348 Report on a Route across [No. 4, 



We would beg to bring to your notice the great civility and 

 kindness with which we were received by the chief civil authority, 

 Tacompa, in the Siamese territory. 



I have, &c, 

 (Signed) A. Prases, Captain, Bengal Engineers. 



1. The Steamer "Nemesis," with Lt.-Col. A. Pytehe, Commis- 

 sioner T. & M. Provinces on board, anchored about 15 miles up the 

 river Pakchan in five or six fathoms of water. Banks, steep and densely 

 wooded, with a stream running between them of (here) about a 

 mile in breadth. 



2. Opening into the Mergui archipelago, opposite the south end 

 of St. Mathew's Island, there are some six fathoms of water at low 

 water over the Bar at the mouth, though vessels coming from the 

 north, inside the Island, have to run some little way southerly to 

 avoid an extensive spit of sand, which runs partly across the entrance 

 to the river. 



3. On the north side, the right or British Bank, of the stream, 

 are the tin mines of Malewoon, which are, we believe, workable to 

 any extent to which money and labour are procurable. On the other 

 side are the tin mines of Bahnong worked by the Siamese Go- 

 vernment. 



4. Collecting, on the evening of the 31st March, all the instru- 

 ments necessary for a rough survey, a Perambulator, Compass, and 

 Aneroid, we left the steamer in a native boat with a flood tide, and 

 proceeded up this river which forms the boundary between the 

 British possessions in these Provinces, and the Siamese territories. 

 A fog came on, and we were obliged to anchor for some time. We 

 arrived, however, at Krau by 4 p. M. of the 1st April. 



5. Krau is a Shan village of some fifty houses with a few Chinese 

 inhabitants. The civil authority was absent attending his superior 

 at Tsoompeon the chief place of the district, and where a Woondouk, 

 a functionary equal in authority to our Dy. Commissioner, resided. 



6. At Krau we rested the night in a good zayat, which had 

 been prepared for the aforesaid chief civil authority, who visits 

 periodically his district on this, the Western side of his Majesty of 

 Bankok's Southern dominions. We had some difficulty in procuring 

 means of locomotion in consecpience of there being no one to give 



