124 Notice of the Diamond and Gold Mines in the 



themselves of those which have been sunk, and of the mines aban- 

 doned by the Daya or Malayu. A tank is formed, or a small 

 stream dammed up ; and a channel being cut in the direction of 

 the vein, the sluices are opened, and the superior strata are en- 

 tirely cleared away by the velocity of the stream, and the Areng 

 being discovered, the sluice is shut. The Areng having been 

 dug out, is washed by exposure to the repeated action of water 

 conducted along wooden troughsiixed in an inclined plane, and 

 not cleaned in .the dulang, until the stony particles are nearly 

 freed from extraneous matter. 



The largest diamond known with certainty to have been 

 found in these mines weighed thirty-six carats. It was long 

 supposed that the Sultan of Matan possessed one weighing three 

 hundred and sixty-seven, which it was said he was afraid to cut 

 lest it should prove flawed; but gentlemen to whom it has 

 been lately shown consider it not to be a true stone. 



Formerly, if the labours of the miners were rewarded by 

 success, which is very uncertain, stones under four carats were 

 their property ; all of that size and upwards were claimed by 

 the Panambachan, then a tributary of Bantam, from the Sul- 

 tan of which state the former Dutch company purchased this 

 monopoly or royalty, for fifty thousand dollars. At present, 

 by treaty with the Panambachan, all the stones must be deli- 

 delivered to government at twenty per cent, below the market 

 price, which is accertained by appraisement on the spot, the 

 necessary advances being of course first made to the miners by 

 government. The small stones are sold at Pontianak, and the 

 large ones, for which there are no purchasers there, are dis- 

 posed of at Batavia, and the profits equally divided between 

 government and Panambachan. There is every reason to be- 

 lieve that in the first year and a half succeeding this arrange- 

 ment, which was made in the middle of 1823, these amounted 

 to about nineteen thousand guldens, three hundred and ninety 

 carats having been delivered to the agents of government in 

 the latter part of 1823, and nineteen hundred in 1824, the cost 

 of which must have been thirty-three thousand guldens, and 

 the proceeds fifty-two thousand. The existing regulations are 

 no doubt as often evaded as that mentioned above must have 

 been ; and if such be the case, two thousand two hundred and 



