th£ Vicmity of Pauhgan m. Fagan^ SSI 
Ava. This person seemed to be under no apprehension of 
giving information, and was an intelligent obliging man^ like his^ 
master, the chief officer of the city (Mrosagri), who was said to 
hold his office by hereditary right j and to be by birth a Talain 
or Peguer, descended of the ancient princes of that nation, who 
at one time governed the empire as sovereigns. During my 
short stay, the clerk was improving fast in understanding the 
nature of our maps, and was engaged in drawing the one here 
given, when our sudden departure put a stop to his work in a 
very imperfect state. I have, however, given it here on a redu- 
ced scale, as it is the only authority that it is yet known, for the 
course of the Jowa river (khiaun), the country watered by which 
is a blank, even in the map of Asia by Mr Arrowsmith. 
The first intelligence that I received concerning the country 
watered by the Jowa, was from the town-clerk (Mro Za-re) of 
Rangoun, who conducted the boats of the embassy. On our way 
to court, being nearly opposite to its mouth, he told me, that 
two days’ journey up this river there is a large town, called Jo. 
In its neighbourhood are many villages, inhabited by a people 
of the same name, who, he said, are very ugly, having white 
teeth, large bellies, and long loose hair. White teeth, it must 
be observed, are considered by the Mranmas as too like those of 
dogs; and therefore, all fashionable people in this empire are at 
great pains to dye theirs black. The Jo, the clerk said, speak 
a dialect of the Mranma language, differing from that of the 
court, in an uncouth provincial accent, which information I 
found to be correct. They possess a rich country, where they 
raise much sugar-cane, of which they inspissate the juice, boiling 
it into the substance, which, by Europeans, in India, is called 
Jagori, 
The next mention that I heard of the Jo country was from 
an officer of the guard appointed at Amarapura to attend the 
ambassador. He said, that the country of the Jo occupied the 
space west from the lower part of the Khiaendusen river, com- 
mencing at a little distance from its bank, the immediate vicinity 
being inhabited by Mranmas. The Jowa, on the banks of which 
the Jo live, must therefore run from the north to the ;south, 
as its mouth is at some distance south from that of the Khiaen- 
duaen, and the courses of the two are parallel. North from the 
Q 2 
