CHAP, xxviii.] IN A NATIFE PRAU. 



paratinn for an absence of seven months from even the 

 outojkirts of civilization. On the morning of December 

 IStli, when we went on board at daybreak, it was raining 

 biittl. We set sail and it came on to blow. Our boat was 

 lost astern, our sails dumaged, and the evening found us 

 back again in Alacassar harbour. We remained there four 

 days longer, owing to its raining all the time, thus reuder- 

 ing it impossible to dry and repair the huge mat sails. 

 All these dreary days 1 remained on board, and during the 

 rare intRrvals when it didn't rain, tnatle myself acquainted 

 with our outlandish craft, some of the peculiarities of 

 which I wdl now endeavour to describe. 



Ifc was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and 

 shaped something like a Chinese junk. The deck sloped 

 considerably downward to the bows, which are thus the 

 lowest part of the ship. There were two large rudders, 

 but instead of being placed asfom th«y were hung on the 

 quarters from strung eross beams, which projected out two 

 or three feet on each side, and to whicli extent the deck 

 overhung the sides of the vessel anddshiiis. The rudders 

 were not hiuged but hung with slings of rattan, the friction 

 of which keeps them in any position in which they are 

 placed, and tlnis perhaps facOitates steering. Tlie 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 st^erenien. In the after part of 

 the vessel was a low poop, al>out three and a half feet high, 

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

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

 mast was a little thatclied 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 tive 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 slitling door of thatch on one side, and had a very 

 small window on tlie other. The tloor was of split bamboo, 

 pleasantly elastic, luised six iuches above the deck, so as 

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

 the mautd'acture of which Macassar is celebrated; against 

 the further wall were arranged my gun-case, insect- Ijoxt-s, 

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



