Through Central Borneo An Account Of Two Years' Travel In The Land Of The Head-Hunters Between The Years 1913 And 1917 By Carl Lumholtz
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It Has Been My Fortune To Travel Much On The Steamships
Of The Royal Packet Boat Company, Which Controls The Whole Malay
Archipelago From Singapore To New Guinea And The Moluccas.
It is always a
pleasure to board one of these steamers, as the officers are invariably
courteous, and the food is as excellent on the smaller steamers as on the
large ones.
The same kind of genuine, good claret, at a reasonable price,
is also found on all of them, and it may readily be understood how much I
enjoyed a glass of cool Margaux-Medoc with dinner, after over five months
in the utan. The sailors on these steamers are Javanese. Those from
Madura, rather small men, made an especially good impression. A captain
told me they never give any trouble except when on leave ashore in
Sourabaia, where they occasionally remain overtime, but after a few days
they come to the office and want to be taken on again. They are punished
by having their wages deducted for the days they are absent, but the loss
of coin does not trouble them much. If they have cigarettes and their
meals they are happy, and they never accumulate money. They are engaged
for one year and some of them renew their contracts.
As we sailed southward from the Kayan River we were told of a French count
who with his wife lived on an island three or four kilometres long, near
the coast. At first he had fisheries and sold dried fish, which, with
rice, forms the staple food of the natives of Borneo and other countries
of the East.
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