THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES J A-. ,s!J ffir MISS BIRD'S TRAVELS. Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. An account of Travels on Horseback in the Interior. By ISABELLA L. BIRD. 2 vols. 8vo. Illustrations and maps $5 oo The same. Popular edition. I vol. octavo . $3 oo " Miss Bird is one of the most remarkable travellers of our day. Penetrating into regions wholly unknown by the outside world, she has accomplished, by the force of an indomitable will, aided by great tact and shrewdness, a task to which few men would have been found equal ; and she has brought away from the scene of her researches not only a lively tale of adventure, but a great store of fresh and interesting information about the character and habits of a people now undergoing one of the strangest transformations the world has ever seen. We doubt whether the inner life of Japan has ever been better described than in the pregnant pages of this pertinacious Englishwoman." N. X. Daily .. Tribune. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. By ISABELLA L. BIRD, author of " Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," etc. Third edition, octavo, illustrated ........ $i 75 Of the bold dragoons who have recently figured in military life, bewitching the world with feats of noble horsemanship, the fair Amazon who rides like a Centaur over the roughest passes of the Rocky Mountains will certainly bear away the palm." New York Tribune. " Told with a gracefulness and an enthusiasm that render her work more en- tertaining and thrilling than any fictitious story of adventure." New England Farmer. Six Months among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands. Fourth edition, with il- strations. I2mo, cloth ... $2 50 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK. THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE AND THE WAY THITHER BY ISABELLA L. BIRD (MRS. BISHOP) Author of "THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO;" "A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS;" "UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN," ETC. WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS ' Down to the Golden Chersonese " MILTON, Par. Lost, Book xi. NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 AND 29 WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. 1884 o a THIS VOLUME IS REVERENTLY AND SORROWFULLY DEDICATED 515228 UB SETS PREFACE. IN presenting to the public the last installment of my travels in the Far East, in 1879, I desire to offer, both to my readers and critics, my grateful acknowledgments for the kindness with which my letters from Japan were received, and to ask for an equally kind and lenient estimate of my present volume, which has been prepared for publication under the heavy shadow of the loss of the beloved and only sister to whom the letters of which it con- sists were written, and whose able and careful criti- cism, as well as loving interest, accompanied my former volumes through the press. It is by her wish that this book has received the title of the " Golden Chersonese," a slightly ambi- tious one ; and I must at once explain that my let- ters treat of only its western portion, for the very sufficient reason that the interior is unexplored by Europeans, half of it being actually so little known that the latest map gives only the position of its coast-line. I hope, however, that my book will be accepted as an honest attempt to make a popular contribution to the sum of knowledge of a beauti- VI PREFACE. ful and little-traveled region, with which the major- ity of educated people are so little acquainted that it is constantly confounded with the Malay Archi- pelago, but which is practically under British rule, and is probable destined to afford increasing em- ployment to British capital and enterprise. The introductory chapter, and the explanatory chapters on Sungei Ujong, Selangor and Perak, contain information of a rather more solid charac- ter than is given in my sketches of travel, and are intended to make the letters more intelligible and useful.* The map by Mr. Daly is the result of the most recent surveys, and is published here by per- mission of the Royal Geographical Society. As I traveled under official auspices, and was entertained at the houses of officials everywhere, I feel it to be due to my entertainers to say that I have carefully abstained from giving their views on any subjects on which they may have uttered them in the ease of friendly intercourse, except in two or three trivial instances, in which I have quoted them as my authorities. The opinions expressed are wholly my own, whether right or wrong, and I ac- cept the fullest responsibility for them. For the sketchy personal descriptions which are here and there given, I am sure of genial forgive- * These chapters are based upon sundry reports and other official papers, and I have largely drawn upon those storehouses of accurate and valuable information, Newbold's British Settlements in Malacca, and Crawfurd's Dictionary of the Indian Islands. PREFACE. Vll ness from my friends in the Malay Peninsula, and from them also I doubt not that I shall receive the most kindly allowance, if, in spite of carefulness, I have fallen into mistakes. In writing to my sister my first aim was accuracy, and my next to make her see what I saw; but be- side the remarkably contradictory statements of the few resident Europeans and my own observa- tions, I had little to help me, and realized every day how much truth there is in the dictum of Soc- rates " The body is a hindrance to acquiring knowledge, and sight and hearing are not to be trusted."* This Volume is mainly composed of my actual letters, unaltered, except by various omissions and some corrections as to matters of fact. The in- terest of my visits to the prison and execution ground of Canton, and of my glimpses of Anamese villages, may, I hope, be in some degree communi- cated to my readers, even though Canton and Sai- gon are on the beaten track of travelers. I am quite aware that " Letters " which have not received any literary dress are not altogether satis- factory either to author or reader, for the author sacrifices artistic arrangement and literary merit, and the reader is apt to find himself involved among repetitions, and a multiplicity of minor de- tails, treated in a fashion which he is inclined to * Phtedo of Plato. Chapter x. Vlll PREFACE. term "slipshod;" but, on the whole, I think that descriptions written on the spot, even with their disadvantages, are the best mode of making the reader travel with the traveler, and share his first impressions in their original vividness. With these explanatory remarks I add my little volume to the ever-growing library of the literature of travel. I. L. B. FEBRUARY, 1883. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. PAGB The Aurea Chersonesus The Conquest of Malacca The Straits Settle- ments The Configuration of the Peninsula A Terra Incognita The Monsoons Products of the Peninsula The great Vampire Beasts and Reptiles Malignant and harmless Insects Land and Water Birds Traditions of Malay Immigration Wild and Civil- ized Races Kafirs The Samangs and Orang-outang Characteris- tics of the Jakuns Babas and Sinkehs The Malay Physiognomy Language and Literature Malay Poetry and Music Malay Astron- omy Education and Law Malay Sports Domestic Habits Weapons Slavery and Debt Bondage Government " No Infor- mation" I LETTER I. The Steamer Volga Days of Darkness First View of Hong Kong Hong Kong on Fire Apathy of the Houseless The Fire breaks out again An Eclipse of Gayety ..... 36 LETTER II. A Delightful Climate Imprisoned Fever Germs "Pidjun" English Hong Kong Harbor Prosperity of Hong Kong Rampageous Criminal Classes Circumspice ! 44 LETTER III. The S. S. Kin Kiang First view of Canton The Island of Shameen England in Canton The Tartar City Drains and Barricades Canton at Night Street Picturesqueness Ghastly Gifts Oriental Enchantments The Examination Hall 53 X CONTENTS. LETTER IV. PACK "Faithful unto Death" "Foreign Devils" Junks and Boats Chi- nese Luxury Canton Afloat An Al Fresco Lunch Light and Color A Mundane Disappointment Street Sights and Sounds Street Costume Food and Restaurants A Marriage Procession Temples and Worship Crippled Feet 66 LETTER IV. (Continued.} Outside the Naam-hoi Prison The Punishment of the Cangue Crime and Misery A Birthday Banquet "Prisoners and Captives" Prison Mortality Cruelties and Iniquities The Porch of the Man- darin The Judgment-Seat The Precincts of the Judgment-Seat An Aged Claimant Instruments of Punishment The Question by Torture 84 LETTER W .(Continued.} The "Covent Garden" of Canton Preliminaries of Execution A Death Procession The "Field of Blood" "The Death of the Cross " A Fair Comparison v . . . 101 LETTER V. Portuguese Missionaries A Chinese Hospital Chinese Anaesthetics Surgery and Medicine Ventilation and Cleanliness A Chinese " Afternoon Tea " A new Inspiration 108 LETTER VI. A Cochin China River The Ambition of Saigon A French Colonial Metropolis European Life in Saigon A Cochin-Chinese Village " Afternoon Tea " in Choquan Anamese Children Anamite Cos- tume Anamite River-Dwellings An Amphibious Population An Unsuccessful Colony " With the Big Toe " Three Persecuting Kings Saigon 117 LETTER VII. Beauties of the Tropics Singapore Hospitality An Equatorial Metrop- olis An Aimless Existence The Growth of Singapore " Farms" and " Farmers " The Staple of Conversation The Glitter of CONTENTS. xi "Barbaric Gold" A Polyglot Population A mediocre People Female Grace and Beauty The "Asian Mystery " Oriental Pict- uresqueness The Metamorphosis of Singapore 135 LETTER VIII. St. Andrew's Cathedral Singapore Harbor Scenes Chinese Prepon- derance First Impressions of Malacca A Town " Out of the Running" 152 LETTER IX. The Lieutenant-Governor of Malacca A charming Household The Old Stadthaus A stately Habitation An endless Siesta A Tropic Dream Chinese Houses Chinese Wealth and Ascend- ency "Opium Farming" The Malacca Jungle Mohamme- dan Burial-Places Malay Villages Malay Characteristics Cos- tume and Ornament Bigotry and Pilgrimage The Malay Buffalo 159 LETTER X. Malacca Medisevalism Tiger Stories The Chinese Carnival Gold and Gems A Weight of Splendor New- Year Rejoicings Syed Abdulrahman A Mohammedan Princess A Haunted City Francis Xavier The Reward of "Pluck" Projects of Travel... 179 A CHAPTER ON SUNGEI UJONG. The Puzzles of the Peninsula Sungei Ujong A Malay Confederation Syed Abdulrahman The Revenue of Sungei Ujong Scenery and Productions The new Datu Klana A " Dual Control "... 