986 Dr. Heifer's Third Report [Dec. 



Their fate under the Burmese government. — Under the Burmese 

 government the Kareans were depressed, and were liable to be called 

 upon to do public works without remuneration, whenever it pleased 

 the government. 



This relation towards their masters exposing them to all kinds of 

 vexations without hopes of redress, seems to have been the first reason 

 of their retiring into seldom visited, or sometimes inaccessible parts of 

 the country, where they hoped to be beyond the immediate reach of 

 their oppressors. 



Though they have been placed on the same footing with the 

 Burmese since the conquest of the country by the British, and en- 

 joy at present formerly unknown rights and an impartial justice, 

 yet they are still so timid that they can scarcely be prevailed upon 

 to visit the towns on the sea-coast. 



They have a language of their own, which has lately been drawn 

 from its obscurity by the exertions of the missionaries, though they 

 are without any communication with their brethren in Siam and 

 Burmah, even confined sometimes as long as they live to the narrow 

 sphere of their self-chosen district; yet it is affirmed that the Bur- 

 mese Kareans bordering upon China, at a distant of 13° of latitude, 

 speak a dialect of the same language which is current amongst the 

 Kareans of Mergui Province. 



5. The Seelongs— their origin. — These are again a variety of people 

 different from all others just enumerated. They are the last in the 

 scale of civilization, but not the least interesting. 



The Seelongs are the inhabitants of the islands constituting the 

 archipelago of Mergui, and are a race of wandering fishermen, build- 

 ing temporary huts of reeds, palm -leaves, and bamboos during the in- 

 clemency of the monsoon, and passing the rest of the year either in 

 boats, or on the sea-beach under the shade of trees; they live upon the 

 spontaneous productions of nature, but chiefly upon the produce of 

 the sea ; turtles, fish, and shell-fish forming the principal food. 



They never cultivate the ground. Their origin is unknown. 

 Whether they are the wreck of some more numerous and independent 

 nation, as they pretend to be, gradually vanishing from the face of 

 the earth ; or whether they are the descendants of shipwrecked people, 

 a mixture of different races, augmenting in the course of time, will 

 scarcely ever be determined. 



Their number. — As they exist at present, they form but a petty 

 tribe, not exceeding, it is said, one thousand souls in number, and 

 they will probably soon be extinct, for they are diminishing annually. 



