GOLD, TIN, AND OTHER METALS.
BEESWAX.
IVORY.
BIRDS-NEST, ETC.
IMPORT-TRADE.
GOLD.
Beside those articles of trade afforded by the vegetable kingdom Sumatra
produces many others, the chief of which is gold. This valuable metal is
found mostly in the central parts of the island; none (or with few
exceptions) being observed to the southward of Limun, a branch of Jambi
River, nor to the northward of Nalabu, from which port Achin is
principally supplied. Menangkabau has always been esteemed the richest
seat of it; and this consideration probably induced the Dutch to
establish their head factory at Padang, in the immediate neighbourhood of
that kingdom. Colonies of Malays from thence have settled themselves in
almost all the districts where gold is procured, and appear to be the
only persons who dig for it in mines, or collect it in streams; the
proper inhabitants or villagers confining their attention to the raising
of provisions, with which they supply those who search for the metal.
Such at least appears to be the case in Limun, Batang Asei, and Pakalang
jambu, where a considerable gold trade is carried on.
It has been generally understood at the English settlements that earth
taken up from the beds of rivers, or loosened from the adjacent banks,
and washed by means of rivulets diverted towards the newly-opened ground,
furnishes the greater proportion of the gold found in the island, and
that the natives are not accustomed to venture upon any excavation that
deserves the name of mining; but our possession, during the present war,
of the settlements that belonged to the Dutch, has enabled us to form
juster notions on the subject, and the following account, obtained from
well-informed persons on the spot, will show the methods pursued in both
processes, and the degree of enterprise and skill employed by the
workmen.
In the districts situated inland of Padang, which is the principal mart
for this article, little is collected otherwise than from mines (tambang)
by people whose profession it is to work them, and who are known by the
appellation of orang gulla. The metal brought down for sale is for the
most part of two sorts, distinguished by the terms amas supayang and amas
sungei-abu, from the names of places where they are respectively
procured. The former is what we usually call rock-gold, consisting of
pieces of quartz more or less intermixed with veins of gold, generally of
fine quality, running through it in all directions, and forming beautiful
masses, which, being admired by Europeans, are sometimes sold by weight
as if the whole were solid metal. The mines yielding this sort are
commonly situated at the foot of a mountain, and the shafts are driven
horizontally to the extent of from eight to twenty fathoms. The gold to
which sungei-abu gives name is on the contrary found in the state of
smooth solid lumps, in shape like gravel, and of various sizes, the
largest lump that I have seen weighing nine ounces fifteen grains, and
one in my possession (for which I am indebted to Mr. Charles Holloway)
weighing eight grains less than nine ounces. This sort is also termed
amas lichin or smooth gold, and appears to owe that quality to its having
been exposed, in some prior state of the soil or conformation of the
earth, to the action of running water, and deprived of its sharp and
rough edges by attrition. This form of gravel is the most common in which
gold is discovered. Gold-dust or amas urei is collected either in the
channels of brooks running over ground rich in the metal, in standing
pools of water occasioned by heavy rains, or in a number of holes dug in
a situation to which a small rapid stream can be directed.
The tools employed in working the mines are an iron crow three feet in
length, called tabah, a shovel called changkul, and a heavy iron mallet
or hammer, the head of which is eighteen inches in length and as thick as
a man's leg, with a handle in the middle. With this they beat the lumps
of rock till they are reduced to powder, and the pounded mass is then put
into a sledge or tray five or six feet long and one and a half broad, in
the form of a boat, and thence named bidu. To this vessel a rope of iju
is attached, by which they draw it when loaded out of the horizontal mine
to the nearest place where they can meet with a supply of water, which
alone is employed to separate the gold from the pulverized quartz.
