Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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, till I could obtain a
boat to take me across the straits, and up the river to Palembang. A few walks into the coun-
try 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. 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
