226 JIN ABU FINDS 



myself calculating how I could get all the ivory 

 into that already over- weighted canoe. I had been 

 told at Siak that the interior natives were un- 

 friendly to the coast natives as well as to for- 

 eigners, but I never saw evidence of it. True, my 

 Malays and those they met did not fall upon one 

 another's necks, but they were civil to each other; 

 while I personally found the interior natives more 

 approachable and decidedly better mannered than 

 those of the rivers. They did not strew my path 

 with roses, nor put themselves to any especial 

 pains to aid my search for elephant ; on the other 

 hand, they added no obstacles to those already 

 gathered. They had not before seen a white man, 

 but they did not stand staring at me for all time ; 

 they had lost no elephants, but were willing to 

 enter my employ if I made it worth while— as I 

 did, you may be sure ; as I had to, in order to get 

 packers. 



Notwithstanding the reports— and reports are 

 one thing and game quite another, in the Far East 

 —as elsewhere— we searched the jungle four days, 

 with the brother of the tapioca farmer as guide, 

 for elephant signs, and found none sufficiently 

 fresh to give encouragement. Except for being 

 not quite so wet, the jungle here is something like 

 that of the Malay Peninsula. In the interior and 

 densest jungles of the Peninsula nearly every tree 



