Poelo-Penang, _The Isle of the areca-nut_, separated by a narrow strait
from the Malay Peninsula, was ceded to England in 1785 by the Rajah of
Kedah, from whom the present Sultan of Johore is lineally descended.
The little territory, chiefly consisting of a mountain covered with
palm-forests, was then almost uninhabited, but the strategetic
importance of the position resulted in the establishment of an English
Presidency, until the phenomenal growth of Singapore made it the
eventual centre of local authority. "Sinhapura," "the City of Lions"
(or, more accurately, of tigers), founded by the Hinduized Malays, and
developed by Sir Stamford Raffles into the principal trading port of
the Eastern seas, of necessity drew off from Penang a large contingent
of the polyglot races which flocked thither from all parts, when the
British flag first waved above the newly-built fort, but at least
100,000 inhabitants still occupy the verdant island, where the graceful
areca palm attains unexampled perfection. Penang was merely regarded
as an unimportant appendage of ancient Malacca, captured in 1311 by
Albuquerque, and though the territory of the principal Sultan underwent
innumerable vicissitudes through the changing fortunes of war, the
royal line retained Johore at the foot of the Peninsula, up to the
present day, the last scion of the old-world dynasty now accepting the
suzerainty of England.
A tribe of Klings (the Malay corruption of the word Telinga), sailing
from the Coromandel coast, were the first immigrants under British
rule. The half-breed Indian Malays, or _Jawi-Pekan_, followed, and the
Chinese, finding a new outlet for their commercial genius, soon secured
a firm footing on the fairy isle, a cone of emerald set in a sapphire
sea. As the rickshaw wheels away from the noisy wharves of busy
Georgetown into green aisles of areca and cocoanut, the spice-laden
breeze blowing from the heights, and mingled with the breath of a
thousand flowers, suggests Penang as "the mountain of myrrh, and hill
of frankincense," described in the Canticle of Canticles. Present
surroundings atone for the lack of life's amenities in the Dutch
dependencies. The ripple of the sea, and the rustle of swaying palms,
just stir the silence of the wave-washed terrace above the glassy
straits. The gloomy blue of the Kedah mountains on the peninsula of
Malacca, with black thunderclouds gathering round their serrated
crests, heightens the brilliant loveliness of immediate surroundings,
steeped in the ruby glow of the magical evening. Every road is an
over-arching avenue of gorgeous foliage--dark tunnels of interwoven
cocoa-palms, huge Amherstias alight as with lamps of fiery orange,
tremulous tamarinds, and, more wonderful than all, a wide highway
roofed by a continuous aisle of ansena-trees, the golden canopy of
blossom overhead rivalled by the thick carpet of yellow petals, which
deadens every sound, for the prodigal bounty of tropical Nature quickly
replaces the loss of falling flowers. Exquisite lanes, smothered in
glorious vegetation, surround the picturesque Racecourse, that
_sine-qûa-non_ of English occupation. Stately emperor palms, kitools
with crimped green tresses, fan and oil palms, with the slender areca
in countless thousands, vary the shadowy vistas branching out in every
direction, with huge-leaved creepers and glossy rattans garlanding the
gnarled trunks of forest-trees. The sculptured outlines of the splendid
traveller's palm adorn the green lawns of European bungalows, embowered
in torrents of trailing creepers, the scale of colour descending from
white and pink to royal purple and burning crimson. Snowy arums and
golden lilies choke the brooks, overflowing from the constant showers
combining with a vertical sun to foster the wealth of greenery, the
incandescent scarlet and yellow of hybiscus and allemanda glowing with
the transparent depth of hue, beside which the fragile fairness of
European flowers, is but a spectral reflection of those colour-drenched
blossoms fused into jewelled lustre by the solar fires. Night drops her
black curtain suddenly, with no intervening veil of twilight to temper
Earth's plunge into darkness. Great stars hang low in the sombre sky,
and the open interiors of Malay huts, aglow with lamp or torchlight,
produce Rembrandtesque effects, revealing brown inmates cooking or
eating their "evening rice."
