23 KELANTAN AND GUNONG TAHAN. 



far ahead of them all, by myself, thinking they would hurry on 

 when they found that they were being- left so far behind. To- 

 wards three o'clock in the afternoon, just when I had decided to 

 stop and await my men, I heard a shout down river, and on my 

 answering, a boat appeared, that had been sent up from the vil- 

 lage to meet us. Two of the Malays whom I thought were far 

 behind me had lost my track altogether, and in looking for it 

 they had come across the real path to the village, and this cheer- 

 ing them up. they had hurried on to the village, and hearing 

 there that we had not yet arrived, they sent a boat up stream to 

 meet us. I waited till my other men came up, and then we all 

 went down the river to the village, arriving there just as a 

 heavy thunderstorm came on, and very thankful were we to be 

 under a good roof again. The day after, the three men that I had 

 sent for provisions came back to the village with a long tale of 

 woe. They had arrived there four or five days before us, 

 having taken fourteen days to reach it, whereas it took us 

 only seven days. They had then bought some provisions and 

 started on their return journey to the mountain. When two days 

 out, their Sakai coolies ran away and left them ; and instead of 

 pushing on by themselves as they ought to have done, they 

 returned to the village to obtain other coolies. So it was well for 

 us that we did not stop at the foot of the mountain and wait for 

 them to come back. 



After the men had rested for four or five days, I sent them 

 back to the mountain, together with a number of Malays from the 

 village, to fetch the orchids and my other things that we had 

 left behind. The coolies were to bring these back to Buntie, 

 whereas my own men would go from the mountain back to 

 Fulai, where they would fetch those of my things that I had 

 left there ; and then going down by the Galas river, join me at 

 Kota Bahru. It was impossible for me to return to the moun- 

 tain myself, having no shoes, with my feet in a terrible state, 

 swollen and torn, so that I was scarcely able to walk for days 

 after. Had it been otherwise I should certainly have gone back 

 and stayed up on the mountain for another month. Shortly 

 after the men had left I got a bad attack of fever, which luckily 

 did not last very lung but left me very weak. I got a tiger 

 while waiting for the return of the men, there seeming to be 



