New friends--Gold--An English official--The purchase of my future
treasure--Administrative simplicity--England teaches!--The "sla
pui"--Bitter disappointment--The Sam-Sam--The poison of the Savage
and the venom of the Civilized.
My strength and health, which had suffered in consequence of those few
days' strain of muscle and nerve, soon returned to their normal state in
that peaceful retreat upon the grassy banks of the stream that is an
affluent of the Bidor.
My friendship with the Sakais increased every day because little by
little their suspicions concerning me were allayed and the curiosity
with which they watched my every act was no longer mixed with fear. They
did not attempt to run away when I bent my steps towards their rough
habitations in spite of the Alà's veto to my passage through their
village and it was not a rare thing for my gifts of tobacco and _sirih_
to be exchanged with pheasants and other game and sometimes even with a
chicken. I found it easy to talk with the men and prized these
conversations as a means of studying their characters and of learning
their language, which is composed of short, strongly accented words. It
was very seldom that I could find any sort of derivation from the Malay
tongue in these terse syllables.
At the same time that I sought to get upon a familiar footing with my
new friends I did not forget one of the principal motives that had
induced me to wander so far from the haunts of ordinary men, so one day
I cracked a cocoanut in half and, cleaning it well out, I dipped the
shell into the bed of the stream and drew it out again full of water and
sand.
I examined the contents with great care and found a few grains of gold
in the alluvion! This was joy indeed, and mentally I bade goodbye to the
life of a planter (although I had not yet begun it) and there on the
spot decided to dedicate my time and energy to the gathering of gold
which would be far the quickest way of making a fortune.
All at once, however, an unpleasant thought crossed my mind and dimmed
my bright hopes.
In my chats with the Sakais they had told me that there was another
_orang putei_ at Tapah. I endeavoured to discover who this person was,
and what he was doing, in the little Malay town, but I was unable to
obtain any information about him.
Now the idea suggested itself that this white man could be no other than
a British Government Officer to whom, from a feeling of delicacy,
respect of the law, and as a means of avoiding future trouble, I was
bound to explain what I wished to do before setting myself to work, as
his permission would be necessary for the execution of my desire.
My unfortunate experience of other colonial authorities inspired me with
very little confidence in that of the English and nothing seemed to me
more likely than to find myself expelled from the Protected States
instead of having my petition granted.
But on the other hand it would be very rash to commence work in earnest
without legal authorization, so one day, accompanied by some Sakais to
the confines of the forest, I betook myself to Tapah.
* * * * *
I could not help wondering to myself what sort of a gruff, bureaucratic
functionary I should find to deny me my fortune. Who knew how my Italian
enterprise would be judged on territory protected by H. B. M.?
But calling up my courage I was introduced into the presence of a young
and pleasant-mannered gentleman who received me with much politeness.
He had already been informed that a white man was to be found amongst
the Sakais and he had been greatly surprised, not understanding what
attractions anyone could find in the midst of a people so ignorant and
savage. He congratulated himself upon the opportunity of meeting and
knowing me, was pleased to hear that I was an Italian and wound up with
the stereotyped demand:
"What can I have the pleasure of doing for you?".
Encouraged by his kindness, but not without a little secret misgiving, I
told him frankly what I proposed doing and related all particulars.
Mr. Wise (for this was his name) listened to everything attentively, now
and then expressing a word of sympathy or approval and finally, for the
sum of a few dollars, made me the owner of the tract of land upon which
I had fixed my mind.
Thus it was that in the short space of an hour, without having to
surmount any obstacles, and at an almost ridiculous price I became the
legitimate possessor of a piece of ground that perhaps concealed a
treasure in its bosom.
* * * * *
As I had never before been at Tapah I took advantage of the time spared
in my business affairs to visit it a little and to form an opinion upon
the expedients used in a half-desert Eastern country, scorched by the
sun, populated by different tribes, infested by poisonous insects and
terrible microbes, to say nothing of a host of wild beasts!
Tapah is a modern little town, all villas and gardens. It rises white
and coquettishly at the foot of green hills and its smiling panorama,
although without the magnificent background of the sea, recalled to my
sight the sweet vision of my native Varazze, one of the most beautiful
gems that adorn the Riviera Ponente.
It is the chief-town of a district counting 30,000 inhabitants amongst
which about a thousand of diverse races and nationalities. It has two
large streets lined with shops where Malays, Indians, and Chinese offer
a varied and heterogeneous stock of goods for sale.
It is divided in the middle by the big river Batang Padang which
afterwards discharges itself into the Bidor, that too.
