There Had Been So Much Rain That It Was Heavy Wading Through The Padi,
And It Was Quite Dark When
We reached the jungle, in which the rain had
made the footing very precarious, and in darkness we forded the
Swollen
stream, and stumbled along the shore of the Perak, where fireflies in
thousands were flashing among the bushes - a beautiful sight. When we
reached the bank of the river where we had left the canoe we found
several Malays, who laughed and seemed singularly pleased to see us,
and talked vociferously to our men, i.e., vociferously for Malays, who
are in the habit of speaking quietly. It was very difficult to get down
the steep, slippery bank, into a precarious canoe which I could not
see, and so thick was the darkness that I sat down in the water between
the two gridirons, and had to remain there during the crossing, which
took a long time, being against the stream.
When we landed, a Sikh sergeant met us, very much excited. He spoke
Malayan, and I guessed from a few words that I knew that there was a
hue and cry at the Residency. You know how all pleasure is at once
spoiled when, after you have been enjoying yourself very much, you find
that people at home have been restless and uneasy about you; and as it
is one of my traveling principles to avoid being a bother to people, I
was very sorry. We found a general state of perturbation.
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