My Friends the Savages

?Administrative simplicity?-?England teaches!?-?The "sla pui"?-?Bitter disappoi

train of muscle and nerve, soon returned to their normal state in that peacefu

s their rough habitations in spite of the Alà's veto to my passage through their village and it was not a rare thing for my gifts of tobacco and sirih to be exchanged with pheasants and other game and sometimes even with a chicken. I found it easy to talk with the

l motives that had induced me to wander so far from the haunts of ordinary men, so one day I cracked a cocoanut in hal

mentally I bade goodbye to the life of a planter (although I had not yet begun it) and there on the spot decide

easant thought crossed my min

at Tapah. I endeavoured to discover who this person was, and what he was doing

m a feeling of delicacy, respect of the law, and as a means of avoiding future trouble, I was bound to explain wha

e confidence in that of the English and nothing seemed to me more likely than to fi

arnest without legal authorization, so one day, accompanied by so

ic functionary I should find to deny me my fortune. Who knew how my I

the presence of a young and pleasant-mannered

rstanding what attractions anyone could find in the midst of a people so ignorant and savage. He congratulated himself upon

the pleasure of

little secret misgiving, I told him frankly wh

en expressing a word of sympathy or approval and finally, for the sum of a few

any obstacles, and at an almost ridiculous price I became the legitimate po

e and to form an opinion upon the expedients used in a half-desert Eastern country, scorched by the sun, populated

n hills and its smiling panorama, although without the magnificent background of the sea, recalled to my s

usand of diverse races and nationalities. It has two large streets lined with shops wher

river Batang Padang which afterwards di

here two Indian clerks perform their duties under the direction of an Engl

an soldiers were seated. I was asking them what building it was when an Englishman came out

erywhere employed under the direction of English chiefs. The number of clerks, as in other British colonies, was according to strict necessity; no extra posts were ever created for polit

the direction of an Englishman, who is called the District Offic

eality enjoy almost complete liberty of action, find the time not only to discharge all the various duties of their office but also to take recreation in a little football and cricket. It is said that sometimes the menserva

one and the other I saw a little party approaching th

Officer who had received me s

sort of uniform or insignia, this British delegate had known how to preserve all the solemnity and dignity of form due to the occa

nservation, answering all the questions I could not refrain from asking him in my

country lost a model functionary for i

its brightest; when his fondest hopes were about to be

s memory the modest, affectionate homage

ast forest; to that domestic corner reserved for me in Dame Nature's grand and wondrous saloon: to that rude home so far remov

with his insep

4

ew short instants had conceded to me an extensive zone of land with which to do what I liked, without any need of setting in motion the intricate machinery of the bureaucracy; without any stamped legal for

hought of my native country and of the complicated organization of its many bureaucratic departments that only too often clogs the boldest

ng be liberated from these toils which hinder the

under other governments I had seen that foreigners were considered anything but necessary to the colony and after having opposed, more or less openly, the intruder's initiative, the Au

colonies. In her dominions she only aims at reaching the highest point of prosperity, she desires only the accumulation of riches,

sessions she may well say that the world is her tributary, no wonder then that she avails herself of the hands and brains of e

tranquil and perfect consciousness the English nation has of it

y the highest and most just homage that can be paid to the spirit of enterprise that characterizes this people. Where others only see sand and reefs, not worth the trouble of cultivation, the Englishman discovers some productive germ that with his indefatigable

cting all available force to this one end: the increase of its wealth. Bureaucracy is a

ce, from the island once fruitless and barren, she spread

and past glory, instead of offering the precious fruit o

aly, risen as thou art to the third m

f gold, and engaged the services of a few Malays and Chines

ntly stirring the mass, particles of tin and gold were separated from the sand and went to the bottom. This deposit ca

hich I cannot explain but it draws up to the surface the

vered for a long time without any change of luck. I even tried to trace out the auriferous bed from whence the waters of the stream transported the metals.

ut it was evident that I must turn in another direction if I wished fo

t, saying that there was a young Sakai willing to take his place in my service. Although very sorry to lose the faithful co

some years after when I was travelling through the inter

his fortune, for with it he had bought a piece of ground and some oxen

their post, which would have saved expense in gathering it, but every effort was useless for these people

made by their elders in this primitive kind of chemistry, and in this way the passion is propagated from father to son and so it will continue until the breath of civilization reaches that far-off spot and those good, simple men lea

oor savages who extract their poisons from the ipok[3] and other, trees to defe

tno

me of upas, is a tree that affords a very baneful