CH. IX JOUBNEY THROUGH MINAHAS8A 227 



forest to Kelelonde. The track was a very bad one for a 

 light gig such as ours, and we jolted and pitched about in 

 a manner that was anything but pleasant after a long 

 day's journey. We reached Kelelonde shortly after sun- 

 set, and were received by our host, Mr. Eijksehroeff, the 

 opzichter of the coffee garden, and the only European in 

 the little mountain settlement. Before retiring to bed that 

 night we played a game of cards, the recognised method of 

 spending a pleasant evening in the Dutch East Indies. 

 The company I cannot forget, for it struck me at the 

 time as perhaps the queerest mixture of nationalities it 

 had ever been my good fortune to be in. There was a 

 Chinese trader, a friend of Mr. Eijksehroeff, who made, 

 I fancy, a handsome income by peddling goods among the 

 native people of the mountain districts. His partner in 

 the game was the Arab Omar, who had driven me over 

 from Kakas in his gig. My friend and partner Eijksehroeff 

 was a Dutchman, born in the Indies, but nevertheless well 

 educated and intelhgent. He had served as a soldier in 

 South Africa and Sumatra, and was fuU of stories and 

 anecdotes of the varied scenes of his life and adventures. 

 We four then — an Arab, a Chinaman, a Dutchman, and an 

 Englishman — sat down together to play at whist in the 

 little village of Kelelonde, situated in the heart of the pri- 

 mitive forest of the mountains of Celebes. We played 

 steadily until the early hours of the morning, and the end 

 of it aU was that the Chinaman came off victorious. The 

 next morning Omar and the Chinaman went away, and I was 

 left alone with my kind host and the little party of native 

 plantation labourers. The village consisted of some eight or 

 nine houses, and a shed-Uke hut that was used for a school 

 on weekdays and a church on Sundays. 



I do not propose to give a detailed account of my Hfe 

 and experiences at Kelelonde. I was very weak and poorly 



Q 'i 



