So Very Small A Vessel Tumbles
About A Good Deal Even With A Very Light Breeze, And Instead Of Going
To Dinner I Lay On The Roof Of The Cabin Studying Blue-Books.
At
nightfall we anchored at the mouth of the Bernam river, to avoid the
inland mosquitoes, but we must have brought some with us, for I was
malignantly bitten.
Mrs. Daly and I shared the lack of privacy and
comfort of the cabin. Perfect though the Abdulsamat is, there is very
little rest to be got in a small and overcrowded vessel, and besides,
the heat was awful. I think we were not far enough from the swampy
shore, for Mrs. Daly was seized with fever during the night, and a
Malay servant also. In the morning Mrs. Daly. who is comely and has a
very nice complexion, looked haggard, yellow, and much shaken.
At daylight we weighed anchor and steamed for many miles up the muddy,
mangrove-fringed river Bernam, the mangroves occasionally varied by the
nipah palm. We met several palm-trees floating with their roots and
some of their fruits above the water, like those we saw yesterday
evening out on the Malacca Straits, looking like crowded Malay prahus
with tattered mat-sails.
Before nine we anchored at this place, whose wretchedness makes a great
impression on me, because we are to deposit Mr. Hawley here as revenue
collector. I have seen him every day for a week; he is amiable and
courteous, as well as intelligent and energetic, and it is shocking to
leave him alone in a malarious swamp.
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