Malacca Mediaevalism--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
STADTHAUS, MALACCA, January 23.
Malacca fascinates me more and more daily. There is, among other
things, a mediaevalism about it. The noise of the modern world reaches
it only in the faintest echoes; its sleep is almost dreamless, its
sensations seem to come out of books read in childhood. Thus, the
splendid corpse of a royal tiger has been brought in in a bullock-cart,
the driver claiming the reward of fifteen dollars, and its claws were
given to me. It was trapped only six miles off, and its beautiful
feline body had not had time to stiffen. Even when dead, with its
fierce head and cruel paws hanging over the end of the cart, it was not
an object to be disrespected. The same reward is offered for a
rhinoceros, five dollars for a crocodile (alligator?) and five dollars
for a boa-constrictor or python. Lately, at five in the morning, a
black tiger (panther?) came down the principal street of Malacca, tore
a Chinamen in pieces, and then, scared by a posse of police in pursuit,
jumped through a window into a house. Every door in the city was
barred, as the rumor spread like wildfire. The policemen very boldly
entered the house, but the animal pinned the Malay corporal to the
wall. The second policeman, a white man, alas! ran away. The third, a
Malay, at the risk of his life, went close up to the tiger, shot him,
and beat him over the head with the butt of his rifle, which made the
beast let go the corporal and turn on him, but fortunately he had
scarcely got hold of him when he fell dead. The corporal is just coming
out of hospital, almost completely paralyzed, to be taken care of for
the rest of his life, and the man who rescued him has got promotion and
a pension. A short time ago a fine young tiger was brought alive to
Captain Shaw, and he ordered a proper cage to be made, in which to send
him to England, telling Babu, the "double Hadji," to put it into the
"godown" in its bamboo cage; but the man put it into the kitchen, and
in the morning the cage was found broken into pieces, the kitchen
shutters torn down, and the tiger gone! There was a complete panic in
Malacca; people kept their houses shut, and did not dare to go out even
on business, and not only was the whole police force turned out in
pursuit, but the English garrison. It was some days before the scare
subsided and the people believed that the beast had escaped to its
natural home in the jungle.
A tropical thunderstorm of the most violent kind occurred yesterday,
when I was quite alone in the Stadthaus. The rain fell in sheets,
deluges, streams, and the lightning flashed perfectly blue through a
"darkness which could be felt." There is a sort of grandeur about this
old Dutch Stadthaus, with its tale of two centuries. Its smooth lawns,
sloping steeply to the sea, are now brilliant with the gaudy
parrot-like blossoms of the "flame of the forest," the gorgeous
Poinciana regia, with which they are studded. Malacca is such a rest
after the crowds of Japan and the noisy hurry of China! Its endless
afternoon remains unbroken except by the dreamy, colored, slow-moving
Malay life which passes below the hill. There is never any hurry or
noise.
So had I written without prescience! The night of the awful silence
which succeeded the thunderstorm was also the eve of the Chinese New
Year, and Captain Shaw gave permission for "fireworks" from 7 P.M. till
midnight. The term "fireworks" received a most liberal construction.
The noise was something awful, and as it came into the lonely
Stadthaus, and red, blue, crimson, and greenish-yellow glares at short
intervals lighted up the picturesque Malacca steam and its blue and
yellow houses, with their steep red-tiled roofs and balconies and
quaint projections, and the streets were traced in fire and smoke,
while crackers, squibs, and rockets went off in hundreds, and cannon,
petards, and gingalls were fired incessantly, and gongs, drums, and
tom-toms were beaten, the sights, and the ceaseless, tremendous,
universal din made a rehearsal of the final assault on a city in old
days. At 1 A.M., every house being decorated and illuminated, the
Chinese men began to make their New Year's calls, and at six the din
began again. After breakfast the Governor drove out in state to visit
the leading Chinese merchants, with whom he is on terms of the most
cordial amity, and at each house was offered two dishes of cakes,
twelve dishes of candied and preserved fruits, mandarin tea (the price
of this luxury is from 25s. to 45s. a pound), and champagne from the
finest Rhenish vineyards! At eleven all the Chinese children came forth
in carriages shaped like boats, turned up at both ends, painted red and
yellow, and with white-fringed canopies over them. These were drawn by
servants, and in the case of the wealthy, a train of servants
accompanied each carriage. It was a sight worthy of a fabled age. The
wealth of the East in all its gorgeousness was poured out upon these
dignified and solemn infants, who wore coronals of gold and diamonds,
stuffs of cloth of gold brocade, and satin sewn with pearls, and whose
cloth-of-gold shoes flashed with diamonds!
