Four Young Explorers Part 2

"Take the wheel, Achang," continued the captain.

The sampan was sent ash.o.r.e to cast off the fasts. The river at the town is over four hundred feet wide, and deep enough in almost any part for the Blanchita. As soon as the lines were hauled in, the captain rang one bell, and Felipe started the engine. The helmsman headed the boat for the middle of the stream, and the captain rang the speed-bell. When hurried, the Blanchita was good for ten knots an hour, but her ordinary speed was eight.

On the side of the river opposite Kuching, or Sarawak, was the kampon of the Malays and other natives; and the term means a division or district of a town. Many of the natives of this village had visited the Blanchita,--some for trade, some for employment, and some from mere curiosity. None of them were allowed to go on board of the launch; for, while the Dyaks are remarkably honest people, the Malays and Chinese will steal without any very heavy temptation.

Achang headed the boat up the river. For five miles the banks were low, with no signs of cultivation, and bordered with mangroves. At this point the captain called Lane to the wheel, with orders to keep in the middle of the river. The "Big Four" had taken possession of the bow divans, the better to see the sh.o.r.es. They were more elevated, which simply means higher above the water.

"When shall we come across the paddies, Achang?" asked Felix; "for I am very anxious to meet them, and maybe we shall have a Kilkenny fight with them."

"No, you won't, for you speak English," replied Louis.

"The paddies are here on both sides of the river," added Achang.

"I don't see a man of any sort, not even a Hottentot, and I am sure there is not a Paddy in sight."

"Your education has been neglected, Flix, and you did not read all the books in the s.h.i.+p's library," said Louis. "I only told you the paddies would not answer you if you spoke to them with a brogue. You can try them now if you wish."

"But I don't see a single Paddy to try it on."

"Here is one on your left."

"I don't see anything but a field of rice."

"That's a paddy in this island."

"A field of rice!"

"Achang will tell you that is what they call them in Borneo."

"Bad luck to such Paddies as they are! But it looks as though there might be some Paddies here, for the houses are very neat and nice, just as you see in old Ireland."

"Certainly they are; but I never saw any such in Ireland," added Louis.

"You remember the old woman on the road from Killarney to the lakes who told us she lived in the Irish castle, to which she pointed; and it looked like a pig-sty."

"Of course it didn't have the bananas and the cocoanut-palms around it."

"I admit that we saw many fine places in Ireland, and very likely your mother lived in one of them. But, Achang, is there any game in the woods we see beyond the paddies?"

"Sometimes there is plenty of it; at others there is scarcely any. You can get squirrels here and some birds."

"Any orang-outangs?"

"We found none when we came up the river, for this is not the best place for them. If we run up the Sadong and Samujan Rivers, you will find some," replied the Bornean. "I don't think it will pay to go very far up the Sarawak, if it is game you want; but you can see the country. There is quite a village on the right."

The party were very much interested in examining the houses they saw on the borders of the stream. Like those they had seen in Java and in Sumatra, they were all set up on stilts. A Malay or Dyak will not build his home on dry land, as they noticed in coming up the lower part of the river, though there was plenty of elevated ground near. The dwellings were all built on the soft mud.

The village ten miles up-stream was constructed on the same plan. The houses were placed just out of the reach of the water when it was higher than usual. The material was something like bamboo, as in India, with roofs of kadjang leaves, which abound in the low lands. In front of every one of them was a flat boat--sampan; and one was seen which was large enough to have a roof of the same material as the house. The boats were made fast to a pole set in the mud.

"There is a bear on the sh.o.r.e!" shouted Morris, with no little excitement in his manner, as he pointed to the woods on the sh.o.r.e opposite the houses, to which the attention of all the rest of the party had been directed.

At the same time he seized his repeating rifle, and all the others followed his example. The animal was fully three feet high, and at a second glance it did not look much like a bear. Whatever it was, it took to its heels when the sound of the steamer's screw reached its ear. But Morris fired before the boat started, and the others did the same.

"That is not a bear, Mr. Morris," interposed Achang, laughing as he spoke.

"What is it, then?" demanded Morris.

"A pig."

"A pig three feet high!" exclaimed the hunters with one voice.

"A wild pig," added the Bornean.

"Is he good for anything?" inquired Scott.

"He is good to eat if you like pork."

"He dropped in the bushes when we fired. Can't we get him?" asked Morris.

Under the direction of the captain the steamer was run up to the sh.o.r.e; and the bank in this place was high enough to enable the party to land without using the sampan. All hands, including the seamen, rushed in the direction of the spot where the pig had been seen. The game was readily found. The animal was something like a Kentucky hog, often called a "racer," because he is so tall and lank. He was a long-legged specimen; and Achang said that was because they hunted through swamps and shallow water in search of food, and much use had made their legs long. He added that they were a nuisance because they rooted up the rice, and farmers had to fence their fields.

He was carried on board by the sailors, and Pitts cut out some of the nicer parts of the pig. They had roast pork for dinner, but it was not so good as civilized hogs produce.

CHAPTER III

SOMETHING ABOUT BORNEO AND ITS PEOPLE

"I don't think we know much of anything about Borneo," said Scott, as the Blanchita continued on her course up the Sarawak, after the dinner of roast pork.

"We all heard the lecture of Professor Giroud on board the s.h.i.+p,"

replied Louis.

"I should like to hear it over again, now that we are on the ground,"

added the captain.

"Sure, we're not on the ground, but on the wather," suggested Felix.

As the reader did not hear the lecture, or see it in print, it becomes necessary to repeat it for the benefit of "whom it may concern." The professor, after being duly presented to his audience in Conference Hall, proceeded as follows:--

"Australia is undoubtedly the largest island in the world, and some geographers cla.s.s it with the continents; but Chambers makes Borneo the third in size, while most authorities rate it as the second, making Papua, or New Guinea, the second in extent. Lippincott says Papua disputes with Borneo the claim to the second place among the great islands of the world; and I do not propose to settle the question.

Chambers gives the area of Borneo at 284,000 square miles, the population in the neighborhood of 200,000, and the dimensions as 800 by 700 miles.

"It has a coast-line of about 3,000 miles, nearly the whole of which is low and marshy land. A large portion of the island is mountainous, as you may see by looking at the map before you;" and the professor indicated the several ranges with the pointer. "One chain extends nearly the whole length of the island, dividing in the middle of it into two branches, both of which almost reach the sea on the south. Near the centre of the island are two cross ranges, one extending to the east, and the other to the south-west. It would be useless to mention the Malay names of these ranges, for you could not remember them over night.

The general idea I have given you is quite enough to retain.