Account of a naturalist’s visit to the territory of Selangor
W.T. Hornaday’s 1879 field account, read before the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in April 1879, documents a six-week naturalist’s expedition to the newly administered territory of Selangor in mid-1878. The article serves as both a zoological collecting report and an early ethnogeographic sketch of a territory only four years into formal British administrative control following the Pangkor Treaty of 1874.
Summary
Hornaday’s primary objective was mammalian collecting, and the narrative is organised around two distinct field stations. The first, at the coastal village of Jerom on the Sungei Bulu, was devoted to crocodiles, where he and local Malay and Chinese hunters obtained ten specimens over twelve days. The second, at the inland village of Batu in the tin-mining district, focused on large mammals, culminating in the killing of a tusked male elephant from a herd of eight to ten animals. Throughout, Hornaday interweaves observations on the physical landscape—mangrove swamps, dense dipterocarp forest, mud flats, and the newly cut carriage road from Damasara to Kwala Lumpur—with commentary on the administrative and economic conditions of the territory.
The article is notable for its frank assessment of the relationship between colonial infrastructure and indigenous populations. Hornaday explicitly states that “the making of good roads is the subjugation of Malays,” linking the construction of the Damasara road to the extension of governmental authority into the interior. He also offers a pragmatic recommendation that the government should offer a bounty for dead elephants, which he considers a growing nuisance to native agriculture and unlikely candidates for capture and training. The account closes with a partial faunal list of mammals, distinguishing between species collected and those merely observed, and noting the rarity or commonness of each.
Key Findings
- The largest crocodile obtained (Crocodylus porosus) measured 12 feet in length and weighed 415 pounds; ten crocodiles were collected in total at Jerom (p. 125).
- A tusked male elephant, not yet full grown, was killed at Batu after a stalk of approximately fifteen paces; the animal’s back was “completely encrusted with a hard cake of dry mud” as protection against flies (pp. 127–128).
- Rhinoceros sumatranus was observed in the territory, with one individual noted as having been caught alive (p. 131).
- The government had established a reward of $50 for each black panther (Felis perniger), which Hornaday describes as “a pest” (p. 130).
- The carriage road from Damasara to Kwala Lumpur, 17 miles in length, was completed for only about 12 miles at the time of the visit; the remainder required coolie portage through dense forest (p. 126).
- A Hydrooannes salvator (kra zaya) measuring 6 feet 2 inches was captured alive after a 100-yard chase through knee-deep mud (p. 125).
Conclusion
Hornaday’s definitive takeaway is that Selangor, though recently opened to European administration, remains a rich and largely unexplored field for natural history, particularly for large mammals. He frames the territory’s fauna as both a scientific resource and a practical problem for colonial governance, recommending active management of elephant populations and the continued development of infrastructure as the twin pillars of effective administration.
Context
- Hornaday was a professional naturalist and collector (later Keeper of the Indian Museum, Calcutta) operating within the framework of the British Residency at Klang; his access to the interior was facilitated by the Resident, Captain Douglas, and the Superintendent of Police, H.C. Syers, who accompanied him on the Batu expedition (pp. 124, 126).
- The article reflects the contemporary colonial assumption that scientific collecting and territorial consolidation were mutually reinforcing enterprises, a framing that is explicit in Hornaday’s remarks on road-building and Malay subjugation (p. 126).