The Memoirs of J.G. Kerlen – Part 11

Still, the health situation despite all this water and mudpools is good and epimdemics don’t occur often. Just like in Singkawang, yet more regularly, a busy correspondence with Singapore exist through Chinese steamers with shallow draughts, which bring goods and take away forest products and so it was all the time possible for me to keep a correspondence with Charlotte; we had agreed – and her father had approved of it – that our wedding would take place after my commission trip, and therefore I had asked a 14 days leave to Singapore, which was permitted.

My first occupation was to look for decent terrain to transfer the barracks and officer’s houses and I had my eyes set on a strip of grounds which was offered by the Arab Said-Salem and situated next to the road which led to the social club on the river.
When I told Maurenbrecher this, he told me that something happened with this land and he would check it out in the regional archive; it proved that there used to be a hospital on this land, which had been abandoned due to health reasons and that the land had been bought by Said-Salem for next to nothing.
Well this Arab, everyone knew it, was the right hand of the Resident, who actually was the owner. He also owned the hotel and also a sawmill opposite the house of M.
Every day in the morning he passed by with a long German pipe in his mouth to look at the Chinese sawyers and then he looked like a patriarch.

It was a strange situation, still nobody pretended to notice anything. One thing is, sure that after the warning of M. I didn’t want anything to do with the offered piece of land and besides I also found other well situated places.
For the barracks the yard had to be raised because of the construction of the buildings; the officer’s houses could be transferred completely and erected on dug in sleepers. Herewith I make a note that the exsisting fort and the hospital were also standing on higher ground and still mention as remarkableness, that in the middle of that fort stood a large waterapple tree, the fruit of which had a particular scent of roses and so the tree was also called djamboe ajer mawar ( rose water apple ); I have not seen them again anywhere in Indie.

Whist I was still staying with M. a Singaporean Arab announced himself and he suggested to make up a contract with him for the entire excecution of the transportation of the buildings; he therefore made a shameful suggestion to share the profit. I took the fellow by his collar and threw him out the door, later on it was clear to me that he was quite a high ranking follower of the Maharadja of Djohore, which I hope will be more clear later in these memoires.

My activities in Pontiak were as good as finished, but I still had to make an inspection trip to Sintang and Nanga-Pinoh. The trip to Sintang went by government’s steamer, which had been put to my use by the Resident. The captain was Mr. de Rijk, who’se family lived ashore and who had as extra income the exploitation of a large coconut plantation West of Pontiak.
He was a sturdy old sailor, who loved to play at omber. So the journey was a concatenation of parties, even so, that he suggested to play first several unwashed solos after rising in the morning.

With the sailing up the Kapoeas river the scenery of the landscape started to change slowly, the vegetation became sparcer, the banks higher and the current in which no influence of high or low tide was noticeable any longer, rather strong, sothat in the end we only slowly progressed.  So the journey then did take several days.

Sintang is situated on the left banks of the Kapoeas river, a little more North of the point, where the Melawie discharges itself in this river. It is a sweet location, consisting of a reinforcement with outer lying civilian and military houses, most of them built from ironwood.
I stayed with the Assistant Resident Gysberts, who had invited me therefore as passenger on the government’s steamer and I spent a few pleasant days there besides my service, which went in a normal way.

After that I went to Nanga-Pinoh with an extremely small paddle steamer, which in the strong current was difficult to steer; already when passing the bend, where the Melawie joins the Kapoeas, the captain commanded the sailor, “left” to avoid the boat capsizing to the right. A simiar command was neccessary at every sharp bend, which we passed.

The more we sailed up the Melawie river the steeper the banks became and upon arrival in Nanga-Pinoh we found that the jetty was 10m under the terrain, on which a very primitive temporary reinforcement and next to it the controller’s house, were standing.
There wasn’t much to inspect here and I only had to check as was the plan, to see if there was a spot to build a wooden block house. This was immediately done and we used the lunch with the controller and returned to Sintang in the afternoon.
This went as it were in a jiffy, however because of the strong current the little paddle steamer was even less manageable and the captain had to repeat his command all the time: sailor left and sailor right; but we were soon at our destination.

The next morning I returned again with Mr. de Rijk for Pontiak in a very short time playing at omber.
I had nothing else to do than to bring an official farewell visit; at the Resident I still had the opportunity to admire the wonderful figure of Mrs. Kater, who could not wear a dress any more and all the time appeared in a dressing gown because of her corpulence; she kept her hands in the pockets and her arms then made with her body a 45’ corner.
After also saying goodbye to family Maurenbrecher, who had received me so hospitably, I left one of the last days of March for Singapore with a small Chinese boat and arrived there after travelling more than 24 hours after having had a real shaky and uncomfortable night.

I hurried to the hotel de l’Europe to drop off my luggage and to change and soon arrived at the Castle, where of course I was received with open arms and stayed there the rest of the day.

The next day I went out with Papa Baumgarten to do what was neccessary for the solemnisation of the marriage. For this we went to the dean of the Anglican church, an old and very respectable man, who immediately made objections because it was Lent and it was not custumary to contract a marriage then; it was even compulsory for each believer during that period to live apart from his spouse. When Papa B. pointed out to him, that I as a stranger had come here especially for this and no oppprtunity would have to return in the near future, he agreed and decided to issue the required Licence.

Papa B. had to sign a written declaration that he wanted to hand over his daughter to me and I had to take the oath, that I was not married, for which I, according to English custom, had to kiss the bible which he held in his hand.

This happy life didn’t last long, because within a month Ch. started to feel sick, she had litte appetite, hated the food in the hotel and always wanted to eat something else; like one evening she felt like eating pasties and after I had been able to get 6 with great difficulty at Tersteeg, she tasted one and didn’t want them anymore, sothat I ate them myself in the end.

Being still green in married life I asked the advice of my friend Dr. Westhoff, who made fun at me and congratulated me with my oncoming fatherhood. Her whims however were gradually becoming less and Ch. was only sick just before she went out.

One evening I read in the paper that in the Marine hotel ( later on Eigen Hulp ) the teacher G.J. Kerlen had arrived. I went there at once and found my cousin with his spouse and some more people in a hot closed up room; I made them clear that it would be better to sit in the front veranda and invited them to come and tour with us the following afternoon in a tented carriage, so they could see something of Batavia; much pleasure I didn’t get from this hospitality, as will be clear later on, I only want to note, that when we were at the Koningsplein and saw a grazing goat, the teacher’s wife called out: Look there Garrit, a goaty: by this she very much gave proof of her common Deventer background.

I knew there were people in Singapore who were envious of me, but that under these were also slanderers was clear to me these days. One day I was summoned at the office of the Chief and he told me, that he had heard along, that the delivery of wood in Moulmain was very diappointing and that I when signing the contract had shirked the difficulty. Of course I was flabbergasted and asked the Chief to request a report of the case from the senior engineer officer in Atjeh; this took place and Major Dozy answered by return mail. When his writing arrived I was once more called on the mat and the colonel let me read it. Major Dozy wrote that he had never, in his whole service seen such beautiful wood work.

The Chief wished me luck and for me this was a great satisfaction.