This book scanned and processed for Project Gutenberg by Beth
Sullivan, e-mail bsulliva@lycos.com, from the 1892 G.P. Putnam's
Sons edition.
BY ISABELLA L. BIRD (Mrs. Bishop)
In presenting to the public the last installment of my travels in theFar East, in 1879, I desire to offer, both to my readers and critics, mygrateful acknowledgments for the kindness with which my letters fromJapan were received, and to ask for an equally kind and lenient estimateof my present volume, which has been prepared for publication under theheavy shadow of the loss of the beloved and only sister to whom theletters of which it consists were written, and whose able and carefulcriticism, as well as loving interest, accompanied my former volumesthrough the press.
It is by her wish that this book has received the title of the "GoldenChersonese," a slightly ambitious one; and I must at once explain thatmy letters treat of only its western portion, for the very sufficientreason that the interior is unexplored by Europeans, half of it beingactually so little known that the latest map gives only the position ofits coast-line. I hope, however, that my book will be accepted as anhonest attempt to make a popular contribution to the sum of knowledge ofa beautiful and little-traveled region, with which the majority ofeducated people are so little acquainted that it is constantlyconfounded with the Malay Archipelago, but which is practically underBritish rule, and is probable destined to afford increasing employmentto British capital and enterprise.
The introductory chapter, and the explanatory chapters on Sungei Ujong,Selangor and Perak, contain information of a rather more solid characterthan is given in my sketches of travel, and are intended to make theletters more intelligible and useful.* The map by Mr. Daly is the resultof the most recent surveys, and is published here by permission of theRoyal Geographical Society.[*These chapters are based upon sundry reports and other officialpapers, and I have largely drawn upon those storehouses of accurate andvaluable information, Newbold's "British Settlements in Malacca," andCrawfurd's "Dictionary of the Indian Islands."]
As I traveled under official auspices, and was entertained at the housesof officials everywhere, I feel it to be due to my entertainers to saythat I have carefully abstained from giving their views on any subjectson which they may have uttered them in the ease of friendly intercourse,except in two or three trivial instances, in which I have quoted them asmy authorities. The opinions expressed are wholly my own, whether rightor wrong, and I accept the fullest responsibility for them.
For the sketchy personal descriptions which are here and there given, Iam sure of genial forgiveness from my friends in the Malay Peninsula,and from them also I doubt not that I shall receive the most kindlyallowance, if, in spite of carefulness, I have fallen into mistakes.
In writing to my sister my first aim was accuracy, and my next to makeher see what I saw; but beside the remarkably contradictory statementsof the few resident Europeans and my own observations, I had little tohelp me, and realized every day how much truth there is in the dictum ofSocrates—"The body is a hindrance to acquiring knowledge, and sight andhearing are not to be trusted."*[*Phaedo of Plato. Chapter x.]
This volume is mainly composed of my actual letters, unaltered, exceptby various omissions and some corrections as to matters