122 GOLD IN ASIA book ii
of
gold, but it is thought that the principal part of it comes from the
island of Formosa, from whence it is carried to Japan. Since the Dutch
have held Formosa they have:been unable to develop the trade of the
particular locality where they believe the gold to occur.1
Gold also comes from China, and the Chinese exchange it for the silver
taken to them, for, price for price, they prefer silver to gold,
because they have no mines of silver. This gold is of one of the lowest
standards of any found in Asia.
The island of Celebes or Macassar 2
also produces gold, which is obtained from the rivers, where it occurs
mingled with the sand. In the island of Achin or Sumatra,3
after the rainy season, and when the waters in the streams have
subsided, veins of gold are found in the pebbles of different sizes
which the rains have carried down from the mountains facing the
north-east. On the west coast of the same island, where the Dutch go to
ship pepper, the peasants bring an abundance of gold, but it is of very
low standard, even inferior to the gold of China. Towards Tibet, which
is identical with the Caucasus of the Ancients, in the territories of a
Raja beyond the Kingdom of Kashmir, there are three mountains, close to
one another, one of which produces gold of excellent quality, another
grenat, and another lapis.4 Finally, gold
1
The occurrence of gold in China, Japan, and Formosa is not a subject
that can be treated of exhaustively in these notes. That mines occur in
China and Japan is well known, but Ball was not able to find conclusive
evidence with reference to Formosa. See Ency. Brit., x. 670. There is little in Japan (ibid., xv. 197). Ainslie (Materia Medica, i. 516) quotes the Asiatic Journal for
December 1824 in support of the statement that the island abounds in
gold. From a cursory examination of Mr. Locke's great work on gold, it
seems to contain no reference to Formosa. For gold in China see Ency. Brit., vi. 178.
2 Gold occurs in the rivers of the northern and south-western peninsulas of Celebes. (Crawfurd, Dictionary, 144; Ency. Brit., v. 578.)
3 According to Crawfurd a small gold coin called mas (worth Is. 2d.) from
the Malay name of the metal, has been coined at Achin. Gold dust,
however, was the common medium of exchange. The Achinese have learnt
the use of the touchstone from Telugu settlers. The gold filigree work
of the Malays of Sumatra is very beautiful. A totel of £1,000,000 worth
of gold was considered by Crawfurd to cover the annual yield of all the
Malayan islands in 1856.
*
This indication as to the three mountains is somewhat vague. In all
probability the grenat mine may be identified with the ruby, or
