Page 284 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
and in a few seconds we were a
alongside Selangor
steam-launch.
Only then we learnt that Bandar Bharu had not
fallen into the hands of the and we had
enemy,
therefore come ten miles further than was
necessary ;
but we congratulated ourselves on the forbearance
we had shown in not shooting the sentries, and
later in the morning, when we got up to the
Residency, suggested that if the Sikh felt lonesome
in the watches it would
night perhaps be wiser for
him not to stand in the full blaze of a
large lamp.
The Lela and his friends
Maharaja professed
themselves both surprised and disappointed when
they found I had arrived at Bandar Bharu, having
passed Pasir Salak without their knowledge. I
daresay, however, that some of them were not alto-
gether sorry that they had been spared a meeting
with Raja Mahmud, for he was reckoned a mighty
man of valour. In my case he was also a wise
counsellor, for subsequent disclosures proved that had
I landed at Blanja the intention was to immediately
attack and murder me, and when we so abruptly
left that place the ingenuous Haji Ali and his friend
the Penglima Prang Semaun with a number of their
men were sent after us in fast boats on a mission
similar to the one they had previously undertaken
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