132 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPIC AL 
181 S. 
June 
5 — 13 . 
and they are also reported to yield copper 
and iron; it is, however, with great difficulty 
that gold is procured, on account of a super- 
stitious feeling on the part of the mountaineers, 
who think it necessary to sacrifice a human life 
for every bottle of gold dust that is collected , and 
this barbarous custom, we were informed, is ri- 
gidly enforced by the chiefs, who, of course, take 
good care that the lot does not fall upon their own 
heads. Gold is, however, sometimes found in 
the bed of the river near Coepang, particularly 
after occasional freshes from the mountains, and 
during the rainy season ; but it is detected in so 
small a quantity, as hardly to repay the searchers 
for their trouble. 
Some years since, during the early possession 
of this part of the island by the Dutch, sixty sol- 
diers were sent into the country to search for gold, 
but they were all killed by the mountaineers, and 
since then no further attempt has been made ; 
indeed it would take a very considerable force to 
effect it, on account of the warlike character of 
these people. Their defensive mode of warfare 
is to distribute themselves in all directions among 
the trees and rocks, from which, by their num- 
bers and unerring aim, they might easily destroy 
a much larger force than the Dutch could afford to 
send against them from any of their possessions in 
