TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
31 
productions. Of these we made an ample col¬ 
lection. 
The soil at Prome began already to improve, 
and the verdure to he more luxuriant. Neither 
here, nor in any other part from Melun, did we 
observe the teak tree, which we had seen so often 
in going up. It sheds its leaves in every country, 
and being now without foliage, could not be dis¬ 
tinguished. 
While we were absent on the opposite side of 
the river, our friends visited the town, and found 
it much restored and enlarged, affording favour¬ 
able testimony to the good administration of the 
Myowun. This person himself was absent, having 
proceeded about a month before to Rangoon, with 
four hundred men, to assist in suppressing the in¬ 
surrection of the Talains. The Akunwun, or col¬ 
lector of taxes, who was acting for him, paid us a 
visit on board the steam-vessel. There is no Ile- 
wun by custom at Prome, and the person next 
to the Myowun in rank, and therefore his de¬ 
puty, is the collector. Our visitor was a young 
man of some intelligence. He was desirous to see 
the steam-engine, and was readily gratified. The 
observation he made upon it was, that “ it was as 
wonderful as the mechanism of a bee-hive.” 
We left Prome between eleven and twelve 
o’clock. At four o’clock, after going about twenty 
miles, the vessel again grounded on a sand-bank, 
although we had a pilot on board. The naviga- 
