170 Report on the manufacture of Tea, mid on the [July 



mine, I should have found many more tracts. 1 crossed the Dacca river 

 at the old fort of Ghergong, and walked towards the hills, and almost 

 immediately came upon Tea. The place is called Hauthoweah. Here 

 I remained a couple of days, going about the country, and came upon 

 no fewer than thirteen tracts. A Dewaniah who assisted me to hunt out 

 these tracts, and who was well acquainted with the leaf, as he had been 

 in the habit of drinking tea during his residence with the Singphoes, 

 informed me that he had seen a large tract of Tea plants on the Naga 

 mountains, a day's journey west of Chiridoo. I have no reason to doubt 

 the veracity of this man ; he offered to point out the place to me, or 

 any of my men, if they would accompany him ; but as the country be- 

 longed to Raja Poorunda Sing, I could not examine it. I feel convinc- 

 ed the whole of the country is full of Tea. 



Again, in going further to the south-west, just before I came to Gab- 

 rew hill, I found the small hills adjoining it, to the eastward, covered 

 with Tea-plants. The flowers of the Tea on these hills are of a plea- 

 sant delicate fragrance, unlike the smell of our other Tea-plants ; but 

 the leaves and fruit appear the same. This would be a delightful place 

 for the manufacture of Tea, as the country is well populated, has abun- 

 dance of grain, and labour is cheap. There is a small stream called the 

 Jhanay river, at a distance of two hours walk; it is navigable, I am in- 

 formed, all the year round for small canoes, which could carry down the 

 Tea; and the place is only one and a half day's journey from Jorehaul, the 

 capital of Upper Assam. South-west of Gabrew Purbut (about two days 

 journey) there is a village at the foot of the hill, inhabited by a race 

 called Norahs ; they are Shans, I "believe, as they came from the east- 

 ward, where Tea abounds. I had long conversations with them, and 

 the oldest man of the village, who was also the head of it, informed me, 

 that when his father was a young man, he had emigrated with many 

 others, and settled at Tipum, opposite Jaipore, on account of the con- 

 stant disturbances at At unburn ; that they brought the Tea-plant with 

 them and planted it on the Tipum hill, where it exists to this day : and 

 that when he was ahout sixteen years of age, he was obliged to leave 

 Tipum, on account of the wars and disturbances at that place, and take 

 shelter at the village where he now resides. This man said he was now 

 eighty years of age, and that his father died a very old man. How true 

 this story is, I cannot say, and do not see what good it would do the old 

 man to fabricate it. This was the only man I met with in my journeys 

 about the country who could give any account of the Tea-plant, with the 

 exception of an Ahum, who declared tome that it was Sooka, or the first 

 Kacharry Rajah of Assam, who brought the Tea-plant from Munkum; 



