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Updated: May 3, 2025
In the meantime Yamba and I swam safely ashore, and watched the struggles of the "evil spirit" from the shore, among a crowd of frantic natives. I might here mention that this was actually the first time that these inland savages had seen a canoe or boat of any description, so that naturally the two I launched occasioned endless amazement.
And then, in his gay, half-mocking, yet musical voice he touched lightly on vast and distant things. He talked of the great Saskatchewan, of Peace River, and the delta of the Mackenzie, of the winter journeys beyond Great Bear Lake into the Land of the Little Sticks, and the half-mythical lake of Yamba Tooh. He spoke of life with the Dog Ribs and Yellow Knives, where the snow falls in midsummer.
Yamba, by the way, was anxious that I should possess at least half-a-dozen wives, partly because this circumstance would be more in keeping with my rank; but I did not fall in with the idea. I had quite enough to do already to maintain my authority among the tribe at large, and did not care to have to rule in addition half-a- dozen women in my own establishment.
This little dwelling, too, was uninhabited, though I found a number of trays of fish lying about, which afterwards I found to be beche-de-mer being dried and smoked. Suddenly, while Yamba and I were investigating the interior of the hut, a number of Malays unexpectedly appeared on the scene, and I then realised I had had the good fortune to come across a Malay beche-de-mer expedition.
As darkness began to descend upon the vast waste of waters, it occurred to me to make a bold dash through the serried ranks of our besiegers, but Yamba restrained me, telling me it meant certain death to attempt to run the gantlet under such fearsome circumstances. Night came on. How can I describe its horrors?
Sometimes they scorch them off their bodies by means of a lighted stick a kind office which Yamba performed for me. The blacks had very few real cures for ailments, and such as they had were distinctly curious. One cure for rheumatism was to roll in the black, odourless mud at the edge of a lagoon, and then bask in the blazing sun until the mud became quite caked upon the person.
The guides spoke of a similar volcanic outcrop above Point Abu Madd to the south; and of a third close to Yamba' harbour. An hour of "stravaguing" walk showed us the first sign of the ruins: wall-bases built with fine cement, crowning the summit of a dwarf mound to the left of the road; well-worked scoria were also scattered over its slopes.
It was out of the question to camp where we were, because it was much too cold; and besides Yamba had much difficulty in finding roots.
I must say that Yamba did not like the stranger, but for my sake she was wonderfully patient with him. It was whilst living on the shores of this lagoon that I received a very extraordinary commission from a neighbouring tribe.
Yamba acted as cook and waitress, but after a time the work was more than she could cope with unaided. You see, she had to find the food as well as cook it. I was in something of a dilemma. If I engaged other native women to help Yamba, they also would be recognised as my wives.
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