Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics by Oliver Optic (best romantic novels to read .TXT) 📗

the appointed time the company, including the party from the Blanche, were seated in the arm-chairs of Conference Hall; and Louis went through his narrative of the adventures of the Nimrods in Borneo. During the morning, Achang had placed the stuffed orang-outang on a shelf the carpenter had erected at the head of the platform, with the proboscis monkey on one side, and the argus-pheasant on the other. The Bornean had had some experience as a taxidermist, and Dr. Hawkes declared that he had done his work well.

Louis explained these specimens, and gave the measurements of the orang. The proboscis monkey and the bird were also described. When he said he[170] had not been disposed to shoot monkeys and other harmless animals for the fun of it, the audience applauded. He had killed a specimen of several animals, and several pigs, deer, and one bear, most of the latter for food. The cook had packed the last of the fish in the ice, so that it had kept well, and it had been served for breakfast that morning. Everybody had praised it. The surgeon called it the gourami, and said that some successful attempts had been made to introduce the fish in American waters.

The audience laughed heartily when Louis related in what manner they had killed and sold one hundred and eight feet of crocodile for about forty dollars. He told what he had learned about the Dyaks, and described the long-house they had visited, and the head-house, and gave the story in full of Rajah Brooke, and their visits to his nephew and successor, the present rajah. He might have gone on with his narrative till lunch-time if he had not known that General Noury was waiting for him to finish his account.

"Did you see the Dyak women, Louis?" asked his mother.

"Plenty of them. The older ones reminded me of the French women; for when they begin to grow old, they wrinkle and dry up. The morality of the Dyaks is much higher in tone, even among the laboring-classes, men and women, than in civilized countries. They are all honest; and they steal nothing, even in Kuching, though the Malays and Chinamen do it for them."[171]

"Were the young women pretty, Mr. Belgrave?" inquired Mrs. Woolridge.

"To a Dyak gentleman I suppose they are; but I was not fascinated with them, though I saw some on the Simujan who were not bad looking. The prettiest one I saw was at a village near the mountains. But the general is waiting for me to finish, and I must answer no more questions at present," replied the speaker, as he bowed, and hastened from the rostrum.

Then it was found that Mr. Gaskette had not hung up the map of Cochin China, for Achang and the carpenter had taken up the space before appropriated to it. Mr. Stevens, the carpenter, suggested a way to get over the difficulty; but it would take him half an hour to put up a frame in front of the orang.

"I shall not be able to get half through Cochin China before lunch-time," said General Noury, consulting his watch.

"I am afraid your audience will be scatterbrained, General, there is so much going on about the decks. Perhaps we had better postpone the lecture till after we have sailed to-morrow morning, especially as the Nimrods will be on shore this afternoon," suggested the commander.

"I approve the suggestion; let it be adopted."

The Blanche party lunched on board, and spent the afternoon there.[172]

CHAPTER XIX A HASTY GLANCE AT BANGKOK

While the carpenter and the second officer were busy making a place for the large map of Cochin China, the returned hunters from Borneo were invited to the cabin of the commander. They were pleased with the change of scene from the mud and water of their week in Borneo; though they felt that they would like to go there for another week—not more than that—at another time.

"After lunch you will visit the city of Bangkok, and spend the afternoon there; for you ought to see the place, as you are here," said Captain Ringgold. "It is a large city."

"How large is it, Captain?" asked Louis.

"That is more than anybody in Siam, or anywhere else, can tell you. In these Oriental countries, when they count the people, they do not include the females in the enumeration, so that we get but half an idea of the whole number. Chambers puts it at 300,000; the 'Year Book' does not give it at all; Bradshaw puts it down at 500,000; Lippincott the same. Probably the larger number is the nearer correct, and the authorities quoted are issued the present year."[173]

"I see no end of Chinamen flitting about the river," said Scott.

"They compose about one-half of the population of the city; and most of the trade of the place is in their hands, as you have found it to be, though to a less degree, in other cities you have visited in the East. The Celestials are taxed three dollars when they come into Siam, and pay the same amount every three years. But there is the lunch-bell. If you have no objection, Professor Giroud will go on shore with you."

"I should be delighted to have his company," replied Louis; and the others said the same thing.

The conversation at the table related more to Borneo than to anything else, and the Nimrods had all the questions they could answer put to them; and some of the ladies wished they had remained there a few days.

"If I had supposed the Nimrods would stay there only a week, I should have been quite willing to remain at Sarawak that time," added the commander.

"We fixed the time at three weeks because we thought it would take you all of that time to see Siam and Cambodia, and get back to Sarawak," replied Scott.

"I think it would have been delightful to sail on those rivers, and see the uncivilized people of the island," added Mrs. Belgrave. "But I suppose we should have been in the way of the hunters."

"Not at all, madam," answered Scott. "We had[174] a sampan, in which we could have done our hunting, while you were examining the long-houses and the head-houses. I don't know but that we should have wished to remain the whole three weeks if the ladies had been with us."

"Gallant Captain Scott!" exclaimed the lady.