In the perpendicular mines the smooth or gravel-gold is often found near
the surface, but in small quantities, improving as the workmen advance,
and again often vanishing suddenly. This they say is most likely to be
the case when after pursuing a poor vein they suddenly come to large
lumps. When they have dug to the depth of four, six, or sometimes eight
fathoms (which they do at a venture, the surface not affording any
indications on which they can depend), they work horizontally, supporting
the shaft with timbers; but to persons acquainted with the berg-werken of
Germany or Hungary, these pits would hardly appear to merit the
appellation of mines.* In Siberia however, as in Sumatra, the hills yield
their gold by slightly working them. Sand is commonly met with at the
depth of three or four fathoms, and beneath this a stratum of napal or
steatite, which is considered as a sign that the metal is near; but the
least fallible mark is a red stone, called batu kawi, lying in detached
pieces. It is mostly found in red and white clay, and often adhering to
small stones, as well as in homogeneous lumps. The gold is separated from
the clay by means of water poured on a hollow board, in the management of
which the persons employed are remarkably expert.
(*Footnote. It has been observed to me that it is not so much the want of
windlasses or machines (substitutes for which they are ready enough at
contriving) that prevents excavation to a great depth as the apprehension
of earthquakes, the effect of which has frequently been to overwhelm them
before they could escape even from their shallow mines.)
In these perpendicular mines the water is drawn off by hand in pails or
buckets. In the horizontal they make two shafts or entries in a direction
parallel to each other, as far as they mean to extend the work, and there
connect them by a cross trench. One of these, by a difference in their
respective levels, serves as a drain to carry off the water, whilst the
other is kept dry. They work in parties of from four or five to forty or
fifty in number; the proprietor of the ground receiving one half of the
produce and the undertakers the other; and it does not appear that the
prince receives any established royalty. The hill people affect a kind of
independence or equality which they express by the term of sama rata.
It may well be imagined that mines of this description are very numerous,
and in the common estimation of the natives they amount to no fewer than
twelve hundred in the dominions of Menangkabau. A considerable proportion
of their produce (perhaps one half) never comes into the hands of
Europeans but is conveyed to the eastern side of the island, and yet I
have been assured on good authority that from ten to twelve thousand
ounces have annually been received, on public and private account, at
Padang alone; at Nalabu about two thousand, Natal eight hundred, and
Moco-moco six hundred. The quality of the gold collected in the Padang
districts is inferior to that purchased at Natal and Moco-moco, in
consequence of the practice of blending together the unequal produce of
such a variety of mines which in other parts it is customary to keep
distinct. The gold from the former is of the fineness of from nineteen to
twenty-one, and from the latter places is generally of from twenty-two to
twenty-three carats. The finest that has passed through my hands was
twenty-three carats, one grain and a half, assayed at the Tower of
London. Gold of an inferior touch, called amas muda from the paleness of
its colour, is found in the same countries where the other is produced. I
had some assayed which was two carats three grains worse than standard,
and contained an alloy of silver, but not in a proportion to be affected
by the acids. I have seen gold brought from Mampawah in Borneo which was
in the state of a fine uniform powder, high-coloured, and its degree of
fineness not exceeding fifteen or sixteen carats. The natives suppose
these differences to proceed from an original essential inferiority of
the metal, not possessing the art of separating it from the silver or
copper. In this island it is never found in the state of ore, but is
always completely metallic. A very little pale gold is now and then found
in the Lampong country.
Of those who dig for it the most intelligent, distinguished by the name
of sudagar or merchants, are intrusted by the rest with their
collections, who carry the gold to the places of trade on the great
eastern rivers, or to the settlements on the west coast, where they
barter it for iron (of which large quantities are consumed in tools for
working the mines), opium, and the fine piece-goods of Madras and Bengal
with which they return heavily loaded to their country. In some parts of
the journey they have the convenience of water-carriage on lakes and
rivers; but in others they carry on their backs a weight of about eighty
pounds through woods, over streams, and across mountains, in parties
generally of one hundred or more, who have frequent occasion to defend
their property against the spirit of plunder and extortion which prevails
among the poorer nations through whose districts they are obliged to
pass. Upon the proposal of striking out any new road the question always
asked by these intermediate people is, apa ontong kami, what is to be our
advantage?
PRICE.
When brought to our settlements it was formerly purchased at the rate of
eighteen Spanish dollars the tail, or about three pounds five shillings
the ounce, but in later times it has risen to twenty-one dollars, or to
three pounds eighteen shillings the ounce. Upon exportation to Europe
therefore it scarcely affords a profit to the original buyer, and others
who employ it as a remittance incur a loss when insurance and other
incidental charges are deducted. A duty of five per cent which it had
been customary to charge at the East India-house was, about twenty years
ago, most liberally remitted by the Company upon a representation made by
me to the Directors of the hardship sustained in this respect by its
servants at Fort Marlborough, and the public benefit that would accrue
from giving encouragement to the importation of bullion. The long
continuance of war and peculiar risk of Indian navigation resulting from
it may probably have operated to counteract these good effects.
It has generally been thought surprising that the European Companies who
have so long had establishments in Sumatra should not have considered it
an object to work these mines upon a regular system, with proper
machinery, and under competent inspection; but the attempt has in fact
been made, and experience and calculation may have taught them that it is
not a scheme likely to be attended with success, owing among other causes
to the dearness of labour, and the necessity it would occasion for
keeping up a force in distant parts of the country for the protection of
the persons engaged and the property collected. Europeans cannot be
employed upon such work in that climate, and the natives are unfit for
(nor would they submit to) the laborious exertion required to render the
undertaking profitable. A detailed and in many respects interesting
account of the working a gold mine at Sileda, with a plate representing a
section of the mine, is given by Elias Hesse,* who in the year 1682
accompanied the Bergh-Hoofdman, Benj. Olitzsch, and a party of miners
from Saxony, sent out by the Dutch East India Company for that purpose.
The superintendent, with most of his people, lost their lives, and the
undertaking failed. It is said at Padang that the metal proved to be
uncommonly poor. Many years later trial was made of a vein running close
to that settlement; but the returns not being adequate to the expense it
was let to farm, and in a few years fell into such low repute as to be at
length disposed of by public auction at a rent of two Spanish dollars.**
The English company, also having intelligence of a mine said to be
discovered near Fort Marlborough, gave orders for its being worked; but
if it ever existed no trace now remains.
(*Footnote. Ost-Indische Reise-beschreibung oder Diarium. Leipzig 1690
octavo. See also J.W. Vogel's Ost-Indianische Reise-beschreibung.
Altenburg 1704 octavo.)
(**Footnote. The following is an extract of a letter from Mr. James
Moore, a servant of the Company, dated from Padang in 1778. "They have
lately opened a vein of gold in the country inland of this place, from
which the governor at one time received a hundred and fifty tials (two
hundred ounces). He has procured a map to be made of a particular part of
the gold country, which points out the different places where they work
for it; and also the situation of twenty-one Malay forts, all inhabited
and in repair. These districts are extremely populous compared to the
more southern part of the island. They collect and export annually to
Batavia about two thousand five hundred tials of gold from this place:
the quantity never exceeds three thousand tials nor falls short of two
thousand." This refers to the public export on the Company's account,
which agrees with what is stated in the Batavian Transactions. "In een
goed Jaar geeven de Tigablas cottas omtrent 3000 Thail, zynde 6 Thail een
Mark, dus omtrent 500 Mark Goud, van 't gchalte van 19 tot 20 carat.")
