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

iU THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.the sense to take down the sail and row in-shore, or to call me.As soon as it was daylight, we saw that we had drifted back, andwere again opposite our former anchorage, and, for the thirdtime, had to row hard to get to it. As we apjDroached the shore,I saw that the current was favourable to us, and we continueddown the coast till we were close to the entrance to the lowerharbour. Just as we were congratulating ourselves on having atlast reached it, a strong south-east squall came on, blowing usback, and rendering it impossible for us to enter. Not liking theidea of again returning, I determined on trying to anchor, andsucceeded in doing so, in very deep water and close to the reefs ;but the prevailing winds were such that, should we not hold, weshould have no diificulty in getting out to sea. By the time thesquall had passed, the current had turned against us, and weexpected to have to wait till four in the afternoon, when weintended to enter the harboui-.Now, however, came the climax of our troubles.The swellproduced by the squall made us jerk our cable a good deal, andit suddenly snapped low down in the water. We drifted out tosea, and immediately^ set our mainsail, but we were now withoutany anchor, and in a vessel so poorly manned that it could notbe rowed against the most feeble current or the slightest wind,it would be madness to approach these dangerous shores exceptin the most perfect calm. "We had also only three days' foodleft. It was therefore out of tlie question making any furtlierattempts to get round the point without assistance, 'and I atonce determined to run to the village of Gani-diluar, about tenmiles further north, where we under-stood there was a goodharbour, and where we might get provisions and a few morerowers. Hitherto w*inds and currents had invariably opposedour passage southward and we might have expected them to befavourable to vis now we had turned our bowsjDrit in an oppositedirection. But it immediately fell