32 Dr Hamil ton's Account of the 



Art. V. — An Account of the Frontier between Ava and the 

 Part of Bengal adjacent to the Karnaphuli River. By 

 Francis Hamilton, M.D. F.B..S. and F. A. S. Lond. and 

 Edin. Communicated by the Author. 



The river called Naaf by Europeans, which enters the sea in 

 about 20° 50' north, for a short way forms the boundary be- 

 tween Ava and Bengal ; and across it is the only communica- 

 tion known between the kingdom of Arakan subject to Ava, 

 and Chatigang subject to Britain. North from the forks of 

 this river, so far as I could learn in 1798, there was no dis- 

 tinct boundary ; but there extends north, along the whole of 

 the Chatigang district, a mountainous frontier occupied by se- 

 veral rude tribes. Through this region flow many rivers ; 

 some into the sea, either through Chatigang or Arakan, and 

 some into the Erawadi ; and the high land at the sources of 

 such of these rivers as run through the district of Chatigang 

 was commonly supposed to be the actual boundary. The 

 rude tribes, indeed, which occupy the hilly countries on both 

 sides of the central height, claim independence, and support it, 

 so far as their slender means will admit. On this account, we 

 cannot depend on there being no passages through this coun- 

 try, because the inhabitants will naturally conceal them, as an 

 intercourse by these passages would inevitably lead to their 

 more full subjection to either one or other of their more power- 

 ful neighbours. 



In a map of the Empire of Ava by Mr Walker, the rivers 

 flowing through Chatigang are laid down as anastomosing 

 with those which run through Arakan ; and this may be the 

 case, although I heard not the most distant hint from the na- 

 tives of such a circumstance. Indeed none of those, with 

 whom I conversed, pretended to know any thing of the sour- 

 ces of the larger rivers, on the banks of which they dwelt, al- 

 leging that a fear of the independent tribes hindered them from 

 ever penetrating so far. Such an anastomosis, in a very hilly 

 country, is singular, and renders uncertain the above mention- 

 ed idea of the boundary. This .would increase the probabili- 

 ty of there being passages direct from the sources of the Kar- 



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