2 A.M., when there was chocolate on deck,
and the unfortunate baby was roaring and kicking, he called down to me,
"Will you come and drink some chocolate to King Herod's memory?" Mr.
Maxwell, who has four children, did not behave much better; and it was
a great exertion to me, by overdone courtesy and desperate attempts at
conversation, to keep the mother as far as possible from hearing what
was going on!
At 6 A.M., in the glory of the tropic sunrise, Mr. Maxwell and I landed
in Province Wellesley, under the magnificent casuarina trees which
droop in mournful grace over the sandy shore. The somberness of the
interminable groves of cocoa-palms on the one side of the Strait, the
brightness of the sun-kissed peaks on the other, and the deep shadows
on the amber water, were all beautiful. Truly in the tropics "the
outgoings of the morning rejoice."
We found Mrs. Isemonger away, no one knew where, so we broke open the
tea-chest, and got some breakfast, at the end of which she returned,
and we had a very pleasant morning. At noon a six-oared gig, which was
the last of the "Government facilities," took us over to Georgetown,
spending an hour in crossing against an unfavorable tide, under a
blazing sun. This was the last of the Malay Peninsula.
S.S. Malwa, February 25. - We sailed from Pinang in glorious sunshine at
an early hour this afternoon, and have exchanged the sparkling calms of
the Malacca Straits for the indolent roll of the Bay of Bengal. The
steamer's head points northwest. In the far distance the hills of the
Peninsula lie like mists upon a reddening sky. My tropic dream is
fading and the "Golden Chersonese" is already a memory.
I. L. B.
APPENDIX A
Residents.
A policy of advice, and that alone, was contemplated by the Colonial
Office; but without its orders or even cognizance affairs were such
that the government of those Malayan States to which Residents have
been accredited has been from the first exercised by the Residents
themselves, mainly because neither in Perak, Selangor, or Sungei Ujong
has there ever been a ruler powerful enough to carry out such an
officer's advice, the Rajahs and other petty chiefs being able to set
him at defiance. Advice would be given that peace and order should be
preserved, justice administered without regard to the rank of the
criminal, the collection of revenue placed upon a satisfactory footing,
and good administration generally secured, but had any reigning prince
attempted to carry out these recommendations he would have been
overborne by the Rajahs, whose revenues depended on the very practices
which the Resident denounced, and by the piratical bands whose source
of livelihood was the weakness and mal-administration of the rulers.
The Pangkor Treaty contained the words that the Resident's advice
"_must be acted upon_," and consequently the Residents have taken the
direction of public affairs, organizing armed forces, imposing taxes,
taking into their own hands the collection of the revenues, receiving
all complaints, executing justice, punishing evil-doers, apprehending
criminals, and repressing armed gangs of robbers. These officers are,
in fact, far more the agents of the Governor of the Straits Settlements
than the advisers of the native princes, and though paid out of native
revenues are the virtual rulers of the country in all matters, except
those which relate to Malay religion and custom. As stated by Lord
Carnarvon, "Their special objects should be the maintenance of peace
and law, the initiation of a sound system of taxation, with the
consequent development of the general resources of the country, and the
supervision of the collection of the revenue so as to insure the
receipt of funds necessary to carry out the principal engagements of
the Government, and to pay for the cost of British officers and
whatever establishments may be found necessary to support them." Lord
Carnarvon in the same dispatch states: "Neither annexation nor the
government of the country by British officers in the name of the Sultan
[a measure very little removed from annexation] could be allowed;" and
elsewhere he says: "It should be our present policy to find and train
up some chief or chiefs of sufficient capacity and enlightenment to
appreciate the advantages of a civilized government, and to render some
effectual assistance in the government of the country."
The treaty of Pangkor provides "that the Resident's advice must be
asked and acted upon (in Perak) on all questions other than those
relating to Malay religion and custom, and that the collection and
control of all revenue and the general administration of the country
must be regulated under the advice of these Residents." It was on the
same terms that Residents were appointed at Selangor and Sungei Ujong.
APPENDIX B
Slavery in the Malay States.
Langat, 30th June, 1875.
Sir - When on board the Colonial steamer Pluto last week, accompanying
His Excellency the Governor in a tour to some of the native States, His
Excellency made inquiry of me with regard to the present state of
debt-slavery in the Peninsula.
This was a subject so large and important as hardly to admit of
thorough explanation in a conversation; I therefore asked His
Excellency's leave to report upon it.
I now beg to give you a detailed account of the circumstances of
debt-slavery as known to me personally.
In treating the question under its present condition - I mean under
Malay rule - it is necessary to consider the all-but slavery of the
debtors and the difficulty of making any arrangement between debtor and
creditor which while it frees the one will satisfy the other, and still
be in keeping with the "adat Malayu," as interpreted in these States.
