FEDERATED MALAY STATES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11126, 27 July 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

FEDERATED MALAY STATES.

NEW ZEALAND SURVEYOR'S EXPERIENCES.

Writing from Kuantan on May 4th, Mr J. Mouat continues his interesting nar. rativ'e of life m the Federated Malay States. As I said m last letter that I would sent you further accounts of this new world, I am going to give you a daily description of my trip to Bukit Paloh. Bukit Paloh is a hill about 2000 ft high situated on the boundary between the Federated Malay States and the State of Tungano, one of the Siamese States. It is about 30 miles from Kuantan m a north-westerly direction. In this country one does not measure a trip by the miles travelled, but by the days taken over it. The trip to Bukit Paloh should be done m about ten days. No white man has been there before, and no trig station is as yet erected on it. This is the duty I have to perform. If you follow me with the helpful. aid of imagination, assisted by these. notes, you will obtain a fair idea how work is done m this part of the world. Remember that the whole State is covered with jungle and that the only highways through the country are nature's waterways. We left Kuantan to-day m the houseboat set apart by the Department for my special use, accompanied with four river sampans. The sampans are for the high, er reaches of the river, and come into use after we leave the houseboat. The houseboat is 30ft long, Bft wide, and 2ft 6in deep, decked and roofed over with what we call rajang. Under the. decking we have stored all our equipment and food — food sufficient for six weeks. The total weight of equipment and food runs close to two tons. The iron beacon for the Bukit weights alone 6 cwt., and there is cement, paint, and other tools. There is lOOOlbs of rice for the 20 coolies, to say nothing about my supplies, instruments, and a host of other things. When I look at the load of supplies I wonder how I am going to get it all there. Once on board the 'house boat there is no need to get off from one day's end to the other. All cooking, washing, bathing, and sleeping can be attended to on board. I am writing this on my camp table m the centre of the boat, and three feet from me towards tfie how end six coolies are paddling away ; m the stern, of the boat my Chinese boy is' cooking. Alongside "the cook shop, a coolie is standing with the big broad steer par steering; alongside the steersman, is a crate carryinb my meat — at present m the shape of- a dozen tough and ancient-looking roos. ters. On board there are, all . told, 12 persons, made up of one Britisher, one Chinaman, three Tamils, seven Malays: Eight Malay coolies are bringing along the four sampans. Sunday, May sth. — Yesterday we made our way twelve miles up the river ; it is slow work paddling ; to-day. we are poling our way along, six poles going. It is very pleasant sitting on the roof of the houseboat looking at the scenery, jungle to the water's edge. The river, at yesterday's start, was about ten chains wide ; to-day it has. narrowed down to about three chains wide, with high banks on both sides, miles and miles of jungle, broken here and there with little Malay Kampongs (collections of huts), peeping over the top of the banks. I am _xtremely sorry now that I did not study botany, for then I should be able to describe some of the beautiful plants seen. One I saw and knew, bringing back memories of school days and school books, was the traveller's palm.. It was too far .m off the bank for me to see if I could Obtein water from the leaves, but I will try this on the first handy one. We have just struck a sand-bar, and the houseboat is stuck, all the coolies are m the water trying to shove it oyer. The coolies don't care about plunging into the river, there are too many^crocidiles about to make it pleasant. The crocidiles are very rapid m their movements, and it is very difficult to get a shot at them. I sat on top of the houseboat for nearly two hours watching ahead for a shot, but no luck ; plenty of pigeons kept swoopipg across from bank to bank, but 1 was not after them.

