FROM MANILLA TO SINGAPORE, AND UP THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.--A DAY AT PULO
PENANG.
The next day was passed in closing up letters for the mail, viewing the
destruction caused by the earthquake, and making preparations for
leaving Manilla. The Doctor found, on visiting his banker's, that there
was a steamer ready to start for Singapore on the following morning, and
that she had accommodations for a few passengers. As she would suit
their purposes exactly, he engaged places for the party, and in due time
they were at sea with the prow of their vessel directed toward the
Straits of Malacca.
[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO SINGAPORE.]
The anchor was dropped in the harbor of Singapore, and the steamer was
quickly surrounded with the same swarm of boatmen that greeted our
friends at the time of their first arrival. Some of the sharp-eyed
fellows recognized Doctor Bronson and the youths, and claimed them as
old acquaintances; the result was that only a few minutes were required
for the negotiations that had taken so long on their first visit, and
before the anchor had been down half an hour the trio were at the hotel
with their baggage, and safely quartered in their rooms.[3]
[3] The description of Singapore will be found in Part II. of "The Boy
Travellers in the Far East," Chapters XXI. and XXII.
"We are just in time," said the Doctor, "to catch the steamer that
leaves here every week for Penang, Rangoon, and Calcutta. We will go in
her as far as Rangoon, and have a peep at Burmah, and when we have done
with that strange country we can go somewhere else."
The boys were delighted with the idea of going to Burmah, and declared
themselves ready to leave on the instant; but they moderated their
enthusiasm on learning that the steamer would not start till noon of the
next day. A garri was called, and our friends drove to the banker's and
the post-office, and their journey was rewarded with a fine parcel of
letters and papers from home. They also called at the United States
Consulate, and found that two or three letters had been addressed to
them in care of the consul, and were safely kept by that gentleman,
pending their return.
The news from home was entirely satisfactory. The families of Frank and
Fred were greatly interested in the letters which the youths had sent
describing their journey, and Miss Effie informed them that some of the
letters had been given to the editor of their favorite newspaper, and so
had found their way into print. "And the editor says," she added, "that
they are good enough to make a book of, and when you get home you shall
have one printed."
"What! we make a book!" exclaimed Fred, as Frank read the concluding
sentence of Miss Effie's letter; "we could never do it in the world!"
"Why not?" Frank inquired. Evidently he thought the thing possible,
perhaps for the reason that his sweetheart so regarded it.
"Because," Fred answered, "we don't write as the books do, or, at any
rate, the most of them. We don't trouble ourselves about 'fine writing,'
whatever that is, but go straight on and tell what we see and hear, the
same as though we were sitting around the table at home and talking to
our friends."
"Perhaps, after all," responded his cousin, "a book written in just that
way wouldn't be so very bad. It's the kind of book I would prefer in
reading about a country; and the fact that the editor prints our
letters, shows that he's of my opinion. However, let's not trouble
ourselves about the prospects of being book-writers, but go on and make
our letters just as we've been making them."
This was agreed to without further discussion, and the rest of the
afternoon and the evening were devoted to reading and rereading letters
and papers, and answering the most important of the missives.
[Illustration: BAY ON THE COAST OF SUMATRA.]
At noon the next day they were steaming out of the harbor of Singapore,
and entering the Straits of Malacca. On their right they had the Malay
Peninsula stretching away as far as the eye could reach, while on their
left were the densely-wooded shores of Sumatra. The air was warm, but
its severity was tempered by a breeze that blew steadily in their faces
as they steamed up the Straits, and seemed to be laden with the odor of
spices and other tropical products. At least so thought Frank, but the
Doctor assured him that the perfume was principally imaginary, as they
were not yet where spices grow in profusion.
"The principal products of the region we are now passing," he explained,
"are rice, sugar, pepper, and gambier, and none of those articles are
famous for their odors, with the possible exception of pepper."
One of the boys asked what gambier was.
