266 THE DUTCH IN PERAK. 
of Sultan Iskanpar SHan (Marhum Kahar), and further on, where 
the Bugis invasion of Kedah (a.p. 1770) is alluded to, the fleet 
of the invaders is said to have entered the Perak river and to have 
somewhat alarmed the Dutch, by anchoring off their settlement. 
From the foregoing extracts, it is clear that the relations between 
the Malays and the Europeans were not always too friendly, 
the former being ready to resent any high-handed dealing and 
the latter being constantly on the watch for signs of treachery. 
Circumstances, to which I have no clue, probably led to the aban- 
donment of the station again between 1770, the date of the 
last mention of the Dutch in the Malay chronicle, and 1783, 
the year in which Captain Forrest visited Perak.* No Dutch 
were then in occupation of the factory at Tanjong Putus, for 
Forrest was asked by the Sultan whether they were likely to 
return. Writing of the Perak river, this author + says that it— 
“Ts navigable with safety, having acontinuel muddy bottom and sides up 
to where the Dutch have resettled{ their factory at Tanjong Putus (Bro- 
ken Point). The country is flat, consequently favourable for the cultiva- 
tion of rice, and abounds with the anecbony tree fit for many uses; it gives 
at the head a cabbage. I carried several bags of the seed to Bengal, but 
they did not grow, for what reason I cannot tell. Cattle and poultry are 
not near so cheap here as at Kedah; but oysters are to be had in quanti- 
ties near the river’s mouth and great plenty of excellent flat fish as at 
Penang. The Dutch contract with the King for all the tin at 10 Spanish 
dollars per pecul; but much of it is smuggled to Pulo Pinang by way of 
Laroot and Qualo Consow. Gunong Gantong (Hanging Hill)$ is remark- 
able near Larut river, on the bar of which is said to be 3 fathoms water. 
I went up in a country covered boat from Tanjong Putus, where the 
vesse! lay, to pay my respects to the King of Pera who received me in a large 
upper-room house with great state having about 20 guards in the room, 
dressed in black satin garments embroidered on the breast with a golden 
dragon; they wore mandarin caps and appeared altogether in the Chinese 
* The detachment in Perak was doubtless re-called to Malacca in conse- 
quence of hostilities with the English, MARSDEN mentions that in 1781 an 
expedition against Padang was fitted out at Fort Malborough ( Bencoolen ). 
+“ Voyage from Calcutta to the Mergui Archipelago.” London, 1792. 
FoRREST mentions “ the Dutch ruined fort’ at the Dindings as a place behind 
which water for shipping could be obtained, p. 27. 
+ FORREST’S book was published in 1792, by which time the Dutch were “re- 
settled’? in Perak, but he visited the river in 1783 during the temporary 
abandonment of the station. 
§ The hill which is such a noticeable land-mark is Gunong Pondok, not 
Bukit Gantang. The latter is a kampong situated within ’a circle of hills and 
supposed therefore to be like an object at the bottom of a gallon pot 
(gantang ). Tt bas nothing to do with the word guntong ( hang ). 