During the morning four children of a rich Chinese merchant, attended
by a train of Chinese and Malay servants, came to see Mrs. Shaw. There
were a boy and girl of five and six years old, and two younger
children. A literal description of their appearance reads like fiction.
The girl wore a yellow petticoat of treble satin (mandarin yellow) with
broad box plaits in front and behind, exquisitely embroidered with
flowers in shades of blue silk, with narrow box plaits between, with a
trail of blue silk flowers on each. Over this there was a short robe of
crimson brocaded silk, with a broad border of cream-white satin, with
the same exquisite floral embroidery in shades of blue silk. Above this
was a tippet of three rows of embroidered lozenge-shaped "tabs" of
satin. The child wore a crown on her head, the basis of which was black
velvet. At the top was an aigrette of diamonds of the purest water,
the centre one as large as a sixpenny-piece. Solitaires flashing blue
flames blazed all over the cap, and the front was ornamented with a
dragon in fine filigree work in red Malay gold set with diamonds. I
fear to be thought guilty of exaggeration when I write that this child
wore seven necklaces, all of gorgeous beauty. The stones were all cut
in facets at the back; and highly polished, and their beauty was
enhanced by the good taste and skilful workmanship of the setting. The
first necklace was of diamonds set as roses and crescents, some of them
very large, and all of great brilliancy; the second of emeralds, a few
of which were as large as acorns, but spoilt by being pierced; the
third of pearls set whole; the fourth of hollow filigree beads in red,
burned gold; the fifth of sapphires and diamonds; the sixth a number of
finely worked chains of gold with a pendant of a gold filigree fish set
with diamonds; the seventh, what they all wear, a massive gold chain,
which looked heavy enough even by itself to weigh down the fragile
little wearer, from which depended a gold shield, on which the Chinese
characters forming the child's name were raised in rubies, with fishes
and flowers in diamonds round it, and at the back a god in rubies
similarly surrounded. Magnificent diamond earrings and heavy gold
bracelets completed the display.
And all this weight of splendor, valued at the very least at $40,000,
was carried by a frail human mite barely four feet high, with a
powdered face, gentle, pensive expression, and quiet grace of manner,
who came forward and most winsomely shook hands with us, as did all the
other grave gentle mites. They were also loaded with gold and diamonds.
Some sugar-plums fell on the floor, and as the eldest girl stooped to
pick them up, diamond solitaires fell out of her hair, which were
gathered up by her attendants as if they were used to such occurrences.
Whenever she moved her diamonds flashed, scintillated, and gave forth
their blue light. Then came the children of the richest Chinaman in
Malacca, but the little gentle creatures were motherless, and mourning
for a mother lasts three years, so they were dressed in plain blue and
white, and as ornaments wore only very beautiful sapphires and diamonds
set in silver.
Do not suppose that the Chinese New Year is a fixed, annual holiday
lasting a day, as in Scotland, and to a minor extent in England. In
Canton a month ago active preparations were being made for it, and in
Japan nine weeks ago. It is a "movable feast," and is regulated by the
date on which the new moon falls nearest to the day "when the sun
reaches the 15 degrees of Aquarius," and occurs this year on January
21st. Everything becomes cheap before it, for shopkeepers are anxious
to realize ready money at any loss, for it is imperative that all
accounts be closed by the last day of the old year, on pain of a man
being disgraced, losing all hope of getting credit, and of having his
name written up on his door as a defaulter. It appears also that debts
which are not settled by the New Year's Eve cannot thereafter be
recovered, though it is lawful for a creditor who has vainly hunted a
debtor throughout that last night to pursue him for the first hours
after daybreak, provided he still carries a lantern!
The festival lasts a fortnight, and is a succession of feasts and
theatrical entertainments, everybody's object being to cast care and
work to the winds. Even the official seals of the mandarins are
formally and with much rejoicing sealed up and laid aside for one
month. On the 20th day of the 12th month houses and temples are
thoroughly washed and cleaned, rich and poor decorate with
cloth-of-gold, silk embroideries, artificial and real flowers, banners,
scrolls, lucky characters, illuminated strips of paper, and bunches of
gilt-paper flowers, and even the poorest coolie contrives to greet the
festival with some natural blossom. There is no rest either by night
or day, joss-sticks burn incessantly, and lamps before the ancestral
tablets, gongs are beaten, gingalls fire incessantly, and great
crackers like cartridges fastened together in rows are let off at
intervals before every door to frighten away evil spirits; there are
family banquets of wearisome length, feasts to the household gods,
offerings in the temples, processions in the street by torch and
lantern light, presents are given to the living, and offerings to the
dead, the poor are feasted, and the general din is heightened by
messengers perambulating the streets with gongs, calling them to the
different banquets. When the fortnight of rejoicing is over its signs
are removed, and after the outbreak of extravagant expenditure the
Chinese return to their quiet, industrious habits and frugal ways.
