Page 278 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
The Resident, we were told, had been murdered
at Pasir Salak, and we could not well doubt the
truth of that report. Then the people on both
banks of the river for miles above and below Pasir
Salak were on the watch for us the Residency
;
was in the hands of the Maharaja Lela's people,
the Sikhs killed or fugitives in the jungle ; worst of
the river at Pasir Salak was staked from bank
all,
to bank, and if so no boat could pass that barrier.
There were two points of minor moment first,
that the Residency boats were all painted white, we
had one of them, and no native-owned boat in the
country was white. That fact made us so conspi-
cuous that we did not think it worth while to lower
the Union Jack we carried at the stern. Secondly,
up to that time no house-boat had ever made the
from to Pasir Salak in like
journey Blanja anything
and we
twelve hours, calculated, therefore, that we
should reach the point of greatest danger in broad
daylight, probably about 9 A.M. the next morning.
Speed was our best chance, but here again we were
handicapped by the fact that our men had been
paddling since 8.30 A.M., they had had one meal,
and now there was a night's work before them and
no time to stop for cooking.
If the conditions were as they had been stated,
262