ORIENTAL COMMERCE. [Malay Peninsula. 



degree of nicety. The dust is spread out on a kind of wooden platter, and 

 the base particles are touched out from the mass, and put aside one by one 

 with an instrument, if such it may be termed, made of cotton cloth rolled 

 up to a point. If the honesty of these gold-cleaners can be depended upon, 

 their dexterity is almost infaUiblc ; and, as some check upon the former, it 

 is usual to pour the contents of each parcel, when thus cleansed, into a 

 vessel of aqua-fortis, which puts their accuracy to the test. The parcels, 

 or bulses, in which the gold is packed up, are formed of the integument that 

 covers the heart of the buffalo ; this has the appearance of a bladder, but is 

 both tougher and more pliable. In those parts of the country where the 

 traffic in the article is considerable, it is generally employed as currency 

 instead of coin. Every man carries small scales about him, and purchases 

 are made with it so low as to the weight of a grain or two of paddy. 



Borneo produces immense quantities of gold ; it is procured atSambass, 

 Momparva, Pontiana, Borneo Town, and Banjar Massin. It is stated, from 

 very good authority, that 200 peculs of gold-dust are annually procured by 

 the Chinese, Dutch, and English, chiefly the former, from the places 

 visited by their junks. 



At Banjar Massin gold-dust is divided into head, belly, and foot The 

 head is also called Molucca gold ; it is sometimes in grains as large as bay- 

 salt, of a very irregular shape, free from any artificial alloy, and comes 

 up in fineness to about 22 carats. The second sort, or belly, is in smaller 

 grains, like sand or brass filings. The foot nearly resembles the belly to 

 outward appearance, but is often found mixed with iron dust, or some- 

 thing much resembling it. The natives clear it by the help of a loadstone 

 which attracts many of the particles ; but it is never quite clean, therefore 

 too much circumspection cannot be used in purchasing it. At Banjar 

 Massin they esteem the highest coloured gold the best, provided it be with- 

 out alloy, which it always is when in dust ; the lighter coloured or inferior 

 gold is called amas mootla, or young gold. 



Gold-dust is sometimes adulterated with brass filings. To discover this 

 fraud, pour a little aqua-fortis upon it, which will immediately receive from 

 the base metal a blue tincture. There are several other modes bv which 

 this abuse may be discovered; if the gold-dust be spread thin upon a 

 piece of paper, and moistened with any volatile alkaline spirit, as that 

 of hartshorn, or sal ammoniac, the spirit will in a few minutes ditrtolvc 

 so much of the copper as to stain the paper blue ; stale urine has a like 

 effect in an inferior degree, and a solution of crude sal ammoniac applied in 

 the same manner, produces a greenish stain. In some of the places 

 where gold-dust is procured, it is not permitted to make these trials ; in 



