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

;314 THE aiALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.appearance. According to custom, when strong wind or rain isexpected, our large sails were furled, and with their yards letdown on deck, and a small square foresail alone kept up. Thegreat mat sails are most awkward things to manage in roughweather. The yards which support them are seventy feet long,and of course very heavy ;and the onh^ way to furl tliem beingto roll up the sail on the boom, it is a very dangerous thing tohave them standing when overtaken by a squall. Our crew,though numerous enough for a vessel of 700 instead of one of\/ 70 tons, have it very much their own way, and there seems to beseldom more than a dozen at Avork at a time. When anythingimportant is to be done, however, all start up willingly enough,but then all think themselves at liberty to give their opinion,and half a dozen voices are heard giving orders, and there issuch a shrieking and confusion that it seems wonderful anythinggets done at all.Considering we have fifty men of several tribes and tongueson board, wild, half-savage-looking fellows, and few of themfeeling any of tlie restraints of morality or education, we get onwonderfully well. There is no fighting or quarrelling, as therewould certainly be among the same number of Europeans withas little restraint upon their actions, and there is scai'cely anyof that noise and excitement which might be expected. In fineweather the greater part of them are quietly enjoying themselves—someare sleeping under the shadow of the sails ; others,in little groups of three or four, are talking or chewing betelone is making a new handle to liis chopping-knife, another isstitching away at a new pair of trousers or a shirt, and all areas quiet and well-conducted as on board the best-ordered Englishmerchantman. Two or three take it by turns to watch in thebows and see after the braces and halyards of the great sails ;the two steersmen are below in the steerage ; our captain, orthe juragan, gives the course, guided partly by the compass andpartly by the direction of the wind, and a watch of two or threeon the poop look after the trimming of the sails and call out thehours by tlie water-clock. This is a very ingenious contiivance,which measures time well in botli rough weather and fine. Itis simply a bucket half filled with water, in which floats thehalf of a well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. In the bottom of tliisshell is a -very small hole, so that when placed to float in thebucket a fine thread of water squirts up into it. This graduallyfills the shell, and the size of the hole is so adjusted to thecapacity of the vessel that, exactly at the end of an hour, plumpit goes to the bottom. The watch then cries out the number ofhours from sunrise, and sets the shell afloat again empty. Thisis a very good measurer of time. I tested it with my watchand found that it hardly varied a minute from one hour toy anotlier, nor did the motion of the vessel have any effect upon it,as the water in the bucket of course kept level. It has a greatadvantage for a rude people in being easily understood, in being