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

XXXV.] VOYAGE FROM CERAM TO WAIGIOU. 395In the morning, finding it would be necessary for us to getround a rocky point, I wanted my men to go on shore and cutjungle-rope, by wliich to secure us from being again driftedaway, as the wind was directly offshore. I unfortunately, however,allowed myself to be overruled by the pilot and crew, whoall declared that it was the easiest thing possible, and that theywould row the boat round the point in a few minutes. Theyaccordingly got up the anchor, set the jib, and began rowing ;but, just as I had feared, we drifted rapidly off shore, and hadto drop anchor again in deeper water, and much farther off.The two best men, a Papuan and a Malay, now swam on shore,each carrying a hatchet, and went into the jungle to seekcreepers for rope. After about an hour our anchor loosed hold,and began to drag. This alarmed me greatly, and we let goour spare anchor, and, by running out all our cable, ajipearedtolerably secure again. We were now most anxious for thereturn of the men, and wei^e going to fii'e our muskets to recallthem, when we observed them on the beach, some way off, andalmost immediately our anchors again sli^Dped, and we diiftedslowly away into deep water. We instantly seized the oars, butfound we could not counteract the wind and current, and ourfrantic cries to the men were not heard till we had got a longway off, as they seemed to be hunting for shell-fish on the beach.Very soon, liowever, they stared at us, and in a few minutesseemed to comprehend their situation ; for they rushed downinto the water, as if to swim off", but again returned on sliore,as if afraid to make the attemj^t. We had drawn up our anchorsat first not to check our rowing : but now, finding we could donothing, we let them both hang down by the full length of thecables. This stopi^ed our way very much, and we drifted fromshore very slowly, and hoped the men would hastily form a raft,or cut down a soft-wood tree, and paddle out to us, as we werestill not more than a third of a mile from shore. They seemed,however, to have half lost their senses, gesticulating wildly tous, running along the beach, then going into the forest ; andjust when we thought they had prepared some mode of makingan attempt to reach us, we saw the smoke of a fire they hadmade to cook their shell-fish ! They had evidently given up allidea of coming after us, and we were obliged to look to our ownposition.We were now about a mile from shore, and midway betweentwo of the islands, but we were slowly drifting out to sea to thewestward, and our only chance of yet saving the men was toreach the oi:)posite shore. We therefore set our jib and rowedIiai'd ; but the wind failed, and we drifted out so rapidly thatwe had some difiiculty in reaching the extreme westerly pointof the island. Our only sailor lelt, then swam ashore with arope, and helped to tow us round the point into a tolerably safeand secure anchorage, well sheltered from the wind, but exj^osedto a little swell which jerked our anchor and made us rather