94 Dr Hamilton on a Ma/p of Ava^ drawn 
been reduced to the servile state by debt, as his intelligence 
and manners denoted a person who had held considerable rank, 
and received a good education. Before he succeeded so far as 
he has done, he made several attempts, with less success ; and 
the nature of our maps, together with the manner of laying down 
places by bearing and distance, had been repeatedly explained 
to him. 
In this map, the then boundary of the empire of Ava is marked 
by interrupted lines, while the country properly belonging to 
each subjected nation is distinguished by dotted lines. Moun- 
tains are represented by a straight line, like the plain on which 
they stand, while a waved line represents their summits. This 
map is chiefly useful, as showing the connection and relative 
position of the different nations occupying the peninsula; for 
the outline has many great defects. The extent from east to 
west is much too great in proportion to the length from nortli 
to south ; and the peninsulas projecting to the south especially, 
are very much curtailed, the Gulf of Siam and the Malaya pe- 
ninsula being altogether omitted. The former omission espe- 
cially occasions a most enormous distortion, making the course 
of the Cambodia river shorter than that of Siam. The coun- 
tries, again, to the north of the capital, are too much ex- 
tended. Little attention can, therefore, be paid to the bearings 
and distances in this map, at least in the parts remote from the 
centre, and especially in those east from the river of Siam. 
Cities in this map are denoted by squares, those which have 
been the seat of empire having within a smaller square or dot, 
and those which are the seat of tributary princes having within 
a cross. I have to regret, that the person who constructed the 
map, was interrupted while I was writing the names in Euro- 
pean character, and, being afraid of detection, rubbed out his 
own writing before my operation was completed ; so that seve- 
ral places, which might have served to fix boundaries in other 
maps, stand in this without names. 
As the towns in the central parts are in many places so near 
each other, it is impossible to insert their names in the redu- 
ced form of the map ; but they may be found by a reference 
from the numbers to the following list. 
