Un "expert" saxon dans les mines d'or de Sumatra au XVIIème s.

3. Emas tidak lagi memainkan peranan di kepulauan Nusantara se- bagai motor ekonomi, seperti dulu. Tetapi pada abad ke 17 kekuasaan para Sultan Atjeh masih berasal dari pengawasan jang didjalankan mereka atas tambang2 emas di daerah Minangkabau dan V.O.C. lama sekali merindukan untuk menjita tambang2 tersebut demi keuntungannja sendiri. Denys Lombard disini mentjeriterakan tentang petualangan dari kira2 duapuluh orang buruh tambang bangsa Djerman, jang telah diangkut oleh para direktur V.O.C. dari Djerman, pada tahun 1680, dan dikirim ke Salida (sebelah selatan Padang) untuk menambang emas di tambang jang baru di- milikinja. Berita itu kita kenal dari tjeritera jang telah ditinggalkan Elias Hesse (sekretaris dari team ketjil itu) : Ostindianische Reisebechreibung (Dresden, 1687). Selain "achli2" bangsa Djerman dan sekelompok ketjil tentara Be- landa, Ambon dan Bugis jang mendjaga keamanan disana, tambang emas itu memperkerdjakan tidak kurang dari 345 budak, jang didatangkan dari pulau Nias, Makasar, Timor, djuga Malabar dan Malagasi. Bagaimanapun hasil tambang itu kelihatannja sangat miskin sekali dan hawa disitu sangat
3. The economic driving force in the Archipelago is no longer gold as it used to be, but in the 17 th century the Sultans of Atjeh still derived part of their power from the Minangkabau goldmines and it was for long an ambition of the Dutch East India Company to take them over for itself. Denys Lombard gives an account of the adventures of twenty saxon miners recruited by the VOC directors in Germany in 1680 and sent to Salida (south of Padang on the coast of West Sumatra) to extract gold from a recently acquired mine. The story is known from the account of Elias Hesse (the secretary of the small crew): Ostindianische Reisebeschreibung (Dresden, 1687). Besides the German "experts" and the small garnison of Dutch Am- boinese and Bugis soldiers who guarded them, there were no less than 345 slaves transported from Nias, Makassar, Timor, Malabar and Madagascar. The ore was found to be desperately low in grade and the climate was particularly trying (no less than six of the Saxons died in the first few weeks). Hesse, who had been horrified by the country, managed to board a ship and return to Europe in 1683. The Company's hopes of working the mines of Sumatra profitably were long-lived and it was still attempting in the 18th century to mine silver on the west coast.