Padang for Fort de Kook, sixty miles from this city.
A heavy shower during the night has purified the
air, and we have a clear, cool, and in its fullest sense
a lovely morning. This “ American ” is generally
drawn by two horses, but the governor has had thills
put on so that one may be used, for he says, between
Fort de Kock, where the present post-road ends, and
Siboga, a distance of about one hundred and ninety
miles, by the crooked route that we must travel, that
we shall find it difficult to get one horse for a part of
the way. Behind the carriage a small seat is fastened
where my footman sits or stands. His duty is to
help change the horses at the various stations, which
are about five miles apart. When the horses are
harnessed his next duty is to get them started, which
is by far the most difficult, for most of those we
have used to-day have been trained for the saddle,
and we have not dared to put on any breeching
for fear of losing our fender, these brutes are so
ready to use their heels, though fortunately we have
not needed any hold-back but once or twice, and
then, by having the footman act as hold-back himself
with a long line, I have urged on the horse, and in
every case we have come down to the bottom of the
hill safely. With only a weak coolie tugging behind,
of course 1 have not been able to make these wild
horses resist the temptation to go down the hill at a
trot, and, after running and holding back until he was
out of breath, the coolie has always let go, generally
when I was half-way down; nothing of course
then remained to be done but to keep the horse galloping
so fast that the carriage cannot run on to him,
and by the time we have come to the bottom of the
hill we have been moving at a break-neck rate, which
has been the more solicitous for me, as I had never
been on the road, and did not know what unexpected
rocks or holes there would be found round the next
sharp turn.
From Padang the road led to the northwest, over
the low lands between the sea and the foot of the
Barizan, or coast chain of mountains. In this low
region we have crossed two large streams, which
come down from these elevations on the right, and are
now quite swollen from the recent rains. A long and
large rattan is stretched across from one bank to the
other, and a path made to slip over it is fastened to
one end of a rude raft. This rattan prevents us from
being swept down the boiling stream, while the natives
push over the raft with long poles. I began to
realize what an advantage it was to ride in the carriage
of the Tuan Biza, or “ Great Man,” as the Malays
all call the governor. As soon as those on the opposite
side of the stream saw the carriage they recognized
it, and at once came over by holding on to the
rattan with one hand and swimming with the other.
In their struggles to hasten and kindly assist, several
times the heads of a number of them were beneath
the water when they came to the middle of the
stream, where the current was strongest and the rattan
very slack; but there was very little danger of their
being drowned, for they are as amphibious as alligators.
I had not been riding long over these low
lands before I experienced a new and unexpected
pleasure in beholding by the roadside numbers of