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Fourth Report on the Tenasserim Provinces considered as a resort 

 for Europeans. — By John William Helfer, M.D. 



England has nearly acquired that full amount of improvement 

 and civilization which its situation, as respects foreign countries 

 in Europe, which its climate, its soil, will ever allow it to ac- 

 quire. 



Scotland and Ireland are still capable of great improvement ; 

 however, in the former climate renders success precarious ; in 

 the other, moral reasons obstruct amelioration. 



England would scarcely advance, when confined to England ; 

 nay, it would be obliged to retrograde. That which renders 

 England powerful, and continues to increase its riches and 

 prosperity, is its universal commerce, and its transatlantic colo- 

 nization. 



England, of all countries, knew at all times the best to ap- 

 preciate the value of colonies. All its colonies advance rapidly, 

 and new ones continue to be established. The East Indies, 

 finally, have also been opened to the mass of the British 

 nation, and these immense territories afford a field of such im- 

 portance, that its vast consequences cannot yet be appreciated 

 at the present day. * * * 



Adventurers are always attracted by the hopes of sudden 

 gain, and the fables of India's immense riches, are yet vivid in 

 the imagination of the multitude. As the Spaniards flocking 

 to America in search of the Eldorado, when disappointed 

 turned agriculturists ; so when the East Indian adventurers find 

 out the errors of their hopes and fancies, they will become sober 

 colonists ; for prospects there are certainly open to them, not to 

 become suddenly rich, but gradually wealthy. 



It has frequently been stated that Europeans are not fit to 

 become tropical colonists. If this were the case, no colony would 

 have been established in the West Indies, much less would any 

 have become flourishing. Certainly they are not able to bear the 

 climate as day labourers, at least not the greater part, however 

 they can become landed proprietors, superintending their farms, 

 and carrying on cultivation by the labour of other people. 



