Then the oars were seized and once more they rowed for life and in full expectation of seeing the prahu they had passed coming at full speed round one of the bends.
Hollins made no answer, but started from his place to look up the river, as a couple of banks of oars churned up the surface, sending a large prahu round a broad bend of the stream a quarter of a mile away.
Beecher looked up as wonderingly as his companion, for the men, in obedience to an order, began to pull short, doubling their strokes, and the head of the prahu was turned for the leafy curtain on the right bank.
Till theprahu comes after us to run us down," muttered Beecher.
Almost as he spoke the prahu that was descending the stream crowded with men and bristling with razor-edged spears, was suddenly checked, the rowers then uttering a shout and backing water in obedience to a sharp tap on a gong.
They had not much time given them for thought, theprahu being cleverly steered alongside a row of bamboo posts, upon which a kind of rough landing-stage had been made, and the captain advanced to his prisoners and bade them disembark.
The party on leaving the prahu was followed also by a guard of spearmen, and as they neared the chief approaching from the crowd, the captain gave a peremptory order and the party stopped short.
The prahu ordered to pilot us having come alongside, we hoisted her up abaft, and took the people on board, and then made sail for the hitherto unknown territory of Panti river.
The dead were then thrown overboard, and the prahu set on fire; the last prahu, containing the wounded, was left to her fate.
The prahu had not yet returned, so, taking a new departure, we proceeded up the right branch.
At the same time, you say, a war prahu pulled round the point, and approached to within range; when the prahu was close to you she ceased paddling, and hoisted Dutch colours.
Another prahu now hove in sight, pulling, or rather paddling, towards us.
At last the sultan of Sooloo agreed to send a prahu with us to pilot us up the river, to the town where the crew of the Premier were in durance.
On turning a point the prahu kept before the wind, and walked away from us so fast that we gave up the chase.
In the course of the day several large prahus made their appearance, manned by large crews of Malay pirates, and severe conflicts took place between the respective parties, in one of which a ball from the leading prahu struck Sir E.
Taking the canoe in tow, we again took to the oars, and in a short time perceived the natives hauling the prahu into a creek.
A war prahu generally contains from fifty to eighty men.
They also gave us the information that the boats of the Dido had been engaged with pirates, and had been successful, having captured one prahu and sunk another.
Shouts from the mouth of the river attract their attention, while the sight of the prahu standing up-stream again causes them to crouch low in the water.
Becoming silent at once they leaned as far towards the bank of the river as the undergrowth would permit, and watched the spot where the prahu had moored beside the boom.
Grasping the helm, Tyler set the prahu in the direction of the coast, the Chinaman pulling in the sail till it stretched taut across the mast and allowed them to sail their craft close-hauled.
With trained eye he steered the prahufor the schooner so that she glided alongside with a gentle grating sound, and then shouted again to his men.
Each of the watchers gave vent to a gasp of surprise, for of a sudden a huge prahu came into sight, her decks loaded with dusky pirates, while, above, an immense spread of sail flapped loosely against her masts.
Having moored the prahu to a buoy in the centre of the creek, Tyler lay down upon the floor and set himself to think, while Li Sung went ashore in the sampan to carry out his master's wishes.
Once there, we will select a hiding-place and keep watch upon the schooner, and upon the prahu as soon as she rounds the bend.
Then your suggestion is that we should coast along the island, and if pursued by the prahu slip into some creek.
And, therefore, he at once motioned to the small prahu with which the head of the schooner had been warped round when she lay at her moorings before the pirates' stockade, and indicated that that was the one which he would select.
A Dutchman and his cruel pirates are after us, and their prahu lies in the river beyond the trees.
But now the prahu had dropped her boat into the water and was standing up the river, while the crew who had been left behind were already putting out their paddles and preparing to row for the land.
He was just in time, for as the boat grated against the prahu there was a sharp ringing report, and the water was thrown up close astern.
Smoke, too, was rising slowly above the feathery palm-trees, but not in such dense volumes as that which could still be seen spreading out like a cloud above the jungle, where the prahu was burning.
Just in the nick of time a good-sized prahu came down the river, and on anchoring by the steamer her captain went on board, with a pitiful tale of how he had been treated higher up the river.
Every sampan or prahu that came down the stream was stopped, boarded, and searched, at first greatly to the annoyance of their occupants.
Now, my lads, not a sound; we have a disgrace to wipe out, and thisprahu must be ours.
A prahu coming down," he exclaimed, running to the lieutenant and catching his arm, pointing out as he did so something moving round a reach of the river, and seen now and then where the growth was thin.
Then an alderman of the city set out in a prahu in pursuit of the amorous fugitives, accompanied by a notary and a dozen arquebusiers.
This individual, instead of leading them to battle, fled to the Province of Bulacan the day before the capture of Manila in a prahu with a few natives, carrying with him some money and half a ream of official stamped paper.
