San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-19
THE SULTAN AT J0H0RE.
A VISIT TO AN INDEPENDENT AND
NOTED MALAY RULER.
The Road Across Singapore, Where Tigers
Kill Three Hundred People Every Year.
The SuItan's Beautiful Palace and His
Liking for Europeans.

England has already strong hold upon
the Malay peninsula, but among the tribes OF
Malacca which are not subject to her, is that
of Johore Johore is bigger than Massachu-
sets, and it is governed by a sultan, who has
absolute power and is one of the few indie
pendent Malay rajahs still living. Imade an
excursion to Johore; visited the capital, and
there met this most noted Malay ruler. Leav-
ing Singapore at sunrise, our carriage was
driven by Malay coachman, and we had
gray whiskered, barefooted East Indian in
red gown and turban as guide. We drove
for miles on a road as level as the floor and
as well kept as a race track, through planta-
tions of cocoanuts and coffee.
CoCoANUTs AND COFFEE.
We first passed great estates with beautiful
grounds and wide drives, and then on out
into the Jungle The green cocoanuts hung
by the bushels in great punches from the top
of tall palm trees, each of which was from 90
to 100 feet high, and with a trunk Of from
to u inches in diameter. The bark was
grayish white, and there were no leaves
until the very top, upon which the cocoanuts
grew. Some of these groves had thousands
of trees, and they all looked as though they
were drunken on their own milk. They
leaned in every direction, and the tops of
some seemed to embrace those of others in
maudlin jollity. The coffee estates consisted
of green bushes about eight feet high with
many branches, and the coffee grows close to
the branch. and the yellow fruit is the size
of small danson plums; each plum contains
two seeds, surrounded by pulp, and these
seeds are the coffee grains. They are culci-
vated and the estates showed that they had
been but lately plowed.
This road across the island of Singapore
was lined with jungle, which was at times
so thick that you could not see more than
two feet beyond the roadway. When it is re-
membered that 800 people are killed every
war here by tigers, and that the lower part of
the Malay peninsula is the home of the wild
beast, it will be seen that the possibilities were
both numerous and unpleasant. We passed
through number of Malay Chinese villages,
and we saw many black skinned natives of
Java with nothing but breech clouts upon
them, working upon the roadway. Now and
then we would meet cart drawn by heavy
Indian bullocks, with great humps of fat six
inches high above their shoulders, and with
their black skinned driver in turban, sitting
or standing upon the heavy cart tongue.
These bullocks push the cart along with the
front of their shoulders. Their yokes do not
come around the neck, as do those of our
oxen, and they get over the ground three
times as fast They are the beasts of burden
in this part of the world. They do all the
carting and hauling and they are among the
most picturesque sights of this picturesque
country. Their drivers are straight, lean,
wiry men, who scowl at you as you pass,
and who, with all their black skins, have
features as regular as the best you will find
in your city. l snapped my camera upon
one of them as he passed, and the black
skinned driver swore at me in Hindostanee
as l did so.
IN AN AMERICAN ROCKING CHAIR
Half way across the island, our driver
stopped and changed the horses of our car
ahead. Then the Malay jehu whipped UP
and we rode on through more villages and
more jungle until we came to the straits of
Singapore, on the opposite side of which
was the main land and Johore A Chinese
boat carried us across these and we were
landed at the wharf OF the sultan's palace
A beautiful lawn of many acres slopes by
half a dozen terraces to the waters edge.
Above this lies the palace, which is reached
by winding drives, and away to the right
shine the blue and yellow buildings of the
city of Johore, which the sultan has built
within the last few years for his capital, and
which he laid out in the original jungle The
palace is large gray and white two story
building, with wide porticoes and many large
windows looking out upon the water 1t is,
perhaps, POO feet long and at least half that
depth
Soldiers, in a costume half European, keep
guard ii front of it, and others in turbans
march up and down through its various cor
ridOrs. Some of these soldiers are olive
brown NalayS, others are as black as ebony,
and the officer who received my letters and
took them in to the sultan was dressed in
European clothes, with a Malay surong OF
skirt shining out under his coat. After wait
ing moment the sultan himself appeared.
tall, fine looking, broad shouldered, light
yellow man with gray hair, black eyes and
gray mustache. He wore a suit of white
duck with lavender skirt reaching to his
knees, and with bracelets of solid gold rope
as thick as your finger around each of his
wrists. There were diamond rings on his
fingers, and he had a seal brown plush turban
cap on his head He spoke English perfectly,
shook hands with me cordially and gave me
seat in an American rocking chair in his
audience chamber, while he took another for
himself at my side. He talked of the de
cadence OF The Malay people, and said that
the Chinese made much better workers. He
needed them for the development of his king
dom, and he was glad to have their immigra-
ton.
He talked of his travels and told me be
needed only to visit America to complete his |
tour of the world. He had visited in England, |
and had been so well entertained that he was
always glad to give Europeans a welcome
when they came to his kingdom.