982 Dr. Heifer's Third Report [Dec. 



stance, and were afterwards prevented from effecting their escape by 

 the Burmese authorities. The cession of the kingdom of Pegu is 

 the only reproach which this unfortunate race has to urge against 

 the English. 



Maulmain peopled by Talians. — The new settlement of Maulmain 

 opposite to Martaban, now the capital of the Tenasserim provinces, was 

 at first almost entirely peopled by Talians, and to this day it is com- 

 puted that the number of Burmese to that of the Talians is in the 

 proportion of one to twenty. 



Obliteration of their distinguishing features. — The features of the 

 Talians do not perceptibly distinguish them at present from the 

 Burmese, the intermixture between the two races, which has taken 

 place since many generations, has probably effaced or obliterated the 

 distinguishing characteristics. 



Existence of the Talian language. — That they are however a dis- 

 tinct people, is proved by their language, which they have preserved to 

 this day, and which is said to have scarcely any resemblance to the 

 Burmese. It is fast declining, and will probably cease to exist should 

 the Talians continue to be subject to foreign powers, and there seems 

 to be no probability of their again becoming an independent nation. 



Burmese language generally adopted. — In British Tenasserim the 

 Burmese language is adopted as the language of the courts, of public 

 transactions, and of general conversation, which is but fair, as the 

 majority of the inhabitants speak that language, and it is no griev- 

 ance to the Talians, as two-thirds of them speak Burmese besides 

 their mother tongue. The chief and almost sole occupation of the 

 Talians is agriculture, and almost exclusively rice cultivation ; they 

 scarcely ever retire to the mountains, the amphibious life of a rice 

 planter during six months of the year being to them the most con- 

 genial. 



3. Withdrawal of the Siamese from Tenasserim Almost all the 



Siamese retired from these provinces after Alompra's conquest, except 

 two villages to the south of Mergui, Boukpeen, and Lennya, where 

 the Burmese had never resided ; that part of the country, having al- 

 ways remained a disputed district. 



From the time of the conquest, and probably before that time, Sia- 

 mese and Burmese never met except as foes, and the system of alter- 

 nate petty warfare, accompanied by kidnapping, plunder, and devas- 

 tation, was carried on without intermission along the frontier dis- 

 tricts, which in consequence, were soon transformed into a waste, and 

 such they remain to this day. The Siamese seem to have been the 



