OF THE MALAY PEHTWSrLA. IG5 



and Abdullah had not sufficient courage to revenge the outrage, 

 though the opportunity was offered him. Ismail, on the other 

 hand, was an old and inoffensive man, and willing to let the Chiefs 

 have their own way, provided he was not directly injured. 



Sultan Ar,i died and was buried, and Ismail was elected 

 Sultan by an influential body of the Chiefs. 



It has been stated that the reason for this election was that 

 Abdullah would not come to the Sultan's funeral, but neither 

 Sultan Jaffab nor Sultan Ali were present at the funeral of 

 that Sultan whose death gave them the supreme power, and in 

 Sultan Ali's case it was four months before he, then in Larut, 

 came into Perak proper after Sultan Jaffab's death. 



This excuse is not, therefore, worth a moment's consideration, 

 and it may be added that it is not the custom in Perak that the 

 successor should be present at the late Sultan's funeral, or rather 

 custom it may be, but it is not an " adat negri," a custom which 

 should not be broken through. 



There were two circumstances which did, no doubt, account for 

 the election ; one, that as Bendahfira Ismail was in possession of 

 the Regalia with the keeping of which he was charged ; and 2ndly, 

 that he was put forward and almost made Sultan by the Mentri, 

 an officer of high rank then entrusted with the Q-overnment of 

 Larut, and the wealthiest man in Perak. 



There were several reasons why the Mentri wished Abdullah 

 not to be elected, and several why he should, in default of Abdul- 

 lah, prefer the choice to fall on Ismail. 



The Mentri was an enemy of Abdullah's and always had 

 been. Abdullah, as a Prince of the blood royal of Perak, had 

 demanded money from the Mentri, and been refused, and he had. 

 partly by threats and partly by deceit, gbt the Mentri. to assist 

 him in farming the revenues of Krian, a Province claimed by the 

 Mentri, to one party, when the Mentri had already given it to 

 another, and we shall see how Abdullah afterwards adopted the 

 cause of that faction of Chinese in Larut which the Mentri had 

 declared to be his enemies, 



