remained attractive for the most adventurous of a restless race. The
younger sons and relations of many a native ruler traversed the seas of
the Archipelago, visited the innumerable and little-known islands, and
the then practically unknown shores of New Guinea; every spot where
European trade had not penetrated--from Aru to Atjeh, from Sumbawa to
Palawan.



II

It was in the most unknown perhaps of such spots, a small bay on the
coast of New Guinea, that young Pata Hassim, the nephew of one of the
greatest chiefs of Wajo, met Lingard for the first time.

He was a trader after the Wajo manner, and in a stout sea-going prau
armed with two guns and manned by young men who were related to his
family by blood or dependence, had come in there to buy some birds
of paradise skins for the old Sultan of Ternate; a risky expedition
undertaken not in the way of business but as a matter of courtesy toward
the aged Sultan who had entertained him sumptuously in that dismal brick
palace at Ternate for a month or more.

While lying off the village, very much on his guard, waiting for the
skins and negotiating with the treacherous coast-savages who are the
go-betweens in that trade, Hassim saw one morning Lingard's brig come
to an anchor in the bay, and shortly afterward observed a white man of
great stature with a beard that shone like gold, land from a boat and
stroll on unarmed, though followed by four Malays of the brig's crew,
toward the native village.