Not Forgetting the Crocodiles, a Motor Run, and an Encounter with a Durian Dutch West Borneo, Singkawang, Jan. 9.
The coasts and rivers of Borneo ye notorious as the habitat of crocodiles and enormous lizard-like Tt was therefore with some trepidation that I jumped into a small boat already overcrowded with Cantonese and Fukienese. The motor-boat thab would take us to the K.P.M. steamer was lying just outside the bar and if we could get safely down the muddy creek it would no doubt pull os safely out to the steamer. The difficulty at present was the muddy evoke, the over-ergyded Boat, and the crocodiles. WHR all hid "been safely packed, bag and Baggage, Cantonese and Fukienese, and one European, a wild looking Malay-Dyak-Chinese boy pushed the amall boat into the centre of the muddy creek, I raised my hat, why, I don't know, to a friendly. castoms official on the wharf, ani then started for the motorboat! lying a few bundyed yards beyond the breakers, Just before we pushed off, the customs man had invited me into his house to sei an enormous crocodile he had shot Iy¢_and only a in the muddy creek down which we wore ow "travelling. But mentality was now obsessed with etocodiles and the ultimate. result of a motley crowd of Chines, Malay, Tamil and one foreigner all struggling in the muddy water, Outside the reek the waves. did not look very nice, but in a short tine we were safely on hoard the motor Tagneh. and in. half am howe on hoard. the steamer and the' muddy. creek andthe crocodiles wore now things to be forgotten. Grocodites, however, are a" menace all over the coasts and rivers of Borneo and the Dutch Government now offers the reward of two and bolt guilders to any one prosenting' the tal of this fearsome animal was delighted to see. again. good friend the Chinese compradore And to discover that he had & whole Tot of, questions he wanted to. ask "Who was his first ques-"are the four dimensions?" and' to ensure a scientific answer Ko informed mo that he had been yonding a lot about them during the past few days. Tis parents came from Puchow, but he' wae a Strnits-born Chinese, and "com: protore in the service of the Datch shipping line, known in Singapore asthe K.P. He was. straggling through "Paradise "Lost" and. History of the British Nation when I tiiest discovered him on my way down to Borneo, and we very soon struck up a warm friendship when he know T had" just came. down from China.
"How ave conditions in China"
Nas toon Totlowed by the question, What. ili the "origin of the uni: verso?" To both questions T must confess I could only. give a very Ingoherent answer. We. were getting along nicely till the question of the four dimensions came. on the bourd, then we went to negative and. "positive, male and. female, good and evil, black and white, And to every dificult. and intricate problem this Chinese " compradore had worked out, some solution to, satisfy at least his own mind.
When the K.P.M. Singkel! called at Sampas on the Datch coast of Borneo my friend had. bought number of Inrge crabs and. these creatures were now struggling about my feet ae T tried to. help hhh settle some of: his. problems.
During my few days in Dutch Borneo I had been struggling free with at Toast one dimension, namely, distance. When we anchor: ed of Singkawang I discovered we ere three. miles from the shore; when we landed "discovered wer¢ three miles from the and when we arrived there I. discovered we were some seventy miles from} Bengkajang, the object of my visit to" Borneo, With. the. kind Assiftance of the K.P.M. agent I
which Volunteered to take able to hie a fant ood Buck through to Bengkajang, the centre of the wild Dyals, for" the sum of 17 guilders, 'The Dutch have a big problem in roads if cree and. they. ave attacking it bravely. "Already they have something like G60 kilometres of roads and these' need constant! repair to be kept in good condition, The road between Singkawang and Pontianak, the capital of Dutch Borneo, was constructed by a. British' engineer, and is one of the best roads in the country. But the road between Singkawang and Bengkajang, a distance of some-70 miles is sometimes a mild and Sometimes a wild nightmare. The Chinese who own motor cars in Dutch Borneo have to pay 35 guilders per month as a road tax and the best motor car on the market! is a total wreck in one year. Some of the new Fords are being used. These cost 2000 guilders and in one year, after different parts have been renewed, the ear is abandoned as not fit for use. This in itself will give some idea of the roads in Borneo. On one occasion I hit the top of the car with such a thud T wondered jast really what had happened. All sorts of new 1d] dimensions appeared to me.
When we started there was another young Chinese and myself in the car and the driver was a young, Cantonese. We had not gone far before we had to get out and push) the car through the mud, then we picked up a few passengers (all on the car I had hired for 17 guilders) and finally arrived at a small Chinese village 28 miles from Singkawang. Here we went into the Chinese school and the Chinese public reading room. In the reading room. were pictures of Dr. Sun and General Chiang, and other revolutionary, leaders and a number of Chinese!
Papers were laid out on the tables. The walls were decorated with selections from the Three Principles, and everything was being done in the reading room to keep the Sons: of Han in touch with the mother country.
At this point something went] wrong with the Buick which wa: following us so the three Tamils in that car and their four heavy boxes! were put on our car and we started out on the next part of the journey. There were now eight persons and no small amount of heavy luggage in our brave little ear and T now began seriously to wonder if after all I would reach the Land of the Dyaks. After another couple of hours thumping and bumping and dumping I was told my Dutch friend Mr. Breman was coming down the road in hi For which relief truly much A day or two later we secured al new Ford and went some 40 miles around the Dyak kampongs. Mr. Breman and his wife have worked for three years among this wild head hunting people and wherever they go they are welcomed among] the Cly Into some of the! Kampongs that we entered T could see that the head hunters were not quite sure of me; frequently they eyed me somewhat suspiciously. But a little friendly soon put them at ease. are' built entirely of bamboo and stand some five fect above the ground. In one kampong there may' de ax many as fifty houses, a house comprising one single room in which the whole family with all their re-natives live. Thee is nothing private throughout the whole kam-Pong snd what takes place in one house may be seen from two others In one little child had been born only two! days previously and the mother was sitting inside with the baby. My friend went in and brought the child outside to the a and it-was interesting to see the! mother follow the baby in and out Just a8 a cat would fetlow its kitten.
The Dyaks, though still very wild are also very lazy. They do practically no work and when not out head-hunting they usually go gathering. durian, rambutan, of mangosteen. These different traits they take to the Chinese villages and exchange for rice and some horrible kind of bean-curd of which} the Chinese have discovered the Dyaks are very fond of. My visit to Borneo coincided with the gathering of the durian and it was inter esting watching how the Dyaks Drought this very prickly fruit down! Yo the ground. They attached a very sharp knife toa short stick and with dexterous aim brought down the {nib from any part of the tree. This was sometimes dangerous to the onlooker as not only did the fruit come down but frequently a can ugly-looking knife, peculiar to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.