# Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 5/From Perak to Slim, and down the Slim and Bernam Rivers

​FROM PÊRAK TO SLIM, AND DOWN THE SLIM AND BERNAM RIVERS.
BY
FRANK A. SWETTENHAM.
I have offered the following Journal of a Journey, made in February, 1875, from Durien Sebâtang on the Pêrak river to Stim. and down the Slim and Bernam rivers to the sea, because it appears to me a fitting continuation of Mr. Leech's second Paper in the last number of the Journal, and also because, I believe, I was the first white man who ever ascended the Songkei river, visited Slim, or descended the Bernam river; and even after my journey I found it difficult to convince those who took any interest in the matter at all—and in 1875 they were very few in number—that the Bernam river, which does not even yet appear on the Admi- ralty Charts of the Straits of Malacca, is, in many respects, the finest river in the peninsula, some two miles wide at the mouth, navigable for large steamers for many miles, and, most curiously, having its embouchure less than twenty miles from that of the Pêrak river—a much longer river than the Bernam, one which drains a far greater extent of country, and is itself navigable for steamers for a distance of forty to fifty miles.
So far the Malay Peninsula had been, so to speak, a book which we had been content to see lying unopened within our reach; we saw only the cover. indeed only one side of the cover; the names of the large Malay States were unknown to all but a very few, and their real position and boundaries to none in the Straits Settlements.
​In 1875 we were raising the cover, still only on one side, and peeping inside at the first few pages; now, though we have still little exact information, we have much to add to our former know- ledge of the peninsula, and especially as regards the western States. We know, for instance, that the Pêrak river rises in the borders of Kelântan, Kedah, and perhaps Pahang, and, after running a short distance in an easterly direction turns to the South and continues parallel to the coast-line until within a few miles of its mouth, when it turns West into the Straits of Malacca, about eighty miles South-West of Penang.
The Bernam river, which, from its junction with the Slim river, runs West to the sea, we now know really holds a course almost at right angles to the Pêrak river; the Slim and Bernam rivers, before their junction, flowing, the former in a north-west, the latter in an south-westerly direction, and draining, the one the Slim, and the other the Ulu Bernam district.
The combined rivers, known, from their junction, as the Ber- nam river, flow, to use an Hibernicism, in a tortuously direct line to the sea, draining an immense low country, unpeopled and unknown, even to the few Natives who may be called Natives of Bernam. From the numerous sluggish but considerable rivers which fall into, and help to swell the volume of the Bernam river, the country running from the right bank towards Perak, and the left towards Selangor, must be low, and probably much of it swampy; whilst the numerous tracks of elephants and rhinoceros leave no doubt that large quantities of big game are found in this district.
I said our search for information had been confined, for the most part, to the western side of the peninsula, and that is so; but quite recently, Mr. Bozzono, for six years a resident in the neigh​bourhood of what was known as the Galena Mines, on the East coast, has furnished some valuable information regarding the posi- tion of States in that neighbourhood.
It now appears that Patâni is a small State, on the sea coast, to be crossed in a few hours' walk, and that the following more considerable States, hitherto all classed "Patâni," viz., Rěmân, Ligôh, and Sai, lie between it and the head-waters of the Pêrak river.
It is probable that Kelântan and Pahang, on the one side, meet Kedah and Pêrak, on the other, all four States thus meeting within a very small area, but it is only the people who live on the spot who know anything of these interior limits.
Five years ago the Sultan of Trenggânu and the Raja of Kelân- tan told Sir William Jervois they knew nothing of the interior boundaries of their States, nor even what countries they marched with.
It is certain, however, that tin raised in Rĕmân goes down the Pêrak river, and Mr. Bozzolo tells me that, whilst the Pêrak river from its source for some distance passes through a district inhabited solely by Sakeis (wild people), the small States on the other side of the range which divides the source of the Pêrak from the waters flowing into the China Sea, are thickly populated by Malays, whilst Sakeis are rare.
