PADDLE UP THE RIVER. 209 not, that they ought to do so; and when I explained to him that it was folly speaking to people who could not comprehend a word he said, he replied, "Ah! sir, they are like their country monkeys; they never understands you until you thrashes them: give me a dozen shipmates with our pinnace's stretchers in Parlis, and I'm blest if we would not soon make them understand English, and talk it too!" * Unprepared to dispute this theory, I allowed the subject to drop, and we soon swept out of sight of Parlis, the Malays in my crew striking up their usual paddlesong, each in turn repeating a short verse in a high key, sentimental or witty, and the whole breaking into a chorus which ran somewhat thus "Ah! ya-nō-nasī, nā no and sounded very prettily, while the movements of their bodies and stroke of their paddles kept time to the tune. The scenery improved rapidly. We appeared to be approaching a range of hills which would bar our farther ascent, and I expected every moment to come to a fall or a rapid; instead of which we swept through another gapway in the hills, similar to the one where the stockade had been erected, and then we entered into the broad valley of Quedah; for in the far distance the lofty and picturesque peaks of the Malayan Ghauts stretched in a north and south direction, with nothing intervening. The forest was open, and although the long drought had * A boat's stretcher is a piece of wood which goes across the bottom of a boat, to enable the rowers to throw a greater weight on their oars. It is a favourite weapon of offence with English boats' crew. told somewhat on the leaves of the trees as well as the grass and underwood, the varied and mellowed tint of withered vegetation softened and added to the beautiful variety of the scene. Birds were in places very numerous, and a species of pheasant ran along the banks of the river as if it was never fired at. Schools of monkeys and numerous alligators, with the glimpse of a couple of deer, showed what abundance of sport there was to be had. I had, however, too anxious a duty to perform to wait for shooting bird or beast, except in one instance, when I observed a large female alligator, with two young ones not two feet long lying by her, close to the bank. Desirous of shooting the dam, so as to capture the babies alive, I fired, and struck her, as I fancied, mortally, for she sprang half round, and there lay champing her teeth. together in a savage manner, as if in agony. There were several other alligators about, and I proposed to the men in my boat to get out and chase them away, as I had often seen them do at the mouth of the river. But they would not hear of it, and assured me it was a very different thing to attack alligators that were accustomed to men, as these brutes were; besides which, fresh water always made them more savage and dangerous. Unwilling to be detained, I pushed on as hurriedly as possible; and when we had gone, by my calculation, a distance of sixteen miles from the entrance of the river, another town, called Kangah, hove in sight. Desirous of making the most of the favourable tide, I determined, at all risks, to visit Kangah on my way down; and except that a few children ran out and gazed WATER PROCURED. 211 upon us, our appearance attracted little curiosity. A mile or so above the town we arrived opposite some powder-mills, where a Malay sentry hailed us, and having told him we had Haggi Loung's permission to go for water, he did not detain us. This fellow's confidence in his chief amused me. I asked him if Datoo Mahomet Alee was at Kangah. "No," he replied, "he is on his march to Quedah !" "How about the Siamese?" my interpreter asked. "Pish!" said the sentinel; "the Siamese! they will all be destroyed!" We did not wait for further information, and, shortly afterwards, finding the water perfectly fresh, we being then about eighteen miles from the sea, we laid on our paddles and filled our casks, bathed, washed, and drank water, with all the abandon of men who had long been strangers to the luxury of fresh water in large quantities. CHAPTER XX. THE LADIES OF KANGAH BATHING-HALT TO LUNCH AT KANGAH -KANGAH, ITS SITUATION-MODE OF CONSTRUCTING MALAY HOUSES THE MOSQUE--THE BAZAAR AND ITS OCCUPANTS— ARRIVAL OF ARMED MEN-RETURN TO THE BOAT-PRAISEWORTHY FIDELITY OF THE MALAYS-MALAY INDEPENDENCE OF CHARACTER-THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY-A MALAY FAMILYSCENE-RETURN TO PARLIS-PULO QUETAM-TRADE DURING BLOCKADE. OUR casks filled, we turned our head down the stream and dropped down to Kangah, where I purposed having our noonday meal, and waiting for the tide to have ebbed sufficiently to insure us a rapid passage down to the gunboats. At a point just above the town, where some lofty trees threw a pleasant shade half across the stream, all the female population of Kangah, as well as the children, were enjoying a bath. We passed through the scene of their enjoyment; and, to say the least of it, it was amazingly novel, and carried one back to the days of Captain Cook in a very abrupt manner. The married women had on dark-blue cotton dresses, but the rest were in that cool attire in which artists usually represent our first parents to have indulged in Paradise. Gallantry compels me to allow that conscious innocence formed a very charming mantle to the young ladies. A THE LADIES OF KANGAH BATHING. 213 contrary and depraved state was fully exemplified in Tom West, who actually blushed through his bronzed cheeks, and expressed his opinion with "Dang ye! you're a rum lot. I wonder what my old mother would say, if she could only see ye. I wish Parson Hawker* was here!" My Malays, however, paddled through these waternymphs without uttering a word or making a gesture which could be construed into anything like disrespect. Whether this propriety arose from a proper and generous feeling at intruding upon the privacy of the women, or from a knowledge that any insult, real or imaginary, would be quickly resented by the ready creeses of the kinsmen of these ladies, I know not; but whatever the motive, it was equally a source of gratification to myself; and the comparison I drew in my own mind as to what would have been the conduct, under similar circumstances, of six of our own English seamen, was not in favour of the latter. Choosing a convenient part of the river bank opposite Kangah, we made our sampan fast, and proceeded to cook rice for lunch. A moderate crowd collected to look at the white men, who were Tom West and myself; but they were civil, and behaved very differently from those of Parlis. Some person in the town sent me down a basket of delicious mangoes, and others lent us some mats to shield ourselves from the rays of the sun, which poured down with equatorial fierceness upon our exposed boat. All * Parson Hawker is an imaginary clergyman, who, the west-country sailors assert, used to marry them per force to the Devonport lasses, and exact his fee in savings out of their naval rations-such as flour, pork, &c. |