 
|
|
"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."--Amelia Earhart "I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others."--Amelia Earhart |
By D.A. Watson
Isabella left Japan via Singapore, where the Colonial Secretary of Singapore suggested she might like to spend a while exploring what were then called the “Native States.” She jumped at the chance, and the Secretary wrote a few letters of introduction to government officials on the route and arranged free transport for her. The next day, she boarded the Chinese-owned steamer Rainbow, bound for Malacca. She would explore Malaya for the next six weeks.
The Malay Peninsula, the region between Thailand and Malaysia, had been taken over by the British in 1875. Isabella was one of the first Europeans to explore it in 1879. Chersonese was the old name for the Malay States, which today are known as Malaysia and Singapore. The name, taken from Ptolemy via Milton, actually denotes the whole of the Malay Peninsula, while Isabella only visited its western coastal areas.
Isabella found the Peninsula to be “A land where it is 'always afternoon.' Existence stagnates. The nights are very still. The days are a tepid dream. Since I arrived, not a leaf has stirred, not a bird has sung, the tides ebb and flow in listless and soundless ripples." The local Malays were "lying basking in the sun, or leaning over the bridge looking at nothing."
The Lieutenant Governor of this area for many years was Captain Shaw, an Irishman. He arranged for Isabella to visit the nearby state of Sungei Ujong and asked her if she would take his two daughters with her to see the sights. She agreed, apparently reluctantly, and the party, under the protection of the Police Superintendent, left by steam-launch a few days later.
They steamed up the peninsular coast and then inland along the Linggi River. As they traveled, they saw vipers, turtles, alligators, lizards, and a variety of brightly colored tropical birds. The two Shaw girls turned out to be rather ill suited for this type of travel, and suffered from heat, exhaustion and headaches during the short journey. When they finally arrived at the Sungei Ujong Residency, Captain Murray made them welcome, and showed them what sights there were to see. After several days they returned to Malacca and Isabella gratefully returned the Misses Shaw to their father.
On February 1st, 1879, she again boarded the Rainbow, and set out towards the British Residency in Klang, Selangor. Selangor was the middle State on the Malayan west coast, located between smaller Sungei Ujong to the south and larger Perak to the north. She called Klang, the official capital, ‘mis-thriven, decayed, defected, miserable-looking.’ At the Residency lived Mr. Bloomfield Douglas, Resident; ‘a tall, vigorous, elderly man with white hair, a florid complexion and a strong voice heard everywhere in authoritative tones.” Others viewed him as a bully and a tyrant.
The only way to see the travel effectively through the area was by boat. During her travels, Isabella saw “the elephant, the rhinoceros, the royal tiger, the black panther, the boar, the leopard and many other beasts, roam in its tangled, twilight depths. We saw a large alligator sleeping in the sun on the mud, with a month, I should think, a third of the length of his body, and we panted past him but he awoke, and his hideous form and corrugated hide plunged into the water so close under the stern as to splash us."
At one village along the river, Isabella witnessed a large celebration over the killing of a tiger. The animal, over eight feet long, was skinned and the skin hung from a tree. As the Sultan beat gongs, the villagers each tried to get a part of the animal. "The Sultan claimed the liver, which, when dried and powdered, is worth twice its weight in gold as a medicine. The blood was taken, and I saw the Chinamen drying it in the sun on small slabs: it is an invaluable tonic! The eyes, which were of immense size, were eagerly scrabbled for that the hard parts in the center, which are valuable charms, might be set in gold as rings. The bones were taken to be boiled down to a jelly."
Isabella traveled to Penang aboard the Abdulsamaat. Upon her arrival, she was invited to a breakfast in honor of the departing Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir William Robinson. Among the officials present was William Maxwell, Assistant Resident of Perak, and Isabella’s companion for the next stage of her journey. Maxwell’s Residency was in Larut, in the swampy coastal province in the State of Perak. She traveled there on the steam-launch Kinta. Leaving Perak late at night, Isabella wrote ‘the sea was like oil, the oars dripped flame, and seen from the water, the long line of surf broke on the shore not in snow, but in a long drift of greenish fire.’
Isabella was eager to ride an elephant. She envisioned that her elephant would have an elegant howdah with elaborate cloths of gold trappings. She was very disappointed. "My elephant had neither. In fact there was nothing grand about him but his ugliness. This mode of riding is not comfortable. One sits facing forwards with the feet dangling over the edge of the basket, which soon produces a sharp ache or cramp."
To make matters worse, her elephant found a mud-hole and "drew all the water out of it, squirted it with a loud noise over himself and his riders, soaking my clothes." Later, when they came to a river, he did not stop. "The elephant gently dropped down and was entirely submerged, moving majestically along, with not a bit of his huge bulk visible. We were sitting in the water, but it was nearly as warm as the air, and so we went for some distance up the clear shining river, with the tropic sun blazing down upon us, with little beaches of golden sand, and above the forest the mountains with varying shades of indigo coloring."
Eventually, Isabella became tired of the jungle and lonely for Hennie’s letters. She departed the Residency at Kuala Kangsa, her last stopping place, on a pony. The Royal Elephant carried her baggage.
The last paragraph of her book recalls how they set sail to travel back through the Suez Canal to England. “We sailed from Penang in glorious sunshine at an early hour this afternoon and have exchanged the sparkling calms of the Malacca Straits for the indolent roll of the Bay of Bengal. The steamer’s head points north-west. In the far distance the hills of the Peninsula lie like mists upon a reddening sky. My tropic dream is fading, and the “Golden Chersonese” is already a memory.
Next: Isabella in the Sinai
|
|
 |
| Women Who Dared II |
 A beautiful and inspirational poster with pictures and short vignettes of "women who dared." |
|
| American Experience: Around the World in 72 Days (1997) |
 PBS Home Video. Many called her "the best reporter in America," and Nellie Bly truly achieved amazing successes. She got herself committed to an institution to expose abuses of the mentally ill and actually did travel around the world in 72 days. Discover the woman behind these and many other astonishing feats -- a serious yet spunky celebrity who mastered life through her cunning and wit. |
|
| The Hawaiian Archipelago |
 By Isabella Bird. Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands. |
|
| Women of Discovery |
 A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World by Milbry Polk, Mary Tiegreen. Across the centuries and from many lands, women have set forth on journeys of exploration. Visionaries, adventurers, artists, and scientists, these women challenged the limitations, both physical and social, of their times and, in the face of formidable challenges, expanded the world's body of knowledge. Yet despite their extraordinary achievements, they have remained unknown and unsung for too long. |
|
| Amelia Earhart : A Biography |
 By Doris L. Rich. "Rich's portrait reveals a determined, independent woman, brave enough "to go where no one had gone and to do what no one had done" . . . [and] illuminates the public and private life of a legendary flier, bringing her back to earth as a courageous woman who dreamed and dared all." (Christian Science Monitor) |