occupy a very narrow
area, especially the fine species. They are a doomed race, belonging to
the elder world, and slowly following its inhabitants to extinction. That
fascinating theme I must not touch; readers interested may refer to
Darwin. The point is that a collector may skirt a field of Cypripeds very
closely without suspecting his good fortune.

But travel in Sumatra at that time was more limited than it had been--more
than it is now. The Achinese still held out--for that matter, while I am
writing, comes news of a skirmish wherein three officers and nineteen
soldiers lost their lives. Ten years ago that stubborn and fearless
people not only defended their own soil but also made forays into the
Dutch territory. Desperate patriots allied themselves with the Battas, a
cannibal race dwelling between their country and the province of Tapanuli;
and hatred to the white man--or rather to the Dutch--carried the Achinese
so far, though strict Moslems, that they tempted these savages to move by
a promise of surrendering all captives--to be devoured. Thus the northern
parts of Dutch Sumatra were very unsafe. When Ericsson desired to explore
there he was refused permission. At Padang, the capital, however, in 1887,
he made acquaintance with the Controleur--Magistrate, as we should say--of
Lubu Sikeping, a district which lies along the Batta country. This
gentleman spoke Swedish--an accomplishment grateful beyond expression to
Ericsson, who had not heard his native tongue for years. Promptly they
made friends.

The Controleur had been summoned to report upon the state of things in his
Residency. He presented a long list of outrages and murders. Scores, if
not hundreds, of peaceful subjects had been not only plundered and killed,
but eaten, on Dutch soil, in the last few months. He represented that
active measures must be taken forthwith. The Battas, inhabiting a high
tableland beyond the mountains, crept through the defile, ravaged, burnt,
massacred, and trooped back, carrying their prisoners away for leisurely
consumption. Before news of the inroad reached the nearest outpost they
were half-way home. Smaller parties lay in wait along the roads, stopping
all communication. They had not yet ventured to assail a post, or even a
large village, but the Achin desperadoes urged them to bolder feats, and
they grew continually more aggressive. An expedition must be sent. It need
not be large, for the cannibals are not fighting men.