As capital of the district it possesses a Post Office, a very large room
where two Indian clerks perform their duties under the direction of an
English Postmaster who has also to overlook the branch offices of the
circuit.
My attention was attracted by an unpretending edifice in front of which
some Malay and Indian soldiers were seated. I was asking them what
building it was when an Englishman came out and courteously told me that
it was the Head Police Station of which he was the inspector.
During a subsequent conversation I learnt that the Police Service was
everything that could be desired as also that of all the other Public
Offices and that Indigenes and Indians were everywhere employed under
the direction of English chiefs. The number of clerks, as in other
British colonies, was according to strict necessity; no extra posts were
ever created for political or personal interest but when assistance was
required there was never any difficulty in selecting local aspirant, as
long as they had a sufficient knowledge of the official language.
So I found that Tapah, the chief-town of the district, is under the
direction of an Englishman, who is called the District Officer, and who
performs all administrative and magisterial functions.
Not much time lost here in the labyrinths of Bureaucracy! And yet I
heard that both the District Officer and the Police Inspector who are
under the control of the Authority residing in Taiping, capital of Perak
but who in reality enjoy almost complete liberty of action, find the
time not only to discharge all the various duties of their office but
also to take recreation in a little football and cricket. It is said
that sometimes the menservants too are called in to take part in these
national sports and for an hour freely compete with their masters in the
art of kicking and batting, returning serious and respectful to their
proper places at the end of the game.
Whilst I was passing the time pleasantly, talking with one and the other
I saw a little party approaching that was the object of great respect
from the bystanders.
It was Mr. Wise the District Officer who had received me so politely a
few hours before.
He was on his return from a survey made in order to define the boundary
of some land belonging to two Malays. Without donning any sort of
uniform or insignia, this British delegate had known how to preserve
all the solemnity and dignity of form due to the occasion, a virtue
peculiar to the English who are always and everywhere the most rigorous
observers of social and official etiquette.
Mr. Wise kindly invited me to follow him the Club where he kept me in
friendly conservation, answering all the questions I could not refrain
from asking him in my desire to become better acquainted with the colony
and its method of government.
Now Mr. Wise is no more, but in him his country lost a model functionary
for intelligence, solicitude and uprightness.
He died at the very moment his future seemed to smile its brightest;
when his fondest hopes were about to be crowned by matrimony with the
young lady of his choice.
Let me, through these pages, render to his memory the modest,
affectionate homage of admiration and deferential friendship.
* * * * *
That day, having made my peace with the authorities, I returned with a
clear conscience to the quiet nook I had found in the vast forest; to
that domestic corner reserved for me in Dame Nature's grand and wondrous
saloon: to that rude home so far removed from the generality of mankind,
but so close to the kings and princes of the animal kingdom, commonly
called--wild beasts.
[Illustration: A young Sakai with his inseparable blowpipe.
_p._ 40.]
Keeping tight hold of the receipt which had suddenly made me the owner
of a possible gold mine, I alternately made castles in the air and
meditated upon the simplicity of English administration that in a few
short instants had conceded to me an extensive zone of land with which
to do what I liked, without any need of setting in motion the intricate
machinery of the bureaucracy; without any stamped legal forms, surveys
and expensive reports; the presentation of birth certificate and that of
British citizenship; without digging into the past and the future, into
the state and position of one's family, etc. etc.
And because everything that happens to one abroad recalls one's
fatherland (a natural habit that neither distance nor time can change) I
thought of my native country and of the complicated organization of its
many bureaucratic departments that only too often clogs the boldest
Italian enterprise and raises an insurmountable barrier before creative
and inventive genius compelling it to seek elsewhere its fortune.
From my heart I longed that Italy might before long be liberated from
these toils which hinder the free expansion of its young and vigorous
forces.
One thing had particularly struck me during my intercourse with Mr.
Wise. The fact of my being an Italian was no obstacle to my request
being favourably received. This surprised me, for under other
governments I had seen that foreigners were considered anything but
necessary to the colony and after having opposed, more or less openly,
the intruder's initiative, the Authority seized the slightest pretext,
that offered itself under a decent aspect, to send the new-comer back
over the frontier for fear that their digestion might suffer from his
presence.
England on the contrary does not search into, nor care for, the origin
of those who bring energy or any other useful quality to her colonies.
In her dominions she only aims at reaching the highest point of
prosperity, she desires only the accumulation of riches, and whoever
promises well to further her interests, becomes an appreciated
collaborator, be he Italian, German, Portuguese or Turk.
