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The forests are full of birds of bright colors.

We see

They jump

many monkeys, some big and some little. from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. Some of them hang from the limbs by their long tails, and some squat in the forks of the trees or creep around the trunks, grinning and chattering at us as they do so.

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Among the most interesting trees are those in the quinine plantations. The drug known as quinine comes from the cinchona tree; it is especially valuable for malarial fevers and other diseases, and is used for this purpose all over the world.

The cinchona grew originally only in the Andes region of South America, and for many years the quinine of

OUR COLONIES 15

the world came from Bolivia and Peru. It was the product of the wild trees of the forests, the bark being gathered by Indians for the white merchants. Some years ago the Dutch government thought the tree might thrive in Java as well, and they sent men to South America for seed, which were planted in nurseries. They sprouted, and from them came the trees which are now found in many parts of Java. It was also found that the tree produced a bark quite as rich in quinine as the South American tree. To-day, about nine tenths of all the world's quinine comes from Java, and more is being produced every year.

It is on the mountain slopes about three thousand feet above the sea that the cinchona trees grow best. They are set out close together, but are thinned from year to year as they grow, the bark, root, and branches of the trees taken out being saved for quinine. At ten years the trees are full grown, and at this time the bark is removed. It is dried in the sun and then sent to the factories, where it is ground to a dust, boiled in kerosene oil, and so treated with acids and other preparations that it comes out the frosted silver, flaky powder known as quinine, ready to be made into pills. It is then packed in tins and shipped to New York, Amsterdam, London, and the other great drug markets of the world. The quinine we use comes from Java. We have some now in our medicine cases, and when in the future a pill or capsule breaks and the bitter stuff touches our tongues, we shall remember that it tastes much like the red bark of this tree which we have found during our travels in

WE

35. SUMATRA

E have left Batavia, have passed through the Sunda Strait at the western end of Java, and are now steaming along the southern shores of the great island of Sumatra through the Indian Ocean.

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How hot it is! We are approaching the Equator, and the sun's rays fall almost perpendicularly upon the waveless sea. Just now no air is stirring. The ocean seems a dead mass of molten glass which, reflecting the sun, burns our eyes as we look across it to the blue hills of the mainland. It is only where the ship cuts it that the sea is in motion. Our prow pushes it aside in great steel-blue waves which do not break as they roll outward, but go on and on, communicating their motion to the dead mass beyond until they are lost in this universe of water. At the stern we can see the track of the steamer, a wide pathway of wavelets extending behind us as far as our eyes can reach.

At last a wind springs up. It is rippling the glassy blue and painting millions of dimples upon its sapphire face. It cools our hot cheeks as we sit in our steamer chairs under the awnings on deck, and makes life more worth living. That wind comes from the mountains of Sumatra, the mighty chain which runs along through the western half of the island from one end of it to the other. Many of its peaks are more than two miles in height, and, although they are almost on the Equator, are crowned with perpetual snow.

The coast is low and covered with a dense vegetation.

Cocoanut trees line the beach. We see thatched huts built high upon piles along the shores, and now and then bigger houses with curiously shaped roofs farther back among the trees. We sail along from port to port, calling at the cities of Telok Betong, Benkulen (běn-koo'lĕn), and Padang (pa-däng') on the west coast, and then go clear around the island to visit the town of Medan in Deli (děl'e) on the other side, from where we make our way down into the Strait of Malacca to Singapore to get a ship for Ceylon.

Our trip about Sumatra takes several weeks. The island is an enormous one. With the exception of Greenland, Borneo, New Guinea, and Madagascar, it is the largest island of the world. It is longer than the distance from New York to Chicago, and in one place its width is as great as the distance from Washington to Albany. It is more than three times as large as Java, and is of the same volcanic nature. Much of the western part is broken by lofty peaks, while opposite Singapore and farther east is a vast plain which is under water during part of the year. This is so of Lampong, the province nearest Java, the word "Lampong" meaning bobbing about in the water.

Other parts of Sumatra are made up of valleys and tablelands, some covered with forest, and others with tall, coarse grass. The vegetation is much the same as that of Java, save that the forests are denser and more bound together with rattans and other climbing plants. There are orchids everywhere, and many trees which bear beautiful flowers.

We shall see monkeys in all parts of the island, and

we are told that there are wild dogs and wild sheep, tapirs and tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses. The rhinoceros lives on the vegetation of the marshy jungles along the coast. It is very fierce when brought to bay, and can easily impale a horse on one of the two great horns which it has just over its nose. Its skin is so thick that the ordinary bullet has no effect upon it, and especially prepared balls are used for hunting it. The best place to aim is just behind the shoulders, as by this means you may reach the animal's lungs which, if penetrated, cause it to bleed inwardly and die.

We see natives at the ports and on our trips through the interior. Sumatra is thinly populated. It has only about one eighth as many inhabitants as Java, or about three millions in all. The people are largely Malayans, but they are more fierce than the Javanese and more difficult to control. There are many tribes, each ruled by its native sultan, rajah, or prince, under the governor general of the Dutch officials sent out from Holland to act as elder brothers to the native rulers, and in some places there is so much rebellion that a large Dutch army is kept always on hand.

This is especially so in the province of Acheen (ä-chēn'), at the extreme northern part of the island. Acheen is as large as West Virginia. It was one of the first parts of Sumatra visited by white men; Marco Polo called there in 1291, and Queen Elizabeth of England made a treaty with its sultan. The Acheenese have been fighting foreigners for hundreds of years. They are Malays, who believe in the Mohammedan religion which tells them they will go straight to heaven if they die killing

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