SUMATRA, a large island in the Eastern Seas, the most western of that great chain of islands which extends in the eastern ocean from the coasts of New Holland and New Guinea to the coast of China on the east, and westward to the Malayan peninsula. The equator divides it into two parts almost equal. It may be estimated at 1050 miles in ength by 165 miles in average breadth, and its general direction is north-west and south-east: the one extremity is in 5° 56' N. and the other in 5° 56' S. This island lies exposed on the south-west to the great Indian Ocean; the north point stretches into the Bay of Bengal, to the north-east it is divided from the peninsula of Malaya by the Straits of Malacca, to the east by the Straits of Banca from the island of that name, to the south-east by the commencement of the Chinese Seas, and on the south it is separated from the island of Java by the Straits of Sunda. The origin of the name is unknown. In the east it is generally known by the name of Pulo Purichu and Indalas. It is one of the largest islands in the world, and is broadest at its southern extremity, narrowing gradually towards the north. It is of a very unequal surface. A chain of mountains runs through its whole extent: the ranges are from 3000 to 5000 feet high, and in some places much higher, being in many parts double and treble; and they run nearer to the western than the eastern shore, being seldom more than twenty miles from the sea. These mountains, though high, do not rise above the level of perpetual snow. Mount Ophir, situated immediately under the equinoctial line, is 13,800 feet above the level of the sea. Between these ridges of mountains are extensive plains, considerably elevated above the surface of the maritime lands, where the air is cool, and they are esteemed in consequence the most eligible portion of the country; and being cleared from woods, which in all other parts cover both the hills and valleys in Sumatra with an eternal shade, they are the best inhabited parts of the country. The most satisfactory account of the country is derived from the journeys into the interior by Sir Stamford Raffles, who was appointed governor of the British settlements at Sumatra, and arrived in Bencoolen in 1818; and who made excursions inland and along the coast, and also crossed the island from Bencoolen to Palembang. He afterwards proceeded from Padang, on the south coast, and, traversing the first range of mountains, penetrated to the ulterior plains; and he describes the country as populous, well cultivated, and fertile. The hills which he passed rose to the height of 5200 feet, as estimated by the barometer, and the slopes were covered with plantations of coffee, indigo, maize, sugar-cane, and all the oil-giving plants, and the lower plains were almost exclusively occupied with rice. The rice-fields are managed in the same manner as those of Java, and were equal in fertility. After arriving at the summit of the steep ascent, he observes, “our view opened on one of the finest countries we ever beheld ;” “as we descended,” be continues, “the scene improved; we found ourselves in an immense amphitheatre, surrounded by mountains 10,000 and 12,000 feet high; the soil on which we stood rich beyond description, and vegetation luxuriant and brilliant in every direction; the people superior to those on the coast, in general about six feet high, and proportionably stout, with clear and clean skins, and an open ingenuous countenance. They seemed to have abundance of every thing; rice, the staple food of the country, being five times as cheap as at Bencoolen, and every other article of produce in proportion. The children were deco rated with a profusion of silver ornaments, and particularly with strings of dollars and other coins hanging round their neck, to the value sometimes of 100 dollars. A fine breed of cattle,” he continues, “which seems peculiar, abounds here, and throughout the Menangcabow country; oxen seem to be used in agriculture in preference to buffaloes; they are generally about three feet four inches high, beautifully made, and mostly of a light-brown colour, with black eyes and lashes, and are sold at from three to four dollars a head.”^[1. Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Rattles, p. 349. ] Here are also found many large and beautiful lakes, which extend at intervals through the interior of the country, and tend to facilitate the intercourse between its different districts. But little is known respecting the interior of this large and fertile island, or the dimensions, direction, and situation of the lakes. The most remarkable is one of great extent in the Batta country. There is a second in the country of Menangcabow, which is used by the inhabitants for transporting goods to and from Palembang; there is another in the Corinchia country; one in the Lampoon country, extending to Passumah, which is very large, and in which there are boats of a large size, which carry sails, and require a day and a night to cross it. This lake is stated by Mr Anderson, who visited the east coast of Sumatra in 1822, under the orders of the East India Company, to be very large, the shore not being visible from the opposite side. The borders of the lake are reported to be in a high state of cultivation, containing numerous villages, and a dense population. The lake has an island in the centre, where edible bird-nests, so highly prized as a luxury in China, are procured. Those who navigate this lake are mostly pirates, who plunder each other, and carry off their children, selling them for slaves.^[2. • Mission to the East Coast of Sumatra, by J. Anderson, Esq., p. 252 ] * The lake of Sincara, in one of the interior valleys of the island, is described by Sir Stamford Raffles as a beautiful sheet of water, about fourteen miles long by seven broad, surrounded by mountains and hills, except on one side, where it is bounded by a plain of its own width. On the margin of this lake for two or three miles are rice-fields, plantations, and villages, rising successively above each other, and advancing up the hill nearly to the summit of the first ridge, where the forest has been cleared, and cultivation extended. On the banks of this lake are situated seven principal towns, with their numerous villages and hamlets; which being shaded by trees, form so many groves, the dark foliage of which pleasingly contrasts with the bright tints of the rice-plantations in the middle of which they are placed. At each of these towns a weekly market is held, to which the traders from the other towns and adjacent countries repair by water. There are numerous canals, and each town has one or two large boats capable of carrying six tons with one hundred men. Sir Stamford sounded at a short distance from the shore, and found bottom at 68 fathoms; but in the centre no bottom was found at 180 fathoms. The lake abounds in fish.

