Perjalanan di Kepulauan Hindia Timur/Bab 17

CHAPTER XVII.

PALEMBANG, BANCA, AND SINGAPORE.

May 4th.—At 7 A. M. I bade my host, the controleur, good-by, and began to glide down the Limatang for Palembang.

It was a cool, clear morning, and I enjoyed a fine view of Mount Dempo and the other high peaks near it. The current at first was so rapid that the only care of my men was, to keep the boat from striking on the many bars of sand and shingle. To do this, one stood forward and one aft, each provided with a long bamboo. We soon shot into a series of foaming rapids, and here the river bent so abruptly to the right and left that I thought we should certainly be dashed against a ragged, precipitous wall of rock that formed the right bank at that place, but we passed safely by, though the stern of the boat only passed clear by a few inches. My boat was about twenty feet long and five broad, flat-bottomed, and made of thin plank. Its central part was covered over with roof of atap, like the sampans in China, and on this was another sliding roof, which could be hauled forward to protect the rowers from rain or sunshine. From Lahat to the mouth of the Inem River relays of[522] natives stood ready on the bank to guide our boat. This service they render the Dutch Government instead of paying a direct tax in money.

A short distance below Lahat, on the right bank, is a remarkably needle-like peak called Bukit Sirilo. Near this hill the Limatang makes a long bend to the north, and after we had left it two or three miles behind us I was quite surprised to find we had turned sharply round, and that it was now two or three miles before us. A short distance above the Sirilo we passed a fine outcropping of coal in the left bank. The government engineers have examined it, and found it to be soft and bituminous, but containing too large a proportion of incombustible matter to be of any great value. The strata dip toward the coast. The Resident of Tebing Tingi informed me that a similar coal is found on the Musi below that place. I believe that strata of recent limestone, containing corals, which I observed above Tebing Tingi, underlie this coal, and that it is, therefore, of very recent geological age. At 4 P. M. we came to Muara Inem, a large kampong of two thousand souls, on the Inem, at its juncture with the Limatang. Here I had the pleasure of meeting the controleur, whom I had met in the Minahassa, and who had been my fellow-traveller from Celebes to Java. During the latter third of my way down the Limatang to this point, the country is well peopled, and forms a marked contrast with the sparsely-populated regions through which I have been travelling since leaving Bencoolen.

At one kampong we saw three women in a small, flat-bottomed canoe, each sitting erect and paddling[523] with both hands. In this way they crossed the river with a surprising rapidity, considering the simple apparatus they used. The readiness with which they paddled indicated that this is no very uncommon mode of crossing rivers in this land.

As the villages became larger and more frequent, more and more cocoa-nut trees appeared, and soon we passed several large bamboo rafts, bearing sheds that were filled with this fruit, and in one place two natives were seen quietly floating down the river on a great pile of these nuts in the most complacent manner. At first I expected to see the nuts fly off in all directions and the men disappear beneath the surface of the river, but as we came nearer I saw the nuts were fastened together in small bunches by strips of their own husks, and these bunches were bound into a hemispherical mass large enough to float the two men. The nuts on the raft were to be taken down to Palembang, where the cocoa-palms do not flourish. During the day we saw two or three large troops of monkeys. This is a very pleasant time to pass down these rivers, because they are now high, and instead of seeing only walls and bluffs of naked mud on either hand, the banks are covered with grass down to the water’s edge, and the bamboos and trees, that grow here in tropical luxuriance, lean over gracefully toward the rapid river, and lave the tips of their lowest branches in the passing current.

May 5th.—The controleur kindly took me in his large barge, with twenty men to paddle and two men to steer, some five miles up the Inem River to Lingga,[524] where there is an outcropping of coal in the river bank. The coal found there is very light, almost as soft as charcoal, and evidently of a very recent geological age. A similar but somewhat better coal is found five or six miles farther up this river. At Karang Tingi, three miles up the river from Muara Inem, the rajah of that district gave me a bottle of petroleum, which is about as thick as tar, and, according to the examinations of the Dutch chemists, does not contain much paraffine, naphtha, nor material suitable for burning in lamps. It is found about six miles back from the river. At Karang Tingi we noticed a number of boys enjoying an odd kind of sport. They were sliding down the high slippery bank on their naked backs.

