69 A JOURNEY ON FOOT TO THE PATANI FRONTIER. 
on my way. They were the bearers of a letter of which this was 
said to be the purport. Malays, unlike us, do not put in a letter 
all that they have to say ; the despatch of a letter usually involves 
a special messenger, and to him are confided viva voce most of the 
requests, commissions or information, which we should entrust to 
the penny post. The letter itself often contains little beyond 
complimentary phrases, and is useful rather as evidence of the 
genuineness of the errand than anything else. This accounts for 
Tuan Prang’s messengers being able to tell the Chinese of Intan 
the nature of the communication of which they were the bearers. 
Fone Kwr was anxious to know if there was any chance that this 
part of the Peninsula would come under British rule. The pro- 
eress of events in Perak was evidently beimg closely watched by 
the Chinese in Patani who would like to find themselves indepeud- 
ent of the Malays. 
When al! was ready for the start, a financial difficulty had to be 
encountered. Various purchases had been made on the evening 
before, and dollars were now tendered in payment. Copper coin, 
however, was terribly scarce and change was not to be had. The 
shopkeeper proved to be the gainer by this, for additional articles 
had to be bought to bring the account up to an even sum in silver. 
From Intan there is a path towards the N. E. which goes to 
Endah and Kroh. Avoiding this, we commenced the day’s march 
by a short but steep ascent which took us to the top of a hill W. 
of the mines. At the foot of it, on the other side, the path crosses 
Ayer Kajang, a stream which runs into the river Kwah, one of the 
tributaries of the Rui. From this point the ground again rises 
and several slight elevations have to be crossed before the Kedah 
frontier is reached. From two of these—Bukit Petai and Bukit 
Daru—good views of the white cliffs of Gunong Wang near Baling 
were obtained. Monkeys were numerous on this part of the 
track and we repeatedly encountered troops of them (a long-— 
tailed species ) leaping and chattering among the trees to which 
wild fruit of some kind had probably attracted them. At one 
point the monotony of the march through the never-ending forest 
was broken by the appearance of two men coming from the direc- 