Georgetown, loyally named by British pioneers after a monarch eminently
incongruous with any ideas belonging to a tropical fairyland, possesses
neither architectural beauty nor salient character; wooden warehouses,
Malay shanties, and white-washed streets being merely attractive from
the ever-changing scheme of colour painted by varieties of race and
costume. Tamils of ebon blackness drive picturesque teams of humped
white oxen in red waggons laden with purple sugar-cane. Noble-looking
Sikhs, in spotless linen, stride past with kingly gait. Brown Siamese,
in many-coloured scarves and turbans gleaming with gold thread, chaffer
and bargain at open stalls with blue-robed Chinamen, and the bronze
figures of slim Malays, brightened by mere wisps of orange and scarlet
added to Nature's durable suit, slip through the crowds, pausing before
an emporium of polished brass-work, or a bamboo stall of teak wood
carving. The sloping black mitre of a stout Parsee merchant,
accompanied by a pretty daughter in white head-band and floating _sari_
of cherry-coloured silk, varies the motley headgear of turban and fez,
straw hat and sun-helmet, worn by this cosmopolitan population, the
pink headkerchiefs, tinselled scarves, and jewelled buttons of the
beautiful Burmese dress, drawing attention to the energetic bargaining
of two astute customers for cooking utensils; these elegantly-attired
but mahogany-coloured dames, rivalling the Sumatran women in business
capacity, and equally determined on securing the _quid pro quo_. The
long esplanade between town and sea borders a series of green lawns,
where carriages draw up round a bandstand, and the youthful element of
European Penang plays tennis with laudable zeal in the atmosphere of a
stove-house. Chinese and Malay boyhood look on, and listen to the
regimental music. The pallid English occupants of the carriages, in
spite of diaphanous muslins and fluttering fans, appear too limp and
wilted to bestow more than a languid attention to their surroundings,
until the sea-breeze, springing up as the sun declines, revives their
flagging spirits. The smartest turnout and the finest horses generally
belong to John Chinaman, got up in irreproachable English costume, with
his pigtail showing beneath a straw hat, though considerably
attenuated, and lacking those adornments of silken braid and red
tassels, generally plaited into the imposing queue of the orthodox
Celestial. The indefatigable Chinese, frequently arriving on an alien
shore without a dollar in their pockets, continually prove potential
millionaires. Immune from climatic diseases, working early and late,
tolerant and unaggressive, the iron hand in the velvet glove
disentangles and grasps the threads of the most complicated commercial
enterprise, for the idle Malay, "the gentleman of the East," here as
elsewhere, cares for little beyond the sport of hunting and
fish-spearing, which satisfies the personal necessities of his indolent
existence. The wonderful solidarity of domestic life is an important
factor in the Chinese career, for centuries of ancestor-worship, in
spite of their arrestive tendency, have strengthened the bonds of
family union and filial obedience by insisting on the supreme sanctity
of blood-relationship.
The luxuriant Botanical Garden, situated in a green cleft of an angle
formed by encircling hills, is a paradise of dreamland, though but a
miniature when compared with Buitenzorg for extent and variety. In the
restful charm of the Penang garden Art and Nature go hand in hand,
giving it an unique character among the horticultural pleasaunces of
the Eastern world. The rolling lawns of the exquisite valley, the song
of the waterfall which bounds the view as it leaps down the lofty
cliffs, the abundant shade of tamarind and palm, and the gorgeous
flowering shrubs, suggest nothing artificial or conventionalised in the
deep seclusion of the fairy glen. Tall bamboos mirror fluffy foliage
and white or golden stems in stream and pool. Orchids of the Brazils
festoon unknown trees with the rose and purple butterflies formed by
their brilliant blossoms, and colossal traveller's palms, so-called
from the draught of water obtained by incision of the stem, stud the
glades with stiffly-fluted fans. Lilac thunbergia wreaths over-arching
boughs, and passion-flower flings white and crimson garlands over turf
flushed with the pink blossoms of the sensitive plant. Gold mohur and
red poinsettia blaze with fiery splendour, and huge crotons, with
velvety leaves of pink, violet, and chocolate, grow to the height of
forest trees. The tangle of brilliant flowers, systematically arranged
by the concealed art of the Eastern horticulturist, shows many weird
botanical forms. Green spears, bristling on mossy banks, are starred
with crimson and barred with orange. Wine-coloured cacti twist
blue-green spikes and stems in grotesque contortions, and topaz or
ruby-tinted calladiums flame in thickets of hot colour outside cool
green dells, filled by a forest of tropical ferns, mosses, and
creepers. Lack of botanical knowledge constitutes a sore disadvantage
in this treasury of floral beauty, but happily we may "consider the
lilies," without cataloguing them, in this garden, "beautiful for
situation," and worthy to be a "joy of the whole earth." The sombre
jungle on the mountain side supplies the atmosphere of mystery which
enhances the ideal peace of the cloistered Paradise, wrapt in the
embrace of the haunted hills, and numbered among those visions of an
earlier Eden, only realised in the Asiatic birthplace of Humanity which
contained the typical Garden of the World, Divinely planted, where the
Voice from Heaven deepened the music of whispering leaves and sighing
breeze.