At Muara Inem the controleur showed me a large garden filled with trees, from which the “palm-oil” is manufactured. It is a low palm, and the fruit is not much larger than the betel-nut. I understood him to say that it was the Elais Guineensis, and had been introduced from the Dutch possessions on the west coast of Africa. The oil is contained in the husk, and is used in manufacturing soap and candles.

A VIEW ON THE RIVER LIMATANG, SUMATRA.

May 6th.—Very early this morning started with the controleur down the Limatang in his barge, with twenty men. During last night the river rose here four or five feet, and the current is now unusually strong. From Muara Inem, to where it empties into the Musi, it is very crooked, constantly bending to the right in nearly equal curves, the current, of course, being strongest in the middle of each bend. This constant curving gives an endless variety to its scenery.[525] The water, being high, enabled us to see the cleared places that occurred from time to time on the bank; though generally only a thick wood or dense jungle appeared on either hand, yet I never for a moment was weary of watching the graceful bending of the reeds and tall bamboos, and of the varied grouping of these with large trees. In two places the river makes such long bends, that artificial canals have been made across the tongues of land thus formed. One of these cuts, which was less than a hundred yards long, saved us going round half a mile by the river. Every four or five miles we came to a large kampong, and exchanged our boatmen for new ones, so that all day long we swiftly glided down the smooth stream, one relay of men not getting weary before they were relieved by another, and the strong current also helping us onward. The kampongs here are free from the filth seen in those farther up in the interior. The houses are all placed on posts five or six feet high, for sometimes the whole country is completely flooded. Many of them are built of well-planed boards, and have a roofing of tiles. When the sun had become low, we came to the large kampong of Baruaiyu. At all these villages there is a raft with a house upon it, where the boatmen waited for us. Fastening our boat to one of these, we took up our quarters in the rajah’s house. Like those built by our Puritan forefathers, it had one long roof and one short one, but it was so low that a tall man could scarcely stand up in it anywhere. The floor, instead of being level, rose in four broad steps, and the whole building formed but one[526] large apartment with two small rooms at the rear end.

May 7th.—A severe toothache and the bites and buzzing of thousands of mosquitoes made me glad to see the dawn once more, and again be floating down the river. Before we came to the chief village of each district, where we were to exchange boatmen, we always met the boat of the rajah of that place, and were greeted with shouts and a great din from tifas and gongs.

The rajahs in this region are divided into three grades, and their ranks are shown by the small hemispherical caps they wear. Those of the highest rank have theirs completely covered with figures wrought with gold thread; those of the second rank have theirs mostly covered with such ornaments; and those of the third rank wear only a gold band. They all carry krises of the common serpentine form. Those that have the wavy lines alike on each side of the blade are regarded as the most valuable. The handles are usually made of whale’s-teeth, and very nicely carved; and the scabbards are frequently overlaid with gold. Those that have been used by famous chiefs are valued at all sorts of enormous prices, but are never sold. They also frequently wear a belt covered with large diamond-shaped plates of silver, on which are inscribed verses of the Koran, for the natives of this region are probably the most zealous and most rigid Mohammedans in the archipelago.

The staple article of food here is rice. They also raise much cotton from seed imported from our[527] Southern States. Having gathered it from the ripe bolls, they take out the seeds by running it between two wooden or iron cylinders, which are made to revolve by a treadle, and are so near together, that the seeds, which are saved for the next season, cannot pass through. The fibres are very short, compared to the average product raised in our country, but it serves a good purpose here, where they make it into a coarse thread, which they weave by hand into a cloth for kabayas and chilanas.