194 LETTER XI. A Mangrove Swamp Jungle Dwellers The Sempang Police Station Shooting Alligators The River Linggi A somber-faced Throng Stuck fast at Permatang Pasir Fair Impediments 204 LETTER XII. The Tomb of " a great Prophet" " Durance Vile " Fragile Travelers Our Craft A Night in the Jungle Nocturnal Revelations Xli CONTENTS. PAGC January in the Perak Jungle Glories of the Jungle Activity and Stillness An uneasy Night A slim Repast Betel-Chewing A severe Disappointment Police Station at Rassa 214 LETTER XIII. The Appurtenances of Civilization Babu Characteristics of Captain Murray An Embodied Government Chinese Mining Enterprise A Chinese Gaming-house The " Capitans China " New-Year Visits Sittings " In Equity " A Court of Justice The Serambang Prison "Plantation Hill" A monster Bonfire An Ant World An Ant Funeral Night on "Plantation Hill" The Murder of Mr. Lloyd A Chinese Dragon Play A visit to a Malay Prince The Datu Bandar's House A great Temptation The Return Journey An Obituary Quotation 232 A CHAPTER ON SELANGOR. Selangor Capabilities of Selangor Natural Capabilities Lawlessness in Selangor British Interference in Selangor A Hopeful Outlook . 261 LETTER XIV. The S. S. Rainbow Sunset at Malacca A Night at Sea The Resi- dency at Klang Our " Next-of-kin " The decay of Klang A remarkable Chinaman Theatrical Magnificence Misdeed of a " Rogue Elephant " A cobra ! a cobra ! " 270 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 At- tendants The " Light of the Harem" The Sultan's Offering. . . 283 LETTER XV. Tiger Mosquitoes Insect Torments A Hadji's Fate Malay Custom Oaths and Lies A False Alarm 298 CONTENTS. Xlll LETTER XVI. FACE A Yachting Voyage The Destruction of SSlangor Varieties of Slime Swamp Fever An Unprosperous Region A " Deadly-lively " Morning A Waif and Stray The Superintendent of Police 306 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 Bazars of Georgetown The Chinaman goes Ahead The Products of Pinang Pepper- planting 317 A CHAPTER ON PERAK. The Boundaries and Rivers of Perak Tin Mining Fruits and Vege- tablesThe Gomuti Palm The Trade of Perak A Future of Coffee A Hopeful Lookout Chinese Difficulties Chinese Dis- turbances in Larut The " Pangkor Treaty" A "Little War" The Settlement of Perak The Resident and Assistant-Resident. . 331 LETTER XVIII. Province Wellesley Water Buffaloes A Glorious Night Perak Offi- cials A " Dismal Swamp " Elephants at Home An Epigram- matic Description The British Residency at Taipeng Sultan Ab- dulla's Boys A Chinese Mining Town The " Armed Police " An Alligator's Victim Major Swinburne A Larut Dinner Party A Morning Hymn 347 LETTER XIX. The Chinese in Larut " Monkey Cups " Chinese Hospitality A Sikh Belle 366 LETTER XX. Novel Circumstances The Excitements of the Jungle Eternal Summer The Sensitive Plant The Lotus Lake of Matang Elephant Ugliness A Malay Mahout A Novel Experience Domestic Pets Malay Hospitality Land Leeches " A Fearful Joy " The End of my first Elephant Ride Kwala Kangsa 371 XIV CONTENTS. LETTER XX. (Continued.') PAGE Mystification A Grotesque Dinner-Party Mahmoud and Eblis Fun and Frolic Mahmoud's Antics A Perak Jungle The Poetry of Tropical Life Village Life The Officials of the Mosques A Mos- lem Funeral The " Royal Elephant " Swimming the Perak The Village of Koto-laraah A " Pirate's Nest " Rajah Dris 390 LETTER XX. ( Continued. ) A Joyous Welcome A Severe Mortification The British Resident Daily Visitors Rajah Dris A Tipsy Ape Marriage Ceremonies Marriage Festivities Malay Children The Rajah Muda Yusuf A Dreary Funeral Fascinating Companionship A Cocoa-nut Gatherer The Argus Pheasant An Opium Wreck Rhinoceros Horns Elephant-Taming Petrifying Influences of Islamism A Dwindling Race 409 LETTER XXI. A Malay Interior Malay Bird-Scaring Rice Culture Picturesque Dismalness A Bad Spell An Alarm Possibilities of Peril Pa- tience and Kindness Masculine Clatter 433 LETTER XXII. A Pleasant Canter A Morning Hymn The Pass of Bukit Berapit The "Wearing World "Again! A Bad Spirit Malay Demon- ology "Running Amuck" An yi/w^-Runner's Career The Supposed Origin of Amok Jungle Openings in Perak Debt- Slavery The Fate of Three Runaway Slaves Moslem Prayers " Living like Leeches" Malay Proverbs A " Ten -thousand-man Umbrella " 445 LETTER XXIII. " Gang Murders " Malay Nicknames A Persecuted Infant The Last of the Golden Chersonese 465-468 APPENDIX 469-479 INDEX 481 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Author's First Ride in Perak Frontispiece Orang-outang (Male and Female) Page 18 Smoking the Mosquitoes To face page 163 Elk Horn Fern Page 223 Greater Moth Orchid To face page 224 Areca Palm (Areca catechti) " " 228 Police Station at Rassa " " 230 A British Marriage Present " " 254 An Equatorial Jungle Stream " " 280 A Kling Page 323 Gomuti Palm " 334 Chinese Houses and Malay Bathing Shed, Kangsa River. . To face page 388 A Malay "Dug-out," Perak River " " 407 Street in Kwala Kangsa " " 408 Malay Youth and Maiden Page 418 An Opium Wreck " 427 Map At end THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. CANTON and Saigon, and whatever else is com- prised in the second half of my title, are on one of the best beaten tracks of travelers, and need no introductory remarks. But the GOLDEN CHERSONESE is still somewhat of a terra incognita ; there is no point on its main- land at which European steamers call, and the usual conception of it is as a vast and malarious equatorial jungle, sparsely peopled by a race of semi-civilized and treacherous Mohammedans. In fact, it is as little known to most people as it was to myself before I visited it ; and as reliable infor- mation concerning it exists mainly in valuable vol- umes now out of print, or scattered through blue books and the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Singapore, I make no apology for prefacing my letters from the Malay Peninsula with as many brief preliminary statements as shall serve to make them intelligible, requesting those of my readers 2 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. who are familiar with the subject to skip this chap- ter altogether. The Aurea Chersonesus of Ptolemy, the " Gol- den Chersonese " of Milton, the Malay Peninsula of our day, has no legitimate claim to an ancient history. The controversy respecting the identity of its Mount Ophir with the Ophir of Solomon has been " threshed out " without much result, and the supposed allusion to the Malacca Straits by Pliny is too vague to be interesting. The region may be said to have been rediscov- ered in 1 5 1 3 by the Portuguese, and the first definite statement concerning it appears to be in a letter from Emanuel, King of Portugal, to the Pope. In the antique and exaggerated language of the day, he relates that his general, the famous Albuquerque, after suprising conquests in India, had sailed to the Aurea Chersonesus, called by its inhabitants Ma- lacca. He had captured the city of Malacca, sacked it, slaughtered the Moors (Mohammedans) who defended it, destroyed its twenty-five thousand houses abounding in gold, pearls, precious stones, and spices, and on its site had built a fortress with walls fifteen feet thick, out of the ruins of its mosques. The king, who fought upon an elephant, was badly wounded and fled. Further, on hearing of the victory, the King of Siam, from whom Ma- lacca had been "ursurped by the Moors," sent to the conqueror a cup of gold, a carbuncle, and a sword inlaid with gold. This conquest was vaunted THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 3 of as a great triumph of the Cross over the Cres- cent, and as its result, by the year 1600 nearly the whole commerce of the Straits had fallen into the hands of the Portuguese. Of the remaining " Moorish " or Malay king- doms, Acheen, in Sumatra, was the most powerful, so powerful, indeed, that its king was able to be- siege the great stronghold of Malacca more than once with a fleet, according to the annalist, of " more than five hundred sail, one hundred of which were of greater size than any then constructed in Europe, and the warriors or mariners that it bore amounted to sixty thousand, commanded by the king in person." The first mention of Johore, or Jhor, and Perak occurs about the same time, Perak being represented as a very powerful and wealthy State. The Portuguese, by their persevering and relent- less religious crusade against the Mohammedans, converted all the States which were adjacent to their conquests into enemies, and by 1641 their empire in the Straits was seized upon by the Dutch, who, not being troubled by much religious earnestness, got on very well with the Malay Princes, and succeeded in making advantageous commercial treaties with them. A curious but fairly accurate map of the coasts of the Peninsula was prepared in Paris in 1668 to accompany the narrative of the French envoy to the Court of Siam, but neither the mainland nor the adjacent islands attracted any interest in this 4 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. country till the East India Company acquired Pinang in 1775, Province Wellesley in 1798, Singa- pore in 1823, and Malacca in 1824. These small but important colonies were consolidated in 1867 into one Government under the Crown, and are now known as the Straits Settlements, and prized as among the most valuable of our possessions in the Far East. Though these settlements are merely small islands or narrow strips of territory on the coast, their population, by the census of 1 88 1, exceeded four hundred and twenty-two thou- sand souls, and in 1880 their exports and imports amounted to ,32,353,000! Besides these little bits of British territory scat- tered along a coast line nearly four hundred miles in length, there are, on the west side of the Penin- sula, the native States of Kedah, Perak, Sglangor, and Sungei Ujong, the last three of which are under British "protection ;" and on the east are Patani, Kelantan, Tringganu, and Pahang; the southern extremity being occupied by the State of Johore. The interior, which is scarcely at all known, con- tains toward its centre the Negri Sembilan, a con- federation of eight (formerly nine) small States. The population of the native States of the Penin- sula is not accurately known, but, inclusive of a few wild tribes and the Chinese immigrants, it is esti- mated at three hundred and ten thousand ; which gives under nine inhabitants to the square mile, the population of the British settlements being AREA OF THE PENINSULA. 