The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither, page 190 by Isabella L. Bird (Mrs Bishop)

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191

rces. His name will ever be associated with its prosperity, and his memory be long fresh in the hearts of its inhabitants."]

After it grew dark we had the splendid sight of a great tract of forest on fire close to the sea. We landed here at a pier eight hundred feet long, accessible to launches at high water, where several peons and two inspectors of police met us. Our expedition has been the talk of the little foreign world of Malacca. We had an enthusiastic welcome at Government House, but Captain Shaw says he will never forgive himself for not writing to Captain Murray in time to arrange our transport, and for sending us off so hurriedly with so little food, but I hope by reiteration to convince him that thereby we gained the night on the Linggi river, which, as a traveling experience, is worth all the rest.

I. L. B.


A

CHAPTER ON

SELANGOR*

Selangor--Capabilities of Selangor--Natural Capabilities--Lawlessness in Selangor--British Interference in Selangor--A Hopeful Outlook

Selangor is a small State lying between 2 degrees 34', and 3 degrees 42' N. Its coast-line is about one hundred and twenty miles in length. Perak is its northern boundary, Sungei Ujong its southern, and some of the small States of the Negri Sembilan and unexplored jungle and mountains separate it from Pahang on the east. It is watered by the Selangor, Klang and Langat rivers, which rise in the hills of its eastern frontier. Its population is not accurately known, but the result of an attempt to estimate it, made by the Resident in 1876, is fifteen thousand Chinese and from two thousand to three thousand Malays. Mr. Douglas, the late Resident, puts the Malay population at a higher figure, and estimates the aboriginal population at one thousand, but this is probably largely in excess of their actual numbers. [*In offering this very slight sketch of Selangor to my readers as prefatory to the letters which follow, I desire to express my acknowledgments specially t

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