Page 245 - Malay sketches

JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH
interest. The revolting practice of debt-slavery,
under which the slaves often suffered indescribable
wrongs, was rife in the land, and, though contrary
to the Muhammadan religion, was supported and
clung to by all the upper classes. The State was
torn by internal dissensions, the jealousies and
rivalries of opposing claimants to the Sultanship
and other high offices. The rivers and jungle tracks
were the only means of getting about the country.
The white man was an unknown and unfeared
quantity.
Mr. Birch, unfortunately, for all his long Eastern
experience, knew very little of Malays and almost
nothing of their language, and, though he always
had with him a very capable Malay interpreter, the
inability to carry on a direct conversation with chiefs
and people greatly increased his difficulties. He was
not, however, the man to sit down in the face of
opposition either to save himself trouble or to ac-
knowledge defeat, and the consequence was that his
extraordinary energy in travelling about the country,
"
spying out the land," and his persistence in attempt-
to redress
ing grievances, to save lives, to bring the
guilty to punishment, and to induce the then Sultan
Abdullah and his immediate following to mend their
ways, earned him the determined opposition of all
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