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Kalong had come with us, and as he could not understand us, we told Ned to get him to try what he could do. We watched him eagerly. After a time the Papuans appeared to understand what he was saying, they replied.
These we husbanded carefully; and Kalong said that he hoped to be able to get some cocoa-nuts and other fruit from some of the gardens we might pass at night. I did not like the idea of robbing the poor people, but we had no means of paying for the fruit; and, under the circumstances, we were justified in taking it.
He told us that the canoe was close at hand, but that Kalong had become alarmed at hearing the signal of the attack, and, at the risk of his life, had gone back to look for us. Grateful as I was to the faithful creature, the delay was very vexatious. Of course, however, we had no remedy but to wait for him.
We also filled a number of gourds we had collected with water; and Kalong foraged with considerable success in every direction for provisions, so that we had little fear of suffering from hunger, unless we should be kept out longer than we expected.
Kalong, I found, had not forgotten the instruction I had attempted to bestow on him while on board the Fraulein. Blount and I agreed, that although the canoe was small, we had seen many, less fit for the work, living in a very heavy sea, when properly handled, and that it would be better to risk the passage to Celebes than to trust to the tender mercies of the Malays or Dyaks of the coast.
They told Kalong that they intended to row along the coast some distance to the eastward, where there was a bay in which we could land, and from thence proceed directly towards a village perched on the side of a mountain, where the white men had been living when last heard of. We agreed at once to embark.
It wouldn't be safe to fall in with them. They would soon run down our boats and not leave a man of us alive." "Though you may be mistaken, we will take the prudent course and try to find out who the people are," answered the first mate. "Wake up Kalong, and you and he jump into the canoe and paddle ahead until you have discovered what they are about.
We had all begun to suffer much from fatigue, so we agreed that two should row while the other two stretched themselves at the bottom of the canoe to rest. Kalong and I took one watch, while Hassan and Blount took the other, Eva and Nutmeg acting as look-outs.
"Then, Massa," said Kalong, "we will pull away from the land, and trust to Providence, you sometime tell me about we fall in with the schooner, or some other craft or we go over to coast of Celebes. No good to trust to people about here. As Massa say, if we do all we can, Providence do all the rest."
We accordingly at once pulled in for the bank. Kalong and Ned sprang on shore, Blyth and I fallowing. We had pistols in our belts, and each wore a sword; but, as the Malays all go armed, such weapons were not likely to make them suppose that we were otherwise than peaceably disposed.
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