Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER II

  A VOYAGE UP THE SARAWAK RIVER

  The young hunters slept on board of the Blanchita, and they weredelighted with their accommodations. Sarawak, or Kuching, the nativename of the town, is only about one hundred and fifty miles north of theequator, and must therefore be a very warm region, though away from thelow land near the sea-coast it is fairly healthy. The party slept withthe curtains raised, which left them practically in the open air.

  Achang had given them a hint on board of the ship that mosquitoes wereabundant in some localities in Borneo. The Guardian-Mother was providedwith the material, and the ladies had made a dozen mosquito bars for theexplorers. They were canopies, terminating in a point at the top, wherethey were suspended to the cross rods on which the canvas roof wassupported. The netting was tucked in under the cushions of the divan,and the sleepers were perfectly protected.

  Captain Scott had carried out his plan in regard to the watches. Thecook was exempted from all duty in working the little steamer; but eachof the other seamen was required to keep a half-watch of two hoursduring the first night on board. Clinch was on watch at four in themorning. He called the engineer at this hour, and Felipe proceeded atonce to get up steam. It was still dark, for the sun rises and sets atsix o'clock on the equator.

  As soon as there was a movement on board, all hands turned out forward.There were no decks to wash down; and, if there had been, the water washardly fit, in the judgment of the mate, for this purpose, for it wasmurky, and looked as though it was muddy; but it was not so bad as itappeared, for the dark color was caused by vegetable matter from thejungles and forest, and not from the mud, which remained at the bottomof the stream.

  "The top uv the marnin' to ye's!" shouted Felix, as he leaped from hisbed about five o'clock,--for all hands had turned in about eight o'clockin the evening, as the mosquitoes, attracted by the lanterns, began tobe very troublesome,--and the Milesian could sleep no longer.

  "What's the matter with you, Flix?" demanded the captain.

  "Sure, if ye's mane to git under way afore night, it's toime to turnout," replied Felix. "Don't ye's hear the schtaym sizzlin' in the froy'npan?"

  "But it isn't light yet," protested Scott.

  "Bekase the lanthern in the cab'n bloinds your two oyes, and makes thedarkness shoine broighter nor the loight," said Felix, as he looked athis watch. "Sure, it's tin minutes afther foive in the marnin'. Thesebeds are altogidther too foine, Captain."

  "How's that, Flix?" asked Scott, as he opened the netting and leaped outof bed.

  "They're too comfor-_ta_-ble, bad 'cess to 'em, and a b'y cud slape tillsundown in 'em till the broke o' noight."

  "Dry up, Flix, or else speak English," called Louis, as he left his bed."There is no end of 'paddies' along this river, and I'm sure they cannotunderstand your lingo."

  "Is it paddies in this haythen oisland?" demanded Felix, suspending theoperation of dressing himself, and staring at his fellow deck-hand. "Idon't belayve a wurrud of ut!"

  "Are there no paddies up this river, Achang?" said Louis, appealing tothe Bornean.

  "Plenty of paddies on all the streams about here," replied the native.

  "And they can't oondershtand Kilkenny Greek! They're moighty quarepaddies, thin."

  "They are; and I am very sure they won't answer you when you speak tothem with that brogue," added Louis.

  "We will let that discussion rest till we come to the paddies,"interposed the captain, as he completed his toilet, and left the cabin.

  By this time all the party had left their beds and dressed themselves;for their toilet was not at all elaborate, consisting mainly of awoollen shirt, a pair of trousers, and a pair of heavy shoes, withoutsocks. Felipe had steam enough on to move the boat; and the seamen hadwiped the moisture from all the wood and brass work, and had puteverything in good order.

  "Are you a pilot for this river, Achang?" asked Scott, as the party cametogether in the waist, the space forward of the engine.

  "I am; but there is not much piloting to be done, for all you have to dois to keep in the middle of the stream," replied the Bornean. "I went upand down all the rivers of Sarawak in a sampan with an English gentlemanwho was crocodiles, monkeys, mias, snakes, and birds picking up."

  "Wrong!" exclaimed Morris. "You know better than that, Achang."

  The native repeated the reply, putting the verb where it ought to be.

  "He was a naturalist," added Louis.

  "Yes; that was what they called him in the town."

  "I think we all know the animals of which you speak, Achang, exceptone," said Louis. "I never heard of a mias."

  "That is what Borneo people call the orang-outang," replied the native.

  "Orang means a man, and outang a jungle, and the whole of it is a jungleman," Louis explained, for the benefit of his companions; for he wasbetter read in natural history than any of them, as he had read all thebooks on that subject in the library of the ship. "In ProfessorHornaday's book, 'Two Years in the Jungle,' which was exceedinglyinteresting to me, he calls this animal the 'orang-utan,' which is onlyanother way of spelling the second word."

  "Excuse me, Louis, but I think we will get under way, and hear yourexplanations at another time," interposed Captain Scott.

  "I have finished all I had to say."

  "Take the wheel, Achang," continued the captain.

