ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 443 



The only important Geographical information obtained, was relative 

 to the course of the Irawadi to Bhammo, and the large eastern branch 

 falling in at about two days' journey above where the road turns off 

 to MungTehung. This river had hitherto been a stumbling block in 

 reconciling the accounts of the Singfos and Burmans. The latter appear 

 generally to be unacquainted with it, which is to be accounted for simply 

 by their turning off towards Mognon, having the Irawadi at some distance 

 on their right; the Singfos, on the contrary, know nothing of the river 

 below them, and their route towards Asam enters the Hukung valley from 

 the eastward. 



Of the existence of the Suhmdi Kha, Pongmai, or Sinma'i Kha, 

 (for by all these names it is known) there could be no doubt after 

 the distinct reports of the Singfo Ambassadors, mentioned in an early 

 part of this Memoir : the difficulty was to ascertain where it joins the 

 Irawadi. The required information was now most satisfactorily obtained 

 from Chow Nan, the son of the last ruling Khamti Prince, and it was 

 fully corroborated by a Kliaku Singfo of my party, who had resided 

 many years in that quarter, and some in Yunan. Chow Nan had been 

 twice by the route of the river to Amerapura, where he had remained 

 several months in the character of Envoy, or perhaps of hostage. They 

 gave me a skeleton map, showing the principal streams falling into the 

 Irawadi, on the east bank, and the number of days' journey between 

 each from Manche to Bhammo. They are of opinion, that the Shiima'i 

 Kha rises in the northern mountains, at no great distance eastward from 

 the heads of the Irawadi, but had no positive information. It is to be 

 remarked, however, that the Lou Kyang, bordering Yunan on the W., 

 makes it impossible, according to the maps of the Jesuits, that the Shfanai 

 can come from China. And the objections to assigning it a very distant 

 source are, first, its want of magnitude, for it is not described as larger 

 than the Khamti branch ; the direction of the high range which would 



