Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/100

 "Got the boat cleared out, freshly caulked, and got galas (poles), kajangs, and rudder, and floated her. She seems too large for the work, but "beggars etc."

"August, 16th.—Unable to persuade any one even to help us in getting the boat under way, we started on our journey to Pahang. The party consists of O'Brien, the three police and myself—and provisions for 10 days, viz: rice, tea, a few tins of sardines and powder and shot—relying upon shooting a few pigeons now and then for fresh meat."

"At starting from Kwala Jumpol had great difficulty in getting the prahu over the sandy bars, and, though the distance from the Kwala up the River Jumpol to the place where the boats are taken overland at Penarri is only about 1 mile, we took over three hours dragging the boat. It is a very narrow steam, choked with fallen timber and sand banks overhanging with the mach dreaded thorns, called "unas" by the Malays, that resemble tigers' claws and tear everything they lay hold of. Nearly all the time we were in the water dragging the boat along."

"On arriving at Penarri we took everything out of the boat and carried the things across to the River Ilir Serêting, and in the evening we managed to get fourteen men at ten cents a head to pull the boat across the dividing land from River Jumpol to River Ilir Serêting. I measured the distance from one river to the other,—it is 24 chains or a little more than a quarter of a mile; There is a rise of 25 feet from the river bed up the first bank, and we were a long time pulling the heavy boat up to the level land. Long bamboos were lashed to the fore thwart of the boat and all hands hauled at the bamboos—the knots on the bamboo giving good holding power. It was a fine moonlight night and the excitable Malays worked with a will, making a great noise.

"When we had got the boat across, after two hours' work, and safely deposited in the other river, I sent up a couple of rockets to their great delight and paid them. Gave quinine to a great many who had remittent fever and ague.

"It is a great relief to have got so far, and away from the Kwala Jumpol people who are foolish and suspicious from ignorance, and who were threatening mischief.

III. (From Ulu Pahang to Ulu Kelantan. A short Itinerary, compiled from the note book kept by M. de Maclay, 1875.)