Ran away from the Dutch

by M. T. H. Perelaer

“Had you not better first inform us of the spot where the ore was found?” La Cueille asked.

“As you please. The iron ore is generally found near the coal formation, both mineral products being met with together, and one layer generally covering the other. Seldom is the one absent where the other is found.”

“Parbleu!” the Walloon exclaimed, “that is extremely fortunate.”

“The layers containing the iron ore are generally visible at low tide in the lower banks of the river. The Dayaks choose their opportunity during the dry season and collect the necessary quantity of ore which, as it is generally saturated, is somewhat of a doughy nature. They first dry it in the sun, then cut it into lumps of the size of a walnut and store it away for further use. The ore does not always present the same appearance. It sometimes consists of a mixture of larger or smaller pieces of dull or occasionally shiny brown iron, and is a kind of iron oxy-hydrate of a yellowish-brown crystalline texture. Sometimes it is in the form of brown ochre, caused by the partial decomposition of the iron, and at other times in the shape of very hard sandstone in which the ore seems to be deposited. Each pound of ore yields five and a half ounces of pure iron. That is all I know about it, and that much I have been able to gather from the reports.

“The walls of the trough,” Johannes continued, “were about four inches thick at their edges, but increasing downwards and leaving not more than thirty-five square inches inside for the diameter of the bottom. This trough, called laboerang, formed their real melting furnace, and as I was informed was dried in [[249]]the sun for a fortnight, after which a hole for the reception of the nose of the bellows was made about seven inches above the bottom, while another hole, alier, was made in the opposite wall for the removal of cinders and for drawing off the melted iron. Our party just arrived when they were beginning to charge the furnace, which had previously been bound around with hoops of rattan and bamboo to prevent its splitting open. On the floor of the laboerang they strewed a thick layer of very finely-powdered charcoal, leaving free a square space, kakat, for the collection of the melted iron.

“Above the square space and in the hole arranged for it they placed the nozzle of the bellows. This nozzle, called boetoeng, was made of baked clay and reached half over the centre of the kakat. They then filled the oven about three-quarters full of charcoal, over which they spread the ore, previously roasted over large wood fires until it had acquired a red color. The charcoal above the kakat was now ignited and the alier closed with a layer of wet clay. The bamboo tube of the bellows was next introduced and the fire kindled by first blowing it gently and gradually increasing till the highest possible temperature was attained.”

“You mentioned a bamboo tube just now; surely those bellows were of European make,” La Cueille asked. “No native could manufacture such an article?”

“Spoken like a European,” Johannes said somewhat bitterly. “These bellows were decidedly not of European make. Listen and I will try to explain their construction: In a straight wooden cylinder, usually made of a hollowed-out tree of about ten inch diameter and two and a half yards long, there moved a piston, [[250]]the disk of which in order to secure perfect exclusion of air was pasted over with feathers and a kind of varnish composed of oil and rosin. The bamboo tube in question, called passiong, was fixed underneath the cylinder and the air was forced through this. The rod of the piston, eight to ten yards long, was fixed to a long bamboo, which being placed horizontally considerably lessened the labor of working it. This kind of bellows was called bapoetang, and the workmen in order to obtain the required temperature made from forty to fifty pulls a minute.

“When the oven was filled the fire was kept up, a fresh supply of ore being thrown in from above as the contents decreased by combustion. But in order to supply the necessary fuel at the same time, they added ten parts of charcoal to one of fresh ore. They opened the alier hourly for the removal of the slag, but instantly closed it again with wet clay.

“At night the oven was cooled down, the alier opened and the iron thus obtained removed by means of large wooden tongs with iron points. The iron, now a shapeless tough lump of a brownish-red appearance, was then thrown down on the floor which had been previously covered with pounded slag and was belabored with wooden hammers into the form of a cube, weighing about sixty pounds. Each of these was afterwards divided into ten equal parts and hammered and purified from slag until fit for the forge. That is the whole process of manufacture. I may add that the iron from the Kapoeas regions is considered of the best quality, which means a great deal, considering that Borneo iron is celebrated all over the Indian Archipelago. The weapons made of it are highly prized everywhere, and I myself have seen [[251]]mandauws and swords from Nagara, where the best arms of all are made, with which a nail of seven to the pound was cut through without doing any damage to the edge of the weapon. I have now told all I know and trust I have satisfied the curiosity of our Walloon.”