Everyone assured me that I should have to go a very long way further to find any dry forest, for at this season the whole country for many miles inland was flooded.

I therefore had to stay a week at Palembang before I could determine my future movements.
The city is a large one, extending for three or four miles along a fine curve of the river, which is as wide as the Thames at Greenwich.

The stream is, however, much narrowed by the houses which project into it upon piles, and within these, again, there is a row of houses built upon great bamboo rafts, which are moored by rattan cables to the shore or to piles, and rise and fall with the tide.
The whole riverfront on both sides is chiefly formed of such houses, and they are mostly shops open to the water, and only raised a foot above it, so that by taking a small boat it is easy to go to market and purchase anything that is to be had in Palembang.

The natives are true Malays, never building a house on dry land if they can find water to set it in, and never going anywhere on foot if they can reach the place in a boat.

A considerable portion of the population are Chinese and Arabs, who carry on all the trade; while the only Europeans are the civil and military officials of the Dutch Government.