Pearling Life at the Present Day. 181
quickly
exchanged their wages for goods. An English acrobatic company happened
to be in Macassar at the time, and all the hands were taken to see the
performance, to the intense delight of all, but especially of the
younger men.
Unfortunately
the possession of so much money and the excitement of being in a large
town proved too much for the mind of one of the divers, Akalal by name,
who had hitherto been a slave in his own country, but was now a free
man for life, with all a free man's privileges. Impressed with the idea
that everybody wanted to rob him of his riches, he became greatly
excited; at night he swam off to the ship, clambered up the side, and
knocking down the Malay sailor at the cabin door with a belaying pin,
he entered the vacant cabin, and there seizing two large krisses,
attacked his comrades asleep on deck. Fortunately he was secured before
doing much harm, and soon became quieter.
Two
days afterwards, Mr. Haynes left Macassar in charge of the ship, bound
to Sooloo and back again, Mr. Chippindall returning to Singapore. The
second day Akalal again broke out, and seriously injured an unoffending
Macassar sailor. Mr. Haynes then put "him in irons for the remainder of
the voyage, and he was kept securely tied up in one of
