m 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
from the tree, the most profitable means of dis¬ 
posing of it. We inquired into the wages of 
agricultural labour, and found them to be from 
forty to fifty ticals a-year, each tical of one 
shilling and tenpence sterling; with food, but 
no clothing. It is considered that a labourer 
requires twelve baskets of rice a-year, of fifty- 
six pounds each ; the basket being worth at 
Ava about a rupee and a half. He gets be¬ 
sides, ngapi , vegetables, and spiceries, being al¬ 
ways fed with his employer and family. The 
whole expense of his food is not reckoned less 
than three rupees and a half a-month, making 
his actual wages about seven rupees. This is 
more than double the wages in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Calcutta, or of any native city in Hin- 
dostan or the Peninsula ; a proof that the sup¬ 
ply of labour is less in proportion to the de¬ 
mand in Ava than in India, and that the con¬ 
dition of the labourer is more comfortable, since 
there is no great difference in the cost of the 
necessaries of life. 
Oct. 8.—We had little or no rain since our 
arrival. The periodical rains, indeed, gene¬ 
rally cease at Ava in the middle of Septem¬ 
ber, although they continue a month later in 
the lower provinces. We had the weather hot, 
and the sky cloudless. The nights and morn- 
