Black Michael sent a
small boat filled with men to sound the entrance in an effort to determine if the Fuwalda could be safely worked through the entrance.
The morning following the capture of Virginia Maxon by Muda Saffir, Professor Maxon, von Horn, Sing Lee and the sole surviving lascar from the crew of the Ithaca set out across the strait toward the mainland of Borneo in the
small boat which the doctor had secreted in the jungle near the harbor.
They waited in the hope of seeing it enter the harbor, but as the object on which they looked was driven nearer to shore by the wind, they found that it could at the most be a
small boat, and not a ship.
The fellow led her from the place, and together they walked quickly toward the wharf and along it until across the water they saw a
small boat just pulling into the shadows of a nearby steamer.
As we came down upon him, covering the sea and blowing our conches, he put off from the schooner in the
small boat, along with the three black boys, and rowed for the passage.
Here they turned towards the Euphrates, and crossing the river in a
small boat, walked through that part of the town which lay along the further bank, without seeing anything to call for their interference.
Without a moment's loss of time a
small boat put off in the direction of its fall; some divers plunged into the water and attached ropes to the handles of the shell, which was quickly dragged on board.
During which time there made forth to us a
small boat, with about eight persons in it; whereof one of them had in his hand a tipstaff* of a yellow cane, tipped at both ends with blue, who came aboard our ship, without any show of distrust at all.
About thirty yards away, a man was rowing leisurely around in another
small boat.
As they were thus proceeding, then, they discovered a
small boat, without oars or any other gear, that lay at the water's edge tied to the stem of a tree growing on the bank.
`Well, we did not catch a thousand, but we caught exactly nine hundred and ninety-nine--the biggest catch for a
small boat on the whole north shore that summer.
The run would have been more delightful still, if it had not been for a lot of wretched
small boats that were continually getting in the way of our launch, and, to avoid running down which, we had to be continually easing and stopping.