which is called Chabudu ; the Lord of Water and Earth, and Emperor of Emperors, against whose Imperial Majesty if any shall be so foolish as to imagine any thing, it shall be happy for them to die and be consumed; the Lord of great charity, and Help of all nations, the great Lord esteemed for happiness; the Lord of all riches, of elephants, and horses, and all good blessings; the Lord of high-built palaces, of gold; the great and most powerful Emperor in this life, the soles of whose feet are gilt, and set upon the heads of all people: we, his great governor and resident here, called Moa Acsena Tibodis, do make known to the Governor N. Higginson'- what? not that the request to open a trade and send a factor was granted-but, alas for the bathos! that The mighty and powerful Emperor has done the honour to the Governor for the English Company in Madras to send him a present, being 1500 viss lack, 2500 viss tin, 300 viss ivory, six earthen dishes, and eight lackered boxes.'-p. 507.

Several other attempts were made in the course of the eighteenth century, by the servants of the East India Company, to establish a commercial intercourse with these intractable people; with whom we became somewhat better acquainted, in consequence of the mission of Lieut.-Col. Symes, in 1795, subsequent to their conquest of Aracan. His well-written account of this country and its inhabitants was favourably received by the public, but Mr. Crawfurd says it has the fault of conveying an exaggerated impression of the strength and resources of the Burman Empire. Colonel Symes,' he adds, 'describes the Burmese as a civilized, improving, numerous, and warlike race a picture of them which our recent contest, and the close examination of their character, which the results of that contest afforded us an opportunity of making, are far indeed from having verified.' Let us now proceed to examine Mr. Crawfurd's own picture.

Our author, having resided at Rangoon for some time as civil commissioner on the part of the governor-general of Bengal, received instructions from that government to proceed on an embassy to Ava, to negociate a treaty of commerce, conformably with an article in the treaty of peace signed at Yandabo. The Dianá steam-boat, of one hundred and thirty tons burthen, was appointed for the accommodation of himself, three lieutenants, a medical officer, Dr. Wallich, the superintendent of the botanical garden at Calcutta, and Mr. Judson, the American missionary, who was engaged to act as translator and interpreter. Five Burman boats were also provided for the conveyance of writers and draftsmen, their baggage, and presents; as, also, twenty-eight picked grenadiers of the 87th regiment, and fifteen picked sepoy grenadiers.

Mr. Crawfurd observes that, as far as to the distance of one hundred and twenty miles from the sea, there was little or no appearance on the banks of the Irawadi either of commercial or

agricultural industry; the villages were few, and those small; and as the surface of the country seemed to possess, in an eminent degree, the advantages of a fertile soil, a favourable climate, and the means of a ready communication, the natural inference he draws is, the badness of the government- -worse even, he thinks, than those of Siam and Camboja; on the banks of whose rivers extensive cultivation commences at ten miles above their embouchures. The steam-boat made her way up to the capital, but frequently grounded on her return, on account of the low state of the river. At Prome, which is about three hundred miles below Ava, some little improvement was visible in the state of the country. Several new houses had been constructed, and others were in progress; the population is said to have reached as high, at least, as ten thousand souls; the whole bank of the river was lined with small trading vessels; and larger patches of ground were under rice-cultivation than had hitherto been observed. As the party proceeded towards the capital, the cultivation became somewhat more extended; the chief articles of produce being indigo, sesamum, Indian hemp (crotollaria juncea), and rice.

At Melloon, the number of temples seemed to exceed the number of dwellings, which is not unusual in the Burman towns and villages. The former are as splendid as gilding can make them, and the latter as humble as can be conceived from the frail materials of which they are constructed-bamboos, palm leaves, and grass. The wealth of a Burman, always insecure, is very generally expended on the luxury of temple-building. Religious merit, indeed, consists mainly in the construction of one of these huge, costly, and showy edifices; and is not considered as increased by building a durable one. No one ever thinks of repairing or restoring an old temple; and the consequence is, that in every part of the country may be seen half-finished structures of enormous magnitude-the respective founders having died before they were completed. In most countries of the world, the prosperity of a place is indicated by the comforts and the luxuries enjoyed by the inhabitants, and by the respectable appearance and elegance of their habitations; but here, it seems, the wealth of the people is only to be judged of by the number, magnitude, and splendour, of temples and monasteries.

At Renan-k'hyaung, which, we are told, means literally' odorous water rivulet,' are the celebrated petroleum wells, which supply the whole Burman empire with oil for lamps, and also for smearing timber, to protect it against insects, and particularly the white ant. Its consumption for burning is stated to be universal, until its price reaches that of sesamum oil, the only other kind used for lamps. The wells, which occupy a space of about sixteen square miles,