5 I about four hundred and twenty to the square mile. The total length of the Peninsula is eight hun- dred miles, and its breadth varies from sixty to one hundred and fifty miles. It runs down from lat. 13 50' N. to i 41' N. The northern part, form- ing the Isthmus of Kraw, which it is proposed to pierce for a ship canal, runs nearly due north and south for one hundred and forty miles, and is in- habited by a mixed race, mainly Siamese, called by the Malays Sansam. This Isthmus is under the rule of Siam, which is its northern boundary ; and the northern and eastern States of Kedah, Patani, Kelantan, Pahang, and Tringganu, are more or less tributary to this ambitious empire, which at inter- vals has exacted a golden rose, the token of vassal- age, from every State in the Peninsula. Except at the point where the Isthmus of Kraw joins Siam, the Peninsula is surrounded by the sea to the east by the China Sea and the Gulf of Siam, and to the south and west by the Straits of Malacca and the Bay of Bengal. The area of the mainland is conjectured to be the same as that of Britain, but the region occupied by the Malays does not exceed sixty-one thousand one hundred and fifty square miles, and is about half the size of Java. Its configuration is not very well known, but a granitic mountain chain, rising in Perak to ascer- tained heights of eight thousand feet, runs down its whole length near the centre, with extensive 6 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. outlying spurs, and alluvial plains on both sides densely covered with jungle, as are also the mount- ains. There are no traces of volcanic formation, though thermal springs exist in Malacca. The rivers are numerous, but with one exception small, and are seldom navigable beyond the reach of the tides, except by flat-bottomed boats. It is believed that there are scarcely any lakes. The general formation is granitic, overlaid by sandstone, laterite or clay ironstone, and to the north by limestone. Iron ores are found every- where, and are so little regarded for their metallic contents that, though containing, according to Mr. Logan, a skillful geologist, sixty per cent, of pure metal, they are used in Singapore for macadamizing the roads ! Gold has been obtained in all ages, and formerly in considerable quantities, but the an- nual yield does not now exceed nineteen thousand ounces. The vastest tin fields in the world are found in the western Malay States, and hitherto the produce has been "stream tin" only, the metal not having been traced to its veins in the rock. The map, the result of recent surveys by Mr. Daly, and published in 1882 by the Royal Geo- graphical Society, shows that there is a vast extent, more than half of the Malay Peninsula, unexplored. Its most laborious explorer confesses that "of the internal government, geography, mineral products, and geology of these regions, we do not know any- thing," and, he adds, that " even in this nineteenth A TERRA INCOGNITA. J century, a country rich in its resources, and impor- tant through its contiguity to our British posses- sions, is still a closed volume." " If we let the needle in, the thread is sure to follow" (meaning that if they let an Englishman pass through their territories, British annexation would be the natural sequence), was the reason given to Mr. Daly for turning him back from the States of the Negri Sembilan. The climate is singularly healthy for Europeans as well as natives, although both hot and moist, as may be expected from being so close to the equa- tor. Besides, the Peninsula is very nearly an insu- lar region ; it is densely covered with evergreen forests, and few parts of it are more than fifty miles from the sea. There are no diseases of cli- mate except marsh fevers, which assail Europeans if they camp out at night on low, swampy grounds. In 5 15' N., about the latitude of the northern boundary of Perak, at the sea-level the mean an- nual temperature is nearly 80, with a range of 20; at Malacca in 2 14' N. it is 80, with a range of 15; and at Singapore, in lat. i 17', it is 2, with a range of 24. Though the climate is undeniably a "hot" one, the heat, tempered by alternating land and sea breezes, is seldom oppressive except just before rain, and the thermometer never attains any- thing approaching those torrid temperatures which are registered in India, Japan, the United States, and other parts of the temperate zones. 8 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. The rainfall is not excessive, averaging about one hundred and ten inches annually, and there is no regular rainy season. In fact it rains in modera- tion all the year round. Three days seldom pass without refreshing showers, and if there are ten rainless days together, a rare phenomenon, people begin to talk of "the drought." Practically the year is divided into two parts by the " monsoons." 1 The monsoon is not a storm, as many people sup- pose, from a vague association of the word " ty- phoon," but a steady wind blowing, in the case of the Malay Peninsula, for six months from the north- east, bringing down the Chinamen in their junks, and for six months from the southwest, bringing traders from Arabia and India. The climate is the pleasantest during the north-east monsoon, which lasts from October to April. It is during the south- west monsoon that the heavier rains, accompanied by electrical disturbances, occur. The central mountain range protects the Peninsula alternately from both monsoons, the high Sumatran mountains protecting its west side from the south-west winds. The east side is exposed for six months to a modified north-east monsoon. Everywhere else throughout the almost changeless year, steadily alternating land and sea breezes with gentle variable winds and calms prevail, interrupted occasionally on the west coast during the "summer" by squalls *This word is recognized as a corruption by Portuguese and British tongues of the Arabic word musim, " season." PRODUCTS OF THE PENINSULA. g from the south-west, which last for one or two hours, and are known as " Sumatrans." Hurricanes and earthquakes are unknown. Drenching dews fall on clear nights. The Peninsula is a gorgeous tropic land, and, with its bounteous rainfall and sunshine, brings forth many of the most highly prized productions of the tropics, with some that are peculiar to itself. Its botany is as yet very imperfectly known. Some of its forest trees are very valuable as timber, and others produce hard-veined woods which take a high polish. Rattans, Malacca canes, and gutta are well known as among its forest products ; gutta, with its extensive economical uses, having been used only for Malay horsewhips and knife-handles previous to 1843. The wild nutmeg is indigenous, and the nutmeg of commerce and the clove have been introduced and thrive. Pepper and some other spices flourish, and the soil with but a little cultivation produces rice wet and dry, tapioca, gambir, sugar-cane, coffee, yams, sweet potatoes, cocoa, sago, cotton, tea, cinchona, india rubber, and indigo. Still it is doubtful whether a soil can be called fertile which is incapable of producing the best kinds of cereals. European vegetables are on the whole a dismal failure. Conservatism in diet must be given up by Europeans ; the yam, edible arum, and sweet potato must take the place of the " Irish potato," and water-melons and cucumbers that of our peas, beans, artichokes, cabbages, and IO THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. brocoli. The Chinese raise coarse radishes and lettuce, and possibly the higher grounds may some day be turned into market gardens. The fruits, however, are innumerable, as well as wholesome and delicious. Among them the durion is the most esteemed by the natives, and the mangosteen by Europeans. The fauna of the Peninsula is most remarkable and abundant ; indeed, much of its forest-covered interior is inhabited by wild beasts alone, and gigantic pachyderms, looking like monsters of an earlier age, roam unmolested over vast tracts of country. Among this thick-skinned family are the elephant, the one-horned rhinoceros, the Malayan tapir, and the wild hog ; the last held in abomination by the Malays, but constituting the chief animal food of some of the wild tribes. A small bear with a wistful face represents the Plantigrade family. The Quadrumana are very numerous. There are nine monkeys, one, if not two apes, and a lemur or sloth, which screens its eyes from the light. Of the Digitigrada there are the otter or water- dog, the musang and climbing musang, the civet cat, the royal tiger, the spotted black tiger, in whose glossy raven-black coat the characteristic markings are seen in certain lights ; the tiger cat, the leopard, the Java cat, and four or five others. Many of these feline animals abound. Among the ruminants are four species of deer, FAUNA OF THE PENINSULA. II two smaller than a hare, and one as large as an elk ; a wild goat similar to the Sumatran antelope ; the domestic goat, a mean little beast; the buffalo, a great, nearly hairless, gray or pink beast, bigger than the buffalo of China and India ; a short-legged domestic ox, and two wild oxen or bisons, which are rare. The bat family is not numerous. The vampire flies high, in great flocks, and is very destructive to fruit. This frugiverous bat, known popularly as the " flying fox," is a very interesting-looking animal, and is actually eaten by the people of Ter- nate. At the height of the fruit season, thousands of these creatures cross from Sumatra to the main- land, a distance never less than forty miles. Their strength of wing is enormous. I saw one captured in the steamer Nevada, forty-five miles from the Navigators, with wings measuring, when extended, nearly five feet across. These are formed of a jet black membrane, and have a highly polished claw at the extremity of each. The feet consist of five polished black claws, with which the bat hangs on, head downward, to the forest trees. His body is about twice the size of that of a very large rat, black and furry underneath, and with red foxy fur on the head and neck. He has a pointed face, a very black nose, and prominent black eyes, with a remorseless expression in them. An edible bat of vagrant habits is also found. Ponies are imported from Sumatra, and a few 12 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. horses from Australia, but the latter do not thrive. The domestic cat always looks as if half his tail had been taken off in a trap. The domestic dog is the Asiatic, not the European dog, a leggy, ugly, vagrant, uncared-for fellow, furnishing a useful simile and little more. Weasels, squirrels, polecats, porcupines, and other small animals exist in numbers, and the mermaid, of the genus Halicore, connects the inhabitants of the land and water. This Duyong, described as a creature seven or eight feet long, with a head like that of an elephant deprived of its proboscis, and the body and tail of a fish, frequents the Sumatran and Malayan shores, and its flesh is held in great estimation at the tables of sultans and rajahs. Be- sides these (and the list is long enough) there are many small beasts. The reptiles are unhappily very numerous. Crau- furd mentions forty species of snakes, including the python and the cobra. Alligators in great numbers infest the tidal waters of the rivers. Iguanas and lizards of several species, marsh-frogs, and green tree-frogs abound. The land-leeches are a great pest. Scorpions and centipedes are abundant. There are many varieties of ants, among them a formidable- looking black creature nearly two inches long, a large red ant, whose bite is like a bad pinch from forceps, and which is the chief source of formic acid, and the termes, or white ant, most destructive to timber. REPTILES AND INSECTS. 