I Was Shown One
Piece Several Pounds' Weight, Having Much The Appearance Of One Of The
Larger Australian Nuggets, But Of Pure Copper Instead Of Gold.
The
natives and the Portuguese have very naturally imagined that where
these fragments come from there must be more; and they have a report
or tradition, that a mountain at the head of the ravine is almost pure
copper, and of course of immense value.
After much difficulty a company was at length formed to work the
copper mountain, a Portuguese merchant of Singapore supplying most of
the capital. So confident were they of the existence of the copper,
that they thought it would be waste of time and money to have any
exploration made first; and accordingly, sent to England for a mining
engineer, who was to bring out all necessary tools, machinery,
laboratory, utensils, a number of mechanics, and stores of all kinds
for two years, in order to commence work on a copper-mine which he was
told was already discovered. On reaching Singapore a ship was
freighted to take the men and stores to Timor, where they at length
arrived after much delay, a long voyage, and very great expense.
A day was then fixed to "open the mines." Captain Hart accompanied Mr.
Geach as interpreter. The Governor, the Commandante, the Judge, and
all the chief people of the place went in state to the mountain, with
Mr. Geach's assistant and some of the workmen. As they went up the
valley Mr. Leach examined the rocks, but saw no signs of copper. They
went on and on, but still nothing except a few mere traces of very
poor ore. At length they stood on the copper mountain itself. The
Governor stopped, the officials formed a circle, and he then addressed
them, saying, that at length the day had arrived they had all been so
long expecting, when the treasures of the soil of Timor would be
brought to light, and much more in very graandiloquent Portuguese;
and concluded by turning to Mr. Leach, and requesting him to point out
the best spot for them to begin work at once, and uncover the mass of
virgin copper. As the ravines and precipices among which they had
passed, and which had been carefully examined, revealed very clearly
the nature and mineral constitution of the country, Mr. Geach simply
told them that there was not a trace of copper there, and that it was
perfectly useless to begin work. The audience were thunderstruck! The
Governor could not believe his ears. At length, when Mr. Geach had
repeated his statement, the Governor told him severely that he was
mistaken; that they all knew there was copper there in abundance, and
all they wanted him to tell them, as a mining-engineer, was how best
to get at it; and that at all events he was to begin work somewhere.
This Mr. Geach refused to do, trying to explain that the ravines had
cut far deeper into the hill than he could do in years, and that he
would not throw away money or time on any such useless attempt.
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