Part 18 (2/2)
At this I thought the king appeared disappointed I had reckoned on his being superstitious, and indeed it is well known that certain jewels do possess mysterious qualities that influence the lives of those n theh I had no authority, beyondmy rubies with supernatural char, holding one of the rubies up to the light
Ihalf of all I possessed
”There is not enough money upon the island to pay a fair price for these stones,” declared Trinkitat, ”and how should it benefit me if I acquire them for less than their fair value if, in that case, they are to bring upon ?”
”Nay, O king,” I answered, ”I ask nous repair our vessel, which, after much storm and stress, has found in your harbour a haven of rest”
”That you shall have, and welco, and after soaining, it was finally agreed that I would allow the king to retain the six rubies I had brought with me, and that the balance of the thirty, which I offered, was to be paid over when our vessel had been new 's expense Mahoiven directions to see that this as promptly carried out, after which ed ourselves froain I had an She was careened in the shallows of a safe and convenient harbour, and such an army of workers set to work upon her that in the course of a week the ”Golden Seahorse”
was once more ready for sea
While the repairs to our vessel were in progress we received welcolish and Dutch shi+ps in the harbour, e soon becaed to the Dutch East India Co in wealth and io of furs, and Captain smuts, in command of her, was anxious that we should join him in this expedition, for, said he, two shi+ps will more readily succeed than one, since eachequipped for northern travel decided to continue our voyage south, though we arranged with Captain smuts to meet him later at the Molucca Islands, where we had resolved to call King Thedori to account for his treacherous conduct toward us on our for the island of Suiven a final audience with King Trinkitat, when I paid hi well disposed toward me, and apparently satisfied with the pay of our vessel, which indeed was at a princely rate, when the value of the rubies was considered He did not atte to proe potentates, when dealing with foreigners, but this I attributed to the superstition I had so happily aroused in hi misfortune if not honestly coard to King Luck, and, from what he toldthe savages of New Holland, was none other than h how he came to be rescued fro Trinkitat possessed no chart of the place to which his shi+ps traded, as the captains of his vessels mostly steered by the stars But he proain visit his island, he would send a pilot withLuck
Mahomet Achmet, hom I parted the best of friends, expressed the hope that ould one day nor Peter,” he said to me when I paid him for his ith some money we had aboard the shi+p, and presented hi to promise ”I will keep it in memory of a shrewd man whose wit did more to save him than his money, for I may tell you that neither you nor your shi+p's company would have been allowed to leave this place had you not spoken to the king of the ill-luck which these rubies bring to those who come not honestly by them”
I thanked Mahomet for his frankness, which I promised to remember should I ever have occasion to revisit Su ready, we put to sea, and by evening the island of Sumatra had disappeared beyond the horizon
CHAPTER XLVIII
STATEN LAND
Hartog believed, frouese chart which we had with us, that an island continent lay to the south-east, and after a lengthened period, during which we encountered bad weather and rough sea, we sighted a for on either side as far as the eye could reach We coasted along this new-found country for several days in search of a landing place, without being able to find one, the coast being a continuous line of precipitous rocks Toward the end of the third day we encountered a canoe, the largest we had seen, containing upward of one hundred natives We offered food and other articles, but, although the canoe came quite close to us, none of her people could be induced to co and fierce, nor did they show the least fear of us, but rather an intention to begin hostilities when an opportunity should offer In view of this we loaded our brass cannon, and made ready a supply of ammunition in case they should attack us
But after keeping co had nowe hove to off a pebbly beach, upon which I undertook to land a boat's crew and exae and the other in charge of Janstins The sea was s the boats ashore, where, leaving a man aboard each, the rest of us followed the course of a stream inland Here we soon came to a valley so beautiful as alht above our heads, festooned with a flowering creeper which resereen ferns stretched their fronds into a streaher land beyond by a series of cascades A kind of flax plant grew here, with leaves over nine feet long, and bearing a flohich looked like a bunch of feather plureat profusion
My attention was diverted froe footprints which I noticed on the soft ground near the streaed aniious size The footprintswhat kind of a creature it could be who had made them, when I was startled by a cry from one of our men, which caused me to look in the direction whence it came At a distance of soe, wingless bird Its head, arround; its body, big as an ox, and covered with black bristles, supported upon legs thicker than the girth of a y had not observed us, for it was stalking quietly aer than the biggest ostrich I had ever seen
I now noticed that one of these chickens had strayed from the others, and I saw Janstins, who had evidently not observed the h about to fire I shouted to him to desist, but too late to save the mad fellow froiant chicken lay on its back, its legs kicking in the air
”To the boats!” I cried, and the scared sailors, when they saw theThere was a rush for the boats by all but Janstins, who seeht of the monster I could not leave hi to his assistance, I dragged hiht of the mother-bird, who seemed bewildered by the unaccustomed sound of firearms, and perplexed at the death of her chick, for which she could not account
But we both knew that her inaction was momentary, and that when she discovered us we e, which could only result in the loss of our lives Whispering to Janstins, I bade hie and caution alone lay our hope of escape, and he presently recovered his presence of mind sufficiently to folloe ran, bent double, under cover of the luxuriant foliage, to the beach, where we arrived only just in ti shoved off by the terrified sailors, before the er proportion, came in pursuit of us, and so carried aere these e at our escape that they advanced into the sea, stretching their necks at us while uttering a loud, dru noise which we could hear repeated ere on board the shi+p, and even after ere out at sea
Next ainwe found ourselves opposite a sandy beach upon which a nued in so the sea shore, and, upon drawing nearer, ere able to distinguish groups of men, apparently captives, with their hands bound behind theant dance round them Armed warriors then rushed upon each other in mimic warfare, and the sound of their bare feet, as they stamped in unison upon the hard sand, came to us with measured cadence across the sea When the dance was ended, the captives were made to lie flat, one behind the other, till they formed a black patch upon the beach Then appeared a nuh-water mark a war canoe, the prohich, elaborately carved, and upstanding to the height of thirty feet, was decorated with shells and bunches of feathers On ca speed, until it reached the row of victi the water reddened with their blood aroans most dreadful to listen to