The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither | Page 6

from lat.
13 degrees 50' N. to 1 degree 41' N. The northern part, forming the
Isthmus of Kraw, which it is proposed to pierce for a ship canal, runs
nearly due north and south for one hundred and forty miles, and is
inhabited by a mixed race, mainly Siamese, called by the Malays
Sansam. This Isthmus is under the rule of Siam, which is its northern
boundary; and the northern and eastern States of Kedah, Patani,
Kelantan, Pahang, and Tringganu, are more or less tributary to this
ambitious empire, which at intervals has exacted a golden rose, the
token of vassalage, from every State in the Peninsula. Except at the
point where the Isthmus of Kraw joins Siam, the Peninsula is

surrounded by the sea to the east by the China Sea and the Gulf of Siam,
and to the south and west by the Straits of Malacca and the Bay of
Bengal. The area of the mainland is conjectured to be the same as that
of Britain, but the region occupied by the Malays does not exceed
sixty-one thousand one hundred and fifty square miles, and is about
half the size of Java.
Its configuration is not very well known, but a granitic mountain chain,
rising in Perak to ascertained heights of eight thousand feet, runs down
its whole length near the centre, with extensive outlying spurs, and
alluvial plains on both sides densely covered with jungle, as are also
the mountains. There are no traces of volcanic formation, though
thermal springs exist in Malacca. The rivers are numerous, but with one
exception small, and are seldom navigable beyond the reach of the tides,
except by flat-bottomed boats. It is believed that there are scarcely any
lakes.
The general formation is granitic, overlaid by sandstone, laterite or clay
ironstone, and to the north by limestone. Iron ores are found
everywhere, and are so little regarded for their metallic contents that,
though containing, according to Mr. Logan, a skillful geologist, sixty
percent of pure metal, they are used in Singapore for macadamizing the
roads! Gold has been obtained in all ages, and formerly in considerable
quantities, but the annual yield does not now exceed nineteen thousand
ounces. The vastest tin fields in the world are found in the western
Malay States, and hitherto the produce has been "stream tin" only, the
metal not having been traced to its veins in the rock.
The map, the result of recent surveys by Mr. Daly, and published in
1882 by the Royal Geographical Society, shows that there is a vast
extent, more than half of the Malay Peninsula, unexplored. Its most
laborious explorer confesses that "of the internal government,
geography, mineral products, and geology of these regions, we do not
know anything," and, he adds, that "even in this nineteenth century, a
country rich in its resources, and important through its contiguity to our
British possessions, is still a closed volume." "If we let the needle in,
the thread is sure to follow" (meaning that if they let an Englishman

pass through their territories, British annexation would be the natural
sequence), was the reason given to Mr. Daly for turning him back from
the States of the Negri Sembilan.
The climate is singularly healthy for Europeans as well as natives,
although both hot and moist, as may be expected from being so close to
the equator. Besides, the Peninsula is very nearly an insular region; it is
densely covered with evergreen forests, and few parts of it are more
than fifty miles from the sea. There are no diseases of climate except
marsh fevers, which assail Europeans if they camp out at night on low,
swampy grounds.
In 5 degrees 15' N., about the latitude of the northern boundary of
Perak, at the sea-level the mean annual temperature is nearly 80
degrees, with a range of 20 degrees; at Malacca in 2 degrees 14' N. it is
80 degrees, with a range of 15 degrees; and at Singapore, in lat. 1
degree 17', it is 82 degrees, with a range of 24 degrees. Though the
climate is undeniably a "hot" one, the heat, tempered by alternating
land and sea breezes, is seldom oppressive except just before rain, and
the thermometer never attains anything approaching those torrid
temperatures which are registered in India, Japan, the United States,
and other parts of the temperate zones.
The rainfall is not excessive, averaging about one hundred and ten
inches annually, and there is no regular rainy season. In fact it rains in
moderation all the year round. Three days seldom pass without
refreshing showers, and if there are ten rainless days together, a rare
phenomenon, people begin to talk of "the drought." Practically the year
is divided into two parts by the "monsoons."* The monsoon is not a