TALEMBANG. 531 



lembang is built on the left bank. Tliere are a large 

 and well-constnicted fort, and tlie houses of the Resi- 

 dent, 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 troj^ical 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 magnifi- 

 cent display of ki'ises, and enormous quantities of 

 fiiiit. The name Palembang, or, more con'ectly, Pa- 

 limbanoran, is of Javanese orio-in, and sis-nifies " the 

 place where the draining off was done." The " drain- 

 ing 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 further shown by the title of the native 

 officials and the names of various localities in the vi- 

 cinity. The natives have a tradition that Palembang 

 was founded by the Javanese government of Majajia- 

 hit, 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 withi 

 pilasters and a dome, and near by a minaret, about i 

 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 l)e decidedly 

 suj^erior to any of the old temples in Java. Its his- 

 tory appears to be lost, but I judge it was l)uilt not 



