The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1821-01-26 00:00:00

JOURNAL

OF A TOUR INTO THE INTERIOR (W SUMATRA,
ST SIR THOMAS SIAMFORD RAFFLES, ENT.
F.R.B 11. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF HEN.
COOLER, At. At. &c.

[From " The Irroestigator" of Jassy"-, 1821, a vary
interesting IVark.)

(Continued fro* our Paper of Sabo-day Lail )

1111•. fIitPTEMBER 10, 1818.
It was near Simi'*log that we fir-t found felspar,
grant's, quart:, and utlicr minerals of primitive
I herniation ; they were mixed with u variety of
volcanic productions in the greatest confusion.
strongly indicating that tine part of the country
I bid, at Some distant prtiod, been subjected to a
violent convulsion.
lint to proceed "on our journey. We were now
in a county abounding with metals : iron ore ayes-
! rious kind. lay in our pooh, and it wall nos loog
fore we were to Ire to the vicinity of the gold wine-.
We left Simawang at a quarter before seven, and
! reached Summit, the second city of the Manatee,-
kabow -country, and in the immerhate vicinity tif
Pageruyong, 'bunt out o'clock ; the road nearly
the whole way lying over a range or primitive hills ;
the distance about melts miles. After descending
timbal of Siumwasig, we crossed the ricer by u to-
. mimic bridge. whiOr swung Ina very nervous
man-
ner as we motif tt.une4 one. We soon came to
a countrz,Entirely primitive, or rather composed of
the deb.r4o of primitive matter. %Ye purred over
several cm 1.5,!1 to caution gold, snit saw ettlro-
sive escrvatiocis where the umbers hod hero at work ;
I
'grebe. however. astinot be consider. il ra regular
th,d they are Out reckoned very valuable.
l'tse tit-aviation* atl'ardedust • fine opportunity of
noticing the direcitnrsof 'the orals. soil other op.
pearauves interestrag to the geologist. About
eleven o'clock we Wilma first view of Pageruyoug.
I Shortly after tins. the pith, which hail hitherto bet u
iosarows and stuutanues steep laud broken. widened,
and it became evident that we Were appioachiug
some pla.cof truieuriarice ; , but, alas ! little was
I left tor our curio-4 buto,the wreck of what had
lonce been great situ populous,. The waringin
trees that shaded the ',Wan. and added solemnity
In the grave, were yet stainling In all their aej•-•1).
Ihr fia.t-trees. and particularly the (/1'W.1.11111,
snatked the distant Inundates of tlei. net's extet,..

Irive cry ; tott the rink grtis% had t.iiirpe,l the holls
of the p dace, null It Wee ITO. the of the cot-

lege to be wen. Three tunes had the city beeu
committed to the fl lures. Well might I
say,
the Linguage of the Drab. Yudha—•• 1.141 and me-
lancholy sag her waringui tree, I ke u II i no the sor-
ruw of a wile whose husband is afsr.'•
On our arrival at Stumm. we were conducted to
the best dwelling whirl. the I•lace 1116 W al itrded.-Ihe
palate ; a small pl.itikimlbtouar, of about thirty fist

tang, 's*aAitAtlltr
'silitated the basal*. of the
Gulden River (Suongey As..). Here we were in-
troduced to the Inuit Gndis, or Virgin Queen.
Who admiiiistered the governm..nt of the country,
and liv whom we were received with much bind.
nen. -The extensive tropulatimi, and high state of
culture, by which w•e we:e aurriititirleti. seemed to
teunfinti the opinion I hid al wai s furiued, atilt earn
publicly maintained, at you may ser lii my fin-
tory ofJ4VIII, that the Malayan einiMe w•s slut of the
recent ; and that at its zenith it was of coin.
iterative rink, if not the rival and colemporary of lite
Javan. The 111alays have always excited con•idera-
file speculation, from Ilie clic ttttt stance of their
being esiiiently in a retrogiaile state; but where
were we to look for their history ? 1.1 their literary
coinpositioos they seldom go further hick thou the
introduction of Mahirinettniiiiin, except to give an
account of Noah's ark. or some romantic tile, boar
which little or nothing can be collected. It was
my good 'intone in Java to discover the vestiges of
a former high state of literature and the tort+, in
poems, iii the ruins of temples, in si 'dour d
image., in ancient inocriptions; nothing of [hit
kind was Supposed to exist arnoug the Malay:.
Java, therefore, was cons,dered the cr.idle of the
art* and sciences, at far as they had been intro-
duced into the Archipelago ; the Malays were even
stated to have derived their origin (run. Java. All
this, and snitch more to ilse disadvantage of the
Malays, you may ere in the r•rty-liist Number of
the Edinfourgh Review. You niay, therefore,
imagine with what interest I now purveyed a cowl.
try which, at least as far us the eye could reach,
equalled Java iii ricenery and culitva imi; and it
was with real s.ii•factiva that I Mumbled by the
merest accident upon nothing Its. than is, inscrip-
tion in the real Kiwi character, engraved on a stone
exactly if er tile manner of three !amid in Java.
Immediately oppointe to oily house was a qua,
tinall square build ing. lit front of this mosque,
placed on us ed;e, and serving as a stepping trout
to ibis 1110.1 eris place of Itlahumedan worship. was
this relic of llindoo dominiow. I soon traced the
characters to be the same as tlio.e we had discover-
ed in Java. All hand. were immediately collected.
In about sit hour we succeeded in laying the atone
flat upon the ground, and the operation of trans-
cribi.ig was commenced without delay. A second
nisei-twine', in similar characters, was afterwards
found near the site of the former ksidamr, ur palace:
tine was Gls a atone of 'irregular figuie, and partly
hurled in the ground : we had only nine to tram
scribe two litres of it.

