Nat the Naturalist Part 21

I FIND THE BLACK WAYS STRANGE.

We were not very long in getting to the harbour, a snug landlocked cove where the great prahu in which we had come could lie well protected from the rollers. Our pa.s.sage in was made easy, as the great sails were lowered by the men in a couple of canoes, who paddled out, shouting and singing, and splashing the water; and then, after ropes had been made fast to their sterns, they paddled away again, drawing us steadily insh.o.r.e.

I began to wonder directly whether these would be anything like the savages who came to Robinson Crusoe's island; but a moment's reflection told me that Juan Fernandez was supposed to be his island, and that was on the other side of the world.

"Well, Nat, what do you think of our visitors?" said my uncle, as I leaned over the prow of our vessel and watched the men in the canoe.

"I was thinking, uncle, that it can't cost them much for clothes," I said, laughing.

"No, Nat," he replied, joining in my mirth; "but do you see how different they are to our sailors here?"

"Yes, they are blacker, uncle, and have different shaped noses, and their hair curls instead of being straight."

"Good!" he exclaimed; "that's the way to become a naturalist. Observe everything. You are quite right; we are going to leave one race of men now, Nat, the Malays, to travel amongst the Papuans, a people who are wonderfully different in every way."

I felt a little nervous at first on going ash.o.r.e, for we were surrounded by quite a crowd of fierce-looking blacks, all chattering, gesticulating, and pressing on us in their eagerness to get close up, but I soon found that it was only excitement and delight at seeing us among them, and that they wanted to barter ornaments and sh.e.l.ls, for tobacco and sugar, or knives.

They were just like children, and though, had they been so disposed, they could have overpowered us and taken possession of everything we possessed in an instant, nothing seemed farther from their thoughts.

The captain of the prahu came ash.o.r.e with us, and we explained to one of the chief men that we wanted to have a hut on sh.o.r.e and stay with them for a time, and his countenance expanded into a broad grin of pleasure, one which seemed to increase as we both shook hands with him, and uncle gave him a handful of tobacco, and I a small common one-bladed knife.

He looked at both in turn, and then seemed puzzled as to what he ought to give us in exchange, while, when he was made to understand that they were presents and nothing was wanted back, he attached himself to us, and very soon we found ourselves the possessors of a very dark, little well-thatched hut, with no windows, and nothing to close the door, but it answered our purpose in giving us shelter, and to it the chief willingly helped with a couple of dozen of his men, in getting our chests, boxes, and stores.

The next thing was to find a place for our boat, which was towed ash.o.r.e behind a canoe; and on the chief understanding the want, he very soon pointed out to us a shady nook where it could be run ash.o.r.e and beached in safety, away from the waves, he helping himself to make the rope fast to a large cocoa-nut tree.

This done, the chief walked, or rather strutted, round our boat, and looked under it, over it, and about it in all directions, making grimaces expressive of his disgust, and ending by kicking its sides and making derisive gestures, to show that he thought it a very poor boat indeed.

The prahu was going away the next day, so a busy scene of trading went on till night, when the captain sought us out, and in his broken English enquired very earnestly whether we had landed everything, including sundry stores which my Uncle d.i.c.k had purchased of the Scotch merchants at Singapore, they being able to tell him what was most likely to find favour amongst the savages with whom we should have to deal.

In answer to a question, the Malay captain a.s.sured us that we might feel quite safe amongst the Ke islanders, and also with those in the Aru and neighbouring isles; but he said that he would not trust the men of New Guinea, unless it was in a place where they had never seen white men before.

He promised to be on the look-out for us as he was trading to and fro during the next year or two, for my uncle a.s.sured him that we should be about that time among the islands, and with the promise to meet us here in a year's time if we did not meet before, and to come from Singapore provided with plenty of powder and shot for our use, and ready to take back any cases of specimens we might have ready, he parted from us with the grave courtesy of a Mohammedan gentleman. The next time we saw him was in the morning, as he waved his scarlet headkerchief to us from the deck of his prahu, which was floating away on the current, there being barely wind enough to fill the sails.

Some very beautifully shaped canoes filled with the naked black islanders paddled out for some little distance beside the prahu, singing and shouting, and splashing the sea into foam with their paddles, making it sparkle like diamonds in the glorious morning sunshine.

But after a while my uncle and I, in spite of the delightful sensation of being ash.o.r.e in such a glorious climate, began to feel so very human that we set to and made a fire; then I fetched water from a spring in the rock that ran over in a cascade towards the sea, and after rigging up three pieces of bamboo, gypsy fashion, the kettle soon began to sing, the coffee was measured out, a box dragged outside the hut door to act as a table, and just as the canoes approached the sh.o.r.e we began upon biscuit, a couple of toasted red herrings, of which we got a couple of boxes at Singapore, and what seemed to me the most delicious cup of coffee I had ever tasted.

