THROUGH THE MALAY JUNGLE 25 



mous dividends. It is not, however, the Malay who 

 is responsible : he is satisfied with the existing order 

 of things so long as no personal toil is involved, and 

 when hungry he has only to turn to his banana 

 patch: the thrifty Chinaman organizes the com- 

 panies, the wealthy Hindu finances them, the Tamil 

 from Madras supplies the labor, and the English- 

 man guarantees peace. Thus development goes 

 steadily forward, and the Malay Federated States 

 are taking their rightful place in the great markets 

 of the world. 



We entered the peninsula from the port of Pe- 

 nang, which with Malacca, Province Wellesley, and 

 Singapore forms what are known as the British 

 Straits Settlements. A railway journey through 

 great palm forests and vast stretches of rice-culti- 

 vated country, where big black water-buffaloes 

 were in evidence in all directions, carrying burdens 

 or turning irrigation wheels, and where hundreds of 

 coolies in their pagoda-shaped hats worked knee- 

 deep in the flooded padi-fields, brought us to 

 Taiping, a large town in the state of Perak. It was 

 here, I remember, that a trifling incident gave me 

 my first insight into the true Malay character. 



We found ourselves on the unlighted station plat- 

 form at night, in utter darkness and a most dis- 

 piriting deluge of rain ; hungry, weary, and wet as 



