62 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
bers, the whole overgrown with rank weeds, 
and without order or neatness. Behind the 
town are several marshes. Over one of these 
is a long wooden bridge, the best I had seen in 
the country. 
Prome is at present a thriving place, and I 
should suppose, from appearances, fully more 
populous than Rangoon. It may be estimated, 
without exaggeration, to contain not less than 
ten thousand inhabitants. We found the whole 
bank of the river lined with small trading ves¬ 
sels. The gentlemen of our party, who had 
seen it last year, when it was in our occupa¬ 
tion, and when many of the inhabitants had 
deserted it, were forcibly struck with the im¬ 
provement in its condition which they now 
observed. A great many new houses had been 
built in the interim, and the monasteries, which 
had been mutilated or destroyed, were now re¬ 
pairing or reconstructing. All this, as in other 
cases, depends much upon the personal charac¬ 
ter of the Myowun, who in the present in¬ 
stance was a respectable and moderate man. 
A Mohammedan merchant of Rangoon, who 
had been here a month, assured us, that he had 
paid strict attention to the amnesty stipulated 
in the treaty, and that no one had been op¬ 
pressed or persecuted by him on account of his 