Another geographical fact very recently established is that the State known as Jellye (more properly Jelai), one of the Negri Sembîlan or Nine States, hitherto placed to the North-East of Sri Menanti, as a matter of fact lies to the South-East of that State, is drained by the head-waters of the Johôl river (which, after passing through that State, falls into the Sungei Muar), and is in fact identical with Inas, by which name it is now more com- monly known.
Lastly, I am told on good native authority that three days journey up the Pahang river will bring the traveller to the mouth ​of a tributary called the Chineh, and that this stream forms the connecting link between three considerable lakes, the lowest of which is known by the same name as the river.
Pahang, however, which is the State of the greatest interest, both geographically and otherwise, is the one of all others least known to us, and contains a field for exploration well worthy of scientific research,
With this preface I will leave the Journal to speak for itself.
7th February, 1875.
Left Bandar at 4.30 P.M., by the launch, going very slowly, as the wood was bad; we did not reach Durien Sebâtang till 6.15 P.M.
1 sent the boatman on shore to make all his preparations, and told him I wanted the boat at 5.30 A.M. to-morrow.
8th February.
The boatman gave me a great deal of trouble, had nothing ready, but after some severe language he managed to start at 9 A.M.
My guide at the last moment deserted me, saying he was afruid to make the return journey by himself and could get no one to accompany him. Tunku Sulong very fortunately succeeded in getting two Mandêling men who promised to take us to Slim.
Syed Mashor, I hear, is at Sungei Raya, so after all I shan't see him on this journey.
On our way up here the other day from Batarâbit there was a flock of some seven or eight goose-teal on the river, and having no shot-gun I fired at them with a snider, and, strange to say, hit one; they were about eighty yards off; the bird was shot through the wing bone close to the body, and though it could not get away, it dived whenever we tried to get near it, until a Manila boy dived after and caught it under water.
​I was told if I went up the Bidor river I should be two, if not three, nights on the way, that I should then have to walk to Songkei, a long day's walk, from there to Slim, two days' hard walking, and Slim to Ula Bernam two nights, from Ulu Bernam down the river two or three days, that is, ten or eleven days in all, and lastly that Mashor is not at Bidor. Whereas if I went up the Songkei, instead. of the Bidor river, I must save one or two days. Accordingly I determined to go to Songkei instead of Bidor.
We entered Kwala Songkei at 5 P.M., and stopped at a clearing at 5.30 for the night, sleeping in the boat.
9th February.
Took down all the kajangs and started poling at 6.30 A.M. The river was dreadful, just like the Labu, only a little clearer, and not so many thorns; the day broiling hot, and we got the full benefit of the sun as we had no kajangs. Our men worked very well, and we reached Songkei at 5.30 P.M., about fifteen miles in all, I should think. For the last mile or two the river was much wider and more open, and we were able to put up the kajangs, and it was well for us that it was so, for at 4.30 P.M. there came on one of the heaviest storms of rain I have seen, with thunder and lightning.
At Songkei there are some three or four detached houses.
Jaafar, the old boatman, who turns out better on acquaintance, told the Pĕngûlu he was to send me on with men. It appears, however, that we are still a day's journey, either by land or river, from the beginning of the Slim road; so we shall have to settle to-morrow morning how we are to go. I should prefer the boat, as we shall have plenty of walking, but the river is difficult and the water low.
We slept very comfortably in an empty house on shore.
​10th February.
This morning we agreed to go up the river as far as the begin- ning of the Slim road, and, as our boat was too big for the shallow water, Toh Muda got us a smaller one, and we started up the river at 8 A.M., and it will be a wonder if we reach our destination to- night.
The travelling was much better to-day. The river open, and we had the kajang on all the day. The only drawback was the snags, and they were not very bad. My own crew were abomina- bly lazy; but I had four men from Songkei who worked very well. and we reached the Toh Dagang's house at 2.45 P.M., and he has engaged that I shall start first thing to-morrow. The Toh Dagang was very polite, and he sent for the Pĕngûlu of Songkel, one Toh Bikas, a very pleasant looking old fellow, who told me he had never seen a white man before, but be does not regard me with much curiosity. He and the Toh Dagang agreed to furnish men to carry my things.
