thick.  In the sapiyau or building in which the raja 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 all the way.  The raja received us in great form, and with civility ordered a buffalo to be killed, detained us a day, and when we proceeded on our journey sent his son with a party to escort us.  I observed that all the unmarried women wore a great number of tin rings in their ears (some having fifty in each ear), which circumstance, together with the appearance of the country, seemed to indicate its abounding with minerals; but on making inquiry I found that the tin was brought from the