From the direction of the mountains, which, as has been mentioned, approach near to the western coast, being only twenty miles from the sea, while on the eastern side there is an intervening country not less than 150 miles in breadth, all the largest rivers are found on that coast. The rivers on the western coast are numerous, but they are in general too small and rapid for the purpose of navigation. And it is the vicinity of the mountains on this side that occasions the profusion of springs, as well as their rapidity and diminutive size. They have not space to accumulate in so limited a range; while the extended declivity of the eastern coast not only presents a larger surface for the formation of rivers, by the reception of rain, and by the union of subsidiary[7:20:802] streams, but gives them a more steady and uniform current, than where the torrent rolls immediately from the mountains. Those rivers on the eastern shore are the Siak, Indragiri, Jambi, and Palembang. They convey a large body of water into the ocean. They labour however under this inconvenience, that, owing to the continual action of the heavy surf from the great Indian Ocean, which is more powerful than the ordinary force of the stream, a bank of sand is thrown up at their mouths, which diverts their course to a direction parallel with the shore, till the accumulated waters at length force their way wherever there is least resistance. In the dry season, which is that of the southerly monsoon, the parallel course of the rivers is of the greatest extent; but during the rainy season, being in flood, they, by the greater force of their current, break through all obstructions, and recover their natural channel. The rivers on the western shores are Kataun, Indrapura, Tabuyong, and Sinkel, which, though not so large as those on the eastern shore, are still considerable streams.

The diversified surface of Sumatra gives rise to a considerable variety of climate; but it is remarkable, that on the sea-level near the shore the heats are more moderate than in other countries within the tropics. At the most sultry hour in the afternoon the thermometer fluctuates between 82 and 85 degrees: Marsden, whose work contains the fullest information concerning this island, mentions that he never saw it higher than 86 in the shade, and at sun-rise it is usually as low as 70. Inland, as the country ascends, the heat decreases rapidly, so that beyond the first range of hills the inhabitants find it expedient to light fires in the morning, and to continue them till the day advances. Frost, snow, and hail are unknown to the inhabitants in any quarter. The hill-country is liable to a fog, which is dense to a surprising degree; it is observed to rise every morning among the distant hills; the extremities of it when near at hand are perfectly defined; and it is seldom observed to disperse till about three hours after sun-set. The island is subject to the monsoons. Southward of the equinoctial, the south-east monsoon, or dry season, begins about May, and abates in September; the north-west monsoon begins about November, and the hard rains cease about March. For one half of the year the island is deluged with almost constant rains. Besides the monsoons, which vary every six months, there is a daily variation in the winds, which blow from the sea to the land during so many hours of each day, and during the night in the opposite direction, from the land to the sea, excepting only when the monsoon rages with remarkable violence; and even, says Marsden, “at such times the wind rarely fails to incline a few points, in compliance with the subordinate cause, which has not power, in these circumstances, to produce an entire change.” On the west coast of Sumatra, the period of the setting in of the sea-breeze is about ten in the morning, after an hour or two of calm; and it continues till near six in the evening. The commencement of the land-breeze is about seven in the evening, when it prevails during the night, and dies away about eight in the morning. The land-wind in Sumatra is cold, chilly, and damp; an exposure to it is consequently dangerous to health, and sleeping in it is almost certain death. Thunder and lightning prevail in Sumatra in all their terrific grandeur, especially during the north-west monsoon, when the explosions are extremely violent: the forked lightning is seen in all directions, and the sky seems on fire, while the ground appears to tremble. The island is unfortunately subject to earthquakes, which often prove most destructive. Sir Stamford Raffles mentions, that a day previous to his arrival, a violent earthquake had occurred, which had nearly destroyed every building in the place. The shocks were experienced at intervals for several weeks. But the most violent of them happened on the 18th March 1818, during the night, and was truly awful. Every building in the town of Bencoolen suffered more or less; some were laid in ruins, and others so shattered that it was found scarcely worth while to repair them. The house which was occupied by Sir Stamford he describes as being rent from top to bottom, the cornices broken, and every thing unhinged. These earthquakes are said to occur every five or six years. An earthquake occurred in 1797, which continued for three minutes with vibratory shocks. At Padatang the houses were almost entirely destroyed; about 300 lives were lost; some were crushed under the ruins of falling houses, some were swallowed up by the earth opening and closing over them, and others were drowned by the sudden irruption of the waters of the ocean.^[3. Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Stamford Raffles, p. 294. ]

