When, in compliance with Lingard's abrupt demand, Almayer consented to
wed the Malay girl, no one knew that on the day when the interesting
young convert had lost all her natural relations and found a white
father, she had been fighting desperately like the rest of them on board
the prau, and was only prevented from leaping overboard, like the few
other survivors, by a severe wound in the leg. There, on the fore-deck
of the prau, old Lingard found her under a heap of dead and dying
pirates, and had her carried on the poop of the _Flash_ before the Malay
craft was set on fire and sent adrift. She was conscious, and in the
great peace and stillness of the tropical evening succeeding the turmoil
of the battle, she watched all she held dear on earth after her own
savage manner, drift away into the gloom in a great roar of flame and
smoke. She lay there unheeding the careful hands attending to her wound,
silent and absorbed in gazing at the funeral pile of those brave men she
had so much admired and so well helped in their contest with the
redoubtable "Rajah-Laut."
* * * * *
The light night breeze fanned the brig gently to the southward, and the
great blaze of light got smaller and smaller till it twinkled only on the
horizon like a setting star. It set: the heavy canopy of smoke reflected
the glare of hidden flames for a short time and then disappeared also.
She realised that with this vanishing gleam her old life departed too.
Thenceforth there was slavery in the far countries, amongst strangers, in
unknown and perhaps terrible surroundings. Being fourteen years old, she
realised her position and came to that conclusion, the only one possible
to a Malay girl, soon ripened under a tropical sun, and not unaware of
her personal charms, of which she heard many a young brave warrior of her
father's crew express an appreciative admiration. There was in her the
dread of the unknown; otherwise she accepted her position calmly, after
the manner of her people, and even considered it quite natural; for was
she not a daughter of warriors, conquered in battle, and did she not
belong rightfully to the victorious Rajah? Even the evident kindness of
the terrible old man must spring, she thought, from admiration for his
captive, and the flattered vanity eased for her the pangs of sorrow after
such an awful calamity. Perhaps had she known of the high walls, the
quiet gardens, and the silent nuns of the Samarang convent, where her
destiny was leading her, she would have sought death in her dread and
hate of such a restraint. But in imagination she pictured to herself the
usual life of a Malay girl--the usual succession of heavy work and fierce
love, of intrigues, gold ornaments, of domestic drudgery, and of that
great but occult influence which is one of the few rights of half-savage
womankind. But her destiny in the rough hands of the old sea-dog, acting
under unreasoning impulses of the heart, took a strange and to her a
terrible shape. She bore it all--the restraint and the teaching and the
new faith--with calm submission, concealing her hate and contempt for all
that new life. She learned the language very easily, yet understood but
little of the new faith the good sisters taught her, assimilating quickly
only the superstitious elements of the religion. She called Lingard
father, gently and caressingly, at each of his short and noisy visits,
under the clear impression that he was a great and dangerous power it was
good to propitiate. Was he not now her master? And during those long
four years she nourished a hope of finding favour in his eyes and
ultimately becoming his wife, counsellor, and guide.
Those dreams of the future were dispelled by the Rajah Laut's "fiat,"
which made Almayer's fortune, as that young man fondly hoped. And
dressed in the hateful finery of Europe, the centre of an interested
circle of Batavian society, the young convert stood before the altar with
an unknown and sulky-looking white man. For Almayer was uneasy, a little
disgusted, and greatly inclined to run away. A judicious fear of the
adopted father-in-law and a just regard for his own material welfare
prevented him from making a scandal; yet, while swearing fidelity, he was
concocting plans for getting rid of the pretty Malay girl in a more or
less distant future. She, however, had retained enough of conventual
teaching to understand well that according to white men's laws she was
going to be Almayer's companion and not his slave, and promised to
herself to act accordingly.
So when the _Flash_ freighted with materials for building a new house
left the harbour of Batavia, taking away the young couple into the
unknown Borneo, she did not carry on her deck so much love and happiness
as old Lingard was wont to boast of before his casual friends in the
verandahs of various hotels. The old seaman himself was perfectly happy.
