"The natives crowded around pretty close, particularly the women, anxious to see what we were bringing ashore. One girl, quite a pretty girl, went so far as to step into the boat, and one of my men swung an arm around her and kissed her. She screamed."
The governor took his pipe out of his mouth and looked up with interest.
"The next minute the mob of Dyaks parted as though cut with a scythe. Down the lane came a woman, a white woman."
He turned to the secretary. "You have seen her, Sachsen?"
"Ja, Pieter."
"Then you can guess how she keeled me over," Peter Gross said. "I took her for white woman, a pure blood. She is white; the brown in her skin is no deeper than in a Spaniard's. She walked up to me—I could see a hurricane was threatening—and she said:
"'You are English? Go back to your ship, now; don't wait a minute, or you will leave your heads here.'
"'Madam,' I said, 'the lad was hasty, but meant no harm. It will not happen again. I will make the lady a present.'
"She turned a look on me that fairly withered me. 'You think you can buy our women, too?' she said, fairly spitting the words. 'Go! go! Don't you see my Dyaks fitting arrows in their blow-pipes?'
"McCloud came running up with Chief Wolang. 'What's this?' he blustered, but Koyala only pointed to the sea and said the one word: