583 
notice of the ways and thoughts of men, I remember that the 
kinds of rice eaten by men in the Malay country were as follows : 
fi) Javanese rice, very good in quality, with a short stem like the 
present Rangoon rice, only a little smaller. (2) Siamese rice (3, 
Rangoon rice. (4) *ice from Acheen. (5) R\ce from Malacca. 
Those were the five places which produced nee eaten in this 
■ country. " ~ . 
In olden times my grandfather, Sultan Muhammad of Selangor, 
was himself very fond of planting padi and also rigorously insisted 
on all his subjects doing so too. There were tools, and men, 
moreover, to work. 1 hose who were slow or who did not toil at 
padi planting were punished. On the Selangor river from lelok 
Penyamun, on the right bank and on the left, as far as*Kampong 
Kedah, in the interior, nothing but padi fields could be seen in 
those clays. I well remember that in 1273 (A. H.) the year in which 
Sultan Muhammad was buried, I bought Selangor rice at the rate 
of a hundred gantangs for $5, and padi at the rate of a hundre 
gantangs for $2.50 ; ducks, fowls and goats were cheap, because 
in those days every kind of provision was plentiful and abundant. 
Moreover the Langat river from Pendamaran to the place where 
the canal has been cut, and from the canal to the river Rambay, 
right and left, Malays worked at their ladangs, and there were no 
sawahs. Prices were the same as in Selangor. 1 he Selangor mea- 
sures differed from those used in Lukut, ten gantangs (Selangor) 
going to twelve and a-half gantangs (Malacca), for in Lukut the 
Malacca measure was used, the food for mining coolies coming 
from Malacca. At that time no foreign rice was consumed in 
Selangor. , , , 
In 1273 (A. H.) Sultan Muhammad died and was succeeded by 
Sultan Abdul Samad. There were then sawahs in Selangor, while 
on the Langat river men planted ladangs. In 1276 (A, H.) rinder- 
pest broke out, and it may be said that all the buffaloes in Selangor 
died; there remained only ten or twelve, which escaped into the 
jungle and became wild. These are now in the neighbourhood ot 
Jeram. The result of this was that the Selangor ratals ceased 
working sawahs , having lost, as it were, the chief implement of 
their trade. Sultan Abdul Samad was not powerful enough to 
insist on the work being continued, for though he himself liked 
padi planting, he could not enforce it upon the raiats of the 
country. , t> ■ 
At the age of eleven in 1274 (A H.) I was taken by the Resi- 
dent of Malacca, Mr. McPherson, who treated me as his own son, 
and sent me to the English school in Malacca. The Head Master s 
name was Jamebreek. For ten months I remained in his house, 
after which he went to Singapore. I w^as then given into the charge 
of Baba Chi Yamchwan, a merchant who had helped my people to 
open up the river Lukut. For eleven months I dwelt in his house. 
I could then write Malay, and the letters which came from Lukut 
to Baba Yamchwan were read by me. Sometimes also I wrote 
letters from Baba Yamchwan to my people. By these means I 
became acquainted with prices and other details of business. Soon 
*/W 
