It Was A Regular Little
Hurricane, And My Old Bugis Steersman Began Shouting Out To
"Allah!
Il Allah!" to preserve us.
We could only keep up our jib,
which was almost blown to rags, but by careful handling it kept
us before the wind, and the prau behaved very well. Our small
boat (purchased at Gani) was towing astern, and soon got full of
water, so that it broke away and we saw no more of it. In about
an hour the fury of the wind abated a little, and in two more we
were able to hoist our mainsail, reefed and half-mast high.
Towards evening it cleared up and fell calm, and the sea, which
had been rather high, soon went down. Not being much of a seaman
myself I had been considerably alarmed, and even the old
steersman assured me he had never been in a worse squall all his
life. He was now more than ever confirmed in his opinion of the
unluckiness of the boat, and in the efficiency of the holy oil
which all Bugis praus had poured through their bottoms. As it
was, he imputed our safety and the quick termination of the
squall entirely to his own prayers, saying with a laugh, "Yes,
that's the way we always do on board our praus; when things are
at the worst we stand up and shout out our prayers as loud as we
can, and then Tuwan Allah helps us."
After this it took us two days more to reach Ternate, having our
usual calms, squalls, and head-winds to the very last; and once
having to return back to our anchorage owing to violent gusts of
wind just as we were close to the town.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 344 of 412
Words from 92634 to 92925
of 111511