Now he had done his duty by the girl. "You know I made her an orphan,"
he often concluded solemnly, when talking about his own affairs to a
scratch audience of shore loafers--as it was his habit to do. And the
approbative shouts of his half-intoxicated auditors filled his simple
soul with delight and pride. "I carry everything right through," was
another of his sayings, and in pursuance of that principle he pushed the
building of house and godowns on the Pantai River with feverish haste.
The house for the young couple; the godowns for the big trade Almayer was
going to develop while he (Lingard) would be able to give himself up to
some mysterious work which was only spoken of in hints, but was
understood to relate to gold and diamonds in the interior of the island.
Almayer was impatient too. Had he known what was before him he might not
have been so eager and full of hope as he stood watching the last canoe
of the Lingard expedition disappear in the bend up the river. When,
turning round, he beheld the pretty little house, the big godowns built
neatly by an army of Chinese carpenters, the new jetty round which were
clustered the trading canoes, he felt a sudden elation in the thought
that the world was his.
But the world had to be conquered first, and its conquest was not so easy
as he thought. He was very soon made to understand that he was not
wanted in that corner of it where old Lingard and his own weak will
placed him, in the midst of unscrupulous intrigues and of a fierce trade
competition. The Arabs had found out the river, had established a
trading post in Sambir, and where they traded they would be masters and
suffer no rival. Lingard returned unsuccessful from his first
expedition, and departed again spending all the profits of the legitimate
trade on his mysterious journeys. Almayer struggled with the
difficulties of his position, friendless and unaided, save for the
protection given to him for Lingard's sake by the old Rajah, the
predecessor of Lakamba. Lakamba himself, then living as a private
individual on a rice clearing, seven miles down the river, exercised all
his influence towards the help of the white man's enemies, plotting
against the old Rajah and Almayer with a certainty of combination,
pointing clearly to a profound knowledge of their most secret affairs.
Outwardly friendly, his portly form was often to be seen on Almayer's
verandah; his green turban and gold-embroidered jacket shone in the front
rank of the decorous throng of Malays coming to greet Lingard on his
returns from the interior; his salaams were of the lowest, and his hand-
shakings of the heartiest, when welcoming the old trader. But his small
eyes took in the signs of the times, and he departed from those
interviews with a satisfied and furtive smile to hold long consultations
with his friend and ally, Syed Abdulla, the chief of the Arab trading
post, a man of great wealth and of great influence in the islands.
It was currently believed at that time in the settlement that Lakamba's
visits to Almayer's house were not limited to those official interviews.
Often on moonlight nights the belated fishermen of Sambira saw a small
canoe shooting out from the narrow creek at the back of the white man's
house, and the solitary occupant paddle cautiously down the river in the
deep shadows of the bank; and those events, duly reported, were discussed
round the evening fires far into the night with the cynicism of
expression common to aristocratic Malays, and with a malicious pleasure
in the domestic misfortunes of the Orang Blando--the hated Dutchman.
Almayer went on struggling desperately, but with a feebleness of purpose
depriving him of all chance of success against men so unscrupulous and
resolute as his rivals the Arabs. The trade fell away from the large
godowns, and the godowns themselves rotted piecemeal. The old man's
banker, Hudig of Macassar, failed, and with this went the whole available
capital. The profits of past years had been swallowed up in Lingard's
exploring craze. Lingard was in the interior--perhaps dead--at all
events giving no sign of life. Almayer stood alone in the midst of those
adverse circumstances, deriving only a little comfort from the
companionship of his little daughter, born two years after the marriage,
and at the time some six years old. His wife had soon commenced to treat
him with a savage contempt expressed by sulky silence, only occasionally
varied by a flood of savage invective. He felt she hated him, and saw
her jealous eyes watching himself and the child with almost an expression
of hate. She was jealous of the little girl's evident preference for the
father, and Almayer felt he was not safe with that woman in the house.
