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VI. Geo"-rapJncal Notice of the Frontiers of the Burmese and Chinese 

 Empires, with the Copy of a Chinese Map. By John Fr^ikcis Davis, 

 Esq., M.R.A.S. 



Read December 15, 1827. 



The great interest which now attaches to the geography of the Burmese 

 empire and to its relations with tlie Chinese, seems to call for as mucli in- 

 formation as can by any means be procured on these subjects from different 

 •quarters. In the Chinese library of the East-Indi,a Company at Canton is a 

 MS. map, chiefly compiled from tlie labours of the missionaries ; and as its 

 extreme accuracy can be vouched for with respect to those parts of the 

 empire tln'ough which Lord Amherst's embassy passed, it is entitled to a 

 degree of credit, which is not hastily to be awarded to Chinese maps in 

 general. An exact copy has been taken from this map of the western part 

 of Yun-nan province. Our latest geographical knowledge of the Burmese 

 country is contained in a map recently published at Calcutta, with the 

 permission of the Bengal government ; and as that portion which relates to 

 the Chinese frontier was likely to have been obtained from Burmese sources, 

 it may be worth while to compare it with the Chinese map. As far as 

 relates to the names of places, the Chinese character is the only sure guide 

 "within their own territory. Little accuracy can be expected from, or stress 

 laid on, the names written by one set of strangers, the English, and 

 obtained by them through the mouths, or the writing, of another set of 

 strangers, the Burmese. Notwithstanding this difficulty, however, it will 

 perhaps be found that a considerable degree of correspondence exists 

 between the two maps. 



The great river /^ \X, Loo-heang forms, according to both maps, the 



boundary of the Chinese empire from lat. 27° to 26°, where it enters Yun- 

 nan province, and issuing from it again about lat. 24°, proceeds nearly due 

 south. Serving, during a considerable part of its course, as the boundary 