"We did not go up the Rajang River as we intended, and we should have done that if you had been with us. I am very sure the Dyak ladies would have been delighted to see you, more than you would have been to see them," replied Scott.

"The steam-yacht must have been very delightful on the rivers and lakes; but the crocodiles, the snakes, and the savage orang-outangs would not have been pleasant to us."

"But with eleven Winchester repeating-rifles ready for use, you would have had nothing to fear."

Captain Ringgold rose from the table; and this terminated the conversation, and the party went on deck.

"Captain Ringgold said you had offered to go on shore with us, Professor Giroud," said Louis, as he joined the instructor. "We shall be delighted with your company."

"Thank you, Mr. Belgrave. I have been on shore every day, with or without the party, and have learned something about Bangkok. I may be of service to you," replied the professor.

"I am sure you will," said Scott.

The first cutter was in the water when they[175] reached the gangway, with the crew in their places. They went on board, and the bowman shoved off. Stoody, the coxswain, gave the orders, and the boat was immediately under way. She was steered towards the shore till she came abreast of the various craft moored there, and then headed up the river.

"Where are you going, Stoody?" asked Scott.

"Captain Ringgold told me to take the party up the river, to show them the boats and houses," replied the coxswain.

"That is a good idea, Mr. Scott," added the professor.

"The houses here are all afloat," said Morris. "They are three or four deep."

"Everybody is not allowed to build his house on shore; for that is a royal privilege, doled out to a few of the highest nobility," said the professor. "I suppose there is not room enough in the city for much besides the palaces and the temples, but beyond its limits we shall find plenty of land-houses."

"But I should think these floating houses would be smashed to pieces in a heavy blow; and I see there are plenty of steamers and tugboats in the river, which might bump against them," Morris objected.

"You see that the middle of the river is kept open, though it is very crooked; and these things regulate themselves."

"These houses are no better than card-boxes.[176] They seem to be built of bamboos, with wicker-work and plants. Each of them has a veranda in front, which is a nice place to sit and read, with a kind of ell at each end. I think I should like to live in one of them for a week or two," continued Morris.

"You would not like it," said Achang, who had come with them to act as interpreter.

"This is a walled town, with six miles of fortifications around it."

"A little less than two miles across it; and we shall not have to take any very long walks, for I have read that carriages are seldom seen except among the palaces, and probably belong to the nobility," said Louis; "but we are good for six miles this afternoon."

"The river is the great thoroughfare for business and for pleasure. It is covered with boats of all sorts and kinds. The walls of the city are from fifteen to thirty feet high, and twelve feet thick; but I suppose the heavy guns of modern times could knock them down in a very short time," added the professor.

"What is that opening into the river?" asked Felix, who had kept his tongue very quiet so far.

"That is a canal," replied Achang, as the professor did not reply. "I have been here three times, and once I went up that canal. There are only a few good streets in the city, and inside business is carried on by the canals."[177]

"As Paris is to France, and Paris is France, so Bangkok is Siam; and that is the reason why the commander goes no farther. Now we have come to the wall, and you can see the outside town."

"The houses here are all on stilts, as in Sumatra and Borneo," observed Scott. "Some of them are built over the water."

"It is said here that the city suffered terribly from the ravages of cholera; and when the king found out that the disease was caused by the bad drainage of the houses, he ordered his people to build on the river, where the drainage would dispose of itself," said Professor Giroud. "This story was told me by a Frenchman here, but I cannot vouch for the truth of the statement."

"Can you tell me, Achang, why they build their houses on piles in this country?" asked Morris.

"Because they have waterations here."

"Have what?" demanded the questioner, while all the party laughed except the Bornean. "I never heard of waterations before."

"When the water rise up high," Achang explained.

"Inundations, you mean."

"Yes; thunderations," added Achang.

"Inundations!" roared the Bornean's preceptor.

"That's what I say; and that's the first reason. The second is that there are many snakes"—

"Then, it's the place for me!" exclaimed Felix.

"Many snakes and wild beasts; the stilts help to keep them out of the house."[178]

"But most snakes can climb trees," Scott objected.

"Fixed so that snake can't get off the post into house," the Bornean explained.

"The little corn-houses in New England and other places are protected in the same way from rats. Four posts are set up for it to rest on, with a flat stone, or sometimes a large tin pan turned upside down, placed on the post. When the building is erected with the corners on the large, flat stone or the pans, rats or other rodents cannot get over these obstructions, and the corn is safe from them," continued Louis, illustrating his subject with a pencil for the post, and his hand for the stone or the pan.

Scott, who was an officer of the ship, ordered Stoody to take the party to the landing nearest to the Temple of Wat Chang, as the professor requested.

"The religion of Siam, like that of Burma, is Buddhist, in whose honor most of the temples whose spires you can see are erected," said the professor, as he pointed to several of them.

"We don't care to see them in detail, even if we had the time," suggested Louis. "I know they are magnificent pieces of architecture, and wonderful to behold; but we have had about enough of that sort of thing."

The party landed, and walked to the temple. It looked like an exaggerated bell, the spire being the handle, and the lower portion looking like an enormous flight of circular stairs for the roof. It was[179] over two hundred feet high. Attached to it