Nov. 1846.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. xciii 



ing, and it is just now a place of resort by these superstitious people who make 

 offerings to the Naga, the cause of earthquakes and volcanoes. It appears that there 

 is no hole where the flame (still burning and about two feet high) issues from, it 

 comes up through the soft mud. 



Your's sincerely, 



D. Williams. 

 I now fill up a one dozen case full of the stones, mud, &c. collected from the 

 volcanoe's mouth. 



Read the following letter from Captain Dnrand, Commissioner Tenas- 

 serim Provinces, relative to bis visit to the Salones tribe. 



(Copy.) 



No. 324. 



From Captain II. M. Durand, Commissioner Tenasserim Provinces, 



To F. J. Halliday, Esq. Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Fort William. 

 Bated H. Co.'s Steamer " Proserpine," the llth April, 1846. 

 Sir, — I have the honor to report that when proceeding from Mergui to the 

 Pak Chau, I gave permission to Mr. Brayton, of the American Baptist Mission, to 

 embark on board the H. Co.'s Steamer " Proserpine," and on passing the Island 

 of Lampee, he was landed in Marble Island Bay. 



2. The object of this gentleman's visit to the island of Lampee was of a purely 

 missionary character with reference to the Salones. 



3. I took advantage of his visit to request that he would have the goodness to 

 assemble as many of the Salones as could conveniently be brought together, in order 

 that on the return of the Steamer I might have an opportunity of communicating 

 with them. 



4. On my return from the Pak Chau to Marble Island Bay, I found forty Salone 

 boats assembled. Each boat was said to contain on an average ten individuals, 

 men, women and children. The boats were excellent, and the appearance of the 

 people neither so savage nor miserable as from their mode of life might have been 

 anticipated. They were decently clad and seemed not at all deficient in intelli- 

 gence. 



5. The humane exertions of my predecessor to induce these people to enter upon 

 a more civilized mode of life, and to attempt cultivation, and the formation of vil- 

 lages failed ; but encouraged by the example of a Salone family from one of the is- 

 lands to the southward of our territories, the Lampee Salones are now meditating 

 the establishment of two small villages, one of six and another of five houses. The 

 Salone who has set the example has cultivated between two and three acres. The 

 family state that the islands to the southward of the British territories are frequent- 

 ed by Salones in greater number than those in the Mergui Archipelago, and that 

 some of the Southern Salones have taken to cultivation and form permanent villages. 

 The language is the same with that of the Salonese of the Mergui Archipelago. 