"Gambier," Doctor Bronson answered, "is a vegetable product that is
largely used in dyeing and tanning, and is sometimes called Japan earth,
for the reason that when it was first introduced it was supposed to be a
species of earth, and to come from Japan. The tree or bush that produces
it is of the same family as the Peruvian bark trees, and is a native of
the East Indian Archipelago. The leaves and small shrubs are boiled in
water, and a thick decoction is formed, which is finally poured into
moulds and allowed to harden in the sun. A great quantity of gambier is
produced in the Malay Peninsula, and if we went on shore we could visit
the plantations where it is cultivated. They would remind us of the
tea-plantations we saw in Java, as the bush is six or eight feet high,
and looks not unlike the largest tea-shrubs."
[Illustration: COAST SCENE IN THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.]
Occasionally the steamer came quite near to the shore, and gave them
charming glimpses of the scenery of the Malayan Peninsula. Everywhere
there was an abundant vegetation, and the principal trees in the
landscape were palms and their kindred. Villages were scattered here and
there, and the captain of the steamer pointed out several establishments
that he said were the residences of local chiefs, acting under the
authority of the British Government. Several provinces along this part
of the peninsula are under British control, though nominally ruled by
their own sultans; as long as the sultan remains friendly to the English
he is allowed to do pretty much as he pleases, but when he defies their
authority, they speedily chastise him into obedience. Step by step the
English have increased their power in this part of the world, and the
movements on the political chess-board indicate that they will not be
satisfied until they have secured all the territory between their Indian
possessions and the frontier of China.
It is three hundred and ninety miles from Singapore to Penang, and as
the steamer was not of the highest speed, she did not reach there until
the morning of the second day from the former port. In fact, the
departure from Singapore had been timed so that they should arrive early
in the morning, and have the day before them. Frank and Fred were on
deck as the vessel swung into the harbor and came to anchor, and their
eyes were busily engaged in contemplating the novel sights of the place.
Doctor Bronson joined them a little later, and arranged with some
boatmen to take them on shore as soon as breakfast was over. The boatmen
were similar to those that surrounded the ship on their arrival at
Singapore when they came from Siam--Klings, Chinese, Malays, and Arabs,
with a sprinkling of negroes from the coast of Africa.
Penang is an island containing about a hundred square miles in all, and
is separated from the main-land of the Malay peninsula by a strait from
two to seven miles in width; it is sometimes called Prince of Wales
Island, and by the natives is known as Pulo Penang, "pulo" being the
Malay word for island. It is an important English possession, and was
under the British flag long before Singapore. The history of its
transfer to the English is somewhat romantic, and is told as follows:
It formerly belonged to the King or Sultan of Quedah, in Malacca, and
was given by him to his daughter on the occasion of her marriage with
Captain Light in 1785. Light was master of an English ship trading in
the Straits, and a few years after his marriage he sold the island to
the East India Company, on condition of being appointed governor.
Afterward he negotiated with his father-in-law to give the English
authority over the whole province of Quedah on payment of an annual
subsidy; the sultan consented, and since that time the English have had
complete possession.
We will let the boys tell the story of their sight-seeing in Penang
during the day the ship remained there:
"We had no trouble in going ashore, as the boatmen were in competition
with each other, and did not demand as high prices as at Singapore; for
a dollar apiece we were brought on shore and taken back to the ship
again at the end of the day, and the captain says we might have done
better than that if we had bargained a little longer. The harbor is at
the northern end of the strait that separates Penang from the main-land,
and a very nice harbor it is. The capital is called Georgetown, and we
are told that it has about 100,000 inhabitants; such a mixture you never
saw in America, and we don't believe there are a dozen places in the
world with such an odd population. The English are the masters, but
there are not more than a thousand of them, not counting the garrison of
soldiers; and there are a few Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, and
other Europeans. The rest are Malays, Chinese, Parsees, Klings,
Bengalees, Arabs, and descendants of the early Portuguese settlers,
together with a few other sorts and kinds 'too numerous to mention.'
"We went through the town, but there was nothing very curious, after
what we have seen and described to you in Singapore, and so we didn't
take a long time about it. Each of us bought a Penang lawyer to take
along. What do you suppose a Penang lawyer is?