A purple-red pat--for even the jasper-tinted tropical soil is
beautiful, climbs through the glorious woods to the chief Sanatorium of
the Malay Peninsula. A free fight among the coolies before starting
demands a lengthy exercise of that stolidity with which the Western
pilgrim must invest himself, as the invulnerable armour needed by the
conflict of daily life. As a mere matter of personal convenience, this
quality bears scant resemblance to the weapons enumerated by S. Paul in
the Christian panoply. The oppressive heat, the futility of argument in
an almost unknown tongue, and the general uncertainty of the subject in
dispute, gradually producing this spurious virtue as the external
decoration of sorely-exasperated souls. The exertion of the long ascent
in the steaming heat requires six coolies for every chair. The red road
mounts through enchanting vistas of palms and creepers, on the edge of
the dark jungle, each turning point bringing a whiff of cooler air, as
the evening gold flickers through the velvety fronds of tree-ferns, and
the green feathers of spreading bamboos. From the white hotel near the
summit, the blue Straits and the flats of Province Wellesley, the
English portion of the Malay Peninsula, stand out against the frowning
ridge of mountains, for black thunder-clouds continually brood over
Malacca. Monkeys caper and chatter in the teak-trees bordering a
circular terrace, and an ideal sylvan path leads to the Signal Station,
Hospital, and Post Office, on an opposite height, dotted with the
bungalows of summer visitors. A palm-shaded plateau beneath the hotel
offers an ideal resting-place, but the impenetrable jungle covering the
Penang Hills makes expeditions on foot or by chair, impracticable, and
the wild deluges of rain, with terrific thunder peals bursting in
uncontrolled fury on this exposed peak, minimise the delights of a
mountain sojourn. The invasion of an army of jungle rats, behind the
walls and above the ceiling of a room sodden and dripping with the
afternoon's flood, completes the disillusion, and compels a hasty
descent to the warmer damp of the lowlands, for the Equatorial climate,
and the general absence of bed-coverings, causes a rheumatic stiffness
on rising, which has to be steamed out by the atmospheric vapour-bath
of the tropical island. A long rickshaw ride to Tanjong Bungah
("Flowery Point") completes the day's cure in a sweltering heat, which
on the return journey at 8 a.m. causes even the Chinese coolies to stop
perpetually at wayside stalls, for the coloured syrups and sticky
sweetmeats on which they perform prodigies of endurance and speed. An
English planter, in his solitary cacao-garden on the edge of the sea,
hails his compatriots with delight, and leads the way through the rocky
ravines bordering his solitary bungalow. The glories of the tropics
seldom alleviate the sense of exile, and cloudy England, with her
"green fields and pastures dim," remains dearer than all the pageantry
of Nature elsewhere to most of her absent sons.
The Buddhist temple of Ayer-Etam, built in ascending tiers on a steep
acclivity, varies the natural interests of Penang, with the marvels of
Chinese architecture elaborated in the deep seclusion of mountain and
forest. The dewy areca-palms throw a dark network of interlacing
shadows across the red road, winding for miles through the sylvan
scenery, the alchemy of the rising sun transmuting the myriad feathery
fronds into fountains of green fire. Only the creaking of a
bullock-waggon, or the thud of a falling cocoanut, breaks the hush of
the tropical daybreak, when the leaves only whisper in their dreams,
and the vernal earth, fresh as from her Creator's hand, renews her
strength for the heat and burden of the coming day. The colossal pile,
consisting of temple, monastery, and innumerable shrines, amid
fountains and fish-ponds, bridges and balconies, courts and terraces,
gleams whitely against the green gloom of the vast palm-forest on
either side, sloping sharply to the shimmering sea. The usual appalling
images of vermilion and gold guard every sculptured gateway, and
surmount the painted shrines encircled by parterres of votive flowers,
for the philosophic Buddhism of Ceylon and Siam gathers the moss and
weeds of many an incongruous accretion in countless ages of pilgrimage
through the Eastern world. The transcendental mysticism which spun the
finest cobwebs of human thought, crystallises into concrete form when
interpreted in the terms of China, where dim reminiscences of early
