cowherds and drivers of ox-waggons; the Bengalese prove efficient
policemen, and the Boyans skilful carpenters; the clearing of the
forest pertaining to Malays and Batteks, also responsible for the
building of the marvellous rice-barns, the apotheosis of Sumatran
architecture. The ordinary tourist omits Sumatra from his itinerary.
Occasional elephant-hunters penetrate the dense forests of the
interior, and engineers or tobacco-planters flock to the monotonous
levels of the eastern coast, but the glorious Western Highlands, the
Sumatran _Bovenland_, is seldom visited. Warlike Acheen, for ever at
feud with the Dutch Government, is forbidden ground to the European
traveller. The unconquerable independence of the Achinese, fiercely
resenting the sovereignty of Holland, proves an insoluble problem to
the Dutch methods of subjugation. The bold and lawless character of
this rebellious clan defies military discipline. The spirit of
insurrection animates every man, woman, and child of the brave but
treacherous race, and Acheen remains the dark centre of countless
tragedies, due to the spurious patriotism which counts a stab in the
dark, a poisoned arrow, or a cruel betrayal, as heroic and laudable
modes of resistance to the hated invader of Sumatra's ancient
liberties. The forest-clad interior of the vast island remains an
unknown wilderness. Cannibals still lurk in the black depths of the
pathless jungle; weird tribal customs linger unchanged in barbarous
_campongs_, where strange gods are worshipped with the immemorial rites
of an ageless past, rude carvings and weird symbols showing the
personification of those natural phenomena deified by primeval tribes.
Sumatra, with her wealth of mines and forests and her important
geographical position, remains as yet an almost undiscovered country,
and though her undeveloped resources excite the cupidity and arouse the
envy of European nations, political greed and private enterprise have
proved powerless to open up the hidden treasures of the vast island,
apparently intended by Nature to become the key of the Southern Seas.

A VIEW OF KRAKATAU.

Emma-Haven, the little port of Padang, twenty minutes by train from the
palm-girt Sumatran capital, scarcely mars the beauty of the secluded
inlet with the red and white warehouses standing against the sylvan
verdure which fringes the blue arc of the deep bay. Cloud upon cloud,
the spectral vision of distant mountains gleams through the