"It is a cane, or walking-stick, with a straight stem; it has a root
shaped like an egg, and forming a capital thing for the hand to grasp
when the cane is finished and polished. These canes are called lawyers,
because they are employed in settling disputes, and they certainly
appear very useful for that purpose. One of them has been known to
finish a discussion in a few seconds where an ordinary attorney would
have taken an hour or two, and then would have been as far from the end
of it as ever. The shillalah of the Irishman is something like it, but
though it may be quite as effective, it is not half as handsome.
[Illustration: PALM-TREES IN PULO PENANG.]
"Back of Georgetown the hills rise up nearly if not quite two thousand
feet, and we were told that from the summit we could have a magnificent
view. So we climbed up there, or rather we took a carriage to the foot
of the hills, and then hired coolies with chairs to carry us the rest of
the way. You cannot imagine a prettier excursion. The tropical trees,
with their splendid foliage, shade the roads and paths, and sometimes
you can go a mile or more without a ray of the sun striking you; at
every turn there is a charming view of some kind or other, and you are
constantly in sight of delightful summer-houses, where the merchants and
professional residents of Penang have their homes. Higher and higher you
go, and find the air becoming cooler as you ascend; when you are at the
summit, you find the temperature ten or twenty degrees less than in
Georgetown, and are glad that you brought along your light overcoat.
"As we stand at the top we look away to the main-land, and our guide
says that in clear weather we can see ninety miles. The harbor with its
shipping is in full view, and we have the whole panorama of the island
and a long stretch of the Malay peninsula. We seem to be at the top of a
great mound of trees, as the whole of the hills are thickly wooded.
Farther down there are cleared spaces, especially in the valleys and
plains, and we can see fields of rice, sugar-cane, and other products of
the warm regions of the earth. On the upper parts of the hills the air
is cool enough for the cultivation of European vegetables and flowers
that will not grow in the vicinity of Georgetown.
"Where the forest is neglected, even for a few months, it soon becomes
so overgrown with jungle that it is not easy to get through it; Doctor
Bronson says it is a constant fight with nature to keep down the
verdure, and if Penang were left to itself for a single year it would be
all overgrown, as when Captain Light came here nearly a hundred years
ago. They tell a funny story of how Captain Light cleared away the
jungle. He used to load cannon with silver dollars, and then fire them
into the grass and bushes; then the Malays went to work to find the
dollars, and, of course, they had to clear the ground before they could
do so.
[Illustration: A SUBURBAN COTTAGE.]
"Where we left our carriage there was a pretty water-fall, and we saw
several little cascades on our journey. They are fed by water from the
clouds that sweep over Penang, especially during the time of the
south-west monsoon, and every owner of a bungalow on the mountain-side
tries to have a stream of water going through his place, and if he can
get a cascade in it, so much the better. Some of the residents have
bathing-houses at the foot of their cascades, and they go there to get
cool; a more delightful bath-house than one we saw it would be difficult
to imagine. It had a floor of the solid rock of the island, and the
water fell into a natural basin about four feet deep, and then ran off
through a channel it had worn for itself in hundreds of years of patient
work.
[Illustration: A PENANG BUTTERFLY.]
"Penang is full of insect life; in some places where we went there was
such a buzzing of beetles and other humming things that our voices were
drowned when we were twenty yards apart. It reminded us of the buzzing
of machinery in a cotton factory, and there was more of it in the early
part of the day than later on. There is one beetle they call 'the
trumpeter,' that does not rest from making a noise from morning till
night unless he is disturbed; when you go near a tree where he is he
stops, and does not start again till you go away. There are lots and
lots of butterflies, and they are of all sizes and colors; there is one
called the 'Saturnia-atlas' that measures ten or twelve inches across
the wings, but he is not very abundant, and the only one we saw was in a
glass case in the office of a merchant we called on. We saw some
beautiful humming-birds, and were told that there are several varieties
of these tiny things in Penang. There was a bright metallic lustre all
over them, and when we looked at them in a certain light they glistened
like a piece of burnished steel.
[Illustration: HUMMING-BIRDS.]
