24 
FIVE DAYS IN NANING, 
WITH A WALK TO THE FOOT OF GUNONG DATU IN 
RAMBAU. 
By J, R. Logan, Esq., F. G. S. 
FIRST DAY. 
[ Tuesday , 9 th February , 1847*j 
The time limited for my stay in Malacca was now nearly 
exhausted, but I could not bring myself to leave without 
having a glimpse, however fleeting, of Naning. This coun¬ 
try lies immediately behind the old boundaries of the Eu¬ 
ropean territory, and having been only amalgamated with the 
latter sixteen years ago, I anticipated that I should find 
its purely Malayan character still well preserved, and in 
strong contrast to that cf the sea bord, where foreign 
elements so numerous and so varied have been infused, 
that the Malaccans, not only as a whole, but in the separate 
races of which they are composed, are stamped with a pecu 
liar local impress. There were other strong inducements to 
visit it. The disjointed chapters of the primeval physical 
history of the country, inscribed in characters more or 
less legible in the slowly opening records of the wasting 
coasts, might be applied in deciphering the more obscure 
geology of the interior, and might, in their turn, receive 
fresh meaning from the latter. The spirit of old Malayan 
life too, preserved only in story, had once animated scenes 
now buried in the jungles of Naning, or perhaps still the 
abodes of Malays, but as completely obscured, in all their 
ancient lineaments, to the eyes of their occupants, as if they 
had lain in a distant land. A closer interest was excited by 
recent events ending in the final disruption of that social and 
political system which had given its peculiar character to the 
older history of the country, and this revolution, in its course, 
had for a time converted the quiet pathways and silent forests 
into the scene of war. Lastly, I had a strong hope of being 
able to visit, in their own recesses, some of the singular 
ancient races of the country, long since pressed back into 
the interior by foreign colonists, and who, leaving the suc¬ 
cessive influxions of these to contest the dominion of the 
plains with each other, had, for many ages, secluded them¬ 
selves in the deep jungles of the mountains. 
