234 -^^ Accoutit of the Petrohum IFclls, ^c. 



three gallons each ; and, as there are ^30 wells regldered by 



government, the grofs amounl produce of the whole .per 



annum will be 56.940,000 vifs, or 92,781 tons 1560 lb*., or 



412,360 hogflieads, worth at the wells, at one and a quarter- 



tecal per hundred vifs, 711,750 tecals, or 889,737 licca 



rupees. 



From the wells, the oil is carried, in fmall jars, bycoolcys, 

 or on carls, to the^river ; where it is delivered to the merchant 

 exporter at two tecals per hundred vifs, the value being en^ 

 hanced three-eighths by theexpenfe and rifk of portage; there- 

 fore the grofs value or profit to the country of the whole, de- 

 ducSling five per cent, foi^ waftage, may be {lathed at 1,081,860 

 tacals, or 1,362,325 ficca rupees per annum, yielding a dire<Si: 

 revenue to the king of 136,232 ficca rupees per annum, and 

 perhaps thrice as much more before it reaches the confumer; 

 befidcs the bc^nefit the wliole country muft derive from the 

 productive induftry called into action by the conftant em- 

 ployment of fo large a capital on fo gruff ah article. There 

 were between feventy and eighty boats, average burthen fixty 

 tons each, loading oil at the feveral wharfs, and others con- 

 flantly coming and going, while T was there. A number of 

 boats and men alfo find conrmnt employment in providing 

 the pots, &c. for the oil ; and the extent of this fingle branch 

 of internal commerce (for alniofl: the whole is confunied in 

 the country) willferve to give fome infight into the internal 

 comm.erce and refources of the countrv. 



At the wells the price of the oil is feven annas fevcn pies 

 per 112 lbs. avoirdupois; at the port of Hanghong it is fold 

 at the average rate of three ficca rupees three annas and fix 

 pies per cwt. or per hoglhcad of fixty-three gallons, wxii^h- 

 ing504lbs. fourteen rupees feven annas nine pies, exclufive 

 of thecafk, or per Bengal buzar maund two rupees five annas 

 eight pies, whereas the muftard-feed and other vegetable oils 

 fell at Rijnghong at eleven rupees per buzar maund. 



To conclude: this oil is a genuine petroleum, pofiefling 

 all the properties of coal-tar, being, in fa6l, the felf-fame 

 thing; the only difference ^s, that nature elaborates in the 

 bowels of the earth that for the Burmhas for which European 

 nations are obliged to the ingenqky of Lord Dundonald. 



XXIX. Ac^ 



