98 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
of the trade as my short stay would admit. 
The number of boats waiting for cargoes of oil 
was correctly taken, and found to amount to 
one hundred and eighty-three, of very various 
sizes, some carrying only one thousand viss, 
and others fourteen thousand. According to 
the Burmese, whom I consulted, the average 
burthen of the vessels employed in this traffic, 
was considered to be about four thousand viss. 
The number now mentioned is not considered 
unusual; and it has been reckoned that, one 
with another, they complete their cargoes in 
fifteen days ; they are therefore renewed twen¬ 
ty-four times in the course of the year ; and the 
exportation of oil, according to this estimate, 
will be 17,568,000 viss. Deducting a third 
from this amount, that is, the quantity esti¬ 
mated to be used for other purposes than burn¬ 
ing, and we have at the annual consumption of 
thirty viss, for a family of five and a half indi¬ 
viduals, a population of 2,147,200. 
Of the actual produce of the wells, we re¬ 
ceived accounts not easily reconcilable to each 
other. The Burmans, less perhaps from a dis¬ 
position to impose than from incapacity to 
state any facts of this nature with precision, 
could not be relied upon, and we had no regis¬ 
ters to consult. The daily produce of the wells 
