TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
481 
formed, contain more than between two and 
three hundred houses; the greater number of 
the inhabitants who did not choose to remove 
to Ava, having settled in a more convenient si¬ 
tuation, in the suburbs, on the river-side. 
The fortress of Amarapura is much smaller 
than that of Ava, but a good deal more regular, 
and better constructed : it is said to be an ex¬ 
act square. The rampart is of brick, with 
many small square bastions, in which, and in 
the curtain, or parapet, there are innumerable 
small embrasures. The work is surrounded in 
every direction by a ditch, dry when we saw it. 
This appeared to us to be about fifty feet broad, 
and about fifteen deep. Both the scarp and 
counter-scarp are cased with brick. At the 
edge of the scarp there is a brick wall, and be¬ 
tween this and the rampart a her me. There are 
in all twelve gates, three to a side, to each of 
which there is a causeway across the ditch. 
Colonel Syme reckons each side of the fort to 
measure two thousand four hundred yards, and 
states that the Burman estimation is four thou¬ 
sand nine hundred royal cubits, which he con¬ 
siders as an exaggeration: it only exceeds his 
own estimate, however, by two hundred yards 
nearly, and is probably correct. 
I should have mentioned that, in passing 
VOL. i. 2 i 
