from Belarab. Peace! Peace! You know his fad.
And this fad makes him act silly. The peace racket will get him into a
row. It may cost him his life in the end. However, Tengga does not feel
himself strong enough yet to act with his own followers only and Belarab
has, on my advice, disarmed all villagers. His men went into the houses
and took away by force all the firearms and as many spears as they
could lay hands on. The women screamed abuse of course, but there was no
resistance. A few men were seen clearing out into the forest with their
arms. Note this, for it means there is another power beside Belarab's in
the village: the growing power of Tengga.

One morning--four days ago--I went to see Tengga. I found him by the
shore trimming a plank with a small hatchet while a slave held an
umbrella over his head. He is amusing himself in building a boat just
now. He threw his hatchet down to meet me and led me by the hand to
a shady spot. He told me frankly he had sent out two good swimmers to
observe the stranded vessel. These men stole down the creek in a canoe
and when on the sea coast swam from sandbank to sandbank until they
approached unobserved--I think--to about fifty yards from that schooner
What can that craft be? I can't make it out. The men reported there
were three chiefs on board. One with a glittering eye, one a lean man
in white, and another without any hair on the face and dressed in a
different style. Could it be a woman? I don't know what to think. I wish
you were here. After a lot of chatter Tengga said: "Six years ago I was
ruler of a country and the Dutch drove me out. The country was small but
nothing is too small for them to take. They pretended to give it back
to my nephew--may he burn! I ran away or they would have killed me. I am
nothing here--but I remember. These white people out there can not run
away and they are very few. There is perhaps a little to loot. I would
give it to my men who followed me in my calamity because I am their
chief and my father was the chief of their fathers." I pointed out the
imprudence of this. He said: "The dead do not show the way." To this I
remarked that the ignorant do not give information. Tengga kept quiet
for a while, then said: "We must not touch them because their skin is
like yours and to kill them would be wrong, but at the bidding of you
whites we may go and fight with people of our own skin and our own
faith--and that is good. I have promised to Tuan Li