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Updated: May 25, 2025
Ali seemed as anxious as I was to obtain a nautilus, and we agreed early in the morning to set off in search of one. I found that he had brought several bamboos full of water, as also a supply of sago-cake and rice. We had our fish-pots with long lines ready to lower in deep water, with fishing-lines and hooks and a supply of small fish for bait.
These New Guinea men had apparently been on a voyage to the northward, and were returning to their native land, which lay, we judged, somewhere to the south. We ate our hard sago-cake, which we could scarcely have got down without the aid of the cocoa-nut. We again made signs that we should like an entire cocoa-nut, that we might drink the juice.
Still he works away very hard by himself in arranging the stores for our voyage, and the Frau and Emily and I help him as much as we possibly can. We have a good supply of sago-cake. We went out and helped him to gather in the maize, which is now ripe having enormous ears. We have busied ourselves in separating the grains. Then we have paddy.
The spare portion of the crews were employed cutting and squaring timber, and boats from Ceram and Goram were constantly unloading their cargoes of sago-cake for the traders' homeward voyage. The fowls, ducks, and goats all looked fat and thriving on the refuse food of a dense population, and the Chinamen's pigs were in a state of obesity that foreboded early death.
Our stock of sago-cake was getting low, but that mattered little, I thought, as without water I found it very difficult to masticate. On, on we sailed. I had miscalculated distances, for though, looking at the chart, as I frequently had done on board the Dugong, the sea did not appear of great width, yet when sailing across it in a small boat the matter was very different.
We therefore first fortified the part where the slope was more gradual; and we hoped that, should our ammunition last, we might be able to keep a large number at bay. We continued working on in spite of fatigue, the Frau and her assistants bringing us a draught of water, or a piece of sago-cake to recruit our strength. Thus in a short time we had a considerable number of stakes ready for use.
We each of us earned a fowling-piece, an axe, and a knife, with flint and steel, and a bag of sago-cake, prepared as have before described. We felt very sure that we could provide ourselves with an ample supply of animal food, as also vegetables, wherever we might go.
When I awoke, there he was sitting like a statue, scarcely moving limb or eye. On we sailed. The sun rose and sank again, and still we were in the midst of the circling horizon. Our stock of cocoa-nuts was getting low; indeed, though the juice is very refreshing for a draught, it cannot take the place of pure water. Our sago-cake was exhausted. We had but three eggs remaining.
In another spot people were busy tying up bundles of mother-of-pearl shell. Carpenters were engaged in squaring timber for repairing vessels; while boats from the islands of Goram and Ceram were unloading their cargoes of sago-cake, with which the traders supply themselves for their homeward voyage.
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