The Fierce Glory Of A Tropic Sunrise Is Ever A New Delight.
It is
always the sun of the Nineteenth Psalm, with the prevailing yellow
color of the eastern sky intensifying
In one spot, a cool, lingering
freshness, a deepening of the yellow east into a brilliant rose color,
till suddenly, "like a glory, the broad sun" wheels above the horizon,
the dew-bathed earth rejoices, the air is flooded with vitality, all
things which rejoice in light and heat come forth, night birds and
night prowlers retire, and we pale people hastily put up our umbrellas
to avoid being shriveled in less than ten minutes from the first
appearance of the sun.
"Pinang," from the Pinang or areca-palm, is the proper name of the
island, but out of compliment to George IV, it was called Prince of
Wales Island. Georgetown is the name of the capital, but by an odd
freak we call the town Penang, and spell it with an e instead of an i.
There were a great many ships and junks at anchor, and the huge "P. and
O." steamer Peking, and there was a state of universal hurry and
excitement, for a large number of the officials of the Colonial
Government and of the "protected" States are here to meet Sir W.
Robinson, the Governor, who is on his way home on leave. There are
little studies of human nature going on all round. Most people have
"axes to grind." There are people pushing rival claims, some wanting
promotion, others leave; some frank and above-board in their ways,
others descending to mean acts to gain favor, or undermining the good
reputation of their neighbors; everybody wanting something, and
usually, as it seems, at the expense of somebody else!
Mr. Douglas, who had got up his men in most imposing costume, anchored
the Abdulsamat close to the Peking, and at once went on board, with the
kris with the gold hilt and scabbard presented by the Sultan of
Selangor. In the meantime the Governor sent for me to breakfast on
board, and I was obliged to go among clean, trim people without having
time to change my traveling dress. On deck I was introduced by the
Governor to Mr. Low, the Resident in Perak, who has arranged for my
transit thither, and to Mr. Maxwell, the Assistant Resident. I was so
glad that I had no claims of my own to push when I saw the many
perturbed and anxious faces. I sat next Sir William Robinson at
breakfast, and found him most kind and courteous, and he interested
himself in my impressions of the native States. No one could make out
the flags on the Selangor yacht, four squares placed diagonally, two
yellow and two red, in one of the red ones a star and crescent in
yellow, and on the mizzenmast the same flag with a blue ensign as one
of the squares! I wonder if the faineant Sultan who luxuriates at
Langat knows anything of the sensationalism of his "yacht."
Mr. Douglas took me back to the launch in fierce blazing heat, which
smote me just as I put down my umbrella in order to climb up her side,
and caused me to fall forward with a sort of vertigo and an icy chill,
but as soon as I arrived here I poured deluges of cold water on my
head, and lay down with an iced bandage on, and am now much better. In
nine months of tropical traveling, and exposure on horseback without an
umbrella to the full force of the sun, I have never been affected
before. I wear a white straw hat with the sides and low crown thickly
wadded. I also have a strip four inches broad of three thicknesses of
wadding, sewn into the middle of the back of my jacket, and usually
wear in addition a coarse towel wrung out in water, folded on the top
of my head, and hanging down the back of my neck.
Soon after I came into the salon Mr. Wood, the Puisne Judge, a very
genial, elderly man, called and took me to his house, where I found a
very pleasant party, Sir Thomas Sidgreaves, the Chief Justice, Mr.
Maxwell, the Assistant Resident in Perak, Mr. Walker, appointed to the
(acting) command of the Sikh force in Perak, and Mr. Kinnersley, a
Pinang magistrate, with Mr. Isemonger, the police magistrate of the
adjacent Province Wellesley. With an alteration in the names of places
and people, the conversation was just what I have heard in all British
official circles from Prince Edward Island to Singapore, who was likely
to go home on leave, who might get a step, whether the Governor would
return, what new appointments were likely to be created, etc., the
interest in all these matters being intensified by the recent visit of
Sir W. Robinson. It was all pleasant and interesting to me.
This evening the moonlight from the window was entrancingly beautiful,
the shadows of promontory behind promontory lying blackly on the silver
water amidst the scents and silences of the purple night.
As one lands on Pinang one is impressed even before reaching the shore
by the blaze of color in the costumes of the crowds which throng the
jetty. There are over fifteen thousand Klings, Chuliahs, and other
natives of India on the island, and with their handsome but not very
intellectual faces, their Turkey-red turbans and loin-cloths, or the
soft, white muslins in which both men and women drape themselves, each
one might be an artist's model. The Kling women here are beautiful and
exquisitely draped, but the form of the cartilage of the nose and ears
is destroyed by heavy rings. There are many Arabs, too, who are wealthy
merchants and bankers. One of them, Noureddin, is the millionaire of
Pinang, and is said to own landed property here to the extent of
400,000 pounds. There are more than twenty-one thousand Malays on the
island, and though their kampongs are mostly scattered among the palm-
groves, their red sarongs and white bajus are seen in numbers in the
streets; but I have not seen one Malay woman.
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