ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 451 Tin exists either in greatest abundance, or is ob- tained with least hxbour and difficulty, in the island of Banca, which affords at present by far the great- er quantity of the tin of commerce of the Archipe- lago. The discovery of the mines of Banca is com- paratively a recent event. It took place in the beginning of last century, in the reign of Sultan Badur TJMin, king of Palembang, and sovereign of the island. * This event in the history of tin may be fairly compared to the discovery of the American mines, in that of the precious metals. The working of the former mines in the Archipelago was in a great measure discontinued ; and, but for the ef- fects of the monopoly, the influence might have extended to Europe. In about thirty years from the discovery, the tin produced from the mines of
- Captain Hamilton, who was in India at the time, gives
the following account of the discovery : " In I710, a son of the king of Pullamban {Palembang) was king, and a fiic accidentally happening in a village, when the lire was ex- tinguished they chanced to find much melted metal under the rubbish, which proved to be tin. The king ordered his people to dig a little into the ground, and they found plenty of ore, which he now reaps a good advantage by. The Dutch sent from Batavia for leave to settle a factory there, but could not obtain that favour, the king declaring that his countr}' should be Wee for all nations to trade in." — New Account of the East Indies, . II. p. 120.
