Two Days Ago Captain Shaw Declared That "Pluck Should Have Its Reward,"
And That I Should Have Facilities For Going To Sungei Ujong.
Yesterday,
he asked me to take charge of his two treasured daughters.
Then Babu
said, "If young ladies go, me go," and we are to travel under the
efficient protection of Mr. Hayward, the superintendent of police.
This expedition excites great interest in the little Malacca world.
This native State is regarded as "parts unknown;" the Governor has
never visited it, and there are not wanting those who shake their heads
and wonder that he should trust his girls in a region of tigers,
crocodiles, rogue elephants and savages! The little steam-launch
Moosmee (in reality by far the greatest risk of all) has been brought
into the stream below the Stadthaus, ready for an early start
to-morrow, and a runner has been sent to the Resident to prepare him
for such an unusual incursion into his solitudes.
I. L. B.
A CHAPTER ON SUNGEI UJONG
The Puzzles of the Peninsula - Sungei Ujong - A Malay Confederation - Syed
Abdulrahman - The Revenue of Sungei Ujong - Scenery and Productions - The
New Datu Klana - A "Dual Control"
I had never heard of this little State until I reached Singapore, and
probably many people are as ignorant as I was. The whole peninsula,
from Johore in the south to Kedah in the north, is a puzzle, what with
British colonies, Singapore, Malacca, and Province Wellesley, and
"Protected States," Sungei Ujong, Selangor, and Perak, north, south,
and east of which lie a region of unprotected Malay States, with their
independent rulers, such as Kedah, Patani, Tringganu, Kelantan, Pahang,
Johore, etc.* In several of these States, more or less anarchy
prevails, owing to the ambitions and jealousies of the Rajahs and their
followers, and a similar state of things in the three protected States
formerly gave great annoyance to the Straits-Settlements Government,
and was regarded as a hindrance to the dominant interests of British
trade in the Straits.
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