68 EXPEDITION TO MOLUCCA. ISLANDS. 



many of them go by the name of Mount Ophir ; that inland from 

 this place is about twenty-six miles, the communication to it being 

 from the river that disembogues near Point Sisa. The Malays who 

 go there are under no restraint, nor pay any duty, but enclose with 

 stakes a certain extent of ground where they think convenient, 

 work until they procure the quantity they want, and then return 

 to dispose of it. I am informed the richest gold mine in the 

 world is the black mountain in Cochin-China, the working of 

 which having been interrupted by civil wars for four years together 

 sometime back, the price of gold dust in China rose twenty-five 

 per cent, higher than its general rate, and upon its being again 

 opened, gold dust, throughout that immense empire, fell to its 

 former standard. 



Concerning the works of the fort of the town of Malacca, according 

 to the plan they are built upon, they are in tolerably good repair, and 

 capable of considerable defence ; though should it remain eventually 

 in our possession, which is not unlikely, and a strong garrison be 

 established in it, I think it would be absolutely necessary to mo- 

 dernize the whole river face of the fort, and enlarge the two 

 adjoining bastions ; to open the streets of the town to the enfila- 

 ding fire of the fort ; to deepen the ditch and complete the lines 

 round the town ; to erect an outwork before the salient angle next 

 the sea, to open a communication with Bocca China, and to erect 

 two small regular redoubts thereon connected by a strong stockade 

 well scarped on the outside, and lastly to clear the ground at least 

 the distance of four hundred yards, for an esplanade. A magazine 

 for powder is indispensably necessary, no secure building for that 

 purpose having hitherto existed. The severity which the Dutch 

 have constantly exercised in this Government has impressed itself 

 so forcibly on the minds of the inhabitants of all denominations, 

 that they can hardly conceive the English to be now their rulers, 

 from the mildness of our administration and the politeness we show 

 to the Dutch, which is attended with the ill effect of their influence 

 being still so great as to keep back every kind of information and 

 assistance that we might naturally expect ; it therefore becomes the 

 more necessary to adopt decisive measures, and the Admiral has 

 accordingly resolved to send away the late Governor and Dutch 

 soldiers who have hitherto been kept in contradiction to the orders 



