TEN 



'200 



T K N 



never being Ibund near the sca-shor. I'll, > are said to 

 he the Mine nation ss Inch occupies several mountain-tracts 



in liiriiiu. . DMT tin- ill- 1 til ol' tin- Jmwaddi 



[liiKMv, sol. is., p. Jltii. anil to support tins u|)iiniin it i 

 affirmed that till' liimiiin Karians bordering upon China, 

 lit tin- distance ol l:t degrees ot' latitude, speak a din 



,ini' language which is current among the Knrians of 

 a. This liict requires to In- confirmed, lor in 

 other respects these nations differ greatly in habit*. In 

 Ilirma the Karians are the most industrious cnllisators of 

 the soil, and manufacture several kinds of cotton and silk 

 rlotli, but those of Tenasserim are an agricultural people 

 without any ti\rd habitations, migrating every MOOOd Of 

 third year. When a Kariim family lias chosen a place for 

 .1 plantation, huts of bamboo thatched with palm-leases 

 an- constructed, and a part of the forest is cleared, just as 

 much as is ncci-sarv to plant the ground svith rice suffi- 

 cient to maintain tlie settlers for a year. The paddy is 

 sown upon the ground, which i.s imperfectly cleared, without 

 ans tillage or other preparation, and whatever else is wanted 

 (cotton, indigo, sesamum, vegetables, ice.) is sown or 

 planted promiscuously on the same spot. The following 

 year another spot is cleared in the vicinity, and after some 

 years, or when a death happens, the family removes to a 

 greater distance, and begins again the laborious task of 

 felling immense forest-trees, visiting only from time to 

 time the old establishment, which yet yields fruit for several 

 seasons, and thus the Karian wanders all his lifetime with- 

 out ever settling permanently. It seems however that an 

 improvement in the condition of the Knrians is taking 

 . Their religion is heathenism. They believe in evil 

 spirits, called nfits, which have a direct influence on the 

 destinies of mankind, and they try to propitiate them by 

 sacrifices of fowls, tobacco, nee, and pieces of money, 

 which they deposit at certain places. The attempts to 

 convert them to Christianity by the American missionaries 

 have been successful. A tribe of the Karians, called the 

 Red Karians, inhabit the mountains north-cast of Maul- 

 main, and these mountaineers are said to live by robbery. 

 The Seelongs are the lowest in civilization among the 

 nations of Tcnn.sserim. They are confined to the islands. 

 of the Mergui Archipelago, and are a race of wandering 

 fishermen. s\ho build temporary huts of reeds, palm-trees, 

 and bamboos, during the inclemency of the monsoon, and 

 pass the rest of the year either in boats or on the sea-bench 

 under the shade of trees. They never cultivate the ground, 

 but live upon the spontaneous products, chiefly turtles, 

 fish, and shell-fish, which form their principal food. They 

 have a peculiar language, but too little is known of it for 

 us tn determine whether it is a mixture of languages or a 

 peculiar tongue. They form a petty tribe, not exceeding, 

 -aid, 10(10 souls in number, and it is very difficult to 

 meet them in the islands which they visit, as they hide 

 themselves whenever they see a strange sail approaching. 

 This is probably the effect of their having suffered much 

 from the pirates, who, until lately, infested those seas, and 

 it serves to explain the statement of the early Kuropean 

 nas igators, who landed on these islands, and found them 

 uninhabited. The Seelongs have a vague idea that there 

 are certain invisible beings which exercise an influence 

 over the destinies of mankind, but there is no established 

 mode of worship, and they are entirely ignorant of a future 

 state. No attempt has yet been made to convert them. 



Heifer reports, that among the natives the opinion is 

 general that in the most mountainous part of the country 

 is a race of wild men, who shun all intercourse will 

 their neighbours, and seem to be hardly superior to mon 

 keys. He U much inclined to think that these wild men arc 

 the gigantic orang-outang of Sumatra. lint the Andaman 

 Islands arc inhabited by a puny race of men, the lowest ii 

 the scale of intellectual beings, which seems to belong 

 to the race of the Australian negroes: and only a fev 

 degrees farther south, in the kingdom of (jueda, a smal 

 tube. IhcSnmang, are found [M,M.\\ PKNINXILS. sol. MS. 

 p. :27I, who greatly resemble the inhabitants of tht 

 Andaman Islands. It is therefore not improbable that a 

 small remnant of such a tribe may still exist in '!' 

 inn. 



