IN DO-CHINA. 



(57 



Merniui river, constitutes the native State of Siorn. Certainly the 

 boundaries between tli*?ae political diviaioiiH are in many places 

 ill-denned, or not at all laid down with any claim to accuracy. 

 Nor do the great river valleys always; excepting thu Menam, Vm 

 H -lii'llv within Hid respective territories, their furthest, sources and 

 head streams being found beyond the conventional frontiers, either 

 on the Tibetan or the Yunnan plateau. But on the whole the tendency 

 to bring l\w political ariiJ physical relations into complete harmony, 

 ban in recent times manifested ilwlf. as colLspicuouHly in ludo-China 

 aa in moat other quarters of the globe, 



Amongst tlieso political systems tho peninsula k distributed in 

 somewhat equal proportions. — Burmah, in its widest extent, eoin- 

 prising nearly 300,000, Siam probably 290,000, and tho French 

 domain nearly 230,000 equara miles* But if the estimated 

 statistics can be trusted, the bulk of the population would appear 

 to be concentrated in the eastern division, where the Song-Koi 

 Valley (Tonkin) Is said to contain about 12 t 000jP00 souls, which, 

 wuu Id bo more than half of all the rest of the peninsula, if tho 

 usual estimate of 6 T 0O0 t {H)0 for Slam could be accepted. Little 

 reliarn-e, however, can he placed on any statistical data, except 

 from those English and French districts, where regular census 

 returns are taken. 



L BRITISH DIVISION : BTUMAIU 



At the beginning of tho present century tho uativo Stale of 

 Burraalij or Av\%, as ft was then called, comprised the whole of 

 Indo-China lying between Si am and the J Jay of Bengal east and 

 west Since then all the coisthuids, including the three separate 

 provinces of Arakan, Tenasseriui, and Pegu, were successively 

 ceditl to England alter the disastrous wars: of the years 1825 and 

 1052, tho independent territory being thus reduced to the position 

 of an inland State. Lastly, towards, the close of 1885, oil that 

 remained of the. native kingdom was incorporated in the Anglo- 

 Indian Empire King Thebaw, lout of (be native Alompra dynasty, 

 was deposed, and soon after the sovereign rights over his possessions 

 of 11 Upper Burundi" were officially declared to be vested in the 

 Kais&M-Hhid. 



Thus it happens that Burnish proper, with all its outlying 

 dependencies, is once more united under one sovereign power, 

 this political division of Indo-China again comprising exactly the 

 same Ijmila as it did before the war with England in the year 1S25. 

 The term " British Burmah," us distinguished from fi Independent 1 ' 



r 2 



