Four or five days later the chief was allowed to get up and to
walk quietly up and down the deck, and a week afterwards the doctor
said, "You can go now, chief, if you desire it; but you must be
content to keep quiet for another couple of months, and not make
any great exertions or move quickly. How long will it take you to
go up the river to your home?"

"Six days' easy paddling."

"Well, that is in your favor; but do not travel fast. Take it quietly,
and be as long as you can on the voyage--lying in a canoe is as
good a rest as you can take."

"Thank you, Doctor, I will obey your instructions. You have all been
very kind to me, and a Malay chief never forgets benefits. I have
been hostile to the white men, but now I see I have been mistaken,
and that you are good and kind. Is it true that your boat is going
up the river? Soh Hay tells me that it is so."

"Yes; one of the chiefs, Sehi Pandash, wishes to place himself
under our protection, and he has sent to ask that the ship might
go up and fire her big guns, that the tribes round may see that he
has strong friends who can help him."

"It is two days' rowing up the river to my place from his, and
when you are there I shall come down to see you. Sehi is not a good
chief; he quarrels with his neighbors, and shelters their slaves
who run away to him; he is not a good man."

"Well, we shall all be glad to see you, chief, and I hope that you