ap JOURNEY ACROSS THE MALAY PENINSULA. 
there is no likelihood of improvement in this respect. At the 
present time the Chinese population of Pékan numbers about - 
eighty,and when asked why that is so, they reply because the 
taxation, both in system and as including every article of 
import or export, is intolerable, and that if ever they import 
from outside, or buy in the interior anything of value, it is 
removed by some chief who forgets to pay for it. Chinese 
will put up with many evils and difficulties and much injus- 
tice that no European will tolerate, and while making every 
allowance for exaggeration, mistakes and wilful falsehoods, 
the fact that there are not more than two or three hundred 
Chinese in the whole of this large and rich State so close to 
Singapore is the best proof of how matters really stand. 
This is the fourth time 1 have visited Pahang, and I have 
on this occasion had an opportunity of verifying some of the 
stories that have reached us in the last two years. Without 
proceeding to details, I can say that those whose experience 
of the Peninsula has been confined to the Protected Native 
States would be rather astonished at the manners and customs 
still prevalent in the governing class in Pahang and if Eu- 
ropeans will risk their capital in any large undertaking here 
and can manage to comply with their obligations, get business 
transacted, and obtain justice and satisfaction in their dealings 
with those they are brought in contact with, I think it 
will be a little surprising. It will also be well for them to 
remember that in a purely Malay State patience is not so 
much a virtue as a necessity. 
A good many wide and well selected roads have been laid 
out and formed, but not metalled, in and about the Pékan ; 
some fair bridges have also been constructed, and it seems as 
if, in any future arrangements for the housing of a large 
Chinese or other population, some new ground would have to 
be chosen for the site of a town, as there is none available up- 
stream of the canal to which I have referred. Below that, 
however, land might be got and a town built with the advan- 
tage that large boats and steam-launches can get to this poimt 
and lie there while they cannot reach the mouth of the canal 
owing to the shallowness of the water. 
All the ground about the Yam Tuan’s house being already 
occupied, the best spot for dwelling houses is the island which 
