The Dutch mid-Sumatra expedition
This brief note by M.A.L. van Hasselt, published in JSBRAS Vol. 16 (1885), records the death of fellow-explorer D.D. Veth and includes an editor’s correction on Malay botanical terminology related to the tuba plant.
Summary
The text comprises two elements. First, an editor’s note (p. 415) corrects a terminological error in a letter by Scortecchini, clarifying that “akar tuba” (tuba root) is the correct Malay term for the portion of the plant used to stupefy fish, and that “ikan tuba” would refer to a kind of fish rather than the plant itself. Second, the main passage (p. 416) is a memorial to D.D. Veth, a Civil Engineer and companion on the Dutch mid-Sumatra expedition, who died on 19 May 1885 near the Kalahanla River on the south-west coast of Africa. Veth had undertaken a separate expedition to the Cunene River, arriving at Mossamedes on 7 December 1884 with companions P.J. van der Kellen and L.J. Goddefroi, but succumbed to the climate before completing his work.