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Soon after the Sultan sent a messenger to inquire their business, and, being satisfied with their report, promised to come on board. Meantime a number of boats brought off provisions. The ship was made ready to receive the Sultan, who soon came off in a handsome proa, with a large white silk flag at the head of the mast, edged round with red.
At one side of the bay it would be possible to land and climb from there to the top of the island, from which, everywhere else, as far as I could see, a sheer cliff came down three hundred feet to where the waves beat against the jagged rocks at its base. The smaller boats which had been towed behind the larger craft were cast off and brought alongside the chief's proa.
Besides those who are avowed pirates, it ought to be particularly noticed that a great number of the Malayan princes must be considered as accessories to their crimes, for they afford them protection, contribute to their outfit, and often share in their booty; so that a piratical proa is too commonly more welcome in their harbours than a fair trader.
This getting up at dawn real dawn and working until seven was a distinct novelty. From then until four in the afternoon there was nothing to do the whole island went to sleep. Even the chattering monkeys, parrots, and parrakeets departed the fruit groves for the smelly dark of the jungle. If, around noon, a coconut proa landed, the boys made no effort to unload.
His proa is the only vessel provided with a compass; it also has one or two swivel or small guns, and is perhaps armed with musquets. Their provisions chiefly consist of rice and cocoa-nuts, and their water which during the westerly monsoon is easily replenished on all parts of the coast is carried in joints of bamboo. Besides trepang, they trade in sharks' fins and birds' nests."
As they got closer and closer to the ship, too, we noticed that several had red sashes round their blue frocks, into which were stuck fearful curved knives and the butt-ends of pistols; and so, with "so many Richmonds in the field," it was not to be wondered that Tim Rooney and Mr Mackay had previously missed their mark albeit now that the proa was near, it was strange that they could not pick off the pirate leader, who, as the proa sheered up alongside the Silver Queen, looked up at us astern and grinned a horrible sardonic grin, drawing the while his solitary left hand across his bare tawny throat with a most unmistakable gesture.
Whenever you grow impatient with her, remember the folly of her father. I can now give myself to God utterly; no human emotion will ever be shuttling in between." "And all the time you loved her?" appalled. "Perhaps." Enschede stepped into the proa, and the natives shoved off. Spurlock remained where he was until the sail became an infinitesimal speck in the distance.
They make a proa about six feet long, rig it with sails, oars, rudder, and other gear, and every family deposits in its some rice, fruit, a fowl, two eggs, insects that ravage the fields, and so on. Then they let it drift away to sea, saying, "Take away from here all kinds of sickness, take them to other islands, to other lands, distribute them in places that lie eastward, where the sun rises."
I have sailed many times through the straits of Sunda, Banca, Rhio, Dryan, Malacca, and Singapore, since 1823, and have known some few European vessels and many native proas taken; but, in all my voyages up and down, I never saw a boat or proa that I felt certain was a pirate.
One of them came on board and Captain Woodward put the same question to him respecting Macassar. He first said it would take thirty days to reach there and asked them to go on shore and see the Rajah. But they declined doing this, and he afterwards acknowledged that a proa could go there in two days. They then left the canoe and sailed along the coast.
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