While she was burning the furniture, and tearing down the pretty curtains
in her unreasoning hate of those signs of civilisation, Almayer, cowed by
these outbursts of savage nature, meditated in silence on the best way of
getting rid of her. He thought of everything; even planned murder in an
undecided and feeble sort of way, but dared do nothing--expecting every
day the return of Lingard with news of some immense good fortune. He
returned indeed, but aged, ill, a ghost of his former self, with the fire
of fever burning in his sunken eyes, almost the only survivor of the
numerous expedition. But he was successful at last! Untold riches were
in his grasp; he wanted more money--only a little more torealise a dream
of fabulous fortune. And Hudig had failed! Almayer scraped all he could
together, but the old man wanted more. If Almayer could not get it he
would go to Singapore--to Europe even, but before all to Singapore; and
he would take the little Nina with him. The child must be brought up
decently. He had good friends in Singapore who would take care of her
and have her taught properly. All would be well, and that girl, upon
whom the old seaman seemed to have transferred all his former affection
for the mother, would be the richest woman in the East--in the world
even. So old Lingard shouted, pacing the verandah with his heavy quarter-
deck step, gesticulating with a smouldering cheroot; ragged, dishevelled,
enthusiastic; and Almayer, sitting huddled up on a pile of mats, thought
with dread of the separation with the only human being he loved--with
greater dread still, perhaps, of the scene with his wife, the savage
tigress deprived of her young. She will poison me, thought the poor
wretch, well aware of that easy and final manner of solving the social,
political, or family problems in Malay life.
To his great surprise she took the news very quietly, giving only him and
Lingard a furtive glance, and saying not a word. This, however, did not
prevent her the next day from jumping into the river and swimming after
the boat in which Lingard was carrying away the nurse with the screaming
child. Almayer had to give chase with his whale-boat and drag her in by
the hair in the midst of cries and curses enough to make heaven fall. Yet
after two days spent in wailing, she returned to her former mode of life,
chewing betel-nut, and sitting all day amongst her women in stupefied
idleness. She aged very rapidly after that, and only roused herself from
her apathy to acknowledge by a scathing remark or an insulting
exclamation the accidental presence of her husband. He had built for her
a riverside hut in the compound where she dwelt in perfect seclusion.
Lakamba's visits had ceased when, by a convenient decree of Providence
and the help of a little scientific manipulation, the old ruler of Sambir
departed this life. Lakamba reigned in his stead now, having been well
served by his Arab friends with the Dutch authorities. Syed Abdulla was
the great man and trader of the Pantai. Almayer lay ruined and helpless
under the close-meshed net of their intrigues, owing his life only to his
supposed knowledge of Lingard's valuable secret. Lingard had
disappeared. He wrote once from Singapore saying the child was well, and
under the care of a Mrs. Vinck, and that he himself was going to Europe
to raise money for the great enterprise. "He was coming back soon. There
would be no difficulties," he wrote; "people would rush in with their
money." Evidently they did not, for there was only one letter more from
him saying he was ill, had found no relation living, but little else
besides. Then came a complete silence. Europe had swallowed up the
Rajah Laut apparently, and Almayer looked vainly westward for a ray of
light out of the gloom of his shattered hopes. Years passed, and the
rare letters from Mrs. Vinck, later on from the girl herself, were the
only thing to be looked to to make life bearable amongst the triumphant
savagery of the river. Almayer lived now alone, having even ceased to
visit his debtors who would not pay, sure of Lakamba's protection. The
faithful Sumatrese Ali cooked his rice and made his coffee, for he dared
not trust any one else, and least of all his wife. He killed time
wandering sadly in the overgrown paths round the house, visiting the
ruined godowns where a few brass guns covered with verdigris and only a
few broken cases of mouldering Manchester goods reminded him of the good
early times when all this was full of life and merchandise, and he
overlooked a busy scene on the river bank, his little daughter by his
side. Now the up-country canoes glided past the little rotten wharf of
Lingard and Co., to paddle up the Pantai branch, and cluster round the
new jetty belonging to Abdulla. Not that they loved Abdulla, but they
dared not trade with the man whose star had set. Had they done so they
knew there was no mercy to be expected from Arab or Rajah; no rice to be
got on credit in the times of scarcity from either; and Almayer could not
help them, having at times hardly enough for himself. Almayer, in his
isolation and despair, often envied his near neighbour the Chinaman, Jim-
Eng, whom he could see stretched on a pile of cool mats, a wooden pillow
under his head, an opium pipe in his nerveless fingers. He did not seek,
however, consolation in opium--perhaps it was too expensive--perhaps his
white man's pride saved him from that degradation; but most likely it was
the thought of his little daughter in the far-off Straits Settlements. He
heard from her oftener since Abdulla bought a steamer, which ran now
between Singapore and the Pantai settlement every three months or so.