The marriage rites and laws here are nearly the same as those I have already described at Taba Pananjong, except that the price of a bride here is just that of a buffalo, or about eighty guilders (thirty-two dollars). Unless a young man has a buffalo or other possessions of equal value, therefore, he cannot purchase a wife. Near Baruaiyu there is a peculiar people known as the Rembang people, who live in four or five villages at some distance from the river. They are very willing to learn to read and write their own language, but will not allow themselves to be taught Dutch or Malay. Last night the river rose still higher, and now it has overflowed its banks, which appear much lower than they are between Lamat and Muara Inem. During the day we have had several showers. At 5 P. M. we arrived at Sungi Rotan, the last village on the Lamatang before its confluence with the Musi. It is a small and poor village, the land here being generally too low for rice, and the cocoa-nut palms yielding but little compared to what they do higher up. Farther down toward Palembang they yield still less. This[528] is the limit of the controleur’s district in this direction. It extends but a short distance up the Inem and up the Limatang above Muara Inem, and yet it contains no less that ninety-one thousand souls.

The controleur came here to settle a difficulty between the people of this and a neighboring village. The other party had occupied a portion of the rice-lands belonging to this people, and the trouble had risen to such a pitch, that the government had to interfere, to prevent them from beginning a war. I said to the rajah that, beyond Lamat, I had passed for miles through a beautiful country, and that it seemed to me he would do well to migrate there; but he evidently disliked such a suggestion, and the controleur asked me not to urge him to adopt my view, for fear that he might think the government designed sending him there, and because he and all his people would rather die than go to live in any distant region.

May 8th.—At 6½ A. M. started for Palembang. My own boat, which I sent on directly from Muara Inem, arrived here yesterday a few hours before us, having been three days in coming down the same distance that we have made in two. We soon stopped at the request of one of the boatmen to examine a small bamboo box which he had set in a neighboring bayou for crawfish. Several were found in it. Their eyes seemed to emit flashes of light, and appeared to be spherical jewels of a light-scarlet hue. I found them palatable when roasted. The boatmen also found some Ampullariæ, which they said they were accustomed to eat, and I found them palatable also[529] We soon floated out of the narrow Limatang into the wide and sluggish Musi, and changed our course from north to east. There are great quantities of rattan along the lower part of the Limatang and the Musi, and the natives gather only a small fraction of what they might if they were not so indolent. Last night, at Sungi Rotan, the mosquitoes proved a worse pest than the night before, and they have continued to annoy us all day.

In the afternoon I had a slight attack of fever, almost the only one I have had since I was ill immediately after my arrival in Batavia, a few days more than a year ago. After three large doses of quinine I fell asleep, my boatmen saying that we should not reach Palembang till morning, which entirely agreed with my own wishes, as I did not care to call during the evening on the assistant Resident, whom I had already notified of my coming. When the last dose had disappeared I soon became oblivious to all real things, and was only troubled with the torturing images seen in a fever-dream. While these hideous forms were still before my mind’s eye, I was suddenly aroused by a loud noise, and, while yet half awake, was dazzled by a bright light on the water, and, on looking out, saw that we were near a large house. On the brilliantly-lighted portico above us were festoons of flowers, and, while I was yet gazing in wonder, inspiriting music sprang up and couple after couple whirled by in the mazy waltz. I put my hand up to my head to assure myself that I was not the victim of some hallucination, and my boatmen, apparently perceiving my state of mind, informed[530] me that we had arrived at Palembang, and that a sister of one of the officials had lately been married, and her brother was celebrating the happy occasion by giving a grand “feast,” or, as we should say, a ball.

