A JOURNEY ON FOOT TO TILE PATANT FRONTIER. 19 
little hut erected inside a bamboo stockade overlooking the river. 
A flight of rough-steps cut in the steep bank led down to the water. 
The fort was occupied by a number of Mandheling men under one 
Jan Desa, who had established himself here immediately after the 
Batu Berdinding affair above related. Supplied with money, arms 
and ammunition by the Assistant Resident at Larut, he had secured 
this outpost for the British authorities, and was warmly supported 
by the Patani inhabitants of the neighbouring districts, who wel- 
comed protection from the exactions of Perak Chiefs. 
The view up-stream from Tampan is lovely. The broad, shining 
river stretches away in the distance till it seems to reach the back- 
- ground of the picture, ranges of lofty wooded hills. When I first 
saw it, the afternoon sun was giving full effect to the contrasts of 
light and shade, and the shadows cast by the tall trees on the right 
bank only brought out in greater relief the clear outlines of purple 
mountains faraway. Nota habitation was to be seen, no sight or 
sound, beyond our own little encampment, betokened the presence 
of man. In the fore-ground the smooth surface of the water was 
broken by a few rocks against which the current spent itself fruit- 
lessly. The country seemed fresh from the hands of nature and 
still unsullied by the touch of mankind, and yet a glance round at 
the scene on the bamboo floor of the hut, where Malays and their 
weapons and baggage lay scattered about in picturesque confusion, 
was quite enough to dispel the illusion. 
When it was cool enough, boats were procured, and, with a few 
men, I paddled up to the rocks in mid-stream where we bathed, and 
some of the more devout said their evening prayers. Then we 
returned to the Mandheling stockade, where culinary operations were 
in fullswing. Haji ApuBaKar, whose love of good living is strong, 
announced piously that, please God, he intended to rest to-morrow 
and taste Patani buffalo, a sentiment which seemed to command 
universal acceptance. The only stranger who visited us was one 
Dotan, Penghulu of a Perak village called Beah, lower down the 
river. He was inquisitive as to our numbers and intentions, pro- 
bably in the interests of the Kota Lama Malays, who, though 
scattered by the destruction of their villages, were hostile and ill- 
