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.