The chief article exported from this place to the United States is coffee. It is a very variable crop. During the last nine years it has varied in quantity from six thousand piculs (eight hundred thousand pounds) in 1857, to seventy-two thousand piculs (nine million six hundred thousand pounds) in 1858.[54]
The king’s birthday—the great national holiday with the Dutch—now occurred. In the morning there was a grand parade on the lawn, in front of the governor’s palace, of all the European and native troops, numbering in all some four or five thousand, but many others are stationed in small bodies at various places in the interior. They were organized in battalions on the French plan, and their appearance and manœuvring were very creditable. There was a small mounted force, much like our flying artillery. This, I was informed, proved to be one of the most efficient parts of the army in their contests with the natives—the paths in the interior always being so narrow and so extremely uneven that only very light cannon can be brought into use. After the parade the governor, as the representative of the king, received the congratulations of all the officials in that region. The day ended with a grand ball, to which, I may add, the mestizo belles were not only invited, but came, and took as prominent a part as the ladies who had the envied fortune to be born in Europe. At every little post the highest official receives the congratulations of his brother-officers in similar manner, and all are required to appear in full dress with cocked hats.
After having served in our own gigantic war, where a sash, a pair of small shoulder-straps, a few bright buttons, and a gold cord round a slouched hat, were sufficient to indicate the rank of even a major-general, I was quite dazzled by the brilliant uniforms of even the most petty officials in the Dutch service. The army officers wear epaulets, and broad bands of gold lace on the pantaloons, collars, and cuffs. The backs of their coats are figured over in the most extravagant fashion. The civil officers present a similar gaudy display in silver. The object of all this is to impress the natives with a high idea of the wealth and power of the Dutch Government, and of the great dignity of those who are honored by being selected to administer it; and exactly these ideas are conveyed to the minds of the natives by such displays. Their own rajahs and princes never appear in public without making the most dazzling show possible; and the mass of the people, therefore, have come to think that their rulers must be weak and poor, and even more worthy of their contempt than their respect, if they do not make a most imposing appearance on all great occasions.
CHAPTER XV.
THE PADANG PLATEAU.
As I had seen only a small portion of the Padangsche Bovenlanden, or Padang plateau, I again set off for the interior, following the same route that I had taken before, namely, north, over low lands to the left of the Barizan chain. As the governor’s “American” had not arrived from Saboga, he kindly borrowed for me a “bendy,” that is, a small, heavy, two-wheeled chaise. He gave me an order allowing me to use two horses if I pleased; and, by the time I had travelled twenty miles, I was glad to avail myself of the privilege. A bamboo was fastened across the thills and allowed to project four or five feet on one side, and the additional horse was then placed beside the other, the usual mode of driving tandem in this country. To complete the odd style of harnessing these half-tamed steeds, the natives arranged the reins so that I was obliged to hold two in the left hand and but one in the right. The result was, that the outer horse was as loose as those harnessed in a similar manner in Russia, and altogether beyond my control. Whenever we came to a slight descent, he would always spring into a full gallop, and the one in the thills would follow his example. Then came a few severe shocks against the large stones in the road, and we found ourselves at the bottom of the hill One time the shocks were so severe that my footman, who had a seat behind, and a good place to hold on with both hands, was missing when I reached the bottom of the hill, and, on looking round, I found the bendy had flung him off some distance upon the rough stones. When we reached Kayu Tanam, thick clouds, that had been gathering on the adjacent lofty peaks, rolled down and poured out a perfect flood of rain. The drops were so large, and fell with such momentum, that it seemed like standing under a heavy shower-bath. The lightning gleamed as it only does in tropical lands, and the thunder roared as if the great Barizan chain on my right was splitting open again, and forming another immense “cleft.” I was wondering that my horses were not frightened amid such terrific peals, when suddenly a piercing flash dazzled my eyes, and the same instant came a sharp crash like the sudden breaking of a thousand heavy timbers, and for a moment I was quite bewildered. Both horses reared until they nearly stood on their hind feet, and then plunged forward in a perfect state of fright. The road there chanced to be straight, and I let them go at the top of their speed for a mile or two, when they again became somewhat manageable, and in this way we flew along high up the side of a great ravine and came into the deep cleft. Ascending the cañon, we came to Padang Panjang, and the next day to Fort de Kock. The waterfall opposite where we entered the cleft was considerably swollen by the heavy rains, and a small stream, separate from the main fall, was shooting over the high edge of the precipice. On a steep declivity near by, a small stream had coursed part way down, completely hidden from view by the thick sheet of vegetation that covered the rocks, until, striking some obstacle, it flew off into the air in a great jet, which appeared to come out of the solid rock.
