t appears to have
originally belonged, they are distributed under the sovereignty of
different rajahs, to whom they pay implicit obedience; and are, in fact,
little better than mere slaves. On all parts of the coast good wholesome
water may be procured, excepting at Sesally on the north coast where it
is said to be of a noxious quality, occasioned by a tree or plant that
grows on its tanks, and taints the stream. Whatever suspicion there may
be attached to the truth of this story, there is no doubt of its being
far from wholesome; for it is avoided as poisonous by the people who
reside near it. I was curious to discover whether it was occasioned by
its flowing near one of the far-famed Poison trees (Upas antiar) of Java,
but my informant could not satisfy my inquiry.
The island is very mountainous, and some of its summits, as Captain
Flinders observes, may probably rival the Peak of Teneriffe. The country
slopes off towards the sea, and appears to be fertile and populous. The
recesses of the mountains and the rivulets that derive their sources from
them are said to be rich in gold and silver, and they are also reported
to yield copper and iron; it is, however, with great difficulty that gold
is procured, on account of a superstitious feeling on the part of the
mountaineers, who think it necessary to sacrifice a human life for every
bottle of gold dust that is collected; and this barbarous custom, we were
informed, is rigidly enforced by the chiefs, who, of course, take good
care that the lot does not fall upon their own heads. Gold is however
sometimes found in the bed of the river near Coepang, particularly after
occasional freshes from the mountains, and during the rainy season; but
it is detected in so small a quantity as hardly to repay the searchers
for their trouble.
Some years since, during the early possession of this part of the island
by the Dutch, sixty soldiers were sent into the country to search for
gold, but they were all killed by the mountaineers and since then no
further attempt has been made; indeed it would take a very considerable
force to effect it, on account of the warlike character of these people.
Their defensive mode of warfare is to distribute themselves in all
directions among the trees and rocks, from which, by their numbers and
unerring aim, they might easily destroy a much larger force than the
Dutch could afford to send against them from any of their possessions in
the east. The polic
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