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Brown's Negotiation with Kassim
Summary
When these men reached Patusan, their ship was fired at by the men of Rajah Allang. Then they went to inform their chief about the arrival of a foreigner ostensibly with the motive to conquer that place. The Bugis caused great trouble for Brown. Jim was not present at Patusan that time and had gone into the interior of the country. Jewel, who had the key of Jim's store, provided Dam Waris and his men, the gun and ammunition in a Urge number which Jim had received from his employer, Stein, and collected them for their own defense. There was a rumor by Haji Saman that these outsiders had evil intentions behind their arrival but they would soon be defeated and destroyed without any fight. Rajah Allang's boats failed to act at the precise moment and people got much troubled. A man named Kassim molded Rajah's policy and hatched a plan. He went to meet Brown, along with Cornelius, who went there to interpret the language for each other.
Brown felt happy to see an envoy on behalf of a local chief. Because the men of the schooner were hungry and thirsty; he had to negotiate with them. He first demanded food, Cornelius went and brought few things that were not adequate but welcomed. Kassim asked for their support to defeat Doramin and Bugis before Jim's return. He thought that, after their victory over Bugis and Doramin, people would stop thinking of Jim as someone bestowed with supernatural powers and then, with their support, he would handle these foreigners also, Therefore his strategy was first to overpower Jim and then fight against the foreigners. Kassim had a wrong opinion about the members of Brown's ship anchored off the river. He thought they were large in number.
When Brown had repeatedly asked what kind of a man Jim was, Cornelius told him that people were deeply influenced by him and he himself (Brown) could kill him and become a ruler there, because Jim was a fool and could be easily hoodwinked. Meanwhile, Dain Waris and his men took their position very close to the river expecting the return of Brown.