The inhabitants of these islands exceed every other people in cruelty. They regard killing a man as a mere jest; nor is there any punishment allotted for such a deed. If any one purchases a new sword and wishes to try it, he will thrust it into the breast of the first person he meets. The passers-by examine the wound, and praise the skill of him who inflicted it if he thrust in the weapon direct.
In this particular portion of the sea, where Philip had every reason to suppose he was, the pirates have literally paralyzed trading on the water.
Every year these scourges of the Archipelago wander in one direction or another, rendezvousing on some uninhabited island, carrying devastation to all the small settlements around, robbing, destroying, or taking captive every one they meet. Their long, well-manned proas escape from the pursuit of sailing vessels by pulling away right in the wind’s-eye; and the warning smoke of a steamer generally enables them to hide in some shallow bay, narrow river, or forest-covered inlet until the danger is past.
Even while the Swallow was at Batavia information had been received from Banda to the effect that the pirates were in the vicinity with a fleet of fifteen proas, attacking and destroying the villages, and carrying away women and children as slaves. Men they seldom or never hold as prisoners. The thrust of a knife or a blow on the head with the butt of a musket serves to rid them of a troublesome captive.
Two days before the wreck the Swallow spoke a proa which had been attacked forty-eight hours previous. Three of the crew escaped in their small-boat and hid in the jungle of a neighboring island, while the pirates killed the remainder and plundered the vessel.
These men reported the force as numbering sixteen large war-boats, and the only blow struck by the traders in their own defence was when the fleet set sail, leaving a prize-crew of three on the dismantled proa. The captain, driven to desperation by his loss, swam off from the shore armed only with his parang, or long knife, and coming upon them unawares made a furious attack, killing one and wounding the others mortally.
Knowing all this, it is not to be wondered at that Philip was filled with dismay on finding himself alone upon an inhospitable shore.
One does not willingly submit to the embrace of death, however, and before resigning himself to what now seemed the inevitable he resolved to make a last effort for life.
With this purpose in view he started toward the interior, but after traveling a few moments his legs refused to obey his will.
The exhaustion caused by the previous night’s exposure and the intense heat so far prostrated him that he fell half-fainting at the foot of a palm-tree, whose cool and refreshing shade served to revive him so far that in a short time he closed his eyes.