sort of visor
made from the beak of a hornbill, the whole surmounted by a bunch of
yard-long tail-feathers from some bright-plumaged bird. When the
presentation was concluded all the chieftain had left was his
breech-clout. He did not share in my enthusiasm. From the murderous
glance which he shot at me when the Regent was not looking, I judged
that if he ever met me alone in the jungle he would get his shield
back, with another scalp to add to his collection. And I could guess
whose head that scalp would come from.

CHAPTER VI

IN BUGI LAND

The _Negros_ was not fast--thirteen knots was about the best she could
do--so that it took us two days to cross from Samarinda, in Borneo, to
Makassar, the capital of the Celebes. Our course took us within sight
of "the Little Paternosters, as you come to the Union Bank," where, as
you may remember, Sir Anthony Gloster, of Kipling's ballad of _The Mary
Gloster_, was buried beside his wife. Before our hawsers had fairly
been made fast to the wharf at Makassar it became evident that among
the natives our arrival had created a distinct sensation. The wharf was
crowded with Bugis, as the natives of the southern Celebes are known,
who tried in vain to make themselves understood by our Filipino crew.
Instead of the boisterous curiosity which had marked the attitude of
the natives at the other ports, the Bugis appeared to be laboring under
a suppressed but none the less evident excitement. When I went ashore
to call on the American Consul they made way for me with a respect
which verged on reverence. This curious attitude was explained by the
Consul.

"Your coming has revived among the natives a very curious and ancient
legend," he told me. "When the Dutch established their rule in the
Celebes, something over three centuries ago, the King of the Bugis
mysteriously disappeared. Whether he fled or was killed in battle, no
one knows. In any event, from his disappearance arose a tradition that
he had founded another kingdom in some islands far to the north, but
that, when the time was propitious, he would return to free his people
from foreign domination. Thus he came in time to be regarded as a
divinity, a sort of Messiah. Curiously enough, the natives refer to him
by a name which, translated into English, means 'the King of Manila.'
Some months ago it was reported in the Makassar papers that the
Governor-General of the Philippines expected to visit the Celebes upon
his way to