The soil has been celebrated for its fertility; but, according to Marsden,^[4. Marsden’s History of Sumatra, p. 68. ] it is rather sterile than rich. It is generally a stiff, reddish clay, covered with a stratum or layer of black mould, of no considerable depth, and burned to the state of a brick where it is exposed to the influence of the sun. From this there springs a strong and perpetual verdure of rank grass, brushwood, or timber trees, according as the country has remained for a longer or shorter period uncultivated; and this forest or jungle, as there is but a scanty population, affords abundant cover for wild beasts of the most ferocious kind, by which the country is infested. “There is nothing,” says Sir S. Raffles, “more striking than the grandeur of the vegetation; the magnitude of the flowers, creepers, and trees, contrast strikingly with the stinted, and I had almost said pigmy, vegetation in England. Compared with the forest-trees of these tropical regions, your largest oak is a mere dwarf. Here we have creepers and vines entwining larger trees, and hanging suspended for more than 100 feet, in girth not less than a man’s body, and many much thicker; the trees seldom under 100, and generally approaching 160 to 200 feet in height. One tree that we measured was, in circumference, nine yards, and this is nothing to one I measured in Java.”^[5. Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Stamford Raffles, p. 317. ] The most important article of cultivation is rice, of which there are many different species, which may be ranged under two kinds, namely, the upland rice, which grows on the high and dry grounds, and the lowland or marshy rice, which grows in the low and marshy grounds. The cocoa-nut tree may also be esteemed an important object of cultivation; it serves as an article of food, and is in universal consumption, being an ingredient in most of the dishes, and the oil being employed as an article for anointing the hair, and for burning in lamps. There are also large plantations of the betelnut tree and the bamboo. The latter, growing thick into an impenetrable mass, is used in the fortification of villages. The sago tree also flourishes, and there is a great variety of palms. The sugar-cane is cultivated, but such is the indolence or ignorance of the inhabitants, that all the sugar which they require is imported from Java; all the use they make of the sugar-cane is to chew it. Maize, Chili pepper, turmeric, ginger, coriander and cummin seed, are raised in the gardens of the natives. Pepper is an important article of cultivation. The plant appears to flourish in any of the different soils that are found in this island, and it is a great article of commerce. The pepper plants, which are in even rows, running parallel and at right angles with each other, present a fine contrast to the wild scenes of nature which surround them. The camphire tree, which grows in the northern parts of the island, is valued for its juice,[7:20:803] which is an article of trade, and sells at a high price. The benzoin is produced from a tree which grows in the northern parts of the island. Cassia and cotton are also produced, and form articles of export. Various other shrubs and plants are cultivated, and are converted by the natives to many useful purposes. Hemp is extensively cultivated, not however for the useful purpose of making ropes, but to procure an intoxicating liquor called bang, which they smoke in pipes along with tobacco. Plantations of the latter plant are met with in almost every district; and there is a variety of other creeping plants, which are manufactured into twine, thread, and other articles of the same nature.

No country in the world is more distinguished than Sumatra for the variety of fine fruits with which it abounds, and which are the spontaneous produce of the earth; for the natives bestow no more care on this than on any other production. The most remarkable are the mangustin, which is produced in abundance, and which for delicacy and flavour holds pre-eminence over all the Indian fruits; the pineapple, which, though not indigenous, grows in great plenty with ordinary culture; the orange, which is in great perfection and variety; the shadock of the West Indies, which is here very fine, and is distinguished into the white and the red. Limes and lemons abound; as also the breadfruit; the jack-fruit; the mango, a rich high-flavoured fruit of the plum kind; the papaw, a fruit substantial and wholesome, like a smooth sort of melon, but not very highly flavoured; the pomegranate, the tamarind, nuts and almonds of different kinds, besides various other fruits of which the names are scarcely known in Europe. Owing to the equable temperature that prevails throughout the year, there is a perpetual succession of shrubs and flowers, which diffuse a pleasant fragrance, and are many of them used in medicine, or in affording useful dyes. The castoroil plant is found in abundance, especially near the seashore; also the caoutchouc or Indian rubber plant; the indigo plant; a red wood called ubar, resembling logwood in its properties; and the uphas, or poison-tree, whose deleterious qualities have been so much exaggerated.

The zoology of Sumatra is distinguished by some of the most remarkable animals in nature. The shelter afforded by its vast forests or tracts of jungle is most favourable to the breed of wild animals, which abound throughout the island. Numerous herds of elephants range over the forests, and are pursued and killed for their teeth; they are extremely destructive to the plantations of the natives, which they trample down by merely walking through the grounds, and thus obliterating all traces of cultivation. The rhinoceros, both the single and the double horned, is also a native of the woods. Of the ferocious animals, the tiger is the most remarkable. Here he grows to an enormous size, and his strength is so prodigious that he is enabled to drag into the woods the largest prey, and by a stroke of the fore-paw will break the leg of a horse or buffalo. Whole villages are sometimes depopulated by these animals, and great numbers of inhabitants lose their lives. Sir Stamford Raffles, who fixed his residence in the interior, east of Bencoolen, among the hills, states, among its conveniences, that the temperature was six degrees lower than on the coast; and that the only inconvenience he could suffer would be from tigers and elephants abounding in the vicinity. One of the villagers mentioned to him, that both his father and grandfather had been carried off by these animals; and he adds, that there is scarcely a family that has not lost some of its members by them, and that on the banks of one of the rivers upwards of a hundred persons had been carried off by tigers the year before; yet the inhabitants are so superstitious that they will not use any means for their extirpation. When a tiger enters a village, these ignorant people prepare rice and fruits as an offering to the animal, conceiving that he will be pleased with these hospitable attentions, and pass on without doing them any harm. They are occasionally caught in traps, which are ingeniously contrived in the form of a cage with falling doors, into which the beast is enticed, and is then enclosed; or a large beam of timber is so placed as to fall on his back and crush him. Another expedient is to entice him to ascend a plank, which being nearly balanced, is weighed down by him when he is past the centre, and he falls upon sharp stakes prepared below. The natives sometimes contrive to poison tigers. The bear is common: he is small and black, and climbs the cocoa-trees, feeding upon the tender part or cabbage. The deer abounds in every variety of species; and the monkey tribes are innumerable. Here arc also sloths, squirrels, teleggos or stinkards, civet-cats, tiger-cats, porcupines, hedgehogs, armadillos, bats of all kinds, alligators in the rivers, which are also haunted by the hippopotamus, guanos, cameleons, flying lizards, tortoises, and turtle. The alligators are very voracious, frequently destroying the people as they bathe in the river, according to their invariable custom, from which no dangers deter them. The house-lizards are four inches in length, and are the largest reptiles that can walk in an inverted position. Among the animals which are domesticated is the buffalo, which, however, exists in a wild state, and is a remarkably strong and active animal, keeping pace with the swiftest horse; and is even said by Marsden to fight an equal battle with the tiger, the females and weaker sort only being his sure prey. This animal supplies the inhabitants with milk, butter, and beef. The cow is a stranger to the country, and does not appear to be naturalized. The breed of horses is small, but they are well made and hardy. The sheep are also a small breed; the other animals are the goat and the hog, both domestic and wild; the otter, the cat, the rat, and the dog.

