Some Time Ago, When Captain Shaw Pressed On The Malays The
Impropriety Of Shooting Chinamen, As They Were Then In The Habit Of
Doing, The Reply Of One Of Them Was, "Why Not Shoot Chinamen?
They've
no religion;" and though it would be highly discourteous in members of
a ruled race to utter this sentiment regarding their rulers, I have not
the least doubt that it is their profound conviction concerning
ourselves.
Nothing shows more the honesty and excellence of Captain Murray's
purposes than that he should be as much respected and loved as he is in
spite of a manner utterly opposed to all Oriental notions of dignity,
whether Malay or Chinese. I have mentioned his abruptness, as well as
his sailor-like heartiness, but they never came into such strong relief
as at the Datu Bandar's, against the solemn and dignified courtesy of
our hosts.
We returned after dark, had turtle-soup and turtle-steak, not near so
good as veal, which it much resembles, for dinner; sang "Auld Lang
Syne," which brought tears into the Resident's kindly eyes, and are now
ready for an early start to-morrow.
Stadthaus, Malacca. - We left Serambang before daylight on Thursday in
buggies, escorted by Captain Murray, the buggies, as usual, being lent
by the Chinese "Capitans." Horses had been sent on before, and after
changing them we drove the second stage through most magnificent
forest, until they could no longer drag the buggies through the mud, at
which point of discomfiture three saddled ponies and two chairs were
waiting to take us through the jungle to the river. We rode along an
infamous track, much of it knee-deep in mud, through a green and silent
twilight, till we emerged upon something like English park and
fox-cover scenery, varied by Malay kampongs under groves of palms. In
the full blaze of noon we reached the Linggi police station, from which
we had started in the sampan, and were received by a company of police
with fixed bayonets. We dined in the police station veranda, and as the
launch had been obliged to drop down the river because the water was
falling, we went to Sempang in a native boat, paddled by four Malays
with paddles like oval-ended spades with spade handles, a guard of
honor of policemen going down with us. There we took leave of our most
kind and worthy host, who, with tears in his kind eyes, immediately
turned up the river to dwell alone in his bungalow with his bull-dog,
his revolver, and his rifle, a self-exiled man.*
[*In 1881, Captain Murray, feeling ill after prolonged exposure to the
sun, went to Malacca, where he died a few days afterward at the house of
his friend Mr. Hayward. Sir F. A. Weld writes of him in a dispatch to
Lord Kimberley: - "I cannot close this notice of the State of Sungei
Ujong without recalling the memory of Captain Murray, so lately its
Resident, to whom it owes much, and who was devoted to its people and
interests.
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