Borneo is scarcely less fortunate in its mineral productions than in the bounty of its soil. Its dia monds have been thought by some persons preferable even to those of Hindostan ; though others main tain, that they are smaller than those of Golconda, and that any which are found of a large size, are yellow, and very imperfect. The most productive diamond mines of Borneo are at Ambauwang, beyond Molucco, in the district of Banjar-massin, and at Landac and Pontiana. Diamonds are likewise found in several of the rivers, and are fished up by divers in the same manner as pearls. This fishery is carried on chiefly in the months of January, April, July, and October. Four kinds of diamonds are distin guished by the natives ; the white diamonds, which they call verna ambon, or white water; the green, which are called verna loud; the yellow, named ver na sakkar ; and a kind between the yellow and the green, which bear the name of verna bessi. Many of these diamonds arc found from four to twenty-four carats, and sometimes even thirty or forty carats. The total amount of diamonds found in a year sel dom exceeds 600 carats. In this island there are likewise found several kinds of metals ; iron, copper, tin, and gold. The gold is found chiefly in the state of dust mingled with the sand of rivers. It is said that gold-dust is not only more abundant, but much finer in Borneo than in any other part of the globe. There appears to be no silver in this extensive. re gion; or the unskilful islanders know not how to ex plore and work the mines. Hence, if we may credit the accounts of some travellers, silver is exchanged in Borneo weight for weight with gold ; or if we should suspect these accounts of being somewhat ex aggerated, they must at least be admitted as a suffi cient proof of the great scarcity of silver. In the northern regions of Borneo, there are numerous and very productive quarries of freestone. The centre of the island is occupied by an extensive ridge of mountains, which, from the great quantity of crystal they contain, are called the Crystal Mountains.
At the foot of these mountains there is a large lake, which gives rise to all the rivers that traverse the island. Of these rivers, the•most important are the Banjar-massin, Succatana, Lawa, Sambas, and Bor neo. The river of Borneo is navigable far above the town of the same name, to vessels of considerable burden ; the only diffiCulty is at the mouth, where the -channel is narrow. For the length of a quar ter of a mile, it is at the most about seventeen feet broad at high water ; but the bottom is sandy and soft, and the river so completely enclosed between the banks, that a vessel which should run aground there, would be in little danger of being wrecked.
On the coasts of Borneo, there is a species of sea-snail, called by the natives swalloo, which is es teemed a great luxury, and is a pretty lucrative article in their commerce with the Chinese. It is fished by the Biadjoos, the original inhabitants, in seven or eight fathoms depth of water. When the water is clear, they perceive the swalloo at the bot tom, and strike it with an iron instrument having four points, fixed along a stone almost cylindrical, but narrower at one end than at the other, and about eighteen inches long. To the end of the stone,
near the four prongs, they always attach a ball of iron. The swalloos are likewise procured by diving ; the best being always found in the deepest water. The black swalloo is much preferable to the white ; but there is a kind more esteemed than either, of a clear colour, and found only in deep water. Swalloos of this kind are sometimes so large as to weigh half a pound; and they are sold at China for forty Spa nish dollars the pecul (somewhat more than the twelfth of a ton,) whereas the same quantity of white swallods never brings more than four or five dollars.
This island was at first wholly occupied by the Biadjoos, or Dajakkese ; but the incursions of va rious nations from the continent of Asia, and the neighbouring islands,, have obliged them to retire from the coasts, and to take refuge in the interior of the country. The coasts are now inhabited by Ma lays, Moors, Macassers from Celebes, and Javanese. These people are said to have once extended their dominions as far as Palawan, Manilla, and other parts of the Philippine isles, and even Sooloo is supposed to have formed at one time a part of the empire of Borneo. These distant conquests, together with some traditions current among the Borneans themselves, warrant the belief that they were originally a war like people, but that they have experienced the fate of many other empires, which, after attaining a cer tain pitch of greatness, have relapsed into their mi. ginal condition for want of an active and vigorous government, without which no foreign conquest can ever be preserved. At present they are sunk in the most listless indolence and inactivity, completely des titute of the enterprising courage of their piratical ancestors, and without the least influence over the states of the north of Borneo, which they had for merly 'subjected to their empire. Thus enervated and unwarlike, they are at the same time extremely en vious of the private property of one another. Yet they are frank in their dealings, cool and deliberate in their resentments even when they have the power of revenge in their own hands, upright in their inten tions, strangers to that polish and acuteness which is called a ,knowledge of the world, yet by no means deficient in native intelligence, which they have par ticularly displayed in the perfection to which they have brought the mechanical arts established among them, especially the foundery of bronze cannon : this art they are superior to all the Asiatics. This character, however, must be understood as applying only to the inhabitants of some parts of the coast, and even of their character we have a darker side to contemplate. They are civilized and refined, indeed, compared with the BiadjOos, and the Idaans or Mooroots, yet they are not altogether free of the barbarities which characterise these rude and savage people.