FROM PERAK TO SLIM, AND DOWN THE SLIM 

 AND BERNAM RIVERS. 



BY 

 Frank A. Swettenham. 



I have offered the following Journal of a Journey, made in 

 February, 1875, from Durien Sebntang on the Perak river to Slim, 

 and down the Slim and Bernam rivers to the sea, because it appears 

 to me a fitting continuation of Mr. Leech's second Paper in the 

 last number of the Journal, and also because, I believe, I was the 

 first white man who ever ascended the Songkei river, visited Slim, 

 or descended the Bernam river ; and even after my journey I 

 found it difficult to convince those who took any interest in the 

 matter at all — and in 1875 they were very few in number — that 

 the Bernam river, which does not even yet appear on the Admi- 

 ralty Charts of the Straits of Malacca, is, in many respects, the finest 

 river in the peninsula, some two miles wide at the mouth, navigable 

 for large steamers for many miles, and, most curiously, having 

 its emlouchure less than twenty miles from that of the Perak 

 river — a much longer river than the Bernam, one which drains afar 

 greater extent of country, and is itself navigable for steamers for 

 a distance of forty to fifty miles. 



So far the Malay Peninsula had been, so to speak, a book 

 which we had been content to see lying unopened within our 

 reach ; we saw only the cover, indeed only one side of the cover ; 

 the names of the large Malay States were unknown to ail but a 

 very few, and their real position and boundaries to none in the 

 Straits Settlements. 



