Major
Swinburne, Who Professes To Be A Woman And Child Hater, Was Quite
Irrepressible, And Whenever The Infant Cried Outrageously,
Called to
his servant, "Wring that brat's neck," the servant, of course, knowing
not a word of English, and at
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.
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