A PERSONAL INCIDENT
he found that Mr. Swettenham had unfortunately left, to return by the river a few hours previously; owing to the rapidity of the current, the boats should have reached Pasir Salak by the following day. I have sent detectives, both Chinese and Malay, to inquire into the matter, and to obtain, if possible, the remains of these unfortunate officers."
I came across the above passage in a Blue Book, and I will explain why Captain Speedy had every reason to believe in the certainty of my death, and how it was that my remains were not to be collected just then.
In the preceding sketch I mentioned that I left Bandar Bharu at noon on the 28th October with two boats, and intended, if it were possible, to meet Mr. Birch at Pâsir Salak about the 3rd November.
Besides the Malay boatmen, I had with me a very celebrated Selangor chief named Raja Mahmud, a man whose whole life had been passed in jungle warfare, and as he had come through it scathless he was regarded by Malays as invulnerable and re- spected accordingly. His latest exploit had been
to take command of a body of Malays in an engage-
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