From Fort de Kock my course was nearly west a day’s ride to Paya Kombo. At first the road led over a level or slightly undulating land which abounds in villages, and is highly cultivated. A number of small streams that rise on the northern flanks of the great Mérapi, flow northward across the plain, and then turn to the east and join to form the Batang Agam. Nine miles out we came to a range of jagged hills, the scanty soil on their sides only serving to make their sharp, projecting rocks more conspicuous and unsightly, like a tattered garment thrown over a skeleton. This rock I found to be a highly crystalline marble of a blue color, completely split up by joints and fissures into cubical blocks, whose outer surfaces have everywhere become greatly roughened by the action of rain and heat. Subsequently I had an opportunity of learning that it makes a very valuable kind of white lime.
We presently found ourselves descending into a beautiful valley, through which the Agam, already a considerable stream, courses rapidly along. The road immediately approached its banks, crossed it over a high stone bridge, and then ran along a narrow terrace cut in a high precipice of the limestone cliff, whose feet were bathed in the small river. On the level land and hills in this region, the only rock which outcropped was a red sandstone, composed of strata that have been considerably plicated in many places; but they are evidently of a recent formation and unconformable to the older crystalline limestone on which they rest. Passing the Mérapi, we rode down a gradually descending plain that lies on the north of Mount Sago.
Early in the afternoon we came to Paya Kombo, where an assistant resident is stationed. His residence is the finest building I have seen in Sumatra. He greeted me kindly, and introduced me to the assistant resident stationed at Fort Van der Capellan, the next chief place I was designing to visit. Thus I found a pleasant companion, and one who could explain the peculiarities of the country I should see during the next two days.
April 2d.—Rode from Paya Kombo to Bua with the Resident of this district. A short distance from Paya Kombo we crossed a large and very beautiful stone bridge that had been planned and superintended by a government official who had never received the slightest training in architecture. Our course was nearly southwest, and the road slowly ascended, for we were really coming upon the flanks of Mount Sago. It then changes to the east, and again to the south, as we made a circuit round the eastern side of the mountain. This part of the road was built on a steep acclivity, that descended to the deep valley of the Sinamu on our left. The higher hills on the opposite side of the valley are probably of limestone. When we came round to the south side of Mount Sago, before us lay the charming valley of Bua, perhaps the most beautiful valley in Sumatra. On our left was a range of hundreds of sharp peaks, a continuation of the limestone chain noticed yesterday between Fort de Kock and Paya Kombo. Near their feet is the Sinamu, now a small river, flowing away to the southeast. At Paya Kombo this stream flows to the southeast, which is its general course for about twenty-five miles after it passes Mount Sago; it then changes to the east, and is known as the Indragiri. It is a fair sample of the tortuous course of all the streams in the mountainous parts of Sumatra. They wind to and fro so abruptly, that sometimes the traveller comes to the banks of a river without suspecting for a moment that it is the very one which he was following in a wholly different direction the day before. The only way it is possible to realize the irregularities of these streams, is to examine a map of this region on a very large scale. On our left was another high range walling in the narrow valley, the bottom of which curves gradually upward as it approaches either side. The level parts of the valley are all changed into beautiful sawas, which are now filled with young rice-blades of a bright green. Riding down the valley for four or five miles, we came to the controleur’s house at Bua. It is situated near the west side of the valley, facing the north. Thick clouds, that had been hiding the top of Mount Sago, now vanished into pure air, and the old crater-walls came grandly into view. They are so deeply notched on the southern side, that I could look directly up into the crater from the controleur’s residence in the valley. The sharp limestone needles, on the east side of the valley, also were more distinct. They were only three miles away, and yet I counted no less than twenty separate peaks in a straight line, at right angles with my vision, in fifteen degrees along the horizon. Looking up from the village of Bua toward Mount Sago, the view has a charming ideal effect—such as one might expect to see in a composite painting, where wonderful details of scenery from different localities are harmoniously combined.