It is very amusing listening lo the coolies grunting to get the houseboat over the sandbar. One grunts m the hope that the others will push, as they are all grunting the houseboat remains stuck. Later, the houseboat is over — I went out and did the grunting; as 1 said, the houseboat is over; some of the coolies are still grunting — sixty cents a day; I wonder what life- looks like from their The' river is twisting about more today; yesterday long curves and straights — seemingly miles long — to-day we never seem to get round the next corner; the hills are closing m too, and jungle all the way. We saw a small hill, close to the river, ahead of us ; this was at about 10 m the morning ; at 3in the afternoon it was still ahead of us although between those hours it was behind four or five times and ahead about the same; at four o'clock it was behind, and I believe now that we will keep aheadof it. It, moving about m that strange fashion, was most annoying. The plotting of the river now at 6.30 p.m. shows that we have been -going m curves and loops all day; several places we could have saved hours of poling if we had carried the houseboat overland. My Chinese boy amused me greatly to-day. at one place on the bank. A troupe of monkeys were scolding each other and having a general review of each other's relations and ancestors back several generations. My boy thought he could act as peacemaker and brought out a banana for them to share, so that peace could- be established and they could live happy, ever afterwards; but' they refused to recognise his overtures; he called and coaxed m several, unknown to. me, languages, but he could not make them understand; disgusted he heaved the banana at them, and the monkeys went off m haste. ' The boy had all the coolies chaffing him. I don't quite know what they said, but it had reference to a tail. By our rough traverse we are 28 miles up river at end of the day. Monday, 6th.— Are you a collector of butterflies, moths, bugs; beetles, my friend? If so, come up here and fill your cases. Butterflies, all colors, large and small. A week spent on this river will, ff a man is active enough, give a collector a choice collection. One has to be active though, because the butterflies don't linger nor dally— they go quickly. And do you like diamonds ? Every night m the darkness, diamonds float through the air ; sorte trees are ablaze with flashes of light from these diamonds — otherwise fireflies. You can't cdllect these diamonds, they lose their lustre just when you reach for them. Late yesterday afternoon we met a white man coming down river ; we knew something was coming down river because we smelt a strangeness m the air. In the bows of the white man's boat was the skull, jaw-bones and tusks of an elephant. The tusks were four feet eight inches long — the record so far for Kuantau. The white man is a big game shooter, and three elephants with four shots m one month is his latest achievement. Four months ago he put eleven shots into an elephant and then did not get him, although he followed the tracks for five days ; none of the shots were put m a vital part, all being flesh wounds. That elephant— of course — is a monster m size; they always are, the ones that get away.

To-day we are poling away, striking logs, gravel banks and sandbars. The coolies usually use twelve foot poles; there are two poles twenty feet long; sometimes we strike sandbars, other times the 20ft poles won't reach the bottom,, such is the variable condition of the river. The gravel beds arc interesting; we were two days travelling over granite, to-day we are on slate, quartz is showing m the gravel; there may be something else if one searched closer. One of the small boats did not arrive at our stopping place till lato last night. I thought they had turned tail and off for Kuan tail, it is not uncommon for a coolie to tliink he has gone far enough and to suddenly disappear; it appears that one of the coolies m the small boat got an attack of fever, and when the boat reached us the coolie was budded up shivering and complaining at the same time of the heat. We dosed him from the medicine chest, and to-day he is all right. This morning he wanted more medicine, so we gave him a couple of tablespoonfuls of caster oil, plus a tablespoonful of Epsoms. We are getting closer to the high hills ; the little hill that we did not seem able to get round yesterday has not appeared to-day. Gunong Tapis, a mountain 4900 feet high, that I have to go to, after finishing Bukit Paloh, is looming up away to the north-west. The river has widened again and is five to ten chains wide m parts, unfortunately it is not water the full width, small islands, gravel beds, logs of trees everywhere ; the gravel bars now appear i four to five to the mile, and so far just

