not be for want of worl equo want of novelty; for one half of the eastern wo remains yet to be explored. Perhaps we are inore fastidious the more we in of which avance is knowledge; perhaps, also, the want of interest We we complain may, in part, be chargeable to the score of modern authorship. Indeed, we have a strong suspicion that there is something in this last matter; and that books on oriental subjects would be read as eagerly as formerly, if their authors could and describe like Heber, At the same time we believe that the early impressions in favour of eastern nations were generally the offspring of exaggeration, The few travellers of the thirteenth century, and the Catholic missionaries who followed their steps, were so dazzled by the barbaric splendour of the sovereigns their courts, that they overlooked the naked and squalid poverty of the slavish millions around: the overwhelming brilliancy of the former tended only to render the gloomy appearance of the latter still more obscure. ՈՐՊ and The first notice of Ava, if we mistake not, is to be found in that most attentive and accurate traveller, Marco Polo, who, umbe Wand'ring from clime to clime observant stray'd, ga Their manners noted and their states survey'd.' on se adi He calls it Mien, by which name it is still known to the Chinese'; but Mien in those times had a wider meaning. It comprehended the provinces of Bengal and Aracan; as well as what we call the Burmese country; and at that time-Kublai Khan, ruling over China and a great part of India,-the King of Mien, in order to prevent his country being overrun by the Tartars, who had an armed force on its frontiers, in Yun-nan, sent an army of sixty thousand men, horse and foot, with a multitude of elephants carrying battlements on their backs. The Tartars had but twelve thousand men, but they were excellent archers'; and a battle taking place, they poured in their arrows so successfully against the elephants, which were in the front of the battle, that these huge creatures gave way, overthrew their army in the rear, and ran off into the woods. The consequence of this victory was, that the Great Khan got possession of all that country which at present constitutes the Burman empire, with the addition of Aracan and Bengal. The elephants and their conductors were taken into the Tartaric army, to the number of two hundred; and from the period of this battle,' says Marco Polo, the Grand Khan has always chosen to employ elephants in his armies, which before that time he had not done.' The pyramidal temples, the tombs, with their gilding and jingling bells, the jugglers, and sorcerers which then accompanied their armies, and, as we know from recent experience, still continue to do so! All things, even down to 3. We are not aware of any further account of the Burman country. 10 it was visited, in 1546, by Fernan Mendez Pinto, Who, though not, as Congreve calls him, a liar of the first magnitude, does now and then tell a few fibs. Mr. Crawfurd thinks this 11903 20S writer has rendered an exaggerated and obviously an unfaithful account; but, per contra, in the course of the late hostilities, some of our officers gave their testimony to the fidelity of his descriptions. It was during the visit of this traveller that the Burman conquest of Pegu was effected; and it appears that the latter continued to be ruled by a Burman prince, when Cæsar Frederick, in 1563, and Gasparo Balbi, a Venetian jeweller, in 1458, and Master Ralph Fitch, a merchant of London, in 1587, visited this country. From the na From the narratives of these three travellers. it would appear that the condition of the Burman empire was pretty nearly the same, at the periods of their respective visits, as it now is, the king acting the tyrant over his ministers, and his sters, and his ministers oppressing the people. We should say, indeed, if we are to admit the accounts of these travellers to be correct, or nearly so, that the Burmans, instead of advancing in civilization, have retrograded several degrees in barbarism. w bad esmit godt at sos Much sdIn In 1695 Mr. Higginson, then Governor of Madras, sent au embassy, with a letter and presents, to the king of Ava, This letter, and the reply, not from the king but one of his ministers, are amusing specimens of commercial obsequiousness on one side and official arrogance on the other. Mr. Higginson says,atnedqsis to sbutitlum die Jool bas serous based 975To his imperial majesty, who blesseth the noble city of Ava with his presence, emperor of emperors, and excelling the kings of the east and of the west in glory and honour; the clear firmament of virtue, the fountain of justice, the perfection of wisdom, the lord of charity, and protector of the distressed; the first mover in the sphere of greatness, president in council, victorious in war; who feareth none, and is feared by all; centre of the treasures of the earth and of the ea; lord proprietor of gold and silver, rubies, amber, and all precious Jewels; favoured by heaven, and honoured by men; whose brightness shines through the world as the light of the sun, and whose great Hame will be preserved in perpetual memoryap. 105, The envoy, having gained an audience on condition of making three several genuflexions, and, at each, bowing the head three times to the ground, was dismissed with the following 1 letter, addressed to Mr. Governor Higginson! nggo bas garbing misis nuw MOT WON W 28 291 ad did In the East, where the sun rises, and in that Oriental part of it تو 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 con sumed; 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 Diana 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 eaormous 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 |