278 SYMPATHY AND CONFIDENCE TOWARDS EUROPEANS. 
other nations : they dislike not the Chinese; and they have a remark¬ 
able sympathy for Europeans, and place unlimited trust in them even 
after a single interview. The reason is that generally Europeans show in 
their conversation a security and franckness, which by its great con¬ 
trast with the deeeitfulness of the Malays, catches at once the hearts 
of this people of children, They love the European and attach them¬ 
selves to him, as soon as they know him, and the slightest good of¬ 
fice received from him, is the source of the most unbounded gratitude: 
though this fact was related to me by several persons, I scarcely be¬ 
lieved it, until I was myself witness of it. Among many examples 
which confirm what I now state, 1 will relate only one, which took 
place in a journey I undertook in the Menangkabau states in order 
to visit the Jakuns who live there; I was accompanied by the Revd. 
Mr. Boric. 
After having visited the states of Johole and Rurnbau, we reached 
that of Sungie Ujong on the sixteenth July, about 12 o’clock. We 
spent the afternoon in the village near the river where there are more 
than one hundred Malay and Chinese houses, and a Market. We 
were informed that the chief of the state was living at Pantoy, a 
place about eight or nine miles further; and was then celebrating the 
rites of a triple marriage. Three persons of the royal blood, two 
children of the chief and another of his relations, were contracting mar¬ 
riage with three persons of the first families amongst their nobility ; 
we were informed too, that the wedding was one of the most solemn 
which could be found in a Malay country; fifty buffaloes were to be 
killed, and two thousand dollars to be expended in buying rice, fowls 
and other victuals ; and also in gunpowder, which is much used in 
such solemnities; the feast was to last for two months and had al¬ 
ready begun some few days. As it is not possible in a Malay coun¬ 
try, to go to any place, without having first obtained permission from 
the chief, we took the next day our way to Pantoy in order to see 
him. We arrived at Pantoy at one o’clock in the afternoon, and at 
once we found ourselves surrounded by a number of kings, queens, 
princes, princesses, ministers of state, and officials of every rank, 
more than one hundred hadjis and Mohammedan priests, several 
