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.
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