The Karians, Seelong*. and the last -mentioned race an 



prohahU then have emigrated from (hi 



neighbouring country. Many Chi',, 'in tin 



j"iiN, where they are merchants, ship-owners ship 



builders, spirit-distillers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers 



,nd garden' <>i them settled when the country 



was subject tn liirma, and others luise (nine since the 



ilion by the lintish. They are married to Ihnnan 



vomcii. hut their children, if male*, arc br.nijht up a 



'hine.-o, ani' customs, manners, and dress of their 



tit hers. There are also a number of Chuliahs. 



"iiiaudel, settled in the places sshere Kuri-ij 

 < snle. witli whose customs and wants they are much better 

 icmmintfd than the natives, and by administering to which 



.1111 their livelihood. The same may be said o; 

 ieiigiilccs, who howeser are always interior to the people 

 if the peninsula of HinilustAf, ill enterprise and capacity, 

 fheir number is not great. Vs Tena-sscrim i.s the penal 

 settlement t'orthe Hritish possessions in Hindustan, about 

 JHH) convicts base been sent there, especially Thugs. 

 They are treated with great mildne-s, and most of them 

 lave been converted into useful members of society. 

 Many of them have married, and on the term of their 

 lanishmcnt expiring have settled in the country. At 

 Maulmain a few Armenians and Pa, tiled, this 



jeing the only place in Tenasscrim where trade is carried 

 on. 



The English settled in Tenasscrim are almost all in 

 official capacities, either cisil officer.* of government or the 

 nilitary officers of the two regiments which arc stationed 

 icre. The number of private person* is small, and almost 

 all of them are congregated in Maulmain, svhere they are 

 chiefly engaged in ship-building, or otherwise connect', 1 

 with the teak-timber trade. Besides a tew American Uap- 

 ist Missionaries, there are many descendants of Portii;: 

 Uy intermarrying with native women, they have partly lost 

 [he advantages of European cisili/.ation, their condition 

 l>eing nearly the same with that of the natives, and fre- 

 quently much lower. Their steadiness in adhering strictly 

 to their faith preserves them as a distinct class. They have 

 also mostly preserved their language, but it is barbarously 

 corrupted. 



ToH'im.In a country so little cultivated, and the popu- 

 lation of which is dispersed over such an extent, there can 

 he no large towns. When the Hritish took possession of 

 the country they founded the tosvn of Amhcrst, near the 

 month of the Martalian river, hoping that the commerce 

 of the country would concentrate at this place. [AM- 

 MKRST, vol. i., p. 452.] But these expectations have not 

 been answered. Maulmain, which was at first only a 

 military post, has since risen into importance and is rapidly 

 increasing, as its situation near the confluence of the Afta- 

 ycn svith the Sal ween is the most favourable place for car- 

 rying on the trade in teak, svhich constitutes the most im- 

 portant article of export. Ship-building is the only trade 

 which is carried on to any extent. The tosvn of Tnvoy is 

 also small, but it has some commerce svith Rangoon 

 and Mergui. The tosvn of Mergui has the adsantage of 

 a safe ana well-protected harbour. The roadstead is be- 

 tween the mainland and Madramacan Island, svith a soft 

 Ixittom in from G to 1~> fathoms, and !., s are 



sheltered from all winds. It is about, six miles from the 

 town. Hut vessels of moderate size can go over the bar 

 into the river, and anchor off the tosvn in five fathoms. 

 Though it is at present a small place, it svill probably rise 

 to great importance, as in the country at the back of it the 

 richest deposits of coal and tin have been discovered. The 

 neighbourhood is also particularly ssell adapted for plant- 

 of spice-trees, and the Siamese have begun to cul- 

 tisate the cane for making sugar: it is also svell situated 

 for commercial intercourse overland svith Bangkok and 

 the countries of Siam which surround the gulf of that 

 name. Tcnasserim, an antient town, which howcscrsvas 

 destroyed in the wan between the Siamese and Unmans, 



is in ruins, but ssill probably be revived, osving to the coals 

 in the neighbourhood anil "the sloop navigation extending 

 to this place. 



mfuctures and Commerce. It the build- 



Ig and small crall at Mergui. Tasny. and 

 Maulmain, then' is no manufacturing industry in 

 Tenasscrim; nearly the whole population IS in that 



of civilization in svhich it has not vet accjiiired a tnv 

 refinement and comforK and articles of foreign manufac- 

 ture are not much in demand. Such articles as cotton- 

 cloth, coarse ehina-svare. and iron cooking-vessels, are 

 lit by the Cliine-e from HangVok. and cotton-cloth, 

 gunpowder, and nrm> imported from Kngland by svay of 

 .- 01 Calcutta. There are also imported petroleum 



