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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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a Chinese; coolie; mending the harness oe his buffalo cart 



In the meantime the buffalo is taking his daily noonday bath and siesta in a near-by mud-hole. 



banyan, and Hcrvca braziliensis, enor- 

 mously popular in Malaya. 



Liberian coffee thrived in the shade of 

 the licrvca or under the protection of 

 vast coco-palm groves ; ten-foot pepper 

 vines climbed thickly up the trunks of 

 small trees, clumps of tall areca palms 

 waved their graceful fronds high in the 

 air, and dense forests of teakwood, 

 planted in even rows, overhung and 

 shaded the road. 



Other things without end grew in like 

 profusion, and all helped prove what the 

 planter enthusiasts had told of the is- 

 land's future. With rich alluvial soil, 

 unfailing rainfall, and tremendous nat- 

 ural resources, only the lack of labor 

 and the deterrent influence of warring 

 tribes has held Sumatra practically at a 

 standstill while its sister island, Java, has 

 flourished so greatly. 



Sumatra's exploitation has been carried 

 on very slowly and cautiously, it is true, 

 but without the aid of the severe though 

 wonderfully beneficial methods of the 

 Java culture system ; and before the close 

 of many years its economic development 



and wealth will astonish even those fa- 

 miliar with the statistics of Java. 



We reached Medan early in the after- 

 noon, and the next morning ran down 

 ten miles to the end of the road and took 

 the Deli railway for two or three miles 

 to the port of Belawan, in the mangrove 

 swamps. 



A wearying two-hour struggle ensued 

 in the moist, oppressive heat of the low 

 coast — a contest against heavy odds in 

 the shape of booms that were too short, 

 planks that were too weak, spaces too 

 narrow, and stanchions that interfered, 

 and all the other things that make a 

 nightmare of loading and unloading 

 motor cars on ships unprepared to handle 

 them. 



But we won in the end, with the help 

 of a placid Dutch officer, who showed 

 no anxiety over the disruption I was 

 causing the company's sailing schedule ; 

 and when the car was at last on board, 

 the RuuipJiius dropped down the river to 

 the Straits, swung southeast for Singa- 

 pore, and shortly sunk the low east coast 

 of Sumatra in the haze of late afternoon. 



