it is four o’clock in the afternoon. the ship’s launch is wallowing toward the wharf, carrying with it ourselves and two of the ship’s officers. moh—our javanese boy, cook, majordomo, and general nuisance—is busily engaged in gathering our barang together, preparatory to getting it ashore. no one ever thinks of calling baggage anything but “barang” after a few months in malay waters. we just must show our command of the vernacular and thereby escape classification as common tourists.
as we near the wharf a motley crowd greets us with a variety of expressions. the throng is composed for the most part of malay-speaking javanese or ambonese, but here and there one sees pajama-clad chinese and over there near the godown, or warehouse, is the white-clad 14figure of a white man. he is approaching us rapidly. we scramble up the rickety, slippery stairway to the dock and find ourselves in a chattering gang who clamor to be allowed to carry our barang to the passangrahan or resthouse, which in these dutch possessions is the only shelter available to the stranger. it is maintained by the government for this purpose and in it one finds every convenience, but one must supply one’s own servants and food.
we arrange with a chinaman, who seems to be a sort of “straw boss” of the coolies, for the transfer of our luggage, and dismiss the matter from our minds. he will care for it and will not worry us, for the whole bill will not be over two guilders, or about sixty cents. there are twenty-two pieces to be moved. if we cared to argue the matter out we might get the job done for one guilder, but it’s too warm for an argument.
the white-clad figure is close to us now. he evidently is worried about the arrival of something or other that he expects the boat to bring 15him. he does not notice us, but goes directly to the ship’s officer who is giving orders to the men lightering the cargo ashore. they engage in an animated but good-natured conversation. farther down the dock a scuffle is taking place. the crowd thins out rapidly, and we can glimpse the combatants now and then between the intervening onlookers. they are slashing at each other with knives and whole-souled abandon. they are malay stevedores. from the lower end of the mole a grotesque native policeman espies the affray and shouts to the battlers to desist,—this with wild waving of his arms and dire threats of punishment. his shrill admonitions do not seem to have the desired effect, and he suddenly projects himself (that is the only word for it) in the general direction of the mêlée. his old navy cutlass flashes in the waning sunlight as he draws it with a great flourish and comes bouncing down the wharf. the scabbard disconcertingly inserts itself between his legs and he performs an absurd contortion to regain his footing. by miraculous intervention of providence 16he maintains his footing and arrives. smack! smack! and the belligerents depart in opposite directions. the policeman’s cutlass has accomplished its purpose. the fighters have been spanked into peace with the flat of the blade.
as the pair separate a gentle voice beside us is raised in soft-toned remonstrance. it is directed toward the misguided policeman. “gad, man!” it says, “don’t stop ’em; let ’em fight.” then turning to us, the speaker continues, “i just love to see the blood fly.” our jaws drop. we turn to scan the ferocious one and look him over in amazement. before us is a little man of somewhat uncertain age, clad largely in a huge vandyke that rambles in a casual fashion over his face. his voice is soft, soft as a girl’s, and his eyes as we look into them lose their bloodthirsty, anticipatory glint, and sparkle with kindliness and good-fellowship.
malays bringing on board their varied possessions
as the last of the praus was cleared of baggage they clustered on the gangway, shouting adieus
17he extends his hand, a hand wrinkled and seamed like a last-year’s apple and brown as a claro from sumatra. “my moniker’s reache,” he tells us, and we tell him our names. he continues: “you are americans, eh? well, put ’er there! i like the way you fellows handled the railroad situation in france. here for long? wait: stay here a moment while i see the mate there, and i’ll take you over to the club for a drink. we’ll spin a yarn and get acquainted. can’t spin a yarn or get chummy sudden, ’less there’s some square-face in sight; that’s solid. back in a minute.”