enough water to get over with. We will have to tako to the small boats to-mor-row, and the amount of labor increases suddenly ono hundred per cent; double trips will be the order of the day and plenty of wading. I got nicely sun. burnt to-day . walking up some of the gravel banks. To delay matters we have heavy thunder storms every afternoon from about 3 p.m. onwards; the lightning is glorious m its brilliancy, and the thunder comes with sudden explosions. The thunderstorms are the results of the intense heat together with the tremendous evaporation. The daily wetting of the jungle keeps it vividly green, and some of the scenery beggars description.. Green foliage, brown earth .banks, here and "there brilliant flowers all shades of red ; butterflies, dashing patches of gold, blue, scarlet and black. The birds that flit across the scene are mostly sombre hued; the humming birds add interest to a*n altogether enchanting series of pictfiir€s Tuesday, May 7th.— We are tied up to the bank at the junction of the main stream and a tributary ; finished for the day and are now as far ; up as we. can take the houseboat. To-morrow we take to the boats and make-shift comforts. To-day has been .most trying, the last six hours especially; it is very simple to say we are here, it gives no impresssion -of the hauling of the houseboat over sandbars, gravelbars, and last treat of all, rocky bars— the last one was three hundred yards long— nor of the grime and sweat, of the heat, of coolies—sore m the feet from pulling on gravel, of those coolies with open wounds on their legs, the lasting marks of the affectionate leech, suffering increased by the- continual wetting; of the anger caused by sound coolies deliberately loafing; sore hands, skinned by poling; shoulders sore by shoving, six hours of it; and now the coolies are bathing m the river, playing, laughing and splashing each otherforgotten are the sores of the day. One scene caught my eye m the midst of our toil, a tell dead tree draped^with a creeper ablaze with flowers, scarlet dressing the green; it stood on a tall bluff, a sentinel watching the highway; we passed if as we were m the midst of a wretched struggle amid.rocks. On the bank above is a Malay Kampong, small houses perched on piles, six feet /high above the ground, each house surrounded with cocoanut trees, betel-nut palms, and. other tropical trees and palms, charming scene at a distance, dirty and poverty-looking close to hand. Do you know why they build off the ground? Ants are the, cause primarily, protection secondarily. The betel-nut palm is most -beautiful; tall /slender stems, a feathery tuft at the top* the fruit clustered on the stems. This is the nut that the natives are always; chew, ing, making their- mouth) teeth, lips ahd parts of the. chin scarlet. White teeth are not considered correct, form, with men it is considered effiminate; the children have beautiful teeth. -There are no mosquitoes nor sandflies about to-night, and I will be able/ tor sleep without a net covering me. Wednesday, May Bth.— Up m the unknown now, even the Malay Kampongs are left behind ; the Sakeirs we are now amongst ; , these are the wild men of the woods. We have been poling up-stream all day m the small boats. Even with the equipment, foods, etc., they are light to handle m the rapids; these have been few to-day, not more than one' difficult one per mile; long pools, between narrow banks, trees touching each other overhead, the bamboos ' bending gracefully over to each other. Elephant tracks come down into and across the river, other animals -are "here too, but not visible. I should not like to be caught m this part of the river m a flood, evidences of former ones are existing fifteen to twenty feet above its present level, that must have been during the monsoon period. We. are camped on a spit of sand, high hills all around", dense jungle everywhere, monkeys barking m the distance, fireflies floating through the night —the scene is new and enchanting. My boy does not appreciate the scenery and strangeness, the cooking arrangements are not as comfortable, as m the houseboat; the cooking is not as good either; he tried to persuade me that the hot water he had wrung -an old rooster through was soup (".). Hot water, dip a fowl into it rapidly three or 'four, times. . —the fewer the better— season with salt, pepper and sauce, and serve hot — Chinese idea of soup. If it is not eaten today serve hot again to-morrow. Thursday, May 9th.