AND THE ECONOMY OF THE MINES. 81J 
The Chinese preserve on the Island the original character of their 
nation industrious, enter prizing and presevering, they are the most 
useful and important among the inhabitants, as by far the greatest 
share of mining is performed by them. Most of the Chinese met 
with on Banka are born in the mother country, and the increase of 
population is by no means progressing in proportion to their num¬ 
bers, which is owing to a great deficiency of females on the Island. 
Those of them who make a profession of mining possess a consider¬ 
able share of hardness and independence of character, which is dif¬ 
ferent however in different parts of the Island. The miners of Je¬ 
hus are particularly celebrated on account of their obstinacy and 
impudence, and they have several times been riotous. This may he 
owing in some degree to circumstances ; being united in large bodies, 
they appear to place confidence in their numbers. The miners of 
Klabbet, Sungie-liat and Marawang are apparently more tractable, 
but they are more divided. In Pangkal-pinang several outrages have 
been committed in former periods, by the miners in conjunction with 
the other Chinese inhabitants of the district. They were, in former 
periods, often treated with great severity by the representatives of 
the court of Plembang, whose power was almost unlimited and em¬ 
braced the lives and properties of the miners. But both the occur¬ 
rences during the former administration, and the character and num¬ 
bers of the miners, point out the necessity of supporting those per¬ 
sons who are now charged with the regulation of the mines, by small 
military detachments proportioned to the existing- circumstances. 
The conditions of the miners, as far as relates to healthful ness, is 
upon the whole more tolerable than would be expected from the 
atmosphere of Banka. Upon their first arrival strangers are gene¬ 
rally attacked by fevers; those who recover enjoy after this, for ma¬ 
ny years, an exemption from disease. In several of the villages and 
settlements I remarked, during a continuance of several weeks, no 
complaints of disease of any kind: but about the autumnal equinox 
fevers generally appear on the Island. I noticed among the miners 
several with sore legs and cutaneous eruptions. Their habits and 
mode of life agree with those of their nation in every part of India. 
They drink during their work copiously of warm vegetable infusions, 
and as they cannot generally afford to provide tea, they make a substi¬ 
tute of the dried leaves of the Psidium pyriferum or Gujavos: and 
large tin kettles filled with this potion are always in readiness in 
their houses or near their places of labour. 