Frogs, toads, and reptiles of every kind, abound in the swamps; and the noise which they make on the approach of rain is tremendous. They fall a prey to the snakes, which are common in this island, and are of all sizes, some thirty feet in length, though Marsden states, that the largest he ever saw was only twelve feet long, which was killed in a hen-house, where it was devouring the poultry. He also mentions his opinion, that the bite of very few of these serpents is mortal, as he never saw a well-authenticated instance of a person suffering from them. Among the poisonous serpents is the viper; and the hooded snake is sometimes found in the country. The boa constrictor is the largest, and sometimes grows to the length of thirty feet, and is of proportionate bulk and strength.

The surrounding seas abound in fish. Among these are the duyong, a large sea-animal of the mammalia order, with two strong pectoral fins serving for the purpose of feet; the grampus-whale, a fish which derives its name from the peculiarity of its dorsal fin resembling a sail. There are, besides, sharks, skates, the muraena gymnotus, rock cod, pomfret, mullet, the flying fish, and many others.

Of birds there is a much greater variety than of other animals; and so numerous are the curious species, that Marsden cannot even give a list of them. They consist of peacocks, eagles, vultures, kites, and crows, jackdaws, kingfishers; the rhinoceros bird, remarkable for its horn; the stork, the snipe, coot, plover, pigeons, quails, starlings, swallows, minas, parrots and parroquets, geese, ducks, teal, &c. The Sumatran pheasant is a bird of great magnificence and beauty; the plumage being perhaps the most rich, without any degree of gaudiness, of all the feathered race.

The island may be said literally to swarm with insects, which are extremely annoying and destructive. These consist of cochroaches, crickets, bees, flies of all sorts, mosquitoes, scorpions, centipedes, and water and land leeches. These leeches are extremely annoying to those who travel in the woods; and Sir Stamford Raffles mentions, that in[7:20:804] his journeys through the woods they got into the boots and shoes of the travellers, which were filled with blood. Ants exist in immense numbers and varieties. The white ant, well known for its mischievous properties for destroying papers, furniture, &c. is found in great numbers; also the great red ant, about three fourths of an inch long, which bites severely, and usually, like the bee, leaves its sting in the wound. There are also the common red ant, the minute red ant, the large black ant, which is equal in size to the large red ant; the fire-fly, which is larger than the common fire-fly, and emits so vivid a light that words may be read by it.

Sumatra abounds in minerals. Gold is chiefly found in the mountainous districts in the interior of the island. No gold has been found, at least very frequently, to the southward of Limon, a branch of the Jambee river, or to the northward of Nalaboo, whence Acheen is principally supplied. Menangcabow has always been famed since the earliest periods of history for the riches of its gold mines, its iron ores, and its mineral productions in general; on which account it was that the Dutch were induced to establish their head factory in its neighbourhood. Its jurisdiction in ancient times extended over the whole of Sumatra; and it is situated about eighty miles inland from Padang, and nearly in the centre of the island. The Malays are attracted to all the districts where gold is found. They are the only persons who collect it, or dig for it; the original inhabitants confining their attention to the raising of provisions, with which they supply the Malays who search for the metal. It is found in earth taken up from the beds of rivers, and washed till the pure grains arc separated and cleansed from the particles of mud and stone. The gold is found in a pure metallic state; and they simply beat or wash it, and sell it in the lumps or dust in which they find it. Some pieces have been found pure that weigh six or seven ounces; and they are sometimes joined with an equal bulk of marble, which does not detract from their value, being sold as mineralogical specimens. In some of the specimens the gold may be said rather to enclose the rock, than the latter to contain the gold. No accurate account can be obtained of the quantity of gold exported. From the west coast Marsden estimates that 10,000 ounces may be annually exported. But he has no data to calculate the exports from the eastern coast. It has been conjectured that the whole may amount to 15,000 ounces. It was sold at the settlements for L.3.5s. per ounce, but afterwards rose to L.3.18s., which would yield no profit on its exportation to Europe. The gold-dust is cleansed from impurities by a very dexterous process. A skilful person called a Pundi is employed, who by the sharpness of his eye can distinguish the dross from the ore with surprising nicety. He spreads out the dust on a kind of wooden platter; and the bare particles are touched and put aside with a piece of linen cloth rolled up to a point. There are no silver mines; but there are copper mines, of which the ore is very rich, and which resembles the Japan copper in the appearance which it presents of a mixture of gold. In the country of Menangcabow, which is nearly in the centre of the island, iron ore is collected, smelted, and formed into metal. The colour of the soil indicates its existence in many parts of the island, especially on the sea-coast, where the sand is of a strong shining black, and is attracted by loadstone. The steel which is here manufactured is of a peculiar temper, and has a degree of hardness that has never been imitated in Europe. There is, however, no industry in the island to profit by these products, and the consumption of the natives is chiefly supplied by English and Swedish bar-iron. Tin is one of the great mineral products of the island. It chiefly abounds in the neighbourhood of Palembang, on the east coast; but in many other parts its existence is indicated, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen. Sulphur is gathered in any quantity near the volcanoes, which abound in the island; yellow arsenic is also found, and is an article of traffic; and saltpetre is procured chiefly in extensive caves, the haunt of certain species of birds, of whose dung the soil is formed. Coal exists in various parts, and is washed down to the coast in floods: it is not esteemed good, being found near the surface of the earth. The veins are observed to run, not exactly in a horizontal direction, but to dip downwards; and tiD the pits have a certain depth no good coal is to be found. Mineral and hot springs are discovered in many districts, the waters resembling those of Harrowgate, and being nauseous to the palate. In the caves where the saltpetre is formed are found the edible bird-nests which are so highly prized in China as a luxury of the table, and to that country they are exported as an article of traffic. Some of the company’s servants advanced into one of these caves 740 feet, when his lights were extinguished by the damp vapour; and into another 600 feet, through a narrow passage three feet wide and five feet high, which led into a spacious place forty feet high. Bees’ wax is a commodity of great importance in all the eastern islands, and is exported to China, Bengal, and other parts of the continent, though no trouble is taken with the bees, which are left to settle where they list, and are never collected in hives. The honey is of a poor quality. Gum-lac, which, though found adhering to the branches of trees, is known to be the work of insects, as wax is of the bee, is procured in small quantities from the country near Bencoolen, and at Padang is a considerable article of trade. It is chiefly valuable for the animal part, which is soluble in water, and yields a fine purple dye. Ivory is an article of export; and elephants also are sent to the Coromandel coast, vessels being built expressly tor their transport. The following are the general articles of import, as enumerated by Marsden in his comprehensive account of this island. From the coast of Coromandel, salt, blue and white cloths, chintz, and a variety of other cotton goods; from Bengal, opium and taffetas; from China, coarse porcelain, tobacco, and a number of miscellaneous commodities; from the eastern islands, a striped cotton manufacture, guns, krises, and other weapons, salt and rice; from Europe, silver, iron, lead, cutlery and other hard ware, brass wire, and scarlet cloth.