The Toh Dagang considers it a matter of honour to sit up all night and watch me, so he amused himself by playing cards until day dawned.
11th February.
I did not get away till 8.15 A.M., five men carrying my effects. The road goes straight across the Songkei river and then direct for the bills.
At first the path was very bad, a regular slough of despond, but after two or three miles it got much better, and altogether I could not complain of it.
We walked for two hours, and then stopped for half an hour, and then on again walking and resting over a slightly hilly country until we reached Trolah at 3.30 P.M., having walked five hours and rested two and-a-quarter.
​We were not sorry to stop. for jungle walking is very severe. I call the distance thirteen miles.
We put up for the night in a regular hovel, the whole kam. pong consisting of two wretched houses in the heart of the jungle. There is here a nice stream which runs into the Slim river.
12th February.
Got away at 7.30 A.M. and went at once into big jungle. The road from here to Slim is a very good one as jungle roads go, indeed about the best I know; altogether from Songkel to Slim the road is good, with the exception of a mile or two close to Songkei.
From Trolah to Slim the whole way is up and down hill, but there are five hills proper, and one of them, the second from Slim, is a good deal higher and larger in every way than the others.
About four miles from Slim, in a charming spot, are some sul- phur springs the water is quite hot, and where it bubbles out of the rock you can't bear your hand in it for more than a moment. The smell of the sulphur is very strong.
The water from the hot springs runs into the stream (a con- siderable one) close by. and there are fine large trees growing in the middle of and around the stream; it is a most enjoyable halting place.
The last hill, the one next to Slim, is remarkable for being covered from top to bottom, on the Slim side, with large bamboos; I never saw such big ones, nor in anything like such numbers, many were 18 inches in circumference.
As you go down the hill the bamboos get smaller in size, but more in number, until you find yourself walking in a forest of ham- boos with not a tree of any other description near.
Coming from out the bamboos at the foot of this hill you see before you the confluence of two rivers, the Slim and the Ghilîting, ​both about the same size, and you look on as lovely a picture as you can well imagine in such an outlandish spot.
This place is the picture of rest and beauty; there are some two. or three picturesque huts on the banks of the rivers, and right. opposite rise two steep hills forming the boundary between Pêrak and Pahang. These hills, named Tumah Batak, are close by, and rise abruptly from the water.
Slim might almost be a village in Switzerland.
We reached this, after walking through both rivers up to the waist in water, at 1 P.M., after four and-a-half hours' hard walking, I should say thirteen miles, from Trolah.
The Datoh's house, we heard, was higher up the Slim river, and as I had hurt my foot coming down the last hill, and could not bear my shoes on, I took off shoes and socks and walked bare- foot.
After forty minutes' fast walking, almost all through bamboo forest, and crossing the Slim river again, we reached the Datoh Sampuh's house to find he had gone to the hills to see the orang Sakei.
The distance from Trolah to Toh Sampuh's house is altogether over fifteen miles, and the total distance from Songkei to Slim twenty-eight or twenty-nine miles, perhaps less.
The Datoh's house was a miserable place and filthily dirty, with half a dozen orang Sakei in it, so little clothed that the scantiness of their apparel would have been less evident had it been entirely absent.
The men are above the average size of Malays, the women of the ordinary height, their hair is not straight but fuzzy, and they all, without distinction, wear a bamboo, about a foot long, through their noses, and are afflicted with a fearful skin disease which makes them loathesome to look at.
​There are said to be about three thousand in the hills about Slim; and on the hills of Slim, Batang Padang. Bidor, and Songkei as many as ten thousand.
The headman of the Slim orang Jakun, or Sakei as they are called, is blessed with the title of "Mentri," and the Pĕngûlu of Slim is obliged to consult him in all things, otherwise, it is said, the orang Sakei would at once attack the Pĕngûlu and his people, who dread the poisoned arrow of the sumpitan more than rifie bullets, and with reason.
