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Isabella L. Bird - The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither
teeth black. I tasted the nut, and found it pungent and astringent, not tempting. The Malays think you
look like a beast if you have white teeth.
The heat was exhausting; the mercury 87 degrees in the shade as early as 8:30, and we all suffered, more
or less, from it in our cramped position and enforced inactivity. At nine, having been fourteen hours on
the river, we came on a small cleared space, from which a bronzed, frank-faced man, dressed in white
linen, hallooed to us jovially, and we were soon warmly greeted by Captain Murray, the British Resident
in the State of Sungei Ujong. On seeing him, we hoped to find a gharrie and to get some breakfast; and
he helped us on shore, as if our hopes were to be realized, and dragged us under the broiling sun to a long
shed, the quarters of a hundred Chinese coolies, who are making a road through the jungle. We sat down
on one of the long matted platforms, which serve them for beds, and talked; but there was no hint of
breakfast; and we soon learned that the Malacca runner had not reached the Residency at all, and that the
note sent from Permatang Pasir, which should have been delivered at 1 A.M., had not been received till 8
A.M., so that Captain Murray had not been able to arrange for our transport, and had had barely time to
ride down to meet us at such "full speed," as a swampy and partially made road would allow. So our
dreams of breakfast ended in cups of stewed tea, given to us by a half-naked Chinaman, and, to our
chagrin, we had to go back to the boat and be poled up the shallowing and narrowing river for four hours
more, getting on with difficulty, the boat-men constantly jumping into the water to heave the boat off
mud banks.
When we eventually landed at Nioto, a small village, Captain Murray again met us, and we found a road;
and two antiquated buggies, sent by a Chinaman, with their component parts much lashed together with
rope. I charioteered one of these, with reins so short that I could only reach them by sitting on the edge of
the seat, and a whip so short that I could not reach the pony with it. At a Chinese village some policemen
brought us cocoa-nut milk. After that, the pony could not, or would not, go; and the Malay syce with
difficulty got it along by dragging it, and we had to walk up every hill in the fierce heat of a tropic noon.
At the large Chinese village of Rassa, a clever little Sumatra pony met us; and after passing through
some roughish clearings, on which tapioca is being planted, we arrived here at 4 P.M., having traveled
sixty miles in thirty-three hours.
The Residency is on a steepish hill in the middle of an open valley, partially cleared and much defaced
by tin diggings. The Chinese town of Serambang lies at the foot of the hill. The valley is nearly
surrounded by richly wooded hills, some of them fully three thousand feet high. These, which stretch
away to the northern State of Selangor, are bathed in indigo and cobalt, slashed with white here and
there, where cool streams dash over forest-shaded ledges. The house consists of two attap roofed
bungalows, united by their upper verandas. Below there are a garden of acclimatization and a lawn, on
which the Resident instructs the bright little daughter of the Datu Klana in lawn tennis. It was very hot,
but the afternoon airs were strong enough to lift the British ensign out of its heavy folds and to rustle the
graceful fronds of the areca palms.
Food was the first necessity, then baths, then sleep, then dinner at 7:30, and then ten hours more sleep.
I. L. B.
LETTER XIII
The Appurtenances of Civilization - Babu - Characteristics of Captain Murray - An Embodied
Government - Chinese Mining Enterprise - A Chinese Gaming-House - The "Capitans China" -
New-Year Visits - Sittings "In Equity" - A Court of Justice - The Serambang Prison - "Plantation Hill" -
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