Through an unknown Corner of Pahang with H. Clifford in 1897.
By F. W. Douglas.
A portion of the map on the border between the States of Pahang and Trengganu is still blank. It lies in a rough triangle, of which Gunong Irong, the source of the Tekal and Tembeling rivers (both northern branches of the great Pahang river), is the western apex, with Gunong Tapis, the source of the Kuantan River, the south-eastern point, and the mountainous range at the head of the Kemaman River, which flows in an easterly direction through the southern end of Trengganu, as the north-eastern point.
This area is still a terra incognita. It has occurred to me therefore that the following notes from an old diary may possibly be of interest and perhaps serve to stimulate some member of this Society to explore this region thoroughly. The triangle is marked on the accompanying map.
In 1897, Hugh Clifford (now Governor of Nigeria), who was then Resident of Pahang wanted to make a bridle-path connecting Kuantan, which lies on the east coast at the mouth of the Kuantan River, with Kuala Lipis, which lies some 200 miles inland up the Pahang River and which had then been selected as the temporary Capital for the State of Pahang. He and I accordingly set out from Kuantan on the 12th April, proceeding up the Kuantan River to its source, across the terra incognita and down the Tekal River and thence on down the great Pahang River to Pekan at the mouth.
We reached there on the 23rd April. Our journey therefore took 12 days, during which we travelled some 300 miles almost entirely by river. The following notes are taken from a diary kept during the trip.
1st April. Clifford wrote asking me to get guides for the journey, as no one had ever done the trip from the Ulu Pahang side. The only men I could find were not exactly ideal for the purpose. One was an opium-smoking waster, Bakar Tekal by name, who had been in the Ulu Tekal with gĕtah-hunting Dayaks, but who had not been down the river; the other was one Komeng Liar, half Sakai, who had been the guide for a party of raiders in 1896 from Kemaman (Trengganu) into Pahang and had helped some of Babman, the Orang Kaya Semantan's people, to escape. He was selected for our party simply as a useful man in the jungle.
