In 1888 the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij (KPM, Royal Packet Navigation Company) was founded, with a steam shipping line soon operating regular services. This greatly facilitated inter-island travel in the archipelago. Passengers could travel between the islands with relative ease and in comfort, this KPM promotional leaflet claims. The early Reisgids voor Nederlandsch-Indië (Travel Guide to the Dutch East Indies) from 1896 – compiled by J.F. van Bemmelen and G.B. Hooyer – states that KPM’s ‘comfortably appointed passenger boats’ had now made the colony ‘truly accessible’ as far as Celebes, Borneo and the Moluccas.
Leaflet Dutch East Indies. Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, 1933 [Br N 95-446] [Detail of the Front - Front - Back]