Travels in the East Indian archipelago

by Albert S. Bickmore

Palembang occupies both banks of the Musi for four or five miles, but there are only three or four rows of houses on each bank. Many of these houses were built on bamboo rafts, and, when the tide is high, the city seems to be built on a plain, but at low water it appears to be built in a valley. The tide here usually rises and falls nine or ten feet, but in spring fourteen feet. This is the greatest rise and fall that I have seen in the archipelago. It is said that in the river Rakan, which empties into the Strait of Malacca, at spring tides the water comes in with a bore and rises thirty feet. The principal part of Palembang is built on the left bank. There are a large and well-constructed fort, and the houses of the Resident, assistant Resident, and other officials. The Resident and the colonel commanding the fort are now in the Pasuma country. On the left bank is the Chinese quarter, and very fine imitations of the more common tropical fruits are made there in lacquer-ware by those people. Below the fort, on the right bank, is the large market, where we saw a magnificent display of krises, and enormous quantities of fruit. The name Palembang, or, more correctly, Palimbangan, is of Javanese origin, and signifies “the place where the draining off was done.” The “draining off” is the same phrase as that used to describe water running out of the open-work baskets, in which gold is washed, and the word Palembang is regarded generally as equivalent to “gold-washing” in our language. The Javanese origin of the first settlers in this region is farther shown by the title of the native officials and the names of various localities in the vicinity. The natives have a tradition that Palembang was founded by the Javanese government of Majapahit, but the Portuguese state that it was founded two hundred and fifty years before their arrival, or about A. D. 1250.

Back of the Resident’s house is a mosque with pilasters and a dome, and near by a minaret, about fifty feet high, with a winding external staircase. It is by far the finest piece of native architecture that I have seen in these islands, and is said to be decidedly superior to any of the old temples in Java. Its history appears to be lost, but I judge it was built not long after the arrival of the Portuguese. The architects were probably not natives, but the Arabs, who have not only traded with this people, but succeeded in converting them to Mohammedanism. Palembang Lama, or Old Palembang, is situated on the left bank, a mile or two below the fort. Landing with the natives under a waringin-tree, I followed a narrow path over the low land for a mile, and came to the grave of a native queen. All possible virtues are ascribed to her by the natives, and many were on their way to this shrine to make vows and repeat their Mohammedan formulas, or were already returning homeward. Those who were going stopped at a little village by the way to purchase bunches of a kind of balm which they placed in the tomb. After meeting with many worshippers, I was quite surprised to find the grave was only protected by an old wooden building. The coffin was a rectangular piece of wood, about a foot and a half wide, and five feet long, in which was inserted at the head and foot a small square post, about two feet high. Near the grave of the queen were those of her nearest relatives. This is regarded as the oldest grave that can be identified in this vicinity. It is supposed to have the power to shield its worshippers from sickness and all kinds of misfortune. The Mohammedanism of this people, therefore, even when it is purest, is largely mingled with their previous superstitions.

Nearer Palembang we visited the tombs of later princes. A high wall encloses several separate buildings from twenty to thirty feet square, and surmounted by domes, and within are the coffins, much like that already described. Other massive rectangular tombs are seen outside. None of these appear to be very old.

From Palembang to the mouth of the Musi is about fifty miles, and yet there is plenty of water for the largest steamers to come to the city. The Musi is therefore the largest river in Sumatra; and Palembang gains its importance from its position as the head of navigation on this river, which receives into itself streams navigable for small boats for many miles. On the south is the Ogan, which, in its upper part, flows through a very fertile and well-peopled region, and which, from the descriptions given me, I judge is a plateau analogous to that at Kopaiyong, near the source of the Musi. This region of the Ogan produces much pepper. North of the Musi is the country of the Kubus, who have been described to me here and at Tebing-Tingi as belonging to the Malay race. They are said to clothe themselves with bark-cloth, and to eat monkeys and reptiles of all kinds. They shun all foreigners and other natives, and are very rarely seen. They appear to be very similar in their personal appearance and habits to the Lubus that I saw north of Padang, and perhaps form but a branch of that people.[58] It was to this place that the author of the “Prisoner of Weltevreden” came on his filibustering expedition, and was seized and carried to Batavia, whence he escaped. The open-hearted and generous manner in which I have been everywhere received and aided, both by the government and by private persons, as has constantly appeared on these pages, convinces me that any American, whose character and mission are above suspicion, will be treated with no greater kindness and consideration by any nation than by the Dutch in the East Indian Archipelago.