Almayer felt himself nearer his daughter. He longed to see her, and
planned a voyage to Singapore, but put off his departure from year to
year, always expecting some favourable turn of fortune. He did not want
to meet her with empty hands and with no words of hope on his lips. He
could not take her back into that savage life to which he was condemned
himself. He was also a little afraid of her. What would she think of
him? He reckoned the years. A grown woman. A civilised woman, young
and hopeful; while he felt old and hopeless, and very much like those
savages round him. He asked himself what was going to be her future. He
could not answer that question yet, and he dared not face her. And yet
he longed after her. He hesitated for years.
His hesitation was put an end to by Nina's unexpected appearance in
Sambir. She arrived in the steamer under the captain's care. Almayer
beheld her with surprise not unmixed with wonder. During those ten years
the child had changed into a woman, black-haired, olive-skinned, tall,
and beautiful, with great sad eyes, where the startled expression common
to Malay womankind was modified by a thoughtful tinge inherited from her
European ancestry. Almayer thought with dismay of the meeting of his
wife and daughter, of what this grave girl in European clothes would
think of her betel-nut chewing mother, squatting in a dark hut,
disorderly, half naked, and sulky. He also feared an outbreak of temper
on the part of that pest of a woman he had hitherto managed to keep
tolerably quiet, thereby saving the remnants of his dilapidated
furniture. And he stood there before the closed door of the hut in the
blazing sunshine listening to the murmur of voices, wondering what went
on inside, wherefrom all the servant-maids had been expelled at the
beginning of the interview, and now stood clustered by the palings with
half-covered faces in a chatter of curious speculation. He forgot
himself there trying to catch a stray word through the bamboo walls, till
the captain of the steamer, who had walked up with the girl, fearing a
sunstroke, took him under the arm and led him into the shade of his own
verandah: where Nina's trunk stood already, having been landed by the
steamer's men. As soon as Captain Ford had his glass before him and his
cheroot lighted, Almayer asked for the explanation of his daughter's
unexpected arrival. Ford said little beyond generalising in vague but
violent terms upon the foolishness of women in general, and of Mrs. Vinck
in particular.
"You know, Kaspar," said he, in conclusion, to the excited Almayer, "it
is deucedly awkward to have a half-caste girl in the house. There's such
a lot of fools about. There was that young fellow from the bank who used
to ride to the Vinck bungalow early and late. That old woman thought it
was for that Emma of hers. When she found out what he wanted exactly,
there was a row, I can tell you. She would not have Nina--not an hour
longer--in the house. Fact is, I heard of this affair and took the girl
to my wife. My wife is a pretty good woman--as women go--and upon my
word we would have kept the girl for you, only she would not stay. Now,
then! Don't flare up, Kaspar. Sit still. What can you do? It is
better so. Let her stay with you. She was never happy over there. Those
two Vinck girls are no better than dressed-up monkeys. They slighted
her. You can't make her white. It's no use you swearing at me. You
can't. She is a good girl for all that, but she would not tell my wife
anything. If you want to know, ask her yourself; but if I was you I
would leave her alone. You are welcome to her passage money, old fellow,
if you are short now." And the skipper, throwing away his cigar, walked
off to "wake them up on board," as he expressed it.