The bright light, the enlivening music, and the constant hum of happy voices, instantly banished all possibility of my entertaining the thought of remaining for the night in my dark, narrow cabin; and at once, with no other light whatever than that reflected on the water from the bright ballroom, I prepared myself to meet the Resident in full dress. He was greatly surprised to see me at such a late hour, but received me in a most cordial manner, and at once commenced introducing me to the host and hostess, the bride and bridegroom, and all the assembled guests. The chills and burning fever, from which I had been suffering, vanished, and in a moment I found myself transferred from a real purgatory into a perfect paradise.

WOMEN OF PALEMBANG.

PALEMBANG—HIGH WATER.

Palembang occupies both banks of the Musi for four or five miles, but there are only three or four rows of houses on each bank. Many of these houses were built on bamboo rafts, and, when the tide is high, the city seems to be built on a plain, but at low water it appears to be built in a valley. The tide here usually rises and falls nine or ten feet, but in spring fourteen feet. This is the greatest rise and fall that I have seen in the archipelago. It is said that in the river Rakan, which empties into the Strait of Malacca, at spring tides the water comes in with a bore and rises thirty feet. The principal part of Palembang[531] is built on the left bank. There are a large and well-constructed fort, and the houses of the Resident, assistant Resident, and other officials. The Resident and the colonel commanding the fort are now in the Pasuma country. On the left bank is the Chinese quarter, and very fine imitations of the more common tropical fruits are made there in lacquer-ware by those people. Below the fort, on the right bank, is the large market, where we saw a magnificent display of krises, and enormous quantities of fruit. The name Palembang, or, more correctly, Palimbangan, is of Javanese origin, and signifies “the place where the draining off was done.” The “draining off” is the same phrase as that used to describe water running out of the open-work baskets, in which gold is washed, and the word Palembang is regarded generally as equivalent to “gold-washing” in our language. The Javanese origin of the first settlers in this region is farther shown by the title of the native officials and the names of various localities in the vicinity. The natives have a tradition that Palembang was founded by the Javanese government of Majapahit, but the Portuguese state that it was founded two hundred and fifty years before their arrival, or about A. D. 1250.

Back of the Resident’s house is a mosque with pilasters and a dome, and near by a minaret, about fifty feet high, with a winding external staircase. It is by far the finest piece of native architecture that I have seen in these islands, and is said to be decidedly superior to any of the old temples in Java. Its history appears to be lost, but I judge it was built not[532] long after the arrival of the Portuguese. The architects were probably not natives, but the Arabs, who have not only traded with this people, but succeeded in converting them to Mohammedanism. Palembang Lama, or Old Palembang, is situated on the left bank, a mile or two below the fort. Landing with the natives under a waringin-tree, I followed a narrow path over the low land for a mile, and came to the grave of a native queen. All possible virtues are ascribed to her by the natives, and many were on their way to this shrine to make vows and repeat their Mohammedan formulas, or were already returning homeward. Those who were going stopped at a little village by the way to purchase bunches of a kind of balm which they placed in the tomb. After meeting with many worshippers, I was quite surprised to find the grave was only protected by an old wooden building. The coffin was a rectangular piece of wood, about a foot and a half wide, and five feet long, in which was inserted at the head and foot a small square post, about two feet high. Near the grave of the queen were those of her nearest relatives. This is regarded as the oldest grave that can be identified in this vicinity. It is supposed to have the power to shield its worshippers from sickness and all kinds of misfortune. The Mohammedanism of this people, therefore, even when it is purest, is largely mingled with their previous superstitions.

Nearer Palembang we visited the tombs of later princes. A high wall encloses several separate buildings from twenty to thirty feet square, and surmounted by domes, and within are the coffins, much like[533] that already described. Other massive rectangular tombs are seen outside. None of these appear to be very old.