Just as this brilliant display left the room, a figure in richer
coloring of skin appeared--Babu, the head servant, in his beautiful
Hadji dress. He wore white full trousers, drawn in tightly at the
ankles over black shoes, but very little of these trousers showed below
a long, fine, linen tunic of spotless white, with a girdle of orange
silk. Over this was a short jacket of rich green silk, embroidered in
front with green of the same color, and over all a pure white robe
falling from the shoulders. The turban was a Mecca turban made of many
yards of soft white silk, embroidered in white silk. It was difficult
to believe that this gorgeous Mussulman, in the odor of double
sanctity, with his scornful face and superb air, could so far demean
himself as to wait on "dogs of infidels" at dinner, or appear in my
room at the Stadthaus, with matutinal tea and bananas!
This magnificence heralded the Datu Klana, Syed Abdulrahman, the
reigning prince of the native State of Sungei Ujong, his principal
wife, and his favorite daughter, a girl of twelve. It has been decided
that I am to go to Sungei Ujong, and that I am to be escorted by Mr.
Hayward, the superintendent of police, but, unfortunately, I am to go
up in the Datu Klana's absence, and one object of his visit was to
express his regret. This prince has been faithful to British interests,
and is on most friendly terms with the resident, Captain Murray, and
the Governor of Malacca. During his visit Babu interpreted, but Miss
Shaw, who understands Malay, said that, instead of interpreting
faithfully, he was making enormous demands on my behalf! At all events,
Syed Abdulrahman, with truly exaggerated Oriental politeness, presented
me with the key of his house in the interior.
This prince is regarded by British officials as an enlightened ruler,
though he is a rigid Mussulman. His dress looked remarkably plain
beside that of the splendid Babu. He wore a Malay bandana handkerchief
round his head, knotted into a peak, a rich brocade baju or short
jacket, a dark Manilla sarong, trousers of Mandarin satin striped with
red, a girdle clasp set with large diamonds, and sandals with jeweled
cloth-of-gold straps. His wife, though elderly and decidedly plain
looking, has a very pleasing expression. She wore a black veil over her
head, and her kabaya, or upper garment, was fastened with three diamond
clasps. The bright little daughter wore a green veil with gold stars
upon it over her head, and ornaments of rich, red gold elaborately
worked. The Datu Klana apologized for the extreme plainness of their
dress by saying that they had only just arrived, and that they had
called before changing their traveling clothes. When they departed the
two ladies threw soft silk shawls over their heads, and held them so as
to cover their faces except their eyes.
There are now sixty-seven thousand Malays in the British territory of
Malacca, and the number is continually increased by fugitives from the
system of debt-slavery which prevails in some of the adjacent States,
and by immigration from the same States of Malays who prefer the
security which British rule affords.
[The police force is Malay, and it seems as if the Malays had a special
aptitude for this semi-military service, for they not only form the
well-drilled protective forces of Malacca, Sungei Ujong, and Selangor,
but that fine body of police in Ceylon of which Mr. George Campbell has
so much reason to be proud. Otherwise very few of them enter British
employment, greatly preferring the easy, independent life of their
forest kampongs.]
The commercial decay of Malacca is a very interesting fact.* Formerly
fifty merchantmen were frequently lying in its roads at one time. Here
the Portuguese fleet lay which escorted Xavier from Goa, and who can
say how many galleons freighted with the red gold of Ophir floated on
these quiet waters! Now, Chinese junks, Malay prahus, a few Chinese
steamers, steam-launches from the native States, and two steamers which
call in passing, make up its trade. There is neither newspaper, banker,
hotel, nor resident English merchant, The half-caste descendants of the
Portuguese are, generally speaking, indolent, degraded with the
degradation that is born of indolence, and proud. The Malays dream away
their lives in the jungle, and the Chinese, who number twenty thousand,
are really the ruling population.
[*Linscholt, two hundred and seventy years ago, writes:--"This place is
the market of all India, of China, and the Moluccas, and of other
islands round about, from all which places, as well as from Banda, Java,
Sumatra, Siam, Pegu, Bengal, Coromandil, and India, arrive ships which
come and go incessantly charged with an infinity of merchandises."]
