By The Help Of Some Kind Friends I Was Introduced To The Owner Of
One Of The Large Praus Which Was To Sail In A Few Days.
He was a
Javanese half-caste, intelligent, mild, and gentlemanly in his
manners, and had a young and pretty Dutch wife, whom he was going
to leave behind during his absence.
When we talked about passage
money he would fix no sum, but insisted on leaving it entirely to
me to pay on my return exactly what I liked. "And then," said he,
"whether you give me one dollar or a hundred, I shall he
satisfied, and shall ask no more."
The remainder of my stay was fully occupied in laying in stores,
engaging servants, and making every other preparation for an
absence of seven months from even the outskirts of civilization.
On the morning of December 13th, when we went on board at
daybreak, it was raining hard. We set sail and it came on to
blow. Our boat was lost astern, our sails damaged, and the
evening found us hack again in Macassar harbour. We remained
there four days longer, owing to its raining all the time, thus
rendering it impossible to dry and repair the huge mat sails. All
these dreary days I remained on board, and during the rare
intervals when it didn't rain, made myself acquainted with our
outlandish craft, some of the peculiarities of which I will now
endeavour to describe.
It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped
something like a Chinese junk.
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