THE THIRTEEN CONFEDERATE TOWNS, 



479 



passed over a sliglit elevation^ and again I came 

 down into a low land wbicli was one great fertile 

 sawa Eice here is abundant and veiy cheap, 

 and the Resident states that many of the natives 

 prefer to tise that which is at least a year old, and 

 that a few have small quantities which they have 

 kept for several years. The kernels of this rice are 

 smaller than those of the kind grown in our Caro- 

 linas ; but that has been tried here, and found to 

 yield less by a considerable number of pounds per 

 acre than the native variety. 



This region was known, before it was conquered 

 by the Butch, as the Tiga Bias country, or the coun- 

 try of the *' Thirteen Confederate Towns " becau.ge 

 the thirteen villages in this vicinity had entered into 

 a compact to afford mutual aid and protection. In 

 a similar manner all the territory that previously be- 

 longed to the single kingdom of Menangkabau was 

 divided up into petty confederacies when the Dutch 

 conquered the country, and the several areas thus 

 ruled are now marked on the Dutch maps as the 

 district of the Five, Ten, or Twenty Kottas." At 

 present, though most of the natives live in villages, 

 many houses are scattered over the cultivated lands. 

 Before the conquest they all lived in villages that 

 were generally sun'ounded by a stockade and a thick 

 hedge of bamboos. The Dutch generals who sub- 

 dued them destroyed these rude fortifications, that 

 the ^'Ulagers might have no defences and less facili- 

 ties to revolt. 



Many of the kampongs in this region were then 

 situated on the hills, but have since been removed to 



