I wish you could see a late afternoon here in
its full beauty, with palms against a golden sky, pink clouds, a pink
river, and a balm-breathing air, just strong enough to lift the heavy
scented flowers which make the evenings delicious. There has been a
respite from mosquitoes, and I am having a "real good time."
But I had a great fright yesterday (part of the "good time" though). I
was going into the garden when six armed policemen leapt past me as if
they had been shot, followed by Mr. Daly, the land-surveyor, who has
the V.C. for some brave deed, shouting "a cobra! a cobra!" and I saw a
hooded head above the plants, and then the form I most fear and loathe
twisting itself toward the house with frightful rapidity, every one
flying. I was up a ladder in no time, and the next moment one of the
policemen, plucking up courage, broke the reptile's back with the butt
of his rifle, and soon it was borne away, dead, by its tail. It was
over four feet long. They get about three a day at the fort.
There is a reward of 20 cents per foot for every venomous snake brought
in, 50 cents per foot for an alligator, and 25 dollars for every tiger.
Lately the police have got two specimens of an ophiophagus, a
snake-eating snake over eighteen feet long, whose bite they say is
certain death. They have a horrible collection of snakes alive, half
dead, dead, and preserved. There was a fright of a different kind late
at night, and the two made me so nervous that when the moonlight
glinted two or three times on the bayonet of the sentry, which I could
see from my bed, I thought it was a Malay going to murder the Resident,
against whom I fear there may be many a vendetta.
LETTER XIV (Continued)
Yachting in the Malacca Straits - A Tropic Dream - The Rajah
Moussa - Tiger Stories - A Grand Excitement - A "Man-Eating Kris" - A Royal
Residence - A Council of State - The Sultan's Attendants - The "Light of
the Harem" - The Sultan's Offering
S.S. "ABDULSAMAT," LANGAT RIVER, SELANGOR
I was glad to get up at sunrise, when the whole heaven was flooded with
color and glory, and the lingering mists which lay here and there over
the jungle gleamed like silver. Before we left, Mrs. Douglas gave me
tea, scones, and fresh butter, the first fresh butter that I have
tasted for ten months. We left Klang in this beautiful steam-launch,
the (so-called) yacht of the Sultan, at eight, with forty souls on
board.
I am somewhat hazy as to where I am. "The Langat river" is at present
to me only a "geographical expression." It is now past three o'clock,
and we have been going about since eight, sometimes up rivers, but
mostly on lovely tropic seas among islands. This is one of the usual
business tours of the Resident, with the additional object of
presenting a uniform to the Sultan. Besides Mr. Douglas there are his
son-in-law, Mr. Daly; Mr. Hawley, who has lately been appointed to a
collectorship, and who goes up to be presented to the Sultan; Mr.
Syers, formerly a private in the 10th Regiment, now superintendent of
the Selangor police force; and thirty policemen, who go up to form the
Sultan's escort to-morrow. Precautions, for some occult reason, seem to
be considered indispensable here, and have been increased since the
murder of Mr. Lloyd at the Dindings. The yacht has a complete permanent
roof of painted canvas, and under this is an armament of boarding
pikes. Round the little foremast four cutlasses and a quantity of ball
cartridges are displayed. Six rifles are in a rack below, and the
policemen and body-guard are armed with rifles and bayonets.
The yacht is perfection. The cabin, in which ten can dine, is high and
airy, and, being forward, there is no vibration. Space is exquisitely
utilized by all manner of contrivances. She is only 50 tons, and very
low in the water, but we are going all the way to Prince of Wales
island in her - 200 miles. Everything is perfect on board, even to the
cuisine, and I appreciate the low rattan chairs at the bow, in which
one can sit in the shade and enjoy the zephyrs.
This day has been a tropic dream. I have enjoyed it and am enjoying it
intensely. We steamed down the Klang river, and then down a narrow
river-like channel among small palm-fringed islands which suddenly
opened upon the sea, which was slightly green toward the coral-sanded,
densely wooded, unpeopled shores, but westward the green tint merged
into a blue tint, which ever deepened till a line of pure, deep,
indescribable blue cut the blue sky on the far-off clear horizon. But,
ah! that "many twinkling smile of ocean!" Words cannot convey an idea
of what it is under this tropic sun and sky, with the silver-flashing
wavelets rippling the surface of the sapphire sea, beneath whose clear
warm waters brilliant fishes are darting through the coral groves.
These are enchanted seas -
"Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow,
Or ever wind blows loudly."
It is unseemly that the Abdulsamat should smoke and puff and leave a
foamy wake behind her. "Sails of silk and ropes of sendal," and poetic
noiseless movements only would suit these lovely Malacca Straits. This
is one of the very few days in my life in which I have felt mere living
to be a luxury, and what it is to be akin to seas and breezes, and
birds and insects, and to know why nature sings and smiles.
