CHAP, xxviii.] IN A NATIVE PRAU. IGl 



of which keeps them in auy position in which they are 

 placed, and thus perhaps facilitates steering. The tillers 

 were not on deck, but entered the vessel through two 

 square openings into a lower or half deck about three feet 

 high, in which sit the two steersmen. In the after part of 

 the vessel was a low poop, about three and a half feet high, 

 which forms the captain's cabin, its furniture consisting of 

 boxes, mats, and pillows. In front of the poop and main- 

 mast was a little thatched house on deck, about four feet 

 high to the ridge ; and one compartment of this, forming a 

 cabin six and a half feet long by five and a half wide, I 

 had all to myself, and it was the snuggest and most com- 

 fortable little place 1 ever enjoyed at sea. It was entered 

 by a low sliding door of thatch on one side, and had a very 

 small window on the other. The floor was of split bamboo, 

 pleasantly elastic, raised six inches above the deck, so as 

 to be quite dry. It was covered with fine cane mats, for 

 the manufacture of which Macassar is celebrated ; against 

 the further wall were arranged my gun-case, insect-boxes, 

 clothes, and books ; my mattress occupied the middle, and 

 next the door were my canteen, lamp, and little store of 

 luxuries for the voyage ; while guns, revolver, and hunting 

 knife hung conveniently from the roof. During these four 

 miserable days I was quite jolly in this little snuggery — 

 more so than I should have been if confined the same time 

 to the gilded and uncomfortable saloon of a first-class 



VOL. II. M 



