y, on the northeast coast of
Borneo, in the province of Mangidara, there is a very rich mine of
gold. Pasir and Coti, in the Straits of Macassar, produce considerable
quantities of gold; and gold and diamonds are brought down by the
river to Benjarmasing. I have, however, no accurate information on
the subject, and can simply note the general fact.

There are several fine specimens of crystal found at Kimanis and Sulo;
they call them water diamonds. To give full effect to the mines in
the kingdom of Sukadana, says the Sultan of Pontiana, and to raise
the excess of food required for the additional hands, would together
give employment to at least a million of Chinese. Under the British
flag, he thinks thousands of new settlers will find their way in the
annual junks.

All that extensive range, from Cape Unsing, passing by the Tawi Tawi
islands and Sulo, as far as Baselan, is one vast continued bed of
pearl-oysters, principally of the Behoren or mother-of-pearl-shell
species; these are called by the natives _tipi_. There is likewise
an extensive bed of the Ceylon oyster, called by the Malays _kapis_;
the principal banks of the latter are found in Maludu Bay. The Sulo
pearls have, from time immemorial, been the most celebrated, and
praised as the most valuable of any in the known world. Pigofetta,
the companion of Magalhaens, mentions having seen in 1520 two Sulo
pearls in the possession of the Rajah of Borneo as large as pullet
eggs. Very large ones, from one to two hundred _chaw_ weight, are at
all times to be purchased at Sulo; and there are altogether sold here
to the China junks, the Spaniards, &c. more than two laks of dollars
worth annually. The quantity of mother-of-pearl-shell, _communibus
annis_, sold there is two thousand piculs, at six dollars a picul. The
fishery is partly carried on by the Malays, and partly by the Chinese;
the large pearls they endeavor to conceal as much as possible, from
a law that all pearls above a certain size of right belong to the
sultan. "The small narrow guts," says Dalrymple in his account of the
Sulo seas, "about Tawi Tawi, are the most rich and valuable fishery in
the world." I have had an opportunity of inspecting the banks about
Manar and Tutacoryn, as well as all the banks in the Sulo seas; but
the former have not banks near as extensive, equaling in the quantity
of oysters, in productiveness, size, or richness, the Sulo pearl, nor
are they to be compared in any way to the S