Great rascals they are. I believe I am the only white man on the
east coast that is a settled resident. We get visitors from Macassar or
Singapore sometimes--traders, agents, or explorers, but they are rare.
There was a scientific explorer here a year or more ago. He lived in my
house: drank from morning to night. He lived joyously for a few months,
and when the liquor he brought with him was gone he returned to Batavia
with a report on the mineral wealth of the interior. Ha, ha, ha! Good,
is it not?"
He ceased abruptly and looked at his guests with a meaningless stare.
While they laughed he was reciting to himself the old story: "Dain dead,
all my plans destroyed. This is the end of all hope and of all things."
His heart sank within him. He felt a kind of deadly sickness.
"Very good. Capital!" exclaimed both officers. Almayer came out of his
despondency with another burst of talk.
"Eh! what about the dinner? You have got a cook with you. That's all
right. There is a cooking shed in the other courtyard. I can give you a
goose. Look at my geese--the only geese on the east coast--perhaps on
the whole island. Is that your cook? Very good. Here, Ali, show this
Chinaman the cooking place and tell Mem Almayer to let him have room
there.
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