256 



A NATffJi A LIST'S WANDEBINaS 



the scene, in what direction we were hfmg borne, txml we spent 

 several hours of great anxiety lest we shouhl he driven on one 

 of the many sunken tree stems with wliich the river was 

 studded. 



Four days sail below Pan and past the confluence of the 

 Lamatang, with its complement of water and commerce from 

 Lahat and Mnara Enim, we found ourselves in the midst of 

 growing signs of approach to a great centre of activity, making 

 up for the monotony of the hindscape throngh which we had 

 for a day or two been travelling ; for the low banks had shut 

 out all view, and their distance on both sides, so broad was 

 the river, had precluded me from identifying their vegetation. 

 Large Palembang praus bright in sc^irlet or blue decorations, 

 Ijegan to be met in little fleets, being laboriously poled up 

 stream close under the banks out of the current ; and every littlo 

 while a gay ski AT, propelled by two or three flashing oars, wouhl 

 enliven and glide athwart the picture, and disappearing again 

 leave ns to our plodding way. In the almost dead water wc 

 overtook and were overtaken in turn by numberless Bakits, 

 single or in immense strings of from twenty to thirty made 

 fast one behind the other, often nearly half a mile in length, 

 and broad rafts hundreds of yards in length, mostly of laurel 

 wood, for the cabinet makers for whom Palembang is famous. 



At sundown on the 20th of December I moored, not far 

 from the confluence of the Ogan, which brings to the cajjitiil 

 the tribute of Muara-dna and Batu-radja, in sight of Palem- 

 bang, amid a curious scene. Below my Rakit there stretched 

 away to a great distance a broad unbroken plain of log rafts, 

 on which a large population of men, women, and children was 

 encamped ; some were under the shelter of a few palm-leaf mats, 

 othei^, detected by the lightplayiug on their faces, crouched in 

 small groups here and there round little fires, the whole, in the 

 dying light of the still evening, forming a rather weird scene. 



It was indeed with feelings of regret that I found I had 

 arrived within sight of the end of a journey which will always 

 remain in my memory as one of the deepest enjoyments of my 

 life. Crowned by the liist month of river-life, with its varying 

 impressions and sensations, it had been full of the in tensest 

 gratificatiou, and still is when I recall that long panorama- 

 like pirturc. 