  The sampan was sent ashore to cast off the fasts. The river at the townis over four hundred feet wide, and deep enough in almost any part forthe Blanchita. As soon as the lines were hauled in, the captain rang onebell, and Felipe started the engine. The helmsman headed the boat forthe middle of the stream, and the captain rang the speed-bell. Whenhurried, the Blanchita was good for ten knots an hour, but her ordinaryspeed was eight.

  On the side of the river opposite Kuching, or Sarawak, was the kampon ofthe Malays and other natives; and the term means a division or districtof a town. Many of the natives of this village had visited theBlanchita,--some for trade, some for employment, and some from merecuriosity. None of them were allowed to go on board of the launch; for,while the Dyaks are remarkably honest people, the Malays and Chinesewill steal without any very heavy temptation.

  Achang headed the boat up the river. For five miles the banks were low,with no signs of cultivation, and bordered with mangroves. At this pointthe captain called Lane to the wheel, with orders to keep in the middleof the river. The "Big Four" had taken possession of the bow divans, thebetter to see the shores. They were more elevated, which simply meanshigher above the water.

  "When shall we come across the paddies, Achang?" asked Felix; "for I amvery anxious to meet them, and maybe we shall have a Kilkenny fight withthem."

  "No, you won't, for you speak English," replied Louis.

  "The paddies are here on both sides of the river," added Achang.

  "I don't see a man of any sort, not even a Hottentot, and I am surethere is not a Paddy in sight."

  "Your education has been neglected, Flix, and you did not read all thebooks in the ship's library," said Louis. "I only told you the paddieswould not answer you if you spoke to them with a brogue. You can trythem now if you wish."

  "But I don't see a single Paddy to try it on."

  "Here is one on your left."

  "I don't see anything but a field of rice."

  "That's a paddy in this island."

  "A field of rice!"

  "Achang will tell you that is what they call them in Borneo."

  "Bad luck to such Paddies as they are! But it looks as though theremight be some Paddies here, for the houses are very neat and nice, justas you see in old Ireland."

  "Certainly they are; but I never saw any such in Ireland," added Louis."You remember the old woman on the road from Killarney to the lakes whotold us she lived in the Irish castle, to which she pointed; and itlooked like a pig-sty."

  "Of course it didn't have the bananas and the cocoanut-palms around it."

  "I admit that we saw many fine places in Ire
land, and very likely yourmother lived in one of them. But, Achang, is there any game in the woodswe see beyond the paddies?"

  "Sometimes there is plenty of it; at others there is scarcely any. Youcan get squirrels here and some birds."

  "Any orang-outangs?"

  "We found none when we came up the river, for this is not the best placefor them. If we run up the Sadong and Samujan Rivers, you will findsome," replied the Bornean. "I don't think it will pay to go very far upthe Sarawak, if it is game you want; but you can see the country. Thereis quite a village on the right."

  The party were very much interested in examining the houses they saw onthe borders of the stream. Like those they had seen in Java and inSumatra, they were all set up on stilts. A Malay or Dyak will not buildhis home on dry land, as they noticed in coming up the lower part of theriver, though there was plenty of elevated ground near. The dwellingswere all built on the soft mud.

  The village ten miles up-stream was constructed on the same plan. Thehouses were placed just out of the reach of the water when it was higherthan usual. The material was something like bamboo, as in India, withroofs of kadjang leaves, which abound in the low lands. In front ofevery one of them was a flat boat--sampan; and one was seen which waslarge enough to have a roof of the same material as the house. The boatswere made fast to a pole set in the mud.

  "There is a bear on the shore!" shouted Morris, with no littleexcitement in his manner, as he pointed to the woods on the shoreopposite the houses, to which the attention of all the rest of the partyhad been directed.

  At the same time he seized his repeating rifle, and all the othersfollowed his example. The animal was fully three feet high, and at asecond glance it did not look much like a bear. Whatever it was, it tookto its heels when the sound of the steamer's screw reached its ear. ButMorris fired before the boat started, and the others did the same.

  "That is not a bear, Mr. Morris," interposed Achang, laughing as hespoke.

  "What is it, then?" demanded Morris.

  "A pig."

  "A pig three feet high!" exclaimed the hunters with one voice.

  "A wild pig," added the Bornean.

  "Is he good for anything?" inquired Scott.

  "He is good to eat if you like pork."

  "He dropped in the bushes when we fired. Can't we get him?" askedMorris.

  Under the direction of the captain the steamer was run up to the shore;and the bank in this place was high enough to enable the party to landwithout using the sampan. All hands, including the seamen, rushed in thedirection of the spot where the pig had been seen. The game was readilyfound. The animal was something like a Kentucky hog, often called a"racer," because he is so tall and lank. He was a long-legged specimen;and Achang said that was because they hunted through swamps and shallowwater in search of food, and much use had made their legs long. He addedthat they were a nuisance because they rooted up the rice, and farmershad to fence their fields.

  He was carried on board by the sailors, and Pitts cut out some of thenicer parts of the pig. They had roast pork for dinner, but it was notso good as civilized hogs produce.