1838.] 



Sketch of the Malayan Penmsida. 



are sometimes adulterated with lead, a cheaper and heavier metal, the 

 presence of which may be detected by ascertaining the difference of 

 the specific gravity, that of pure tin being, at 84^ Fahrenheit, 

 about 7^29, and of lead 11.35; or it m iy be found approximatively 

 by casting two bullets or ingots, one of the suspected metal, tl.e 

 other of pure tin, and weighing both separately ; the greater 

 weight of the former will serve to show the extent of adulteration 

 — care must be taken that the two ingots are exactly the same 

 size'. Another mode of adulterating tin is resorted to, which it is 

 right to put the merchant on his guard against, viz. of filling a cavity 

 in the middle of the ingot with dross, lead, or Malay pice. The shell 

 of the ingot is of pure tin, consequently the fraud cannot be detected by 

 examining a piece merely cut otf. A case of this sort was recently 

 discovered at Singapore. The fumes of sulphur are resorted to in or- 

 der to give the tin tlie colour of that of Banca. 



" Great Britain," says Dr. Lardner (Cabinet Cyclopsedia, No. 54),. 

 " notwithstanding the productiveness of her own mines, imports up- 

 wards of 700 tons per annum, of Oriental, or, as it is more commonly 

 called, Banca tin, from the name of one of the islands where it is 

 chiefly obtained. The Malay countries are reckoned the richest de- 

 positories of this metal in the world i and from them, China, Hindus- 

 tan, and many European markets are chiefly supplied." The total 

 produce of the tin of the peninsula is a little more than half that of 

 England, which is estimated at from 3 to 4,000 tons annually. She 

 exports annually about 2,000 ton«, including 400 or 500 tons of that 

 received from the Straits and Banca._ It appears from tables in Mc- 

 CuUoch's Dictionary of Commerce, that Malay tin is now very exten- 

 sively employed for warehousing into England ; at the same time that 

 large quantities, probably from Banca, are carried direct into Hollandj 

 where this has affected the export of British tin to a considerable 

 degree. 



Gold, — With regard to the produce of gold, it may be remarked that 

 the peninsula of the present day, although auriferous, does not merit 

 the appellation of " Kruse" or " Golden Chersonesus," so much as 

 its neighbour, the island of Sumatra, to which, as previously observed, 

 there is a tradition, mentioned by one of the early Portuguese histo- 

 rians, that it was formerly united. Sumatra, by some, has been sup- 

 posed to be the Taprobdna of the ancient geographers ; this, Mr. Mars- 

 den, with his usual acumen, denies, ascribing rather the name to Cey- 

 lon, the Serendib of Mahomedan writers, and the Lanca of the Hindus i 



