CHAPTER VIII.
SUMATRA.
(NOVEMBER 1861 TO JANUARY 1862.)
rjnHE mail steamer from Batavia to Singapore took me to
Muntok (or as on English maps, “ Minto ”), the chief
town and port of Banca. Here I stayed a day or two, till I
could obtain a boa.t to take me across the straits, and up
the river to Palembang. A few walks into the country
showed me that it was very hilly, and full of granitic and
laterite rocks, -with a dry and stunted forest vegetation;
and I could find very few insects. A good-sized open
sailing-boat took me across to the mouth of the Palembano-O
river, where at a fishing village, a rowing-boat was hired
to take me up to Palembang, a distance of nearly a hundred
miles by water. Except when the wind was strong and
favourable we could only proceed with the tide, and the
banks of the river were generally flooded Mpa-swamps, so
that the nours we were obliged to lay at anchor passed
very heavily. Reaching Palembang on the 8th of November,
I was lodged by the Doctor, to whom I had brought
a letter of introduction, and endeavoured to ascertain
where I could find a good locality for collecting. Every
one assured me that I should have to go a very long way
further to find any dry forest, for at this season the whole
country for many miles inland was flooded. I therefore
had to stay a week at Palembang before I could determine
on my future movements.
The city is a large one, extending for three or four miles
along a fine curve of the river, which is as wide as the
Thames at Greenwich. The stream is, however, much
narrowed by the houses which project into it upon piles,
and within these, again, there is a row of houses built upon
great bamboo rafts, which are moored by rattan cables
to the shore or to piles, and rise and fall with the tide.
The whole river-front on both sides is chiefly formed of
such houses/and they are mostly shops open to the water,
and only raised a foot above it, so that by taking a small
boat it is easy to go to market and purchase anything that
is to be had in Palembang. The natives are true Malays,
never building a house on dry land if they can find water
to set it in, and never going anywhere on foot if they can
reach the place in a boat. A considerable portion of the
population are Chinese and Arabs, who carry on all the
trade; while the only Europeans are the civil and military
officials of the Dutch Government. The town is situated
at the head of the delta of the river, and between it and