Among Malay Pirates | Page 5

to him, scowled angrily.
"Tell him it is of no use his scowling at me, Soh Hay. I am not
doctoring him for my own amusement, but for his good, and because he
is the father of that little child."
The chief, when this was translated to him, lay without speaking for
two or three minutes, and then said quietly, "Tell the doctor I am sorry;
he is right, and I have been foolish. I will stay till he says I may go."

CHAPTER II.
Four or five days later the chief was allowed to get up and to walk
quietly up and down the deck, and a week afterwards the doctor said,
"You can go now, chief, if you desire it; but you must be content to
keep quiet for another couple of months, and not make any great
exertions or move quickly. How long will it take you to go up the river
to your home?"
"Six days' easy paddling."
"Well, that is in your favor; but do not travel fast. Take it quietly, and
be as long as you can on the voyage--lying in a canoe is as good a rest
as you can take."

"Thank you, Doctor, I will obey your instructions. You have all been
very kind to me, and a Malay chief never forgets benefits. I have been
hostile to the white men, but now I see I have been mistaken, and that
you are good and kind. Is it true that your boat is going up the river?
Soh Hay tells me that it is so."
"Yes; one of the chiefs, Sehi Pandash, wishes to place himself under
our protection, and he has sent to ask that the ship might go up and fire
her big guns, that the tribes round may see that he has strong friends
who can help him."
"It is two days' rowing up the river to my place from his, and when you
are there I shall come down to see you. Sehi is not a good chief; he
quarrels with his neighbors, and shelters their slaves who run away to
him; he is not a good man."
"Well, we shall all be glad to see you, chief, and I hope that you will
bring your daughter with you. She has won all our hearts, and we shall
miss her sadly."
"I will bring her if I can do so safely," the chief said gravely; "but I am
no friends with Sehi; he stops my trade as it comes down the river, and
takes payment for all goods that pass down. It is because he knows that
many of us are angered that he wishes to put himself under your
protection. I think that you do not do well to aid so bad a fellow."
"We did not know that he was a bad fellow, chief. The best plan will be
for you and the other chiefs who are aggrieved to send down
complaints against him, or to come down yourselves when we are up
there and talk it over with our Captain, who will doubtless impress
upon Sehi the necessity for abstaining from such practices, and that he
cannot expect aid from us if he embroils himself with his neighbors by
interfering with their trade. Is he strong?"
"He has many war prahus, which sometimes come down to the sea and
return with plunder, either collected from the cultivators near the coast
or from trading ships captured and burnt."

"I will mention what you tell me to the Captain, and it will prepare him
to listen to any complaint that may be made to him. But you must
remember that he is only acting under the orders of the Governor of the
Straits Settlements, and must refer all important matters to him."
"I will come when you are there," Hassan said gravely. "If nothing is
done, there will be war."
There was general regret on board the Serpent when the little princess
said goodby to all her friends and went down the accommodation
ladder to the boat with her father. The chief had said but little to the
two young midshipmen, for he saw that they preferred that the matter
should not be alluded to, but he held their hands at parting, and said:
"I shall see you again before long; but if at any time you should want
me, I will come, even if your summons reach me in the middle of a
battle."
"It is such nonsense, Doctor," Harry said, as the boat pushed off, "to
have so much made of such a thing as jumping into the water. If one
had been alone, and had tried to save a man or a woman, in such a state
of funk that there was a good chance