It Was Mow
Necessary To Catch Or Kill Him Neatly, Or He Would Escape Among
The Piles Of Miscellaneous Luggage, And We Should Hardly Sleep
Comfortably.
One of the ex-convicts volunteered to catch him with
his hand wrapped up in a cloth, but from the way he went about it
I saw he was nervous and would let the thing go, so I would mot
allow him to make the attempt.
I them got a chopping-knife, and
carefully moving my insect nets, which hung just over the snake
and prevented me getting a free blow, I cut him quietly across
the back, holding him down while my boy with another knife
crushed his head. On examination, I found he had large poison
fangs, and it is a wonder he did not bite me when I first touched
him.
Thinking it very unlikely that two snakes had got on board at the
same time, I turned in and went to sleep; but having all the time
a vague dreamy idea that I might put my hand on another one, I
lay wonderfully still, not turning over once all night, quite the
reverse of my usual habits. The next day we reached Ternate, and
I ensconced myself in my comfortable house, to examine all my
treasures, and pack them securely for the voyage home.
CHAPTER XXV.
CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS.
(OCTOBER 1859 To JUNE 1860.)
I LEFT Amboyna for my first visit to Ceram at three o'clock in
the morning of October 29th, after having been delayed several
days by the boat's crew, who could not be got together. Captain
Van der Beck, who gave me a passage in his boat, had been running
after them all day, and at midnight we had to search for two of
my men who had disappeared at the last moment. One we found at
supper in his own house, and rather tipsy with his parting
libations of arrack, but the other was gone across the bay, and
we were obliged to leave without him. We stayed some hours at two
villages near the east end of Amboyna, at one of which we had to
discharge some wood for the missionaries' house, and on the third
afternoon reached Captain Van der Beck's plantation, situated at
Hatosua, in that part of Ceram opposite to the island of Amboyna.
This was a clearing in flat and rather swampy forest, about
twenty acres in extent, and mostly planted with cacao and
tobacco. Besides a small cottage occupied by the workmen, there
was a large shed for tobacco drying, a corner of which was
offered me; and thinking from the look of the place that I should
find- good collecting ground here, I fitted up temporary tables,
benches, and beds, and made all preparations for some weeks'
stay. A few days, however, served to show that I should be
disappointed. Beetles were tolerably abundant, and I obtained
plenty of fine long-horned Anthribidae and pretty Longicorns, but
they were mostly the same species as I had found during my first
short visit to Amboyna. There were very few paths in the forest;
which seemed poor in birds and butterflies, and day after day my
men brought me nothing worth notice. I was therefore soon obliged
to think about changing my locality, as I could evidently obtain
no proper notion of the productions of the almost entirely
unexplored island of Ceram by staying in this place.
I rather regretted leaving, because my host was one of the most
remarkable men and most entertaining companions I had ever met
with. He was a Fleeting by birth, and, like so many of his
countrymen, had a wonderful talent for languages. When quite a
youth he had accompanied a Government official who was sent to
report on the trade and commerce of the Mediterranean, and had
acquired the colloquial language of every place they stayed a few
weeks at. He had afterwards made voyages to St. Petersburg, and
to other parts of Europe, including a few weeks in London, and
had then come out to the past, where he had been for some years
trading and speculating in the various islands. He now spoke
Dutch, French, Malay, and Javanese, all equally well; English
with a very slight accent, but with perfect fluency, axed a most
complete knowledge of idiom, in which I often tried to puzzle him
in vain. German and Italian were also quite familiar to him, and
his acquaintance with European languages included Modern Greek,
Turkish, Russian, and colloquial Hebrew and Latin. As a test of
his power, I may mention that he had made a voyage to the out-of-
the-way island of Salibaboo, and had stayed there trading a few
weeks. As I was collecting vocabularies, he told me he thought he
could remember some words, and dictated considerable number. Some
time after I met with a short list of words taken down in those
islands, and in every case they agreed with those he had given
me. He used to sing a Hebrew drinking-song, which he had learned
from some Jews with whom he had once travelled, and astonished by
joining in their conversation, and had a never-ending fund of
tale and anecdote about the people he had met and the places he
had visited.
In most of the villages of this part of Ceram are schools and
native schoolmasters, and the inhabitants have been long
converted to Christianity. In the larger villages there are
European missionaries; but there is little or no external
difference between the Christian and Alfuro villages, nor, as far
as I have seen, in their inhabitants. The people seem more
decidedly Papuan than those of Gilolo. They are darker in colour,
and a number of them have the frizzly Papuan hair; their features
also are harsh and prominent, and the women in particular are far
less engaging than those of the Malay race. Captain Van der Beck
was never tired of abusing the inhabitants of these Christian
villages as thieves, liars, and drunkards, besides being
incorrigibly lazy.
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