I had almost lost my voice through being ten hours in the rain; but the priest was very attentive to us, and we went on in a prahu to the village where the crime had been committed.
During our journey in the prahu the wind was so strong that we resolved to beach our craft on the seashore instead of attempting to get over the shoal of the San Juan River.
In another prahu the prisoners were sent in charge of the soldiers.
The next day the Captain remained in the village whilst I went on with the Lieutenant and a few guards in a prahu down the coast, where we made further captures, and returned in three days.
We told Ned to inquire if one of the men belonging to the prahu would be willing to pilot us up the river, promising him a handsome reward if he would do so, and undertaking to set him on shore at any place he might name which we could reach.
The young man we had rescued from the Malay prahu gradually regained his recollection of English, but from the first he showed an unwillingness to talk about himself, and I observed that he kept aloof as much as possible from the crew.
The captain, however, who was on the watch for this, caught sight of her, and calling to Blyth and me, we used our cutlasses and pikes with such good effect that the enemy was driven back and their prahu fell astern.
It took some little time, however, to load the guns, and before they could be fired the prahu had got some fathoms off.
I was talking to one of the men we brought off from Sanguir, when he confessed to me that he had been on board the prahu which took me off the shore where we were wrecked.
They spared my life, but sold me after some time to the people to whom the prahu belonged, from the wreck of which you picked me up.
The cabin windows had been battened up, but anotherprahu attempted to throw some men on board by getting under our stern.
It was the slight rocking of the prahu that caused Barunda to look suddenly about to discover the reason for the disturbance.
He says that two hours ago such a war prahu passed on its way up river--he saw the white girl plainly.
Leaping among the combatants he urged his fellows aboard the prahu which was already half filled with Dyaks.
In it he made out two natives, and the stealthiness of their approach caused him to withdraw into the shadow of a large prahu which was beached close to where he had been standing.
At the rate of fifty a minute, a stream of projectiles tore into the bow of the prahu when suddenly a richly garbed Malay in the stern rose to his feet waving a white cloth upon the point of his kris.
Just as the young giants' prahucame within the circle of firelight a swarthy Malay approached the fire, dragging a white girl roughly by the arm.
Far ahead of them in the bottom of the great prahu crouched the girl they sought.
Behind her she saw the prahu turn back up stream, but now her mind was suddenly engaged with a new danger, for the girl realized that the strong current was bearing her down stream more rapidly than she had imagined.
She knew that if any had seen her leave the prahu they would naturally expect to intercept her on her way toward the nearest shore, and so she took this means of outwitting them, although it meant nearly double the distance to be covered.
The loss of time resulting from the fight in the prahu and the ensuing peace parley permitted Muda Saffir to put considerable distance between himself and his pursuers.
In every pirate prahu were from forty to fifty Illanuns, and from sixty to seventy captives, many of whom were killed by the pirates when they found themselves beaten, among them two women.
The men who were saved gave details of the taking of two large vessels--one a Singapore prahu trading to Tringanau; the other a Dutch tope, of one hundred and fifty tons, on the coast of Borneo to the south of Pontianak.
This prahu had three long brass swivel guns, and plenty of rifles and muskets.
This was done with great coolness by Captain Hewat when Captain Brooke gave the order; the steamer struck the prahu amid-ships and went over her.
Each prahu was rowed by sixty or eighty oars in two tiers, and carried from eighty to a hundred men.
With a cheer the men bent to their oars, and dashed at the prahu which, as was evident by patches of plank freshly fastened to her side, was one of those that had before escaped them.
He will retain the prahu that he has taken, and will use it to keep the two rivers free of robbers, but in no other respect will he interfere with his neighbors.
The prahu was being cleared of its load of dead bodies; then several men filled buckets with water, and handed them up to the deck.
At last they stopped before a small village, tied the prahu up to a tree, and then the man who seemed to be the captain went ashore with two or three others.
The oars were got out, and theprahu proceeded up the creek, in the opposite direction to which it had entered it.
He brought the captured prahu alongside the others, whose decks were but a foot or two below the water, and fired several shots through their bottoms.
The Malays raised a yell of triumph, which was answered from the village, and in a few minutes the prahu was brought up to the bank.
Half an hour later steam was up, and before morning the Serpent lay off the mouth of the creek which the Malay pointed out as the one that the prahu had entered.
The deck was thickly encumbered with dead; for every one of the crew of the prahu had been killed.
No time was lost in making preparations, for it was desirable to capture theprahu before she was aware that the Serpent had left her position in the other river.
When the prahu from Batchian came here he said he was sick, and that his wife feared to sail so far in a small prahu.
Two months afterwards eight of the male survivors took passage in a prahu belonging to the Sultan of Batchian, having heard that there was a French ship refitting at that island.
The boat was leaky and the water got in-- Bochor prahu itu di-masok ayer dalam-nia.