From Palembang to the mouth of the Musi is about fifty miles, and yet there is plenty of water for the largest steamers to come to the city. The Musi is therefore the largest river in Sumatra; and Palembang gains its importance from its position as the head of navigation on this river, which receives into itself streams navigable for small boats for many miles. On the south is the Ogan, which, in its upper part, flows through a very fertile and well-peopled region, and which, from the descriptions given me, I judge is a plateau analogous to that at Kopaiyong, near the source of the Musi. This region of the Ogan produces much pepper. North of the Musi is the country of the Kubus, who have been described to me here and at Tebing-Tingi as belonging to the Malay race. They are said to clothe themselves with bark-cloth, and to eat monkeys and reptiles of all kinds. They shun all foreigners and other natives, and are very rarely seen. They appear to be very similar in their personal appearance and habits to the Lubus that I saw north of Padang, and perhaps form but a branch of that people.[58] It was to this place that the author of the “Prisoner of Weltevreden” came on his filibustering expedition, and was seized and carried to Batavia, whence he escaped. The open-hearted and generous manner in[534] which I have been everywhere received and aided, both by the government and by private persons, as has constantly appeared on these pages, convinces me that any American, whose character and mission are above suspicion, will be treated with no greater kindness and consideration by any nation than by the Dutch in the East Indian Archipelago.

May 13th.—Took a small steamer for Muntok, on the island of Banca, where the mail-boat from Batavia touches while on her way to Singapore. Muntok is a very pretty village. The houses, which mostly belong to Chinamen, are neatly built and well painted. The streets are kept in good repair, and the whole place has an air of enterprise and thrift. Here I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the chief mining engineer on the island. One morning we rode out a few miles to a granite hill, from the top of which I had a fine view over the Strait of Banca to the low, monotonous coast of Sumatra. There are but few elevations on Banca, and none of any considerable height. All are covered with a thick forest. The rocks of which Banca is composed are chiefly granite, and a red, compact sandstone or grit. The tin is disseminated in small particles through the whole mass of granite, which has slowly disintegrated and decomposed, and the clay and sand thus formed have been washed into the nearest depressions. The tin, being the heaviest of these materials, has settled near the bottom of each basin, when they have been somewhat assorted by the action of water. The upper strata being removed, the particles of tin are found in the lower[535] strata, and obtained by washing, just as in the process of washing similar alluvial deposits for gold. When the beds of all the basins on the island have been thoroughly washed, the yield of tin will be at an end, because it does not occur, as at Cornwall, in veins in the granite, but only in small scattered grains. The washing is almost wholly done by Chinese, who chiefly come from Amoy.

The income of Banca[59] has been for some time over three million guilders per year, after deducting the salaries of all the officials on the island, and the annual expense of the garrison. The chief engineer thinks that about two-thirds of all the tin on the island has now been taken out, but that the present yield will continue for some years, and a less one for many years after. This tin-bearing range of granite begins as far north on the west coast of the peninsula of Malacca as Tavoy. It has been obtained at Tenasserim, and on the island of Junk Ceylon, and large quantities are annually taken out at Malacca. It is also found on the Sumatra side of the strait, in the district of Kampar. The range reappears in the islands of Banca and Billiton, and again in Bali, at the eastern end of Java.

May 14th.—In the evening the steamer arrived from Batavia. For fellow-passengers I found the captain and doctor of an English ship that had lately been burned in the Strait of Sunda while bound from Amoy to Demarara with a cargo of coolies. A passenger from her was also on board, who had written[536] a book on Cochin China, giving his experience while a captive in that land.

May 18th.—We continue, this morning, to pass small islands, and now, by degrees, we are able to make out many ships and steamers at anchor in a bay, and soon the houses by the bund or street bordering the shore begin to appear. We are nearing Singapore. A year and fourteen days have passed since I landed in Java. During that time I have travelled six thousand miles over the archipelago, and yet I have not once set foot on any other soil than that possessed by the Dutch, so great is the extent of their Eastern possessions.

The activity and enterprise which characterize this city are very striking to one who has been living so long among the phlegmatic Dutchmen. Singapore, or, more correctly, Singapura, “the lion city,” is situated on an island of the same name, which is about twenty-five miles long from east to west, and fourteen miles wide from north to south.

