TO THE COURT OF AYA, 
19 
a coarse pudding-stone ; the chert, or petrified 
wood, and the calcareous incrustations, so abun¬ 
dant on the opposite side of the river, were scarcely 
to be found here at all. 
On coming on board, the steam-vessel dropped 
down through a narrow passage formed between 
the spot which we had just examined and a broad 
island. The channel navigable here was scarcely 
thirty yards in breadth, deep, rapid, and therefore 
dangerous. There was certainly no part of the 
Xrawadi which we had seen of which the passage 
was so precarious. Between three and four in the 
afternoon, we passed the town of Sale, and in the 
evening anchored off the western bank, about mid¬ 
way between that place and Sembegewn, (Sen- 
pyu-gyun, White Elephant Island.) 
Dec. 25.—On Christmas morning, about break¬ 
fast-time, we anchored for an hour or two off Sem¬ 
begewn, to give us an opportunity of sending off 
our letters and dispatches to Bengal by the Ara- 
canese messengers, who had brought us letters at 
Ava on the 3d of this month. We reckoned that, 
by this conveyance, accounts from us would be re¬ 
ceived at Calcutta in twenty-five days. 
While we were at anchor off Sembegewn, the 
old Governor of Bassein came on board and in¬ 
formed us that he had that morning received ac¬ 
counts, that the Talains, or Peguans, under. Ma- 
Ongzat, the chief of Syrian, had rebelled against 
the Bur man authorities, and that a formidable in- 
c 2 