The Sakeis are clever gardeners, and cultivate sugar-cane, plan- tains, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables in abundance. Rice they use but little. Tobacco they are very fond of, and grow it them- selves, to chew not to smoke. They use their own green, but they prefer Javanese tobacco if they can get it.
Their solitary garment, or rather rag, the "fig leaf apology" (as Cromwell called the excuses of a certain party in Ireland) is made of bark, the men wearing it in all its pure simplicity, the women affecting an additional fringe of grass.
Like the natives of Borneo, these women cover their arms with wire. There is a young lady standing within two yards of me, whose arms are covered with numberless brass rings. She has about a dozen strings of coloured beads—to which are hung more brass rings—round her neck, and these beads are fastened behind with a buckle of shells and boar's teeth; through her nose she has a long porcupine's quill, and her face is painted in stripes of black and red, beginning at her forehead and ending like a pitch-fork on her mouth and chin. She is a belle, no doubt, and amongst the "orang Sakei," I dare say irresistible.
Raja Ja Asul came to see me, and I had a long talk with him.
He says the Slim river is the same size and the same length as the Bernam river, but he says that about half way between Slim and Ulu Bernam there is a river called "Sungei Bil," which is now, ​and has always been, considered by the people here the boundary between Sĕlângor and Pêrak. The river, he tells me, is very rapid, so I have no doubt it runs straight down from the bills, and this would seem a very fair boundary. The Slim river runs right back into Pêrak, and is said to rise in a hill called "Batu Gaja," which forms the boundary between Pêrak and Pahang.
Batu Gaja is about six hours' walk from here, and can be seen plainly.
The Bernam river again runs back into Sĕlângor, and has its source not far from the Sělângor river, so, on the whole, I should think the boundary accepted by the people living on the spot, that is, the Bil river, is the best and fairest. It is true that the boundary between Pêrak and Sĕlângor is the Bernam river, but then the point is: Which is the Bernam river? What is now called Bernam river, or the Slim river, which may in reality be the real source of the river which is known at its mouth as the Bernam?
There are half a dozen Chinese working tin here for the Datoh, a little way above his house. The house lies in the bosom of the hills, in a valley shut in on three sides, some six or seven miles long, and not a mile, perhaps half a mile, wide. This valley is said to be rich in fin. Indeed, I believe there is little doubt but that there is tin all over it in larger quantities and more easily to be worked than any mines in Pêrak, except perhaps Salak. Raja Ja Asul is very anxious to open mines here, and if he can raise money I've no doubt he will succeed; the water both for working and for carrying the metal is everything that could be desired.
We put up for the night in a hut nine feet square, and were glad to get it.
There is nothing whatever to be got here, not even a fowl.
13th February.
The Datoh, though he has been sent for, may be several days getting here, and I have been trying to find a boat to take us down the Slim river into the Bernam.
​I made up my mind at Trolah that I would go this way, as I should then see all the Slim river, and both upper and lower Slim, and when I go to Bernam from Sĕlângor I can go down the Bernam river. I must do it now, however, for I can't bear a shoe on my foot and a day's walking through jungle, shoeless, is out of the ques- tion. There is no boat here, so I have sent to the junction of the rivers down below to try and get one; if it comes I shall go at once, as Raja Ja Asul says it will take me four or five days to reach the Bernam river.
I had a great durbar to-day. There came first one Raja Ngah, who lives at a kampong down the river called Piong. He is a Sumatra man, and appeared very poor, but was as polite as poor.
Then there came Raja Ali, a Pahang man, from Tanjong Blit, otherwise known as Lower Slim, and after him the Datoh Muda (the new Datoh appointed by Raja Ngah), and the Toh Bandar, and last of all came Toh Sampuh.
Raja Ali and the Datoh had come ten miles, and the Toh. Muda had made arrangements for a boat for me.
Raja Ali formerly opened tin mines at Tanjong Blit and at Elu Slim, but they failed for want of money. Every one here seems anxious to know about the taxes on the Bernam, and I set their minds at rest about that.
