78 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
small natural lake, and close to it some good 
fields of rice, which it appeared to irrigate. 
Grazing near the village was a large herd of 
black cattle in high condition, indicating that 
the pasture was of a good quality. Leading 
from the village into the country were two 
tolerably good cart-roads. These, the inhabi¬ 
tants informed us, communicated with Main- 
tom, Padain, Taing-tah, and Ngape, places 
which have the rank of towns, or Myos, and 
are all of them situated at no great distance 
from the foot of the Aracan mountains. 
In the course of this day's journey, the hills, 
never at any considerable distance, often form 
the bank of the river: when this was the 
case, the stream was narrow, deep, and clear 
of islets. When they receded, it widened, 
and the bed of the river abounded in islands 
covered with the saccharum spontaneum . The 
villages were few, and far distant, and the 
general impression conveyed was that of a 
country little cultivated and thinly inhabited. 
The hills are universally covered with a forest 
of considerable size. In this, from Prome in¬ 
clusive, upwards, the teak-tree, tolerably fre_ 
quent, could be recognised by its blossoms oc¬ 
casionally coming down almost to the water’s 
edge. At any other than the flowering sea- 
