Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/101

 I took about 69 to 70 hours to arrive at the river Tamileng up stream from Kwala Sungei Pahang. The journey was made in a tolerably large flat-bottomed boat, which four Malays pushed forward with long poles, two and two by turns. This kind of transport, which I have met with here, in Johor, Kelantan and almost all over the Malay Peninsula, is used partly on account of the slight depth, but chiefly because of the notable force of the current. In this respect it has a great advantage over the car, for each new push with the pole, holding as it does to the ground, hinders, or at least reduces to a minimum, the backward flow of the current. If, under these circumstances, one reckons the rate of advance at 1 to 1½ miles per hour (which reckoning in any case is not at all too high) then the distance of Kwala Sungei Tamileng from the estnary of the Sungei Pahang (all bendings of the stream included) is about 70 to 80 English miles. Not far from the Kwala Tamileng I found the river Pahang, though somewhat narrower than in its lower stream, was about 40 fathoms wide, or about as broad as in its middle course. At the mouth of the Tamileng on the right bank of that river, lies an important village called Kampong Roh. Here I found it necessary to transfer my rather large covered boat (in which all my baggage, two servants and five Malays had found room) into two small open canoes.

The bed of the river Tamileng is, it must be allowed, in many places rather narrow, and forms numerous rapids (Jeram); whilst in others, owing to the silting of the sand, the water is very shallow. Following the course of the river Tamileng, we passed the sixth rapid, and I reckoned that at this spot we were 250 feet above the level of the sea.

Near the sixth rapid, at the kampong of Pengulu Gendong, I noticed at some distance a remarkable mountain, which was pointed out to me as Gunong Tahan. I believe that from here the mountain could be reached in 2 or 3 days. The bank of the river Tamileng appeared to be tolerably well-peopled, mostly by Malays, but I also remarked several Chinamen among them.

The unexpected visit of an "orang puteh," never seen here before, filled the people with such misgivings that they stood quite dumb, and to all questions that were put only answered "tra tau" "baru datang" or "bulum tau." It was often difficult not to take people, who became thus suddenly dumb, for regular "mikro kephalen." After I had followed the Tamileng up its course for 22 hours, I came to the