OF SUMATRA. IJ 



Content with excavating the ore, till their labour is 

 interrupted by the flowing of the water, which soon 

 takes place in a country subject to heavy rains 

 throughout the year. As many of these veins 

 widen as far as they have yet been traced, it is more 

 than probable that these hills contain inexhaustible 

 mines of this metal. The ore, by repeated smelt- 

 ings, and other operations to free it from its sulphur, 

 has been reduced to a metal, and then found to in- 

 clude a considerable proportion of gold. As no part 

 of the world contains a greater quantity of this 

 latter metal than Sumatra, in proportion to the area 

 it occupies on the globe, it is probable that the dis- 

 covery of gold mines would attend the establish- 

 ment of copper ones in the hills of : Annalahoo* This 

 is so much the more probable, as metalline stones, of 

 various kinds, and which the Malays regard as sure 

 indications of a soil affording gold, are found on 

 these hills ; independently of the consideration, that 

 gold-dust is collected in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, and in the interior country, contiguous to the 

 hills yielding the copper-ore. It is singular, that the 

 same method of rough smelting, which is practised 

 at Gosla-zv in Germany, should be in use among the 

 uncivilized inhabitants of Sumatra* The Sumatran 

 method possesses more ingenuity, and is, at the same 

 time, more simple. An undemonstrated knowledge 

 of the plainest and most obvious principles of 

 science, is congenial to the most rude as well as to 

 the most civilized conceptions ; and the advantages 

 which the talents of born genius have conferred on 

 Vol. IV. C Europe % 