— Finished' with the small boats now; it was beautiful travelling by shady avenues, deep, silent pools, occasional noisy rapids, stream narrow, trees hanging down into the water, sunshine gleaming overhead, here and there along the banks tracks of where animals had come down during the night to drink. From a tall tree 1 got a glimpse of Gunong Tapis, and it seems we are a little further north than I intended. Bukit Paloh is somewhere to the northeast about eight miles, and we will to-morrow cut a track through the jungle to it. -It is raining now ; the usual thunderstorm started at 3 p.m., but it did not matter .to us, coolies and all are under canvas. As soon as the rain stops the coolies are going to hunt for fish. Some of the trees here are flowering with fruits 'growing ripe on them at the same time. Elephant tracks are plentiful, we are camped on top of some. The affectionate leech and^inquisitivie ant are here, m great numbers. I don't like leeches; they are so quiet, one climbs up the leg, lodges inside the first qpening m the clothes it can find and remains there unfound till one undresses* : Splendidly large they are then, beautifully plump; they leave wretched sores though/ that don't heal for months. The coolies' will have a bad time with them tb'-mor-. row. We heard a couple of cats calling last night, pleasant sound through the darkness. Six days we have been on the river and have averaged ten miles' per day ; it is the twisting and turning of the river that makes the distance; we would have been twice — perhaps three times — as long going overland with all the equipment, stores, etc. Quartz was plentiful m the bed of the river everywhere to-day ,_ nothing m it though. >Friday, May 10th. — Have been out m the jungle all day cutting a track towards the Bukit, and the end of the track is three miles from the Bukit, and the Bukit is visible from that point. It is simple enough to find a hill if you ; have seen it from other points, the diffi- j culty comes m going through the jungle ; especially if through undulating country, where it is difficult to -find a point from where one can get a glimpse around. .; Twice we climbed tall trees to get a look, but could see only miles of jungle. We cut six miles of track before we could get a point to see on ahead from. It is a pity we are* not hunting for game, elephant and sladang tracks everywhere. ' We followed along — as it was running m the right direction— an elephant track for two miles. The tracks they make are great; padded hard with* the ponderous feet, all small trees broken off and eaten, and they generally follow the easiest way across country. One thing to remember about wild game hunting is that you must hunt if you desire to obtain j trophies of the chase; they don't usually I hunt a- man; you may meet them occa- ; sionally by accident. Sladang are worse than elephants to meet, because . they charge at sight. A man is called a game hunter when he has got his sladang. Leeches were a terrible nuisance to-day. I have five holes m me, three on one leg, one on the other, one hole alongside the collarbone where- one fell inside my singlet. The coolies were pulling them off their legs all day. Two lots of flying red ants we came across to-day, the coolies don't wait when they see these pests, they clear at once ; they bite , fearfully. Five coolies down 'with -fever, two developed fever last night, three on the track to-day ; that is the beauty of the laborers here, you don't know how many may be down with fever or beri beri the next day. However, I have dosed them all from tho medicine che&t, and will trust to luck to have enough sound coolies to take me on to the Bukit. The coolie that I dosed on the houseboat has not complained since. My Chinese boy is not at all pleased with the treat m store for him the next two days; he knows what leeches are. Saturday, May 18. — It is eight days since I penned the last record, since then times have not been pleasant. I have been camped on the top of the Bukit now three days. Part of my food supplies and clothing are on the track j somewhere. Out of twenty coolies I j started with seven are here.* Two got ? dysentery and I had to send them down j river; one pretended sickness for six days and I fired him down river ; two ; guard niy supplies with the small boats ; three have sore^ feet, the result of thorns \ picked up on the track ; the rest are loitering along somewhere on the track. Four of these last I haven't seen for some days, and they may have cleared out. The native labor here is acknowledged to be the worst m the world, but it is very pleasant on top of this hill. The felling is going on splendidly, and m a day or so I shall be able to start my labors, and when these observations are finished I shall not care for past

