“Well, we walked and walked along the shore, and now and then went inland; but we could not make much way there, on account of the trees. At last, looking up, I saw some tall palm-trees, and at the top of them there were some cocoa-nuts. You may be sure we set to work to get up at them; but it is pretty hard work climbing a cocoa-nut tree without ropes, not like swarming up a mast. However, Roger Trew did haul himself up; but then, you see, there are not many men who have got arms like his, and they are better by half than legs for climbing trees. That is why the monkeys have them so strong, I suppose. To be sure, some of them have got tails to help them. Do you know, I have often thought what convenient things tails would be to sailors, if they could catch hold by them as monkeys do. Howsomedever, Roger got to the top at last, and then he sent thundering down a dozen cocoa-nuts or more. Some of our fellows thought they were to be eaten husk and all, and cried out they did not think that would do them much good. At last we got them broken open, and sucked away at the juice inside, which had begun to turn almost into milk. They were more than ripe. It is said that young cocoa-nuts have far more juice and are far better than the old ones. Still, you may be sure, we were very glad to get these at any price; and having found some trees, we had fair hopes of finding more. Still, cocoa-nuts and shell-fish, though they may keep body and soul together, after a time do little more than that; and we all became thinner and thinner. I am not at all sure that we should have lived many weeks longer, so thin and wretched did we get, when at last a sail appeared in sight. Our hearts beat pretty quick when we thought that after all she might not come near the island. Oh! how eagerly we watched her. Now she seemed to be standing away; now, once more, she tacked, and stood towards the island. There was a high rock near, running out into the sea. We made our way to it; and one of our people tearing off his shirt, we made it fast to it, to serve as a signal. You may be sure we gave a shout of joy when up went a flag in return, and the brig stood towards the island. She was no other than this little Dugong, as they call her, and Mr Thudicumb, and your friend Mr Hooker, come to look for us. We were all very glad to see each other; but we felt very sorry when we thought that you and Oliver had been lost. And now, I’ll tell you, Master Walter, it was about the happiest moment in my life when I got hold of you, and helped you into the boat safe from those savages.”
Chapter Seventeen.
The Aru islands visited.
Leaving the coast of New Guinea, the Dugong stood across to the Aru Islands, which Mr Hooker was anxious to visit. I may as well say that the dugong is a large fish found in these waters, from ten to twelve feet in length, of the whale species. They swim in flocks, often coming into shallow water.
The natives prize them for food. We speared one, and got it on board; and we all agreed, when the fish was cooked, that we had seldom tasted a more delicate dish. However, the look of the dugong is not attractive. Mr Hooker told me that the female dugong is remarkable for the affection which she has for her young, of which she produces only one at a time. If the young dugong is speared, she will never leave it, but is sure to be taken also.
We approached the Aru Islands from the southward. The sea between them and New Guinea is very shallow, considerably under fifty fathoms in many places. There are about eighty of them, mostly very low, and forming a chain about a hundred miles in length, and half that distance in width. They belong to the Dutch. The inhabitants are very mixed. There is a larger number of Papuans than any other race among the population. Two or three native Christian schoolmasters have been sent over from Amboyna to teach the inhabitants. We could just see these islands in the far distance, when we found ourselves approaching a fleet of large native boats at anchor. Two or three vessels were also at anchor near them. With our glasses we could see a number of figures standing up in the boats, and then suddenly disappearing overboard. Others were seen climbing up over the sides. What they could be about I could not at first guess. On pointing them out to Mr Hooker, however, he said at once that they must be pearl-divers; and as the wind was very light, and we passed close to them, we had an opportunity of observing their proceedings. There appeared to be about a dozen men in each boat, half of whom were evidently, from their want of dress, the divers, while two other men we took to be the chief and an assistant. A large sugar-loaf stone was let down overboard by a thick rope. A diver stepped on the gunwale, holding on by the rope, and apparently placing his toe in a loop or hole to keep his foot in its place. On the other foot a net was fastened. With this apparatus the diver began to descend. Before, however, his head reached the water I saw that he held his nose very tightly with his hand. This was, I understood, to prevent the water getting into his nostrils. We calculated that about four from each boat were down at a time, and we judged that each man remained from two to three minutes below the water. Up he came again at the end of that time, apparently very little exhausted, although he must have been making active exertions to collect the shells. After he had come to the top, the net containing the oysters was drawn up, and in that time he had collected from a hundred to a hundred and fifty.
We watched them with great interest, and were anxious to procure some of the oysters, but the chiefs would not sell them; indeed, they all belong to merchants who have rented the fishing for the season. Some of the men, we observed, suffered far more than others, and discharged water from their mouths and ears and nostrils, and some even blood; but, notwithstanding this, the same men were ready to go down again when their turn came. We learned that most of them will make from forty to fifty plunges in one day, and that a few of the most experienced and strongest remain down nearly five minutes. Their greatest danger is from the ground shark, which lies in wait at the bottom. However, some of these men will face even the shark, with knives in their hands, and come off victorious. To secure themselves still further, some of the boats carry conjurers or priests on board, who, by their incantations, are supposed to preserve them from the attacks of the shark. Of course, if a diver is picked off by a shark, the conjurer asserts that he has not properly obeyed his directions, and thus does not lose his credit. The saw-fish is another of the diver’s foes, more dangerous, because more difficult to attack than the shark.
The merchants have to keep a very strict look-out on the divers on their return to the shore, as frequently when the oyster is in the boat, and left alive undisturbed for some time, it opens its shell. A pearl may then easily be discovered, and, by means of a piece of wood, the shell be prevented from again closing till the diver has an opportunity of picking out the prize. Sometimes they will even swallow the pearls to conceal them. As soon as the boats arrive on the shore the oysters are put in holes or pits dug in the ground to the depth of about two feet, fenced carefully round to guard them from depredation. Mats are first spread below them to prevent them touching the earth. Here the oysters are left to die and rot. As soon as they have passed through a state of putrefaction and become dry, they can be easily opened without the danger of injuring the pearl, which might be the case if they were opened when fresh. The shell is then carefully examined for pearls. Sometimes one is found in the body of the mollusc itself, but it is generally in the shell. We afterwards, on going on shore, had a specimen of the horrid odour which arises from these pits, but the people who are accustomed to it do not appear to suffer; indeed, we saw people groping about on the sands where the oyster pits had existed, and learned that they were seeking for stray oysters, frequently pearls of some value being thus discovered.