464 SUMATRA'S WEST COAST 



the tropics — it is no wonder that cases of insomnia are frequent 

 and insanity one of the most dreaded of results. There are no 

 more touching instances to be found of self-sacrifice than those 

 of the wives of Dutch officers in Achin, who prefer short lives 

 with their husbands under such uncomfortable conditions to 

 long lives at home in snug little Holland. 



On our return to Kota Radja we were shown through the 

 truly wonderful army hospital, where patients both civil and 

 military are cared for, and where, between April 24 and Decem- 

 ber 24 of 1896, 1,265 cases t>f wounded men and several thousand 

 civilians and soldiers, for diseases other than those arising from 

 wounds, were treated. The minor cases were treated in the hos- 

 pitals of the various forts, and when we take into consideration 

 the heavy per cent of deaths we get an idea of the serious nature 

 of the fighting. One corner was occupied by the cholera huts — 

 temporary structures which are burned after each patient is 

 treated and buried — for, according to the commanding surgeon's 

 statement, no real cases of Asiatic cholera have, in his experience, 

 yielded to treatment. Achinese, Dutch, or Malay soldiers are 

 faithfully treated, and though the Achinese, as soon as well and 

 free, sometimes escape and return to their people to fight against 

 the Dutch, when picked up as wounded prisoners they receive 

 as careful treatment as though they were lo} 7 al subjects. 



Leaving Oleh-leh late that night after a charming experience 

 of Dutch hospitality, we anchored next morning off Segli, con- 

 sidered the most dangerous benteng or fort in Sumatra. Later 

 in the day we landed at Telok Semawe, a fort further down the 

 coast, protected by a most formidable series of high barbed- wire 

 fences and agave. There was an air about these blockhouses or 

 bentengs reminding one forcibly of the Indian blockhouses of 

 our forefathers, and should we see fit to undertake the control 

 of such an archipelago as the Philippines, the training of our reg- 

 ulars as Indian fighters would come into excellent play, though 

 the races there are perhaps not comparably as stubborn as these 

 long, lithe muscular Achinese. 



The trip from Telok Semawe to Penang was uneventful, and 

 both my friend and I felt that in seeing this corner of the world 

 our eyes had been opened to a war of more importance than we 

 hud either of us dreamed of finding there, and to the beauties 

 of an island which has probably no equal for tropical beauty 

 and grandeur in the world. 



