It Was Entered By A Low Sliding Door
Of Thatch On One Side, And Had A Very Small Window On The Other.
The Floor Was Of Split Bamboo, Pleasantly Elastic, Raised Six
Inches Above The Deck, So As To Be Quite Dry.
It was covered with
fine cane mats, for the manufacture of which Macassar is
celebrated; against the further wall
Were arranged my guncase,
insect-boxes, clothes, and books; my mattress occupied the
middle, and next the door were my canteen, lamp, and little store
of luxuries for the voyage; while guns, revolver, and hunting
knife hung conveniently from the roof. During these four
miserable days I was quite jolly in this little snuggery more so
than I should have been if confined the same time to the gilded
and uncomfortable saloon of a first-class steamer. Then, how
comparatively sweet was everything on board - no paint, no tar, no
new rope, (vilest of smells to the qualmish!) no grease, or oil,
or varnish; but instead of these, bamboo and rattan, and coir
rope and palm thatch; pure vegetable fibres, which smell
pleasantly if they smell at all, and recall quiet scenes in the
green and shady forest.
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.
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