May 13th.—Took a small steamer for Muntok, on the island of Banca, where the mail-boat from Batavia touches while on her way to Singapore. Muntok is a very pretty village. The houses, which mostly belong to Chinamen, are neatly built and well painted. The streets are kept in good repair, and the whole place has an air of enterprise and thrift. Here I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the chief mining engineer on the island. One morning we rode out a few miles to a granite hill, from the top of which I had a fine view over the Strait of Banca to the low, monotonous coast of Sumatra. There are but few elevations on Banca, and none of any considerable height. All are covered with a thick forest. The rocks of which Banca is composed are chiefly granite, and a red, compact sandstone or grit. The tin is disseminated in small particles through the whole mass of granite, which has slowly disintegrated and decomposed, and the clay and sand thus formed have been washed into the nearest depressions. The tin, being the heaviest of these materials, has settled near the bottom of each basin, when they have been somewhat assorted by the action of water. The upper strata being removed, the particles of tin are found in the lower strata, and obtained by washing, just as in the process of washing similar alluvial deposits for gold. When the beds of all the basins on the island have been thoroughly washed, the yield of tin will be at an end, because it does not occur, as at Cornwall, in veins in the granite, but only in small scattered grains. The washing is almost wholly done by Chinese, who chiefly come from Amoy.

The income of Banca[59] has been for some time over three million guilders per year, after deducting the salaries of all the officials on the island, and the annual expense of the garrison. The chief engineer thinks that about two-thirds of all the tin on the island has now been taken out, but that the present yield will continue for some years, and a less one for many years after. This tin-bearing range of granite begins as far north on the west coast of the peninsula of Malacca as Tavoy. It has been obtained at Tenasserim, and on the island of Junk Ceylon, and large quantities are annually taken out at Malacca. It is also found on the Sumatra side of the strait, in the district of Kampar. The range reappears in the islands of Banca and Billiton, and again in Bali, at the eastern end of Java.

May 14th.—In the evening the steamer arrived from Batavia. For fellow-passengers I found the captain and doctor of an English ship that had lately been burned in the Strait of Sunda while bound from Amoy to Demarara with a cargo of coolies. A passenger from her was also on board, who had written a book on Cochin China, giving his experience while a captive in that land.

May 18th.—We continue, this morning, to pass small islands, and now, by degrees, we are able to make out many ships and steamers at anchor in a bay, and soon the houses by the bund or street bordering the shore begin to appear. We are nearing Singapore. A year and fourteen days have passed since I landed in Java. During that time I have travelled six thousand miles over the archipelago, and yet I have not once set foot on any other soil than that possessed by the Dutch, so great is the extent of their Eastern possessions.

The activity and enterprise which characterize this city are very striking to one who has been living so long among the phlegmatic Dutchmen. Singapore, or, more correctly, Singapura, “the lion city,” is situated on an island of the same name, which is about twenty-five miles long from east to west, and fourteen miles wide from north to south.

When the English, in 1817, restored the archipelago to the Dutch, they felt the need of some port to protect their commerce; and in 1819, by the foresight of Sir Stamford Raffles, the present site of Singapore was chosen for a free city. In seven years from that time its population numbered 13,000; but has since risen to 90,000. Its imports have risen from $5,808,000 in 1823 to $31,460,000 in 1863, and its exports from $4,598,000 in 1823 to $26,620,000 in 1863.