FROM SINGAPORE TO BANJERMASSING. 291 
called “ Taram” by the Malays, and gives a good dye, but in small 
quantity. A number of women were employed in cleaning wax; 
the combs were very large, forming semicircles near two feet in dia- 
meter; they serape off the covers of the cells, and let the honey run 
out, and then boil down the wax in water. They gave us some honey; 
it was sweet and good, and without the resinous flavour which spoils 
so much of the honey here, but, as usual, it was thin and watery. At 
five P.M. we reached the settlement of the Sultan; it is called Rangat, 
and consists of some hundreds of houses, completely buried in cocoa- 
nut and other fruit-trees. I made my boat fast before the Sultan’s 
house, and sent to announce to him my arrival. After a short time the 
Si-baudhar, an officer who may be considered equivalent to a chancellor 
of the exchequer, came to introduce me to the great man. I found 
him sitting in the verandah of a pretty good wooden house, the Sultan 
Muda, or heir-apparent, being at his side. They were both stout, good- 
tempered looking men of forty to forty-five years old ; they talked very 
intelligently, and smoked opium the whole time I was with them. The 
Sultan showed me with great pride some brass guns, made at Indra- 
giri, and they certainly were beautiful specimens of Malay work. I 
was provided with a letter, which I produced, and it was handed to a 
secretary, who immediately read it aloud, much to the edification of some _ 
two hundred people who were round us. The people here speak excel- 
.lent Malay, better than I have heard generally anywhere, except among — 
the Malays of the high class in Singapore, where it is perhaps better - 
spoken than anywhere else, except in the kingdom of Menang Kaiban, : 
the eradle of the Malay power and language; -Indragiri is however - 
not more than 100 miles from Menang Kaiban, and, strange to say, - 
the neighbours are at peace. I made inquiries of the Rajah about the 
coal, which was the object of my journey: he did not give me much 
encouragement about the main river, but showed me very good samples - 
from the Chenaku, a river I have passed lower down, and he promised 
me a boat and a guide to go thither; after about an hour's talk I left 
him, and took up my quarters, by his desire, in a small schooner which — 
he had moored in the river: she was about forty tons, aud was named 
Sambarani, the name of the Pegasus of the Malay mythology. Here 
I was more comfortable than in my small boat. — — —  — — 
I remained at Rangat, waiting for my boat and guide, until: the re 
of February; I could not walk about much, all the country being 