When the English, in 1817, restored the archipelago to the Dutch, they felt the need of some port to protect their commerce; and in 1819, by the foresight of Sir Stamford Raffles, the present site of Singapore was chosen for a free city. In seven years from that time its population numbered 13,000; but has since risen to 90,000. Its imports have risen from $5,808,000 in 1823 to $31,460,000 in 1863, and its exports from $4,598,000 in 1823 to $26,620,000 in 1863.

As soon as I landed, I found myself among American friends, and one of them kindly introduced me[537] to the Governor of the Straits Settlements, who received me in the most polite manner and kindly offered to assist me in any way in his power. At my request, he gave me notes of introduction to the Governor of Hong Kong and the admiral commanding her Majesty’s fleet in the seas of China and Japan. A few days of rest after my long journeys over Sumatra soon glided by, and I was ready to continue my travels.

From Singapore my plan was to proceed directly to China, but finding in port a French ship which was bound for Hong Kong, via Saigon, the capital of Cochin China, I engaged a passage on her in order to see something also of the French possessions in the East. Just as we were ready to sail I met a gentleman who had lately returned from a long journey to Cambodia, whither he had gone to photograph the ruins of the wonderful temples in that land. He had a specimen for me, he said, which I must accept before I knew what it was, a condition I readily complied with, but when the “specimen” appeared I must confess I was not a little surprised to find it was an enormous python. It had been caught by the natives of Bankok after it had gorged itself on some unfortunate beast, but that was some time before, and the brute was evidently ready for another feast. My cans containing alcohol were already on board the ship, but I took the monster with me when I went off to her late in the evening, designing to drown it in its box and then transfer his snakeship to a can. The captain, with the greatest politeness, met me at the rail, and showed me my state-room in the after-cabin,[538] and the sailors began to bring my baggage, when first of all appeared the box containing the python! I shouted out to the cabin-boy that that box must be left out on deck, and then, in a low tone, explained to the captain that it contained an enormous snake. “Un serpent? un serpent?” he exclaimed, raising up both hands in horror, in such an expressive way as only a Frenchman can, and proceeding to declare that he ought to have known that a passenger who was a naturalist would be sure to fill the whole ship with all sorts of venomous beasts. All the others were little less startled, and shunned me in the half-lighted cabin, as if I were in league with evil spirits, but I quieted their fears by ordering a sailor to put the box into a large boat that was placed right side up on the main deck and promising to kill the great reptile to-morrow.

May 24th.—Early this morning we made sail, and I concluded to let my troublesome specimen remain until we were out of the harbor, but now, in the changing of the monsoons, the winds are light and baffling and we finally came to anchor once more; and a sailor who got up into the boat said something about “le serpent.” I was on the quarter-deck at the time, and determining at once not to be troubled more with it, jumped down on the main-deck, ran to the side of the boat, and seizing the box gave it a toss into the sea, but just as it was leaving my hands I thought to myself, “How light it is!” and the sailor said, “Le serpent n’est pas encore!—pas encore!” We all looked over the ship’s side and there was the box floating quietly away, and it was evident[539] that the monster had escaped. Every one then asked, “Where is he?” but no one could tell. I assured the captain that he was in the box when I put it on the sampan to come off to the ship. “Is he on board?” was the next question from the mouths of all. We looked carefully in the boat and round the deck, but could detect no trace of him whatever, and all, except myself, came to the conclusion that he was not brought on board, and then went back to their work. The box in which he had been confined was about a foot and a half long by a foot high and a foot wide, and over the top were four or five strips of board, each fastened at either end with a single nail. On inquiring more closely, the sailor told me that before I seized the box, the side with the slats was one of the perpendicular sides, and had not been placed uppermost, as it ought to have been. “Then,” I reasoned, “he is here on board somewhere beyond a doubt, and I brought him here, and it’s my duty to find him and kill him.”

KILLING THE PYTHON.

