“Why, do you mean to say that we have sailed—that we are out at sea already?” and Martin ran out upon deck.
I followed him. Prabu was standing upon the poop, giving orders to his lieutenant, Kati; but, seeing us, he said, pointing to the now somewhat distant shore: “My young masters need not fear that their enemy will catch them; they are safe.”
“But, Prabu,” said my brother, “this is not fair sailing; when I asked you last night when we should sail, you said with the first wind.”
“That was true; for without one, the prophet himself could not sail a prahu.”
“Yes, yes, I know that; but why did you not tell us how soon?”
“A wise man keepeth his left hand in ignorance of the actions of his right: besides, what is written is written; and it was written that my young master should go with Prabu this voyage. It was well, therefore, not to let them know the hour of departure, for they are young, and their hearts might have grown faint at the last moment; as it is, they are refreshed; they have had a long, undisturbed sleep, which has made men of them.”
“Then you thought I was a coward, who would shrink from an adventure after I had taken the first step?”
“Prabu thinks no evil of the young masters; he knows they are not cowards, yet the bravest men have faltered at their first beginnings.”
Our new captain then, walking away upon some ship’s business, left us to make a survey of the craft which carried the Blacks and their fortunes.
We had expected to find a small, dirty Malay prahu, like the generality of those used by the maritime tribes of the Archipelago; guess, then, our astonishment, to find ourselves on board a large vessel of some thirty-five tons burden, well-formed, with a great poop, flanked on either side by a platform; a helm at each end, a couple of masts, with sails of bamboo matting: moreover, instead of the dirt and chaos of disorder to be found on board most native vessels, the decks were almost as clean as those of an American man-of-war. Then there seemed to be a place for everything, and everything in its place. The crew, consisting of twenty men, were for the greater part natives of the islands, probably picked from the fishing tribes. That which, however, struck me as most extraordinary in a native trading-vessel was, that the fore-deck was armed with a couple of six-pounders. Seeing the surprise with which my brother and I regarded the latter, Prabu, who had come up to us, said, “To men who know how to use them, these fire-dogs are useful, in seas infested by Chinese pirates.”