RIOUW-LINGGA ARCHIPELAGO, five groups of islands lying off the east coast of Sumatra and extending from the Straits of Singapore in the north, to the Straits of Berhala in the south. They comprise the Karimon group, the Batam group, the Bintang group, the Lingga group, and the Singkep group, with territory on the mainland opposite known as Indragiri, and col lectively they form a residency of the Dutch East Indies known as Riouw and Dependencies. The islands vary considerably in height and area, from rocky crags and small coral reefs, to Bintang, or Riouw, the largest island, area 44o sq.m., with a height of 1,235 ft.; Lingga and Singkep are almost as large, and the former attains a height of 4,40o ft. above sea-level and has the largest alluvial plain of the archipelago. Coral reefs and currents about the islands make navigation difficult. The total area of the residency is 17,55o sq.m. and its population (193o) was 298,329 (624 Europeans and Eurasians and 39,123 Chinese). On the main
land territory of Indragiri, which consists of a long, triangular shaped wedge of land between the government of Sumatra East Coast and Jambi residency, and is mainly the valley of the river Kuantan and its tributaries, the people are Malays; the people of the islands are Malays, Buginese and Chinese, with a few aboriginals, probably not more than i,000, known as Benua. The chief products of the islands are gambir, rubber and pepper, al though rice is grown very largely for food purposes, and trade in these, in fact the agriculture, shipping and finance of the islands, is very largely in Chinese hands, the Malays and Buginese selling their produce to the Chinese, who are cultivators, as well as traders. The capital of the residency is Tandjung Pinang, oppo site Singapore, also known as Riouw, or Bintang, pop. (1927) and the only free port in the archipelago. (E. E. L.)