its course as far as a place called
Mandau or Mandol, as they write the name, and where they had a small
establishment on account of its abounding with valuable ship-timber.

SURVEY.

A recent survey executed by Mr. Francis Lynch, under the orders of the
government of Pulo Pinang, has made us more particularly acquainted with
its size, its advantages, and defects. From the place where it discharges
itself into the straits of Kampar or Bencalis, to the town of Siak is,
according to the scale of his chart, about sixty-five geographical miles,
and from thence to a place called Pakan bharu or Newmarket, where the
survey discontinues, is about one hundred more. The width of the river is
in general from about three-quarters to half a mile, and its depth from
fifteen to seven fathoms; but on the bar at low-water spring-tides there
are only fifteen feet, and several shoals near its mouth. The tides rise
about eleven feet at the town, where at full and change it is high-water
at nine A.M. Not far within the river is a small island on which the
Dutch had formerly a factory. The shores are flat on both sides to a
considerable distance up the country, and the whole of the soil is
probably alluvial; but about a hundred and twenty-five or thirty miles up
Mr. Lynch marks the appearance of high land, giving it the name of
Princess Augusta Sophia hill, and points it out as a commanding situation
for a settlement.

SHIP-TIMBER.

He speaks in favourable terms of the facility with which ship-timber of
any dimensions or shape may be procured and loaded. Respecting the size
or population of the town no information is given.

GOVERNMENT.

The government of it was (in October 1808) in the hands of the Tuanku
Pangeran, brother to the Raja, who in consequence of some civil
disturbance had withdrawn to the entrance of the river. His name is not
mentioned, but from the Transactions of the Batavian Society we learn
that the prince who reigned about the year 1780 was Raja Ismael, "one of
the greatest pirates in those seas." The maritime power of the kingdom of
Siak has always been considerable, and in the history of the Malayan
states we repeatedly read of expeditions fitted out from thence making
attacks upon Johor, Malacca, and various other places on the two coasts
of the peninsula. Most of the neighbouring states (or rivers) on the
eastern coast of Sumatra, from Langat to Jambi, are said to have been
brought in modern times under its subj