction of the
Simujan and Sadong.
On one side of the branch stream there was a considerable Malay village,
backed by an abundance of cocoanut palms; and, of course, the houses
were built on stilts close to the water. On the other side was the
Chinese kampon, or quarter, consisting largely of shops and
trading-houses. Louis Belgrave had been presented to the officials at
Sarawak as the owner of the Guardian-Mother, and that established him as
a person of great distinction.
After the ship departed on her voyage to Siam, many attentions were
bestowed upon him; and when, after the return of the yacht from up the
Sarawak, they learned that she was going to the Simujan, one of the
officials had given him a letter of introduction to the Chinese
half-cast government official, who was the magnate of the place.
Figuratively, he took the "Big Four" in his arms, and there was nothing
he was not ready to do for them.
He conducted them to the government house, and insisted that they should
live there during their stay at Simujan. It had been erected to receive
such officials as might have occasion to remain there at any time. It
was well built and comfortable, and each chamber had a veranda in front
of it. It was set on posts six feet from the ground, like all the other
dwellings near it. It was the police station of the region; and the two
Malays collected eight or nine dollars for their game, which they did
not offer to share with the crew of the yacht--no Malay would do such a
thing.
The agent's tender of the rooms to the party was accepted, for the
members wished to sleep in a four-posted bedstead once more for a
change. The chief Malay of the place called upon them, and treated them
very handsomely. The Chinese official gave them much information as they
were seated on a veranda of the house.
"You may find the orang-outang up the Simujan; but I don't know that you
want such large game," said he.
"We have shot tigers in India, and Mr. McGavonty has shot more cobras
than all the rest of us. He has a talent for killing snakes."
"Show me the snakes, and I will finish them," added Felix.
"You will not find many of them in the jungle. There are some water
snakes taken occasionally, and people here eat them. They make a very
fine curry."
"I should ask to be excused from partaking of that dish," said Scott.
"That is all prejudice," said the agent. "Perhaps you would like to go
a-fishing in the Sadong and its branches. We have a peculiar way of
taking fish here. We use the tuba plant, which the Malays prepare for
use. It is a climbing-plant, the root of which has some of the
properties of opium. It is reduced to a pulp, mixed with water. I cannot
fully explain the process of preparation, in which the Malays are very
skilful. At the right time of tide, the fluid is thrown into the stream.
The effect is to stupefy and sometimes kill the fish. With dip-nets the
fish are picked up, though some of them are so large that they can be
secured only with a kind of barbed spear."
"I don't think I care to fish in that way," said Louis, with some
disgust in his expression. "It is very unsportsmanlike, and it looks to
me to be a mean way to do it."
"Just what some Englishmen who were here a while ago said, and perhaps
you are right; but it is a Malay art, and not English."
The party slept very comfortably on bedsteads that night, but they were
up before the sun the next morning.