Page 254 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
1st November was the Hdri Raya, the first day
after the Fast. At daylight his boats went along-
side the bank, and the Resident's own boat was
made fast to the floating bath-house of a Chinese
jeweller, whose little shop stood on the high bank
a few feet from the riverside. This was the
only
Chinese house in Pasir Salak.
Mr. Birch was accompanied by Lieut. Abbott,
an armed guard of twelve Sikhs, a Sikh orderly,
the Malay interpreter (an eminently respectable
Malay of nearly fifty named Muhammad Arshad),
and a number of Malay boatmen and servants.
There must have been about forty people in the
Mr. Birch had with him a brass
party. 3-Pr. gun,
a small mortar, and a number of English fire-arms
and Malay weapons, besides other property.
after their arrival Mr. Abbott borrowed
Directly
a small boat from the Chinaman and went across
the river to Kampong Gajah to shoot snipe, the
Chief of that place, the Datoh Sagor, returning in
the boat to Pasir Salak, where he at once sought
an interview with Mr. Birch.
After this conversation, which was held in the
the Datoh
Resident's boat, Sagor and Mr. Birch's
went to the Lela's
interpreter Maharaja house, and
said to the
the interpreter Maharaja Lela that the
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