' difficulties. Ono difficulty is past repairing, and that is, it takes two coolies five hours to bring water for cooking purposes up on to the hill. Three old friends greeted me on top of this hill. I was greatly surprised to find them here m the midst of this tro- ! pical vegetation — the punga, our useful tree fern; the rimu is another; and the , other is the fern that has cost N.Z. farmers many hundreds of pounds to crush out. I suppose a botanist could tell if these plants are common the world over ! I only find them here on hills over 2000 feet high. Are seeds brought here by migrating birds? I have as yet not recognised any southern hemisphere birds here. Snipe from Siberia are very plentiful during November through to April m the paddy fields around Kuantau. ... ■ Our beacon, when erected on the top of this hill, will have two legs m one kingdom, two others m another kingdom. The north side of the hill is under Siamese jurisdiction, the south under British. We are on the' north boundary of the State of Pahang, not the most northerly point though, other hills and mountains— sooo to 7000 feet high— to the northwest mark the boundary. Next year I shall (have the pleasure of putting a beacon on Gunong Susu, a < splendid mountain twenty odd miles north-west from here. Susu will take some weeks to reach. This year this beacon is the last I have, to put vp — it makes the ninth cleared and Deaconed by me m six months, and the net work- of triangles cover a country fifty miles by thirty:five. From now till the monsoon weather arrives,, that is November, I shall be. taking observations, all over Pahang. Trigsurveyors are doing the same class of work, and here and there on the ranges to the west and south-west I get glimpses of hills covered, felling going on, a beacon here, a beacon there, all part of the general scheme. These beacons are situate from each other at distances ranging from fifteen to thirty-five miles; The instruments supplied are .equal, to the work. > 'i. Sunday, May 19th.— We don't • have Sundays up here. There are no churches m Kuantau. The ten commandments don't exist m the East. The Malays are alleged to be Mohammedans; one has to be told it to know though, no religious observances point it out. A strange. lot of sanitary observances— which are really unsanitary — may cause one -,to question their Oritin, but no evidence of religiousnessy and we work on Sunday ( ?) just as usual. To-day we had a splendid thunderstorm, we have them usually every day, hear or distant. The one to-day played about on top of the hill m and out tbe camp. .No accidents resulted ; best of all we got' a supply of fresh water, and I had my first bath m four days. Yout— who have plenty of water 1 — don't realise the pleasure of that-bath. Four days m the sweltering heat on top of a hill, soaked with perspiration half an hour after daylight, and like that more or less all day, sometimes all night, and then to have' a bath m cool rain water. There is no rose without a thorn though, and to-morrow — as- my coolies got wet to-day — four or more men may be lying down burning with fever. My boy had a bath too, dancing about m the rain, less than semi-nude. He washed his clothes too; it didn't take him long, as he has only one suit with him, but he will look celestial to-morrow when he combs his queue out. He has not been happy these last four days ; those ancient "and tough roosters are down on- the track somewhere, goodness, knows when they will arrive, and he has been ' feeding me out of the tinned , supplies. As the labels are rubbed off, washed off, and (generally undecipherable, you can picture his disgust when he has opened three and four tins. running m search of meat to find they all contain fruit. He talks a •pidgin Malay cum. Chinese, mostly the latter. I ; talk Malay after his fashion, -cum English. Our conversations must be curious to listen too. We get on well together — except sometimes — and then our languages are mixed. Tuesday,' May 21st.- : -Sounds m the night. Three nights running has our sleep been disturbed. It is most curious how even m deep sleep one becomes conscious of disturbing influences. One wakes gradually — wondering why — and listens, and then gradually the cause dawns on one : Light crunching of dead leaves now and then; one listens for a stir among the coolies, but- not a movement. A match and light the' lamp, and things seem more real. With the light going m my tent, the coolies move, and more wood is put on their fires. Each coolie sleeps with his parong (bush knife) on him. Significant isn't it. In the morning the coolies point but the footmarks of a tiger. It is the food that attracts. The tigers ' here are not supposed to be maneaters, but they are certainly inquisitive. Panthers and polecats don't count. Three nights running and perhaps to-night; Why can't they leave alone a white man m a black man's country. ir, •is good to wake m the morning and hear the monkeys — especially the little wa-wangs — calling across the tree-tops. No snakes as yet on this hill.