Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-06
A HOT OLD TIME
Ed Hands Adventures in the
Dutch East Indies
THE STIRRING EVENTS
In Which He Figured Since he Left
Butte-Several Montana
Men Located There.

A. ]. Huneke of the Western Mine En-
terprise company of this city is IN re-
ceipt of an interesting letter from Ed M.
Hand, formerly of Butte, Who is now
operating a gold property in the Dutcn
East Indies. In the letter he speaks OF
meeting several Montana men in that
far away land. The letter is as follows:
Gorontalo, Celebes Island, Dutch East
Indies, March %, '99.
My Dear Huneke
Your very welcome letter came about
a month ago together with the Spokane
papers for which accept my tnankS. 1
have been very sick for a month with
fever and dysentery and came mighty
near pegging out but am on the hish
road to recovery again and everything
looks bright and cheerful ones more 20
was taken sick at our camp T~lnandoo' 90
miles from here, on March Attn n Tor
10 laws l ate nothing and got so weak
that 1 couldn't stand up. l finally got
delirious and so Mr.. Moons, our Dutc1
administrator concluded that l would
have to be brought dow here so ne gave
my associate, Mr.. Casby, 20 men, ana
putting me in a hammock they brought
me down. God! what l suffered on that
| trip of three days., the last day unde a
broiling sun. Thu remembrance OF that
! trip will remain with me as long as lie
lasts. Very fortunately I was uncon-
| scious most of the time, which was a
great mercy. There is a Japanese doctor
and he understands these tropical dis
eases to a st. We got here on the 18th
and on the god he had me so | could set
up and now I am able to hobble around
the hotel grounds q bit. MY feet 7
hands nave been badly swollen and so
sore that l could hardly use them, but the
soreness is rapidly leaving them now,
while the fever has entirely left me. On
April I'd l am going on a 10 days sea
voyage on a small steam trading vessel
that trades around the islands here. Her
captain and engineer are nglish 50 l
will nave some one to talk to and l think
the trip will do me good. I have positive
orders not to go pack to the mines until
1 am perfectly we'll. The company
through Mr.. Moons have been very kind,
paying all my expenses Of every kind
while my salary goes on just the same.
Yesterday he sent me 500 rupees Ga rupee
is 40 cents) and instructions not to think
of coming back for at least q month.
The is a Holland concern with
! many stockholders in Java. Celebes has
been booming for several years and the
island is cut up into hundreds Of con
c~essions of all sizes, half of which n
be worked as the natives are savages Of
the worst type, head hunters and canni-
balls. We have a lot Of them on our con-
! cession about 20 miles from Tinandoo and
we a " been making overtures to them
for the past two months with a view of
prospecting their country. Our last en-
voy was speared pretty badly but got
away so the outlook is not very bright.
We have plenty of country without theirs
but it is human nature to want what you
can get. Nothing of value has been
found on the island vet outside of our
place. There are two mines named Simo-
latoes n Palalleh about 40 miles from
here at the north coast that have caused
the boom. They have been working for
about four years on veins averaging six
inches and running $40 per ton gold, and
expended over 100000 on each mine. All
kinds of machinery and tramways have
been ordered and the companies keep
putting up. Three American engineers
hav just reported on Palalleh and have
turned it down SO 1 think that
is done for. By the way one of the en-
gineers used to be in Butte or rather
spent some days there. He mentioned
your name n Carl and Carneys. He
stayed some time at GibbonSville, Idaho,
His name is c. N. a Cortland. He is
here at the hotel with me now. Our
concession is Sc miles east of here and is
the largest one on the island, containing
over 225, 900 acres. On the 14th of Febru-
airy l DUN the first reef and got assays
as high as $50 in gold from the outcrop.
The next day my associate, Mr.. Casby,
an English engineer, returned from a trip
across the island and we went back to
my prospect with a gang Of coolies and
the same day found two more reefs run
ming parallel and within 300 feet of the
first one. From these reefs we get all
kinds of assays and I believe we nave
struck a mighty big thing. In two reefs
the gold is perfectly free and a dozen
colors to a pan, say of a pound of pulp,
is omnlon The first reef is very base
but it assays well. We are only 30 feet
in the deepest shaft, No. 1 Reef, and the
vein matter is soft and decomposed SO it
is hard to get a air average. We have
fifteen shafts and two tunnels going and
in a month we will know what we have
got. We have 116 men at work and as
soon as / am we'll we will put on so more.
Their pay is IA cents gold per day and
two pounds of rice and a bit of sinking
dried fish. There are fully 20 English
and American engineers on the island but
we are the only ones that have found
anything and our stock in Java Is way
above par n there is nothing too
good for us. The Java people are wild
with JOY and they think Casby and
are just simply infallible. II the
ree1s turn out we'll it just simply means
a fortune for both of US, and I am sure
they will. An engineer, named L.. w. |
Busket, who used to run an assay Office |
in Helena, came in on the boat of the |
21st. His brother, James L.. went tn