300 
REPORT ON THE ISLAND OF BANK!*. 
the manuscript of the original Report itself, accompanied by the fob* 
lowing memorandum ; 
Memorandum as to the accompanying report on Bdnkd, 
“ While employed on the Island of Java in the service of the East 
India Company as naturalist, I visited Batavia in the year 1812, for 
the purpose of examining the Western provinces of the Island. At this 
time, in the autumn of the same year, the Lieut. Governor, Thomas 
Stamford Raffles Esq., appointed me with two other Gentlemen, a 
Commission to examine the Island of Banka, which had recently 
been transferred to the British Government. My colleagues, being 
soon taken ill, returned to Batavia, and it was left to me to accom¬ 
plish the object of the commission without their assistance. I de¬ 
voted about nine months to a journey through the Island, during 
which I examined most of the tin mines and collected materials for 
a report, and for the map which was subsequently engraved. In 
1814 I delivered part of my report to the Lieut. Governor, who 
mentioned it in his annual address to the Batavian Literary Society, 
but the completion of it was at that time prevented by various other 
necessary duties in Java. 
Some parts of it were transcribed to be transmitted to England ; 
this I send herewith under the sanction of the Secretary of the Ilon 1 - 
ble Court of Directors. 
It is very fragmentary, and unfit for publication, but should any 
portion of it be useful to the Editor of the Journal of the Indian Ar¬ 
chipelago, --- , I leave it at his disposal, relying on 
his judgment in making a selection or an abridgment. More than 
thirty years have passed since it was written; circumstances have 
greatly altered the affairs of Banand much has been published 
concerning it in various Dutch periodicals. 3 ’ 
Tao mas Hqrsfield. 
Library , East India, House , 1 
August §th. 1847. j 
It is very true, as Dr. Horsfield remarks, that Bdnkd has been 
much changed since the period of his visit, and that later descrip- 
