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Nat the Naturalist: A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 17. The Malay Kris In Strange Lands |
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_ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. THE MALAY KRIS IN STRANGE LANDS Three days later we were lying in Singapore harbour, and I had one or two runs ashore to have a good look at the town, with its busy port full of all kinds of vessels, from the huge black-sided steamer and trim East Indiaman, to the clumsy high-sterned, mat-sailed, Chinese junk, and long narrow Malay prahu. I could have stayed there a month staring about me at the varied scenes in the bright sunshine, where hundreds of Chinamen in their blue cotton loose clothes and thick-soled shoes were mingled with dark-looking Hindoostanees, Cingalese, and thick-lipped, flat-nosed, fierce-looking Malays, every man in a gay silk or cotton sarong or kilt, made in plaids of many colours and with the awkward-looking, dangerous kris stuck at the waist. I say I could have stopped here for a month, enjoying the change, and wondering why the Malays should be so constantly chewing betel-nut and pepper leaves. I learned, too, that there was much to be seen in the island, and that there were tigers in the jungle near the plantations; but my uncle said there was no time to waste, and we must get on. "We don't want civilisation, Nat, or the works of man; we want to go far away into the wilds." "But don't you mean to go to Malacca, uncle?" I said. "That is where so many birds come from." "I did think of going there, Nat; but I want to get to less-frequented spots, and I have found to-day a great prahu that is going right away to the Ke Islands, which will be well on our route to Aru and New Guinea. The Malay captain says he will take us, and tow our boat behind." "Our boat, uncle?" "Yes, Nat; while you have been staring about at the heathen I have been busy looking out for a boat, and I have found one that I think will do. Come and see." I went with him to a creek outside the busiest part of the town, where the principal part of the people seemed to be fishermen, and here, after threading our way amongst dozens of clumsy-looking boats, my uncle showed me one that I should have thought would be the last to suit us. "Why, you don't admire my choice, Nat!" he said smiling. "It is such a common-looking thing, and it isn't painted," I replied. "No, my boy, but it is well varnished with native resin. It is Malay built, very strong, and the mast and sails are well-made, though rough; better still, it will carry us, and a man or two for crew if we like, and give plenty of room for our treasures as well." "But it is differently rigged to the boats on the Thames, uncle," I said disparagingly. "Naturally, my boy," he said laughing; "but the sails will require the same management." "And what an anchor, uncle!" I said. "Why, it is made of bamboo and a stone." "We can easily buy a small grapnel and some cord, Nat," he said smiling; "and when you have found out how our boat will sail, you will think better of it, I am sure." On the following day but one we were on board the prahu surrounded by fierce-looking Malays, every man being armed with his kris, and looking as bloodthirsty a lot as I thought I had ever seen. Our boat was towing behind as the men used long oars to get us out of the port, and then the great matting sails were hoisted, and we began to go swiftly through the surging sea. "There, Nat," said my uncle gleefully, "good-bye to civilisation, for we are fairly off. How do you feel now?" "I was thinking, uncle, suppose that, now they have us safely on board, and away from all help--" "They were suddenly to rise up, draw their knives, which are said to be poisoned, Nat." "Yes, uncle, and stab us." "Rob us," he said laughing. "And throw us overboard, uncle." "Ah! Nat; suppose they did. What would Uncle Joe say?" "It would kill him, uncle," I said, with tears in my eyes. "And Aunt Sophy?" he said. "Well, I don't know about Aunt Sophy," I replied; "but I hope she would be very sorry." "Ah! well, you needn't be nervous, Nat, for I don't think the Malays are such bloodthirsty fellows as people say; and our captain here, in spite of his fierce aspect, is very gentlemanly and pleasant." I could not help looking at our captain, whom Uncle Dick called gentlemanly, for to my eyes he seemed to be a fierce savage, with his scarlet kerchief bound round his head, beneath which his dark eyes seemed to flash angrily. "Shall you keep your loaded gun with you always, uncle, while we are with these people?" I said. "No, my boy, certainly not," he replied; "and you may take it for granted, Nat, that even the most savage people are as a rule inoffensive and ready to welcome a white man as a friend, except where they have been ill-treated by their civilised visitors. As for the Malays, I have met several travellers who have been amongst then and they all join in saying that they are a quiet superior race of people, with whom you may be perfectly safe, and who are pleased to be looked upon as friends." "But I thought, uncle," I said, "that they were very dangerous, and that those krises they wore were poisoned?" "Travellers' tales, my boy. The kris is the Malay's national weapon that everyone wears. Why, Nat, it is not so very long since every English gentleman wore a sword, and we were not considered savages." We had rather a long and tiresome voyage, for the prahu, though light and large, did not prove a very good sea-boat. When the wind was fair, and its great sail spread, we went along swiftly, and we were seldom for long out of sight of land, coasting, as we did, by the many islands scattered about the equator; but it was through seas intersected by endless cross currents and eddies, which seemed to seize upon the great prahu when the wind