CHAPTER I. 



sojocus isi THE LAMPONGS — cmtinued. 



Leave Batavia for Telok^betong — ^Lampong Bay — ^Tflok-betong — Leave fur 

 Gedong-tetahan — FoTest scenery by the way— Escape from a ti^sr— 

 Flowers in the forest — Zedong- teta nan— Birds and inaecta there^Move 

 to Kotta-tAjawa— The villiige— Ruthless destruction of tlie forest — Trees 

 — Entoiiif^loeifal treasure*— Move to Gunuog Trang — The pepper trade 

 ' — Birds there— lateresting butterflies. 



Embarkixo at Batavia on the morning of the 18th of No- 

 vember, 1880, our course lay west^vard through the Thousand 

 Islands into the Straits of Simda, where, rounding the base 

 of the Eajabasa volcano, we steamed up the Larapong Bay, 

 between its scalloped shores girt by high hills^ — the southern 

 fork of that unbroken chain which, commencing in the north 

 of the island, runs down the western coast, and tri furcates 

 before reaching the extremity of the island to form two bays, 

 on the west Kaiser^s Bay, and on the east Lampong Bay. 

 As we steamed under the shade of these peaks, the sun went 

 down tinging the crests on our left with gold, and those on 

 our right with the richest purjile. 



Before we dropped anchor off the little town the full moon 

 had come out ; and one can scarcely say which was fairer, the 

 sun-lit panorama of the day's sail, or the moon-lit landscape, 

 with the ptde, soft light on the hills, whose slopes guided 

 the eye down to the white circle of the shore-line, on which 

 the palm-trees, everywhere dotting its margin, had their 

 crowns transformed into flashing plumes of silver. 



Tfelok-betong is the chief town of the Lampong Residency, 

 which forms the most southerly province of Sumatra. Be- 

 sides the Resident and the chief administrative civil ofliicers, 

 the only other European inhabitants were the commandant, a 

 couple of lieutenants, and a surgeon Dr. Maehik, an enthusi- 

 astic ichthyologist and ronchologist, in charge of a native gar- 



