We Went Also To The Hospital, Mainly Used By The
Police, A Long Airy Shed, With A Broad Shelf On Each Side.
Mr. Klyne,
the apothecary, a half-caste, has a good many Malay dispensary
patients.
On our return, four Malay women, including the Imaum's wife, came to
see me. Each one would have made a picturesque picture, but they had no
manners, and seized on my hands, which are coarsened, reddened, and
swelled from heat and mosquito bites, all exclaiming, "chanti!
chanti!" - pretty! pretty! I wondered at their bad taste, specially as
they had very small and pretty hands themselves, with almond-shaped
nails.
In the evening the "establishment" dined at the Residency. After
dinner, as we sat in the darkness in the veranda, maddened by mosquito
bites, about 9:30, the bugle at the fort sounded the "alarm," which was
followed in a few seconds by the drum beating "to quarters," and in
less than five minutes every approach to the Residency was held by men
with fixed bayonets, and fourteen rounds of ball-cartridges each in
their belts, and every road round Klang was being patrolled by pickets.
I knew instinctively that it was "humbug," arranged to show the
celerity with which the little army could be turned out; and shortly an
orderly arrived with a note - "False alarm;" but Klang never subsided
all night, and the Klings beat their tom-toms till daylight. I am
writing at dawn now, in order that my letter may "catch the mail."
I. L. B.
LETTER XVI
A Yachting Voyage - The Destruction of Selangor - Varieties of
Slime - Swamp Fever - An Unprosperous Region - A "Deadly-Lively"
Morning - A Waif and Stray - The Superintendent of Police
STEAM-LAUNCH "ABDULSAMAT" February 7.
You will certainly think, from the dates of my letters, that I am
usually at sea. The Resident, his daughter, Mrs. Daly, Mr. Hawley, a
revenue officer, and I, left Klang this morning at eight for a two
days' voyage in this bit of a thing. Blessed be "the belt of calms!"
There was the usual pomp of a body-guard, some of whom are in
attendance, and a military display on the pier, well drilled, and well
officered in quiet, capable, admirable, unobtrusive Mr. Syers; but
gentle Mrs. Douglas, devoted to her helpless daughter, standing above
the jetty, a lone woman in forlorn, decayed Klang, haunts me as a
vision of sadness, as I think of her sorrow and her dignified
hospitality in the midst of it.
Now, at half-past eleven, we are aground with an ebb-tide on the bar of
the Selangor river; so I may write a little, though I should like to be
asleep.
Bernam River, Selangor, February 8th. - "Chi-laka!" (worthless
good-for-nothing wretch), "Bodo!" (fool). I hear these words repeated
incessantly in tones of thunder and fury, with accompaniments which
need not be dwelt upon. The Malays are a revengeful people. If any
official in British service were to knock them about and insult them,
one can only say what has been said to me since I came to the native
States:
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