The Sumatrans are a rude people, and have made no great progress in manufacturing industry, yet there are some particular manufactures in which they excel. Many of those who have visited this country entertain an opinion that in former times it was the seat of a great Malay empire, of which Menangcabow was the capital, where arts and industry flourished; and the monuments that have been discovered by Sir Stamford Raffles afford evidence of a higher state of refinement than at present prevails. In the histories of former times, it is mentioned that great founderies of cannon were established at Acheen; and that manufactories of fire-arms anti knives were carried on nt Menangcabow. If this were the case, the arts have degenerated since that period, as there are now no manufactories of iron, except of nails, and various kinds of tools, such as adzes, axes, hoes, &c. They are equally ignorant of the art of the carpenter; they do not even know how to use a saw, excepting where they have been instructed by the British, by whom this instrument has been introduced. They fell trees by means of a hatchet; and when they wish to split the wood into stems, they must choose those kinds of wood of which the direction of the grain admits of its being easily split asunder. They have woods of certain qualities, which, by the help of wedges, they are enabled to split into boards. Their chief cement is made of buffalo milk, which in a hot and damp climate proves a much stronger cement than glue. They make ink by mixing lamp-black with the white of an egg. They are however very curious and ingenious in carving, both in wood and ivory, though they show no taste[7:20:805] in their designs, which are grotesque and out of nature. The handles of their knives are the chief subjects of this art; and these are in general curiously ornamented with the head and beak of a bird, or with the folded arms of a human being. In the interior, according to the observation of Sir Stamford Raffles, manufactures are more advanced. Me-nangcabow has always been famed for the manufacture of its kris blades. In its vicinity iron has been worked from time immemorial; and an extensive manufactory of coarse pottery, near the banks of the lake, supplies not only Pa-dang, but Bencoolen, with that useful article. The Sumatrans are entire strangers to the art of painting and drawing. In cane and basket work they are particularly neat and expert, as well as in mats; of which some kinds are much prized for their extreme fineness, and for the beauty and taste of the borders with which they are ornamented. They excel also in the manufacture of silk and cotton cloths of varied colours, chiefly for domestic use. These are worn in all parts of the country by the natives, and especially by the women. Some of their work is very fine, and the patterns prettily fancied. Their apparatus for weaving is, however, of the rudest description, and renders their progress tedious. The women are expert at embroidery, the gold and silver thread for which is procured from China, as well as their needles. Gunpowder is manufactured in various parts of the island, chiefly among the people of Menang-cabow, the Battas, and Achenese, among whom, as they are frequently at war, it is an article in great request. It is not, however, well made, being imperfectly granulated, and often hastily prepared for immediate use. Different kinds of earthenware are manufactured in the island. The manufacture of filagree is here carried to the greatest perfection. There is no manufacture in any part of the world that has been more justly admired and celebrated than the fine gold and silver filagree of Sumatra; but this is not the work of the Sumatran artisan; it is a manufacture of the Malays, the original and ancient inhabitants, to whose superior taste and industry many of the monuments of art which remain are ascribed. This manufacture is in universal use in the country; and its fineness and beauty form a singular contrast to the coarseness of the tools which are employed in the workmanship, and which are rudely and inartificially formed by the goldsmith from any old iron that he can pick up. A piece of iron hoop as a wire-drawing instrument, an old hammer-head stuck in a block as an anvil, and two old nails tied together as a pair of compasses, are the chief instruments. They have no bellows, but blow the fire with their mouths through a reed. They are very inexpert at polishing the plain parts, but in other respects nothing can exceed the extraordinary delicacy of the Malay work. They are extremely expert in manufacturing fishing-nets, and springes for catching birds.^[6. Marsden’s Sumatra, p. 41, &c. ]

