an island in the Eastern Seas, about 130 miles in length by forty or fifty in breadth, lying off the northeastern coast of Sumatra, from which it is separated by the Straits of Banca. This island has in all ages been celebrated for its mines of tin, which have yielded immense quantities of ore, and appear to be inexhaustible. They were discovered about the year 1710, and are worked by a colony of Chinese, who are said to amount to 10,000. These miners, from long practice, have arrived at such perfection in reducing the ore into metal, employing wood instead of coal in their furnaces, that the tin of the Banca mines is preferred to European tin in the market of Canton, as being more malleable. From 133 pounds of ore are obtained seventy-five pounds of metal. This island is opposite the river of Palembang, in the island of Sumatra, and it belonged to the sovereign of the district of Palembang, who exacted from the proprietors of the mines a certain quantity of its produce at a fixed price, which he re-sold to the Dutch at a small advance of profit. The island was ceded to the Dutch in 1812, in consequence of an expedition against its sovereign, which was sent from Batavia. A fort was erected two miles west of a small town called Minto; but the situation proved so unhealthy that it was afterwards removed to a more inland spot. By the convention concluded in 1814, Banca was ceded to the Dutch. The miners and some pirates were formerly its only inhabitants. The Straits of Banca are formed by the island of Sumatra on the west, and that of Banca on the east. They are about 100 miles in length, of unequal breadth, and the depth of water very irregular, shoaling in some places at once from twelve to seven fathoms. The tide rises and falls about eleven feet. Long. 105.15. to 106.40. E. Lat. 1.27. to 3.4. S. Another small island of this name, amid a cluster still smaller, lies off the north-east extremity of the island of Celebes.