Burmah and the Burmese

by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie

The Saluen or Martaban river rises in the same range of mountain whence the Burampooter, the Irawadi, and the great Kamboja rivers originate. In the early part of its course, it is named Nou-Kiang by the Chinese, through whose territory it at first flows. It disembogues into the Gulf of Poolooghoon opposite the island of that name.

The Kyan Duayn is a river which, rising near the sources of the Irawadi, traverses the Kubo valley, and falls into that river in lat. 21° 35´ N., long. 95° 10´ E.; forming several islands at the junction. The principal of these is Alakyun.

The river Setang makes a grand appearance, as Malcom says, upon the map, still it is of little use, as its depth is only four feet, though at different places it has a depth of from ten to fifteen feet. It must at one time have been deeper and navigable, for the ancient capital of Tongho, in the kingdom of that name, is built upon it. There is a bore of three feet on the Setang. The other rivers of Burmah are of little consequence. There are but few lakes, and the most considerable will be noticed hereafter.

The fruits of Burmah are very varied in their character, and though they surpass their neighbours in the article of timber, yet the fruit-trees are far inferior. A very complete list is given in Malcom’s comprehensive work, to which I must refer the reader.[10] The teak forests, whose produce forms no inconsiderable article in Burmese commerce, are situated in the province of Sarawadi, in the hilly mountainous district east and north-east of Rangoon. The forests in this part of Asia, like the woody and uncultivated parts of Hindostan, are extremely pestiferous, and even though the wood-cutters be a hardy and active race of men, on whom climate and suffering would seem to have little effect, yet they never attain to any considerable age, and are very short-lived.

Dr. Wallich, on his visit to Burmah in 1826, collected specimens of upwards of sixteen thousand different sorts of trees and plants. I need only refer the reader to his learned and magnificent work for a description and classification of them.

The mineral riches of the land, which are considerable, are not sufficiently attended to. The head-waters of the various rivers contain gold-dust, and from Bamoo, on the frontier of China, much gold has been obtained. Malcom suggests that want of enterprise and capital has alone prevented these sources of prosperity from being worked. Yes, it has been that curse! From the earliest ages they have laboured under it, and time seems not to have taught them the important lesson that all the world beside are learning and repeating every day,—the necessity of progress. Much of their gold is drawn from China, and their love for using it in gilding edifices resembles the taste of the Incas, who, richer in the metal, plated their temples with gold.[11] What is not used for this purpose is employed in the setting of the jewels of the great, and as in Peru, remains in the hands of the Inca lords. It is rarely used as currency, and then in ingots.

Notwithstanding that there is much silver elsewhere, the only mines worked are in Laos, and there even the mines are not wrought by the Burmese, but by natives of China and Laos, to the number of about a thousand. The estimated produce does not seem large, amounting annually to only one hundred thousand pounds, on which the contractors pay a tax of five thousand pounds.

The diamonds are all small, and emeralds are wanting. Rubies are found in great quantities, however, at about five days’ journey from Ava, near the villages of Mo-gout and Kyat-pyen. Malcom saw one for which the owner asked no less than four pounds of pure gold. The king is reported to have some which weigh from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty grains. Sapphires, too, abound. “Some have been obtained,” Malcom assures us, “weighing from three thousand to nearly four thousand grains.”[12] Many other precious stones are to be found in this wealthy country. Much amber is found round the Hu-kong valley, on the Assam frontier. Iron, tin, lead, and many of those staples of commerce which form the real wealth and resources of every country, abound, and coal is to be found in the inland provinces.[13] Marble, and of the finest, also exists in the land; better than which there would seem to be none in the world. What might such a country be in the hands of an energetic and intelligent people!

I subjoin a translation of a description of the mines of precious stones in Kyat-pyen, from the original of Père Giuseppe d’Amato.[14] It gives a clearer and conciser account of the mines than I can meet with elsewhere, and I therefore offer it to the reader in an abridged form.