could do to keep their perches on the swaying shafts.
When we arrived at the little half-Malay, half-Chinese village of Kranji, on the
shores of the famous old Straits of Malacca, our ponies were panting with heat,
and the sun beat down on our white cork helmets with a quivering, naked
intensity.
Close up to the shore we found a long, keel boat manned by a dozen Malays in
canary-colored suits. An aide-de-camp in a gorgeous uniform of gold and blue
came forward and touched his forehead with the back of his brown palm and
said in good English:—
“His Highness awaits your excellencies.”
We stepped into the boat. The men lightly dipped their spear-shaped paddles in
the tepid water, the rattan oarlocks squeaked shrilly, and the light prow shot out
into the strait. We could see the istana, or palace, close down to the opposite
shore, with the royal standard of white, with black star and crescent in centre,
floating above it.
For a moment I felt as though I had invaded some dreamland of my childhood.
As our boat drew up to the iron pier that extended from the broad palace steps
out into the straits, the guns from the little fort on the hill above the town
boomed out a welcome and the flags of our several countries were run to the
tops of the poles. A squad of native soldiers presented arms, and we were
conducted up the stone steps, to the cool, dim corridors of the reception or
waiting room. Malays in red fezzes and silken sarongs that hung about their legs
like skirts conducted us along a marble hall to our rooms in a wing of the palace.
Crowds were already gathering outside on the palace grounds, and we could
look down from our windows and watch them as we bathed, dressed, and drank
tea.
The Chinese in their holiday pantaloons and shirts of pink, lavender, and blue
silk: outnumbered all the other races; for, strange as it may seem, this Malay
Sultan numbers among his 250,000 or 300,000 subjects 175,000 Chinamen.
They are as loyal and a great deal more industrious than the Malays, and many
of them, styled Baboos, do not even know their native tongue.