“Very good, Master Ebo-Nee,” said Uncle Dick; “since you are so apt at learning, you may as well go on and pick up our words, for I quite despair of learning yours.”
The black was shrewd enough to see that we accepted his presence, and upon this he shook hands with us both twice over and then took the great paddle from my hand, steering and showing himself thoroughly skilful in the management of our canoe.
My uncle pointed east as the course he wanted to go; but our crew, as we called him, rose in mutiny directly, pointing south, and handing the paddle back to me he grew very excited, saying, “Bird, bird,” flapping his arms like wings and uttering screeches, whistles, and cries, before lifting an imaginary gun to his shoulder and uttering the word “Bang!”
“That is plain enough to understand, Nat,” said my uncle.
“Yes,” I replied; “he means that there are plenty of parrots and other birds on some island where he will take us.”
“Bird, bird,” cried Ebo-Nee, as we called him henceforth, and he pointed south-west.
“It does not much matter where we go, Nat,” said my uncle, “so long as we visit islands where naturalists have never been before, so I shall trust to our friend here. We can get to New Guinea at any time now, for it lies all along the north. All right, go on then,” said my uncle to Ebo-Nee, and he nodded and smiled, pointing to what looked like a mist upon the water far away.
“Nat, ung, shoot,” cried Ebo eagerly; “shoot, shoot, shoot.”
“Why, we shall have quite an English scholar on board soon, Nat,” said my uncle laughing; and then in turns we held the sheet as the swift canoe glided over the sunlit waves till the island we had left began to grow dim in the distance and its mountains to sink, as it were, beneath the wave, while the place to which we were going grew less misty and indistinct.
It was evidently very high land, and as we drew nearer we could see that right and left of it there were other islands apparently of goodly size.