Travels in the East Indian archipelago

by Albert S. Bickmore

April 26th.—At 6½ A. M. continued on through a more open and somewhat cultivated country. The Musi here makes a great bend to the southwest, and the path leads eastward over a gently-rising elevation, on the top of which is a large and most thriving coffee-garden, and near by are rice-fields which yield abundantly. This garden has been very lately planted, and yet all the trees that are old enough to bear are nearly loaded down with fruit. The rice-fields show that an abundance of food could be raised here, and the only thing that is wanting is people to do the work. The elevated situation of this country makes it very healthy for foreigners. If any one could obtain a grant of land here, and also the privilege of bringing a large number of Chinamen, he would certainly realize a fortune, for coffee can be here cultivated with little care, and rice, the staple article of food among that people, can be raised in any quantity. Such a privilege could not be obtained at present, but the liberal tendency of the government of the Netherlands India promises that it may be, at no distant time in the future. Such an enterprise would not have the character of an experiment, for the facility with which coffee and rice can be grown has already been shown on this plantation, and the cost of transporting it to Padang or Palembang would be very light. Sumatra undoubtedly contains large quantities of gold, but the true source of her wealth is not the precious metal she possesses, but the crops of coffee she produces.

From the top of this mountain I took my last view of the Barizan chain, which had been constantly in sight since I passed through the Strait of Sunda on my way to Padang. In the ladangs in this region the walls of the huts of the natives are mostly made of bark. While coming down from this low mountain-range, we had a splendid view up a valley to the southward, and of the low but sharply-crested chain which limits on the south the area drained by the Musi. At the foot of this elevation a stream courses southward to the Musi, and on its banks are a native village, and a Dutch post and fort. Here, as elsewhere, I rode up to the house of the controleur, whom I had previously notified of my coming. He had gone a number of miles southward, to the limit of his district and the Pasuma country, where I now learned a war was going on. His good lady was at home, and to my great surprise, welcomed me in pure English. To be able to converse in the interior of Sumatra, in my native tongue, was indeed a pleasure I had not anticipated. The distance from Tanjong Agong to this place is eleven paals, about ten miles.

April 27th.—Continued down the north bank of the Musi, which here flows to the northwest. For three or four paals the path (for it cannot properly be styled a road) was very narrow, and built on the steep side of a mountain, at the foot of which the Musi boils in a series of rapids. When within six or seven miles of Tebing Tingi, we found the valley much broken, and soon it became flat, and changed in many places into morasses. Here we came to a small stream, over which was a bamboo bridge, supported by rattans fastened to the limbs of two high, overhanging trees. This was so weak that my guide directed me to dismount and pass on foot. At 2 A. M. we arrived at Tebing Tingi, where an assistant resident is stationed, who received me politely, and urged me to remain with him several days. Distance made to-day, seventeen paals. The whole distance from Kopaiyong to this place, forty-five paals, I have travelled with the single horse given me by the controleur of that village. Such is the generous manner in which the Dutch officials treat those who come to them properly recommended by the higher authorities.

After crossing the Barizan chain, and coming down into this valley of the Musi, I have noticed that the natives are of a lighter color, taller, and more gracefully formed than those seen in the vicinity of Bencoolen. The men always carry a kris or a lance when they go from one kampong to another. The same laws and customs prevail here as in the vicinity of Bencoolen, except that the jugur, or price of a bride, is considerably higher. The anak gadis here also wear many rings of large silver wire on the forearm, and gold beads on the wrist, in token of their virginity. The Resident states to me that the native population does not appear to increase in this region, and that the high price of the brides is the chief reason. As the price is paid to the girl’s parents, and not to herself, she has less inducement to conduct herself in accordance with their wishes; and, to avoid the natural consequences of their habits, the anak gadis are accustomed to take very large doses of pepper, which is mixed with salt, in order to be swallowed more easily. Many are never married, and most of those who are, bear but two or three children, after they have subjected themselves to such severe treatment in their youth.

