True, also, the northern Ankola exhibits some dry and desert places like those of
Padang-luwas. But for the rest, the district consists of one chain of beautiful valleys,
hemming the banks of the Batang-gadis (Virgin River), which runs between the central
mountains of Sumatra. These valleys, like the river itself, become wider and wider
as we proceed to the north and west. The high chains of mountains are covered to
their summits with stately woods, which afford abundance of good timber and other
valuable articles. On the lower mountains, too, woods are here and there dispersed,
and these are commonly adorned with the wild Aren palm (Saguerus sacchariferus),
yielding a wine; while some bare red spots indicate the existence of gold mines,
which, however, can seldom be considered as signs of true prosperity. We may more
safely give way to satisfaction when we see the well-watered rice-fields, which in small
valleys, like amphitheatres, climb up a considerable portion of the acclivities, and in
the distance, extend to an invisible boundary. Nowhere does the landscape weary.
The eye rests constantly on ornamental groups of bamboos and various trees, or on
the small clumps of fruit-trees in which the villages lie concealed, their position
especially marked by the abundance of coco and areca palms. Towards evening, we
observe near the villages numerous herds of buffalos, oxen, and goats; while men,
well-fed and well-clothed, and what is more, a superabundance of children, prove that
in this favoured region, the greatest prosperity has reigned for some years.”
The great alluvial plain of the eastern side of the island, generally but a few feet
above the level of the sea, is 600 miles in length, and from 60 to 110 miles in breadth,
giving an area of about 42,000 square miles, equal to better than half that of Great
Britain. This, with the rare exception of a few patches in the river banks, and usually
beyond the reach of the tide, is covered with a stupendous forest, probably older than
the races of men that inhabit it, or wander over it. No doubt much of this vast
territory is of ample fertility, and suited to the growth of most of the useful products
of intertropical countries; but to clear and cultivate it effectually has always
been a task far too difficult and gigantic for the rude and unskilful races of men
who occupy it.
Sumatra, as far as can be asserted of a country, many hundred square miles of
which have probably never been trodden by the foot of an intelligent European, is
like the other great islands of the Malay, but not those of the Philippine Archipelago,
deficient in lakes. The largest is described as being the source of the river of
Indragiri, and is called the Danau Singkara, or the “ Lake Singkara.” This is described
as being 20 miles in length, by from 12 to 15 in breadth, with a depth of 24 fathoms.
Another lies near the foot of the mountain Marapi, and goes under the name of the
Danau Sapuluh kota, or “ Lake of the ten forts." Two others are situated in the
country of the Korinchi Malays. These last were visited, in 1804, by an English
gentleman, Mr. Charles Campbell. The largest of them was described by him and
his companions, as a beautiful and clear expanse of water, abounding in fish, and
about seven miles broad. Another lake exists in the country of the Lampungs, towards
that part of the island which fronts Java. This is called the Ranu, a word which, in
Javanese, is a synonym for water, and probably the same word as danu, a lake. Two
English gentlemen visited this lake in 1820, and estimated its length to be about 16
miles, and its breadth 8. I t is surrounded in every direction by steep mountains,
ranging from 1200 to 8000 feet high, and abounds in fish and water-fowl.
The coast-line of Sumatra is not broken by any great bay or deep inlet, as is that of
Luzon or Celebes. Tapanuli on the western coast is the most extensive bay in the
island, and contains behind the shelter of the islands within it several harbours, but
with this exception, the anchorages of Sumatra are mere roads. In a sea without
storms, however, the absence of harbours is comparatively little felt.
The principal rivers of Sumatra are those of its eastern side, and this, owing to the
wide alluvial plain over which their course runs in their way into the Straits of Malacca.
Beginning from the north-west, they are as follow: the Assahan, the Baruman or
Bila, the Rakan, the Siak, the Kampar, the Indragiri, the Jambi, and the Palembang.
These, it should be observed, are only the names by which they are known to
Europeans, for generally, both here and in other parts of the Archipelago, no great
river throughout its course is designated by the natives by a common name, each
portion of it having a different one, generally taken from the place by which it flows.
On the western coast, the only considerable stream is the Singkel. Disemboguing
in the Straits of Sunda, we have the Mas-uji and the Pagadungan. All the Sumatran
rivers have bars of mud or sand at their mouths, which preclude their navigation by
vessels of burden; and the greater number of those of the eastern coast are subject
to the bore or tidal wave. The finest of the rivers of Sumatra are those of Siak and
Palembang, the mouths of which are protected, the first by a low island close to it,
and the last in a good measure by the island of Banca. These are navigable by
vessels of considerable burden.