Toh Sampuh, though he had been walking for the last two or three days with the Sakeis on the hills between this and Trolah, must be a very old man, for he has been Datoh of Slim for eight generations of Sultans.
He is evidently sore about Raja Ngah appointing his successor, and told me distinctly that it had been done without his wish or knowledge, but he added "What is the use of being Datoh now when everything is at sixes and sevens, and no one follows the good old ​customs of the past?" He tells me, he was the first settler in Slim, that the Slim river is larger and longer than the Bernam river, and that it rises in a mountain called Gunong Jeransang, the other side of which is Pahaug territory, and from that side riscs a stream called Sungei Bĕtoh, the probable source of the Pahang river, or, at any rate, a tributary of that river.
Toh Sampuh says Sungei Bil falls into the Slim river below Tanjong Blit, and that it is on both sides Pêrak territory; that originally the Bernam river was the boundary between Pêrak and Sĕlângor, later, the Berang river, a tributary of the Bernam, and later still, a mountain between the rivers Bil and Berang, called Changkat Lela; the watershed of the upper Bernam forming the boundary from the border of Pahang to the Kwala Slim, and from that point the Bernam river itself is the boundary to the sea, thus :—
The boat was a dug out, and would only hold my own people, that is, myself, Tunku Sulong, one Policeman, and two boatmen, five in all, and then there was not an inch of the boat out of the water.
The river is most lovely, a beautiful, clear, rapid stream with splendid jungle on both sides, and open enough to give glimpses of the hills.
At first it was very exciting and enjoyable, as every moment we were shooting the rapids, and the boat was in danger of being upset, but the drawbacks were great. In the first place no protection against the sun, except an umbrella, which had to be taken down continually as we went under trees, and which is always a nuisance to hold, then nothing to sit upon except a tin biscuit-box, and from that position not able to move, whilst it is constantly necessay to look out that your head is not carried away as you go under a half fallen tree; then you have to get into the river and drag your boat over a sunken log, and all this in a boat so crank that most people would think many times before getting into it.
However, on the whole we got on very well, and passed a sul- phur spring a little way below Slim, the water of which, boiling, runs into the Slim river. Just before 3 P.M. passed Kwala Ghiliting, and for the next one and-a-half hours we never got far from Gunong Tumang Batak, the river winding round the foot of the hill.
At 4.30 P.M. we stopped for the night at Piong, at the house of Tunku Sutan, a relation of Raja Ngah, who was very polite. He is a Sumatra man, and has been to a Dutch school and with a Dutch planter in Deli. Both he and Raja Ngah say Toh Sampuh is a very good man, liked by every one, and they don't like the Toh Muda. As far as I can see none of the people here like the Tunku Penglima Besar, they said he had called them to Sungei Raya, but they did not intend to go.
14th February.
Up before daybreak, but did not get away till 8 A.M., as some of Tunku Sulong's relations came to see him. We reached Tanjong ​Blit at 9.15 A.M., and, finding the Toh Muda had not got us a better boat, we went on at 11 A.M.
The travelling is just the same as before, only painfully hot. I should think this is a very good river for fly-fishing, it is just like a Scotch trout stream, only there are not so many stones in it, but hundreds of snags instead, that of course is rather against fishing, hut the river teams with fish, and I have seen them rising freely to the natural fly, especially in the mornings and evenings.
We reached Kwala Slim at 4.30 P.M. I should say it is twenty miles from Tanjong Blit, and thirty from Slim.
The Bernan river, which joins it here, is very much narrower, and has only about half the body of water that the Slim river has.
The combined streams form a line river, broad and deep, but full of snags.
Seeing no traces of humanity anywhere, we stopped at 5.30 P.M. on a sand-spit to make a night of it in the jungle. I had bought a kajang at Tanjong Blit and this we spread on sticks, put a waterproof sheet underneath, and, as it was a beautiful night, we should have been comfortable enough had it not been for the mosquitoes and sand-flies, swarms of the latter getting inside my curtain and giving me no rest. My face, which alone was uncovered, they bit savagely, and my forehead in the morning was like a plough- ed field, all ridges and furrows.
