1832.] 
ISLAND OP SUMATRA. 
155 
cured in a malleable state, and seldom undergoes any process of" 
refining to purify it for the market, where opium and fine goods 
are expected in return. Mines of copper and tin, as before stated, 
abound in the island and its neighbour Banca, where it is said to 
have been accidentally discovered by the burning of a house in 
1710, and was long worked by a colony of Chinese, under the con- 
trol of the Dutch, at Palembang, who grasped at the whole trade. 
We have already stated that the island of Banca was ceded to 
the British by the Sultan of Palembang, in the year 1812; 
Billeton Isle, which lies about s^xty miles east of Banca, was 
ceded at the same time. This last named island, which is almost 
a perfect quadrangle, with a coast facing the four cardinal points 
of the horizon, is about fifty miles in extent each way, and has 
long been celebrated for producing the fine steel of which the 
Malays manufacture their arms. Banca had, for many years, 
been the resort of a numerous horde of pirates, who acted under 
the immediate protection of the sultan and court of Palembang. 
Minto, the capital of the island, is situated near the sea, towards 
the west, at the foot of the mountain called Monophin. There is 
anchorage in from six to twelve fathoms ; a sandy point at the 
northwest affording shelter to ships from the boisterous waves 
which roll into the straits from the Java, Sea, as well as from the 
northwest winds, which often blow very hard along the coast of 
Sumatra during the monsoons. At the pacification of Europe in 
1814, Banca was again ceded to the Dutch by treaty. 
We have thus taken a hasty and excursive view of the Island 
of Sumatra, and trust that the reader has accompanied us. We 
have seen the capacities of its soil, and the varied richness of its 
vegetable and animal kingdom. How rich, in point of external 
appearance and grandeur, is the inheritance of the Malay ! In 
the soft and rich teints of its mountains, the velvet covering of its 
hills, — its wild cascades, placid lakes, rapid streams, — Sumatra 
may challenge comparison with the world ! Why has nature 
been so extravagant 1 Why bestow in many parts where human 
footsteps seldom tread, all that is sublime — all that is beautiful — 
all that is calculated to elevate the mind which is susceptible of 
noble impressions ! 
Is it solely for the Malay, the living Ishmaelite of the world, 
that prolific nature has been thus bountiful ? The Malay— 
