Page 20 - Malaysia by John Russel Denyes

Palembang and Medan and half a dozen other
lesser ports. Work is already progressing and
several hundred miles are completed. Palembang
is not only on the railway, but it is located on a
great river which has numerous branches navi-
gable for small ships and flat-bottomed boats for
fifteen hundred miles. Trade is not extensive as
yet, but within a few years this city will probably
have a hundred and fifty thousand people. The
country behind is marvelously fertile, as well as
having large deposits of minerals and oils.
Medan in the north, on the east side, is a town
of about 40,000. It is a port of call for the ships
plying between the Dutch islands and Holland.
Four lines of railway run out into the interior.
Just to the north lie the great oil fields. In the
mountains behind are the coal deposits. And for
a hundred miles to the south the whole country
is planted with tobacco, sugar, and rubber. Within
the past ten years land values in the city have
increased four fold. Many millions of dollars of
Dutch, German, British, and American capital
have been invested in this section within the last
few years.

Java Java has had a native but real civiliza-
tion for two thousand years. The Java-
nese have had their written language and litera-
ture for many centuries. The kingdoms of olden
time had their standing armies and their fleets
which took tribute from the surrounding islands.
More than three hundred years ago the Portu-
gese began coming to Java for spices. Then came
the Dutch, and then the EngHsh. For four years,
during the later Napoleonic wars, from 1811 to
1816, the English held possession of Java, but
when the final treaty was signed England re-
turned the island to Holland.

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