S I N G A P O R E . CHAPTER XVH
PALEMBANG, BAKOA, AND SINGAPORE.
May Mh.—At 7 a . m. I bade my host, the cont/ro-
leur, good-by, and began to glide down the Lima-
tang for Palembang.
It was a cool, clear morning, and I enjoyed a fine
view of Mount Dempo and the other high peaks near
it. The current at first was so rapid that the only
care of my men was, to keep the boat from striking
on the many bars of sand and shingle. To do this,
one stood forward and one aft, each provided with a
long bamboo. We soon shot into a series of foaming
rapids, and here the river bent so abruptly to the
right and left that I thought we should certainly be
dashed against a ragged, precipitous wall of rock that
formed the right bank at that place, but we passed
safely by, though the stern of the boat only passed
clear by a few inches. My boat was about twenty
feet long and five broad, flat-bottomed, and made of
thin plank. Its cential part was covered over with
roof of atap, like the sampans in China, and on this
was another sliding roof, which could be hauled forward
to protect the rowers from rain or sunshine.
From Lahat to the mouth of the Inem River relays of