(Footnote.  The following is an account of the dimensions of a remarkable banyan or burr tree, near Manjee, twenty miles west of Patna in Bengal.  Diameter 363 to 375 feet.  Circumference of shadow at noon 1116 feet.  Circumference of the several stems, in number fifty or sixty, 921 feet.  Under this tree sat a naked Fakir, who had occupied that situation for twenty-five years; but he did not continue there the whole year through, for his vow obliged him to lie, during the four cold months, up to his neck in the waters of the river Ganges.)

(PLATE 18.  ENTRANCE OF PADANG RIVER.  With Buffaloes.)

(PLATE 18A.  VIEW OF PADANG HILL.  Published by W. Marsden, 1810.)

CHAPTER 8.

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.