212 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
The town has now lost whatever greatness it possessed. 
Although it is said to have 12,000 inhabitants, the trade 
is of no importance, the surrounding territory infertile, and 
the situation unhealthy. The coffee cultivation has been 
more or less abandoned, and earthquakes have partially 
destroyed some of the buildings and given an air of 
desolation to the town. 
Palembang differs greatly from Benkulen, being the 
seat of a vast and increasing trade. The town lies about 
45 miles up the Sungsang or Palembang river, and 
is one of the largest and most curious in the whole 
archipelago. It is accessible at all times to vessels of the 
heaviest burden, the width of the stream at the town 
being about three-quarters of a mile, and its depth five 
or six fathoms close to the shore. The town lines both 
banks of the stream for a distance of 6 miles, and large 
numbers of the population inhabit the praus and rakits 
anchored in the river, much as the floating population of 
Canton and other Chinese cities, so that all marketing 
and general business is carried on by water. A Resident 
and other officials reside here, and with various merchants 
number altogether about 100 Europeans. The entire 
population is estimated at from forty to fifty thousand, 
and, in spite of the surrounding marshes, the climate is 
considered so healthy that convalescent soldiers are sent 
here from Bangka. A small garrison is stationed here, 
and there is a kraton, or fort, of substantial construction, 
capable of containing 1500 men, with walls 8 feet 
thick and 50 feet high, and mounting eight guns on 
each of the bastions at the four corners. The export 
trade has already been alluded to. Owing to its numerous 
affluents, the river taps a vast area, and it is said that a 
hundred or more praus laden with produce often arrive 
from up country in the course of a single day. 
