X.] BATCHIAN. 233 



The Herberg Straits, although possessed of no grand scenery, 

 are extremely picturesque, and as fascinating as narrows where 

 one steams almost wdthiu stone's throw of the land must always be. 

 Eounding a corner the great mass of Labua looms up as a huge 

 wall, its summit hidden in the clouds. It rises a few miles behind 

 the village, shutting it in much as Table Mountain shuts in Cape 

 Town, though with an even gTeater altitude, for it is over 7000 

 feet in height. "VYe were astonished to find the wreck of a fine 

 iron sliip of about fifteen hundred tons in a place so far from the 

 great ocean highways. Five years before, while on her voyage 

 from China to Australia, she had taken the ground near Gebi 

 Island, and being afterwards beached at Batchian, had become a 

 total loss. Her hull formed a favourite resort for crocodiles, who 

 sunned themselves on the sloping deck, and a fishing-ground for 

 the natives, who had long ago despoiled her of everything movable. 



Our anchor was hardly down before the Sultan's prau put off — 

 a large, outrigged boat manned by six and thirty paddlers. Many 

 hangers-on crowded her with colour, and she fiew ten or a dozen 

 little flags in addition to a large Dutch ensign. It would be 

 pleasant enough travelling in the boats of these native potentates 

 but for the incessant tom-tom accompaniment that it is considered 

 obligatory to keep up without a second's intermission while under 

 way. RUm-tUm-tum, rum-tum ; rum-tibm-tum, rwn-tum and so 

 on, da capo, soon arouses the most long-suifering individual. Some 

 music, we know, excites feelings too deep for words. That pro- 

 duced by the tom-tom is of tliis kind. I have heard it in many 

 parts of the world, but I will fearlessly assert the Malayan instru- 

 ment to be more provocative of bad temper than any other, though 

 it must be confessed that the Indian music of this class is not far 

 behind it. 



The Sultan did not come off to the ship in person, but sent his 

 Kapten laut or Admiral as his representative, one of the queerest 

 and most comical little individuals w^e ever had the pleasure of 

 entertaining. He was a lively young spark of seventy or there- 