Before the gold dust is weighed for sale, in order to cleanse it from all
impurities and heterogeneous mixtures, whether natural or fraudulent,
(such as filings of copper or of iron) a skilful person is employed who,
by the sharpness of his eye and long practice, is able to effect this to
a surprising degree of nicety. The dust is spread out on a kind of wooden
platter, and the base particles (lanchong) are touched out from the mass
and put aside one by one with an instrument, if such it may be termed,
made of cotton cloth rolled up to a point. If the honesty of these
goldcleaners can be depended upon their dexterity is almost infallible;
and as some check upon the former it is usual to pour the contents of
each parcel when thus cleansed into a vessel of aqua-fortis, which puts
their accuracy to the test. The parcels or bulses in which the gold is
packed up are formed of the integument that covers the heart of the
buffalo. This has the appearance of bladder, but is both tougher and more
pliable. In those parts of the country where the traffic in the article
is considerable it is generally employed as currency instead of coin;
every man carries small scales about him, and purchases are made with it
so low as to the weight of a grain or two of padi. Various seeds are used
as gold weights, but more especially these two: the one called rakat or
saga-timbangan (Glycine abrus L. or Abrus maculatus of the Batavian
Transactions) being the well-known scarlet pea with a black spot,
twenty-four of which constitute a mas, and sixteen mas a tail: the other
called sagapuhn and kondori batang (Adenanthera pavonia, L.), a scarlet
or rather coral bean, much larger than the former and without the black
spot. It is the candarin-weight of the Chinese, of which a hundred make a
tail, and equal, according to the tables published by Stevens, to 5.7984
gr. troy; but the average weight of those in my possession is 10.50
grains. The tail differs however in the northern and southern parts of
the island, being at Natal twenty-four pennyweights nine grains, and at
Padang, Bencoolen, and elsewhere, twenty-six pennyweights twelve grains.
At Achin the bangkal of thirty pennyweights twenty-one grains, is the
standard. Spanish dollars are everywhere current, and accounts are kept
in dollars, sukus (imaginary quarter-dollars) and kepping or copper cash,
of which four hundred go to the dollar. Beside these there are silver
fanams, single, double, and treble (the latter called tali) coined at
Madras, twenty-four fanams or eight talis being equal to the Spanish
dollar, which is always valued in the English settlements at five
shillings sterling. Silver rupees have occasionally been struck in Bengal
for the use of the settlements on the coast of Sumatra, but not in
sufficient quantities to become a general currency; and in the year 1786
the Company contracted with the late Mr. Boulton of Soho for a copper
coinage, the proportions of which I was desired to adjust, as well as to
furnish the inscriptions; and the same system, with many improvements
suggested by Mr. Charles Wilkins, has since been extended to the three
Presidencies of India. At Achin small thin gold and silver coins were
formerly struck and still are current; but I have not seen any of the
pieces that bore the appearance of modern coinage; nor am I aware that
this right of sovereignty is exercised by any other power in the island.
TIN.
Tin, called timar, is a very considerable article of trade, and many
cargoes of it are yearly carried to China, where the consumption is
chiefly for religious purposes. The mines are situated in the island of
Bangka, lying near Palembang, and are said to have been accidentally
discovered there in 1710, by the burning of a house. They are worked by a
colony of Chinese (said in the Batavian Transactions to consist of
twenty-five thousand persons) under the nominal direction of the king of
Palembang, but for the account and benefit of the Dutch Company, which
has endeavoured to monopolize the trade, and actually obtained two
millions of pounds yearly; but the enterprising spirit of private
merchants, chiefly English and American, finds means to elude the
vigilance of its cruisers, and the commerce is largely participated by
them. It is exported for the most part in small pieces or cakes called
tampang, and sometimes in slabs. M. Sonnerat reports that this tin (named
calin by the French writers), was analysed by M. Daubenton, who found it
to be the same metal as that produced in England; but it sells something
higher than our grain-tin. In different parts of Sumatra, there are
indications of tin-earth, or rather sand, and it is worked at the
mountain of Sungei-pagu, but not to any great extent. Of this sand, at
Bangka, a pikul, or 133 pounds is said to yield about 75 pounds of the
metal.
COPPER.
A rich mine of copper is worked at Mukki near Labuan-haji, by the
Achinese. The ore produces half its original weight in pure metal, and is
sold at the rate of twenty dollars the pikul. A lump which I deposited in
the Museum of the East India Company is pronounced to be native copper.
The Malays are fond of mixing this metal with gold in equal quantities,
and using the composition, which they name swasa, in the manufacture of
buttons, betel-boxes, and heads of krises. I have never heard silver
spoken of as a production of this part of the East.
IRON.
Iron ore is dug at a place named Turawang, in the eastern part of
Menangkabau, and there smelted, but not, I apprehend, in large
quantities, the consumption of the natives being amply supplied with
English and Swedish bar-iron, which they are in the practice of
purchasing by measure instead of weight.
