There Are About Six
Hundred And Twelve Europeans In The Town And On Pinang, But They Make
Little Show, Though Their Large Massive Bungalows, Under The Shade Of
Great Bread-Fruit And Tamarind-Trees, Give One The Idea Of Wealth And
Solidity.
The sight of the Asiatics who have crowded into Georgetown is a
wonderful one, Chinese, Burmese, Javanese, Arabs, Malays,
Sikhs,
Madrassees, Klings, Chuliahs, and Parsees, and still they come in junks
and steamers and strange Arabian craft, and all get a living, depend
slavishly on no one, never lapse into pauperism, retain their own
dress, customs, and religion, and are orderly. One asks what is
bringing this swarthy, motley crowd from all Asian lands, from the Red
to the Yellow Sea, from Mecca to Canton, and one of my Kling boatmen
answers the question, "Empress good - coolie get money; keep it." This
being interpreted is, that all these people enjoy absolute security of
life and property under our flag, that they are certain of even-handed
justice in our colonial courts, and that "the roll of the British drum"
and the presence of a British iron-clad mean to them simply that
security which is represented to us by an efficient police force. It is
so strange to see that other European countries are almost nowhere in
this strange Far East. Possibly many of the Chinese have heard of
Russia, but Russia, France, Germany, and America, the whole lot of the
"Great Powers" are represented chiefly by a few second-rate war-ships,
or shabby consulates in back streets, while England is a "name to
conjure with," and is represented by prosperous colonies, powerful
protective forces, law, liberty, and security. These ideas are forced
so strongly upon me as I travel westward, that I almost fear that I am
writing in a "hifalutin" style, so I will only add that I think that
our Oriental Grand Vizier knew Oriental character and the way of
influencing Oriental modes of thinking better than his detractors when
he added et Imperatrix to the much loved V. R.
This is truly a brilliant place under a brilliant sky, but Oh I weary
for the wilds! There is one street, Chulia Street, entirely composed of
Chulia and Kling bazaars. Each sidewalk is a rude arcade, entered by
passing through heavy curtains, when you find yourself in a narrow,
crowded passage, with deep or shallow recesses on one side, in which
the handsome, brightly-dressed Klings sit on the floor, surrounded by
their bright-hued goods; and over one's head and all down the narrow,
thronged passage, noisy with business, are hung Malay bandannas, red
turban cloths, red sarongs in silk and cotton, and white and gold
sprinkled muslins, the whole length of the very long bazaar, blazing
with color, and picturesque beyond description with beautiful costume.
The Klings are much pleasanter to buy from than the Chinese. In
addition to all the brilliant things which are sold for native wear,
they keep large stocks of English and German prints, which they sell
for rather less than the price asked for them at home, and for less
than half what the same goods are sold for at the English shops.
I am writing as if the Klings were predominant, but they are so only in
good looks and bright colors. Here again the Chinese, who number
forty-five thousand souls, are becoming commercially the most important
of the immigrant races, as they have long been numerically and
industrially. In Georgetown, besides selling their own and all sorts of
foreign goods at reasonable rates in small shops, they have large
mercantile houses, and, as elsewhere, are gradually gaining a
considerable control over the trade of the place. They also occupy
positions of trust in foreign houses, and if there were a strike among
them all business, not excepting that of the Post Office, would come to
a standstill. I went into the Mercantile Bank and found only Chinese
clerks, in the Post Office and only saw the same, and when I went to
the "P. and O." office to take my berth for Ceylon, it was still a
Chinaman, imperturbable, taciturn, independent, and irreproachably
clean, with whom I had to deal in "pidjun English." They are everywhere
the same, keen, quick-witted for chances, markedly self-interested,
purpose-like, thrifty, frugal, on the whole regarding honesty as the
best policy, independent in manner as in character, and without a trace
of "Oriental servility."
Georgetown, February 11th. - I have not seen very much in my two days;
indeed, I doubt whether there is much to see, in my line at least; nor
has the island any interesting associations as Malacca has, or any
mystery of unexplored jungle as in Sungei Ujong and Selangor. Pinang
came into our possession in 1786, through the enterprise of Mr. Light,
a merchant captain, who had acquired much useful local knowledge by
trading to Kedah and other Malay States. The Indian Government desired
a commercial "emporium" and a naval station in the far east, and Mr.
Light recommended this island, then completely covered with forest, and
only inhabited by two migratory families of Malay fishermen, whose huts
were on the beach where this town now stands. In spite of romantic
stories of another kind, to which even a recent encyclopedia gives
currency, it seems that the Rajah of Kedah, to whom the island
belonged, did not bestow it on Mr. Light, but sold it to the British
Government for a stipulated payment of 2,000 pounds a year, which his
successor receives at this day.
It is little over thirteen miles long; and from five to ten broad. It
is a little smaller than the Isle of Wight, its area being one hundred
and seven square miles.
The roads are excellent. After one has got inside of the broad belt of
cocoa and areca palms which runs along the coast, one comes upon
beautiful and fertile country, partly level, and partly rolling, with
rocks of granite and mica-schist, and soil of a shallow but rich
vegetable mould, with abundance of streams and little cascades, dotted
all over with villas (very many of them Chinese) and gardens, and
planted with rice, pepper and fruits, while cloves and nutmegs, which
last have been long a failure, grow on the higher lands.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 79 of 118
Words from 79920 to 80978
of 120530