13 The carpenter beetle is also found, an industrious insect, which riddles the timber of any building in which he effects a lodgment, and is as destructive as dry rot. There are bees and wasps, and hornets of large size, and a much-dreaded insect, possibly not yet classified, said to be peculiar to the Penin- sula, which inflicts so severe a wound as to make a strong man utter a cry of agony. But of all the pests the mosquitos are the worst. A resident may spend some time in the country and know nothing from experience of scorpions, centipedes, land- leeches, and soldier ants, but he cannot escape from the mosquito, the curse of these well-watered tropic regions. In addition to the night mosquito, there is a striped variety of large size, known as the " tiger mosquito," much to be feared, for it pursues its bloodthirsty work in the day- time. Among the harmless insects may be mentioned the cicada, which fills the forest with its cheery din, the green grasshopper, spiders, and flies of several species, dragon-flies of large size and brilliant coloring, and butterflies and moths of surpassing beauty, which delight in the hot, moist, jungle openings, and even surpass the flowers in the glory and variety of their hues. Among them the atlas moth is found, measuring from eight to ten inches across its wings. The leaf insects are also fascinat- ing, and the fire-flies in a mangrove swamp on a dark, still night, moving in gentle undulations, or 14 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. flashing into coruscations after brief intervals of quiescence, are inconceivably beautiful. The birds of the Peninsula are many and beauti- ful. Sun-birds rival the flashing colors of the hum- ming-birds in the jungle openings ; king-fishers of large size and brilliant blue plumage make the river banks gay ; shrieking paroquets with coral-colored beaks and tender green feathers, abound in the forests ; great, heavy-billed hornbills hop cumbrously from branch to branch, rivaling in their awkward gait the rhinoceros hornbills ; the Javanese peacock, with its gorgeous tail and neck covered with irides- cent green feathers instead of blue ones, moves majestically along the jungle tracks, together with the ocellated pheasant, the handsome and high- couraged jungle cock, and the glorious Argus pheasant, a bird of twilight and night, with " a hun- dred eyes " on each feather of its stately tail. According to Mr. Newbold, two birds of para- dise (Paradisea regia and Paradisea gularis) are natives of the Peninsula,* and among other bright- winged creatures are the glorious crimson-feathered pergam, the penciled pheasant, the peacock pheas- ant, the blue pheasant partridge, the mina, and the dial bird, with an endless variety of parrots, lories, green-feathered pigeons of various sizes, and wood- peckers. Besides these there are falcons, owls, or * Mr. Newbold is ordinarily so careful and .accurate that it is almost pre- sumptuous to hint that in this particular case he may not have been able to verify the statements of the natives by actual observation. BIRDS AND FISH. 15 "spectre birds," sweet-voiced butcher birds, storks, fly-catchers, and doves, and the swallow which builds the gelatinous edible nest, which is the foun- dation of the expensive luxury " Bird's Nest Soup," frequents the verdant islands on the coast. Nor are our own water birds wanting. There are bitterns, rails, wild-duck, teal, snipes ; the com- mon, gray, and whistling plover ; green, black, and red quails ; and the sport on the plains and reedy marshes, and along the banks of rivers, is most excellent. Turtles abound off the coast, and tortoises, one variety with a hard shell, and the other with a soft one and a rapid movement, are found in swampy places. The river fish are neither abundant nor much esteemed ; but the sea furnishes much of the food of both Malays and Chinese, and the dried and salted fish prepared on the coast is considered very good. At European tables in the settlements the red mullet, a highly prized fish, the pomfret, considered more delicious than the turbot, and the tungeree, with cray-fish, crabs, prawns, and shrimps, are usually seen. The tongue-fish, something like a sole, the gray mullet, the hammer-headed shark, and various fish, with vivid scarlet and yellow stripes alternating with black, are eaten, along with cockles, " razor shells," and king-crabs. The lover of fishy beauty is abundantly gratified by the mul- titudes of fish of brilliant colors, together with large 1 6 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. medusae, which dart or glide through the sunlit waters among the coral-groves, where every coral spray is gemmed with zoophytes, whose rainbow- tinted arms sway with the undulations of the water, and where sea-snakes writhe themselves away into the recesses of coral caves. Nature is so imposing, so magnificent, and so prolific on the Malay Peninsula, that one naturally gives man the secondary place which I have as- signed to him in this chapter. The whole popula- tion of the Golden Chersonese, a region as large as Great Britain, is not more than three-quarters of a million, and less than a half of this is Malay. Neither great wars, nor an ancient history, nor a valuable literature, nor stately ruins, nor barbaric splendors, attract scholars or sight-seers to the Peninsula. The Malays are not the Aborigines of this singu- lar spit of land, and they are its colonists rather than its conquerors. Their histories, which are chiefly traditional, state that the extremity of the Peninsula was peopled by a Malay emigration from Sumatra about the middle of the twelfth century, and that the descendants of these colonists settled Malacca and other places on the coast about a cent- ury later. Tradition refers the peopling of the in- terior States to another and later migration from Sumatra, with a chief at its head, who, with all his followers, married Aboriginal wives ; the Aboriginal tribes retreating into the jungles and mountains as WILD AND CIVILIZED RACES. 17 the Malays spread themselves over the region now known as the States of the Negri Sembilan. The conquest or colonization of the Malay Peninsula by the Malays is not, however, properly speaking, matter of history, and the origin of the Malay race and its early history are only matters of more or less reasonable hypothesis. It is fair, however, to presume that Sumatra was the ancient seat of the race, and the wonderful valley of Menangkabau, surrounded by mountains ten thousand feet in height, that of its earliest civilization. The only Malay " colonial " kingdoms on the Peninsula which ever attained any importance were those of Ma- lacca and Johore, and even their reliable history begins with the arrival of the Portuguese. The conversion of the Sumatra Malays to Mohamme- danism arose mainly out of their commerical inter- course with Arabia ; it was slow, not violent, and is supposed to have begun in the thirteenth century. A population of " Wild Tribes," variously esti- mated at from eight thousand to eleven thousand souls, is still found in the Peninsula, and even if research should eventually prove them not to be its Aborigines, they are, without doubt, the same races which were found inhabiting it by the earliest Malay colonists. These are frequently called by the Malays " Orang Benua," or " men of the country," but they are likewise called " Orang-outang," the name which we apply to the big ape of Borneo. The ac- i8 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. companying engraving represents very faithfully the " Orang-outang " of the interior. The few accounts ORANG-OUTANG (male and female). given of the wild tribes vary considerably, but ap- parently they may be divided into two classes, the THE SAMANGS AND ORANG-OUTANG. 19 Samangs, or Oriental Negroes or Negritos, and the Orang Benua, frequently called Jakuns, and in Prak Sakei. By the Malays they are called in- discriminately Kafirs or infidels, and are interesting to them only in so far as they can use them for bearing burdens, clearing jungle, procuring gutta, and in child-stealing ; an abominable Malay custom, which, it is hoped, has received its death-blow in Perak at least. The Samangs are about the same height as the Malays, but their hair, instead of being lank and straight like theirs, is short and curly, though not woolly like that of the African negro, and their complexions, or rather skins, are of a dark brown, nearly black. Their noses, it is said, incline to be flat, their foreheads recede, and their lips are thick. They live in rude and easily removable huts made of leaves and branches, subsist on jungle birds, beasts, roots, and fruits, and wear a scanty cover- ing made from the inner bark of a species of Artocarpus. They are expert hunters, and have most ingenious methods of capturing both the elephant and the " recluse rhinoceros." They are divided into tribes, which are ruled by chiefs on the patriarchal system. Of their customs and beliefs, if they have any, almost nothing is known. They are singularly shy, and shun intercourse with men of other races. It has been supposed that they worship the sun. The Orang Benua or Orang-outang, frequently 2O THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. called Sakeis or Jakuns, consist of various tribes with different names, thinly scattered among the forests of the chain of mountains which runs down the middle of the Peninsula from Kedah to Point Romania.