Nature worship, and the terrors which upheld the authority of many
obsolete creeds, have been incorporated into the vague ideals of Prince
Gautama's prophetic soul. Altars, strewn with fragrant champak-flowers,
stand beneath lace-carved alcoves of black teakwood, on the broad
plateaux which form welcome resting-places beside each flight of steps
on the marble stairway, the gilded pinnacles and aerial spires of the
white temple sparkling against the sea of rich foliage. A knot of
Burmese worshippers, with rose-coloured scarves and turbans, throw
their infinitesimal coins on the palm-leaf mats of a red-roofed shrine,
and tell the wooden beads of the Buddhist rosary, chanting the
perpetual refrain of "_Pain_, _Sorrow_, _Unreality_," as a warning
against the temptations of _Maya_, the world of illusion. The brown
faces raised imploringly to the presiding deity, a leering demon with
green face and yellow body, inspire the hope that the grotesque monster
may prove his own unreality by vanishing from the hearts of his
devotees into the limbo of nightmares from which he has emerged, for
the philosophic quietism of Buddhist creed offers no disguise to the
horrors of a hell far surpassing the terrific literalism of Dante's
Inferno. Rippling conduits edge pillared courts and cloistered arcades,
resplendent with frieze and cornice of blue and scarlet, a central
fountain falling in prismatic showers over a sacred pond of golden
carp. A white-robed monk smilingly conducts us across hump-backed
bridges and colonnaded galleries to a bench beneath a grey frangipanni
tree, starred with fragrant flowers, and brings welcome cups of tea,
before another struggle up the interminable steps, which symbolise the
mystic "path" leading to Nirvana's rest. Further hospitality meets us
at a yellow kiosk, higher up the sacred hill, where a dainty breakfast
of eggs, cakes, and honey stands on a white table-cloth, bearing a
steaming coffee-pot. The temple paraphernalia of Buddhist worship
strangely resembles Catholic imagery. Incense rises from open censers
on the dais, the blue cloud enveloping a gorgeous altar, encrusted with
gold. The central figure of Gautama Buddha, on the lotus leaf
expresses supernal calm, and the symbolic flower, in bud, blossom, or
foliage, forms the prevailing design of vase and amphora, within golden
lattice-work. Hanging lamps glow on rapt faces of attendant saints, or
on those supplementary local Buddhas which Chinese doctrine adds to the
comparative simplicity of the original system. The foreshadowing of
Christian truth culminates in the fact stated by a Buddhist priest,
that bread and wine of mystic meaning are reserved on the altars of
many among the forty subdivisions of Buddhism. The mountain Sanctuary,
though marred by debased decoration and heathenised by the lurid
figures of the guardian demons, inspires a reverent devotion, and
exercises a solemnising influence on many souls whose faith differs
from that of the white-clad monks, who seek to scale the dim heights of
perfection from this lofty peak. "The Light which lighteth every man"
must needs throw a faint and far-off ray even on an erroneous creed,
groping through the darkness for the outstretched Hands which embrace
all Humanity with boundless Love.
Penang, as a little field of missionary enterprise, possesses many
privileges often denied to the further islands of Malaysia. The variety
of immigrant races, the constant intercourse with the Indian mainland,
and the needs of travellers belonging to every nation, keep the
settlement in touch with a multitude of spiritual needs. Christianity,
both in Anglican and Roman guise, sows diligently in fields gradually
whitening to harvest. The English Church, with reverent services and
kindly priest, remains a little centre of cherished associations. The
S. Francis Xavier Institute, which brings many Chinese boys into the
Christian fold, through the labours of another Communion, carries on
the work of the great mediæval missionary, who reached the farthest
East in his apostolate of love. The scarlet, yellow, and white veils of
Eastern converts, the crowd of Eurasian Christians in both churches,
and the presence of a devout Malay priest assisting at the English
service, add unfamiliar notes of colour among the snowy muslins and
flower-decked hats of English residents, but correctness of costume,
both in men and women, contrasts refreshingly with the slovenly
déshabille of the Netherlands India, the last and easily-snapped link
between civilisation and barbarism.
