the health of Troops in Arracan. 193 



" It lies low between the hills and the river, with a plain 

 to the SW. and SSW., the greater part of which is un- 

 cultivated, and produces a luxuriant crop of rank grass, 

 intersected by different streams of the tide-nullah, and daily 

 covered by the tides ." It does indeed seem strange how two 

 such spots could have been selected for the residence of 

 European or Native troops, even for a few months. 



When it was found necessary to abandon the post of Arra- 

 ., , can, Akyab was selected for the head quar- 



ters of the civil authorities and of the local 

 battalion. It is built on the island of the same name, at the 

 mouth of the Arracan river, and is thus close to the sea. It 

 has been rapidly rising in importance and its extent propor- 

 tionally increasing, since it has become a place of commerce, 

 and the chief port for the exportation of rice, the great staple 

 of the province. It is situated on a loose sandy soil, having 

 an elevation little beyond high- water mark, and in parts liable 

 to be inundated every spring tide ; bounded on three sides by 

 jungle, jheel, and marsh; and on the fourth by an estuary, 

 which at low-water leaves in many places a beach of stag- 

 nant mud, often supporting a thicket of mangroves, with the 

 wind blowing for nearly half the year over hundreds of miles 

 of unexplored jungle previous to reaching the station. The 

 town is intersected by dirty nullahs. In many places the 

 houses are built too close together, the drainage is imperfect, 

 the vegetation too rank, and the rain water collected by the 

 natives in holes, dug for the purpose of receiving it, is muddy 

 and brackish, and the common drink of the inhabitants. Not- 

 withstanding that, under the rule of the present active Com- 

 missioner many of these evils are being obviated, — sickness 

 would appear according to Dr. Archer to be greatly on the 

 increase in Akyab. "It is probably owing to these causes that 

 the station has been so unhealthy to the local battalion, and 

 that on the whole, fever is much more common among Euro- 

 peans at Akyab than at Khyouk Phyoo. Europeans frequently 