as we watch him go we smile. so there is a club in merauke! five white men,—and a club! it is proper. where there is a club there must be a bar. the barkeeper draws a salary, after a fashion. he must be kept awake to lend an air of liveliness to the institution, so the members foregather of an evening and sing raucously in the wee sma’ hours expressly for that purpose. true, the club is but a palm-thatched edifice with a slightly corrugated floor and reputation; nevertheless it is a club. nondescript furniture ungraces its airy spaciousness and mud-wasps’ nests now and then fall upon one’s head as some 18fly-hungry chick chack lizard carelessly dislodges them, but it is still “the club.” it being “the club,” one must always remember to wear his coat therein, for the etiquette of fleshpots is brought to this land of the stewpots and observed with due reverence. no matter how deep in his cups the superior white man may be, he must never appear at “the club” in negligée. it isn’t done.
the native may wander in the simmering heat of midday clad in what approximates nothing, but the tuan, being superior even when most satisfyingly inebriated, to maintain his proper dignity must wear at all times a coat over his regulation soft-collared shirt. of course we americans are not really bound to do this, for our many eccentricities are passed over without undue comment. when one of those who really “belong” does make some allusion to one of our—what shall i say?—indecorums, one of his fellows offers the all-sufficient excuse or explanation, “oh, he’s american.” this always suffices; and, too, it is said as though the speaker 19expected as much and would have been disappointed otherwise. and despite all this they like us. they really like our devil-may-care expediency, and i think secretly envy us. in this they “have nothing on us,” though, for it seems to be a human tendency to envy something in the other fellow.
reache joins us in a few moments, and we are soon ensconced in rather rickety chairs on the veranda of the club. between tumblerfuls of square-face gin and long draws at an excellent dutch cigar, he entertains us with tales of bird-of-paradise hunting, which avocation he follows somewhat successfully. he now and then makes our flesh creep with a particularly hair-raising recital delivered somewhat in this fashion:
“you fellows know, i guess, what i’m here for. it’s paradise. not the country, no! the country is hell and no mistake, but the birds,—that is what i go after, and get, too. i outfitted in moresby and when i got my hunters together and plenty of petrol for the launch i headed for the upper diegul. it’s way up in the interior 20where we get the best birds. it’s bad country up there, and no mistake, for the natives have a little habit of lunching off one another when pig becomes scarce. the governor warned me that i was taking my life in my hands, but i don’t know any one else’s hands i’d rather have it in, so i went inside. my crew of hunters was as ripe a gang of cutthroats as one would wish to see and they tried cutting a few didoes among themselves, but after i’d knocked a couple of them cold they took to behaving and i let things go at that.
“you want a gang like that for hard going. they’re necessary. the only way to keep them happy is to give them plenty of work or, what they like best, plenty of scrapping. then they haven’t time to brood over differences of opinion amongst themselves. i loaded a couple of bushels of shells like that nigger out there has on. they wear them for pants. one shell and mr. cannibal is all dressed up. well, i use those shells for currency. one first-class shell which costs me about ten cents dutch money buys a 21bird-of-paradise skin that is worth twelve hundred guilders a cody,—that is, twenty skins,—or, as it figures out in real money, forty dollars a skin. it’s a fair margin of profit.” here reache grins and absorbs another tumblerful of square-face.
“well,” he continues, “we went inside,—i, seven shooters, and some other moresby boys for packers. soon we had all the shooting and trading we wanted. everything went all right for a time and there was no trouble with the natives. i gave them one nice shiny shell for one prime skin and they were as pleased as possible. the trouble started over some fool thing that one of my boys said or did to one of the native women and soon matters began to tense up a little. there was a chinese outfit inside, too, that were doing some trading and they tried to take advantage of the natives. they gummed the game that season. the natives stood for the chinamen for a time, but pretty soon the old women of the tribe called all the younger women and girls aside and told them that the men were taboo till 22the chinamen were put out of the way, and as usual the younger ones agreed to what the old women said. (they always have their way.) one fine evening the kia kias had a little dinner-party to celebrate the resumption of domestic felicity attendant upon the demise of the chinese.
