In the west coast lands European influence, fertile soil, comparatively good roads, agriculture, timber, and coalfields have created populous settlements on the coast at Padang (the capital of the west coast, with 35,158 inhabitants in 1897, of whom 1640 were Europeans), Priaman, Natal, Ayer Bangis, Siboga, Singkel, and also on the plateaus at Fort de Kock, Payokombo, &c. In the east coast lands it is only at the mouths of rivers - Palembang at the mouth of the Musi, with 53,000 inhabitants, and Medan in Deli, the residence of the highest civil and military officials of the east coast, in which a fine government house has been erected - that considerable centres of population are to be found.
Belawan is the harbour to Deli, but the capital is Medan, where the sultan and the Dutch resident reside.
Belawan is connected with Medan by a railway, constructed before 1890 by a private company, almost entirely dependent for its earnings upon the numerous tobacco plantations, several of which belong to British corporations.
The enlightened mind of Warren Hastings did indeed anticipate his age by founding the Calcutta madrasa for Mahom medan teaching, and by affording steady patronage alike to Hindu pundits and European students.