‘Afterwards the whites depart unseen by Tamb’
Itam, and seem to vanish from before men’s eyes
altogether; and the schooner, too, vanishes after
the manner of stolen goods. But a story is told
of a white long-boat picked up a month later in the
Indian Ocean by a cargo steamer. Two parched,
yellow, glassy-eyed, whispering skeletons in her recognised
the authority of a third, who declared that his name
was Brown. His schooner, he reported, bound south
with a cargo of Java sugar, had sprung a bad leak
and sank under his feet. He and his companions
were the survivors of a crew of six. The two
died on board the steamer which rescued them.
Brown lived to be seen by me, and I can testify that
he had played his part to the last.
’It seems, however, that in going away they
had neglected to cast off Cornelius’s canoe.
Cornelius himself Brown had let go at the beginning
of the shooting, with a kick for a parting benediction.
Tamb’ Itam, after arising from amongst the dead,
saw the Nazarene running up and down the shore amongst
the corpses and the expiring fires. He uttered
little cries. Suddenly he rushed to the water,
and made frantic efforts to get one of the Bugis boats
into the water. “Afterwards, till he had
seen me,” related Tamb’ Itam, “he
stood looking at the heavy canoe and scratching his
head.” “What became of him?”
I asked. Tamb’ Itam, staring hard at me,
made an expressive gesture with his right arm.
“Twice I struck, Tuan,” he said.
“When he beheld me approaching he cast himself
violently on the ground and made a great outcry, kicking.
He screeched like a frightened hen till he felt the
point; then he was still, and lay staring at me while
his life went out of his eyes.”
‘This done, Tamb’ Itam did not tarry.
He understood the importance of being the first with
the awful news at the fort. There were, of course,
many survivors of Dain Waris’s party; but in
the extremity of panic some had swum across the river,
others had bolted into the bush. The fact is
that they did not know really who struck that blow—whether
more white robbers were not coming, whether they had
not already got hold of the whole land. They
imagined themselves to be the victims of a vast treachery,
and utterly doomed to destruction. It is said
that some small parties did not come in till three
days afterwards. However, a few tried to make
their way back to Patusan at once, and one of the canoes
that were patrolling the river that morning was in
sight of the camp at the very moment of the attack.
It is true that at first the men in her leaped overboard
and swam to the opposite bank, but afterwards they
returned to their boat and started fearfully up-stream.
Of these Tamb’ Itam had an hour’s advance.’
