Three Or Four
Javanese Soldiers, Two Convicts Whose Time Had Expired (One,
Curiously Enough, Being The Man Who Had Stolen My Cash-Box And
Keys), The Schoolmaster's Wife And A Servant Going On A Visit To
Ternate, And A Chinese Trader Going To Buy Goods.
We had to sleep
all together in the cabin, packed pretty close; but they very
civilly allowed me plenty of room for my mattrass, and we got on
very well together.
There was a little cookhouse in the bows,
where we could boil our rice and make our coffee, every one of
course bringing his own provisions, and arranging his meal-times
as he found most convenient. The passage would have been
agreeable enough but for the dreadful "tom-toms," or wooden
drums, which are beaten incessantly while the men are rowing. Two
men were engaged constantly at them, making a fearful din the
whole voyage. The rowers are men sent by the Sultan of Ternate.
They get about threepence a day, and find their own provisions.
Each man had a strong wooden "betel" box, on which he generally
sat, a sleeping-mat, and a change of clothes - rowing naked, with
only a sarong or a waistcloth. They sleep in their places,
covered with their mat, which keeps out the rain pretty well.
They chew betel or smoke cigarettes incessantly; eat dry sago and
a little salt fish; seldom sing while rowing, except when excited
and wanting to reach a stopping-place, and do not talk a great
deal.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 64 of 412
Words from 16947 to 17200
of 111511
