The alarm and commotion caused by that shot and its reverberations through the steep banks was great, but thanks to the cool behavior of the Europeans peace was soon restored. The buck was drawn out of the stream, skinned and quartered, promising a delicious adjunct to the ensuing meal. All congratulated Schlickeisen upon his fair shot, but he vowed to be less hasty for the future and never to fire during inconvenient hours.
An hour afterward the flotilla was again en route, making way against the fierce and increasing current of the wild stream.
This day also contributed its share of difficulties. A little beyond Kiham Hoeras, near kotta Hoerakan, the dioritic soil suddenly changed into a coarse yellow-brown sandstone. This friable stone, subject to rapid disorganization, filled the bed of the river to such an extent that in some places no canoe could pass; a rangkan had to be steered with the utmost caution in order to keep within the narrow strip of water which formed the channel. The sand of this stone is easily displaced by the immense force of the fleeting mass of water and here and there forms banks in mid-stream where the tide is slackened and the river shallowed. Sometimes the sandbanks assume the dimensions [[267]]of islands and are known as karangans by the natives. Harimaoung Boekit informed his friends that these are highly auriferous and that not unfrequently small nuggets are found of a quality considered the best of the Kapoeas regions.
“We ought to try our luck here,” La Cueille said.
“Certainly not,” Johannes replied; “our way lies forward! We are still too near the Dutch and must place a few more cataracts between them and ourselves.”
“And,” said Amai Kotong, “neither could we go washing gold so readily. We would soon find ourselves in trouble with the population of these regions. Each kotta has its own grounds and parts of the river, which they would not allow to be poached upon by strangers with impunity.”
“Then in heaven’s name forwards!” the Walloon muttered.
Besides the wild part of the river close to these islands, they had to mount four kihams that day, some of which gave them considerably more trouble than they had experienced at Kiham Hoeras, so that it was quite four in the afternoon before the tired and exhausted travellers reached kotta Karangan.
This kotta, situated on the left bank of the Kapoeas, was a handsome and strong fortification with a population of over two thousand souls. Our travellers, who had been surprised at the skulls ornamenting the palisades of kotta Djangkan, felt alarmed at the immense number of these ghastly trophies here exhibited. How many human lives must have been sacrificed to supply such a quantity?
Amai Kotong found friends here also and was thereupon unhesitatingly allowed to enter the kotta. The presence of [[268]]Harimaoung Boekit and his Poenans, however, excited considerable suspicion and it was only after much trouble and difficulty that they succeeded in pacifying the people and in preventing them from opening hostilities. Johannes repeated the old story already told at kotta Baroe, how they had been commissioned by the Dutch government to open communication with the Olo Otts, and to learn their views. He had also beforehand taken the precaution of planting the Dutch flag on one of the largest rangkans. He now solemnly produced the stamped document taken away from Damboeng Papoendeh, and mentioned that the Poenan chief had been added to his party by the Great Heer of Bandjermasin to make the meeting with the Olo Otts more feasible.