Extent and Produce of the Tea-Plantations in Assam. 129 



sides. This man said he was now eighty years of age, and 

 that his father died a very old man. How true this story is, 

 I cannot say, and do not see what good it would do the old man 

 to fabricate it. This was the only man I met with in my jour- 

 neys about the country who could give any account of the tea- 

 plant, with the exception of an Ahum, who declared to me that 

 it was Sooka, or the first Kacharry raja of Assam, who brought 

 the tea-plant from Munkum ; he said it was written in his 

 Putty, or history. The Ahum-Putty I have never been able 

 to get hold of ; but this I know, that the information about 

 the tea-plant pointed out by the old Norah man, as being on 

 the Tipum hill, is true ; for I have cleared the tract where it 

 gi'ew thickest, about 300 j-ards by 300, running from the foot 

 of the hill to the top. The old man told me his father cut 

 the plant do\\Ti every third year, that he might get the young 

 leaves. 



To the west of Gabrew I did not find any tea ; but to the 

 westward of the Dhunseeree river I found a species, though 

 not the same as that we use. If the people on the west side 

 of the Dhunseeree river were acquainted with the true leaf, 

 1 think tea would be found. I planted it all along the route 

 I went, which may lead to its eventual discovery ; but people 

 should be sent to search for the plant who are really acquaint- 

 ed with it. I think a vast quantity of tea would be brought 

 to light if this were done. A reference to the map will shew 

 how our tracts are distributed all over the country. But how 

 much tea they would all produce if fully worked, I will not 

 pretend to say ; but in the course of this subject I will men- 

 tion such matters relative to the tracts and plants on them, 

 that every one may make his own calculation. Until lately, 

 we had only two Chinese black tea-makers. These men have 

 twelve native assistants ; each Chinaman, with six assistants, 

 can only superintend one locality, and the tea-leaves from the 

 various other tracts, widely separated, must be brought to 

 those two places for manufi\cture. The consequence is, that 

 an additional number of labourer.s must always be employed 

 to bring the leaves from so great a distance. The leaves suf- 

 fer when brought in large quantities from a distance, as they 

 soon begin to ferment, and the labour of only preparing them so 



vol. XXVIII. NO. LV. .TANV.VRY 1840. 1 