"How many kinds of trees there are in Penang it is difficult to say, but
there are great numbers of them. Some of them are so heavy that they
will sink in water; the Chinese and Malays take these woods to make
anchors for their boats and junks, and they use the rattans and bamboos
for cordage if they cannot afford twisted ropes. Many of the plants
live entirely on air, and we saw trees a foot in diameter growing on a
rock where there wasn't a particle of soil. The moist air is what they
thrive on, and they seem as well satisfied on a rock as in the richest
soil.
"We asked how many fruits there were in Penang, and learned that they
amounted to a hundred, and perhaps more. They have that delicious fruit,
the mangosteen, that we told you about when in Java; and then they have
the pineapple, custard-apple, pomegranate, mango, banana, and we don't
know what else. We tried to eat the durian again, but couldn't get
through it; and, as we are not to be very long in the land of this
fruit, we don't think it worth our while to learn.
"At night the air is full of fire-flies, and sometimes they are so
brilliant that they resemble a torch-light procession just breaking up.
Then the natives kindle fires under the trees to cook their meals; and,
as you ride or walk along the roads, the scene is a curious one, as the
figures of these dark-skinned people are brought into strong relief by
the light.
[Illustration: A TRAVELLING BLACKSMITH.]
"You see so many Chinese in Penang that you can easily believe you are
in Shanghai or Hong-Kong. They are everywhere, and in all kinds of
business, from the most important to the most humble; they are wholesale
merchants of every name and kind, and they practise all the industries
known to civilization. There are Chinese tailors, carpenters,
shoemakers, blacksmiths, jewellers, cabinet-makers, and anything else
you might name, besides a variety of trades you couldn't think of. Most
of them work in shops, but there are many blacksmiths, cobblers, and
others, who go from house to house, and carry their tools in baskets.
"The banks have Chinese clerks to keep the accounts and handle the
money, and every European merchant in Penang has a comprador, the same
as the merchants in Yokohama and Hong-Kong. You can hardly do anything
in the way of buying or selling without coming in contact with a
Chinese, and even if you try to avoid them you cannot. In commercial
matters the Chinese have full control, and the European merchants
complain that their profits are very light owing to the sharp
competition of their Oriental rivals. Every year the Chinese are gaining
in business, while the Europeans are diminishing; and the gentleman who
told us about them says it is only a question of time, and not a long
time at that, before all the trade of Penang will be in the hands of the
Chinese.
"They are not only in Georgetown, but all over the island of Penang, and
on the main-land. Some of them have been here for many years, and either
brought wives from China, or married Malay ones; they have no intention
of going back to China but will end their days in Penang. The most of
these old settlers are rich, and have fine houses, with magnificent
gardens filled with fruits and flowers; but there are plenty of poor
settlers who cultivate the soil, and live in modest huts among their
market-gardens and pepper-fields. A large part of the agriculture of the
island, and of the neighboring province on the main-land, is in Chinese
hands, and if all the people of the Flowery Kingdom were driven out of
the Malay Peninsula and the adjacent islands, there wouldn't be much
business left. Several times the Government has had trouble with them
owing to their guilds and combinations; and on two or three occasions
they have openly defied the laws, and refused to be bound by them. The
garrisons of troops at Penang, Singapore, and other points are necessary
to keep the Chinese in order, as no one can tell when they may make a
serious disturbance.
"When we were at Manilla, we learned that the Chinese in the Philippine
Islands were not always easy to control, and had twice broken into open
insurrection. The first time was in 1603, when 23,000 Chinese were
slaughtered by the Spanish troops and people; and the second was about
fifty years later, when 25,000 were killed, and the rest, amounting to
six or eight thousand, were banished. But others came to fill their
places, and there have been no more insurrections, though quite often
they narrowly escape them.
"It is fair to say, on behalf of the Chinese, that their insurrections
in the Philippine Islands were brought about by excessive taxes and
religious persecutions; at least we are so informed by the historians
who have written on the subject. In Penang there is no danger of trouble
on this account, as the inhabitants have the fullest liberty in the
matter of religion, and the taxes are the same for all nationalities.
"It was late when we got back to the steamer, and, as we were pretty
tired, we went straight to bed. When we rose in the morning, we were
steaming out of the harbor; and so ended our visit to Penang."