Dragging the Canoe with Lady Brassey. R. T. Pritchett (1828–1907). c. 1887. Photography © Maggs Bros. Ltd. 2023, reproduced here by kind permission. [Click on this and the following image to enlarge them.]
Lady Brassey reported this memorable incident in Madai, N. Borneo, and it obviously attracted the artist's eye too:
It was a curious sight, the long boat, pushed by fifty or sixty natives and about a dozen Europeans, now in the water, now almost out of it. More than once I thought the natives must have been jammed between the bank and the boat when they slipped into a deep hole, and the great length of the prahu prevented her from turning quickly. At the nest-hunters' landing-place we found ourselves fairly high and dry, and had to be carried, prahu and all, for some little distance until we reached the deeper water beyond, only to find our further passage blocked by the trunk of a huge tree, so firmly imbedded in the mud that the united efforts of our large band of followers were powerless to move it. We had therefore to be pulled and hauled over the obstacle — a feat accomplished with much shouting and hullabaloo. First our long sharp prow rose in the air, submerging our stern, and taking, of course, some water on board; then the process was reversed, and we went bows under. At last we emerged quite safely and in deep water.... [200]
The illustration in the book itself is uncaptioned, on p. 199. It is rather different, with one of the local people half-immersed in the stream watching the proceedings. Pritchett has employed the pleasant conceit of showing the drawing coming out of the frame at us. Lady Brassey looks suitably queen-like in both, and the efforts of the men equally strenuous.
Scanned (i.e. second) image, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Brassey, Lady Annie. The Last Voyage, to India and Australia, in the "Sunbeam". Illustrated by R. T. Pritchett. London: Longman, 1889. Internet Archive. From a copy in the New York Public Library. Web. 15 September 2023.
Created 13 September2023