"There," uncle said to me at last, "we are regularly launched now, Nat.

Those Malays were not savages, but people of law and order. Now we are left alone in the wilds indeed."

"Yes, uncle, and here come the black fellows," I said with my mouth full of biscuit.

In fact, as soon as they had run their beautiful canoes up on to the sands they were starting in a body to come and look at us; but there was a loud shout and some gesticulating, and we saw one tall savage flourishing a spear, when they all went off in other directions, while the savage with the spear came sidling towards us in a slow, awkward way, keeping his face turned in the opposite direction, but gradually coming nearer.

"I hope he does not mean to throw that spear at us, Nat," said my uncle.

"Where did the others go?"

"They seemed to go into the woods there," I said.

"Humph! And they might get round to the back of our hut," said my uncle, looking rather uneasy. "But we will not show any distrust. Have you recognised that chief this morning?"

"I think this is he, uncle," I said, "but I can't see his face."

"Well, we will soon see," said my uncle, as we went on with our breakfast, and kept on watching the black till he came about fifty yards away, apparently searching for something amongst the shrubs and plants with the handle of his spear.

"Shout at him, Nat," said my uncle.

"Eh?"

The savage must have seen us from the first, but he looked up, then down, then turned himself and _gazed_ in every direction but that in which we were; and I shouted again, but still he would not look our way.

"He is shamming, Nat, like a very bashful boy," said Uncle d.i.c.k. "He wants us to ask him to breakfast. Hallo! Get my rifle, Nat; I can see a lot of heads in the trees there. No, sit still; they are only boys."

The savage evidently saw them at the same moment, for he made a rush towards the dark figures that were stealing from tree trunk to tree trunk, and we saw them dash away directly out of sight, after which the savage came sidling in our direction again.

"Hi!" I shouted, as the childish pantomime went on, and the savage stared in all directions as if wonder-stricken at a strange noise coming he knew not whence, and ending by kneeling down and laying his ear to the ground.

"Hi!" I shouted again; but it was of no use, he could not possibly see either us, our chest, our fire, or the hut, but kept sidling along, staring in every direction but the right.

"Go and fetch him, Nat, while I toast another bloater. We'll give him some breakfast, and it will make him friendly."

I got up and went off, wondering what Uncle Joe and Aunt Sophia would have said to see me going to speak to that great spear-armed savage, and for a moment I wondered what would happen if he attacked me.

"Uncle d.i.c.k would shoot him dead with his rifle," I said to myself by way of comfort, and I walked boldly on.

Still he would not see me, but kept sidling on till I got close up to him and gave him a smart spank on his naked shoulder.

In an instant he had spun round, leaped to a couple of yards away, and poised his spear as if to hurl. Then, acting his astonishment with great cleverness, his angry countenance broke up into a broad smile, he placed his spear into the hollow of his left arm, and stepped forward to shake hands, chattering away eagerly, though I could not understand a word.

"Come and have some breakfast," I said, and he chattered again. "Come and have some breakfast," I shouted; and then to myself: "How stupid I am! He can't understand."

So I took him by the arm, and pointed towards where my uncle was watching us with his rifle leaning against the table; and I knew that he must have been looking after my safety.

The savage stared here and there and everywhere, but he could not see my uncle till I dragged him half-way to the fire and pointed again, when he uttered a shout of surprise, as much as to say, "Well, who would have thought of seeing him there!"

He then walked up with me, grinning pleasantly, shook hands, and looked astonished as we pointed to the ground for him to sit down.

He seated himself though, at last, after sticking his spear in the sandy earth, and then watched us both as I spread some salt b.u.t.ter out of a pot on a piece of biscuit, and then handed him over some hot coffee, which I made very sweet, while my uncle, after shaking hands, had gone on toasting the bloater upon a stick of bamboo.

"Don't give him the coffee too hot, Nat," said my uncle. "There, that's done, I think."

"I could drink it myself, uncle," I replied, and we placed the food before our guest, pointing to it, but he kept on shaking his head, and put his hands behind him.

"Perhaps he thinks it is not good, uncle," I said, after we had several times partaken of our own to set him an example.

"Or that it is poisoned," said my uncle. "Taste it to show him it is good, Nat."

I took up the tin mug of coffee and tasted it twice, then broke a piece off the biscuit, put a little of the herring upon it, and ate it, the savage watching me closely the while.