The mineral products adapted to economical use hitherto discovered in Sumatra,
are fossil coal a lignite, sulphur, naphtha, granite, marble, iron, and gold. Indications
of copper have been discovered, but no mines of it hare ever been worked. Tin
might be expected in a country so near to the Peninsula and Banca, and much of
which is of the same formation, but I have not heard of its being anywhere worked
except in the interior of Kampar, which is opposite to Malacca. I t is certain, however,
that it is nowhere abundant, or the ore would have been washed as in the
Peninsula and Banca. The iron ore is described as of fine quality, and iron and steel
have been immemorially made from it by the workmen of Menangkabo, who have
attained a local reputation for the manufacture of tools and weapons. Gold is found
in many parts of the interior, but seemingly not in such abundance as in Borneo, the
Peninsula, or Celebes. Mercury, zinc, and antimony may be fairly looked for when
the country is explored.
The vegetable products of Sumatra include none, as far as economic botany is
concerned, which distinguish them from those of the Peninsula, and especially of
Borneo. The island produces all the corns, pulses, farinaceous roots, and esculent
fruits which belong to other portions of the western part of the Archipelago. Its
eastern coast, and the islands lying off it, are the chief source of the sago of commerce.
Benzoin and Malayan camphor are peculiar to it and Borneo. Sumatra is the great
source of black pepper, producing far more than all the other countries of India
put together. Of late years, coffee has been grown in larger quantities than in any
other island except Java, and this production has even extended to the native cultivators,
so that the island promises to furnish an almost unlimited supply. The
sugar-cane has never been cultivated for the production of sugar, which here, as in
most other places, is furnished by the sap of palms. The teak, the finest timber tree
of the Indies, is not a product of the forests of Sumatra, although so abundant in the
neighbouring island of Java. The ratan, producing the dragon’s-blood, is, I believe,
peculiar to the island.
The surprising dissimilitude of the zoologies of Sumatra and Java, islands parted
from each other only by a narrow channel, has been already noticed. The elephant,
and the tapir of Sumatra have no existence in Java. Even the rhinoceros and
wild hog of Sumatra differ in species from those of that island. The orang-utan is
found in Sumatra, but not in Java, while the Sunda ox of Java does not exist in
Sumatra. The dissimilitude extends even to the birds of the two islands, and
especially to those of the gallinaceous and pigeon families. Thus, the Argus pheasant of
Sumatra does not exist in Java, nor the pea-fowl of Java in Sumatra. Even when the
species of the feathered tribe are the same, the birds are larger and their plumage
brighter in Sumatra. These curious facts we have on the authority of a great ornithologist,
M. Temminck.
The aboriginal man of Sumatra is uniformly of one race,however different in manners,
customs, language, and social condition. This is the Malayan. There is no diminutive
negro, as in the neighbouring peninsula; nor an intermediate race between the Malayan
and Negro, as in Floris, Timur, and the islands adjacent to them. Fifteen
different nations, speaking as many distinct languages, inhabit Sumatra and the islands
adjacent to it, of which eleven are found in the main island and four in the islets.
Six of the nations of the main island have made considerable progress in civilisation,
being possessed of the art of writing, and made respectable advances in the mechanic
arts and agriculture. These are the Malays (Mfilayu), the Achinese (Achd), the Battas
(Batak), the Palembangs, the Rejang and the Sarawi. Four tribes, the Lubu, the
Kubu, the Abung, and the Kumring,—for these are the names by which they are
called by their more civilised neighbours,—are in the same wild and rude condition
as the least advanced of the Dayaks of Borneo, or the Banuwa of the Malay
Peninsula.
Mr. Logan has given an approximate estimate of the number of these different tribes
and nations, the most reasonable as it is the most moderate which has ever been published,
and the following is the substance of it. The first in power, in number, and
civilisation is the Malayan nation. Its number he estimates at 898,650, occupying an
area of 59,050 square miles, or at the rate of 15 inhabitants to the square mile. These
are the conquerors of the island, and the same people who have spread themselves or
their language as far as the Philippines and New Guinea, and even to the islands of
the Pacific Ocean, or to within no great distance of the western shore of America.