BY SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES. 25 



and Pinang, for the purchase of opium, and piece goods. The 

 surplus enriches Java and some of the other islands, in exchange 

 for salt, tobacco, coarse cloths, &c. 



" As the mines are worked with so little expense of machinery, 

 the funds necessary for commencing an undertaking of the kind 

 are small ; and as the property of the soil belongs to the first 

 occupant, almost every Chinese would become a proprietor, but 

 Jbr the mode by which their services are, in the first instance, 

 secured by the council of proprietors, or kongsis. A parcel of 

 half-starved Chinese, enchanted with the prospect of wealth on 

 the golden shores of Borneo, readily find a passage in the annual 

 junks that sail from the mother country to Borneo at ten dollars 

 a-head. On their arrival, being unable to pay the passage-money 

 and the tax of a dollar per head established by the native 

 authority, while their immediate wants for food and habitation 

 are urgent and imperious, the proprietors of the mines find it easy 

 to engage their services for three or four years. In some other 

 cases, agents are employed to obtain men from China, on stipulated 

 agreements, to work for a number of years : the usual rate of pay- 

 ment to the miners so engaged is not considered to average less 

 than five Spanish dollars a-month. No sooner, however, are 

 these engagements concluded with their masters, than a number of 

 them club together with the funds they have been able to save, 

 and commence a new mine upon their joint account, in a few years 

 acquiring a competency to return to their native country. 



This computation at that time would have included 

 the gold produced by Sarawak, with the exception of 

 such portions of it as were collected by the Malays ; 

 the Chinese who work its gold being all members of 

 the great Kung Si, or company of their countrymen 

 settled in the territory of Sambas, and to whom all 

 their collections are remitted four times a-year; the 

 Kung Si having officers in all the districts it occupies, 

 who manage all their affairs, and are in constant com- 

 munication with Montradak and Sambas. It is pro- 

 bable that the export of gold from Sambas has been 



