horse back, and looked aghast at our preparations. "Where is the Pumbuckle?"
we asked. "Gone to the Rajah's," said he. "We are going," said I. "Oh! pray
don't," said he; "wait a little; they are having a consultation, and some priests are
coming to see you, and a chief is going off to Mataram to ask the permission of
the Anak Agong for you to stay." This settled the matter. More talk, more delay,
and another eight or ten hours' consultation were not to be endured; so we started
at once, the poor interpreter almost weeping at our obstinacy and hurry, and
assuring us "the Pumbuckle would be very sorry, and the Rajah would be very
sorry, and if we would but wait all would be right." I gave Ali my horse, and
started on foot, but he afterwards mounted behind Mr. Ross's groom, and we got
home very well, though rather hot and tired.
At Mataram we called at the house of Gusti Gadioca, one of the princes of
Lombock, who was a friend of Mr. Carter's, and who had promised to show me
the guns made by native workmen. Two guns were exhibited, one six, the other
seven feet long, and of a proportionably large bore. The barrels were twisted and
well finished, though not so finely worked as ours. The stock was well made,
and extended to the end of the barrel. Silver and gold ornament was inlaid over
most of the surface, but the locks were taken from English muskets. The Gusti
assured me, however, that the Rajah had a man who made locks and also rifled
barrels. The workshop where these guns are made and the tools used were next
shown us, and were very remarkable. An open shed with a couple of small mud
forges were the chief objects visible. The bellows consisted of two bamboo
cylinders, with pistons worked by hand. They move very easily, having a loose
stuffing of feathers thickly set round the piston so as to act as a valve, and
produce a regular blast. Both cylinders communicate with the same nozzle, one
piston rising while the other falls. An oblong piece of iron on the ground was the
anvil, and a small vice was fixed on the projecting root of a tree outside. These,
with a few files and hammers, were literally the only tools with which an old
man makes these fine guns, finishing then himself from the rough iron and
wood.
I was anxious to know how they bored these long barrels, which seemed
perfectly true and are said to shoot admirably; and, on asking the Gusti, received
the enigmatical answer: "We use a basket full of stones." Being utterly unable to
imagine what he could mean, I asked if I could see how they did it, and one of
the dozen little boys around us was sent to fetch the basket. He soon returned
with this most extraordinary boring-machine, the mode of using which the Gusti
then explained to me. It was simply a strong bamboo basket, through the bottom
of which was stuck upright a pole about three feet long, kept in its place by a few