The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

sxYiii.] MACASSAR TO THE ARU ISLANDS. 311occupied the middle, and next the door were my canteen, lamp,and little store of luxuries for the voyage ; while guns, revolver,and hunting knife hung conveniently from the roof. Duringthese four miserable days I was quite jolly in this little snuggery—more so than I should have been if confined the same time tothe gilded and uncomfortable saloon of a first-class steamer.Then, how comparatively sweet was everything on board—nopaint, no tar, no new rojoe, (vilest of smells to the qualmish !)no grease, or oil, or varnish ; but instead of these, bamboo andrattan, and coir rope and palm thatch ;pure vegetable fibres,which smell pleasantly if they smell at all, and recall quietscenes in the green and shady forest.Our ship had two masts, if masts they can be called, whichwere great movable triangles. If in an ordinary ship you replacethe shrouds and backstay by strong timbers, and takeaway the mast altogether, you have the arrangement adoptedon board a prau. Above my cabin, and resting on cross-beamsattached to the masts, was a wilderness of yards and spai's,mostly formed of bamboo. The mainyard, an immense aflfairnearly a hundred feet long, was formed of many pieces of woodand bamboo bound together with rattans in an ingenious manner.The sail carried by this was of an oblong shape, and was hungout of the centre, so that when the short end was hauled downon deck the long end mounted high in the air, making up for thelowness of the mast itself. The foresail was of the same shape,but smaller. Both these were of matting, and with two jibs anda fore and aft sail astern of cotton canvas, completed our rig.The crew consisted of about thirty men, natives of Macassarand the adjacent coasts and islands. They were mostly young,and were short, broad-faced, good-humoured-looking fellows.Their dress consisted generally of a pair of trousers only whenat work, and a handkerchief twisted round the head, to whichin the evening they would add a thin cotton jacket. Four ofthe elder men were " jurumudis," or steersmen, who had to squat(two at a time) in the little steerage before described, changingevery six hours. Then there was an old man, the " juragan," orcaptain, but who was really what we should call the first mate ;he occupied the other half of the little house on deck. Therewere about ten respectable men, Chinese or Bugis, whom ourowner used to call " his own peojDle." He treated them verywell, shared his meals with them, and spoke to them always withperfect politeness ;yet they were most of them a kind of slavedebtors, bound over by the police magistrate to work for him atmere nominal wages for a term of years till their debts wereliquidated. This is a Dutch institution in this part of the world,and seems to work well. It is a great boon to tradei's, who cando nothing in these thinly-populated regions without trustinggoods to agents and petty dealers, who frequently squanderthem away in gambling and debauchery. The lower classes arealmost all in a chronic state of debt. The merchant trusts them