But desirable as this expedition would have
been, it had to be given up because of the formidable difficulties in
getting men, even if we followed the route over the watershed which is
used by the natives.
Bangsul had undertaken to negotiate with us on behalf of the Penyahbongs
and the Malays, and although in some ways he was an estimable man, his
Malay characteristic of turning everything to his own advantage at times
got the better of him and delayed an agreement. At first they demanded a
sum amounting to seven florins a day for each of the twenty-nine men
needed, but as fourteen Malay rubber-gatherers arrived very opportunely,
it was agreed that we should be taken to the Kasao River for 300 florins
and my six prahus. The natives had some trouble deciding how the prahus
should be divided among them, the kapala insisting upon having the largest
and best for himself.
This question having been settled through Bangsul, on March 22 we
departed. Our prahus were poled most of the way on a stream which, though
rather shallow, ran with a swift current, and at times made my heavily
loaded craft take water. In Borneo it usually requires as many days to get
up-stream as it takes hours to come down.
We stayed for the night at a former camping place of rattan seekers, a
small, narrow clearing on the river brink, on which tents and sheds were
huddled closely together in the way military men prefer when travelling in
the utan. The paddlers had asked us to be ready at daylight, but at seven
o'clock in the chilly and very foggy morning they were still warming
themselves around the fire. An hour later, when we had finished loading
the prahus, the river began to rise incredibly fast, at the rate of ten
centimetres per minute in the first six minutes, and in two hours and a
quarter it had risen 2.30 metres, when it became steady. In the meantime
we had remade our camp, hoping that the river might permit us to travel
next day. Three of the Penyahbongs went out hunting with the only sumpitan
we had, and shortly afterward returned with a pig.
Early in the afternoon we were much surprised by the appearance of a prahu
with three Dayaks who had a dog and a sumpitan and brought a pig which
they had killed in the morning. They were the chief, with two companions,
from Data Laong on the Kasao River for which we were aiming. The rumour of
our party had reached his ears, and with thirty men he had been waiting
for us on this side of the watershed.
