a receives strangers we
saw a man's skull hanging up, which he told us was hung there as a
trophy, it being the skull of an enemy they had taken prisoner, whose
body (according to the custom of the Battas) they had eaten about two
months before. June 23rd. We walked through a level woody country to the
kampong of Lumut, and next day to Sa-tarong, where I observed several
plantations of benzoin-trees, some cotton, indigo, turmeric, tobacco, and
a few pepper-vines. We next proceeded to Tappolen, to Sikia, and to
Sa-pisang. This last is situated on the banks of Batang-tara river, three
or four days' journey from the sea; so that our course had hitherto been
nearly parallel to the coast.

July 1st. We left Sa-pisang and took a direction towards the hills,
following nearly the course of the Batang-tara. We travelled all this day
through a low, woody, and entirely uncultivated country, which afforded
nothing worthy of observation. Our guide had proposed to reach a kampong,
called Lumbu; but missing the road we were obliged to wade up the river
between four and five miles, and at length arrived at a ladang extremely
fatigued; where the badness of the weather obliged us to stop and take up
our quarters in an open padi-shed. The next day the river was so swelled
by the heavy rain which had fallen the preceding day that we could not
prosecute our journey, and were obliged to pass it and the remaining
night in the same uncomfortable situation. (This is the middle of the dry
season in the southern parts of the island.) July 3rd. We left the ladang
and walked through a very irregular and uninhabited tract, full of rocks
and covered with woods. We this day crossed a ridge of very steep and
high hills, and in the afternoon came to an inhabited and well-cultivated
country on the edge of the plains of Ancola. We slept this night in a
small open shed, and next day proceeded to a kampong called Koto Lambong.
July 5th. Went through a more open and very pleasant country to
Terimbaru, a large kampong on the southern edge of the plains of Ancola.
The land hereabout is entirely clear of wood, and either ploughed and
sown with padi or jagong (maize), or used as pasture for their numerous
herds of buffaloes, kine, and horses. The raja being informed of our
intentions to come there sent his son and between thirty and forty men,
armed with lances and matchlock guns, to meet us, who escorted us to
their kampong, beating gongs and firing their guns a