This Seemed Quite A Favourite
Amusement With Them, And They Kept It Up With Much Spirit.
The next morning we started in a boat about thirty feet long, and
only twenty-eight inches wide.
The stream here suddenly changes
its character. Hitherto, though swift, it had been deep and
smooth, and confined by steep banks. Now it rushed and rippled
over a pebbly, sandy, or rocky bed, occasionally forming
miniature cascades and rapids, and throwing up on one side or the
other broad banks of finely coloured pebbles. No paddling could
make way here, but the Dyaks with bamboo poles propelled us along
with great dexterity and swiftness, never losing their balance in
such a narrow and unsteady vessel, though standing up and
exerting all their force. It was a brilliant day, and the
cheerful exertions of the men, the rushing of the sparkling
waters, with the bright and varied foliage, which from either
bank stretched over our heads, produced an exhilarating sensation
which recalled my canoe voyages on the grander waters of South
America.
Early in the afternoon we reached the village of Borotói, and,
though it would have been easy to reach the next one before
night, I was obliged to stay, as my men wanted to return and
others could not possibly go on with me without the preliminary
talking. Besides, a white man was too great a rarity to be
allowed to escape them, and their wives would never have forgiven
them if, when they returned from the fields, they found that such
a curiosity had not been kept for them to see.
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