44-6 AcJieetb. 



six pence; and very tliin^ with a few letters or characters stamped 

 in relief on it^ and which is apparently very largely used, but is, 

 to say the least, a most inconvenient form of change to carry 

 about or use, as in exchange for a dollar you get two thousand 

 five hundred or three thousand of these leaden cash, which really 

 means about a couple of lbs. of lead at the very least. 



" The country inland and the islands Pulo Brassy, Pulo Whey, 

 Pulo Rando, &c., are said to be exceedingly fertile, and to pro- 

 duce large quantities of spices, especially black pepper. 



" The exports I was told consist chiefly of spices, (of which 

 pepper forms a very large proportion) of mats, and straw caps ', 

 besides these, a quantity of silver, chiefly in the form of dollars 

 which have been obtained in exchange for goods imported, is 

 annually carried to Penang, Rangoon, t)r other adjacent ports. 

 The imports are English goods, "sarongs " (waist cloths,) 

 Indian muslins, and co\oxeA " roomals," (handkerchiefs), sugar, 

 and rum, the latter only in 3omparatively small quantities. The 

 trade is carried on by Madrassees and Chinese, but chiefly by 

 the former. There were at the time of our visit six schooners, 

 one brig, and one junk lying at anchor ofi" Acheen Head, but I 

 was told that trade had been for many years slackening, and 

 that the country was nothing to what it once was, which complaint 

 though €ommon enough in most places is no doubt true enough 

 here, if one may judge from the signs of former prosperity still 

 existing. The whole coast at Acheen Head appears to have been 

 atone time regularly fortified. Ruins of ramparts dotted with 

 unmounted guns still stretch along the coast; the number of 

 guns to be seen about is wonderful. Every three or four hundred 

 yards along the coast, iron guns of different sizes, lie unmounted, 

 and often half-buried in the soil or covered over with rank 

 vegetation ; near every village again two or three unmounted guns 

 may be seen. The great mass are iron, and are generally small ; 

 one, however, that I found in the courtyard of what appeared to 

 have been a small fort was of bronze, and measured about 32 feet 

 long with an 8 ineh diameter bore, the metal being about 6 inches 

 in thickness at the thickest part; another lying in the court- 

 yard of the Audience Hall was also of bronze, and bore in relief 

 the English arms, and an inscription to the effect that it had 

 been manufactured by two brothers named Pitt, A. D. 1617. 

 The inscription was, if I remember rightly, as follows : 



Jacobus Rex. 



John and Richard. 



Pitt Brethren 



made this peece. 



Anno 1617. 



