ee a — 
NOTES ON SUMATRA. 169 
He is a native of Boo-oo, one of the westernmost of the group, where 
his wife and children live, and where he might surely be taken without 
much difficulty by a little activity. 
The ostensible occupations of the people are fishing, collecting shells 
and coral for sale at Singapore, gathering and drying “agar-agar” and 
“trepang,” collecting Mangrove bark, cutting firewood, cutting and 
rafting to Singapore, sampong, seraya, and other light woods, for saw- 
ing into plank, mast-pieces of “ Puhn," or “ Bintangar," Calophyllum 
inophyllum; and crooks for shipbuilding of “ Perupat,” “ Pumayga," 
“ Katappang,” and a species of Ficus: on some of the larger islands a 
good deal of fruit is produced, and mats of the long leaves of the **Ban- 
kwang,” a species of Pandanus, and dammar torches are made at some 
of the settlements. 
The evening looking very threatening, and the boat being too small 
to allow us all to sleep dry under the palm-leaf awning, the boatmen 
steered about six o’clock for a settlement called Ikea, on an island to 
the south-west of the group. It was nearly dark when we reached it, 
and quite low water: a broad bank of stones and coral extended about 
two hundred yards from the beach. One of the men landed to recon- 
noitre; while he was picking his way over the rocks, a party of wild 
pigs came down to feed on the tideway, but they kept out of the reach of 
my rifle. Our ambassador soon returned with two enormous Nangka 
fruits (Artocarpus integrifolia), which he had taken from a tree near the 
beach, and had much difficulty in carrying, and bringing the unwelcome 
intelligence that the settlement was deserted and the house unroofed ; so 
we were obliged to push off again. By the time we got clear of the 
rocks it was quite dark ; but after a little consultation, the men directed 
their canoe with apparent confidence to another settlement, named 
Sungei Sipagu, on the island of Suygi. In passing through a narrow 
channel between two islands, the tide ran so strong against us that we 
were obliged to anchor, and we did not reach the place until about mid- 
night. It is situated on a “ Permatang,” or sort of narrow sandy pe- 
ninsula, separated from the main island by a narrow salt-water ereck, 
fringed with mangroves, up which we pulled some distance to reach it, 
the trees almost meeting over our heads and glittering with innume- 
rable fire-flies. Our arrival caused some disturbance, and at first some 
little alarm ; for none of our voices being known, the people took us for 
pirates, and the men who came out of the houses were all well armed 
VOL. VII. 
