988 Dr. Heifer's Third Report [Dec. 



the other nation settled, and began to thrive, it excited the envy and 

 desire of a powerful neighbour, who in a single successful inva- 

 sion devastated all, exterminated, dispersed, and carried away the 

 population; and that the descendants of these, in their turn, were 

 treated in the same manner by subsequent conquerors. The Ta- 

 lians, the Siamese, and Burmese, experienced successively these ca- 

 lamities, and the remaining mixed populations are the wreck and 

 ruins of their forefathers, surviving their former sway and subsequent 

 downfall. The Kareans and Seelongs, who as far as it is known, 

 were always in subjection, had still less opportunity to increase and 

 flourish. 



Having no country of their own to retire to, they in the first 

 instance under the scourging authority of the conqueror, felt all the 

 calamities of invasion, and never enjoyed a time of undisturbed 

 peace and prosperity, which was at least accorded to the conquer- 

 ed, in the intervals from one invasion to another. 



6. Foreigners — Chinese.— The most important and most useful of 

 all foreigners are the Chinese, whose semi-compulsory emigration 

 disseminated them over the whole of the Indian archipelago, and other 

 adjoining parts. 



The tide of this emigration poured in, in the first instance, into 

 Cochin-China and Cambogia, on account of their vicinity to China 

 Proper, and half of the present inhabitants of these countries are 

 represented to be of Chinese origin. They have acquired great 

 importance in Siam, where 200,000 of this people are said to be alone 

 in Bankouk and its neighbourhood. The Chinese also form a part 

 of the population of the Philippine Islands. The Dutch though 

 treating them from time to time very harshly, patronize them on the 

 whole, in their possessions and dependencies, and their numbers are 

 continually augmenting in Java, and in the Moluccas. Chinese are 

 settled in Borneo, Celebes, Timor, and Sumatra. The British posses- 

 sions in the straits of Malacca are full of Chinese ; and Chinese are 

 found to the north of Ava in Burmah. 



Their settlement in Tenasserim. — The Tenasserim provinces held 

 out but a slight prospect to the Chinese under Burmese rule, on ac- 

 count of the insignificance of the country. The Burmese authorities 

 seem to have encouraged their settling, and the small number who did 

 settle, acquired wealth and consequence, by succeeding in monopolizing 

 the few lucrative branches of occupation in the country. They do 

 not palpably increase, but will certainly augment rapidly when the 

 provinces become of greater importance. 