“the chinamen were the guests of honor. they had been roasted to a turn. next day i visited the place and when i saw the kampong clearing i knew what had happened. this piece of jade was the only thing left of the chinamen that i could see. the rest was eaten. i took this from one of the children, who was playing with it. my gang were pretty sore about it. i don’t think it was on account of the chinese, particularly, but because they had missed a good scrap, and they began to grouch. the next day one of the natives came to the launch with a couple of skins. ula was working on the engine. the rest of my gang were all away in the jungle, shooting. the skins were a little ruffled up, but i think what made ula angry 23was the fact that the native had on a pair of chinese trousers.
he never collected for the skins, for ula picked up a spanner that he’d been working on the engine with and tapped him with it. then he tossed him into the kalee alongside to drift down the stream for the crocodiles to dine on.
“the other natives all cleared out and that night we heard them singing and beating drums in the jungle near their kampong. there was trouble in the air. my boys began to rifle the barang for some heavier shells and a couple of them built a big fire in the center of our clearing. about ten in the evening one of them had walked out across the circle of the firelight to throw on some more wood, when he stopped, straightened up, and then collapsed in a heap.
“i jumped for my gun. a kia kia ten-foot spear had finished him. a minute later hell broke loose. the natives did a queer thing for them. they rushed us. man, it was a beautiful fight! there was a sick sort of a moon trying to see what was going on and the fire gave us 24a little light, so we just lined up along the bank of the kalee and let them come. ula was a bird of a fighter. i’ve never seen more methodical slaughter. he and i were lying a little apart from the rest and as each bunch of howling painted devils came for us across the clearing we would let them have it.
“they shot clouds of arrows at us, but as we were lying down in the tall grass they all went high, though some of them whizzed by uncomfortably close. when they ran out of arrows they came at us with stone-headed clubs and we’d let them have what was in our twelve-gauges at thirty feet. it was bang! bang! bang! along the bank of that kalee, like a clay-pigeon trap match.
the prison-yard in merauke, new guinea
25“before long i noticed that things were pretty quiet over to my left where the rest of my boys were, and i rose up to look. as i did so i heard ula grunt, “look out!” and i swung around just in time to stop a burly kia kia who was planning to do me with a stone club that would have killed an elephant. then ula went down. they were coming at me from both sides, for i could see the grass moving slowly where they were sneaking up on me. i reached into my pocket to get some more shells and got the shock of my life. i had shot my last one. my gun was empty. there was nothing to do but get away, and i turned toward the spot on the bank where the launch was tied. i had taken maybe a dozen steps toward it when i heard a couple of plumps from the engine and then she caught on and got to hitting regular.
“i rose up from the shelter of the tapa grass and made time toward the sound. ammed, the only one of the boys left, had started the kicker and was pulling out. he saved my bacon that night. we didn’t waste any time in getting down the river,—just kept going.”
reache turns and shakes his head. while his hand gropes for the bottle of square-face he sighs and concludes, “i lost some fine guns that night.” we look at each other in speculation. the story sounds all right, but— “ah, here he comes!” exclaims reache. “here comes the controlleur.” 26reache rises and goes to the railing of the veranda and calls to a brown-skinned, black mustached, military-looking fellow. after a moment’s conversation the controlleur comes in with reache, greets us cordially, and tells us that he has the passangrahan ready for us.
the resident in ambon has sent a letter by our steamer, telling of our coming, and has ordered things done for us. it is the way these kindly dutch officials always treat the visitor. the controlleur informs us—much to his embarrassment, however—that there is a government charge of what equals thirty-four cents a day for our accommodation. much as he regrets it, he says, there are no exceptions to this rule. we drown his embarrassment with a liberal libation of reache’s square-face and, escorted by both of our new friends, go to inspect our quarters. we shall be here in merauke several days before proceeding up the coast, so we must be very comfortable, they say.
