Our Ship Had Two Masts, If Masts They Can Be Called C Which Were
Great Moveable Triangles.
If in an ordinary ship you replace the
shrouds and backstay by strong timbers, and take away the mast
Altogether, you have the arrangement adopted on board a prau.
Above my cabin, and resting on cross-beams attached to the masts,
was a wilderness of yards and spars, mostly formed of bamboo. The
mainyard, an immense affair nearly a hundred feet long, was
formed of many pieces of wood and bamboo bound together with
rattans in an ingenious manner. The sail carried by this was of
an oblong shape, and was hung out of the centre, so that when the
short end was hauled down on deck the long end mounted high in
the air, making up for the lowness of the mast itself. The
foresail was of the same shape, but smaller. Both these were of
matting, and, with two jibs and a fore and aft sail astern of
cotton canvas, completed our rig.
The crew consisted of about thirty men, natives of Macassar and
the adjacent coasts and islands. They were mostly young, and
were short, broad-faced, good-humoured looking fellows. Their
dress consisted generally of a pair of trousers only, when at
work, and a handkerchief twisted round the head, to which in the
evening they would add a thin cotton jacket. Four of the elder
men were "jurumudis," or steersmen, who had to squat (two at a
time) in the little steerage before described, changing every six
hours. Then there was an old man, the "juragan," or captain, but
who was really what we should call the first mate; he occupied
the other half of the little house on deck. There were about ten
respectable men, Chinese or Bugis, whom our owner used to call
"his own people." He treated them very well, shared his meals
with them, and spoke to them always with perfect politeness; yet
they were most of them a kind of slave debtors, bound over by the
police magistrate to work for him at mere nominal wages for a
term of years till their debts were liquidated. This is a Dutch
institution in this part of the world, and seems to work well. It
is a great boon to traders, who can do nothing in these thinly-
populated regions without trusting goods to agents and petty
dealers, who frequently squander them away in gambling and
debauchery. The lower classes are almost all in a chronic state
of debt. The merchant trusts them again and again, till the
amount is something serious, when he brings them to court and has
their services allotted to him for its liquidation. The debtors
seem to think this no disgrace, but rather enjoy their freedom
from responsibility, and the dignity of their position under a
wealthy and well-known merchant. They trade a little on their own
account, and both parties seem to get on very well together. The
plan seems a more sensible one than that which we adopt, of
effectually preventing a man from earning anything towards paying
his debts by shutting him up in a jail.
My own servants were three in number. Ali, the Malay boy whom I
had picked up in Borneo, was my head man. He had already been
with me a year, could turn his hand to anything, and was quite
attentive and trustworthy. He was a good shot, and fond of
shooting, and I had taught him to skin birds very well. The
second, named Baderoon, was a Macassar lad; also a pretty good
boy, but a desperate gambler. Under pretence of buying a house
for his mother, and clothes, for himself, he had received four
months' wages about a week before we sailed, and in a day or two
gambled away every dollar of it. He had come on board with no
clothes, no betel, or tobacco, or salt fish, all which necessary
articles I was obliged to send Ali to buy for him. These two lads
were about sixteen, I should suppose; the third was younger, a
sharp little rascal named Baso, who had been with me a month or
two, and had learnt to cook tolerably. He was to fulfil the
important office of cook and housekeeper, for I could not get any
regular servants to go to such a terribly remote country; one
might as well ask a chef de cuisine to go to Patagonia.
On the fifth day that I had spent on board (Dec. 15th) the rain
ceased, and final preparations were made for starting. Sails were
dried and furled, boats were constantly coming and going, and
stores for the voyage, fruit, vegetables, fish, and palm sugar,
were taken on board. In the afternoon two women arrived with a
large party of friends and relations, and at parting there was a
general noserubbing (the Malay kiss), and some tears shed. These
were promising symptoms for our getting off the next day; and
accordingly, at three in the morning, the owner came on board,
the anchor was immediately weighed, and by four we set sail. Just
as we were fairly off and clear of the other praus, the old
juragan repeated some prayers, all around responding with "Allah
il Allah," and a few strokes on a gong as an accompaniment,
concluding with all wishing each other "Salaamat jalan," a safe
and happy journey. We had a light breeze, a calm sea, and a fine
morning, a prosperous commencement of our voyage of about a
thousand miles to the far-famed Aru Islands.
The wind continued light and variable all day, with a calm in the
evening before the land breeze sprang up, were then passing the
island of "Tanakaki "(foot of the land), at the extreme south of
this part of Celebes. There are some dangerous rocks here, and as
I was standing by the bulwarks, I happened to spit over the side;
one of the men begged I would not do so just now, but spit on
deck, as they were much afraid of this place.
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