1839] on the Tenasserim Provinces, fyc. 977 



The Siamo- Malays. — The Siamese are conquerors in the Malay 

 peninsula. The petty states to the south of the Tenasserim provinces 

 (whose boundary is formed by the Packchan river disemboguing in 

 lat. 9° 57') are under Siamese dominion. The races inhabiting it are 

 mixed. Those in the neighbourhood of the Tenasserim provinces are 

 either Siamese, or formerly captured Burmese, or people from the 

 eastern frontier of Siam, besides others forcibly transplanted from other 

 parts. The people lower down the peninsula are half Siamese and 

 half Malays ; and nearer to the extremity of the peninsula, of pure 

 Malay origin. It seems that the Siamese government exercises in these 

 provinces a much more severe absolutism than within the proper limits 

 of Siam, and consequently it is proportionably more hated. 



Malays. — The Tenasserim provinces have no intermediate inter- 

 course with the Malays, except with some few people of this race, who 

 have farmed the edible birds' nest caves in the Mergui archipelago, 

 from government. 



Nicobarians. — The people of the Nicobars, apparently the off- 

 spring of a mixture of surrounding nations, wrecked or dispersed ac~ 

 cidentally on the islands, are totally insignificant in a political point 

 of view. 



There exist some relations between the Burmese of the Tenas- 

 serim provinces and these islanders, with whom a trade of exchange 

 is carried on. The Nicobarians furnish ship loads of cocoanuts which 

 they barter with the Burmese for cloth, tobacco, iron, and earthenware. 

 They must be called independent at present, for though the Danes 

 endeavoured repeatedly to take possession of some of the islands, at 

 present not a vestige is to be found either of their establishment or of 

 their authority. 



Andamanese. — To finish the enumeration of the nations bordering 

 on the Tenasserim provinces, mention must be made of the Andaman- 

 ese, perhaps the lowest beings in the scale of civilization belonging to 

 the human species. They are of the negro variety with woolly curly 

 hair, of a diminutive stature, almost un tameable, even when caught 

 young, living upon trees, or under a shed of pealed bark, or in 

 the crevices of mountains, subsisting upon the spontaneous produce 

 of nature ; their chief food consists of shell-fish, collected on the 

 sea-shore. They are reported to be cannibals. No nation has yet 

 succeeded in forming a friendly alliance with them, they considering 

 every stranger an enemy, whom if it be practicable they kill, and in 

 retaliation are destroyed by every stranger without compunction, 

 whenever accident brings them in contact. 





