Loud acclamations followed. The rangkan was taken in tow and the roof of the canoe was lowered. Harimaoung’s companions placed themselves among the oarsmen, so that the vessel, now impelled by forty-four oars, shot along with the speed of lightning, rivalling the fastest steamer. The Poenans stood up, as they usually do in their canoes, between the seated oarsmen, and in this position used their long oars without any hindrance to the others. They were fine men, tall head-hunters with great broad chests and muscular arms. They were dressed in full war costume, ornamented by two long plumes of the rhinoceros bird and wore coats of mail fastened over thick jackets of beaten bark. Both garments were open in front and displayed their bodies handsomely tattooed with designs as beautiful as if limned by the pencil of an artist. Their shields, painted with the oddest arabesques, were borne against the lower parts of their bodies, while from their waists depended their mandauws, proudly ornamented with numerous locks of hair. As soon as the canoe was in full progress, Johannes called the two Swiss, the Walloon, and Harimaoung Boekit to the stern of the boat, where Dalim was already seated in charge of the tiller. They then proceeded to concoct measures to be adopted at kotta Djangkan. This was a strongly palisaded fort built on the Kapoeas River, in a very commanding position. Five hundred souls, including nearly eighty warriors, lived within the walls of this kotta, which thus formed what almost every kotta in the interior of Borneo really is, a strongly fortified kampong. Its chief was an old man named Amai Kotong, who also commanded the kotta Mawat and Brobok, situated on the soengei Mawat. Amai Kotong was a Poenan by birth. As the son of a great chief residing at soengei Miri, he had married an Ot Danom wife and afterward established himself on the banks of the Kapoeas. He had seen his riches increase by the spoil of several marauding expeditions, but his fortune had been chiefly made by gold digging. He was uncle to Harimaoung Boekit and had always held the son of his elder brother in great esteem. The Poenan chief therefore looked forward to a favorable reception and hoped for valuable assistance at kotta Djangkan. Such was the information now briefly conveyed by Johannes to his audience. “And what is the purpose of all this detail?” “The purpose is simply this,” was the rather angry reply, “that we take up our residence in kotta Djangkan and quietly await the result. If we should be attacked, we will not fail to defend ourselves bravely.” “I really believe it safer to continue our flight; no vessel afloat can overtake us at our present speed.”