Our writer follows the trail of the famous 19th century British traveller, Isabella Bird, in Negri Sembilan.
We were following in Isabella Bird’s 19th century footsteps through the peninsula.
This intrepid lady traveller used a boat named Moosmee to negotiate the rivers, as well as antiquated buggies and a pony, to get to villages, but we would have to travel overland in an air-conditioned car.
Sungai Linggi
Bird was a hardy British lady who travelled through parts of Malaya in the early 1880s.
In her book, The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither (1883), she described her travels in great detail, with wonderful descriptions of the jungle and animals, her methods of transport and the characters she met along the way. There are also some excellent drawings of fauna and flora, as well as photographs.
My trekking friend Jan was so fascinated by the writing that he suggested we try and follow one of Isabella’s routes in Negri Sembilan. I readily agreed.
In 1883, Bird went from Singapore to Malacca and then into the state of Sungai Ujong, which now comes under Negri Sembilan, and on to the mouth of the Linggi and then Seremban.
Calm village life
I didn’t know anything about the history of Sungai Linggi but read that it was once an important river carrying tin from the trading posts upriver to the Straits of Malacca. This was the place to start our adventure.
In an attempt to keep as close to the river as possible, Jan researched the route and put it into his GPS. From Kuala Lumpur we drove to Seremban, and, as soon as we left the highway, we saw the Linggi. As we were keen to follow the route taken by Bird, we drove straight to Kuala Linggi, between Port Dickson and Malacca, lying south of Tanjung Tuan.
At Kuala Kota Linggi, we found a small port, shipyard and customs department. We parked by the police station and had a look at the beach, from where we could see many apartment blocks on the Port Dickson coastline. All that Bird saw were mangrove swamps backed by thick jungle.
Linggi megaliths in Kempalan Kempas
There is an old Dutch fort here called Kota Linggi, but Bird didn’t visit it. We drove back to the bridge over the large river, which is the Linggi combined with Lubok China. The bridge is new and is a popular place for fishing, and there is an area of food stalls and a car park on one side.
We followed the road to Permatang Pasir and parked by the jetty, probably the place where Bird landed in January 1883. However, the thatched piers she mentioned no longer exist.
She often mentioned crocodiles in her book, which she called alligators, so we were amused to see several monitor lizards on the muddy river bank. Several boats were moored at the jetty including two offering crocodile and firefly tours. There is also a project to rear freshwater prawns, the udang galah.
A historical complex located at Pengkalan Kempas.
Bird described the journey from the estuary to Permatang Pasir as “a few miles of tortuous steaming through the mangrove swamps of the Linggi River”. She wrote in great detail about a host of animals and said the police station was “a genuine Malay house on stilts”.
Whilst in the village, she visited “the tomb of a famous haji, “a great prophet”, the policeman said, who was slain. So that was the next item on our itinerary.
According to the Tourism Malaysia sign, the tomb is from 1467-1468 and is believed to be among the oldest Muslim grave sites in the country.
The tomb of Syeikh Ahmad Najnun, a Muslim theologian. Next to the grave are the famous stone inscriptions or “Batu Bersurat” which depict his struggle and victory.
Today, there are several megaliths around the tomb in the Kempalan Kempas but there is no information on them. We took a few photos, then continued to the small town of Linggi, where we had a well-deserved lunch. Bird endured hardships in her journey from Permatang Pasir to Seremban. She wrote “the ‘Golden Chersonese’ (the ancient name for the Malay Peninsula) is very hot, and much infested by things which bite and sting”, but we had it easy, travelling in an air-conditioned car.
From Linggi, we passed through Nioto (Nyatoh) where Bird left the boat and travelled in an ancient buggy pulled by a pony. However, her pony refused to budge after a bit and she had to walk up a hill before finding a fresh pony in the large Chinese village of Rassa.
Today, Rassa is almost part of Seremban, so we said goodbye to Bird and made our way on the busy, modern road into the town. It had been a fascinating adventure, following in the footsteps of such a celebrated woman writer.
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Linggi history
A bit on Bird
Linggi history
Saturday August 22, 2009
Linggi history
All that remains of the Dutch fort, Kota Kuala Linggi, are its 1m high walls which, during its heyday, guarded the Linggi river estuary on the Straits of Malacca.
It was apparently built by the Dutch and Bugis in 1757 following a war which was settled amicably, and then abandoned just two years later. The fort is in a prominent position on a small hill known as Bukit Supai (Sepoy). The Dutch name was Fort Filiphina after a governor’s daughter.
From the 1820s to 1860s, there were a lot of clashes on the river between chiefs over river taxes and port fees as a result of all the tin coming down the river from Seremban. The Linggi fort helped to protect the tin traders and probably was used to collect taxes.
Many illegal forts were set up all along the river, and this prompted the British to send an expedition in 1857 to destroy these illegal toll booths. It is not clear if Linggi fort was razed at the same time.
The main entrance to the fort is now beyond an abandoned and uncompleted resort project. We were able to squeeze through the resort gates to get to the fort. A signboard by the Museums Department gives some information, but there is little to see except the four walls which were once surrounded by a moat.
There was also once a passageway to the landing stage at the beach. The perimeter of the fort is bordered by ancient rubber trees; one had the biggest girth I’ve ever seen on a rubber tree.
As we walked round, the heavens opened their floodgates and we had to dash to a shelter. It seems a historical complex is being developed, and the shelters and walkways have already been built. There is also an old tomb outside the fort, but there is no mention of who is buried here.
Related Stories:
A bit on Bird
Following the Linggi
A bit on Bird
Saturday August 22, 2009
A bit on Bird
Isabella Bird (right) was one of the great Victorian-era women travellers. She was born in England in 1831 and the daughter of a Church of England vicar.
Although she was a sickly child, Bird seemed to have had a great desire to travel. Her first journey was to Canada and the US in 1854, when she was 23. It was another 20 years before her extensive travels began.
In 1873, she went to Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the Rocky Mountains. In 1877, she travelled to Japan, Hong Kong, China and Malaya. On her return she married Dr John Bishop. When he died in 1886, she began travelling again. After training as a nurse, she went to Tibet.
In 1890, she travelled as part of a military expedition to Persia, and in 1897 covered over 8,000 miles (12,874km) in China and Korea. Her last journey, in 1904, was to Africa. The Golden Chersonese is out of print in Malaysia but can be bought from bookshops and Ebay on the Internet. You can also read the book on-line at:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/bird/isabella/golden/
Another writer, Bruce Lockhart, also mentions the Linggi.
In his 1936 book Return to Malaya he wrote: “We stopped, too, at the Linggi River which in my youth I had visited with Roger Swettenham, a nephew of the famous Sir Frank (Swettenham), in the Government launch.
“In those days, the river was alive with crocodiles. Freddie told me their numbers had scarcely decreased. It was a strange emotion to feel that close around one were crocodiles, tiger, wild pig, deer, not to mention snakes, iguanas, lizards and other smaller animals and insects, both dangerous and harmless.”
