156 Mr Bruce on (he Manufacture of Tea, and on the 



produced in 1838. The plant will, I should think, produce 25 

 per cent, this year, and go on increasing to what I have above 

 mentioned. But then, on the other hand, the items which I 

 have set down are not all that will be required to carry on this 

 trade on an extensive scale. The superintendence, numerous 

 additional artizans that will be required, and a thousand little 

 wants which cannot be set down now, but which must neces- 

 sarily arise from the nature of the cultivation and manufac- 

 ture, will go far to diminish the profits and swell the outlay ; 

 but this of course will last but a few years, until the natives of 

 the country have been taught to compete with Chinamen. It 

 should also be remembered, that the calculation I have made 

 on ten tracts is on a supposition that we have a sufficient num- 

 ber of native tea-makei's and canister-makers, which will not 

 be the case for two or three years to come. It is on this point 

 alone that we are deficient, for the tea-plants and lands are 

 before us. Yes, there is another very great drawback to the 

 cultivation of tea in this country, and which I believe I before 

 noticed, namely, the want of population and labourers. They 

 will have to be imported and settled on the soil, which will be 

 a heavy tax on the first outlay : but this too will rectify itself 

 in a few years ; for, after the importation of some thousands, 

 others will come of themselves, and the redundant population 

 of Bengal will pour into Assam, as soon as the people know 

 that they will get a certain rate of pay, as well as lands, for 

 the support of their families. If this should be the case, the 

 Assamese language will in a few years be extinct. 



I might here observe, that the British Government would 

 confer a lasting blessing on the Assamese and the new settlers, 

 if immediate and active measures were taken to put down the 

 cultivation of opium in Assam, and afterwards to stop its im- 

 portation by levying high duties on opium land. If something 

 of this kind is not done, and done quickly too, the thousands 

 that are about to emigrate from the plains into Assam will 

 soon be infected with the opium mania— that dreadful plague 

 which has depopulated this beautiful country, turned it into a 

 land of wild beasts, with which it is overrun, and has degene- 

 rated the Assamese, from a fine race^ of people, to the most 

 abject, servile, crafty, and demoralized race in India. This 



