Acheen. 445 



any of the Natives of the place to g-o with me; indeed I might 

 have known from the way in which the permission was granted 

 that the Sultan did not care to have Europeans roaming* about 

 the place. One merchant told me that he himself would have 

 accompanied me^ if he could have left his business^ but he said 

 it was much better that I should not go far, as the Sultan did 

 not wish it, so, perforce, I was compelled to confine myself to 

 the flat land in the immediate vicinity of the sea, which, to say 

 the least, was but poor collecting ground, being either a succes- 

 sion of paddy fields, or ground thickly covered with the dunny 

 palm, and intersected in all directions with innumerable small 

 creeks, which made travelling about both tedious and unpleasant. 



" The villages were few and far between, and were either built 

 upon a piece of ground slightly elevated above the surrounding 

 country, or on flat ground that happened to be dry and firm. 

 In and around the villages were generally scattered a few large 

 trees and clumps of bamboos, and the fields were often sur- 

 rounded by a ditch and hedge of bamboos. These large trees 

 and bamboos were the favorite resorts of the few land birds that 

 were to be seen, and it was chiefly in these localities that I ob- 

 tained my very poor show of specimens ; unfortunately the 

 moment I appeared in, or near a village, I was surrounded by 

 all the boys, and not unfrequently by many of the men of the 

 place, all of whom would persist in following me about, talk- 

 ing, or rather I should say yelling to one another, at the top of 

 their voices, and running hither and thither, scaring all the 

 birds, or if they did not do this, keeping so much in the way 

 that I was obliged to be very careful in firing, lest I should 

 transgress the Sultan's positive injunctions not to shoot any of 

 his subjects. 



"As you proceed up the river the country appears to get 

 higher and dryer, and here may be seen fruit gardens, which 

 are said to produce some fine fruit, chiefly the mangosteen and 

 rambosteen ; as to the former I cannot express an opinion, as 

 there were none to be had at the time of our visit, but the 

 lattej>which is a deep- red fruit about the size of a hen's &^s^, 

 covered all over with tubercules or soft thorn like excrescences, 

 and much resembling a lechee inside, is a really delicious fruit, 

 a,nd is comparatively clieap, for although only just coming into 

 season about the time of our visit, they were selling at the rate 

 of 300 for a dollar. 



" The Mexican and Spanish dollar are the only current silver 

 coins at Acheen, and although the Natives will take rupees, they 

 never give the full value in change. Besides the dollar, there is 

 a small leaden coin of Native manufacture, about the size of a 



