FASCICULI MALATENSES 
29 
extent, at any rate as far as the adult population is concerned and in modern 
times ; for it is only within the last fifteen years that Batang Padang has been 
sufficiently opened up to admit Malay, Chinese, and Indian settlers. It does 
not appear that the upper valley of the Batang Padang River was ever within 
the sphere of purely Malay colonization, and towns such as Tapah and Bidor 
practically owe their existence to recent enterprise under British protection. 
The census report of 1901 gives the population of Batang Padang as— 
Malays of all nationalities - - 71387 
Chinese ----- 9,461 
Tamils ----- 2,693 
Other natives of India - 203 
Aborigines - - - - - 2,808 
Of the ‘aborigines,’ 1,526 were males, of whom 502 were under fifteen years 
of age ; 1,282 were females, of whom 393 were under fifteen years of age. 
These figures show a slight increase in the number of‘aborigines’ enumerated 
in 1891, probably due to more careful and systematic organization of the 
census ; it is very improbable that all the Sakai camps were visited even in 
1901, as it is known that the taking of the census caused great alarm among 
them, and that many families made preparations to cross the border into the 
neighbouring State of Pahang, where no enumeration of the aborigines was 
attempted. The area covered by virgin jungle at high elevations in this part 
of the Peninsula 1 is so great, and the country so difficult, that it is quite 
possible that aboriginal tribes may exist that have never even seen a Malay, 
much less a European. Moreover, the number of young children and women 
was almost certainly underestimated, even in those families visited by the 
enumerators. The total aboriginal population of Perak in 1901 is given as 7,982 ; 
but the census has evidently been taken with less care in some districts than in 
Batang Padang; while in one, for some reason, an unspecified number of Tamils, 
Cinghalese, and other ‘ natives of India’ is included in the ‘aboriginal 1 total. 
The only other district where the number approaches that in Batang Padang, 
is Upper Perak, where Sakais and Semangs (an tea , p. 9) are both included. 
Leaving Kinta out of consideration, as it is in this district that the Indians have 
been included, Kuala Kangsar comes third with 1,021 aborigines of both sexes 
and all ages. 
Judging from the numbers of Sakais and Semangs we have ourselves seen 
in Perak, we should regard 20,000 as a conservative estimate of their numbers 
in that State, and we do not think that contact with civilization, which, moreover 
(especially as regards the Sakais) is extremely recent, shows any tendency, at 
l. Cf. L, Wray, fn>U, under ' Miscellanea,' 
