Free The Rescue by Joseph Conrad Page B

years at least,
seriously endangered the Dutch rule in the East. When, at the cost of
much blood and gold, a comparative peace had been imposed on the
islands the same occupation, though shorn of its glorious possibilities,
remained attractive for the most adventurous of a restless race. The
younger sons and relations of many a native ruler traversed the seas of
the Archipelago, visited the innumerable and little-known islands, and
the then practically unknown shores of New Guinea; every spot where
European trade had not penetrated—from Aru to Atjeh, from Sumbawa to
Palawan.

II
*
    It was in the most unknown perhaps of such spots, a small bay on the
coast of New Guinea, that young Pata Hassim, the nephew of one of the
greatest chiefs of Wajo, met Lingard for the first time.
    He was a trader after the Wajo manner, and in a stout sea-going prau
armed with two guns and manned by young men who were related to his
family by blood or dependence, had come in there to buy some birds
of paradise skins for the old Sultan of Ternate; a risky expedition
undertaken not in the way of business but as a matter of courtesy toward
the aged Sultan who had entertained him sumptuously in that dismal brick
palace at Ternate for a month or more.
    While lying off the village, very much on his guard, waiting for the
skins and negotiating with the treacherous coast-savages who are the
go-betweens in that trade, Hassim saw one morning Lingard's brig come
to an anchor in the bay, and shortly afterward observed a white man of
great stature with a beard that shone like gold, land from a boat and
stroll on unarmed, though followed by four Malays of the brig's crew,
toward the native village.
    Hassim was struck with wonder and amazement at the cool recklessness of
such a proceeding; and, after; in true Malay fashion, discussing with
his people for an hour or so the urgency of the case, he also landed,
but well escorted and armed, with the intention of going to see what
would happen.
    The affair really was very simple, "such as"—Lingard would say—"such
as might have happened to anybody." He went ashore with the intention
to look for some stream where he could conveniently replenish his water
casks, this being really the motive which had induced him to enter the
bay.
    While, with his men close by and surrounded by a mop-headed, sooty
crowd, he was showing a few cotton handkerchiefs, and trying to explain
by signs the object of his landing, a spear, lunged from behind, grazed
his neck. Probably the Papuan wanted only to ascertain whether such a
creature could be killed or hurt, and most likely firmly believed that
it could not; but one of Lingard's seamen at once retaliated by striking
at the experimenting savage with his parang—three such choppers brought
for the purpose of clearing the bush, if necessary, being all the
weapons the party from the brig possessed.
    A deadly tumult ensued with such suddenness that Lingard, turning round
swiftly, saw his defender, already speared in three places, fall forward
at his feet. Wasub, who was there, and afterward told the story once a
week on an average, used to horrify his hearers by showing how the man
blinked his eyes quickly before he fell. Lingard was unarmed. To the
end of his life he remained incorrigibly reckless in that respect,
explaining that he was "much too quick tempered to carry firearms on the
chance of a row. And if put to it," he argued, "I can make shift to kill
a man with my fist anyhow; and then—don't ye see—you know what
you're doing and are not so apt to start a trouble from sheer temper or
funk—see?"
    In this case he did his best to kill a man with a blow from the shoulder
and catching up another by the middle flung him at the naked, wild
crowd. "He hurled men about as the wind hurls broken boughs. He made a
broad way through our enemies!" related Wasub in his jerky voice. It is
more probable that Lingard's quick movements and the amazing aspect of
such a strange being caused the