43 
TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
wide, without a single sand-bank above water. 
It presented a very different appearance when 
Colonel Syme and Dr. Buchanan Hamilton 
went up in the beginning of June 1795. The 
latter states, in reference to the day’s journey 
which brought him to Nga-pi-saik, that the 
sand-banks were so numerous, that by fording 
a narrow channel, here and there, one might 
have walked upon them the whole way across. 
Late in the evening we came to an anchor 
close to the right bank of the river, and about 
two miles below Kanaong. 
Sept. 13.—At half-past six in the morning 
we proceeded on our way, sailing within eight 
or ten yards of the western bank in five fa¬ 
thoms water. We soon found that we were 
near a considerable population, from the num¬ 
ber of fruit-trees with which the bank of the 
river was covered. About ten o’clock we 
reached the large village of Kanaong, and at 
half-past eleven, the much larger one of Myan- 
aong where we stopped for the day, laying in 
a supply of fuel. From at least a mile below 
Kanaong to the same distance beyond Myan- 
aong, the west bank of the river is one con¬ 
tinued grove of fruit-trees, consisting of the 
mango, the jack, the tamarind, the banana, the 
Palmyra, and the religious fig, (a tree sacred 