- On one hill we killed seven— all tree snakes, beautifully marked and colored, all colored to match their environment. The beautiful green'snake, deadly-poisonous, curled among the leaves. W 7 alk over felled bushi suddenly one' becomes conscious that that is not a vine, there is a-move-meiit, a slight adjustment; one looks twice and thrice, touch it with your stick and out comes the triangular-shap-ed head. You don't wait — hit it with your stick, one well-placed blow is enough. First hit wins is the law m the jungle. They don't interfere with a human being unless he first interferes with it, or if you don't give them the right-of-way. I was told by one who knows that only the ones with triangular shaped heads are poisonous.' I don't diff erentiate; there :is no time when a snake moves. I experimented with a two-foot snake to see how far he could strike. Twice running he could strike the length of his body. I used an eightfoot stick m the experiment. The longest snake I have seen so far was between five and six feet long. In the museum at Singapore is a boa constrictor obtained from this -State, it js somewhere about twenty-six feet long and twelve inches m circumference; it is stretched out along the cornice of one of the rooms ; brown j m color, it looks like a huge bush vine. !.-' My boy is happy to-night; those roosters arrived on the hill to-day. No more tinned meat; chicken broth to-night for dinner; a chop (boned hind leg of a rooi ster) to follow ; third course will be spring chicken, fourth rice pudding (no eggs though). The boy understands "Shanghai pheasant," he doesn't understand "Oxford brawn/ does not know : why it should look so stringy. He can 1 give quite a variety of dishes from one ancient and delapidated rooster— rissoles, fricasse with green peas, chops, the wings boned and stuffed with onions, and several more besides if you shut your eyes tight and believe him. The hill being sufficiently cleared, the instrument was put up and for the next week I shall be hard at work. j May 23. — The bush-felling is almost I done, a little trimming here and there to do. The top of the hill has been virtually scalped. Every stick that would hide the view anywhere round the circle is down ; no half measures m tnis work. The coolies are supplied with two classes of axes for this work, the Canadian felling axe and the Malay axe or bliong, as it is called. The coolies prefer the bliongs — no handles are supplied with the bliongsy because every sapling m the jungle will supply this want. A coolie . selects a sapling about two inches thick — one with plenty of small branches — about half an inch thick — springing from it. About three feet of tne small branch, together with about four inches of tho stem, when* shaped, forms the handle for the bliong. The bliong is tied on with rattan. The bliong is of iron and shaped like a chisel, weighs about two pounds, the edge is nearly two inches wide. The Malays are wonderfully adept with them, they scarf a tree just as a white man does, and enjoy getting a drive going. It is pleasant whilst working away at the observations to hear away down the hill-side, the tap tap of the axes going for hours, not a tree falling; all the time the cutting approaching nearer and nearer to the top of the hill. At last -when all is ready and all the coolies are out of harm's way, they let fall a big tree at the top of the hill on to the trees below, a halt—then crashing and rending and then all the jungle seems to just crumble down hill. The Malays are not as brave as a white man when it comes to going m to cut down a "hung-up" tree, and my lot of coolies are adepts at hanging up a tree ; m consequence my best bushman is going round with his head bandaged up. Just a slight trouble of the tree hewas manipulating, and down came a broken bough on to the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. Blood seemed to be everywhere; the other coolies knocked off for a couple of hours, some holding his hands — others his head — all sympathising. I sent out for ten more coolies to fill up my party ; what with fever, thorns, I and dysentery I am fearfully short- i

handed. I haven't got the iron for the beacon on to tho hill yet, and with my lot of cripples not likely to for weeks. The beacon, with cement and paint, makes twonty coolie loads; each coolie carries his rice as well. It is no good putting up wooden beacons, the .ants would have them down before twelve months are over. These beacons run sixteen feet high, are ten feet square at base, and when painted black and white are visible up to forty miles, further with the sun glinting off the white. May 30th. — Back m the houseboat again, work went with a run this last week, ten . new coolies came marching into camp with the beacon at the beginning of the week, and what with clear atmosphere and early rising and late working my duties soon were fulfilled.. The coolies got well with the prospects of work ending, and the assistance of new coolies. They will carry twice as heavy a load when leaving a hill than when going to a hill. We made short work of the journey back to the small boats,' the trip down to the houseboat was too short; the rapids we struggled up against were merely a catch of the breath, a little splashing; and then a look ahead for the next one.