England never repells talent or aptitude from an absurd prejudice of
Chauvinism. Considering the length and breadth of her possessions she
may well say that the world is her tributary, no wonder then that she
avails herself of the hands and brains of every one who knows how to use
them well, instead of confining herself exclusively to the merits of
those born on British soil.
In this broad way of seeing and treating things--which proves the
tranquil and perfect consciousness the English nation has of its own
strength--I believe lies the secret of its colonial success.
The well-known satire according to which it is impossible to find in the
world a rock or strip of land, however barren or sterile, without an
owner, for the simple reason that an Englishman is always prompt to
unfold and hoist the Union Jack there, is in reality the highest and
most just homage that can be paid to the spirit of enterprise that
characterizes this people. Where others only see sand and reefs, not
worth the trouble of cultivation, the Englishman discovers some
productive germ that with his indefatigable energy brings forth a
thousand fold. Nor is Colonial work, industrial activity and commercial
thrift disturbed by bureaucratic sophistry or immoderate fiscal
pretentions, that so frequently suffocate the most promising and
audacious undertakings in other places.
Colonial success very often depends upon the ability of its
administrative body in directing all available force to this one end:
the increase of its wealth. Bureaucracy is a cancer which paralyzes all
life and motion that it finds within reach of its tentacles.
Old England has understood this for a long time, ever since, from the
island once fruitless and barren, she spread her wings and flew to the
conquest of the World's markets.
When will certain other nations comprehend that antiquity and past
glory, instead of offering the precious fruit of experience, has
brought upon them a palsied decrepitude?
When wilt thou understand this, my Italy, risen as thou art to the third
maturity of thy civilization and glory?
* * * * *
I set myself at once, with a good will, to the extraction of gold, and
engaged the services of a few Malays and Chinese coolies, who were
expert enough, to assist me in my work.
The method we followed was a very primitive one. We filled some round
wooden bowls with the water and sand, then by gently stirring the mass,
particles of tin and gold were separated from the sand and went to the
bottom. This deposit carefully gathered up was passed into other bowls
full of water, into which we threw a well-pounded leaf of the _sla
più_.
The juice of these leaves possesses a chemical property which I cannot
explain but it draws up to the surface the sand still sticking to the
metals, leaving them quite pure.
But the yellow tempter was not at all profuse in his favours and the
golden metal came in very small quantities. I did not lose courage,
however, and persevered for a long time without any change of luck. I
even tried to trace out the auriferous bed from whence the waters of the
stream transported the metals. I made innumerable attempts to find it,
but in vain, and the day came when I was constrained to confess to
myself that alluvial mining for me was a failure.
After all my hopes and dreams it was a melancholy confession to make but
it was evident that I must turn in another direction if I wished for
fortune, so I settled my account with the workmen and dismissed them.
At their departure my Sam-Sam who had become in the meantime a robust
young man, begged me to let him return to his own part, saying that
there was a young Sakai willing to take his place in my service.
Although very sorry to lose the faithful companion of that never to be
forgotten journey through the forest, I could not refuse his request and
let him do as he wished.
It was with real pleasure that I fell in with him again some years after
when I was travelling through the interior of Kedah and he too evinced
great joy at the meeting.
He told me that what he had earned from me had been the means of making
his fortune, for with it he had bought a piece of ground and some oxen,
and now kept himself, his wife and two children, by agricultural work.
* * * * *
As I have said, the gold was very scarce. After the coolies had left I
tried to persuade the Sakais to take their post, which would have saved
expense in gathering it, but every effort was useless for these people
do not and will not understand what works means, or the pleasure it
gives, beyond that of preparing poisons.
Poison is the principal topic of conversation with them and their only
boast is the discovery of new or more deadly mixtures. The children
listen to these discourses with lively interest and pay anxious
attention to the experiments made by their elders in this primitive kind
of chemistry, and in this way the passion is propagated from father to
son and so it will continue until the breath of civilization reaches
that far-off spot and those good, simple men learn that, in the struggle
for life, civilized persons no longer use poisons that kill the body,
but those which are much more terrible and without an antidote, such as
envy, calumny, hatred and luxury, which destroy the mind and soul.
These are the venemous elements that my forest friends do not yet know,
those poor savages who extract their poisons from the _ipok_[3] and
other, trees to defend themselves against wild beasts and to procure
them food in their wild abode.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: The _ipok_, known in science by the Javenese name of
_upas_, is a tree that affords a very baneful poison as explained in the
chapter upon poisons.]