* In appearance and color they greatly resemble the Malays, and there is a very strong general resemblance between their dialects and pure Malayan. They have remarkably bright and expressive eyes, with nothing Mongolian about their internal angles, and the forehead is low rather than receding. The mouth is wide and the lips are large, the lower part of the face projects, the nose is small, the nostrils are divergent, and the cheek- bones are prominent. The hair is black, but it often looks rusty or tawny from exposure to the sun, against which it is their only protection. It is very abundant and long, and usually matted and curly, but not woolly. They have broad chests and very sturdy muscular limbs. They are, however, much shorter in stature than the Malays, the men in some of the tribes rarely exceeding four feet eight inches in height, and the women four feet four. Their clothing consists of a bark cloth waist- cloth. Some of the tribes live in huts of the most primitive description supported on posts, while others, often spoken of as the "tree people," build * I was so fortunate as to see two adult male Jakuns and one female, but my information respecting them is derived chiefly from Mr. Syers, Super- intendent of Police in Selangor, and from Mr. Maxwell, the Assistant- Resident in Perak. THE RAYET, OR ORANG LAUT. 21 wigwams on platforms, mainly supported by the forking branches of trees, at a height of from twenty to thirty feet. These wild people, says Mr. Daly, lead a gregarious life, rarely remaining long in one place for fear of their wives and children being kidnapped by the Malays. They fly at the approach of strangers. As a rule, their life is nomadic, and they live by hunting, fishing, and on jungle fruits. They are divided into tribes governed by elders. They reverence the sun, but have no form of worship, and are believed to be destitute of even the most rudimentary ideas of religion. Their weapon is the sumpitan, a blow- gun, from which poisoned arrows are expelled. They have no ceremonies at birth, marriage, or death. They are monogamists, and, according to Mr. Syers, extremely affectionate. One of their strongest emotions is fear, and their timidity is so great that they frequently leave the gutta which they have collected at the foot of the tree, not daring to encounter the trader from whom they expect some articles in exchange ; while the fear of ridicule, according to Mr. Maxwell, keeps them far from the haunts of the Malays. The Rayet, or Orang Laut, "subjects," or men of the sea, inhabit the coast and the small islets off the .coast, erecting temporary sheds when they go ashore to build boats, mend nets, or collect gum-damar and wood oil, but usually living in their boats. They differ little from the Malays, who, however, 22 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. they look down upon as an inferior race, except that they are darker and more uncouth looking. They have no religious (!) beliefs but in the influence of evil spirits, to whom at times they perform a few propitiatory rites. Many of them become Moham- medans. They live almost entirely upon fish. They are altogether restless and impatient of control, but, unlike some savages, are passionately fond of music, and are most ingenious in handicrafts, specially in boat-building. The Chinese in the Peninsula and on the small islands of Singapore and Pinang are estimated at two hundred and forty thousand, and their numbers are rapidly increasing, owing to direct immigration from China. It is by their capital, industry, and enterprise that the resources of the Peninsula are being developed. The date of their arrival is un- known, but the Portuguese found them at Malacca more than three centuries ago. They have been settled in Pinang and Singapore for ninety-three and sixty-three years respectively ; but except that they have given up the barbarous custom of crush- ing the feet of girls, they are, in customs, dress, and habits, the exact counterparts of the Chinese of Canton or Amoy. Many of them have become con- verts to Christianity, but this has not led to the discarding of their queues or national costume. The Chinese who are born in the Straits are called Babas. The immigrant Chinese, who are called Sinkehs, are much despised by the Babas, who glory THE MALA YS. 2 3 specially in being British-born subjects. The Chinese promise to be in some sort the commercial rulers of the Straits. The Malays proper inhabit the Malay Peninsula, and almost all the coast regions of Borneo and Sumatra. They all speak more or less purely the Malay language ; they are all Mohammedans, and they all write in the Arabic character. Their color is a lightish, olive-tinted, reddish brown. Their hair is invariably black, straight, and coarse, and their faces and bodies are nearly hairless. They have broad and slightly flat faces, with high cheek bones ; wide mouths, with broad and shapely lips ; well formed chins, low foreheads, black eyes, ob- lique, but not nearly so much so as those of the Chinese, and smallish noses, with broad and very open nostrils. They vary little in their height, which is below that of the average European. Their frames are lithe and robust, their chests are broad, their hands are small and refined, and their feet are thick and short. The men are not hand- some, and the women are decidedly ugly. Both sexes look old very early. The Malays undoubtedly must be numbered among civilized peoples. They live in houses which are more or less tasteful and secluded. They are well clothed in garments of both native and foreign manufacture ; they are a settled and agricultural people ; they are skilful in some of the arts, specially in the working of gold and the damascening of 24 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. krises ; the upper classes are to some extent edu- cated ; they have a literature, even though it be an imported one, and they have possessed for centuries systems of government and codes of land and mari- time laws which, in theory at least, show a consider- able degree of enlightenment. Their religion, laws, customs, and morals are bound up together. They are strict Mussulmen, but among the uneducated especially they mix up their own traditions and superstitions with the Koran. The pilgrimage to Mecca is the universal object of Malay ambition. They practice relic worship, keep the fast of Ramadhan, wear rosaries of beads, observe the hours of prayer with their foreheads on the earth, provide for the " religious welfare" of their villages, circumcise their children, offer buffaloes in sacrifice at the religious ceremo- nies connected with births and marriages, build mosques everywhere, regard Mecca as the holy city, and the Koran, as expounded by Arab teachers, as the rule of faith and practice. Much learning has been expended upon the ori- gin of Malayan, but it has not been reliably traced beyond the ancient empire of MSnangkabau in Sumatra. Mohammedanism undoubtedly brought with it a large introduction of Arabic words, and the language itself is written in the Arabic charac- ter. It has been estimated by that most painstak- ing and learned scholar, Mr. Crawfurd, that one hundred parts of modern Malayan are composed of LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 25 twenty-seven parts of primitive Malayan, fifty of Polynesian, sixteen of Sanskrit, five of Arabic, and two of adventitious words, the Arabic predominat- ing in all literature relating to religion. Malay is the lingua franca of the Straits Settlements, and in the seaports a number of Portuguese and Dutch words have been incorporated with it. The Malays can hardly be said to have an indig- enous literature, for it is almost entirely derived from Persia, Siam, Arabia, and Java. Arabic is their sacred language. They have, however, a cele- brated historic Malay romance called the Hang Tuah, parts of which are frequently recited in their villages after sunset prayers by their village racon- teurs, and some Arabic and Hindu romances stand high in popular favor. Their historians all wrote after the Mohammedan era, and their histories are said to contain little that is trustworthy ; each State also has a local history preserved with super- stitious care and kept from common eyes, but these contain little but the genealogies of their chiefs. They have one Malay historical composition, dated 1021 A.H., which treats of the founding of the Ma- lay empire of Mnangkabau in Sumatra, and comes down to the founding of the empire of Johore and the conquest of Malacca by Albuquerque in 1511. This has been thought worthy of translation by Dr. Leyden. Their ethical books consist mainly of axioms principally derived from Arabic and Persian 26 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. sources. Their religious works are borrowed from the Arabs. The Koran, of course, stands first, then comes a collection of prayers, and next a guide to the religious duties required from Mussul- men. Then there are books containing selections from Arabic religious works, with learned commen- taries upon them by a Malay Hadji. It is to be noticed that the Malays present a compact front against Christianity, and have successfully resisted all missionary enterprise. They have a good deal of poetry, principally of an amorous kind, characterized, it is said, by great simplicity, natural and pleasing metaphor, and ex- tremely soft and melodious rhyme. They sing their poems to certain popular airs, which are com- mitted to memory. Malay music, though plaintive and less excruciating than Chinese and Japanese, is very monotonous and dirge-like, and not pleasing to a European ear. The pentatonic scale is em- ployed. The violin stands first among musical in- struments in their estimation. They have also the guitar, the flageolet, the seolian flute, a bamboo in which holes are cut, which produce musical sounds when acted upon by the wind, and both metallic and wooden gongs. They have no written system of common arith- metic, and are totally unacquainted with its higher branches. Their numerals above one thousand are borrowed from the Hindus, and their manner of counting is the same as that of the Ainos of Yezo. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 2J Their theory of medicine is derived from Arabia, and abounds in mystery and superstition. They regard man as composed of four elements and four essences, and assimilate his constitution and passions to the twelve signs of the zodiac, the seven planets, etc., exaggerating the mysterious sympathy between man and external nature. The successful practice of the hakim or doctor must be based on the principle of " preserving the balance of power " among the four ele- ments, which is chiefly effected by moderation in eating. They know nothing of astronomy, except of some meagre ideas derived through the Arabs from the Ptolemaic system, and Mr. Newbold, after most painstaking research, failed to discover any regular treatise on astronomy, though Arabic and Hindu tracts on interpretations of dreams, horoscopes, spells, propitious and unpropitious moments, augu- ries, talismans, love philters, medicinal magic and recipes for the destruction of people at a distance, are numerous. They acknowledge the solar year, but adopt the lunar, and reckon the months in three different ways, dividing them, however, into weeks of seven days, marking them by the return of the Mohammedan Sabbath. They suppose the world to be an oval body revolving on its axis four times within a year, with the sun, a circular body of fire, moving round it. The majority of the people still believe that eclipses are caused by the sun or moon 28 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. being devoured by a serpent, and they lament loudly during their continuance. The popular modes of measuring distance are in- genious, but, to a stranger at least, misleading. Thus Mr. Daly, in attempting to reach the inte- rior States, received these replies to his inquiries about distance " As far as a gunshot maybe heard from this particular hill ; " u If you wash your head before starting it will not be dry before you reach the place," etc. They also measure distances by the day's walk, and by the number of times it is necessary to chew betel between two places. The hours are denoted by terms not literally accurate. Cockcrowing is daybreak, i P.M., and midnight ; 9 A.M., Lepas Baja, is the time when the buffaloes, which cannot work when the sun is high, are relieved from the plough ; Tetabawe is 6 P.M., the word sig- nifying the cry of a bird which is silent till after sunset. The Malay day begins at sunset. They are still maritime in their habits, and very competent practical sailors and boat-builders ; but though for centuries they divided with the Arabs the carrying trade between Eastern and Western Asia, and though a mongrel Malay is the nautical language of nearly all the peoples from New Guinea to the Tenasserim coast, the Malays knew little of the science of navigation. They timed their voyages by the constant monsoons, and in sailing from island to island coasted the Asiatic shores, trusting, when for a short time out of sight of land, MALA Y LA W. 2Q not to the compass, though they were acquainted with it, but to known rocks, glimpses of headlands, the direction of the wind, and their observation of the Pleiades. They have no knowledge of geography, architect- ure, painting, sculpture, or even mechanics ; they no longer make translations from the Arabic or create fiction, and the old translations of works on law, ethics, and science are now scarcely studied. Education among them is at a very low ebb; but the State of Kedah is beginning to awake to its ad- vantages. Where schools exist the instruction consists mainly in teaching the children to repeat, in a tongue which they do not understand, certain passages from the Koran and some set prayers. As to law, Sir Stamford Raffles observed in a formal despatch, " Nothing has tended more de- cidedly to the deterioration of the Malay character than the want of a well-defined and generally ac- knowledged system of law." There are numerous legal compilations, however, and nearly every State has a code of its own to a certain extent ; there are maritime and land codes, besides " customs " bad and good, which override the written law ; while in Perak, Sglangor, and Sungei Ujong an ill under- stood adaptation of some portions of British law further complicates matters. " The glorious uncer- tainty" of law is nowhere more fully exemplified than on this Peninsula. It is from the Golden Island, the parent Empire of Mgnangkabau, that 3O THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. the Malays profess to derive both their criminal and civil law, their tribal system, their rules for the division of land by boundary marks, and the man- ner of government as adapted for sovereigns and their ministers. The existence of the various legal compilations has led to much controversy and even bloodshed between zealots for the letter of the Koran on one side, and the advocates of ancient custom on the other. Among the reasons which have led to the migration of Malays from the na- tive states into the Straits Settlements, not the least powerful is the equality of rights before Eng- lish law, and the security given by it to property of every kind. In the Malay country itself, occupied by Malays and the Chinese associated with them, there are four Malays to the square mile, whilst under the British flag some one hundred and twen- ty-five Malays to the square mile have taken refuge and sought protection for their industry under our law ! Cock-fighting, which has attained to the dignity of a literature of its own, is the popular Malay sport ; but the grand sport is a tiger and buffalo fight, reserved for rare occasions, however, on ac- count of its expense. Cock-fighting is a source of gigantic gambling and desperate feuds. The birds, which fight in full feather and with sharpened steel spurs, are very courageous, and die rather than give in. Wrestling among young men and tossing the wicker ball, are favorite amusements. There are MALAY SPOXTS. 31 professional dancing girls, but dancing as a social amusement is naturally regarded with disfavor. Children have various games peculiar to themselves, which are abandoned as childish things at a given age. Riddles and enigmas occupy a good deal of time among the higher classes. Chess also occu- pies much time, but it is much to be feared that the vice of gambling stimulated by the Chinese, who have introduced both cards and dice, is taking the place of more innocent pastimes. The Malays, like other Mohammedans, practice polygamy. They are very jealous, and their women are veiled and to a certain extent secluded ; but they are affectionate, and among the lower classes there is a good deal of domesticity. Their houses are described in the following letters. The food of the poorer classes consists mainly of rice and salt- fish, curries of both, maize, sugar-cane, bananas, and jungle fruits, cocoa-nut milk being used in the preparation of food as well as for a beverage. As luxuries they chew betel-nut and smoke tobacco, and although intoxicants are forbidden, they tap the toddy palm and drink of its easily fermented juice. Where metal finds its way into domestic utensils it is usually in the form of tin water-bottles and ewers. Every native possesses a sweeping broom, sleeping mats, coarse or fine, and bamboo or grass baskets. Most families use an iron pan for cooking, with a half cocoa-nut shell for a ladle. A large nut shell filled with palm-oil, and containing 32 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. a pith wick, is the ordinary Malay lamp. Among the poor, fresh leaves serve as plates and dishes, but the chiefs possess china. The Malay weapons consist of the celebrated kris, with its flame-shaped wavy blade ; the sword, regarded, however, more as an ornament ; the parang, which is both knife and weapon ; the steel- headed spear, which cost us so many lives in the Perak war ; matchlocks, blunderbusses, and lelahs, long heavy brass guns used for the defence of the stockades behind which the Malays usually fight. They make their own gunpowder, and use cartridges made of cane. The Malays, like the Japanese, have a most rigid epistolary etiquette, and set forms for letter writing. Letters must consist of six parts, and are so highly elaborate that the scribes who indite them are al- most looked upon as litterateurs. There is an etiquette of envelopes and wafers, the number and color of which vary with the relative positions of the correspondents, and any error in these details is regarded as an insult. Etiquette in general is elaborate and rigid, and ignorant breaches of it on the part of Europeans have occasionally cost them their lives. The systems of government in the Malay States vary in detail, but on the whole may be regarded as absolute despotisms, modified by certain rights, of which no rulers in a Mohammedan country can absolutely deprive the ruled, and by the assertion SLAVERY AND DEBT BONDAGE. 33 of the individual rights of chiefs. Sultans, rajahs, maharajahs, datus, etc., under ordinary circum- stances have been and still are in most of the un- protected States unable to control the chiefs under them, who have independently levied taxes and blackmail till the harassed cultivators came scarcely to care to possess property which might at any time be seized. Forced labor for a quarter of the laboring year was obligatory on all males, besides military service when called upon. Slavery and debt bondage exist in all the native States, except in Slangor and Sungei Ujong, where it has recently been abolished, as it is hoped it will be in Perak. The slaves of the reigning princes were very easily acquired, for a prince had only to send a messenger bearing a sword or kris to a house, and the parents were obliged to give up any one of their children without delay or question. In debt slavery, which prevails more or less among all classes, and has done a great deal to degrade the women of the Peninsula, a man owing a trifling debt incurred through extravagance, misfortune or gambling, can be seized by his creditor; when he, his wife, and children, including those who may afterwards be born, and probably their descendants, become slaves. In most of the States the reigning prince has regular officers under him, chief among whom are the Bandahara or treasurer, who is the first min- ister, chief executive officer, and ruler over the peas- 3 34 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. antry, and the Tumongong or chief magistrate. Usually the throne is hereditary, but while the suc- cession in some States is in the male line, in others it is in the female, a sister's son being the heir ; and there are instances in which the chiefs have elected a sultan or rajah. The theory of govern- ment does not contain anything inherently vicious, and is well adapted to Malay circumstances. What- ever is evil in practice is rather contrary to the theory than in accordance with it. The States un- doubtedly have fallen, in many ways, into evil case ; the privileged few, consisting of rajahs and their numerous kindred and children, oppressing the un- privileged many, living in idleness on what is wrung from their toil. The Malay sovereigns in most cases have come to be little more than the feudal heads of bodies of insubordinate chiefs, while even the headmen of the villages take upon themselves to levy taxes and administer a sort of justice. No- madic cultivation, dislike of systematic labor, and general insecurity as to the boundaries and tenure of land, have further impoverished the common people, while Islamism exercises its usual freezing and retarding influence, producing the fatal isola- tion which to weak peoples is slow decay. When Sir A. Clarke was appointed Governor of the Straits Settlements in 1873 he went to the Cu- rator of the Geographical Society's library in quest of maps and information of any kind about the country to which he was going, but was told by "NO INFORMATION." 