“Amen!” [[85]]
CHAPTER VI.
THE WOUNDED GO TO KWALA KAPOEAS—THE MANTANGEI AND THE MENKATIP—THE COMMANDER IN PURSUIT—AT SEA—PURSUIT OF THE FUGITIVES—THE SCHOONER—THE RETURN—ON THE TRACK AT LAST—DEPARTURE FROM MANTANGEI—WHITE SAIL—FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH THE HEAD-HUNTERS—LA CUEILLE WOUNDED—A FUNERAL CEREMONY.
Although the fugitives were again on their way, this was not the last they were to hear of the adventure. Several men had been wounded in the affray, and as the Dayaks were but indifferently acquainted with surgery, they resolved to take the sufferers to the fort and seek the assistance of the Dutch.
There could be no vengeance taken for the blood which had been shed, as the strangers had departed, leaving no trace of the direction they were pursuing. The Chief of the kampong, fearing that the vengeful feelings of his people would involve him in serious difficulties with the Dutch, told his people that the boat which carried our fugitives had sailed up the soengei Mantangei, in order to reach the Doesson.
When the wounded arrived at Kapoeas they were immediately attended to by the surgeon. Their wounds were found to be caused by bullets and wholly different in character from injuries inflicted by the mandauw or lance of the natives. This fact excited [[86]]the greatest astonishment and suspicion. The account furnished by the wounded men also gave grounds for serious reflection. They described the incident of the boa constrictor, and related how the men of kampong Mantangei had looked upon the deliverers of their wives as head-hunters; how this mistake had led to combat and how they were wounded and put to flight by a heavy rifle-fire. The information that their assailants were Dayak merchants who were working their way to the upper Doesson by means of the Mantangei was not credited by the Colonel; on the other hand neither did he suspect the presence of the deserters in that direction. Only the day before he had returned from a journey on the Javan sea in his efforts to recapture them. He had failed, but no doubt remained in his mind of his having been upon their track.
On the morning following the desertion the Colonel had bestirred himself early. Long before sunrise he had visited the Chief of the district, Tomonggong Nikodemus Djaja Nagara. After taking some preliminary measures he had placed himself at the head of a large number of Dayaks, divided them into several canoes, and accompanied by the Tomonggong had taken his course seawards.
Passing an islet in the Lesser Dayak river they encountered the canoe which had been so terribly injured by the shots from the fortress the night before. As, however, its crew were not in the secret of the deserters no information could be gained from them. They could only show their dead and wounded and explain how the canoe carrying the coffin had disappeared in the dark down the stream. They had been terribly frightened and even now had not lost all fear. After a long palaver, however, they were [[87]]convinced of their present safety and assured that they might carry their wounded to the fortress to have them surgically attended to.
Every creek, every soengei was examined, the islets thoroughly scoured, but nothing of a suspicious nature was found. The Colonel, on nearing the mouth of the Troessan, proposed to despatch part of his men through that canal with orders to rejoin him again at the mouth of the Kahajan. Had this order been executed our fugitives would have been caught. But before the division of the men had been definitely made, a canoe appeared at the mouth of the Troessan carrying the Chief of that district, a trustworthy subject, who declared that he had not met with a single canoe. It was therefore clear that the fugitives could not have escaped that way. The voyage was continued to the mouth of the Lesser Dayak. Their search in creeks and branches involved such loss of time that it was late in the afternoon before they reached the Javan sea.