240 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. xm. 



nut, salt, dried fish, onions, and other private stores for 

 the voyage. As soon as they saw me, however, they came 

 running down, and we all went on board. Altogether 

 our craft was heavily laden ; but as these native boats 

 are generally carefully built, we saw nothing to fear. 



At 3.30 we bade our friends, who had kindly come 

 down to see us start, " good-bye ;" and, amid the cries 

 of " Salaamat jelan ! " from the men's friends on shore, 

 we hove anchor, and sheered off with a tolerably good 

 wind. We soon got our large mat-sail hauled up, and 

 with the Union Jack astern (we carried the " mails " for 

 Tampassuk by the way), glided out of the harbour, and, 

 rounding the old flagstaff-point, steered nearly due north. 

 We did this, intending to stand out, and make " Pulo 

 Tiga," an island lying about forty miles northward of 

 Labuan, by the morning. In this, however, we were 

 doomed to disappointment ; for after an hour or two of 

 indifferent sailing, a bit of a squall arose, and the wind 

 having changed, we hove in shore, towards Lumbedan, 

 intending to anchor under the shelter of a little islet of 

 the same name for the night, and start away in the early 

 morning. 



This was now the only judicious course left us, since 

 we were close in-shore, on a dangerous coast, and the 

 squall of wind and rain was coming down on us like a 

 hurricane. Our men pulled in around the island, and 

 were approaching the shore, to enable us to land, when 

 the boat rose a little on the surf, and the next moment 

 her bows came down on a rock, and this knocked a large 

 hole in her bottom. We subsequently found out that all 

 her lower timbers were rotten. Happily we were not far 

 from the land, and could make ashore, or the conse- 

 quences might have been serious. As it was we suffered 

 enough, being drenched with rain and surf; and as the 



