n by
the numerous Chinese tin-miners in the settlement; and here also is the
capital of the Federated Malay States, whose petty rulers within recent
years have united their forces under a British Protectorate.

Perak, towards the north-west, and Pahang, stretching over to the sea on
the eastern side, are the two most mountainous divisions in the
Confederacy, and to the traveller they are also the most interesting
because of the immunity of their interior fastnesses from the visits of
white men. Numerous rivers reach the coast on both sides of the central
watershed, many of those rising in the highlands of Pahang and Kelantan
being absolutely untraced and unnamed. The entire country near the
coast, on the east as on the west, may be said to be given over to rank
jungles, in which the lordly tiger, the one-horned rhinoceros, the wild
pig, and tapir have their homes, and monkeys of almost every species are
abundant in the wooded slopes.

One-half of the world's tin is produced in the Malay States; it is
mined chiefly in Selangor and Malacca, and forms the mainstay of the
country's prosperity, though, curiously enough, little or no
stanniferous deposits have been found on the eastern side of the
dividing range. But though very few people know it, the most valuable of
all metals has been discovered on the upper waters of the Pahang River
and tributaries. The Chinese swarm in their thousands on the western
slopes, and outnumber the Malays by more than three to one. They are
surely the bane of the wanderer's existence.

The Malays are not the aboriginal race of the Peninsula, though they
have lived on the coast for centuries, and are descended from the
bloodthirsty pirates who terrorised the Straits of Malacca. The real
owners of the country are the Sakis, a wild race who in appearance vie
with their brethren in Central Australia, and are very little different
from the chimpanzees which infest the forests. They hold no intercourse
with the coast-dwellers, and are rarely seen unless by the adventurous
traveller, for their retreat is among the mountains, and as far away
from John Chinaman's presence as it is possible to get.

The Sakis are a rude and miserably backward people. Like the Papuans of
New Guinea, they build their huts in the branches of trees; but for this
they have good reason--the prowling animals of the forest would
otherwise soon obliterate the slowly dying tribe. Their only weapons are
the _sumpitan_, or blo