true of temperate regions ? Whatever be the
cause, the fact has in all likelihood had its share
in hindering or retarding the progress of civilization
in the one as well as in promoting it in the
other.
Copper ores are known to exist in Sumatra,—in
Timur, and have, of late years, been discovered,
and wrought in the territory of Sambas in Bor*
neo. A copper mine has long been known to be
wrought in Limun in Sumatra. Copper is found
in its native state more frequently than any other
of the useful metals, and hence it has been judiciously
conjectured, that it was used at a more early*
age for economical purposes than any other.
In the Indian Islands this may probably bp
true of the tribes in whose country copper exists,
as in Sumatra arid Timur, from whence lumps of
native copper have been brought, but it can hardly
apply to some of the more civilized tribes, in whose
country copper is not found at all, as Java.' In one
or two of the languages, those of the people, I think,
in whose country copper is found, the metal is designated
by a native name, but the general, almost
the universal, one, tambaga, is Sanskrit, from
which I infer, that the fusing of copper from an
01 e is probably an art in which the natives were
instructed by the Hindus. Almost all the casts of
Hindu images, and other relics of Hinduism found
in Java, are a mixture of copper and iron j but I
am not aware that, among the numerous relics of
this description, there has ever been found any
tools or warlike weapons, such as would indicate
that copper had been used for economical purposes.*
Except Brazil and Hindustan, the Indian Islands
are the only portions of the world which afford
the diamond. Though in the immediate vicinity
of Siam and the Burman empire, the only
parts of the world in which are found the genuine
oriental ruby and sapphire, they yield neither
of these, nor, so far as we are acquainted, any gems
whatever, indeed, but the diamond. Borneo is the
only island of the Archipelago in which the diamond
is found, and here it is confined to the south and the
west coast, principally to the territories of the
princes of Banjarmassin and Pontianak. The principal
mines are at a place called Landak, from
which the diamonds of Borneo, to distinguish them
^ An analysis of sonic of the metallic relics found in Java,
such as casts of Hindu images, the zodaical cups, and some ancient
coins, including those struck after the conversion to
Mahomedanism, discovers them to be alloys of copper and iron,
and to contain neither tin nor zinc. One coin, impressed with
the usual Javanese characters, is pure lead. These results,' so
little to be looked for, would seem to imply that tin was un-
knowh or little used by the anciently islanders; and the coin of
lead,ametal which is not known to exist,would appear to point
out that the islanders, perhaps, received their supply of the
useful metals from strangers.