vary in depth from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet; the: shaft is square, not more than four feet each side, and is formed by sinking a frame of wood. The oil, on coming up, is about the temperature of ninety degrees of Fahrenheit. It is thrown into a large cistern, in the bottom of which are small apertures for the aqueous part to drain off, when the oil is left for some time to thicken. It is then put into large earthen jars, placed in rude carts drawn by oxen, and carried to the banks of the river, from whence it is sent by water-carriage to every part of the empire. Mr. Crawfurd endeavours to form an estimate of the population of the country, from the quantity of this oil consumed in burning; but we think his data are very little to be depended on. By the number and burden of the boats employed in this trade, (which is but a mere guess,) and the number of voyages they are supposed to make in the course of a year, (which is equally conjectural,) he estimates the exportation from the wells to amount to 17,568,000 vis, of twenty-six pounds and a half each. Thirty vis a year is reckoned to be the average consumption of a family of five persons and a half; and about two-thirds of the oil are supposed to be employed for burning. These data, supposing them correct, would give a population of 2,147,200 souls. By another calculation, founded on the actual produce of the wells, he makes the consumers of petroleum for burning amount to 2,066,721. Now Captain Cox, who followed Colonel Symes, estimated the whole annual produce of these wells at 56,940,000 vis, which, on the same grounds of calculation, would afford a population of 6,959,331 souls. We are at a loss to understand what Mr. Crawfurd means, in alluding to this calculation, by the following sentence, which is apparently so inconsistent with his own conclusion: This,' he says, ' is a much higher estimate than any rough data afford; but even this, it will be observed, gives but a very low estimate of the probable population of the empire.'-(p. 57.) This observation is the more incomprehensible from what is afterwards stated, (pp. 464, 465, and 466,) where, by one account, Mr. Crawfurd makes the population 4,416,000; by another, 2,414,000; and by a third, 3,300,000; and thus concludes: Upon a consideration of the imperfect statements now offered, I am disposed not to rate the population of the Burman empire higher than four millions, or about twenty-two inhabitants to the square mile.' Colonel Symes estimated the population of the Burman empire at 14,400,000; so that we are left to take our choice somewhere-or anywhere-between two millions and fourteen millions and a half.

"

At no great distance from this barren spot were discovered, in great quantities, objects particularly interesting to geologists.

They

They consisted of masses of petrified wood, more or less impregnated with iron; and numerous specimens of fossil bones of various animals no longer existing in the country. Of these, Mr. Crawfurd collected as many specimens as filled seven large chests, of which Professor Buckland has given an interesting account in the Transactions of the Geological Society. Their preservation is stated to be remarkably perfect, owing to their being almost entirely penetrated with hydrate of iron, to a degree which has converted many of them into a rich mass of iron ore. It appeared, on examination, that they consisted chiefly of the bones and teeth of the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, mastodon, tapir, and hog; of several species of ruminantia, resembling oxen, antelopes, or deer; with the addition of the gavial and alligator, and species of the two genera of fresh-water tortoises, namely, trionex and emys. Professor Buckland observes, that the occurrence of such reptiles, in the same deposits with the mammalia, has not, he believes, yet been noticed in the diluvium of Europe, America, or northern Asia; and he thinks it deserving of remark, that the gavial, and several of the pachydermata found by Mr. Crawfurd, do not now inhabit the Burmese country; the gavial being limited exclusively to the waters of the Ganges and its confluents, and the hippopotamus existing only in the rivers and lakes of Africa, (query-in Sumatra ?) and the mastodon being utterly extinct. There is, however,' says Mr. Buckland, no greater anomaly in supposing that all these animals inhabited the Burmese country at the period preceding the deluge which overwhelmed it, than that, at the period preceding the similar catastrophe which befel the north of Europe, the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and hyæna were coinhabitants of England.'

Mr. Crawfurd and his party arrived at Ava on the last day of September, having performed the journey in thirty days, the distance from Rangoon being about four hundred and fifty miles. The steamer went by the log at the rate only of five and a half knots an hour, of which she was retarded three knots by the current. It is stated that one of the Burmese boats has gone from Ava to Rangoon, during the freshes, in four days, and returned in ten; but they are, perhaps, the best rowing boats in the world, though Mr. Crawfurd seems to give the preference to those of Cochin-China. In the course of the voyage the party had occasion to see many of these boats. One of the woongees, or ministers, visited the Diana in a war-boat of sixty oars. A wundunk, or deputy to a woongie, came on board near Ava, having three royal barges, covered all over, not excepting the oars, with gold, and rowing each forty oars. The minister gave our envoy

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI,

D

an

an early specimen of Burmese dignity. While sitting under an awning on the poop of the steam-vessel, a heavy squall, with rain,

came on.

I suggested to his excellency the convenience of going below, which he long resisted, under the apprehension of committing his dignity by placing himself in a situation where persons might tread over his head, for this singular antipathy is common both to the Burmese and Siamese. The prejudice is more especially directed against the fair sex, a pretty conclusive proof of the estimation in which they are held. His excellency seriously demanded to know whether any woman had ever trod upon the poop; and being assured in the negative, he consented at length to enter the cabin.'-pp. 14, 15.

These notions of dignity were, on several occasions, found to be exceedingly inconvenient. Money had been sent from Rangoon to fit up the house of Dr. Price, an American missionary, for the reception of the ambassador; but the ministers would not allow of his occupying it, on the ground that it was more elevated than the king's barge, as it lay in the river, and that such a spectacle would not become the king's dignity.' Again, the Burmese negociators would not enter the house of the ambassador to carry on the conferences, because no chief person must enter the house of an inferior, or even of an equal; for to do so would imply a derogation of dignity, or an extraordinary condescension, which these gentry were very little disposed to show towards the Bengal embassy indeed, they very early gave the ambassador to understand that they only considered the governor-general as a provincial officer, and that his envoy could not expect the same respect and attention to be paid to him as to one who should be sent by the King of England.

"These half-civilized nations, (it is Mr. Crawfurd who speaks,) notwithstanding their knowledge of the power of our Eastern empire, feel the utmost repugnance to placing themselves on a level with a mere viceroy. In the discussions which took place under the British cannon at Yandabo, within forty miles of the capital, and when the government of Ava was humiliated to the last degree, the Burman commissioners, feigning to forget that they were negociating with the Indian government, made difficulties about the appointment of resident ambassadors, as provided for in the treaty of peace, alleging the great distance of England from their country! It was necessary to remind them, in language not to be misunderstood, that Calcutta, and not London, was to be the place of residence of the Burman ambassador.'-p. 13.

We shall not stop to give any description of Ava. Of their temples we know enough from Col. Symes, and the mud huts and bamboo houses are not worth description. It is the common custom for a new sovereign to remove from the old capital, and