Have everything taken down to the boat-- Bawa-lah turun ka-prahu barang-barang ini sumua.
If the persons who sail the prahu furnish the turomudi, turobatu and crew, arms, &c.
Scarcely a minute after, the prahu sunk, ingulfing all with her.
The whole sea was a mass of tossing waves and foam, and far as the eye could pierce through the gloom, not another prahu was in sight.
I afterwards learned that they were of the Sagai race--a tribe of the Dyaks--some of whom manned the prahu on which I was.
The prahu on which I was on board differed but little from those which composed the fleet by which it had been my chance before to be captured.
I will work my passage from place to place; I will go in every sort of craft, from the Chinese junk to the Malay prahu and sampan.
The Balagnini cruise in large prahus, and to each prahu a fleet sampan is attached, which, on occasion, can carry from ten to fifteen men.
The people about him speak of his pursuits without disguise, and many informed us the prahu near his house is intended for a piratical vessel.
The prahu of the Pangeran pulled twelve paddles, mounted two brass swivels, and in all had a crew of about twenty men.
They attacked the prahufiercely with their spears; five out of twelve jumped into the water, and swam ashore; and the Panglima Rajah was wounded severely.
We were obliged to carry canvas; our prahu leaked from shot-holes; the sea continually broke into her; we dared not run into the coral reefs on such a night, and bore up for the Straits of Malacca.
It was done immediately; we all pulled a short distance away and left the brave Datoo's prahu like a wreck abandoned.
That prahu must have been along here, master," said the elder of the two Malays, thoughtfully.
The prahu will not go far without finding that we are not in front; then she will leave a small boat with men to see that we do not pass, while the prahu comes back to search the river sides.
The prahu cannot turn; the river is too narrow here, and they are backing water.
But every now and then some straight piece of the river would give the enemy his chance, and the rowers forced the prahu along, so that she gained ground.
This bend once passed, they would be out of sight when the prahu cleared the bushes.
The doctor rose, and shading his eyes, gazed down the stream, but there was no prahu as yet in sight; and he then glanced to left and right for a hiding-place beneath the overhanging trees.
They might have turned the boat and tried to get beyond where they knew the prahu would stop and turn, but that would have taken hours, and they must have been either overtaken or seen long before they had reached the spot.
When, in order to change my uncomfortable position, I placed both legs on one side, the edge of the prahu nearly touched the water and the Dayaks would cry out in warning.
While sitting in the prahu he was attacked by the animal and dragged below the surface of the water.
Owing to the magic liquid his prahu had become very large, and carried much, much goods, as well as the dead deer.
There were kihams after kihams to be passed; at one place where the rapids were long, from twelve to eighteen men helped to direct each prahu with rattan ropes, preventing it from going where the water was deep and the waves ran high.
In order to travel more comfortably we lashed a prahuat either side of mine, while many of the natives who took advantage of the occasion to visit the shops in town, tied theirs at the rear of ours.
At one place where the water ran smoothly, one man from each prahu pulled its rattan rope, the rest poling.
My prahu leaked so badly that we had to bail it out constantly, and the men were the worst in my experience, lazy and very inefficient, only one of them being strong and agile.
In this connection it is of interest to note how the Kahayans use the flying prahu as a feature of the great tiwah festival.
Images representing omen birds guard the house, but may also be carried on a journey in a basket which is placed near the head when a man is sleeping in a prahu or on land.
The man at the helm of the small prahu was intelligent, and from him I finally obtained information about a place to stop for the night.
When circumstances require quick action such men will dive under the prahu and put their backs to it from the other side.
Shortly after their prahu had disappeared from view, on February 20, we departed in the opposite direction.
With a lamp in the bow the prahu is paddled noiselessly along the river near the bank.
Soon a big prahu was hauled by many men down the bank to the river; this was followed by others, taken from their storage place under the house, and shortly afterward we had facilities for departure.
Along the shore a dozen or two of boats were drawn up, while floating alone and doubled in the mirror-like water was a large prahu on whose deck several men were lolling about.
The blue light burning in a vessel on the first prahu died out, but before it was extinct another flamed up from the second prahu, and the scene was wonderfully picturesque to the little party still moving up stream.
By that time the captain of the prahu had arrived, ready to welcome us warmly, for he had been afraid that ill had befallen us.
We were not very long in getting to the harbour, a snug landlocked cove where the great prahu in which we had come could lie well protected from the rollers.
In due time we sailed to Ebo's island, where we found that the captain of the prahu on board which we had come, had been, and sailed once more, so that it would be months before we could see him again.
On the following day but one we were on board the prahu surrounded by fierce-looking Malays, every man being armed with his kris, and looking as bloodthirsty a lot as I thought I had ever seen.
From the description of the prahu given by the convict tindal, and the information gathered from the Chinaman when he was able to talk, the police were enabled to trace the prahu to Sunghie Rambay, where the pirates were arrested.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "prahu" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
