been out on head-hunting expeditions of late, and that the mouth of the Rejang
was infested by Illanum pirates. The captain only laughed, and jokingly told Sir
James that if the game proved scarce he might come back and claim the prize
money on a boat-load of pirate heads.
We started at once,—for the captain let me go; we rowed some sixty miles along
the coast to the mouth of the Rejang; then for four days we pulled up its
snakelike course. It was my first bit of adventure, and everything was strange
and new. The river’s course was like a great tunnel into the dense black jungle.
On each side and above we were completely walled in by an impenetrable
growth of great tropical trees and the iron-like vines of the rubber. The sun for a
few hours each day came in broken shafts down through the foliage, and
exposed the black back of a crocodile, or the green sides of an iguana. Troops of
monkeys swung and chattered in the branches above, and at intervals a grove of
cocoanut broke the monotony of the scenery. Among them we would land and
rest for the day or night, eat of their juicy fruit, and go on short excursions for
game. A roasted monkey, some baked yams, and a delicious rice curry made up
a royal bill of fare, and as the odor of our tobacco mixed with the breathing
perfume of the jungle, I would fall asleep listening to sea-yarns that sometimes
ran back to the War of 1812.
II
At the end of the fifth day we arrived at the head of the Rejang. Here the river
broke up into a dozen small streams and a swamp. A stockade had been erected,
and the Rajah had stationed a small company of native soldiers under an English
officer to keep the head-hunting Dyaks in check. I don’t remember what our
captain found out in regard to the gold fields, at least it was not encouraging; for
he gave up the search and joined the English lieutenant in a grand deer-hunt that
lasted for five days, and then started back accompanied by two native soldiers
bearing despatches to the Rajah.
It was easy running down the river with the current. One man in each end of the
boat kept it off roots, sunken logs, and crocodiles, and the rest of us spent the