Stories from Deli

Omega, writes to us:
In the “Sumatra Post” of January 31 there is an announcement from me of the “Haagsch Maandblad”, the so-called green monthly magazine, which appears to be very successful. I have already mentioned the memoirs of Mr. J. T. Cremer, brought to paper by interview, which are also continued in the latest issue of the monthly and are concluded in the April issue. Unfortunately, the work was interrupted by the inexorable death. Chronologically, the text does not go beyond the beginning of 1872.
With the permission of the publishers I shall reproduce here the part in which Mr. Cremer describes his arrival at Deli in November 1871.

Mr Nienhuys, who was returning to Europe for health reasons, was to embark on the journey with the English steamer which took me from Singapore to Penang. This gave me the opportunity to spend another day with him at Penang, which was of great significance to me. Then the foundations were laid for a friendship of more than fifty years, and at the same time that meeting started a private correspondence, which has been useful from time to time. The next day I was able to leave with the small boat from Penang I to Deli. I did that in the company of two people, who just as well! I as newbies in the region would arrive. Firstly, Mrs. Ritgen, the wife of a German planter, partner of the firm Rhgen and StürzenegIger, who owned the tobacco company Rotterdam. Secondly, Mr. S. A. Van Someren, descendant of a Dutch family on Malacca. who came out as an assistant to the Deli Company.

On arrival I was kindly welcomed by Mr. Straatmann, to whom I could now immediately make the important announcement concerning the trial of the Chinese murderers (of Mr. Kung and Meyer), a provisional message still, but I am blown away by my special relations with the high court: civil servants in Batavia were unofficially aware. (NB It is clear from the foregoing that the government, after careful consideration, had authorized the Sultan to proceed to trial the murderers. The question was related to the right and territorial relationship tu-ischen Deli with Siak — O.) r Deli he didn’t mind the arrival lifting in pressure.

The stcandbosschen and rizophores presented a desolate sight. When the boat had sailed a little way up the Deliv River, it anchored at the place where the Belawan station now stands. E / layers a number of Malaysian prau ready, bigger ones for the cargo, smaller ones for the passengers; and then there were . also Chinese sampans who were rowed by a man, ( stood facing the bow, . . wer dea. In some of those vessels we went up the river with our luggage). and arrived an hour later at Laboean (this common name means anchorage). This place also made no lofty indentation. most natives in poor little houses, the rear of which opened onto the river. This location served the inhabitants for the purification of people inside and out.

At Laboean was also the Palace of the Su’tan, resting on piles and covered with atap building. The civilized and benevolent.-.the prince, Mahmoud Perkasa Alam, received me with great favor.Always htt’o I maintained the most pleasant relations with hr-m, until his death in October 1873. That good relationship became enlivened after moving to Kesawan, nearer the headquarters of the Dili Company. 1

From Laboean the journey continued on p/aard i to Medan, where the administrator of the Deli Maatschappij lived and ‘_antoor ;. kept, as is still the case. The location of this settlement, chosen by Mr Nienhuys shortly before his departure, is situated at the confluence of the Deli and L the Baboera rivers, where the Deli river makes a large bend. This place called Medan Poetri r it can be translated as Prinr. sesse square), used to be a Malay fortification, surrounded by an earthen wall.

This was later excavated by us for an old watercourse, which ran through our . driveway led, to close. The building of the administration was built on low g stone foundations, it was further built in wood and covered with atap. Just in front of the building was an old Malay tomb that smelled of holiness. Then la|. In order to build a front gallery, this tomb was moved by clergy appointed for that purpose with the consent of the Sultan. The dig, which I attended, was searched low, but nothing found. Then at once a little earth was gathered in swaddling clothes, to be used with the ceremonies and prayers to be transferred elsewhere.

At the new location, the sand-filled targets were then placed in the ground, after which the stones were placed on them. With this the due tribute had been paid to the saint; there were more like deserted fortifications on the river side between Medan and Belawan. One of these was Kota • Djawa, from which name can be deduced that Javanese “- were settled there in ancient times. The most probable was that this fortification had served as a defense against the Acehnese whose influence also spread in ancient times. stretched across Sumatra’s eastern coast.Evidence of this could be seen in the fact that when the grounds for nutmeg plantations were cleared, on the site where the society’s hospital now stands, a large number of gold coins have been found. which bore the coinage of Acehnese queens In the same vicinity were other holy graves, the most important on the main road opposite the hospital just mentioned..

Mr. Straatmaan soon informed me of the progress of work. It was one of the first years in which the system of planting that he had introduced was applied. He was a very technically developed man, originally naval engineer enieur, as he had been employed in Germany and later in Scotland. Straatmann had designed a complete plan for the building of the large land contract obtained by the Deli Company a few years before, which extended between the Deü and Pertyut rivers, from Kampong Mabar downstream on the Deli River, to | Dcli Toewa upstream, and of which Me- than about the center. Along and some distance from the Deli River, the Dcli Company was to build a main road, sections of which lying between that road and the river were to be reserved for the use of kampongs for the population. Now parallel to this road, Herr Straatmann had projected a system of planting roads. It soon became apparent that the land between the rivers was often lower than the banks of these. Small streams which ran between the two formed large or small swampy areas.

Well-drained soil is an undeniable requirement for the tobacco plant; when she is only in the water for a day she dies. For this reason long drains had to be dug along the planting paths, which, bending gradually to the river downstream, could discharge therein. The plantations of Nienhuys and the other pioneers were of small size, in dry places and mostly closed ‘ij _e ri. located four. The method applied by S.faatmann has laid the foundation for the systematic exploitation on large 9 Cu3el Great with his system, which is natural in the long run! Calibration has been improved and extended, test no”identified, despite the fact that there is in . In the beginning, even if ta’jak drowned here and there, the great culture was founded therewith.

The grounds along the Deli River, which were initially planted with tobacco, were gradually planted with nutmeg and clappers. Before the arrival of Nienhuys, the cultivation of nutmeg had already been undertaken on a fairly extensive scale by a few rajas on the coast, of whom I still remember Radja Bidin. Not far from Laboean the Dcli Company, between the highway and the river, had such a plantation with a nutmeg oil factory, which was made from good nuts on the Carlsruhe enterprise. The culture referred to here used to be driven on the hills of Penang, but there, as here in Dcli, it perished as a result of diseases which could not be overcome. Finally, it has been assumed that nutmeg grows well and is profitable only in the Moluccas, under the existing climatic and other conditions there, but not elsewhere. The clapper culture has been destroyed by the many enemies, very large like elephants and bears, but also very small like the clapper beetle. They had no people to fight them. Through the relations that I later formed in Penang, I acquired coconut planters from Ceylon, but although I offered them the coconut trees in exploitation for nothing, they also did not want them and this culture has also perished. In this way, all attention was devoted to tobacco, which, by the way, fully deserved it.

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