35 that courteous functionary that there was absolutely no information of the slightest value in their archives. Since then the protectorate which we have acquired over three of the native States and the war in Perak have mended matters somewhat ; but Mr. Daly, on appearing in May last before the same Society with the map which is the result of his partial survey, regrets that we have of half of the Peninsula "only the position of the coast line !" Of the States washed by the China Sea scarcely anything in known, and the eastern and central interior offer a wide field for the explorer. The letters which follow those written from China and Saigon relate to the British settlements in the Straits of Malacca, and to the native States of Perak, Selangor, and Sungei Ujong, which, since 1874, have passed under British "protec- tion." The preceding brief sketch is necessarily a very imperfect one, as to most of my questions addressed on the spot and since to the best in- formed people, the answer has been, "No informa- tion." The only satisfaction that I have in these preliminary pages is, that they place the reader in a better position than I was in when I landed at Malacca. To a part of this beautiful but little known region I propose to conduct my readers, venturing to hope for their patient interest in my journeyings over the bright waters of the Malacca Straits and in the jungles of the GOLDEN CHER- SONESE. I. L. B. LETTER I. S. S. "VOLGA," CHINA SEA, Chnstmas Eve, 1878. THE snowy dome of Fujisan, reddening in the sunrise, rose above the violet woodlands of Missis- sippi Bay as we steamed out of Yokohama harbor on the i Qth, and three days later I saw the last of Japan a rugged coast, lashed by a wintry sea. THE PALACE, VICTORIA, HONG KONG, December 27. Of the voyage to Hong Kong little need be said. The Volga is a miserable steamer, with no place to sit in, and nothing to sit on but the benches by the dinner-table in the dismal saloon. The master, a worthy man, so far as I ever saw of him, was Goth, Vandal, Hun, Visigoth, all in one. The ship was damp, dark, dirty, old, and cold. She was not warmed by steam, and the fire could not be lighted because of a smoky chimney. There were no lamps, and the sparse candles were obviously grudged. The stewards were dirty and despond- ing, the serving inhospitable, the cooking dirty and greasy, the food scanty, the table-linen frowsy. There were four French and two Japanese male pas- sengers, who sat at meals in top-coats, comforters, DAYS OF DARKNESS. 37 and hats. I had a large cabin, the salon des dames, and the undivided attention of a very competent but completely desponding stewardess. Being de- barred from the deck by incessant showers of spray, sleet, and snow, and the cold of mid-winter being unbearable in the dark, damp saloon, I went to bed at four for the first two days. On the third it blew half a gale, with a short violent sea, and this heavy weather lasted till we reached Hong Kong, five days afterward. During those cold, dark, noisy days, when even the stewards could scarcely keep their feet, I suffered so much in my spine from the violent movements of the ship that I did not leave my cabin ; and besides being unable to read, write, or work, owing to the darkness, I was obliged to hold on by day and night to avoid being much hurt by the rolling, my berth being athwart ships ; consequently, that week, which I had relied upon for "overtaking" large arrears of writing and sewing, was so much lost out of life, irrecoverably and shamefully lost, I felt, as each dismal day dawned and died without sunrise or sunset, on the dark and stormy Pacific. No one, it seemed, knew any more English than "Yes" and " No ;" and as the ship knocked French out of my memory, I had not even the resource of talking with the stewardess, who told me on the last day of our imprisonment that she was " triste, triste," and " one mass of bruises ! " In this same gale, but on a dry day, we came 38 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. close up with the mainland of Eastern Asia. Coasts usually disappoint. This one exceeded all my ex- pectations ; and besides, it was the coast of Asia, the mysterious continent which has been my dream from childhood bare, lofty, rocky, basaltic ; islands of naked rock separated by narrow channels, majes- tic, perpendicular cliffs, a desolate uninhabited region, lashed by a heavy sea, with visions of swirling mists, shrieking sea-birds, and Chinese higii-sterned fishing-boats with treble-reefed, three- cornered brown sails, appearing on the tops of surges, at once to vanish. Soon we were among mountainous islands ; and then, by a narrow and picturesque channel, entered the outer harbor, with the scorched and arid peaks of Hong Kong on one side ; and on the other the yet redder and rockier mainland, without a tree or trace of cultivation, or even of habitation, except here and there a few stone huts clustering round inlets, in which boats were lyir?g. We were within the tropic of Cancer, but still the cold, coarse bluster continued, so that it was barely possible to see China except in snatches from behind the deck-house. Turning through another channel, we abruptly entered the inner harbor, and sailed into the sum- mer, blue sky, blue water, a summer sun, and a cool breeze, while a tender veil of blue haze softened the outlines of the flushed mountains. Victoria, which is the capital of the British colony of the island of Hong Kong, and which colloquially HONG KONG ON FIRE. 39 is called Hong Kong, looked magnificent, suggest- ing Gibraltar, but far, far finer, its Peak eighteen hundred feet in height a giant among lesser peaks, rising abruptly from the sea above the great granite city which clusters upon its lower declivities, look- ing out from dense greenery and tropical gardens, and the deep shade of palms and bananas, the lines of many of its streets traced in foliage, all con- trasting with the scorched red soil and barren crags which were its universal aspect before we acquired it in 1843. A forest of masts above the town be- token its commercial importance, and " P. and O." and Messageries Maritimes steamers, ships of war of all nations, low-hulled, big-masted clippers, store and hospital ships, and a great fishing fleet lay at anchor in the harbor. The English and Romish cathedrals, the Episcopal Palace, with St. Paul's College, great high blocks of commercial buildings, huge sugar factories,* great barracks in terraces, battery above battery, Government House, and massive stone wharves, came rapidly into view, and over all, its rich folds spreading out fully on the breeze, floated the English flag. But dense volumes of smoke rolling and eddying, and covering with their black folds the lower slopes and the town itself made a surprising spectacle, and even as we anchored came off the rapid tolling of bells, the roll of drums, and the murmur of a " city at unrest." No one met me. A few Chinese boats came off, and then a steam launch with the 4O THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. M. M. agent in an obvious flurry. I asked him how to get ashore, and he replied, " It's no use going ashore, the town's half burned, and burning still ; there's not a bed at any hotel for love or money, and we are going to make up beds here." However, through the politeness of the mail agent, I did go ashore in the launch, but we had to climb through and over at least eight tiers of boats, crammed with refugees, mainly women and children, and piled up with all sorts of household goods, whole and broken, which had been thrown into them promiscuously to save them. " The palace of the English bishop," they said, was still untouched ; so, escaping from an indescribable hubbub, I got into a bamboo chair, with two long poles which rested on the shoulders of two lean coolies, who carried me to my destination at a swinging pace through streets as steep as those of Varenna. Streets choked up with household goods and the costly contents of shops, treasured books and nick- nacks lying on the dusty pavements, with beds, pictures, clothing, mirrors, goods of all sorts ; China- men dragging their possessions to the hills; Chi- nawomen, some of them with hoofs rather than feet, carrying their children on their backs and under their arms ; officers, black with smoke, work- ing at the hose like firemen ; parties of troops marching as steadily as on parade, or keeping guard in perilous places ; Mr. Pope Henessey, the Gov- ernor, ubiquitous in a chair with four scarlet bearers ; HONG KONG ON FIRE. 41 men belonging to the insurance companies running about with drawn swords ; the miscellaneous popu- lation running hither and thither ; loud and frequent explosions ; heavy crashes as of tottering walls, and, above all, the loud bell of the Romish cathedral tolling rapidly, calling to work or prayer, made a scene of intense excitement ; while utterly unmoved, in grand Oriental calm (or apathy), with the waves of tumult breaking round their feet, stood Sikh sentries, majestic men, with swarthy faces and great crimson turbans. Through the encumbered streets and up grand flights of stairs my bearers brought me to these picturesque grounds, which were cov- ered over with furniture and goods of all descrip- tions brought hither for safety, and Chinese fami- lies camping out among them. Indeed, the Bishop and Mrs. Burdon had not only thrown open their beautiful grounds to these poor people, but had ac- commodated some Chinese families in rooms in the palace under their own. The apathy or calm of the Chinese women as they sat houseless amidst their possessions was very striking. In the broad, covered corridor which runs round the palace every- thing the Burdons most value was lying ready for instantaneous removal, and I was warned not to unpack or take off my traveling dress. The Bishop and I at once went down to the fire, which was got under, and saw the wreck of the city and the house- less people camping out among the things they had saved. Fire was still burning or smouldering every- 42 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. where, high walls were falling, hose were playing on mountains of smouldering timber, whole streets were blocked with masses of fallen brick and stone, charred telegraph poles and fused wires were lying about, with half burned ledgers and half burned everything. The colored population exceeds one hundred and fifty-two thousand souls, and only those who know the Babel which an eastern crowd is capable of making under ordinary circumstances can imagine what the deafening din of human tongues was under these very extraordinary ones. In the prison, which was threatened by the flames, were over eight hundred ruffians of all nations, and it was held by one hundred soldiers with ten rounds of ammunition each, prepared to convey the crim- inals to a place of safety, and to shoot any who at- tempted to escape. The dread of these miscreants, which was everywhere expressed, is not unreasona- ble, for^the position of Victoria, and the freedom and protection afforded by our laws, together with the present Governor's known sympathies with colored people, have attracted here thousands of the scum of Canton and other Chinese cities, to say nothing of a mass of European and Asiatic ruffian- ism, much of which is at all times percolating through the magnificent Victoria prison. On returning, I was just beginning to unpack when the flames burst out again. It was luridly grand in the twilight, the tongues of flame lapping up house after house, the jets of flame loaded with THE FIRE SUBDUED. 