Almayer vainly expected to hear of the cause of his daughter's return
from his daughter's lips. Not that day, not on any other day did she
ever allude to her Singapore life. He did not care to ask, awed by the
calm impassiveness of her face, by those solemn eyes looking past him on
the great, still forests sleeping in majestic repose to the murmur of the
broad river. He accepted the situation, happy in the gentle and
protecting affection the girl showed him, fitfully enough, for she had,
as she called it, her bad days when she used to visit her mother and
remain long hours in the riverside hut, coming out as inscrutable as
ever, but with a contemptuous look and a short word ready to answer any
of his speeches. He got used even to that, and on those days kept quiet,
although greatly alarmed by his wife's influence upon the girl. Otherwise
Nina adapted herself wonderfully to the circumstances of a half-savage
and miserable life. She accepted without question or apparent disgust
the neglect, the decay, the poverty of the household, the absence of
furniture, and the preponderance of rice diet on the family table. She
lived with Almayer in the little house (now sadly decaying) built
originally by Lingard for the young couple. The Malays eagerly discussed
her arrival. There were at the beginning crowded levees of Malay women
with their children, seeking eagerly after "Ubat" for all the ills of the
flesh from the young Mem Putih. In the cool of the evening grave Arabs
in long white shirts and yellow sleeveless jackets walked slowly on the
dusty path by the riverside towards Almayer's gate, and made solemn calls
upon that Unbeliever under shallow pretences of business, only to get a
glimpse of the young girl in a highly decorous manner. Even Lakamba came
out of his stockade in a great pomp of war canoes and red umbrellas, and
landed on the rotten little jetty of Lingard and Co. He came, he said,
to buy a couple of brass guns as a present to his friend the chief of
Sambir Dyaks; and while Almayer, suspicious but polite, busied himself in
unearthing the old popguns in the godowns, the Rajah sat on an armchair
in the verandah, surrounded by his respectful retinue waiting in vain for
Nina's appearance. She was in one of her bad days, and remained in her
mother's hut watching with her the ceremonious proceedings on the
verandah. The Rajah departed, baffled but courteous, and soon Almayer
began to reap the benefit of improved relations with the ruler in the
shape of the recovery of some debts, paid to him with many apologies and
many a low salaam by debtors till then considered hopelessly insolvent.
Under these improving circumstances Almayer brightened up a little. All
was not lost perhaps. Those Arabs and Malays saw at last that he was a
man of some ability, he thought. And he began, after his manner, to plan
great things, to dream of great fortunes for himself and Nina. Especially
for Nina! Under these vivifying impulses he asked Captain Ford to write
to his friends in England making inquiries after Lingard. Was he alive
or dead? If dead, had he left any papers, documents; any indications or
hints as to his great enterprise? Meantime he had found amongst the
rubbish in one of the empty rooms a note-book belonging to the old
adventurer. He studied the crabbed handwriting of its pages and often
grew meditative over it. Other things also woke him up from his apathy.
The stir made in the whole of the island by the establishment of the
British Borneo Company affected even the sluggish flow of the Pantai
life. Great changes were expected; annexation was talked of; the Arabs
grew civil. Almayer began building his new house for the use of the
future engineers, agents, or settlers of the new Company. He spent every
available guilder on it with a confiding heart. One thing only disturbed
his happiness: his wife came out of her seclusion, importing her green
jacket, scant sarongs, shrill voice, and witch-like appearance, into his
quiet life in the small bungalow. And his daughter seemed to accept that
savage intrusion into their daily existence with wonderful equanimity. He
did not like it, but dared say nothing.