My Friends the Savages Part 3

I could not help wondering to myself what sort of a gruff, bureaucratic functionary I should find to deny me my fortune. Who knew how my Italian enterprise would be judged on territory protected by H. B. M.?

But calling up my courage I was introduced into the presence of a young and pleasant-mannered gentleman who received me with much politeness.

He had already been informed that a white man was to be found amongst the Sakais and he had been greatly surprised, not understanding what attractions anyone could find in the midst of a people so ignorant and savage. He congratulated himself upon the opportunity of meeting and knowing me, was pleased to hear that I was an Italian and wound up with the stereotyped demand:

"What can I have the pleasure of doing for you?".

Encouraged by his kindness, but not without a little secret misgiving, I told him frankly what I proposed doing and related all particulars.

Mr. Wise (for this was his name) listened to everything attentively, now and then expressing a word of sympathy or approval and finally, for the sum of a few dollars, made me the owner of the tract of land upon which I had fixed my mind.

Thus it was that in the short s.p.a.ce of an hour, without having to surmount any obstacles, and at an almost ridiculous price I became the legitimate possessor of a piece of ground that perhaps concealed a treasure in its bosom.

As I had never before been at Tapah I took advantage of the time spared in my business affairs to visit it a little and to form an opinion upon the expedients used in a half-desert Eastern country, scorched by the sun, populated by different tribes, infested by poisonous insects and terrible microbes, to say nothing of a host of wild beasts!

Tapah is a modern little town, all villas and gardens. It rises white and coquettishly at the foot of green hills and its smiling panorama, although without the magnificent background of the sea, recalled to my sight the sweet vision of my native Varazze, one of the most beautiful gems that adorn the Riviera Ponente.

It is the chief-town of a district counting 30,000 inhabitants amongst which about a thousand of diverse races and nationalities. It has two large streets lined with shops where Malays, Indians, and Chinese offer a varied and heterogeneous stock of goods for sale.

It is divided in the middle by the big river Batang Padang which afterwards discharges itself into the Bidor, that too.

As capital of the district it possesses a Post Office, a very large room where two Indian clerks perform their duties under the direction of an English Postmaster who has also to overlook the branch offices of the circuit.

My attention was attracted by an unpretending edifice in front of which some Malay and Indian soldiers were seated. I was asking them what building it was when an Englishman came out and courteously told me that it was the Head Police Station of which he was the inspector.

During a subsequent conversation I learnt that the Police Service was everything that could be desired as also that of all the other Public Offices and that Indigenes and Indians were everywhere employed under the direction of English chiefs. The number of clerks, as in other British colonies, was according to strict necessity; no extra posts were ever created for political or personal interest but when a.s.sistance was required there was never any difficulty in selecting local aspirant, as long as they had a sufficient knowledge of the official language.

So I found that Tapah, the chief-town of the district, is under the direction of an Englishman, who is called the District Officer, and who performs all administrative and magisterial functions.

Not much time lost here in the labyrinths of Bureaucracy! And yet I heard that both the District Officer and the Police Inspector who are under the control of the Authority residing in Taiping, capital of Perak but who in reality enjoy almost complete liberty of action, find the time not only to discharge all the various duties of their office but also to take recreation in a little football and cricket. It is said that sometimes the menservants too are called in to take part in these national sports and for an hour freely compete with their masters in the art of kicking and batting, returning serious and respectful to their proper places at the end of the game.

Whilst I was pa.s.sing the time pleasantly, talking with one and the other I saw a little party approaching that was the object of great respect from the bystanders.

It was Mr. Wise the District Officer who had received me so politely a few hours before.

He was on his return from a survey made in order to define the boundary of some land belonging to two Malays. Without donning any sort of uniform or insignia, this British delegate had known how to preserve all the solemnity and dignity of form due to the occasion, a virtue peculiar to the English who are always and everywhere the most rigorous observers of social and official etiquette.

Mr. Wise kindly invited me to follow him the Club where he kept me in friendly conservation, answering all the questions I could not refrain from asking him in my desire to become better acquainted with the colony and its method of government.

Now Mr. Wise is no more, but in him his country lost a model functionary for intelligence, solicitude and uprightness.

He died at the very moment his future seemed to smile its brightest; when his fondest hopes were about to be crowned by matrimony with the young lady of his choice.

Let me, through these pages, render to his memory the modest, affectionate homage of admiration and deferential friendship.

That day, having made my peace with the authorities, I returned with a clear conscience to the quiet nook I had found in the vast forest; to that domestic corner reserved for me in Dame Nature's grand and wondrous saloon: to that rude home so far removed from the generality of mankind, but so close to the kings and princes of the animal kingdom, commonly called--wild beasts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A young Sakai with his inseparable blowpipe.