An opportunity occurs for a visit to Taiping, the capital of the Native
Federated States, and situated in Province Wellesley. The launch
crosses to Prai, the rising port of Malacca, and the northern terminus
of the railway, sure to upset the passenger lists of the great steamers
by traversing the entire peninsula to Johore. Through a channel
bordered with weird mangroves, the boat enters a long, slow river,
flowing between boundless palm-forests. The "black but comely" captain
of the snorting boat escorts his European passengers to the station,
arranges tickets, and waits on the platform till the train starts; the
portly sailor in spotless linen, surmounted by his genial ebony face,
waving encouragement as long as we remain in sight. The perils and
dangers of the way are _nil_, and none of the threatened contingencies
arise, but to Eastern thought risks, however remote and improbable, add
to the value of a journey. Real drawbacks seem seldom mentioned, but
imaginary lions in the way offer unlimited scope to Oriental fancy, and
help to create a thrilling drama of destruction. Green paddi-fields,
tall sugar-canes, and a world of palms, rise from the alluvial flats of
Province Wellesley. The great rubber plantations, which form the chief
source of wealth in Malacca, follow in endless succession, but, as
usual, the astute Chinaman has obtained almost a monopoly of the
industry, from which the greatest fortunes of the tropics are now
derived. The bushy trees, with their black stems and ragged foliage,
are destitute of the beauty so lavishly bestowed even on the weeds of
this fertile soil. The tangled splendour of the wild jungle, which
presently borders the track, demonstrates the immense difficulty of
pioneering in a tropical forest, where the interlacing boughs of the
myriad trees, with their impenetrable screen of climbing parasites,
make perpetual walls of living green, defying human progress. Malay
villages, brown and palm-thatched in the immemorial style, stand on
piles above the swampy ground, which seems the approved site of
habitation. A barren district devastated by a forest fire, contains the
disused pits of ancient tin-mines, but these unsightly hollows have
been decorated by Nature's hand with a luxuriant growth of the frilled
pink lotus. Malay children, themselves unadorned, stand on wayside
platforms, every brown hand filled with the rosy chalices of the sacred
Buddhist emblem. Tradition says that the blossom, drawn up from the
mire by the rays of the morning sun, symbolised the earth-stained soul,
made pure and stainless by the attraction of that Divine Glory which
Buddhism, though in distorted form, strove to attain.
At the end of the sixty-mile journey, the English station-master at
Taiping proved a veritable friend in need, arranging for a hot
breakfast at the station, chartering rickshaw coolies, and--greatest
blessing of all--directing the route, with a menacing pantomime
concerning any shirking of duty, which saved all further trouble.
Taiping is in an early stage of progress, and the open _tokos_ in
waringen-shaded streets, show nothing but the necessaries of life, with
terrible mementos of Birmingham in petroleum lamps, hideous oleographs,
and machine-made household goods. Pretty bungalows stand beyond the
interlacing avenues of dusky trees, and a framework toy of a church in
the green outskirts, contains numerous brass tablets recording English
lives laid down in this weary land. These pathetic memorials seem the
only permanent features of the frail edifice in the shadowy God's-acre
already filled with graves. The newly-planted park, with a lake fringed
by a vivid growth of allemanda and hybiscus, stands below the purple
heights of a long mountain chain, but Taiping offers few inducements to
a prolonged stay, and after a hurried glimpse of terrific beasts and
snakes of the jungle, preserved in the local museum, we return to the
station, the kindly chef-de-gare disturbing his wife from her siesta in
the adjacent bungalow, to feast us on tea and bananas. Darkness falls
before the train reaches Penang, but a Chinese gentleman acts as pilot
across some rocking boats, with only a faint flare from expiring
torches to light the way, and starts the cringing coolies, with true
politeness to the "foreign devils," but manifest wonder at their
eccentric customs. Chinese womanhood, painted, bedizened, and tottering
on the pink and gold hoofs which cause a sickening shudder to the
Western spectator, indicates the barrier of prejudice to be surmounted
before China can mould national ideals into harmony with modern
progress.
The vicinity of Penang to the Equatorial junction of the maritime
world, widens local interests by the development of the Malay
Peninsula, partly governed through the instrumentality of native
Sultans under English guidance, but the abiding charm of the island
lies beyond the radius of the thriving port. Nature still reigns
supreme in this jewel of the Equator, where the amber swathes of Indian
laburnum, the golden-hearted whiteness of luscious frangipanni blossom,
and the red fire of the flamboyant tree, light up the endless aisles of
swaying palms, where temple-flower and tuberose mingle their fragrance
with the breath of clove and cinnamon, interpreting the imagery of the
Eastern monarch's bridal song, and luring each lover of Earth's
manifold beauty to "go down into her garden of spices and gather
lilies."