Kuching--Society--The Club--Amusements--The _Sarawak
Gazette_--The Bazaar--Health of Kuching--Life in
Kuching--Rats--Preparations for Journey to the Matang
Mountain.
Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, although smaller than Pontianak and
other Dutch settlements on the coast of Borneo, is generally
acknowledged to be the first town in Borneo so far as civilisation and
comfort are concerned, and is renowned for its Bazaar, which is the
best-built and cleanest in the island. There are two good roads
extending at right angles from the town to a distance of seven miles
each, at which point they are united by a third. These form a pleasant
drive or ride, an amusement unknown in most Bornean townships, where
the jungle and undergrowth are usually so dense as to defy any
attempts at walking, to say nothing of riding or driving.
The number of Europeans in Kuching, although limited, and consisting
of but some twenty in all (five of whom are ladies), form a pleasant
little _coterie_, and there is a marked absence of the scandal and
squabbling which generally seems inseparable from any place wherein a
limited number of our countrymen and women are assembled. The
occasional presence of an English or Dutch man-of-war, also, breaks
the monotony of life, and enlivens matters considerably.
The Club, a comfortable stone building, was founded by the Government
a few years ago, and contains bed-rooms for the use of out-station
officers when on a visit to Kuching. A lawn-tennis ground and bowling
alley are attached to it, and serve to kill the time, which, however,
rarely hung heavily on our hands in this cheerful little place.
Riding and driving are but still in their infancy, and Kuching boasted
of only some dozen horses and four carriages--including a sporting
little tandem of Deli (Sumatra) ponies, owned by the Resident. The
Deli pony is a rare-shaped little animal, standing from 13 hands to
13.2, with immense strength, and very fast. They would be worth their
weight in gold in Europe, and an enterprising Dutch merchant lately
shipped a cargo of them to Amsterdam from Singapore, _via_ the Suez
Canal, with what result I never ascertained. A new road was being cut
when we were there from Kuching to Penrisen, a mountain some thirty
miles off, which, when completed, may bring a few more horses here;
but Borneo (except far north) can never become a riding or driving
country.
Kuching has its newspaper, which is published fortnightly, in the
English language, and brought out under the editorship of the
Postmaster. This journal contains, among other subjects, the doings of
the law courts, reports from the various Residencies, and arrivals and
departures of ships, with occasionally an interesting account of a
journey inland made by the Resident of one of the up-coast districts.
The _Sarawak Gazette_ was organised in 1871, and will form an
interesting history of the country in years to come.
But the most interesting and novel sight in Kuching is its Bazaar,
which is built in arcades _à la_ Rue de Rivoli, the shops therein
belonging chiefly to Chinamen, excepting three or four held by
Indians. Birmingham and Manchester furnish these emporiums to a large
extent, the article finding most favour with the natives in the edible
line being Huntley & Palmer's biscuits, which are imported to Kuching
in great quantities. All kinds of brass and crockery-ware, cheap cloth
(shoddy), Sheffield cutlery, imitation jewellery, gongs, &c., form the
greater part of the goods for sale; but I was surprised, my first walk
down the Bazaar, at the great number of large china jars exposed for
sale, four or five of these standing at nearly every door. I
subsequently found that these are held in great esteem by the Dyaks,
and I afterwards saw some in their houses that the owners refused 300
dols. (£60) for! The latter were, however, _bonâ fide_ ones, some 400
years old, and came from China. Worthless imitations have been sent
out from England and Holland of late years, but they proved a bad
speculation to the importers, for the Dyak is, in his way, as good a
judge of jars as the veriest chinamaniac at home of Sèvres or Dresden.
The Chinese are, as I have said, the principal householders in the
Bazaar, the richest among them being the Brothers Ken-Wat, a firm
trading in gutta, gold-dust, and diamonds, with Singapore and China.
Borneo has ever been famous for its diamonds, and, although scarce in
quantity, I have heard good judges affirm that they are the finest in
quality of any in the world. Some large stones have been found in
Sarawak territory, and, only lately, one was discovered by a Chinaman,
and sold to Government, weighing 87 carats.
