StO Mr Crawford's Aciiount of the Mission to Ava. 



English church-yard. Some are in tbe round Pali character, and others in the 

 Buhhah ; but the greater number in the former. They all contain dates, and 

 generally the name of the reigning king, with references to some historical 

 event ; but the chiet object is to commemorate the founding of some temple or 

 monastery. Translations of several of these inscriptions have been effected, 

 and good draAvings made of some of the most striking of the ancient temples. 

 Information, in considei-able detail, has been obtained respecting the condition 

 of manufacturing and agricultural industry amongst the Burmans, the state of 

 landed tenures, the wages of labour, the price of food, and the rate of popu- 

 lation. Barbarous as the Burmans must be admitted to be, in comparison 

 with the Hindus, the Chinese, the Persians, and the Arabs, they have still 

 ^)me advantages over these liations, the natural result of the frame of society 

 among them. The population is thinly scattered over an immense tract of 

 fruitful country ; the most fertile lands are so abundant that every man may 

 have as much to cultivate as he chooses to occupy ; food is low priced ; labour 

 highly rewarded.* The people are easy in their circumstances, as far as mere 

 food, clothing, and dwelling are concerned, and there is much equality amongst 

 them ; for if there be some rich, there are none very poor, and there is scarce- 

 ly any beggary. These natural advantages are far more than counterbalanced 

 by the possession of a government lawless and despotic, and from the oppres- 

 sion of which, the poverty of its subjects is their best protection. No man 

 must here presume to be rich. If he acquire wealth, it is at the peril of be- 

 coming a prey to the harpies of government. Sooner or later he will get into 

 trouble, and his property must be ultimately swallowed up in those sweeping- 

 confiscations which extinguish every germ of prosperity in the countiy. 



" The population and resources of the Burman empire seem to have been 

 greatly exaggerated. The inhabitants have been reckoned at 17,000,000 at 

 19,000,000, and even at 33,000,000. Let any one accustomed to consider 

 such matters, look at the country along the banks of the Irawadi, from the 

 sea to Ava, a course of 600 miles, the best part of the kingdom ; he will then 

 see that the greater portion of it is covered with primeval forest, without ves- 

 tige of present or former culture, and he will be convinced of the utter impro- 

 bability of such exorbitant estimates. 



" The iS)llowing fact will convey a better notion of the true state of popula- 

 tion and improvement than any yet before the pubUc. The three towns of 

 Ava, Amerapura, and Sakaing, with the districts annexed to them, contain an 

 area of 283 square miles, and constitute by far the best cultivated and most 

 populous portions of the empire. It is nearly exempt from taxation, being 

 favoured through ancient and established usage, at the expense of the rest of 

 the country. It contains, according to the public registers, 50,600 houses, 

 and each house is estimated to haA-'e seven inhabitants, which makes their to- 

 tal population only 354,200. Ava itself certainly does not contain , 00 in- 

 habitants ; and in population, wealth, industry, and trade, is greatly below the 

 capital of Siam. The other large towns of the Burman empire, such as Ran- 

 goon, Prome, Monchabu, Monay, &c. which are not above a dozen in num- 

 ber, do not any of them contain above 10,000 inhabitants. The population of 

 Rangoon was ascertained by an actual census in our own time, and found to 

 amount only to between 8,000 and 9,000. It used formerly to be estimated 

 s high as 30,000. 



