In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, Isabella Bird, by then an established travel writer, was still able to refer to the Malay Peninsula as an almost unknown land. Travelling back from Japan, the intrepid travel writer stopped off in Singapore, where the British Colonial Secretary had the idea that she might like to visit the native states of the Western Archepelago. Because she had such a good introduction, she went and was taken everywhere by local officials. And so Miss Bird's journey was less rugged than her many other trips but rather more comfortable and well connected, and Miss Bird enjoyed it immensely.