_p._ 40.]

Keeping tight hold of the receipt which had suddenly made me the owner of a possible gold mine, I alternately made castles in the air and meditated upon the simplicity of English administration that in a few short instants had conceded to me an extensive zone of land with which to do what I liked, without any need of setting in motion the intricate machinery of the bureaucracy; without any stamped legal forms, surveys and expensive reports; the presentation of birth certificate and that of British citizenship; without digging into the past and the future, into the state and position of one's family, etc. etc.

And because everything that happens to one abroad recalls one's fatherland (a natural habit that neither distance nor time can change) I thought of my native country and of the complicated organization of its many bureaucratic departments that only too often clogs the boldest Italian enterprise and raises an insurmountable barrier before creative and inventive genius compelling it to seek elsewhere its fortune.

From my heart I longed that Italy might before long be liberated from these toils which hinder the free expansion of its young and vigorous forces.

One thing had particularly struck me during my intercourse with Mr.

Wise. The fact of my being an Italian was no obstacle to my request being favourably received. This surprised me, for under other governments I had seen that foreigners were considered anything but necessary to the colony and after having opposed, more or less openly, the intruder's initiative, the Authority seized the slightest pretext, that offered itself under a decent aspect, to send the new-comer back over the frontier for fear that their digestion might suffer from his presence.

England on the contrary does not search into, nor care for, the origin of those who bring energy or any other useful quality to her colonies.

In her dominions she only aims at reaching the highest point of prosperity, she desires only the acc.u.mulation of riches, and whoever promises well to further her interests, becomes an appreciated collaborator, be he Italian, German, Portuguese or Turk.

England never repells talent or apt.i.tude from an absurd prejudice of Chauvinism. Considering the length and breadth of her possessions she may well say that the world is her tributary, no wonder then that she avails herself of the hands and brains of every one who knows how to use them well, instead of confining herself exclusively to the merits of those born on British soil.

In this broad way of seeing and treating things--which proves the tranquil and perfect consciousness the English nation has of its own strength--I believe lies the secret of its colonial success.

The well-known satire according to which it is impossible to find in the world a rock or strip of land, however barren or sterile, without an owner, for the simple reason that an Englishman is always prompt to unfold and hoist the Union Jack there, is in reality the highest and most just homage that can be paid to the spirit of enterprise that characterizes this people. Where others only see sand and reefs, not worth the trouble of cultivation, the Englishman discovers some productive germ that with his indefatigable energy brings forth a thousand fold. Nor is Colonial work, industrial activity and commercial thrift disturbed by bureaucratic sophistry or immoderate fiscal pretentions, that so frequently suffocate the most promising and audacious undertakings in other places.

Colonial success very often depends upon the ability of its administrative body in directing all available force to this one end: the increase of its wealth. Bureaucracy is a cancer which paralyzes all life and motion that it finds within reach of its tentacles.

Old England has understood this for a long time, ever since, from the island once fruitless and barren, she spread her wings and flew to the conquest of the World's markets.

When will certain other nations comprehend that antiquity and past glory, instead of offering the precious fruit of experience, has brought upon them a palsied decrepitude?

When wilt thou understand this, my Italy, risen as thou art to the third maturity of thy civilization and glory?

I set myself at once, with a good will, to the extraction of gold, and engaged the services of a few Malays and Chinese coolies, who were expert enough, to a.s.sist me in my work.

The method we followed was a very primitive one. We filled some round wooden bowls with the water and sand, then by gently stirring the ma.s.s, particles of tin and gold were separated from the sand and went to the bottom. This deposit carefully gathered up was pa.s.sed into other bowls full of water, into which we threw a well-pounded leaf of the _sla piu_.

The juice of these leaves possesses a chemical property which I cannot explain but it draws up to the surface the sand still sticking to the metals, leaving them quite pure.

But the yellow tempter was not at all profuse in his favours and the golden metal came in very small quant.i.ties. I did not lose courage, however, and persevered for a long time without any change of luck. I even tried to trace out the auriferous bed from whence the waters of the stream transported the metals. I made innumerable attempts to find it, but in vain, and the day came when I was constrained to confess to myself that alluvial mining for me was a failure.

After all my hopes and dreams it was a melancholy confession to make but it was evident that I must turn in another direction if I wished for fortune, so I settled my account with the workmen and dismissed them.

At their departure my Sam-Sam who had become in the meantime a robust young man, begged me to let him return to his own part, saying that there was a young Sakai willing to take his place in my service.

Although very sorry to lose the faithful companion of that never to be forgotten journey through the forest, I could not refuse his request and let him do as he wished.

It was with real pleasure that I fell in with him again some years after when I was travelling through the interior of Kedah and he too evinced great joy at the meeting.