died down, and often took us so far out of our course one day, that sometimes it took the whole of the next to recover what we had lost. So far, in spite of the novelty of many of the sights we had seen, I had met with nothing like that which I had pictured in my boyish dreams of wondrous foreign lands. The sea was very lovely, so was the sky at sunrise and sunset; but where we had touched upon land it was at ports swarming with shipping and sailors of all nations. I wanted to see beautiful islands, great forests and mountains, the home of strange beasts and birds of rare plumage, and to such a place as this it seemed as if we should never come. I said so to Uncle Dick one day as we sat together during a calm, trying to catch a few fish to make a change in our food. "Wait a bit, Nat," he said smiling. "Yes, uncle, but shall we see wonderful lands such as I should like?" "You'll see no wonderful lands with giants' castles, and dwarfs and fairies in, Nat," he replied smiling; "but before long I have no doubt that I shall be able to show you beauties of nature glorious enough to satisfy the most greedy imagination." "Oh! of course I did not expect to see any of the nonsense we read of in books, uncle," I said; "only we have been away from home now three months, and we have not got a single specimen as yet, and I want to begin." "Patience, my boy, patience," he said. "I am coming all this distance so as to get to quite new ground. So far we have not landed on a tropic island, for I shall not count civilised Singapore; but very soon we shall take to our own boat and coast along here and there, landing where we please, and you shall have nature's wonders and natural history to your heart's content. Look there," he said softly; "there is a beginning for you. Do you see that?" He pointed down into the gloriously blue clear water, illumined by the sunshine, which made it flash wherever there was the slightest ripple. "Yes, I can see some lovely little fish, uncle," I said. "Why, they are all striped like perch. There's one all blue and scarlet. Oh! I wish I could catch him." "No, no; farther down there, where those pink weeds are waving on that deep-brown mass of coral. What's that?" "Why, it's a great eel, uncle. What a length! and how thin! How it is winding in and out amongst the weed! Is it an eel?" "No, Nat; it is a snake--a sea-snake; and there is another, and another. They are very dangerous too." "Are they poisonous, then?" I said. "Extremely. Their bite is often fatal, Nat, so beware of them if ever you see one caught." We had a fine opportunity for watching the movements of these snakes, for several came into sight, passing through the water in that peculiar waving manner that is seen in an eel; but a breeze springing up soon after, the sail filled out, and once more we glided rapidly over the beautiful sea. I call it beautiful sea, for those who have merely looked upon the ocean from our own coasts have no conception of the grandeur of the tropic seas amongst the many islands of the Eastern Archipelago, where the water is as bright as lapis lazuli, as clear as crystal, and the powerful sun lights up its depths, and displays beauties of submarine growth at which the eye never tires of gazing. It used to worry me sometimes that we had not longer calms to enable me to get down into the little boat and lie flat, with my face as close to the water as I could place it, looking into what was to me a new world, full of gorgeous corals and other Zoophytes, some motionless, others all in action. Scarlet, purple, blue, yellow, crimson, and rich ruddy brown, they looked to me like flowers amongst the singular waving weeds that rose from the rocks below. Here fishes as brilliant in colours, but more curious in shape, than the pets of our glass globes at home, sailed in and out, chasing the insects or one another, their scales flashing every now and then as they turned on one side or dashed up towards the surface and leaped clean out of the water. In some places the sand was of a beautiful creamy white and as pure as could be, Uncle Dick saying that it was formed out of the corals which were being constantly pounded up by the waves. But whenever the breeze rose I had to be quickly on board again, and on we sailed till, after a long dreamy voyage, we came one morning in sight of some mountains; and as we drew nearer I could see that the rocks rose straight up from the sea, which, calm as it was, sent up columns of spray where the waves broke upon the solid stone. "There, Nat," said my uncle, "that is our present destination." "What! that rocky place, uncle?" I said, with a tone of disappointment in my voice. "Yes, my quick young judge," he said laughing. "Wait till we get closer in," he continued, using his glass; "or no, you can see now; look, Nat." He handed me the glass, and as I looked through, my heart seemed to give a great throb, for the lovely picture I gazed upon seemed to more than realise my dreams. For what at a distance looked to be a sunlit rocky shore, proved through the glass to be a land with lovely shaped trees growing to the edges of the cliffs, which were covered with wonderful shrubs and creepers. Even the rocks looked to be of beautiful colours, and every here and there I could see lovely little bays and nooks, edged with glistening white sand, upon which the crystal water played, sparkling like diamonds and sapphires in the sun. "Oh, uncle!" I cried. "Well, Nat, will that place do for a beginning?" "How soon can we get ashore?" I cried excitedly in answer. "In a couple of hours, now, Nat; but I said will this place do?" "Oh, uncle!" I cried, "it was worth coming all the way to see. I could wander about there for months. Shall I get the guns out of the cases?" "Gently, gently," he said laughing; "let's get into harbour first." _ |
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