nd 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