The proficiency of the Sumatrans in science is very limited. Their numeration table does not extend beyond tens of thousands. Their utmost attainment in arithmetic is to multiply and divide several places of figures. Of geography they have no idea whatever. They know not that the country they inhabit is an island, nor have they any general name for it. Habit renders them expert in travelling through woods, where they perform journeys of weeks or months without seeing a dwelling. In the pathless woods they make marks on the trees for the future guidance of themselves and others. They have no notion of astronomy; and the Malays, as well as the Arabs and other Mahommedans, fix the length of the year at 354 days, or twelve lunar months of twenty-nine and a half days. They mark the time of the day by the position of the sun in die heavens; which is sufficiently exact for all practical purposes so near the equator, where the sun ascends and descends almost perpendicularly, and rises and sets at all seasons of the year within a few minutes of six o’clock. They are entirely destitute of either history or chronology, the memory of all past events being only preserved by tradition. Their literary compositions, says Sir Stamford Raffles, seldom go farther back than the introduction of Mahommedanism, except to give some romantic tale, from which little or nothing can be gathered. But he adds, “it was my good fortune to discover in Java the vestiges of a former high state of literature and the arts, in poems, in the ruins of temples, in sculptured images, in ancient inscriptions.” This active and philosophical inquirer into the ancient state of these eastern countries discovered also monuments in Sumatra, inscribed with characters which corroborated all his views concerning their ancient civilization. The people are fond of music, and have many instruments, which are mostly borrowed from the Chinese and other eastern nations. Their musical instruments are chiefly of the noisy kind; and they have no science, though they have a few simple tunes. In Sumatra the art of medicine is at an equally low ebb with the sciences. It consists in the application of a few simples, and chiefly in certain charms. Every old man or woman is a physician; and they are rewarded in proportion to their success, though they generally contrive to procure payment in advance for the charms which they dispose of to their patients. They either administer juices inwardly, or they apply outwardly the juices of certain trees, or, chopping their leaves small, they apply them as poultices. They have no knowledge of anatomy, nor do they practise phlebotomy. The inhabitants are assailed with leprosy under various forms. It is sometimes a disease of the skin; but there is another form of the disease, under which the flesh mortifies and falls off the bones; and the disorder being deemed infectious, the patient is driven into the woods, where victuals are left for him from time to time by his relatives. The small-pox makes terrible ravages in the island, and the inhabitants have a great dread of this loathsome and fatal disease. Among the other great benefits, the enlightened Sir Stamford Raffles introduced among them the vaccine inoculation, which they expressed the utmost willingness to receive. Insanity they imagine to be a possession by the evil spirit; and their mode of exorcism is to enclose the unfortunate victim in a hut, to which they set fire about his ears, suffering him to make his escape through the flames in the best manner he can. This, along with other barbarous practices, marks the little progress which they have made in knowledge or moral improvement.

The Malay language, which is understood to be the original language in the peninsula of Malacca, has extended itself through all these Asiatic islands, and has become the common tongue in this part of the globe, being spoken everywhere along the coasts of Sumatra. It also prevails in the inland country of Menangcabow, and is understood in almost every part of the island. From the smoothness and sweetness of its sound, it has been called the Italian of the east. Their writing is in the Arabic character, very little corrupted; owing to which, and the adoption of the Mahommedan religion, a great number of Arabic words are incorporated with the Malay. Various other languages are spoken in Sumatra besides the Malay, which all, however, bear a manifest affinity to each other, and spring from the same root; and this common language is spread over all the islands in the Eastern Seas, more or less corrupted in different places, but still retaining the same stock of nodical words. Marsden has remarked, that in the most distant places, “as the Philippines and Madagascar, the deviation of the words is scarcely more than is observed in[7:20:806] the dialects of neighbouring provinces in the same kingdom.”^[7. Marsden’s Sumatra, p. 163. ]

It is conjectured that in former times Sumatra was the seat of an extensive Malay empire, and of arts and commerce. All traces of this empire are now obliterated, and it is only from the monuments of ancient architecture that such historical inferences are drawn. The modern divisions of the island are chiefly the empire of Menang-cabow and the Malays, the Acbenese, the Battas, the Re-jangs, and the people of Lampong. The government among them seems chiefly aristocratical. It is the rule of chief men, and in some parts the despotic assumption of power by some aspiring chief. Their government, however, seems to be founded in opinion; their submission is voluntary. Almost all the governments throughout the island partake of the patriarchal and the feudal. Where the people by conquest have been compelled to submit to a foreign yoke, feudal manners are followed; where, on the other hand, the natives have been long undisturbed by revolutions, the patriarchal sway prevails. The Malay and the native Sumatran differ in mind fully as much as in features and person. The Malay inhabitants have an appearance of degeneracy from those ancient virtues which laid the foundation of an extensive empire. Their portrait, as drawn by various travellers, has many dark traits. Marsden describes them as proud, yet without that pride which restrains them from meanness and fraud. They can practise low cunning and the most plausible duplicity, dissembling under an outward calmness the strongest passions and most inveterate antipathy, until the moment of gratification is found. Veracity, gratitude, and integrity, are not among their qualities. They seem to make no distinction between honour and infamy; and their courage is the result of some momentary and vindictive impulse, which hurries them on to deeds of desperation, not that calm and steady valour which distinguishes the European in the day of battle. These harsher traits of the Malay character are greatly softened in the portrait drawn by Sir Stamford Raffles. Their piracies he traces to their warlike disposition, which, he observes, only requires to be directed into a better course; and their vindictive spirit, to high notions of honour. The attacking his enemy with the kris by the Malay is the counterpart of duelling among the European nations. He proudly defends his property, his life, and character in this manner, which is not secured to him by law; and he seldom draws his kris except in defence of his honour, or in some warlike enterprise. This practice, however reprobated, has produced a habitual good breeding among the Malays.^[8. Memoir of the Life and Services of Sir Stamford Radies, p. 236. ] The original Sumatran has many of the Malay vices, and some virtues belonging to himself, which are however of the negative kind. He is mild, peaceable, and forbearing, but when roused to resentment he is implacable. He is temperate and sober, abstemious both in meat and drink. His diet consists of vegetables, and water is his only beverage; yet his hospitality is extreme, and bounded only by his ability. The Sumatrans are continent in respect to women, modest and courteous in their behaviour, grave in deportment, seldom excited to laughter, and habitually patient. On the other hand, they are litigious, indolent, and addicted to gaming. They gamble with dice or with shells, and have various games on chequered boards and other delineations. They are addicted to cock-fighting in an extraordinary degree; and when in affluent circumstances, their propensity to it is so great that it resembles rather a serious occupation. Quarrels, attended with dreadful consequences, have often arisen on these occasions.