Our dinner, for we all dine alike, consisted, and has done ever since I started, of rice and a fowl burnt on the cinders. It is impossible to take a lot of things into the jungle, unless you have a following of at least a dozen men, and amongst them a cook, and that is simply a nuisance.
15th February.
Up again before daylight, and got away at 6 A.M. We have only one paddle and one pole, the latter useless now the river is so deep; the current, however, is very swift, so we make good travelling, I never saw anything like the numbers of elephant tracks here, ​every few hundred yards there is a spit of sand and elephant grass covered with tracks, many quite fresh, last night's I should think.
Just before we stopped for breakfast, we heard an elephant quite close to the side of the river, within a yard or two, but we could not see him, the jungle was too thick.
We stopped for breakfast at 9.30 A.M., and went on again at 11.15.
We had not gone a mile before we were attacked by a swarm of black wasps, against whose hanging nest we were carried by the rapid current. We were all bitten, except the man steering; and the constable would have jumped overboard if I had not stopped him. The wasps followed us for a long way, and whilst their attentions lasted we dared not stir.
We now got into a most curious place, and I shan't be distres- sed if I never see it again.
The river went for nearly ten miles through reeds and fens, the home of alligators and snakes and strange birds. I never saw such a horrid ghostly place, the river often so narrow that the reeds almost met overhead, while the water was so deep we could find no bottom with the pole. Wherever we did meet jungle it was jejawi only, those low trees with long feelers growing out of every branch into the ground and water.
The natives call it the tampat hantu dan ular sawah—"home of ghosts and boa-constrictors." Not a sound to be heard except the occasional shriek of some strange bird, which would rise slowly, and apparently unwillingly, out of the fens and fly into the nearest brake, not seemingly afraid of us, only a little surprised and rather disgusted. The river looks as if it were visited by men perhaps not once in a century.
Altogether, this kind of travelling is not quite pleasant, a boat. like ours a dug-out three feet wide. down to the water's edge—is very easily upset in a river full of snags, indeed the difficulty is not ​to upset it, and once in the water you would be food not for one crocodile, but the disputed prey of many.
It is a dispensation of Providence that we have got thus far in safety.
Let alone the boat upsetting, if we went slowly, the smallest. flick of a crocodile's tail would suffice to settle the matter.
Just as we got out of the fens in which the river winds like a snake. the stream divided, and I feel sure we took the wrong channel, not a soul in the boat has ever been here before, so we had to trust to chance. Twice we had all to get out and drag the boat over a tree, which lay completely across the stream. I got my coat and umbrella torn to pieces by trailing thorns. We passed. within two yards of an enormous crocodile, lying on the bank, it leapt into the water as we passed, and if we had been close to the bank would have come straight into the boat. There were numbers of what the natives call the "snake bird" here, and especially in the feus, a strange looking bird in keeping with the place. I saw two very fine wild duck also, but had only a rifle and could not get a shot at them.
After two hours we joined the other branch of the river, and from this point it got wide again. At 4 P.M. we came to a place where the river divided into five large branches; we took the largest, and at 5.15 P.M., having long given up all hope of finding anything like a house, we got up a high bank, to be as far off the crocodiles as possible, and made another night in the jungle. The mosquitoes and sand-flies were as entertaining as usual. We made at least forty-five miles to-day.
16th February.
Started at 6.30 A.M. If we don't come to a house to-night we shall be in a bad way, as our stores, even tobacco, are exhausted, and we have only rice left.
The influence of the tide is felt as far up as this point. At 8.30 A.M. we met two boats, and the men told us we should soon come
* ↑ Bernam, the name of this District is derived from برانم (Berânam), which means "six together," because the place was so little known and so sparsely populated that the whole number of its inhabitants originally amounted to six.
* ↑ Pieces of portable thatching with which boats are roofed.
* ↑ The Malays speak of this part of the road as "Bukit tiga puloh tiga," i.e. "the thirty-three hills."
* ↑ Alias Tunku Panglima Besar, not the Raja Ngah of the previous paragraph.