64: A JOURNEY ON FOOT TO THE PATANI FRONTIER. 
Pulai was the first settlement on the river bank which I noticed. 
The population seemed to be numerous and a good many groups 
assembled at the river side to stare at us. At Kampong Datoh a 
little lower down the river we stopped for the night. Penghulu 
Cuz Wane, the headman of the place, came on board to see me 
and to offer his services and the resources of his village such as 
they were. It was dark by this time and it was not worth while 
to land, J remained on board the boat for the night, while most 
of my people billeted themselves on the villagers. 
April 14th. The Giti is terribly obstructed in the whole of its 
course by fallen timber. The conservancy of rivers is not under- 
stood in Malay forests, and where every successive rainy season, by 
the undermining of the river-banks by floods, causes the fall of 
numbers of trees into the stream below, the state of the navigable 
highway may be conceived. Just enough is cleared away to per- 
mit boats to pass, but in going down-stream, even by daylight, the 
most skilful steering is required to avoid contact with snags, and at 
night progress is almost impossible except in very small boats. 
Ours was one of the largest boats in use on the river and the 
bumps which she received in the course of the day were so numer- 
ous and severe that it was wonderful how she held together. 
Before the day was over we had lost a great part of the framework 
in the stern, which formed a sort of deck-house and supported a 
palm-thatch roof or awning. After a very winding course of a 
sood many miles, the Giti joins the river Soh and from the junc- 
tion the broad placid stream which flows down to the sea is known 
as the Muda River. 
I was determined not to spend another night on the Giti river, 
but to push on to the Muda in one day, so before daylight every- 
body was on board and we were under weigh. ‘The history of this 
day would only be an account of the exertions made to keep the 
polers at work and to prevent them from idling and losing time. 
From the first they declared that it was quite impossible to reach 
Kuala Giti in one day, that it had never been done in their recol- - 
lection except by small boats and that we should be overtaken by 
darkness and capsized by collision with snags. No halt was per- 
mitted for cooking ; our morning meal was prepared on board, and 
