AND HOW IT IS WORKED. 23 



rains. It is sought for by numberless Malays during 

 the dry season, when the water of the river is low. 

 They are much exposed to agues, from their manner 

 of standing up to their waists in water during the 

 time they are washing it ; which is for the convenience 

 of having the strength of the stream to carry off the 

 gravel and sand, the gold, by its greater weight, fall- 

 ing to the bottom of the flattish implement before 

 described. This is usually a profitable employment, 

 and suits the indolent Malays much better than the 

 method followed by the Chinese. 



The following account of the state of productive- 

 ness of the gold mines of Borneo is extracted from 

 the work of Sir Stamford Raffles, who, from his high 

 official position, had the best means of arriving at an 

 accurate computation : 



'' GOLD. From a calculation recently made, it appears that 

 the number of Chinese employed in the gold mines at Mentrada 

 and other places on the western side of Borneo, amounts to not 

 less than 32,000 working men. When a mine affords no more 

 than four bengkals (weighing about two dollars each, or some- 

 thing less than a tahil) per man in the year, it is reckoned 

 a losing concern, and abandoned accordingly. Valuing the 

 bengkal at eighteen Spanish dollars, which is a low rate of 

 estimation, and supposing only four bengkals produced in the year 

 by the labour of each man, the total produce is 128,000 bengkals, 

 worth 2,224,000 Spanish dollars, equal to 556,0001., at the rate 

 of five shillings the dollar. But it is asserted, that upon the 

 general run of the mines, seldom less than six bengkals per head 

 has been obtained, and in very rainy seasons seven. Taking the 

 medium at six-and-a-half bengkals, the 32,000 Chinese will pro- 

 cure 208,000 bengkals, which, at eighteen Spanish dollars the 

 bengkal, is 3,744,000 Spanish dollars, equal to 936.000Z. Such 