at Friday, the C 4 I► July, we left Suruasa at
seven, altd artived at Po4erityung a quarter before
; the eatl mated distance between Abe two elites
bring not snore than two titles ; the toad lay over
low hills, in ne observed numerous petrifac-
tious : whole fo►ests would ',pert, in a resume iige;
to have been buried by some violent convulriou.
Passing along the sides of the h►lls, our attention
was repeatedly attrreted by numerous stumps and
trio trucks of trees, in a slate of petrifaction ;
these were moistly prionded from a considerable
depth snider ground. In quitting Suruasa, we no.
'lced se►eral small tanks, and passed over she site
of malty an estanstve building now nu snore. The
only vt.tlge of any tiling like sculpture, beyond
the in.crip:tots already noticed, WAS /II four cut
stones, which evidently had formerly *erred fur the
eutrasice to the city.

lu
approaching Rigeruyong, we had an este!.
lent clew ol• tht situation of this once celebrated
city. It is built, as I before latticed, at the foot,
arid partly nu the slope, ofastirep and rugged hill,
called (hinting Bongs°, so remarkable fur its ap-
p.-rainier, and the three peaks which it exhibits.
Below the town, under* precipice of from 50 to
100 fee-, in some parts nearly perpendicular, winds
the beautiful sitcom of Selo, which its its course
passes Sermons, !here it take the name of the
Gulden River, and filially fails into the river of
Indrogiri. In frost of thicity rises thri mountain
!irrupt, the autumn of which may be about &sainty
miles distant. It is on the elstpeco( this mountain
that the principal popelstion is sets led, the whole
• of its side, for abuse fifteen miles from l'ageru)ong.
111 every direction, being covered with village, and
rice fields. The entrance to the city, whites is mow
disteuguished only by a few venerable tress, and
the traces of wheat «see was a highway, is nearly
three•yuarters'of. mile before we reached the Bali
and sue of the former palace. Little here is left,
except the noble warraigno trees ; amid these, in se.
vend iu•tauce., bear (narks of having suffered from
the action of lire. The large flat stout, howeve►,
on which the Sultan used to sit 011 days of public
cere iiiiii iy, was pointed out to u► ; arid on
removing the weeds partially, we could trace
die royal burial grunted. lu this we did not dis.
cover any iinsciiption of ancient character ; but our
rzawivaUun of the ground was made very partially
and howdy : we were struck by the sculpture of
later days, utile the memorials of the dead raised
in she :Vlalioniettur tinier: these were on a small
scale, but very beautifully executed. Arrange.
menis had been made fur our accommodation In a
small house, recently elected on the bunks of the
river. to which we descended. lleie we remained.
fur Smile tittle ; but us our plan was to return to
Jurnasa 111 the afternoon, I
left the party, and war.-
tiered for au hour or two. This city had shared
the same fate wish that of Samoa; thrice Ind at
Isis committed to the tlituei by ■ remorseless
and twit•e hail it mginis risen to some spleu.
dour : trout the lust shock it hail not yet recovered.
The Primmer, no loi.ger to snake u stand, hail
tied to a slistarit retinal amid a iew peasants i5m.,,,,
cult sated the spot where the risuossuri of the Prince
hail stood. From the herglits of she town then view
rine-felled to the noun said we,i, as fa► as Ilia sum.
alit of the mountain Berapi and she hills adjacent :
lily Willi's: entlillry, as fat us the rye could Moine' iy
trier, was PeiC Wear of
Ii r,prised with numerous towns and villages, Shaded
Imy the moron.uut and nix) sah.ly sir).
that this 51e* tilUalkil ma, rising I ever S.VW In
JAVA ; the %I Ellrly IS Mimic t►iJJ..tie amid grand.
population ryually dens:, emits cultivation equally
rich. Illere, thitll, fur the first nine, was l bible
In trace the source of that power, the origin of that
maim', ail extensively ►caltrrtd over the Estella
A i chi pe lag 0.

But, lirture I quit duo ('o • Alalay) dimly
I 111 List airation a in,ht iuteterttlig disco-
ter).

(To be evatimird )