70 CRUISE IN THE SOUTHERN CHINA SEA. 



Malay houses at the far end. In the centre is the Dato's house 

 — a wooden building 1 in civilised style; a large house belonging 

 to the Sultan of Linga and then stretching away on the right the 

 houses of the bulk of the Malays : behind the flat on which the 

 village is built, hills covered with jungle and coco palms rise 

 steeply in a half circle, the whole having a very pretty effect 

 which, however, is quite matched by the view presented from 

 behind the town from whence looking down the long slope of 

 the hill one sees the roofs of the houses, the semi-circular bay 

 with boats lying at anchor, and then across a strip of water the 

 forested hills that rise opposite. 



A mile and more to the north of Siantan lie the two fairly 

 large islands of Mobur and Mata with a channel about a mile 

 wide between them. Between Mata and Siantan runs a very 

 pretty strait which although obstructed by many islets and 

 shoals at its eastern end, has deep water in the west where 

 Terempa Bay is situated. Not only in the latter itself can a 

 vessel lie in deep water sheltered from all winds, but beyond the 

 point forming its eastern shore is another bay where a ship can 

 anchor in 10-15 fathoms near the beach, entirely land-locked. 

 Better harbours on a small scale could not be wished for and 

 wood and water are close at hand. 



The Dato of Terempa was in an advanced state of consump- 

 tion and in spite of possessing a new and rather showy house 

 lived in a second more modest dwelling. He showed us specimens 

 of black iron ore of which large quantities were said to occur 

 in the hill behind the village. 



We could get various supplies here, thanks to the presence 

 of the Chinese ; extremely good coconuts* were plentiful 

 and water was at hand in a large pool on the beach. The only 

 practicable shooting ground near at hand was mostly covered 

 with small scrubby jungle in which we shot squirrels and a number 

 of fairly common birds and trapped plenty of rats. I met with 



*This group of islands would appear to be a convenient place for 

 obtaining seed nuts to form a coco-palm plantation. The Malays 

 always maintain, and apparently with some show of reason, that island 

 nuts are far superior to those of the mainland. Some of the Anambas 

 nuts are very good, in fact, almost equal those of the Nicobars : though 

 small, they are extremely sweet and the deposit of flesh *is very thick. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



