Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XIV

  DOWN THE SIMUJAN AND UP THE SARAWAK

  The proposition of Captain Scott was certainly an astounding one, notunlike the daring of those men who have crossed the Atlantic in a doryor in small sailboats; and so it struck the other members of the cabinparty. Scott was not a reckless navigator; and his companions hadvoyaged with him on stormy seas several times in the Maud, though shewas a better sea-going craft than the Blanchita. She was decked over herentire length, so that she could be closed as tight as the inside of abarrel, while the steam-launch was an open boat.

  Scott did not regard the venture as an extremely perilous one, though hewould not have thought of such a thing as crossing the Atlantic in acraft like the Blanchita, principally because she could not carry coalenough to render the trip a prudent risk. The distance from land to landwas about five hundred miles, and the little steamer could easily makethis distance inside of three days. But the captain must speak forhimself.

  "Now, fellows, you can study the chart for yourselves," said he, as heput the point of his pencil on the mouth of the Sarawak River. "If theBlanchita were a sailing-craft instead of a steamer, I should not havea moment's hesitation; for though she is not heavy and clumsy, she isvery strongly built. I have looked her over several times, with thistrip in my head."

  "But she can be rigged as a sailing-craft, and has a short mast and asail," interposed Morris. "I talked with the rajah about her, and hetold me that he had been out to sea in her. He said he had never hadoccasion to use the sail, but he carried it in case anything shouldhappen to the engine."

  "That betters the situation very materially," replied the captain. "Ifwe have anything to depend upon if the engine should break down or thecoal should give out we should be all right."

  "There must be heavy seas out in the China Sea," added Louis, as helooked over the chart.

  "We haven't seen any very heavy seas in any of these waters. Thesouth-west monsoons prevail at this season of the year in these waters.I don't find any decided ocean current laid down on the charts of thesouthern and western portions of the China Sea. They strike in at theeastward of Java, and flow to the eastward of Borneo, through theMacassar Strait," said Scott, pointing out the direction on the chart.

  "That looks favorable; and if there is any current to speak of, it runsin the direction of the monsoons, and therefore will not be likely tocause heavy winds."

  "If I thought the trip was a very dangerous one, I certainly should notpropose to make it," added the captain.

  "Fish!" shouted Clingman at the wheel.

  In spite of their interest in the discussion, all the party rushedforward at this cry. The captain ordered the wheelman to stop her,though her headway kept her moving for some minutes after the screwceased to revolve. The men baited the hooks as soon as fish wereindicated. The boat had reached the locality where the catch of the daybefore had been obtained, and all hands were on the lookout. The lineswere thrown over, and the fish bit quickly as soon as the steamer was atrest. In half an hour they had taken seven.

  "Keep her moving, Clingman," said Captain Scott, as the party hurriedback to the cabin to continue the discussion.

  Pitts dressed the fish, and put them in the ice-chest. Achang hadcompleted the skinning of the orang, and the skin was now drying in thesun. The voyage to Siam or Cambodia looked very much like an adventure,and the young men were deeply interested in it.

  "I don't think we are likely to encounter any very heavy weather in thewestern part of the China Sea," said Captain Scott, as he put his pencilon the chart again. "We may be overhauled by a typhoon."

  "And what is a typhoon?" asked Felix. "I know it is some sort of astorm, and that is all I do know."

  "There are different names for a storm in different parts of the earth,"replied Scott. "What is a hurricane in the West Indies is a cyclone inthe northern part of the Indian Ocean, and a typhoon in the China Sea.They are all alike in substance, being revolving storms, in which thewind whirls around in a circle, and at the same time has a forwardmovement as a whole towards some point of the compass. But there arevarious signs which indicate the approach of a typhoon or a hurricane;and in these seas the barometer has to be watched constantly."

  "I suppose we should be out of sight of land about all the time on thepassage," suggested Morris.

  "Not at all, my lad; for the first two hundred miles of the course weshould not be out of sight of land half of the time, or only for a fewhours at a time. Now look at the chart, all of you. Here we are at themouth of the Sarawak River. About a hundred miles west of that is CapeDatu, the most western point of Borneo. Then for two hundred miles thereis a chain of islands extending to the north-west, which is our course.These are the Natuna Islands; the largest one takes the same name, andis forty miles long. There are several other small islands north of thisone, and if the weather came on very bad we could make a lee under oneof them."

  "Channel, sir!" shouted Clingman.

  "I think you have got an idea of the whole thing, and we have a coupleof days to think of it," said the captain, as he rose from his seat. "Iwill leave the chart here, and you can all study it."

  Scott went forward to the wheel. He had caused a red rag to be tied tothe top of a screw-pine while the sampan was looking for a channelthrough the lake, and Clingman had stopped the boat abreast of it. Thecaptain took the helm himself; and he had carefully observed variousmarks, and obtained the bearings of the mountain, and other prominentobjects which might assist him in taking the steamer through the shallowlake. He started her at once, and rang the speed-bell confidently, asthough he had been through the lake a dozen times before.

