38

MY MALAY COXSWAIN.

do as well if the real fight ever came off, and meantime would dispense with such a performance, especially as the row he made had caused "Numero Tega" to be hailed from the pinnace to know if anything was amiss. This piece of advice Jadee took in such good part, that he constantly rehearsed the pantomime for my amusement whenever he saw me low-spirited, or in want of occupation.

Jadee informed us that his cognomen amongst the people of Singapore, and white men generally, was Jack Ketch; a nickname he pronounced so clippingly that it sounded not unlike his real one: and from Jambo I heard the following history of my redoubted serang; but, previous to repeating it, let me introduce the hero.

Jadee stood about five feet seven inches in height; his colour was of a light brown. His broad shoulders, small waist, and fine hips, with well-formed arms and legs covered with muscles in strong relief, denoted great strength and activity. His delicate yet far from effeminate hands and feet were but little reconcileable to an Englishman's ideas with a man who had lived from the cradle by the sweat of his brow. A square well-formed head, well placed on a strong nervous neck, completed the man. The countenance, although that of a pure Malay, had nothing so re

HIS ATTIRE AND CHARACTER.

39

pulsive about it as people generally suppose; the cheek-bones were high, and the face somewhat square, but his eyes were good and expressive, without being either deep set or with bloodshot eyeballs, as the regular “property Malays" of novel-writers usually are represented: a good nose and forehead, with a massive but beardless chin, gave much character to the face of Jadee, and his short black hair, brushed up on end, with a sort of rollicking laughing air about the man, required nothing to fill up the picture of a Malayan buccaneer. Jadee was a beau withal. Round his waist, and falling to the knees like a Highland kilt, he wore a circular piece of cotton plaid, of a small blue and white pattern; stiff with starch, it stuck out, and half hid in its folds his handsome creese, a weapon never from a Malay's side. Over one shoulder and across to the opposite hip, hung in an easy, jaunty manner another sarong of brighter hues, generally red and yellow tartan; it served as a covering to the upper part of the body when necessary, or, wrapped round the arm, acted as a shield in a skirmish. An ordinary red cotton handkerchief served as a head-dress, great coquetry being shown in the mode of wearing it. It was in the first place starched until almost as stiff as pasteboard, then folded across; two ends were tied on one side of the

40

JADEE'S YOUTH AND ANTECEDENTS.

head in a jaunty knot, whilst the others stuck up or waved about in a very saucy manner. A mouthful of cērē leaf, penang nut, and chunam, with a small quid of tobacco stuck under the upper lip, completed the appearance of Jadee. Poor fellow! he was generous to a fault, and thoughtless as a child; and when I afterwards came to know him well, I often thought how strong the similarity was between the disposition of him and his companions and the majority of our untutored seamen.

He was by birth a "Batta," or else had been stolen, at an early age, and carried off by that race from some sea-coast village. These Battas inhabit the hill country of Sumatra, and are reputed cannibals—at least, such is the charge brought against them by neighbours.

Jadee, whilst still a youth, happened to accompany a party of Battas who visited the pepper plantation of a sea-coast chieftain, for some hostile and I fear no very reputable purpose; the result was that, in a skirmish which took place, Jadee was captured, and as a slave entered upon a different career to that of living amongst the branches of trees and eating fellow-men.

ome Sooloo slave dealers and pirates visited the district in which Jadee was detained, and he was ex

HIS PIRATICAL PROPENSITIES.

41

changed for various commodities that they disposed of to his master. Made at first to row, and bale water out of their prahus, he gave such proofs of courage and address, that in a short time they advanced him to the rank of a fighting man. Jadee, however, did not like his masters, although he had an uncommon degree of respect for their enterprise and skill as sea-rovers; and after some years of strange adventures against the Chinese, Spaniards, and Dutch-the latter of whom he never spoke of without execrating the memory of their mothers-he escaped, and took service under the Rajah of Jehore, or some chief who sailed prahus from the neighbourhood of our then youthful colony of Singapore.

After a little active service, our hero found himself in possession of a perfect fortune in hard dollars and sycee silver; and to spend it in the most approved manner, proceeded to Singapore. To take unto himself a fresh wife was an easy task for such a gallant; and Jadee kept open house in the neighbourhood of Singapore, in one of those neat native huts which may still be seen raised upon piles, although far enough from the water.

The money flew fast, and, sailor like, Jadee soon found himself compelled to take to the sea for a subsistence. For a few years he led a chequered career:

42

JADEE ESCAPES IMPRISONMENT

plenty one day-opium, curry and rice, and wives galore; then pulling at an oar like a galley-slave to win more; at last the white men spoilt his career. An expedition in which Jadee was engaged was attacked by a British man-of-war, and suffered a severe defeat. Jadee never bargained for fighting them anything with a dark skin-let him be the Old Gentleman himself-he felt himself a match for. A Dutchman he did not mind, and a Spaniard he had often seen run; but the Orang-putihs-there was no charm, not even from the Koran, which had ever been efficacious against pirates so mighty as they.. Jadee had sailed with distinguished Malay "Rajah Lauts," or Kings of the Sea, but their glory paled before the "Rajah Lauts" of the white men; they were indeed rovers whom Malay men might envy but might not imitate.

Driven with many of his companions from following up their profession in a wholesale way, Jadee and one or two roving spirits struck up a new business. They bought a fast-pulling sampan, lived at Singapore, and apart from an occasional honest fare, used at nights to waylay the market-boats and Chinese petty traders, and frighten them into paying black mail. Even this came to an end; for, one day, when asleep in his sampan, Jadee was captured by a dozen