OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE DINDINGS. 37 



the best fresh water of the whole East Indies is found, and this 

 I believe to be the fact, for I myself (in my own opinion) have 

 never in any other country in India drunk better water than 

 in these two places. " 



He goes on to relate how he and his friends " heard in the 

 wildernesses many Rattle-snakes," but they did not see any 

 although they " made search for these monsters." The Pang- 

 kor of to-day is very well provided in the matter of reptiles, 

 but the rattlesnakes must have left the island when the Dutch 

 did, for I have never heard of one being seen. What SCHOUTEN 

 heard was probably the hamadryad {Ophiophagns elaps), which 

 makes a peculiar noise, but not with its tail. He also men- 

 tions that they " plucked the Oysters of the Trees," and grave- 

 ly proceeds to explain how they got there, as "this might 

 seem to some people incredible." 



After a stay of five days, WOUTER SCHOUTEN left Pangkor 

 and proceeded on his voyage to Bengal on the 3rd December, 

 but, meeting with bad weather immediately after leaving, he 

 had to put back to refit, and left again finally the next day. 



Turning again to the Malacca records, we find a letter dated 1670. 

 5th August, 1670, in which orders are given to take posses- 

 sion of Pulau Dinding, and to build there a stronghold of 

 wood ; and another letter dated 31st October in the same year 

 laying down that the garrison shall consist of 1 sergeant, 3 

 soldiers and 3 sailors. There is nothing to show when this 

 order was carried out, but DAMPIER, w 7 ho visited Pangkor 19 

 years later, found there "a Governour and about 20 or 30 sol- l ^9- 

 diers " and a fort of stone (brick ?). Besides the fort, the Gov- 

 ernor had a house about a hundred yards away, where he used 

 to spend the day, but he never trusted himself outside the 

 fort at night on account of the hostility of the Malays, who, 

 as VALENTYN says of Perak Malays generally, were, "very foul 

 and murderous." The Perak Malays seem to have had a bad 

 reputation from the earliest times. HAMILTON, alluding to the 

 "cutting off" of the Dutch factory in Perak in 1651, remarks 

 that "the inhabitants are so treacherous, faithless and bloody 

 that no European nation can keep factories there;" and, 

 speaking of "Selangore" and <l Parsalore," he observes that 



