Page 253 - Malay sketches

JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH

he had slipped down and so badly sprained his
ankle that he could not walk without crutches.
Lieut. Abbott, R.N., and four were at
bluejackets
Bandar Bharu where were also
(the Residency),
quartered the Sikh guard (about eighty men), the
boatmen, and others.
Mr. Birch undertook to distribute the proclama-
tions himself in the down-river districts, and
directed me to go up river, to interview the ex-
Sultan Ismail, the Raja Muda, the Raja Bendahara,
and other up-country chiefs, and, having distributed
the proclamations at all important villages from
Kota Lama downwards, to try to meet him at
Pasir Salak on the 3rd November. There, he told
me, he expected trouble for which he was quite
prepared.
The Sikh guard was in a state bordering on
mutiny in the evening of the 27th, but by the
following morning they seemed to have returned
to their senses, and about noon I left Bandar
Bharu with two boats for the interior, Mr. Birch
starting down stream at the same time.
He must have got through his part of the work
than he for he reached
more rapidly expected,
Pasir Salak with three boats at midnight on the
ist November, and anchored in midstream. The
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