Kroeng Seumpoe — spelled also Kroeng Scumpoe — was a place on the Gajoe-weg (Gayo road) between Bireuën and Takengon, where travellers lodged in the house of the opzichter (overseer) of the B.O.W. When Moens in November 1913 travelled the Gajoe-weg from Bireuën, Takengon bereiken in één dag kon geen sprake zijn (to reach Takengon in a single day was out of the question), and so he stopped at Kroeng Seumpoe.
Moens’s stay, November 1913
At Kroeng Seumpoe Moens was the guest of the B.O.W. overseer, who told him that he moved about alone along the whole road as far as Takengon without ever carrying any weapon — over practically the whole length of the Gajoe-weg, built through formerly hostile country, one could thus travel unarmed; military men were not posted at Kroeng Seumpoe at all. Two government mining engineers, geologists, were at work there — part of the small staff charged with the geological investigation of Atjeh, whose only real hope rested, in Moens’s judgement, on petroleum-bearing strata. On the way back to Bireuën Moens saw a soldier being taken by his household in a dogcart — men relieved from Takengon, he was informed upon inquiry, marched the whole road in a few days to Bireuën very much alone when there was no ox-cart transport. The stay at Kroeng Seumpoe supplied Moens with one of his principal arguments for the veiligheid (safety) that had been attained in Atjeh.
See Also
- Gajo-weg
- Construction of the Gajoweg
- Bireuën
- Takengon
- Departement der Burgerlijke Openbare Werken
- Moens’ journey through Atjeh (November 1913)
- 1913
Source
Reisindrukken van Atjeh, door W. Moens, oud-luitenant ter zee (Amsterdam: Jacob van Campen, 1914), pp. 21–22. OCR-filename: 20260716_140310_DLP-99-Reisindrukken_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.