The Various Departments Are Said To Be In A State Of
"Hugger-Mugger."
With all this there is a good deal of display of military power on a
small scale, and of such over-aweing implements as bayonets and
revolvers, together with marching and counter-marching, body-guards and
guards of honor.
There must surely be a want of the right kind of vigor
in the administration, and a "laisser aller" on the part of some of the
minor officials, the result of which is that the great capabilities of
the State are not developed, and its resources seem very little known.
There has not been any disturbance in Selangor since 1874; and as
neither the Sultan, the Malays, nor the Chinese have ever raised
objections of any serious kind to the proposals of the British
advisers, the "far back" state of things is very singular.
Mr. Syers, the superintendent of military police, appears a thoroughly
efficient man, as sensible in his views of what would conduce to the
advancement of the State as he is conscientious and careful in all
matters of detail which concern his rather complicated position. He is
a student of the people and of the country, speaks Malay fluently, and
for a European seems to have a sympathetic understanding of the Malays,
is studying the Chinese and their language, as well as the flora,
fauna, and geology of the country, and is altogether unpretending. I
have formed a very high opinion of him and should rely implicitly on
anything which he told me as a fact. This is a great blessing, for
conflicting statements on every subject, and the difficulty of
estimating which one comes probably nearest the truth, are among the
great woes of traveling!
I. L. B.
LETTER XVII
The Dindings - The Tragedy on Pulu Pangkor - A Tropic Sunrise - Sir W.
Robinson's Departure - "A Touch of the Sun" - Kling Beauty - A Question
and Answer - The Bazaars of Georgetown - The Chinaman Goes Ahead - The
Products of Pinang - Pepper-Planting
HOTEL DE L'EUROPE, PINANG, February 9.
In the evening we reached the Dindings, a lovely group of small islands
ceded to England by the Pangkor Treaty, and just now in the height of
an unenviable notoriety. The sun was low and the great heat past, the
breeze had died away, and in the dewy stillness the largest of the
islands looked unspeakably lovely as it lay in the golden light between
us and the sun, forest-covered to its steep summit, its rocky
promontories running out into calm, deep, green water, and forming
almost land-locked bays, margined by shores of white coral sand backed
by dense groves of cocoa-palms whose curving shadows lay dark upon the
glassy sea. Here and there a Malay house in the shade indicated man and
his doings, but it was all silent.
On a high, steep point there is a small clearing on which stands a mat
bungalow with an attap roof, and below this there is a mat police
station, but it was all desolate, nothing stirred, and though we had
intended to spend the early hours of the night at the Dindings, we only
lay a short time in the deep shadow upon the clear green water,
watching scarlet fish playing in the coral forests, and the exquisite
beauty of the island with its dense foliage in dark relief against the
cool lemon sky. Peace brooded over the quiet shores, heavy aromatic
odors of night-blooming plants wrapped us round, the sun sank suddenly,
the air became cool, it was a dream of tropic beauty.
"Chalakar! Bondo!" Those jarring sounds seemed to have something
linking them with the tragedy of which the peaceful-looking bungalow
was lately the scene, and of which you have doubtless read. A Chinese
gang swooped down upon the house from behind, beating gongs and
shouting. Captain Lloyd got up to see what was the matter, and was
felled by a hatchet, calling out to his wife for his revolver. This had
been abstracted, and the locks had been taken off his fowling-pieces.
The ayah fled to the jungle in the confusion, taking with her the three
children, the youngest only four weeks old. The wretches then
fractured, Mrs. Lloyd's skull with the hatchet, and having stunned Mrs.
Innes, who was visiting her, they pushed the senseless bodies under the
bed, and were preparing to set fire to it when something made them
depart.
No more is likely to be known. The police must either have been
cowardly or treacherous. The Pyah Pekket called the next day and
brought the frightfully mangled corpse, Mrs. Lloyd, whose reason was
overturned, and Mrs. Innes, on here. It is supposed that the Chinese
secret societies have frustrated justice. A wretch is to be hanged here
for the crime this morning on his own confession, but it is believed
that he was doomed to sacrifice himself by one of these societies, in
order to screen the real murderers. The contrast was awful between the
island looking so lovely in the evening light, and this horrid deed
which has desolated it.
The mainland approaches close to the Dindings, but the mangrove swamps
of Selangor had given place to lofty ranges, forest covered, and a
white coral strand fringed with palms. It was a lovely night. The
north-east monsoon was fresh and steady, and the stars were glorious.
It was very hot below, but when I went up on deck it was cool, and in
the colored dawn we were just running up to the island-group of which
Pinang is the chief, and reached the channel which divides it from
Leper Island just at sunrise. All these islands are densely wooded, and
have rocky shores. The high mountains of the native State of Kedah
close the view to the north, and on the other side of a very narrow
channel are the palm groves and sugar plantations of Province
Wellesley. The Leper Island looked beautiful in the dewy morning with
its stilted houses under the cocoa-palms; and the island of Pinang,
with its lofty peak, dense woods, and shores fringed with palms
sheltering Malay kampongs, each with its prahus drawn up on the beach,
looked impressive enough.
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