SUMATRA. 137 
fM>t found It worth their pains, ta work, m a proper manner, die mmcs 
with which the country docs certainljr abound; bur catciilation and ex^ Vzl&t of 
perience appear to have taught thcEti, that it is not a fchemc likely to be 
attended with fyccefs, mving^ anaong; other eaufes, to the dearneis of 
labcF,. and the neceffity of keeping up a force in diftant parts o£ die 
country, for the protection of the rohiers, Europeans caonot poffibly 
work IB this cHmaCe, and the naiives are uniic for the laborious exer- 
tion it would require, to render the undertaking profitable. The 
Dutch have at different periods made attcmpta of this nature* They 
fent out^ many years fince, a Saxon naincralogift. to work a mine at 5//- 
ktfa^ but no profit accrued from it; and in latter times they fet about 
working a vein that ran clofe to their fettkment of Fadang^ but not find- 
ing returns adequate to the expence, their Company ordered it to be let 
to farm* when in a few years, it fell into fuch low repute, as to be at 
length difpored of at a rent of two Spanilh dollars, by public audiion 
The whole quantity of gold procured at the ports on the Wcft-coallj 
may be ellimated at about ten thoufand ounces annually, of which Pa- 
dang alone has been ufed to draw to it (before its late capture by thfe 
Engliih) at leaft one third part-f-* What quantity finds its way to Pal em - 
bang and other places on the eaftem fide of the ifland, it is not in my 
power to compute, but I think it cannot be lefs than the former. 
« The ^ngliJh Company bariog Intelligence of a mine difcovered near Fort M^lbor&ugti, or^ 
dered u lo be worked i but it never catae to any things 
f The following is an exirad of a letter Trvm Mr, Jaruea M^kjcc, a fervsnt of the Company, 
dated from Padang, in 1 778. They have lately oji^ncd a vein of gold in the country inland of 
Padnng fram which the Governor at one time received m hun Jrcd and fifty rial (aboat two 
hundred ounces)- He has procured a map to be made of a parciculai- part of the goJd counTiy, 
which points out the different places v. licrc liey work for it : and <iIfo the fjTuation of twenty one 
Malay forts, ihat are ftil inhabiied and in repair. Thefc diftri^s are extremely popuSous, com- 
pared to the more fouihcm pan of the ifland. They calleft, and export annually to Batavia, 
about two thoufand fltfc hundr^ ciali of gold from thi* place i the quantity never exceeds three 
thoufand tiulS| nor falls ihort of two*^' 
I am alfurcd thae the quantity of gold proctlied at Padang ufed to be much greater, but that 
through th& maladminiftration of a former governor, of the itame of PaJm, the country wa* 
thrown into contufion, and the tnidcrj induttd to form connexions on the cafteta fide of the 
iflwid, whithw a large jjiopottion of ih« gold has fmcc been aonuaUy direited* 
Gold 