The Sumatrans have no written code of laws and their various disputes are settled by custom and precedent. There is no class of persons invested with legislative powers. The chiefs of districts judge in cases both civil and criminal. In pronouncing their decision, they do not say such is the law, but such is the custom; and their decision is generally submitted to. The want of written laws was supposed by the East India Company’s servants likely to occasion endless disputes; and in the year 1779 a code was promulgated for the benefit of those under their jurisdiction. It may be greatly doubted, however, how far such a system, constructed by Europeans, would suit the wants of an uncivilized people, in preference to their own tried and well-known modes, however rude and inartificial. Legal disputes chiefly originate among them in the intricacy of marriage-contracts. Their laws of marriage are very coarse and rude; a wife being obtained by purchase, and becoming to all intents and purposes the property and slave of her husband, who may dispose of her, only making the first offer to her relations. When a man dies, his effects are equally distributed among his children; but if one possesses remarkable abilities above the rest, he receives a larger portion; a contrivance, apparently, for producing division and strife. Land is so plentiful among them, that they rarely consider it a subject of right; another proof of the low state of civilization. They have few capital punishments, and, according to Marsden, corporal punishment is rare; murder being compensated by money, and adultery being punishable by fine. But recent discoveries by Mr Marsden himself, and by Sir Stamford Raffles, as well as by others who have lately visited the island, have laid open among the Battas and other interior tribes such horrid and ferocious practices, as would not be believed unless authenticated by evidence above all dispute. The Battas are an extensive and populous nation, occupying the whole of that part of the island lying between Acheen and Menangcabow, reaching to both shores. The coast is but thinly inhabited; but the people are said to be as thick as the leaves of the forest, and to amount to between one and two millions. Their laws are remarkably severe; and for adultery, midnight robbery, for intermarrying in the same tribe, or for a treacherous attack on a house, village, or person, the criminals arc condemned to be eaten alive, which shocking sentence is actually carried into execution by these savages. They also eat the prisoners taken in war. The mode of proceeding is thus described. “The victim is tied to a stake with his arms extended; the party collect in a circle around him, and the chief gives the order to commence eating. The chief enemy, when it is a prisoner, or the chief party injured in other cases, has the first selection; and after he has cut off his slice (the victim being alive), others cut off pieces according to their taste and fancy, until all the flesh is devoured. It is either eaten raw or grilled, and generally dipt in sambul, a preparation of Chili pepper and salt, which is always in readiness. Rajah Banda-harru, a Batta, and one of the chiefs of Tappanooly, asserted that he was present at a festival of this kind about eight years ago, at the village of Subluan, not nine miles distant, where the heads may be still seen. When the party is a prisoner taken in war, he is eaten immediately, and on the spot. Whether dead or alive, he is equally eaten; and it is usual even to drag the bodies from the graves, and, after disinterring them, to eat the flesh.” Sir Stamford relates another example of this practice, too horrid to be detailed, at which the British resident was invited to attend; and after a great part of his flesh was eaten while he was still alive, one man approached and stabbed him to the heart; which, he adds, “was rather out of compliment to the foreign visitors, as it is by no means the custom to give the[7:20:807] coup de proce.” ^[9. Memoir of the Life and Services of Sir Stamford Raffles, p. 426. ] Such details present a shocking picture of the ferocious habits of these worse than savages; and few will, after this, be inclined to listen to Sir Stamford’s praise, that “they are honest and honourable, and possess many more virtues.” It seems an abuse of the name of virtue to couple it with such brutalities.

Till about 150 years ago, the southern coast of Sumatra was dependent on the king of Bantam, whose deputy collected the tribute of pepper, and filled up any vacancies in the magistracy, by nominating new functionaries, or confirming those already chosen. Soon after this time the English established a settlement at Bencoolen, and the deputy of the king of Bantam informed the chiefs that he should visit them no more; and raising two chief men to the supreme power, be gave into their hands the government of the country, and withdrew his master’s claim. The interior of the country is ruled by princes or chiefs. Near the sea-coast it is much influenced by the Europeans, who are virtually the rulers; but the influence of the East India Company’s residents never extended to any distance in the interior, which was indeed not known until it was explored in 1818 by Sir Stamford Raffles. In the districts adjacent to the coast the power of the resident was exerted for the benefit of the people. He has always been considered their protector from the injustice and oppression of their chiefs. By fraud and legal chicanery, though not by open acts of violence, they take advantage of the ignorant and necessitous, and contrive to strip them of their property, their family, and their liberty. To prevent these iniquitous practices, the perversion of justice in consequence of bribes, the subornation of witnesses, and such like practices, the resident’s authority has always been useful; and when it is accidentally relaxed, oppression and disorders ensue.