SULPHUR.
Sulphur (balerang), as has been mentioned, is abundantly procured from
the numerous volcanoes, and especially from that very great one which is
situated about a day's journey inland from Priaman. Yellow Arsenic
(barangan) is also an article of traffic.
SALTPETRE.
In the country of Kattaun, near the head of Urei River, there are
extensive caves (goha) from the soil of which saltpetre (mesiyu mantah)
is extracted. M. Whalfeldt, who was employed as a surveyor, visited them
in March 1773. Into one he advanced seven hundred and fortythree feet,
when his lights were extinguished by the damp vapour. Into a second he
penetrated six hundred feet, when, after getting through a confined
passage about three feet wide and five in height, an opening in the rock
led to a spacious place forty feet high. The same caves were visited by
Mr. Christopher Terry and Mr. Charles Miller. They are the habitation of
innumerable birds, which are perceived to abound the more the farther you
proceed. Their nests are formed about the upper parts of the cave, and it
is thought to be their dung simply that forms the soil (in many places
from four to six feet deep, and from fifteen to twenty broad) which
affords the nitre. A cubic foot of this earth, measuring seven gallons,
produced on boiling seven pounds fourteen ounces of saltpetre, and a
second experiment gave a ninth part more. This I afterwards saw refined
to a high degree of purity; but I conceive that its value would not repay
the expense of the process.
BIRDS-NEST.
The edible birds-nest, so much celebrated as a peculiar luxury of the
table, especially amongst the Chinese, is found in similar caves in
different parts of the island, but chiefly near the sea-coast, and in the
greatest abundance at its southern extremity. Four miles up the river
Kroi there is one of considerable size. The birds are called
layang-layang, and resemble the common swallow, or perhaps rather the
martin. I had an opportunity of giving to the British Museum some of
these nests with the eggs in them. They are distinguished into white and
black, of which the first are by far the more scarce and valuable, being
found in the proportion of one only to twenty-five. The white sort sells
in China at the rate of a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars the pikul
(according to the Batavian Transactions for nearly its weight in silver),
the black is usually disposed of at Batavia at about twenty or thirty
dollars for the same weight, where I understand it is chiefly converted
into a kind of glue. The difference between the two sorts has by some
been supposed to be owing to the mixture of the feathers of the birds
with the viscous substance of which the nests are formed; and this they
deduce from the experiment of steeping the black nests for a short time
in hot water, when they are said to become white to a certain degree.
Among the natives I have heard a few assert that they are the work of a
different species of bird. It was also suggested to me that the white
might probably be the recent nests of the season in which they were
taken, and the black such as had been used for several years
successively. This opinion appearing plausible, I was particular in my
inquiries as to that point, and learned what seems much to corroborate
it. When the natives prepare to take the nests they enter the cave with
torches, and, forming ladders of bamboos notched according to the usual
mode, they ascend and pull down the nests, which adhere in numbers
together, from the sides and top of the rock. I was informed that the
more regularly the cave is thus stripped the greater proportion of white
nests they are sure to find, and that on this experience they often make
a practice of beating down and destroying the old nests in larger
quantities than they trouble themselves to carry away, in order that they
may find white nests the next season in their room. The birds, I am
assured, are seen, during the building time, in large flocks upon the
beach, collecting in their beaks the foam thrown up by the surf, of which
there appears little doubt of their constructing their gelatinous nests,
after it has undergone, perhaps, some preparation from commixture with
their saliva or other secretion in the beak or the craw; and that this is
the received opinion of the natives appears from the bird being very
commonly named layang-buhi, the foam-swallow. Linnaeus however has
conjectured, and with much plausibility, that it is the animal substance
frequently found on the beach which fishermen call blubber or jellies,
and not the foam of the sea, that these birds collect; and it is proper
to mention that, in a Description of these Nests by M. Hooyman, printed
in Volume 3 of the Batavian Transactions, he is decidedly of opinion that
the substance of them has nothing to do with the sea-foam but is
elaborated from the food of the bird. Mr. John Crisp informed me that he
had seen at Padang a common swallow's nest, built under the eaves of a
house, which was composed partly of common mud and partly of the
substance that constitutes the edible nests. The young birds themselves
are said to be very delicate food, and not inferior in richness of
flavour to the beccafico.
TRIPAN.
The swala, tripan, or sea-slug (holothurion), is likewise an article of
trade to Batavia and China, being employed, as birds-nest or vermicelli,
for enriching soups and stews, by a luxurious people. It sells at the
former place for forty-five dollars per pikul, according to the degree of
whiteness and other qualities.
WAX.
Beeswax is a commodity of great importance in all the eastern islands,
from whence it is exported in large oblong cakes to China, Bengal, and
other parts of the continent. No pains are taken with the bees, which are
left to settle where they list (generally on the boughs of trees) and are
never collected in hives. Their honey is much inferior to that of Europe,
as might be expected from the nature of the vegetation.
GUM-LAC.
Gum-lac, called by the natives ampalu or ambalu, although found upon
trees and adhering strongly to the branches, is known to be the work of
insects, as wax is of the bee. It is procured in small quantities from
the country inland of Bencoolen; but at Padang is a considerable article
of trade. Foreign markets however are supplied from the countries of Siam
and Camboja. It is chiefly valued in Sumatra for the animal part, found
in the nidus of the insect, which is soluble in water, and yields a very
fine purple dye, used for colouring their silks and other webs of
domestic manufacture. Like the cochineal it would probably, with the
addition of a solution of tin, become a good scarlet. I find in a Bisayan
dictionary that this substance is employed by the people of the
Philippine Islands for staining their teeth red. For an account of the
lac insect see in the Philosophical Transactions Volume 71 page 374 a
paper by Mr. James Kerr.
IVORY.
The forests abounding with elephants, ivory (gading) is consequently
found in abundance, and is carried both to the China and Europe markets.
The animals themselves were formerly the objects of a considerable
traffic from Achin to the coast of Coromandel, or kling country, and
vessels were built expressly for their transport; but it has declined, or
perhaps ceased altogether, from the change which the system of warfare
has undergone, since the European tactics have been imitated by the
princes of India.
FISH-ROES.
The large roes of a species of fish (said to be like the shad, but more
probably of the mullet-kind) taken in great quantities at the mouth of
Siak River, are salted and exported from thence to all the Malayan
countries, where they are eaten with boiled rice, and esteemed a
delicacy. This is the botarga of the Italians, and here called trobo and
telur-trobo.
IMPORT-TRADE.
The most general articles of import-trade are the following:
From the coast of Coromandel various cotton goods, as long-cloth, blue
and white, chintz, and coloured handkerchiefs, of which those
manufactured at Pulicat are the most prized; and salt.
From Bengal muslins, striped and plain, and several other kinds of cotton
goods, as cossaes, baftaes, hummums, etc., taffetas and some other silks;
and opium in considerable quantities.
From the Malabar coast various cotton goods, mostly of a coarse raw
fabric.
From China coarse porcelain, kwalis or iron pans, in sets of various
sizes, tobacco shred very fine, gold thread, fans, and a number of small
articles.
From Celebes (known here by the names of its chief provinces, Mangkasar,
Bugis, and Mandar), Java, Balli, Ceram, and other eastern islands, the
rough, striped cotton cloth called kain-sarong, or vulgarly
bugis-clouting, being the universal body-dress of the natives; krises and
other weapons, silken kris-belts, tudongs or hats, small pieces of
ordnance, commonly of brass, called rantaka, spices, and also salt of a
large grain, and sometimes rice, chiefly from Balli.
From Europe silver, iron, steel, lead, cutlery, various sorts of
hardware, brass wire, and broadcloths, especially scarlet.
It is not within my plan to enlarge on this subject by entering into a
detail of the markets for, or prices of, the several articles, which are
extremely fluctuating, according to the more or less abundant or scanty
supply. Most of the kinds of goods above enumerated are incidentally
mentioned in other parts of the work, as they happen to be connected with
the account of the natives who purchase them.