CHAPTER VIII. SUMATRA.
(NOVEMBER 1861 to JANUARY 1862.)
The 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, until I could obtain a boat 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 Palembang 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 Nipa-swamps, so
that the hours 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. Everyone 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 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 riverfront 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