Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/475

 ARTICLES OF EXPOHTATION. 4<59 vated tracts, and, for washing the mineral, it must be conveyed, as it is extracted, to the nearest rivu- let. In smelting they use small furnaces, and, in- stead of the large and effectual ventilator of the Chinese, the common Malay bellows, described in the first volume of this work, is employed by them. The metal is even transported to the market, with inferior skill, and to facilitate its conveyance, is cast into much smaller slabs than those of the Chinese, by which distinction it is known in the markets. The different conditions of the three races of men, in point of industry and civilization, is distinctly pourtrayed in their respective manner of pursuing the process of mining. Were the Eu- ropean race to engage in the same occupation on fair terms, that is, supposing them legitimately coloniz- ed, we should find a new and higher grade added to the scale, if, indeed, their superior vigour and intelligence did not soon banish all competition. The economical management pursued in regard to the mines by the sultans of Palembang deserves a particular description. The real source of the large revenue which the sultan of Palembang de- rives from the mines of Banca is the rent of these mines, what they yield beyond the value of the produce of the poorer mines of other countries. The sultan is at once the sovereign and the owner, or lord of the soil, and nominally the mining ad- venturer. Comparing the economy of the mines