The silver coinage in use in Sarawak is the Mexican dollar, but the
copper coinage of cents and half-cents bear the head of the Raja.
A walk under the arcades of the Bazaar in the busy part of the day
(11.30 a.m.) is well repaid by the curious spectacle
presented--thronged as it is with the quaint dark blue dresses of the
Chinese and the gaudy, rainbow-hued garments of the Malays, while now
and again a land Dyak from up river may be seen, clad in his "chawat"
(waist-band) and turban, evidently quite out of his element, and
half-scared at the busy scene around him.
The public health of Kuching, which has a mixed population of 20,000,
is good, notwithstanding a severe outbreak of cholera which occurred
in 1877 and carried off a great number of the inhabitants; and the
climate, for a tropical one, is exceptionally healthy. Although the
mid-day heat is during six months in the year excessive, the nights
are nearly always cool, for a day seldom passes without a squall of
wind and rain during the latter part of the afternoon, which clears
the atmosphere. Consumption is unknown in Sarawak; and an English
officer who came out to join the government service, afflicted with
this complaint, completely recovered after a residence of three years
in the country. Indeed, if due attention be paid to diet, and the
excessive use of stimulants avoided, a long period may elapse in this
climate without returning home to recruit; and there is now an officer
living in Kuching who has not been out of the place for eighteen
years, and who is in as good health as when he left Europe.
Our days at Kuching slipped pleasantly by. A plunge in the large
Astana swimming-bath at dawn began the day; after which, our light
breakfast of coffee, eggs, and fruit over, we would go across river
for a ride or stroll out with a gun; and during my morning's walk past
the neat town and bungalows, the latter surrounded with their pretty
gardens and trim hedges, I often thought of what poor old Muda Hasim
would think could he arise from his grave and compare Kuching the
modern with the Kuching of forty years ago--half a dozen Malay houses
on a mud bank!
_Déjeunner à la fourchette_ over, a siesta and cigar would be indulged
in till five o'clock, when a ride or rattling set-to at lawn tennis,
followed by a refreshing bath, prepared one for dinner--the more
enjoyable for the violent exercise that had preceded it. Such was our
daily life in Kuching, and one that I shall ever look back upon with
pleasure.
But the loveliest countries have their little drawbacks, Sarawak not
excepted. Mosquitoes and sand-flies are not, although very numerous,
the worst evils in the land, for I was startled, my first night in
Kuching, while lying half-awake in bed, to feel something cold and
slimy run across my chest. Thinking it was a snake, I was out of bed
like (to use a Yankee expression) "greased lightning," and was not a
little relieved to find that the cause of the mischief was only a
"chik-chak," or common lizard of the country, which was larger than
usual in this case, being nearly a foot long.
But the true curses of Sarawak are the rats. Go where you will, avoid
them as you may, there is not a bungalow that is not infested with
them, and boots, shirts, and even cigars, suffer in consequence. No
sooner in bed, and the lights out, than their gambols commence, and
they sometimes make such a noise as to keep one awake for the greater
part of the night. I have sometimes gone out to the verandah, thinking
I heard men's footsteps, and found it to be rats, who fled at my
approach. These pests occasionally migrate at night in large numbers,
several hundred of them on one occasion passing through the Raja's
bed-room at Astana on one of these nocturnal expeditions. Nor are
mosquito curtains a guard against them, for an out-station officer at
Simanggang, on the Batang Lupar river, woke up one night to find a
huge grey rascal sitting on his chest and endeavouring to make a
hearty meal off his jersey.
To get rid of rats is, therefore, well-nigh impossible, though a plan
adopted by some Europeans of keeping a boa-constrictor between the
roofs and ceilings of their bungalows is the most effectual.
There are many snakes in Borneo, but none, with the exception of the
cobra, are deadly. Centipedes and scorpions are common, and the
Tarantula spider is also occasionally, though rarely, met with.
After nearly a fortnight's stay in the capital, we made preparations
for an excursion to Matang, of which we wished to make the ascent, and
whither we were about to accompany Mr. H., who was formerly agent of
the Raja's coffee estate, half-way up the mountain.