CHAP, xxvrii.] IN A NATIVE PRAU. 171 



or openings, through which the tillers enter from the 

 lateral rudders are not more than three or four feet above 

 the surface of the water, which thus has a free entrance 

 into the vessel. I of course had imagined that this open 

 space from one side to the other was separated from the 

 hold by a water-tight bulkhead, so that a sea entering 

 might wash out at the further side, and do no more harm 

 than give the steersmen a drenching. To my surprise 

 and dismay, however, I find that it is completely open to 

 the hold, so that half-a-dozen seas rolling in on a stormy 

 night would nearly, or quite, swamp us. Think of a vessel 

 going to sea for a month with two holes, each a yard 

 square, into the hold, at three feet above the water-line,- — 

 holes, too, which cannot possibly be closed ! But our 

 captain says all praus are so ; and though he acknowledge'^ 

 the danger, " he does not know how to alter it — the people 

 are used to it ; he does not understand praus so well as 

 they do, and if such a great alterati£)n were made, he 

 should be sure to have difficulty in getting a crew ! " This 

 proves at all events that praus must be good sea-boats, 

 for the captain has been continually making voyages in 

 them for the last ten years, and says he has never known 

 water enough enter to do any harm. 



Dec. 25th. — Christmas-day dawned upon us with gusts 

 of wind, driving rain, thunder and lightning, added to 

 which a short confused sea made our queer vessel pitch 



