TOPOGEAPHY OF SUMATEA. 113 



miles below Jamhi, the administrative capital and residence of the sultan. Here 

 also a portion of the population lives on rafts moored to the banks of the stream, 

 and, as in the southern province, some Hindu remains are still seen in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Several petty states still maintain their independence in the upper 

 part of the Jambi basin, the exports of which are directed almost exclusively to 

 Singapore. 



Ringat, capital of the ancient kingdom of Indragiri, whose southern frontiers 

 are marked by the course of the Jambi, has lost all its former greatness and 

 splendour, and is now reduced to a mere group of villages on the right bank of 

 the Indragiri. Its communications with the sea are entirely cut oil by the alluvial 

 matter gradually deposited in Amphitrite Bay, at the mouth of the river. An 

 analogous position is occupied on the river Kampar by Pulu Lairang {Palalavang), 

 which was also an ancient capital. Siak, another old metropolis, now held by the 

 Dutch, although 60 miles from the mouth of the river, still communicates freely 

 with the sea. But trade is here centred chiefly in Pckan Baru, which lies above 

 Siak, near the advanced spars of the Barisan range. This place has been selected 

 as the future terminus of the railway intended to connect the Ombilien coal-fields 

 with the eastern slope of Sumatra. 



Several little ports on this seaboard, notably Biikit Batu, have begun to take an 

 increasing share in the local coasting trade. Bengkalis, on the island of the same 

 name, possesses the advantage of a perfectly sheltered roadstead, and promises to 

 become a busy seaport, since these waters have been cleared of the pirates by 

 whom they were till recently infested. 



On the Sumatran side of the Strait of Malacca the chief agricultural and 

 commercial centre is the group of villages and plantations which takes the name 

 of Deli, from a petty state occupying this part of the island. Since the sultan 

 placed his territory under the protection of Holland in 1862, numerous planters 

 have settled in the district, the soil of which is unusually fertile. The first 

 European speculators directed their attention mainly to the nutmeg, pepper, and 

 other spices ; but they have gradually abandoned these products, and now occupy 

 themselves exclusively with the cultivation of tobacco for the Amsterdam market, 

 where it is highl}^ appreciated. The production has increased enormously during 

 the last few years; but unfortunately most of the plantations have been bought 

 up by a powerful financial compan}-, to which the Government has granted several 

 exclusive privileges, rendering all free competition impossible. Freehold plots 

 cannot be obtained, and the Chinese and Hindus are expressly denied the right 

 to purchase land in the district. The first plantations had been worked by slaves, 

 whom the company has now replaced by "contract labour." But the Malay and 

 Batta natives can no longer be procured in sufiicient numbers, .so that over 25,000 

 Chinese coolies have had to be imported. An attempt — not, however, attended by 

 much success — has also been made to introduce Javanese from Samarang, and 

 thus turn to the benefit of Sumatra a part of the yearly increasing surplus popu- 

 lation supplied by the neighbouring island. Some Klings, or Kaliugas — that is, 

 Hindus from the Madras presidency, for the most part mixed with other races — also 