April 27th.—Rode five or six paals up the Musi, and then crossed it at the foot of a rapid on a “racket,” or raft of bamboo, the usual mode of ferrying in this island. In the centre of the raft is a kind of platform, where the passenger sits. One native stands at the bow, and one at the stern, each having a long bamboo. The racket is then drawn up close to the foot of the rapids, and a man keeps her head to the stream, while the other pushes her over. As soon as she leaves the bank, away she shoots down the current, despite the shouts and exertions of both. We were carried down so swiftly, that I began to fear we should come into another rapid, where our frail raft would have been washed to pieces among the foaming rocks in a moment; but at last they succeeded in stopping her, and we gained the opposite bank. Thence my guide took me through a morass, which was covered with a dense jungle, an admirable place for crocodiles, and they do not fail to frequent it in large numbers; but the thousands of leeches formed a worse pest. In one place, about a foot square, in the path, I think I saw as many as twenty, all stretching and twisting themselves in every direction in search of prey. They are small, being about an inch long, and a tenth of an inch in diameter, before they gorge themselves with the blood of some unfortunate animal that chances to pass. They tormented me in a most shocking manner. Every ten or fifteen minutes I had to stop and rid myself of perfect anklets of them.

I was in search of a coral-stone, which the natives of this region burn for lime. My attendants, as well as myself, were so tormented with the leeches, that we could not remain long in that region, but I saw it was nothing but a raised reef, chiefly composed of comminuted coral, in which were many large hemispherical meandrinas. The strata, where they could be distinguished, were seen to be nearly horizontal. Large blocks of coral are scattered about, just as on the present reefs, but the jungle was too thick to travel in far, and, as soon as we had gathered a few shells, we hurried to the Musi, and rode back seven miles in a heavy, drenching rain.

All the region we have been travelling in to-day abounds in rhinoceroses, elephants, and deer. If the leeches attack them as they did a dog that followed us, they must prove one of the most efficient means of destroying those large animals. It is at least fortunate for the elephant and rhinoceros that they are pachyderms. While passing through the places where the jungle is mostly composed of bamboos, we saw several large troops of small, slate-colored monkeys, and, among the taller trees, troops of another species of a light-yellow color, with long arms and long tails. On the morning that I left Tanjong Agong, as we passed a tall tree by the roadside, the natives cautioned me to keep quiet, for it was “full of monkeys,” and, when we were just under it, they all set up a loud shout, and at once a whole troop sprang out of its high branches like a flock of birds. Some came down twenty-five or thirty feet before they struck on the tops of the small trees beneath them, and yet each would recover, and go off through the jungle, with the speed of an arrow, in a moment.

While nearly all animals have a particular area which they frequent—as the low coast region, the plateaus of these tropical lands, or the higher parts of the mountains—the rhinoceros lives indifferently anywhere between the sea-shores and the tops of the highest peaks. This species has two “horns,” the first being the longer and more sharply pointed, but the Java species has only one. The natives here know nothing of the frequent combats between these animals and elephants, that are so frequently pictured in popular works on natural history. The Resident has, however, told me of a combat between two other rivals of these forests that is more remarkable. When he was controleur at a small post, a short distance north of this place, a native came to him one morning, and asked, if he should find a dead tiger and bring its head, whether he would receive the usual bounty given by the government. The Resident assured him that he would, and the native then explained that there had evidently been a battle between two tigers in the woods, near his kampong, for all had heard their howls and cries, and they were fighting so long that, he had no doubt, one was left dead on the spot. A party at once began a hunt for the expected prize, and soon they found the battle had not been between two tigers, as they had supposed, but between a tiger and a bear, and that both were dead. The bear was still hugging the tiger, and the tiger had reached round, and fastened his teeth in the side of the bear’s neck. The natives then gathered some rattan, wound it round them, just as they were, strung them to a long bamboo, and brought them to the office of the Resident, who gave a full account of this strange combat in his next official report.

These bears are popularly called “sun” bears, Helarctos Malayanus, from their habit of basking in the hot sunshine, while other bears slink away from the full light of day into some shady place. The Resident at Bencoolen had a young cub that was very tame. Its fur was short, fine, and glossy. It was entirely black, except a crescent-shaped spot of white on its breast, which characterizes the species.

Governor Raffles, while at Bencoolen, also had a tame one, which was very fond of mangostins, and only lost its good-nature when it came to the table, and was not treated with champagne. When fully grown, it is only four and a half feet long. It is herbivorous, and particularly fond of the young leaves of the cocoa-nut palm, and is said to destroy many of those valuable trees to gratify its appetite.