The former greatness of Malacca haunts one at all times. The romantic
exploits of Albuquerque, who conquered it in 1511, apostrophized in the
Lusiad--
"Not eastward far though fair Malacca lie,
Her groves embosomed in the morning sky,
Though with her amorous sons the valiant line
Of Java's isle in battle rank combine,
Though poisoned shafts their ponderous quivers store,
Malacca's spicy groves and golden ore,
Great Albuquerque, thy dauntless toils shall crown,"
live again, though my sober judgment is that Albuquerque and most of
his Portuguese successors were little better than buccaneers.
I like better to think of Francis Xavier passing through the
thoroughfares of what was then the greatest commercial city of the
East, ringing his bell, with the solemn cry, "Pray for those who are in
a state of mortal sin." For among the "Jews, Turks, infidels, and
heretics" who then thronged its busy streets, there were no worse
livers than the roistering soldiers who had followed Albuquerque.
Tradition among the present Portuguese residents says that coarse words
and deeds disappeared from the thoroughfares under his holy influence,
and that little altars were set up in public places, round which the
children sang hymns to Jesus Christ, while the passers-by crossed
themselves and bowed their heads reverently. Now, the cathedral which
crowns the hill, roofless and ruinous, is only imposing from a
distance, and a part of it is used for the storage of marine or
lighthouse stores under our prosaic and irreverent rule. Xavier
preached frequently in it and loved it well, yet the walls are
overgrown with parasites, and the floor, under which many prelates and
priests lie, is hideous with matted weeds, which are the haunt of
snakes and lizards. Thus, in the city which was so dear to Xavier that
he desired to return to it to die (and actually did die on his way
thither), the only memento of him is the dishonored ruin of the
splendid church in which his body was buried, with all the population
of Malacca following it from the yellow strand up the grass-crowned
hill, bearing tapers. This wretched ruin is a contrast to the splendid
mausoleum at Goa, where his bones now lie, worthily guarded, in coffins
of silver and gold.
If the Portuguese were little better than buccaneers, the Dutch, who
drove them out, were little better than hucksters--mean, mercenary
traders, without redeeming qualities; content to suck the blood of
their provinces and give nothing in return. I should think that the
colony is glad to be finally rid of them. The English took possession
of it in 1795, but restored it to the Dutch in 1818, regaining it again
by treaty in 1824, giving Bencoolen, in Sumatra, in exchange for it,
stipulating at the same time that the Dutch were not to meddle with
Malayan affairs, or have any settlement on the Malay Peninsula. The
ruined cathedral of Notre Dame del Monte is a far more interesting
object than the dull, bald, commonplace, flat-faced, prosaic, Dutch
meeting-house, albeit the latter is in excellent repair. Even this
Stadthaus, with its stately solitudes, smells of trade, and suggests
corpulent burgomasters and prim burgomasters' wives in wooden hoops and
stiff brocades. The influence of Holland has altogether vanished, as is
fitting, for she cared only for nutmegs, sago, tapioca, tin and pepper.
The variety of races here produces a ludicrous effect sometimes. In the
Stadthaus one never knows who is to appear--whether Malay, Portuguese,
Chinaman, or Madrassee. Yesterday morning, at six, the Chinaman who
usually "does" my room, glided in, murmuring something unintelligible,
and on my not understanding him, brought in a Portuguese interpreter.
At seven, came in the Madrassee, Babu, with a cluster of bananas, and
after him, two Malays, in red sarongs, who brushed and dusted all my
clothes as slowly as they could--men of four races in attendance before
I was up in the morning! This Chinese attendant, besides being a common
coolie in a brown cotton shirt over a brown cotton pair of trousers, is
not a good specimen of his class, and is a great nuisance to me. My
doors do not bolt properly, and he appears in the morning while I am in
my holoku, writing, and slowly makes the bed and kills mosquitoes; then
takes one gown after another from the rail, and stares at me till I
point to the one I am going to wear, which he holds out in his hands;
and though I point to the door, and say "Go!" with much emphasis, I
never get rid of him, and have to glide from my holoku into my gown
with a most unwilling dexterity.
Two days ago Captain Shaw declared that "pluck should have its reward,"
and that I should have facilities for going to Sungei Ujong. Yesterday,
he asked me to take charge of his two treasured daughters. Then Babu
said, "If young ladies go, me go," and we are to travel under the
efficient protection of Mr. Hayward, the superintendent of police.
This expedition excites great interest in the little Malacca world.
This native State is regarded as "parts unknown;" the Governor has
never visited it, and there are not wanting those who shake their heads
and wonder that he should trust his girls in a region of tigers,
crocodiles, rogue elephants and savages! The little steam-launch
Moosmee (in reality by far the greatest risk of all) has been brought
into the stream below the Stadthaus, ready for an early start
to-morrow, and a runner has been sent to the Resident to prepare him
for such an unusual incursion into his solitudes.