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Isabella L. Bird - The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither
with so little food, but I hope by reiteration to convince him that thereby we gained the night on the
Linggi river, which, as a traveling experience, is worth all the rest.
I. L. B.
A CHAPTER ON SELANGOR*
Selangor - Capabilities of Selangor - Natural Capabilities - Lawlessness in Selangor - British Interference
in Selangor - A Hopeful Outlook
Selangor is a small State lying between 2 degrees 34', and 3 degrees 42' N. Its coast-line is about one
hundred and twenty miles in length. Perak is its northern boundary, Sungei Ujong its southern, and some
of the small States of the Negri Sembilan and unexplored jungle and mountains separate it from Pahang
on the east. It is watered by the Selangor, Klang and Langat rivers, which rise in the hills of its eastern
frontier. Its population is not accurately known, but the result of an attempt to estimate it, made by the
Resident in 1876, is fifteen thousand Chinese and from two thousand to three thousand Malays. Mr.
Douglas, the late Resident, puts the Malay population at a higher figure, and estimates the aboriginal
population at one thousand, but this is probably largely in excess of their actual numbers.
[*In offering this very slight sketch of Selangor to my readers as prefatory to the letters which follow, I
desire to express my acknowledgments specially to a valuable paper on "Surveys and Explorations of the
Native States of the Malay Peninsula," by Mr. Daly, Superintendent of Public Works and Surveys,
Selangor, read before the Royal Geographical Society on May 8, 1882. I have also made use of a brief
account of the Native Malay States by Mr. Swettenham, Assistant Colonial Secretary to the Straits
Settlements Government, published in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and
of "Our Malay Conquests" by Sir P. Benson Maxwell, late Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements.]
The wealth of Selangor lies in its apparently inexhaustible tin mines. The range of hills which forms the
backbone of the Malay Peninsula rises in places to a height of seven thousand feet, and it is from this
range that the alluvial detritus is washed down, beneath which is deposited the layer of ore or wash,
which varies from four inches to ten feet in thickness. The supply of this ore is apparently inexhaustible,
but no veins have as yet been found. The mine of Ampagnan only, near Kwala Lumpor, the capital, gives
employment to over one thousand Chinamen, and each can extract in a year one thousand pounds weight
of white smelted tin valued at 35 pounds sterling. This mineral wealth is the magnet which, according as
the price of tin is higher or lower, attracts into Selangor more or fewer Chinamen. The chief source of the
revenue of the State has been the export duty on tin.
The low lands on the coast are fringed with mangroves, which thrive in blue mud and heavy clays, and
these lands, when drained, are well adapted for sugar. Wet rice grows well in the swampy valleys which
separate the minor ranges, and dry rice on the rises; while tapioca, tobacco, pepper and gambier thrive on
the medium heights. The sago palm flourishes on wet lands. The high hills are covered with primeval
forests, and the Malays have neither settlements nor plantations upon them. It is believed that these hills,
at a height of from two thousand five hundred to three thousand five hundred feet, are admirably adapted
for the growth of Arabian coffee, cinchona and tea; and some Ceylon coffee planters are expecting an era
of success in Selangor. At present, however, the necessary labor is not available. The soil in the interior
on the mountain slopes consists of a light red and yellow clay, the product of a comparatively recent rock
decomposition, covered with vegetable mould from eight to twelve inches thick. There are no droughts,
and the rainfall, distributed pretty fairly over the year, averages about one hundred and thirty inches
annually. The climate is remarkably healthy, and diseases of locality are unknown. Land can be
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