462 SUMATRA'S WEST COAST 



cliffs Avith its fruit and foliage. No orchids were to be seen any- 

 where in the gorge, and it is possible that they had been taken 

 out by some orchid-hunter. 



After a morning spent in exploring the resources of this won- 

 derful gorge, we returned to the comfortable little hotel at Paja 

 Kombo, where that most remarkable of rice lunches, the rijs 

 tafel, was being prepared for us. The next morning we returned 

 by rail to Padang Pandjang and passed again through the Klof 

 van Aneh, where drifting clouds and occasional showers served 

 to heighten the glory of its scenery. 



The comfortable steamer MaetsuijcJcer of the Royal Packet 

 Company, the great steamship monopoly of the archipelago, was 

 at anchor the next day at Emma harbor when we arrived by 

 train from Padang. Over five hundred soldiers were ticketed to 

 leave by her, and the wharf was swarming with the soldiers and 

 their wives. It was not either, as might be expected, a scene of 

 leave-taking, for in the Dutch Indian arm}' the soldiers take 

 their wives with them into the field — that is, a certain number 

 of them chosen by lot for each company — native wives, be it 

 understood. Decks were strewn with blankets and camp uten- 

 sils and every available inch of space was occupied. They were 

 all bound for Atjeh, the northern point of the island, where for 

 the last 25 years the Dutch have been trying to conquer one of 

 the most warlike and stubborn races of savages in all the Orient. 

 For several months past the Dutch troops had been unusually 

 active in Atjeh, or Achin, as it is called in English, and this ac- 

 counted for the large body of troops going north at this time. 

 Little or nothing regarding these movements of the Dutch troops 

 against the Achinese gets into our press, but nevertheless they 

 are of a serious nature and entail yearly the sacrifice of many 

 lives and the expenditure of large sums of monej^. That their 

 campaigns are not prosecuted with that vigor which would seem 

 to an American necessary and economical can scarcely be ques- 

 tioned, but certainly the difficulties of climate and position are 

 great and the bravery and persistence of the Dutch troops, who 

 sooner or later fall victims to the dreaded malaria, are of the 

 most praiseworthy character. 



The journe}' by sea up the west coast of Sumatra, unless it 

 be made on one of the small coasting steamers, is generally un- 

 eventful. The low-lying islands of Nias and Poelo Tello, how- 

 ever interesting to a naturalist or ethnologist, are only low-lying 

 islands of little interest as seen from the vessel. Two whole 



