134 On the commercial and political [Feb. 



build their villages ou the most inaccessible ridges and mountain tops 

 are of great muscular strength and indefatigable mountaineers. As 

 such they will prove the best carriers for the transport of goods across 

 their mountains — the Bugarrees of the East. 



Tart third — from Monfoo, on the Ningthi river further east to the 

 Irawady are 70 miles direct distance. Of this part of our road we possess 

 no information, and no European traveller has visited this country. Yet 

 from the configuration of the whole peninsula we can conclude that it is 

 filled up with parallel mountain chains running from north to south, 

 of no considerable elevation and opposing no great difficulties to our 

 progress. On the Irawady, about Kutha Mio, under the 24th degree of 

 north latitude we meet with the great Caravan route leading from Ava 

 to Yun-nan, and we go up«the navigable river as far as Bhanmo, from 

 where the road to Yun-nan runs in the valley of the Bhanmo, Roving 

 (river) a tributary to the Irawady. This Bhanmo is the most important 

 town of Northern Burmah; it is the emporium of its trade with China, 

 and annually, twice, at the beginning, and at the end of the dry season, a 

 Chinese caravan arrives here, selling all the goods here, whilst only few 

 merchants proceed to Ava. This market has been frequented since the 

 earliest centuries, and formerly even to a much greater extent, than now, 

 since the comparatively recent invasions and conquests of the Mranmas 

 or Burmese, have interrupted the trade. Marco Polo, the famous Vene- 

 tian traveller, who as an envoy of the Mongol Kublai Khan, visited 

 these countries at the end of the 13th century, is the first who gives us 

 some information of this market, and of the road leading from here into 

 Yun-nan. The commerce transacted here is still considerable, and con- 

 sists principally in an exchange of the various produces of Yun-nan, 

 and neighbouring provinces of China, for those of Burma, and the more 

 northern countries of the Bhor Khamtees, the Mismis and Sing Phos, 

 as far as Assam and Tibet. The articles of trade, as given by Crawfurd, 

 are the following : — 



1. Exports from China. — Copper, Auripigment, Mercury, Cinnabar, 

 Alum, Tin, Lead, Silver, Gold, Chinaware, Pictures, Ironware, Carpets, 

 Rhubarb, Tea, Raw-Silk, Velvets, Honey, Musk, Paper, Fans, &c. Raw 

 Silk and Tea are the greatest items, the former to the amount of 27,000 

 bales. 



2. Imports to China from Burma, are Cotton, upwards of 75,000 