We had four horses on deck, and the middle of the boat was filled with hay for them, and under that it was probable the great reptile had crawled away. In the bottom of the boat, aft, was a triangular deck, and, as I climbed up a second time, I noticed that the board which formed the apex of the triangle was loose, and moved a little to one side. Carefully raising this, I espied, to my horror, the great python closely coiled away beneath, the place being so small that the loose board rested on one of his coils. I wore a thin suit, a Chinese baju, or loose blouse, a pair of canvas shoes, and a large sun-hat.[540] Throwing off my hat, that I might go into the dreadful struggle unimpeded, I shouted out for a long knife, knowing well that what I must try to do was to cut him in two, and that he would attempt to catch my hand in his jaws, and, if he should succeed in doing that, he would wind himself around me as quick as a man could wind the lash of a long whip around a fixed stick, and certainly he was large enough and strong enough to crush the largest horse. The cook handed me a sharp knife, more than a foot long, and, holding the board down with my feet, I thrust the blade through the crack, and, wrenching with all my might, tried to break the great reptile’s back-bone, and thus render all that part of the body behind the fracture helpless. Despite my utmost efforts, he pulled away the knife, and escaped two or three feet forward, where there was more room under the deck. By this time there was the greatest confusion. The captain, evidently believing that discretion is the better part of valor, ran below the moment he was satisfied that I had indeed discovered the monster, seized a brace of revolvers, and, perching himself upon the monkey-rail, leaned his back against the mizzen-rigging, and held one in each hand, ready to fire into the boat at the slightest alarm. The sailors all gathered round the boat, and stood perfectly still, apparently half-stupified, and not knowing whether it would be safest for them to stand still, climb up in the rigging, or jump overboard. The first mate armed himself with a revolver, and climbed on to the stern of the boat. Indeed, every moment I expected to hear a report, and find[541] myself shot by some of the brave ones behind me. The second mate, who was the only real man among them all, seized a large sheath-knife, and climbed into the boat to help me. I knew it would not do to attempt to strike the monster with a knife where he had room enough to defend himself; I therefore threw it down, and seized a short handspike of iron-wood, the only weapon within my reach, and told the second mate to raise the deck, and I would attempt to finish my antagonist with the club, for the thought of escaping while I could, and leave for others to do what belonged to me, never entered my mind. As the deck rose I beheld him coiled up about two feet and a half from my right foot. Suffering the acutest agony from the deep wound I had already given him, he raised his head high out of the midst of his huge coil, his red jaws wide open, and his eyes flashing fire like live coals. I felt the blood chill in my veins as, for an instant, we glanced into each other’s eyes, and both instinctively realized that one of us two must die on that spot. He darted at my foot, hoping to fasten his fangs in my canvas shoe, but I was too quick for him, and gave him such a blow over the head and neck that he was glad to coil up again. This gave me time to prepare to deal him another blow, and thus for about fifteen minutes I continued to strike with all my might, and three or four times his jaws came within two or three inches of my canvas shoe. I began now to feel my strength failing, and that I could not hold out more than a moment longer, yet, in that moment, fortunately, the carpenter got his wits[542] together, and thought of his broad-axe, and, bringing it to the side of the boat, held up the handle, so that I could seize it while the reptile was coiling up from the last stunning blow. The next time he darted at me I gave him a heavy cut about fifteen inches behind his head, severing the body completely off, except about an inch on the under side, and, as he coiled up, this part fell over, and he fastened his teeth into his own coils. One cut more, and I seized a rope, and, in an instant, I tugged him over the boat’s side, across the deck, and over the ship’s rail into the sea. The long trail of his blood on the deck assured me that I was indeed safe, and, drawing a long breath of relief, I thanked the Giver of all our blessings.

This was my last experience in the tropical East. A breeze sprang up, and the ship took me rapidly away toward the great empire of China, where I travelled for a year, and passed through more continued dangers and yet greater hardships than in the East Indian Archipelago.