114 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Biihlin Society, 



yakut), hyacinths, granats, smaragds, chrysolites, amethysts, agats, 

 Bezoar stones, and borax. Some places yield gold and silver and 

 all manner of other metals." 



Many of these minerals, it is believed, do no not occur in India 

 proper, and the term therefore is probably used in a very extended 

 sense, and hence misconception has arisen no doubt. On page 157 

 he makes a remarkable statement, which might be used in support 

 of the view contested in an early part of this Paper, namely, that 

 India received all her gold from abroad. He says " Hindostan 

 (by which, perhaps, only the realm of the Grreat Mogul is meant) 

 possesses great quantities of gold and silver; but all is brought 

 thither by strangers, never returning out again, for they melt down 

 the European or foreign coins, and recoin them with the Mogul's 

 stamp." 



In a map, published by Wells in 1700, the positions of the 

 diamond mines of Coulour and Eaolconda are given with much 

 greater accuracy than is the case in RennelFs map, published at 

 the close of the eighteenth century. I was, however, confirmed in 

 my conclusion as to the identification of the former by a manu- 

 script map by Col. Colin MacKenzie, dated 1798, which is pre- 

 served in Calcutta. 



In the maps of both Ogilby and Wells, Narsinga, a place often 

 mentioned in the early accounts, is indicated as being situated to 

 the east of Bisnaguar [i.e. Yijayanagar). 



Hamilton. — Captain Hamilton, who traded in the East Indies 

 between the years 1688 and 1728, is our next authority.' He in- 

 forms us that iron was made into anchors at Balasore, apparently by 

 European methods : if so, this was the first manufacture of that kind 

 in India of which there is any record. He quotes a curious story 

 as'to mercury having been brought to Achin in Sumatra from the 

 Andaman Islands by a native, who, having been held for some time 

 as a slave, was allowed to revisit his country on several occasions, 

 and after each returned with some mercury which, he stated, was 

 obtainable there {i. e. probably in the Little Andaman). This state- 

 ment, together with a consideration of the geological structure, has 

 led me to suggest the possibility of a future discovery of the metal 

 in the islands of the Andaman group. In age and in characters 



1 New Account of the East Indies, vol. i., chap. xxix. Maderas or Chinapatam. 



