As soon as I landed, I found myself among American friends, and one of them kindly introduced me to the Governor of the Straits Settlements, who received me in the most polite manner and kindly offered to assist me in any way in his power. At my request, he gave me notes of introduction to the Governor of Hong Kong and the admiral commanding her Majesty’s fleet in the seas of China and Japan. A few days of rest after my long journeys over Sumatra soon glided by, and I was ready to continue my travels.
From Singapore my plan was to proceed directly to China, but finding in port a French ship which was bound for Hong Kong, via Saigon, the capital of Cochin China, I engaged a passage on her in order to see something also of the French possessions in the East. Just as we were ready to sail I met a gentleman who had lately returned from a long journey to Cambodia, whither he had gone to photograph the ruins of the wonderful temples in that land. He had a specimen for me, he said, which I must accept before I knew what it was, a condition I readily complied with, but when the “specimen” appeared I must confess I was not a little surprised to find it was an enormous python. It had been caught by the natives of Bankok after it had gorged itself on some unfortunate beast, but that was some time before, and the brute was evidently ready for another feast. My cans containing alcohol were already on board the ship, but I took the monster with me when I went off to her late in the evening, designing to drown it in its box and then transfer his snakeship to a can. The captain, with the greatest politeness, met me at the rail, and showed me my state-room in the after-cabin, and the sailors began to bring my baggage, when first of all appeared the box containing the python! I shouted out to the cabin-boy that that box must be left out on deck, and then, in a low tone, explained to the captain that it contained an enormous snake. “Un serpent? un serpent?” he exclaimed, raising up both hands in horror, in such an expressive way as only a Frenchman can, and proceeding to declare that he ought to have known that a passenger who was a naturalist would be sure to fill the whole ship with all sorts of venomous beasts. All the others were little less startled, and shunned me in the half-lighted cabin, as if I were in league with evil spirits, but I quieted their fears by ordering a sailor to put the box into a large boat that was placed right side up on the main deck and promising to kill the great reptile to-morrow.
May 24th.—Early this morning we made sail, and I concluded to let my troublesome specimen remain until we were out of the harbor, but now, in the changing of the monsoons, the winds are light and baffling and we finally came to anchor once more; and a sailor who got up into the boat said something about “le serpent.” I was on the quarter-deck at the time, and determining at once not to be troubled more with it, jumped down on the main-deck, ran to the side of the boat, and seizing the box gave it a toss into the sea, but just as it was leaving my hands I thought to myself, “How light it is!” and the sailor said, “Le serpent n’est pas encore!—pas encore!” We all looked over the ship’s side and there was the box floating quietly away, and it was evident that the monster had escaped. Every one then asked, “Where is he?” but no one could tell. I assured the captain that he was in the box when I put it on the sampan to come off to the ship. “Is he on board?” was the next question from the mouths of all. We looked carefully in the boat and round the deck, but could detect no trace of him whatever, and all, except myself, came to the conclusion that he was not brought on board, and then went back to their work. The box in which he had been confined was about a foot and a half long by a foot high and a foot wide, and over the top were four or five strips of board, each fastened at either end with a single nail. On inquiring more closely, the sailor told me that before I seized the box, the side with the slats was one of the perpendicular sides, and had not been placed uppermost, as it ought to have been. “Then,” I reasoned, “he is here on board somewhere beyond a doubt, and I brought him here, and it’s my duty to find him and kill him.”
KILLING THE PYTHON.
We had four horses on deck, and the middle of the boat was filled with hay for them, and under that it was probable the great reptile had crawled away. In the bottom of the boat, aft, was a triangular deck, and, as I climbed up a second time, I noticed that the board which formed the apex of the triangle was loose, and moved a little to one side. Carefully raising this, I espied, to my horror, the great python closely coiled away beneath, the place being so small that the loose board rested on one of his coils. I wore a thin suit, a Chinese baju, or loose blouse, a pair of canvas shoes, and a large sun-hat. Throwing off my hat, that I might go into the dreadful struggle unimpeded, I shouted out for a long knife, knowing well that what I must try to do was to cut him in two, and that he would attempt to catch my hand in his jaws, and, if he should succeed in doing that, he would wind himself around me as quick as a man could wind the lash of a long whip around a fixed stick, and certainly he was large enough and strong enough to crush the largest horse. The cook handed me a sharp knife, more than a foot long, and, holding the board down with my feet, I thrust the blade through the crack, and, wrenching with all my might, tried to break the great reptile’s back-bone, and thus render all that part of the body behind the fracture helpless. Despite my utmost efforts, he pulled away the knife, and escaped two or three feet forward, where there was more room under the deck. By this time there was the greatest confusion. The captain, evidently believing that discretion is the better part of valor, ran below the moment he was satisfied that I had indeed discovered the monster, seized a brace of revolvers, and, perching himself upon the monkey-rail, leaned his back against the mizzen-rigging, and held one in each hand, ready to fire into the boat at the slightest alarm. The sailors all gathered round the boat, and stood perfectly still, apparently half-stupified, and not knowing whether it would be safest for them to stand still, climb up in the rigging, or jump overboard. The first mate armed himself with a revolver, and climbed on to the stern of the boat. Indeed, every moment I expected to hear a report, and find myself shot by some of the brave ones behind me. The second mate, who was the only real man among them all, seized a large sheath-knife, and climbed into the boat to help me. I knew it would not do to attempt to strike the monster with a knife where he had room enough to defend himself; I therefore threw it down, and seized a short handspike of iron-wood, the only weapon within my reach, and told the second mate to raise the deck, and I would attempt to finish my antagonist with the club, for the thought of escaping while I could, and leave for others to do what belonged to me, never entered my mind. As the deck rose I beheld him coiled up about two feet and a half from my right foot. Suffering the acutest agony from the deep wound I had already given him, he raised his head high out of the midst of his huge coil, his red jaws wide open, and his eyes flashing fire like live coals. I felt the blood chill in my veins as, for an instant, we glanced into each other’s eyes, and both instinctively realized that one of us two must die on that spot. He darted at my foot, hoping to fasten his fangs in my canvas shoe, but I was too quick for him, and gave him such a blow over the head and neck that he was glad to coil up again. This gave me time to prepare to deal him another blow, and thus for about fifteen minutes I continued to strike with all my might, and three or four times his jaws came within two or three inches of my canvas shoe. I began now to feel my strength failing, and that I could not hold out more than a moment longer, yet, in that moment, fortunately, the carpenter got his wits together, and thought of his broad-axe, and, bringing it to the side of the boat, held up the handle, so that I could seize it while the reptile was coiling up from the last stunning blow. The next time he darted at me I gave him a heavy cut about fifteen inches behind his head, severing the body completely off, except about an inch on the under side, and, as he coiled up, this part fell over, and he fastened his teeth into his own coils. One cut more, and I seized a rope, and, in an instant, I tugged him over the boat’s side, across the deck, and over the ship’s rail into the sea. The long trail of his blood on the deck assured me that I was indeed safe, and, drawing a long breath of relief, I thanked the Giver of all our blessings.
This was my last experience in the tropical East. A breeze sprang up, and the ship took me rapidly away toward the great empire of China, where I travelled for a year, and passed through more continued dangers and yet greater hardships than in the East Indian Archipelago.
Transcriber’s Note: Map is clickable for a larger version.
Map
To Illustrate Mr. Bickmore’s Travels
IN THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO