een 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