Page 276 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

be madness to land at Blanja, where we should be
like rats in a trap, and the only course was to go on at
once and at all hazards before they had time to stop us.
The idea of was and
returning up-river unpleasant
well nigh impossible, it was therefore discarded at
once.
All the men in both my boats had heard what
Haji Ali said, and as some of them did not relish
the prospect of trying to run the gauntlet, I decided
to leave one boat and only take those who volun-
teered to go. That question was very soon settled,
every Perak man declined the journey ; my Manila
boy took the rudder, three foreign Malays and
Mahmud's two men formed the crew, and Mahmud
and I were the passengers. There was my Chinese
servant, he was not a man of war, and I thought he
would prefer to remain where he was, for they all
realised that the danger would be in staying with
me. When I asked him, however, he smiled a not
and a
quite pleasant smile, producing long knife said
he did not mean to move. It was quite clear that
if it came to close quarters he would give a good
account of himself.
By this time we were ready to start, but just as
the men were preparing to get the boat out into
the stream, Haji Ali appeared again to take us on
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