The men reported there
were three chiefs on board. One with a glittering eye, one a lean man
in white, and another without any hair on the face and dressed in a
different style. Could it be a woman? I don't know what to think. I wish
you were here. After a lot of chatter Tengga said: "Six years ago I was
ruler of a country and the Dutch drove me out. The country was small but
nothing is too small for them to take. They pretended to give it back
to my nephew--may he burn! I ran away or they would have killed me. I am
nothing here--but I remember. These white people out there can not run
away and they are very few. There is perhaps a little to loot. I would
give it to my men who followed me in my calamity because I am their
chief and my father was the chief of their fathers." I pointed out the
imprudence of this. He said: "The dead do not show the way." To this I
remarked that the ignorant do not give information. Tengga kept quiet
for a while, then said: "We must not touch them because their skin is
like yours and to kill them would be wrong, but at the bidding of you
whites we may go and fight with people of our own skin and our own
faith--and that is good. I have promised to Tuan Lingard twenty men and
a prau to make war in Wajo. The men are good and look at the prau; it
is swift and strong.
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