Among Malay Pirates : a Tale of Adventure and PerilHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
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Among Malay Pirates : a Tale of Adventure and Peril
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Pirates -- Juvenile fiction
“The next idea of which I was conscious was that I was being carried. I
seemed to be swinging about, and I thought I was at sea. Then there was
a little jolt and a sense of pain. 'A collision,' I muttered, and opened
my eyes. Beyond the fact that I seemed in a yellow world--a bright
orange yellow--my eyes did not help me, and I lay vaguely wondering
about it all, till the rocking ceased. There was another bump, and then
the yellow world seemed to come to an end; and as the daylight streamed
in upon me I fainted again. This time, when I awoke to consciousness,
things were clearer. I was stretched by a little stream. A native woman
was sprinkling my face and washing the blood from my wounds; while
another, who had with my own knife cut off my coat and shirt, was
tearing the latter into strips to bandage my wounds. The yellow world
was explained. I was lying on the yellow robe of one of the women.
They had tied the ends together, placed a long stick through them, and
carried me in the bag-like hammock. They nodded to me when they saw I
was conscious, and brought water in a large leaf, and poured it into my
mouth. Then one went away for some time, and came back with some leaves
and bark. These they chewed and put on my wounds, bound them up with
strips of my shirt, and then again knotted the ends of the cloth, and
lifting me up, went on as before.
“I was sure that we were much lower down the Ghaut than we had been
when I was watching for the bears, and we were now going still lower.
However, I knew very little Hindustani, nothing of the language the
women spoke. I was too weak to stand, too weak even to think much; and
I dozed and woke, and dozed again until, after what seemed to me many
hours of travel, we stopped again, this time before a tent. Two or three
old women and four or five men came out, and there was great talking
between them and the young women--for they were young--who had carried
me down. Some of the party appeared angry; but at last things quieted
down, and I was carried into the tent. I had fever, and was, I suppose,
delirious for days. I afterwards found that for fully a fortnight I had
lost all consciousness; but a good constitution and the nursing of the
women pulled me round. When once the fever had gone, I began to mend
rapidly. I tried to explain to the women that if they would go up to the
camp and tell them where I was they would be well rewarded; but although
I was sure they understood, they shook their heads, and by the fact that
as I became stronger two or three armed men always hung about the
tent, I came to the conclusion that I was a sort of prisoner. This was
annoying, but did not seem serious. If these people were Dacoits, or, as
was more likely, allies of the Dacoits, I could be kept only for ransom
or exchange. Moreover, I felt sure of my ability to escape when I got
strong, especially as I believed that in the young women who had saved
my life, both by bringing me down and by their careful nursing, I should
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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