as we near the passangrahan we take note of a group of sheet-iron buildings surrounded by a 27high wire fence. it is the jail and watching us intently are a score of prisoners. as we look in their direction they break into smiles and call to us in malay. they are asking us to secure them for additional servants during our stay and, noting our surprise at this, the controlleur assures us that he will loan us all the help we want. later he makes good his word, for he sends several of the prisoners over to the resthouse where we have taken up our abode. they are accompanied by a native sergeant, who sits in the shade all day, smoking. he never bothers about what the prisoners are doing and they dutifully report to him at meal-times. in the evening, when their house-cleaning and grass-cutting are over, they line up and return to the jail. we even send them on errands, which they do conscientiously but not at all hastily.
the controlleur and reache leave us—to get our things straightened out, they say—and promise to call again to-morrow. they also say that we must meet the other europeans who are connected with the little trading-company. 28we shall not be able to see the assistant resident on business until the steamer sails, we are informed, for he has many reports to forward to his chief in ambon. these are always made up at the last moment and the rush is terrible. the assistant is even now writing the first of the two. one of them is to tell the chief that merauke is still in new guinea, and the other that we have arrived and are being well cared for. he must rest from this labor for a day; then he will receive us with the formality due the distinguished guest. he will inquire with solicitous concern as to our health, and what we most desire to do, and will grant our every wish, after due deliberation. things of such weighty nature as our coming on a little friendly visit must be treated with painstaking consideration. it is too warm to decide too much in one day, for then judgment might be erroneous, and—oh, well! why talk business when there is so much else to talk about? there hasn’t been a stranger in merauke for months, and we can’t blame them, can we? no! we shall let the purpose of our coming go hang, and 29just sit down and be entertained for the best part of a week. they will enjoy it almost as much as we, so why not?
at the passangrahan we find that moh has dinner ready. he shows us where the bath-house is and we go there and revel in the cool splashing of the water upon our perspiring bodies. the mode of bathing, here, is new to us, but we feel we shall come to like it. the bath-house is exactly like all others found throughout the dutch east indies. it is placed right alongside the cook-house, which is detached from the main bungalow, that the heat and smell of cooking may not invade the domain of the tuan.
within the palm-thatched room are several great jars of rain-water, a wooden grid to stand upon, and a tin dipper of gallon size. one drenches himself from head to foot, lathers thoroughly, then sluices down with more gallons and the bath is complete. it is quick, easy, and exhilarating. we are told not to try it much after nightfall, however, unless we wish to be eaten alive. there are cannibalistic mosquitos here 30that will charge en masse, drive in their lances, and bear you away in chunks. they are nocturnal in their habits and we are profoundly thankful that this is so, for at night one sleeps behind a protecting klambu or mosquito curtain which completely enshrouds the bed. there one falls into slumber secure from their attacks and lulled by their incessant droning. now and then some persistent fellow manages to find entrance and one becomes aware of a more shrill note in the general hum that increases in pitch until it is punctuated with a hesitant quaver followed by a red-hot stab,—upon almost any spot, but generally on the temple, where it accomplishes most. this is the occasion of two things. the first, a hunting-expedition with a lighted wax taper, which ends in the incineration of the intruder, and an angry determination to murder moh the very next morning for leaving an opening in the folds of the net. justly or unjustly, moh always serves as scapegoat. he thrives on it.
dinner over, we hunt up a tin cigar box to 31serve as an ash-tray and take it to bed with us. it is too early to go to sleep and too mosquito-y, if i may use the term, to be up and around. in new guinea one hides from these pests as soon as darkness falls. moh, though he has a leather skin, builds a great smudge of cocoanut husks. the smoke of it makes him weep and gasp, but he persists in his friendly gossip with a man from java lately come to merauke, telling him the latest news and of his latest wife. the other listens with sparkling eyes and rapt attention to moh’s description.
