SOURCE OF SUMATRA'S WEALTH. 



505 



aoffee can be here cultivated with little care, and ricej 

 the staple article of food among that people, can be 

 raised in any quantity. Such a privilege could not 

 l)e obtained at present^ but the liberal tendency of 

 the government of the Netherlands India promises 

 that it may be, at no distant time in the futiire. 

 Such an enterprise would not have the character of 

 an experiment, for the facility with which coffee and 

 rice can be grown has already been shown ou this 

 plantation, and the cost of transporting it to Padang 

 or Palembang would be very light. Sumatra un- 

 doubtedly contains large quantities of gold, but the 

 true source of her wealth is not the precious metal 

 she possesses, but the crops of coffee she produces. 



From the top of this mountain I took my last 

 ^-iew of the Barizan chain, which had been constant- 

 ly in sight since I passed through the Strait of Sun- 

 da on my way to Padang. In the ladangs in this 

 region the walls of the huts of the natives are mostly 

 made of bark. While coming do^vn from this low 

 mountain-range, we had a splendid view up a valley 

 to the southward, and of the low but sharply-crested 

 chain which limits on the south the area drained by 

 the Musi. At the foot of this elevation a stream 

 courses southward to the Musi, and on its banks are a 

 native village, and a Dutch post and fort. Here, as 

 elsewhere, I rode up to the house of the conti'olmir^ 

 whom I had previously notified of my coming. He 

 had gone a number of miles southward, to the limit 

 of his district and the Pasuma country, where I now 

 learned a war was going on. His good lady was at 

 home, andj to my great surprise, welcomed me in 



