SIK THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES. 
49 
of recent origin. Early next morning the party pro- 
ceeded to the capital, which we shall notice in the 
narrator’s owm words. “ In approaching Pageru- 
yong, we had an excellent view of this once famous 
city. It is built at the foot, and partly on the slope 
of a steep and ragged hill, called Gunung Bongso, so 
memorable for its appearance, and the three peaks 
it exhibits. Below the town, under a precipice of 
from fifty to a hundred feet, in some parts nearly 
perpendicular, winds the beautiful stream of Selo, 
which pursuing its course, passes Saruasa, where it 
takes the name of the Golden River, and finally falls 
into the Indragiri. In front of the city rises the 
mountain Berapi, the summit of which may be about 
twenty miles distant. It is on the slopes of this 
mountain that the principal population is settled , 
the whole side of the mountain, for about fifteen miles 
from Pageruyong in every direction, being covered 
with villages and rice fields. The entrance to the 
city, which is now only marked by a few venerable 
trees, and the traces of what was once a highway, is 
nearly three quarters of a mile before we come to 
the Bali and site of the former palace. Here, little 
is left save the noble Wagarin trees, and these appear, 
in several instances, to have suffered from the action 
of fire. Scarcely the appearance of a hut is to be 
seen ; the large flat stone, however, on which the 
Sultan used to sit on days of public ceremony, was 
pointed out to us ; and when the weeds had been 
partially cleared, the royal burial ground was disco- 
VOL. Tin. n 