43 blazing fragments, the explosions, each one suc- ceeded by a burst of flame, carrying high into the air all sorts of projectiles, beams and rafters paraffine soaked, strewing them over the doomed city, the leaping flames coming nearer and nearer, the great volumes of smoke, spark-laden, rolling toward us, all mingling with a din indescribable. Burning fragments shortly fell on the window-sills, and as the wind was very strong and setting this way, there seemed so little prospect of the palace being saved that important papers were sent to the cathedral and several of the refugees fled with their things to the hills. At that moment the wind changed, and the great drift of flame and smoke was carried in a comparatively harmless direction, the fire was got well in hand the second time, the official quarter was saved, and before 10 P.M. we were able for the first time since my arrival at mid-day to sit down to food. Most people seem much upset as well from per- sonal peril as from sympathy, and all parties and pic-nics for two days were given up. Even the news- papers did not come out this morning, the types of one of them being in this garden. The city is now patrolled night and day by strong parties of marines and Sikhs, for both the disposition to loot and the facilities for looting are very great, I. L. B. LETTER II. THE PALACE, VICTORIA, December 29. I LIKE and admire Victoria. It is so pleasant to come in from the dark, misty, coarse, loud-tongued Pacific, and the December colorlessness of Japan to bright blue waters crisped by a perpetual north wind to the flaming hills of the Asian mainland, which are red in the early morning, redder in the glow of noon, and pass away in the glorious sun- sets through ruby and vermilion into an amethyst haze, deepening into the purple of a tropic night, when the vast expanse of sky which is seen from this high elevation is literally one blaze of stars. Though they are by no means to be seen in per- fection, there are here many things that I love, bananas, poinsettias, papayas, tree-ferns, dendro- biums, dracenas, the scarlet passion-flower, the spurious banyan, date, sago, and traveler's palms, and numberless other trees and shrubs, children of the burning sun of the tropics, carefully watered and tended, but exotics after all. It is a most delightful winter climate. There has not been any rain for three months, nor will there be any for two more ; the sky is cloudless, 44 VICTORIA. 45 the air dry and very bracing. It is cold enough at night for fires, and autumn clothing can be worn all the day long, for though the sun is bright and warm, the shade temperature does not rise above 65, and exercise is easy and pleasant. At night, even at a considerable height, the lowest tempera- ture is 40. It is impossible to praise the climate too highly, with its bright sky, cool dry air, and five months of rainlessness ; but I should write very differently if I came here four months later, when the mercury ranges from 80 to 90 both by day and night, and the cloudy sky rests ever on the sum- mits of the island peaks, and everything is moist, and the rain comes down continually in torrents, rising in hot vapors when the sun shines, and peo- ple become limp and miserable, and their possessions limp and moldy, and insect life revels, and human existence spent in a vapor bath becomes burden- some. But the city is healthy to those who live temperately. It has, however, a remarkable pecu- liarity. Standing in and on rock, one fancies that fever would not be one of its maladies, but the rock itself seems to have imprisoned fever germs in.some past age, for whenever it is quarried or cut into for foundations, or is disturbed in any way, fever im- mediately breaks out. Victoria is a beautiful city. It reminds me of Genoa, but that most of its streets are so steep as to be impassable for wheeled vehicles, and some of them are merely grand flights of stairs, arched over 46 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. by dense foliaged trees, so as to look like some tropical, colored, deep colonnades. It has covered green balconies with festoons of creepers, lofty houses, streets narrow enough to exclude much of the sun, people and costumes of all nations, pro- cessions of Portuguese priests and nuns ; and all its many-colored life is seen to full advantage under this blue sky and brilliant sun. This house is magnificently situated, and very large and airy. Part is the Episcopal Palace, and the rest St. Paul's College, of which Bishop Burdon is warden. The mountainous grounds are beauti- ful, and the entrance blazes with poinsettias. There are no female servants, but Chinese men perform all the domestic service satisfactorily. I learn that for a Chinese servant to appear without his skull- cap is rude, but to appear with his pig-tail wound round his head instead of pendent, is a gross insult ! The " Pidjun English " is revolting, and the most dignified persons demean themselves by speaking it. The word " pidjun " appears to refer generally to business. " My pidjun " is undoubtedly " my work." How the whole English-speaking commu- nity, without distinction of rank, has come to com- municate with the Chinese in this baby talk is extraordinary. If you order a fire you say something like this : " Fire makee, chop, chop, here, makee fire number one ; " chop being quick, and number one good, or " first-class." If a servant tells you that some one PJDJUN ENGLISH. 47 has called he says, " One piecey manee here speak missey," and if one asks who he is, he very likely answers, " No sabe," or else, " Number one, tink," by which he implies that the visitor is, in his opinion, a- gentleman. After the courteous, kindly Japanese, the Chinese seem indifferent, rough and disagreea- ble, except the well-to-do merchants in the shops, who are bland, complacent, and courteous. Their rude stare and the way they hustle you in the streets and shout their "pidjun" English at you is not at- tractive. Then they have an ugly habit of speaking of us as barbarian or foreign devils. Since I knew the word I have heard it several times in the streets, and Bishop Burdon says that before his servants found out that he knew Chinese, they were always speaking of him and Mrs. Burdon by this very ugly name. [Victoria is, or should be, well known, so I will not describe its cliques, its boundless hospitalities, its extravagances in living, its quarrels, its gayeties, its pic-nics, balls, regattas, races, dinner parties, lawn tennis parties, amateur theatricals, afternoon teas, and all its other modes of creating a whirl which passes for pleasure or occupation. Rather, I would write of some of the facts concerning this very re- markable settlement, which is on its way to being the most important British colony in the Far East. Moored to England by the electric cable, and replete with all the magnificent enterprises and lux- uries of English civilization, with a population of 48 THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE. one hundred and sixty thousand, of which only seven thousand, including soldiers and sailors, are white, and possessing the most imposing city of the East on its shores, the colony is only forty years old ; the island of Hong Kong having been ceded to England in 1841, while its charter only bears the date of 1843. The island, which is about eleven miles long, from two to five broad, and with an area of about twenty-nine square miles, is one of a number situ- ated off the south-eastern coast of China at the mouth of the Canton river, ninety miles from Can- ton. It is one of the many "thieves' islands," and one of the first necessities of the administration was to clear out the hordes of sea and river pirates which infested its very intricate neighborhood. It lies just within the tropic of Cancer in lat. 22 N. and long. 114 E. The Ly-ee-moon Pass, the narrow strait which separates it from the Chinese main- land, is only half a mile wide. Kow-loon, on the mainland, an arid peninsula, on which some of the Hong Kongese have been attempting to create a suburb, was ceded to England in 1861. The whole island of Hong Kong is picturesque. The mag- nificent harbor, which has an area of ten square miles, is surrounded by fantastic, broken mountains from three thousand to four thousand feet high, and the magnificent city of Victoria extends for four miles along its southern shore, with its six thousand houses of stone and brick and the princely mansions and roomy bungalows of its merchants and officials PROSPERITY OF HONG KONG. 49 scrambling up the steep sides of the Peak, the high- est point of the island, carrying verdure and shade with them. Damp as its summer is, the average rainfall scarcely exceeds seventy-eight inches, but it is hotter than Singapore in the hot season, though the latter is under eighty miles from the Equator. The causes by which this little island, which pro- duces nothing, has risen into first-rate importance among our colonies are, that Victoria, with its mag- nificent harbor, is a factory for our Chinese com- merce, and offers unrivaled facilities for the mili- tary and naval forces which are necessary for the protection not only of that commerce but of our interests in the far East. It is hardly too much to say that it is the naval and commercial terminus of the Suez Canal. Will it be believed that the amount of British and foreign tonnage annually entering and leaving the port averages two millions of tons ? and that the number of native vessels trading to it is about fifty-two thousand, raising the total ascer- tained tonnage to upward of three millions and a half, or half a million tons in excess of Singapore ? To this must be added thousands of smaller native boats of every build and rig trading to Hong Kong, not only from the Chinese coasts and rivers, but from Siam, Japan, and Cochin China. Besides the " P. and O.," the Messageries Maritimes, the Pacific Mail Company, the Eastern and Australian Mail Company, the Japanese "Mitsu Bichi " Mail Company, etc., all regular mail lines, it has a number 4 5