20 JOURNEY ACROSS THE MALAY PENINSULA. 
went to arrange for men to take us to Kota Kélanggi to-morrow 
morning as I expressed a wish to visit the caves there. 
No one has been for some time, and the path is said to be 
overgrown, so the Ton GAsauH sent off a lot of men to clear it. 
The river here is about 700 feet wide (about the same width 
as the Pérak River at Kudla Kangsa); the banks are exceed- 
ingly high and steep and the river at the present time is said 
to be lower than ever known. The Ton GAgzau says that if the 
drought continues for another two months, that is, making six 
instead of three dry months as usual, there may be partial 
famine in the place. 
The Tou GAsau settled with his people at Pulau Tawer 
twelve years ago, after he returned from Klang where he was 
sent in command of the three thousand Pahang men who, at the 
request of Governor Sir Harry Orp, were despatched by the 
Béndahara to assist Tunku Dra Uppy in the struggle with 
Raja Manpr. 
A fine kampong, and houses shut in by a long bamboo fence, 
stretches along the bank of the river in a grove of young 
cocoa-nut and other fruit trees. Behind this hamlet extends 
an almost level plain, as far as the eye can reach, broken only to 
the North by a small pointed hill, and to the Kast by the lime- 
stone rocks in which are the caves of Kota Kélanggi. A con- 
siderable portion of the plain is now being ploughed for the 
cultivation of rice, and the rest is jungle. 
Far away to the West is the mass of hills called Ganong 
Raya, to the North of which lies the river down which we 
have come. The mountains of the main range are nowhere 
visible, and we are told that the mouth of the Pahang River 
lies from here East a little South. 
Tou GAsau’s father was a Sumatran Malay, his mother a 
Pahang woman; he is reported to be a great warrior, is the 
Field Marshal of Pahang and ranks with the Orang Bésar 
Ampat or Chiefs of the first class. Ie is a man of much 
energy, greatly feared by the discontented faction in the upper 
country and greatly trusted by the Yam Tian. 
I have ascertained from Cue Aut, who is a good authority 
and one of the Yam Tiian’s most trusted adherents, that the 
following are the principal Chiefs of Pahang :— 
