IN SXJMATEA. 257 



To rece.ll the magnificent flora of the upper reaches of the river 

 almost makes me retract the statement that the tropics present 

 few flowers ; for so blossom -spangled a road it would be difficult 

 to match anywhere ;— it is only in the beginning of the wet 

 season, however, and along the steep banks of some such 

 river, wide enough to let in the sunlight and the free breath 

 of heaven, that one must look for, or indeed expect to be 

 able to see such a display. The singular trackless streets, 

 roads, and paths of water by which I rambled among the 

 forest avenues are never to be forgotten reminiscences ; nor 

 lower down the slow majesty of the widening river between 

 its level banks fronted with tall reeds, dark-foliaged figs, and 

 groves of Eriodendron trees, with their stiff trifid arms ; and 

 at last the broad expanse of its united affluents by whose 

 sources I had for so many months encamped, drawing towards 

 itself the atoms of produce of two degrees of latitude, and 

 concentrating them into a hot nucleus of commercial life and 

 activity. Intermingled with all these memories are a thousand 

 indescribable vignettes ; miniatures of quaint nooks and sandy 

 bays, and embossed villages, of out-of-the-world ways and 

 habits and customs, of the intermittent comers and goers ; of 

 the changing features of the river's face itself in wind and 

 rain, in early morning or noonday sun, in evening shades, 

 under the pale moon, and in the solemn silence of the 

 darkness. Surveyed from my window in the intervals of 

 occupation, or seated under the verandah in the cool evenings, 

 this changing landscape of days and days (so placid and 

 imperceptible was to me the motion of our gliding down, 

 and so full of that exhilarating relief from labour and 

 fatigue) seemed to move past my eyes of its own accord, and 

 afforded me a continued and massive sensation of delight 

 that nothing could disturb, and which can be but faintly 

 conceived by those Avho have not experienced this uncommon 

 mode of travel which is absolutely different from that by any 

 other water-carriage. 



My very last stage, however, was through, perhaps, as un- 

 wonted a scene as I may ever look on ; it was an eight hours' sail 

 through the city of Palembang itself, which is certainly one of 

 the curiosities of the East. Throwing off from our anchorage 

 about eight o'clock in the morning, we slid down betvt'eea miles 



