Page 266 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
ment with Her in a
Majesty's troops neighbouring
State (Sungei Ujong), and as I had subsequently
persuaded him to go to Singapore and give himself
up to the Governor, he had attached himself to me
and the of trouble in
thoroughly enjoyed possibility
Perak.
Then I had a Manila boatman, one of the best
coxswains on the river, a marvellous dancer of
hornpipes and no less courageous than Raja Mahmud
himself more so he could be.
hardly Lastly,
Mahmud had a of men devoted
couple to himself,
and I had a Chinese servant.
This the wet season the river was
being high,
poling difficult and progress slow, so that it was
not till the morning of the 3Oth that we reached
Blanja, the village of Sultan Ismail. As Ismail
had been elected Sultan a number of influential
by
chiefs who declined to or
recognise either Jusuf
Abdullah (though both of them had far superior
claims), and, as by the Pangkor Treaty and re-
cognition of Abdullah, Ismail no doubt felt aggrieved,
I did not expect a very friendly reception from him,
nor did I suppose that I should be specially welcome
as the bearer of proclamations which could not be
otherwise than distasteful to him. It was six
only
weeks since I had been at Blanja with the Governor,
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