On the River Pluss: Interior of the Malay Peninsula
- On the River Pluss:Interior of the Malay Peninsula
Editor's note: The author of this article, Marie François Xavier Joseph Jean Honoré Brau de Saint-Pol Lias (1840-1914),1 visited Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula c. 1881–81 together with J. Errington de la Croix looking for potential investing opportunities in mining or commercial agriculture. Brau d Saint-Pol Lias published several articles and books about his travels, including Perak Et Les Orangs-Sakeys: Voyage dans l'intérieur de La Presqu'ile Malaise (1883). He was active in several organizations devoted to exploration and the commercial exploitation of colonial territories, including the Société de géographie, the Société d'études colonials, and the Société de géographie commerciale.
Translator's note: Unless otherwise indicated, footnotes in this translation are those of Xavier Brau de Saint-Pol Lias. Names are spelled as in the original French text.
The Virgin Forest
Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 February 1881 – Lying in wait for animals
At first, only one elephant is on the riverbank. This is Poulo-Ganti, a small bad-tempered elephant, an old acquaintance who roars like several tigers. We refrain from mounting it with Mr Low, and the Governor settles himself on its panniers.2 And then, before we have gone ten paces, we meet the people coming to fetch us. At their head is an enormous animal, on which it seems as though the Radjah Mouda is on a second-floor balcony.3 The Governor, a very good man with the [End Page 159]
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Perak c. 1910. Sungei Plus joins Sungei Perak north of Kuala Kangsar.
Source: Map of the Malay Peninsula. London: Edward Stanford, 1910.
[End Page 160] indigenous people as well as with the Europeans, strives to salute the Radjah by waving to him: 'Good day, good evening' [sic]. But the Radjah persists in not seeing the Governor, who is in front of him, and in fact well below him. He makes his elephant lie down, talking all the while to the Resident, without understanding any of the signals being made to him, and dismounts, gruffly taking his leave to hand over his animal. If one has lived outside the bounds of civilized society at any time in life, then it is not surprising to return to that again in the forest we are now penetrating.4
At first it consists of bamboo trees in large clusters, but soon it becomes a great beautiful virgin forest, like at Bédagué; because at the start of my first expedition, I had encountered nature at its most luxuriant and grandiose, it is scarcely possible to see anything more perfect.
Here are giant trees that rise to prodigious heights, with a powerful thrust, and form domes of greenery impenetrable to the sun's rays. Down below are trunks with vertical compartments and jutting ridges and buttressing. Surprisingly high roots trace sinuous lines on the ground and form the veritable foundations for the construction of these colossal trees.
Magnificent plants abound: the tchombang with its big red edible flower, the bretam with its immense leaves, and the great ferns. And the vines! Under the foliage they can be seen everywhere; at once graceful and terrible, these strange horizontal plants wrap themselves around others and devour them. They go upwards, downwards, they hang and they swing, passing from one tree to another, assuming diverse and bizarre shapes, flat or round, rough or smooth, green, white or dark, slender threads, wide ribbons or enormous cables. Here are soft suspensions, but elsewhere they look like the interlacing reptiles, or pythons crushing their prey. They require support from fragile shrubs but also entwine, with inextricable knots, a strong and robust hundred-year-old tree which will succumb to their grip!
There are rattans, with their vast leaves slightly jagged but well armed with thorns all along the sides. These palm-vines with their long creeping stems and bristling prickles are as abundant here as on the river we have just come up. They form impenetrable, dense growths. They envelope clumps of trees...
