1835.] Island of Rambree on the Arracan Coast. 89 



rate of two or three maundsper rupee, and the greater part of it bought 

 for exportation. 



Outside the village and facing the road was the large and comfort- 

 able dwelling of the Soogree of Seppotowng . 



He was an elder man, of respectable appearance, and bore a good 

 character in his district ; inviting me to pass the night under his roof, 

 he set about making arrangements for my reception, and appeared 

 desirous of contributing as much as possible to my comfort. I learn- 

 ed from his followers who were sitting around me in an attitude of 

 careless and indolent attention, that the Soogree was a native of Ava, 

 and had come to the province when very young. He had since that 

 time enjoyed several situations of emolument, and was a man of much 

 consequence under the Burmah Government. The change of rule had 

 produced a change in his circumstances, and the net amount of per- 

 centage* he now realized during the year will not perhaps exceed 400 

 rupees, probably not one-tenth of what he was accustomed to receive 

 during the period of Burmah sovereignty in Arracan. Every thing 

 around me but too plainly betrayed the existence of this decline of 

 fortune. The stockade that surrounded his compound was gradually 

 giving way under the pressure of age ; no new posts supplied the 

 places of those that had fallen in, and his shrubbery and garden forci- 

 bly reminded me of that which is said to have once belonged to the 

 " Man of Ross." The Soogree, said one of his dependents, cannot 

 now afford to maintain that character for hospitality which once be- 

 longed to him ; he cannot even provide for his most faithful followers, 

 much less give bread to the stranger ; he still continues to do so, how- 

 ever, as far as his means will permit, and there are none who approach 

 his door without receiving a welcome to his board. I respected the 

 feeling that induced the expression of these sentiments, and thought 

 more favourably of my host in consequence thereof. 



At the time that Rambree Island was subject to the Burmah rule, 

 the Soogrees were invariably natives of the province ; appointed and 

 removed at pleasure by the Burmah Mtyowoon or other local authority. 

 The Rooagongs in like manner owed their nomination or dismissal to 

 the Soogree. There appears to have been no regular maintenance 

 authorized for the support of these functionaries, and consequently no 

 limit to their exactions and misappropriation of the public funds. The 

 Soogrees were not only entrusted with the collection of the revenue, 

 (derived from demands made at pleasure on those able to comply with 

 them, and which might therefore be viewed in the light of a property 



* A Soogree receives 15 per ceat. on the collections, and a Rooagong four per 

 cent. 



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