Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/507

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 491 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 pur- poses.* Except Brazil and Hindustan, the Indian Is- lands are the only portions of the world which af- ford the diamond. Though in the immediate vi- cinity of Siam and the Burman empire, the only parts of the world in which are found the ge- nuine 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 prin- cipal mines are at a place called Landak, from which the diamonds of Borneo, to distinguish them such as casts of Hindu images, the zodaical cups, and some an- cient coins, including those struck after the conversion to Mahomedanisra, 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. Tiiese results, so little to be looked fur, vrould seem to imply that tin was un- known or litlle used by the anciently islanders ; and the coin of lead, a metal which is not known to 6X181,^001(1 appear to point out that the islanders, perhaps, received their supply of the useful metals from strangers.
 * An analysis of some of the metallic relics found in Java,