Sumatra is called one of the outposts of the Dutch East Indies. Its government appears to be in a somewhat transitory state, hut is patterned after that of Java. The Dutch control in the in terior is as yet but nominal. The various por tions are known as the West Coast, the East Coast, Benkulen, Lampongs, Palembang, and Aehin, the first containing one-half the people of the island. Sumatra has a Governor (under the Governor-General of the East Indies), a President, Comptroller, etc. The S administrative districts are called residences. The Residency of Ithio in eludes several hundred islands off the east coast. A Government railway extends from Padang to the great coal mines in the adjacent interior. There is a railway from _Medan to the coast, and one will operate from _whin along the northern coast. in 1900 Sumatra had 200 miles of rail way. There are many good roads in various coast districts, and there is now a fair roadway from Palembang to Benkulen. Padang,, Dili, Benkulen, and Palembang are the leading towns.
The population of Sumatra exceeds 3,000,000. The Europeans number about 6000, and the Chinese about 100,000. The natives of matra, exclusive of the intruding Hindus, Arabs, Tamils, Indo-Chinese, and Chinese, belong to the Malayan stock, linguistically and physi cally. although some authorities group as 'In donesians' such peoples as the Battaks and a few others. Among the most important and most interesting tribes are the Aehinese of the ex treme northwest, noted for their long struggle against the Dutch, the Battaks of the northern interior and northwest coast, and their neighbors in the Nias and Batu Islands, the Kobus, a very primitive people of the forests and marshy re gions of Palembang, the so-called Alenangkabau _Malays of the middle of the island and other parts cast and west, the Palembangs, Redjargs, Pa ssinnalls, Lam pangs, and other tribes to the south, and the Abougs. The Malayan people of Sumatra exhibit many varieties of culture, from that of the forest-dwelling Kuhns and other tribes of a primitive sort to those who under Hindu, and centuries later under .Mo hammedan influences, reached a considerable de gree of culture, with religious and commercial as well as political development and expansion. The first intrusions of Hindu life and culture into Sumatra began some time before the Chris tian Era. Traces of Hinduism are evident in
architecture, religion, and language. It was in all probability from Java that Buddhism in the sixth century made its way into Sumatra. where, however, it never obtained general vogue. The Battaks, some of whose divinities bear corrupted Indian names, possess an alphabet of Hindu origin. Hindu influences were probably at their height in the eighth century. From the thir teenth to the fifteenth century Mohammedan in fluences prevailed and many of the tribes were converted to Islam, and a number of sultanates were established. The Mohammedan influence upon politics, religion, and language was great. Since then the various European conquerors and intruders (Portuguese. English, Dutch) have made themselves felt, but chiefly in the coast regions. A considerable portion of the interior is still only nominally subject to the rule of the Dutch. On the whole the native population of Sumatra. as is also the case in Java, is on the increase. :Mohammedanism is generally pro fessed in the coast districts and also to a great extent in the interior.
Marco Polo visited Sumatra in 1292, and the first Portuguese in 1508. In the seventeenth century the Dutch obtained a firm foothold, bay ing forced out the Portuguese. From 1812 to 1819 the English held the island. ]n 1825 Ben kulen, where the English had been established for nearly a century and a half, was transferred to the Dutch. The conquest of the natives has been in progress since the discovery of the island, and has not yet been entirely completed. The Sultan of Achim, in the northwest, with whom a war has been going on since 1873, has especial ly proved troublesome.
Consult: Verbeek, Topographische cn geolog isehe beschrijring ran een talleeltc van Sumatras (The Hague, 1886) ; Forbes, A Natural ist's Wandcrings in the Eastern Archipelago (London. 1887) : Carthans, Ans dent Reich von Insulindc. Nainatra und der Malaiisehe Archipel (Leipzig, 1891) ; Keane. Eastern geography (London, 1887) ; Brenner, Resuch bri den Kan aibulen S tom, tras Wiirzburg, 189.1); Miguel, Flora Numatrana (London, rn. d.) ; \Verner, "Reptilien Batrachier aus Sumatra," in Zoo /oyischcs Jahrbitch, vol. xiii. (Jena, 1900) ; Breit enstein, ,`gum(tira (Leipzig. 1902) ; Giesenhagen, .1 uf Java and Sumatra (ib., 1902).