112 • AUSTRALASIA. 



bouring streamlet. Numerous thermal springs of varying temperature bubble up 

 at the foot of the volcanoes in the surrounding district. 



The chief southern trading-place and the largest city in Sumatra, isPalembang, 

 which lies on both banks of the Musi just above the delta, and at the converging 

 point of all the main routes from the interior. Palembang covers a large surface, 

 the thirty-six Kampongs, or quarters of the Ilir, comprising a space of over five 

 miles on the north or left bank, while the opposite side is occupied by sixteen other 

 quarters, grouped collectively under the name of Ulu* The few European 

 buildings are disposed on the north side, round about the kraton, or citadel, which 

 the Dutch have gradually transformed to a residential palace. As in the Chinese 

 city of Canton, many of the natives live permanently afloat, residing on rakits, or 

 bamboo rafts, moored to the banks of the river, which is here 1,000 feet wide, and 

 from 30 to 50 feet deep. Some of the rafts are large enough to bear houses, 

 containing several families, and according to the local tradition, the first of these 

 structures were built by the Chinese traders, to whom the sultan had refused 

 permission to reside ashore. At present they are inhabited not only by the 

 Chinese, Malays, Arabs, and Hindus, but even by some Europeans, for the sake of 

 the refreshing breezes, which blow alternately up and down the stream. Nearly 

 all the shops are afloat, so that most of the business is conducted in small river 

 craft, which glide along the narrow channels winding between the little houses, 

 painted in bright colours, and surmounted by curved roofs. During the floods 

 some of these dwellings break from their moorings, and drift with the current far 

 below Palembang. Children also frequently fall overboard, and become a prey to 

 the numerous crocodiles infesting the river. 



The inhabitants of Palembang, who claim descent from a Javanese colony of 

 the fourteenth century, still speak an idiom differing greatly from the Malay 

 dialects of Sumatra, and resembling the current speech of Central Java. Their 

 commercial relations are also chiefly with that island, to which they forward the 

 tobacco, rice, india-rubber, gutta-percha, benzoin, and other produce floated down 

 from Muwara Dua, Mnwara Inini, Muirara BJiti, Mianira Rupit, and other inland 

 towns, usually situated at the Miiuriras, or confluences of the main stream with its 

 tributaries. This produce is shipped in large vessels which ascend the Musi to 

 Palembang, 60 miles from its mouth. The gold workings, whence Palembang 

 takes its name, are now of little value, and the local industries are mainly confined 

 to lacquerware* and furniture, manufactured by numerous Chinese artizans. 



In the neighbourhood are the tombs of the sultans, amongst which Europeans 

 are surprised to find that of Sikandar Alam, " Alexander the Great," the traditional 

 ancestor of so many Eastern dynasties. 



North of the ancient kingdom of Palembang, the sultanate of Jambi, reduced 

 by the Dutch in 1858, also possesses a considerable town, Mu/cara ITonipe/i, situated, 

 as implied by its name, at the confluence of the Kompeh with the Jambi. This 

 important ti^ading-place lies, like Palembang, above the fluvial delta, and 45 



* The two Malay terms Ilir and U/ii, of such frequent occurrence on the maps of the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, have the respective meanings of " lower," " below," " left," and " upper," " above," " right." 



