Cameron’s Highlands
W. George Maxwell, a senior Malayan Civil Service officer, compiled and published this record in 1926, drawing on official correspondence and a personal letter by the explorer William Cameron to reconstruct the latter’s 1885–1886 survey expeditions in Perak and the adjacent highlands. The article was prompted by contemporary interest in developing Cameron’s Highlands as a sanatorium and sought to clarify that the plateau Cameron actually discovered in 1885 was not the area that subsequently bore his name.
Summary
The article addresses a persistent historical confusion: the highland plateau now known as Cameron’s Highlands was not the one Cameron visited and described in 1885. Maxwell, writing as the custodian of the relevant official records, assembled a chronological précis of correspondence from the Perak State archives to establish the precise sequence of Cameron’s movements. The narrative reveals that Cameron’s first expedition, beginning in February 1885, followed instructions to traverse from Waterloo Estate up Bubu to Gunong Chabang on the Raia, then east into Pahang and south toward Ulu Bernam or Selangor. It was during this crossing that he discovered a plateau at approximately 4,500 feet elevation in Pahang territory, which he described as “a new and very interesting plateau of country maintaining for miles an average elevation of 4,500 feet on the rivers’ banks” (p. 124).
Cameron’s second expedition in 1886 was directed toward surveying the mid-country between Selangor and Perak, tying together his earlier Selangor survey with the Perak work—a task he described as “a crucial test to my former work” (p. 125). The latter half of 1886 was consumed by preparations for a planned visit by the Governor to the Highlands, which never materialised, and by Cameron’s deteriorating health. He died in Singapore on 9 November 1886, still suffering from fever contracted during his fieldwork.
The article reproduces in full Cameron’s letter of 9 April 1886 to C. V. Creagh, Assistant Resident of Perak, which provides a first-person account of his movements, his physical suffering (“perched up 6,600 feet amidst the mists, rains and bitter cold for three months”), and his administrative frustrations regarding accounts and communication with headquarters (pp. 125–127).
Key Findings
- Cameron’s first expedition began in February 1885 and concluded with his return to Taiping on 29 September 1885 (p. 125).
- The plateau he discovered lay at an average elevation of 4,500 feet on the banks of rivers in Pahang territory, reached via a pass into the upper Telom valley at 5,000 feet (p. 124).
- Cameron’s second expedition in 1886 focused on surveying the mid-country between Selangor and Perak, not the highland plateau itself (p. 125).
- The Governor (Sir F. A. Weld) intended to accompany Cameron to the Highlands in mid-1986 but was unable to do so; the visit never took place (p. 126).
- Cameron died in Singapore on 9 November 1886, having written from the General Hospital on 24 October that he was “suffering again from fever” (p. 126).
- Cameron’s letter of 9 April 1886 records that he had been “perched up 6,600 feet amidst the mists, rains and bitter cold for three months” in the mountains of Berang, Bil, and Giliting (p. 125).
Conclusion
Maxwell’s definitive takeaway is that the area now called Cameron’s Highlands is not the plateau Cameron discovered in 1885, and that Cameron’s actual explorations—though geographically distinct from the later sanatorium site—deserve historical recognition in their own right. The article serves as a corrective to the popular misattribution while preserving the primary documentary record of Cameron’s work before it was lost to time.
Context
- Maxwell was a senior officer of the Malayan Civil Service with direct access to the Perak State archives (file references Pk. 50/85 through Pk. 5438/85), and the précis was prepared at his request by J. D. M. Smith and H. C. Rendle, both also of the M.C.S. (p. 122).
- The article reflects the administrative culture of the 1920s, in which the naming of geographical features after colonial-era explorers was standard practice, and the “sanatorium” question was a live policy debate within the Straits Settlements and Federated States.