1839.] on the Tenasserim Provinces, $c. 100o 



Christians from the conviction of the superiority and blessings of 

 our religion ; and isolated are the cases of those, who for the sake of 

 worldly gain became nominally Christians. The missionaries have 

 hitherto signally failed in their endeavours, and the reason of the 

 want of success with the Burmese is not fanaticism or obstinacy, but 

 religious dogmatical indifference. They admit the beauty of Christian 

 morals, but contend that theirs is equally good ; and with reference to 

 the dogma they say, that the Christian is equally unintelligible with 

 the Buddhistic, and that in comparing both, they do not see any great 

 difference ; it would be bad to abandon their notions and customs, their 

 families, and all that is holy and dear to them, to follow the advice of 

 strangers. Kareans, on the contrary, who have positively no established 

 mode of worship, embrace Christianity ; and some of the American 

 Baptist Missionaries, who settled amongst them, did much good. Infi- 

 nitely more could be done, if all the Missionaries were equally well 

 fitted to open the hearts of these simple children of nature by mild 

 persuasions, instead of filling their minds with distrust by holding up 

 the terrors of damnation. 



Recapitulation of the aforesaid. — After having touched upon the 

 essence of religion, the state of morals, the characteristics and pecu- 

 liarities of the people, we are led to the following conclusions — 



1. That the inhabitants of the Tenasserim Provinces possess the 

 virtues of uncultivated nations. 



2. That they cannot be expected to possess the higher morals and 

 virtues of nations advanced in civilization ; that fortunately the vices of 

 polished nations, are, if not unknown, yet rather rare amongst them. 



3. That their vices are in a great measure the consequence of the 

 long misrule of highly oppressive and arbitrary governments. 



4. That they possess original views of morality, different from those 

 of Europeans on certain subjects, which are chiefly applicable to the 

 comparatively low estimation of chastity among their women. 



5. That the whole nation is educated to a certain degree, but that 

 education stops short at that point, and that no higher cultivation can 

 be expected from the present state of things. 



6. That religion is no impediment to their advancement, as it does 

 not imbue them with prejudices against other creeds, and that the 

 absence of the caste system, so obnoxious in India, is a great advantage 

 if their improvement be contemplated. 



7- That the Burmese are therefore capable of great improvement. 

 Diffusion of European knowledge. — Very little, or nothing has 

 hitherto been done by the British government, to educate the people. 