The British settlement at Bencoolen has however been the scene of great disorders, arising from the mal-adrnini-stration of the residents sent thither by the Company. Although it was one of the first establishments formed by the Company in the east, it had benefited less than any other part of the country under their control. The establishment formed was solely for the purpose of procuring pepper, in a country deficient in population, and in a new and unappropriated soil, which could only be rendered productive by capital and industry. The expenses of the establishment amounted to L.100,000 per annum, the returns were only a few tons of pepper. On the first formation of their settlements on the coast of Sumatra, the Company held the native chiefs bound to compel their subjects each to cultivate a certain number of pepper vines, the produce to be delivered exclusively to the Company’s agents, at a price far below the value of the labour employed in the cultivation. For a certain time, while the influence of the chiefs continued, the stipulated quantity of pepper was delivered to the agents; but the oppression soon began to be heavily felt; the cultivators withheld their labour, and the chiefs, destitute of the power to force it, left to the Company’s agents the cruel task of driving the people to their unprofitable toil. Prior to 1801, the establishment maintained at Fort Marlborough was considerable; and the private trade of Bencoolen, carried on by the governor and council, and the servants of the Company, was extensive, and contributed to the improvement of the settlement. The trade consisted in the importation of articles from Western India, which were principally exported to the Java market. From the restrictive policy of the Dutch government, and the corruption of its servants, a contraband trade had arisen, which was carried on, particularly that portion of it which consisted in opium and piece-goods, through the medium of Bencoolen. In 1801 the original establishment of Fort

Marlborough was reduced, and it became a dependency of Bengal; and a strictly economical and purer system of administration being introduced by Mr Parr, the resident, great reductions took place in all the public establishments, by which numbers of people were suddenly thrown out of employment, and many reduced to starvation. At the same time, contracts were entered into for a certain quantity of labour, to be employed in the cultivation of pepper, and the pepper plantations were farmed out to the Company’s servants; and, that the resident might have an interest in forcing the people to cultivate pepper, he was allowed one dollar per cwt. on the quantity delivered to government. Along with pepper, Mr Parr endeavoured to enforce the cultivation of coffee; and a long series of measures, offensive to the natives, was also carried into effect. Insults were offered to the principal chiefs, which produced a deep feeling on men of violent and vindictive tempers; and the attempt to compel the cultivation of coffee brought matters to a crisis. A deep-laid plot was formed for vengeance; the measures of the government were fully discussed; secret oaths were administered, and the revolt soon after broke out. The government-house was surrounded, the guards were overpowered, and the resident, blind to his danger, was murdered. The measures that followed were dictated by the spirit of revenge. It was thought unsafe to touch the chiefs; but several of the people were blown from the mouths of guns. Every village within a certain distance was consigned to the flames, and the country was laid waste, as if it were intended to surround the settlement with a desert. For its protection, the fruit-trees, venerable from age, and considered as the tutelary deities of the place, and their destruction an act of sacrilege, were cut down; every thing that could afford shelter was levelled with the ground, and the inhabitants were turned loose upon the country, forbidden to appear with krises, and degraded by every stigma that jealousy could devise. Of 1000 head of cattle possessed by one village, only 300 remained in 1820, the rest being either stolen, shot, or dispersed.

In 1818, when Sir Stamford Raffles landed at Bencoolen as lieutenant-governor, he beheld nothing but dilapidation and ruin; the roads impassable, the highways overrun with rank grass, the government-house a den of ravenous dogs and polecats. As the chief revenue of the government was derived from gaming and cock-fighting farms, these immoral practices were publicly patronized by it. The consequence was, that there was no security either for person or property; murders and robberies were daily committed, and never detected; and the grossest profligacy was seen in every direction. The new governor, with that rare union of wisdom and benevolence which so eminently qualified him for a legislator, immediately commenced measures of reform. The African slaves who were employed in the hard work of the colony, and who were dissolute and depraved, and their children in a state of vice and wretchedness, were declared free before an assembly of native chiefs; the forced cultivation of pepper was abolished; the people were allowed as formerly to wear krises and other weapons, according to immemorial usage. The gaming and cockfighting farms, so destructive of every principle of good government, social order, or morals, were abolished; and various reforms of other evils equally mischievous were carried into effect. Under the wise, beneficent, and enlightened rule of Sir Stamford Raffles, it is scarcely necessary to add, that the country, the revenue, the trade, and the morals of the people, began to improve. He was a rare example of true disinterestedness and patriotism. The object of his life was the happiness of the people under his sway; his wisdom suggested the means; and the eminent success[7:20:808] of his plans, both in Sumatra and in other places, attest the judgment with which they were formed. During his short administration the cultivation of rice was extended, the spice plantations were established, the population increased, and the people were conciliated; so that this wise and beneficent ruler had good reason to boast that he was making a country and a garden out of a wilderness, and laying the foundation of the future civilization of Sumatra. We have no data for estimating the population of this island. Sir Stamford reckoned the inhabitants of the Batta country, the valley beyond the first range of mountains, to be between one and two millions. But this is merely a conjecture, and there are many districts still unexplored. The British establishment at Bencoolen was withdrawn in 1824, when Sumatra was relinquished to the Dutch. (f.)