INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF COTTON IN AVA. 
263 
The above statement affords a striking 
proof of the very great difficulty of obtaining 
in this country any accurate information on 
questions of statistics. I am convinced that 
the Burmese clerk has added a cipher in each 
of the above sums. Cotton is taken from 
Made to China on mules and ponies, each 
having a load of only 50 viss, as I ascertained 
on the spot. At this rate, to convey 3,600,000 
viss would require the extravagant number 
of 72,000 of these animals ! My enquiries at 
Made assured me, that the whole of the 
Chinese traders this year did not exceed 
5000, and as some of them make two or three 
trips in the season, I should think that 7200 
loads of cotton, or 360,000 viss, would be 
just about the quantity conveyed from Made. 
Besides, all the cotton boats, which are re- 
markable objects on the river, pass close to 
my house, and I am positive, that the num- 
ber during the past year has been nothing 
like 1400. Those which proceeded to Made, 
between December and April, conveyed each 
about 100 bales, or rather large baskets con- 
taining 100 viss each, and I should not esti- 
mate the number whieh passed, at more than 
from 30 to 40. Those which transport cotton to 
Ban-mau, proceed at all seasons of the year, 
but they are less heavily laden than the boats 
whieh go to Made, carrying not more than 60 
baskets of 100 viss each; and 110 boats would 
be as many as I would allow to have passed 
to Ban-mau during the year. Captain Cox 
was informed in 1797, that the number of 
these cotton boats was from 100 to 160, each 
carrying 10,000 viss, and the average amount 
of sale of the cotton 600,000 ticals. 
With respect to the quantity taken to Ar- 
racan by the route of Aeng, we have the 
information eollected by Captain M. G. White, 
Principal Assistant to the Superintendent of 
Arracan, in a report made by him after visit- 
ing Aeng in April last year, that the num- 
ber of bullocks which went to Arracan from 
Ava dui’ing the preceding year, amounted to 
20,000, each carrying a load of two Bengal 
maunds ; but as much cutch, stick lac, and 
other articles are taken to Arracan (the 
Chinese caravans export scarcely any thing 
but cotton), we cannot perhaps allow that 
more than one-half of this number of bul- 
locks conveyed cotton. Perhaps one thou- 
sand more bullock-loads, however, were 
taken by the less frequented route of Talak ; 
and this would give an amount of 22,000 
maunds, or, 1,804,000 lbs. exported to Arra- 
can overland. If a similar quantity be allow- 
ed for the exports by sea, the whole amount 
would be 3,608,000 lbs. which would still be 
far from Mr. Gouger’s estimate. But I have 
no means of ascertaining the amount of the 
exports by sea, to which mode of conveyance 
alone Mr. Gouger’s estimate appears to be 
limited. I can only observe, that, allowing 
the boats from Bassein to take 60 bales, or 
21,600 lbs. each, it would require 83 large 
boats to convey the 1,804,000 lbs. which I 
allow to be exported by that route. Captain 
Cox reported the number of boats, that trad- 
ed in his time between the Southern Burmese 
ports and Luckipore, Dacca, &c. proceeding 
by the way of Bassein, not to exceed 42 very 
large boats, and the value of their cargoes, 
exclusive of specie, 20,000 ticals only. But 
Mr. Gibson estimated the number of boats 
which annually go from Lamina, a town on 
the Irawaddy above Bassein, to Arracan and 
Bengal to exceed 1,000. Following my esti- 
mate, the exports of cotton from this coun- 
try would not be more than as follows : 
From Made to China,. ..... lbs. 1,296,000 
From Ban-mau to ditto,. . . . 2,412,000 
To Arracan, Chittagong, &c. vi^ 
Aeng, 1,640,000 
To ditto via Talek, 164,000 
To ditto by boats, 1,804,000 
Total lbs. 7,316,000 
The ponies and mules of the Chinese cara- 
vans, which are very poor, miserable ani- 
mals, do not carry much heavier loads than 
the bullocks which travel to Arracan. The 
latter carry 2 Bengal maunds, or about 164 
lbs. and the former 50 viss or 180 lbs. ; but 
the Chinese traders have an ingenious mode 
of compressing the cotton into a small com- 
pass,* by forcing it into pits dug in the earth 
of the size and shape required to fit the back 
of their ponies and mules. Over the pit is 
placed a mat which is forced down with the 
cotton, and serves to pack it. Both Colonel 
Symes and Captain Cox mention that the 
Nankeen cotton is carried to China ; but 
saw no other than the white at Made, or in 
any of the boats which have passed my 
house, and I am assured, that that descrip- 
tion alone is taken to China. It is used 
there, the Burmese say, almost entirely for 
quilting. In the time of those officers also, 
Tsa gain, opposite to Ava, seems to have 
been the great mart for cotton. At present, 
however, a small village about two miles below 
Ava, and on the same side of the Irawaddy, 
called, Lettshoung-yoo, is the spot where the 
cotton is generally collected, packed into bas- 
kets and shipped in the large Burmese boats, 
which convey it to Made and Ban-mau. 
Messrs. Gouger and Laird informed Mr. 
Crawfurd, that the Burmese cotton was con- 
veyed to Dacca, to be used in the manufacture 
of the fine Dacca muslins. This same in- 
formation was given to me by all traders in 
this country ; but it would be worth ascer- 
taining at Dacca, if such is really the fact, 
for I observe that lately in England, a good 
deal of enquiry has been made, without any 
one being able to answer it, as to the parti- 
cular cotton of which the fine Dacca mus- 
lins are manufactured. (See Minutes of 
Evidence before the Committee of Evidence, 
before the Committee of the House of Lords 
on East India Company’s Affairs, part lO, 
Question 4729 to 4750.) Bishop Heber, in 
his journal, states from Dacca, that “ the 
cotton produced in this district is mostly 
sent to England raw.” (Octavo Edition, 
vol. I. page 285), and Walter Hamilton, in 
his description of Hindoostan, Quarto, vol. I. 
* Neither the Chinese here nor the BuriAeae 
have any Cotton screws. 