  It was sunset when the boat entered the narrow river, and they werecalled to supper. Clinch was placed at the wheel. It was a good moon,and the boat continued on her course till she came to the Dyak villagewhere they had visited the long-house. She had been seen or heard as sheapproached; and the whole village was on the shore, including Mr. Eng.

  "We are not going to lie up to-night," said Captain Scott when asked toland. "We are somewhat in a hurry to get back to Kuching, and we shallrun down to Simujan this evening."

  "I am going in the morning, Captain," added the agent.

  "I will tow you down, and you can sleep on board if you wish."

  "Thank you; my men will come down with the sampans to-morrow, and Igladly accept your offer," replied Mr. Eng. "But I must first go over tothe _pangah_."

  "To what? Will it take long?" inquired the captain.

  "The pangah, or head-house of the village. I left my portmanteau there,and must get it."

  "The head-house! May we go with you? for we did not stop to look at itwhen we were here before."

  "Certainly you may go with me; I will have some torches so that you cansee it as well as in the daytime," replied the agent, as he started withthe cabin party, attended by four Dyaks who had come to the river withtorches. "No head-hunting has been done for many years, as you areaware, and not many heads are on exhibition. In some villages you willfind them by the hundred, though the people here were never much givento the barbarous practice. It was not necessary in this part of theisland that a young man should get a head before a girl would accept himas her husband. Here it is."

  It was a circular building not far from fifty feet in diameter, with aconical roof. In the centre was a place for a fire, which was perhapsrequired in cleaning the abominable trophies of war or individualmurders. All around the apartment was a sort of divan, or bench, whileover it were hung up the skulls, all nicely cleaned in the firstinstance, but now darkened by the smoke.

  "This is the public building of the village, and the council when itmeets has its place here for deliberation and action," said Mr. Eng,when he had pointed out what was to be seen in the building.

  "Rather a sombre place, I should say, for such a purpose," suggestedLouis.

  "When you got used to the skulls you would not mind them any more thanyou would any other dry bones," laughed the agent. "I sl
ept here lastnight, and the young men and boys lodge here. If you were to remain overnight, young gentlemen, you would be quartered here; for it is the homeof the stranger who visits the village."

  "Then, I should be very thankful that we had a cabin in our steamer,"replied Louis. "But there is no accounting for tastes."

  The agent gave his baggage to a Dyak, and the party returned to theboat. A bed in the cabin was prepared for Mr. Eng, who said he was verytired, for he had walked a great distance that day, and he retired atonce. The captain took the first watch, with two of the men. It wasplain sailing, and in the middle of the night the Blanchita was anchoredin the river in front of the kampon. Scott turned in then, with one ofthe port watch on duty.

  In the morning they could not be induced to accept Mr. Eng's pressinginvitation to remain a day or two at Simujan. He promised to take themto the coal and gold mine if they would remain; but all of them were sofull of the great project that the invitation was declined. Three of thefish were presented to the agent, who told them something about it, anddeclared that it was the finest fish on the island.

  A quantity of ice was obtained at the town; and Pitts carefully packedthe rest of the fish, which were still hard and in nice condition. Thecaptain desired to present a couple of them to Rajah Brooke, and some ofthe others to officers who had been very kind to them, and had assistedthem in many ways. In the early morning they bade a grateful adieu tothe agent, and departed on the trip to Kuching.

  The tide was going out, and they made a quick passage to the sea. Ontheir arrival there they found a stiff south-west wind blowing, and thebay covered with white-caps. They had not tried the Blanchita inanything like a heavy sea, though the rajah had declared that she was avery able and weatherly sea-boat. Captain Scott was very glad of theopportunity to test her behavior in rough weather. He went to the helmhimself as the boat came out of the Sadong. The very first wave thatbroke on her bow scattered the spray from stem to stern.

  THE BOAT ROSE GRACEFULLY ON THE BILLOWS.

  _Page 132._]

  Scott ordered the men to batten down the curtains on the weather side.But the boat rose gracefully on the billows, and did not scoop up anywater in doing so. Boxes, barrels, and other movable articles weresecured, and the captain was delighted with the working of the boat.

  "I don't want any better sea-boat than the Blanchita," said he withgreat enthusiasm. "I doubt if we get it any rougher than this on thevoyage to Cambodia Point."

  "Unless we run into a typhoon," said Morris, who was observing theconduct of the boat with quite as much interest as his superior officer.

  "We won't run into a typhoon," replied the captain.

  "How can you help yourself? As sailors we must take things as theycome."

  "If navigators have a thousand miles or more of ocean ahead of them,they must face the music. But among these islands, if the weather lookstyphoony, we can get under a lee, or make a harbor in some bay. Butdon't try to cross the bridge till we get to it, Morris."

  "Sail, ho!" shouted Clingman.

  It was a steamer about as far off as she could be made out. The twocraft were approaching each other, and the steamer from the west wentinto the Sarawak ahead of the Blanchita. She was a small vessel,apparently of not more than three hundred tons. It soon became evidentthat she was not a fast sailer, for the Blanchita held her own with herall the way up the river to Kuching.