e opposite bank
is a third, similar to the foregoing, with a like number of cannon;
and, lastly, on the same bank is their grand battery, constructed of
stone, mounting five eighteen-pounders, at the batu, or rock. Here the
mausoleum of the royal family is erected, containing the tomb of the
late sultan. The whole of this side of the river exhibits the marks
of infant cultivation. The jungle has been, in part, cleared away,
and here and there a solitary hut greets the eye. The sultan's palace
has a battery of eleven guns of all sizes; none of these are calculated
to make any serious resistance. So sensible is the sultan of this that
he has commenced staking round with piles a low, swampy island, just
detached from the palace. On this stands the grand mosk. He proposes
throwing mud and stones within the ranges of piles, and planting
upon them the heaviest-calibered cannon: it is a commanding site,
and capable of being rendered formidable. There are no roads about
Pontiana; the town is situated in the midst of a swamp, so low that
the tide at high water overflows the lower parts of the houses, and
this, with the addition of a country overrun with impenetrable jungle,
renders it extremely unhealthy, and a most disagreeable residence.

The campo China contains about two thousand souls, and lies on the left
bank of the Matan river, abreast of the palace; the campo Buguese,
on the right bank of the Landa; and the campo Malayu adjoins the
palace. The whole population is about seven thousand souls: no Dayers
are found hereabout. The whole of the districts under Pontiana produce
about three hundred coyans of rice, the average selling price of which
is from fifty-five to seventy Spanish dollars the coyan. The king's
revenue is forty thousand dollars per annum. The Chinese plead poverty,
but some of the Buguese are pointed out as wealthy. The quantity of
gold that finds its way to Pontiana is annually from three to four
piculs. The imports there consist of opium, iron, steel, salt, rice,
hardware, cutlery, blue and white gurras, salampories, Java cloths,
gunpowder, beside China produce of all possible descriptions. They
make their returns in gold, diamonds, birds'-nests, wax, rattans,
garu, ebony, agar-agar; beside pepper, sago, camphor, cassia, tripan,
&c. brought here by the prows: five Chinese junks annually visit
Pontiana, bringing down produce amounting to about fifty thousand
dollars. The depredations of the Pangeran Annam p