JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY 



No. 96.— DECEMBER, 1839. 



Art. I. — Third Report on Tenasserim — the surrounding Nations, 

 — Inhabitants, Natives and Foreigners — Character, Morals and 

 Religion.— By John William Helfer, M. D. 





Position of the Tenasserim Provinces. — The Tenasserim Provinces, 

 excepting the Malay countries of Province Wellesley, Malacca, and 

 Singapore, are the only isolated British possessions in India. 



They are surrounded by the bay of Bengal, (hitherto the only road 

 of communication), and by foreign states. The river Salween divides 

 them from the Burmese kingdom of Pegu towards the north-west; 

 the river Thounyee from the Shan states of Zimmay, Laboung, and 

 Yaihaing towards the north ; the range of mountains running from 

 north to south through the whole Malay peninsula from the kingdom 

 of Siam to the east ; the river Packchan from the Siamo-Malay 

 states to the south ; the bay of Bengal and the Nicobar and Andaman 

 islands front their west side. 



Surrounding nations. — The nations which encircle the provnices 

 are, therefore, the two rival nations of Burmah and Siam, possessing 

 a tolerably consolidated, established, and regulated government, the 

 tributary and dependent Siamo-Malays, and the Burmah Shans, the 

 half savage Nicobarians, and the Andamanese cannibals. 



The Burmese possessio?is incorporated with British India. — The 

 Tenasserim Provinces have been incorporated with the British empire 

 in the east, in consequence of the war with Burmah in 1824-25. 

 For the purpose of weakening that insolent and ignorant power, Assam, 

 Arracan, and the Tenasserim Provinces were wrested from it. 



6 i 



