My trip to Belum
E.W. Birch, C.M.G., British Resident of Perak, published this account in 1910 of his journey from Grit to the remote interior settlement of Belum and back along the Perak River, undertaken in the immediate aftermath of the territory’s transfer from Siamese to Perak administration. The narrative functions simultaneously as a travelogue of the physical hardships of elephant and raft travel through the upper Perak watershed and as a de facto administrative report on the condition of the newly ceded population.
Summary
Birch’s party—comprising Hubert Berkeley, J.W. Simmons, the Datoh Sri Adika Raja (hereditary Chief of Upper Perak), and himself—set out from Grit on 26 July 1910 with 21 elephants, travelling up the Perak River and its tributaries to reach Belum, a cluster of eight villages situated over 1,500 feet above sea level and at least 70 miles from the nearest administrative centre. The outward journey, made largely on elephant-back, was marked by the constant hazards of the interior: innumerable leeches, a wild tusker that chased three of the party’s female elephants and injured a gembala, a swarm of panahliang hornets (reputedly lethal in sufficient numbers), and the general discomfort of slow progress through deep mud, river fords, and dense forest. The return journey, made by bamboo raft (rakit renbau) down the Perak, proved more dramatic still, with the party negotiating over 25 rapids including the formidable Jeram Panjang and Jeram Brusa, during which one raft was swept against rocks and Birch lost his shooting boots.
The administrative purpose of the trip was to assess the people of Belum, who had been transferred from Siamese protection under the boundary arrangements of the 1890s. Birch took a census, confirmed the local Imam in office, ordered the construction of a mosque and school at the central village of Maka, and emancipated 16 debt slaves whose owners had been paid. He also visited the abandoned settlement at Pineris—established in 1904 to check raids by Legeh men seeking kayu gaharu (agarwood)—whose inhabitants had migrated to Banding on the Perak after successive crop failures from locusts and poor yields. The people of Belum, while self-sufficient in rice, complained acutely of the difficulty obtaining salt and blachan (fermented fish), and Birch noted that no regular supply was possible except by monthly elephant convoy, and that there was no prospect of plantation agriculture given the prohibitive transport costs.
Throughout the narrative, Birch interweaves natural history observation—elephant behaviour, the territorial division of ungka and siamang gibbons on opposite banks of the Perak, the ecology of the semut api ant, the medicinal properties of jadam (asafœtida)—with local legend and ethnography, including the story of Mengkong Gos’s assassination, the burong tebong mentuwa hornbill fable, and the ritual offering made at the Berhala To’ Sih Ulu boulder before entering Jeram Panjang.
Key Findings
- The total population of Belum was approximately 206 across eight villages; a specific census of four villages (Belimbing, Kebeng, Greh, and one other) recorded 27 males, 29 females, and 69 children (125 total) (p. 127).
- Sixteen debt slaves were formally emancipated by Birch at Belum, their owners having been paid (p. 127).
- The settlement at Pineris, established in 1904 with government assistance (poultry, seedlings, an Assistant Penghulu, a bungalow, and a school), was abandoned after locust damage to the first hill padi crop and subsequent years of empty ears, its inhabitants migrating to Banding on the Perak (pp. 119–120).
- The wild tusker that pursued three of the party’s female elephants caused a fractured arm to Alang Sagor, the chief gembala, who was treated with jadam (asafœtida) applied in boiling water as a plaster, then bamboo splints (p. 121).
- The return raft journey from Kuala Temengor to Kuala Kendrong covered the distance in 6 hours 25 minutes of actual travelling time, described as the fastest ever recorded for that stretch (p. 135).
- The boundary stone at Bukit Tali Kail, marking the limit laid down in the Siamese Treaty of 1899, was passed during the downstream raft journey (p. 130).
Conclusion
Birch’s definitive assessment is that Belum, while possessing a healthy climate at its elevation and a population that grows sufficient rice, is rendered practically ungovernable by the sheer difficulty of access. The journey itself is “the rub”: the people are at least 70 miles from the nearest administrative point, there is no prospect of plantation development, and the basic necessities of salt and blachan cannot be regularly supplied. The transfer from Siamese to Perak protection, while formally complete, left the population in a state of isolation that made meaningful administrative integration extremely difficult.
Context
- Birch wrote as the sitting British Resident of Perak; the article is an official-adjacent account of a state visit to newly acquired territory, and his administrative actions (census, emancipation of debt slaves, confirmation of the Imam, ordering of a mosque and school) reflect the routine governance of a colonial resident exercising authority over a transferred population.
- The narrative draws on no archival collection per se but constitutes a primary administrative and observational record of the Belum transfer period, complementing the diplomatic correspondence surrounding the 1896 and 1899 Anglo-Siamese boundary agreements.