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[Page 7]
of Timber & Fuel.
The most flattering indications of Metals however often prove fallacious.
It may be usefull [useful] to remark in this place that certain Metals are always found in their perfect State & others oxydated or mineralized; many however are found both in the one state & the other.
Also, that some Metals are found only in the situations where they were generated & that others are equally found in situations where they have been removed by accident.
The first Metal known to unpolishd [unpolished] Nations, is Copper, not because it is the most abundant, but because in a pure state it more often occurs than any other, & in Situations perhaps more accessible.
The next is Gold, which is easily collected by the Inhabitants of many unpolishd [unpolished] Countries in the beds of torrents & rivers when exposed by the heavy falls of rain.
An effort of art & much labor were requird [required] to reduce Iron to a state fit for use. It appears therefore to have laid long unknown & neglected.
Gold & Copper then are the only Metals which are likely to be found in the possession of the Natives of those Countries which will be visited, but more generally their use is supplied by hard stones which the Natives have found the means of shaping into instruments of War & of fashioning into the ornaments of dress. A sort of Lava is applied by the South Sea Islanders to the former & Jade to the latter.
The previous stones if known to them are neglected on account of their diminutive size and perhaps on