70 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
journal of a voyage to Martaban, which I per¬ 
formed about ten months before the time of which 
I am now writing. It is as follows :— 
<e My party consisted of Captain Studdert, the 
senior officer of his Majesty’s navy at Rangoon ; 
Captain Hammond, of the Madras Quartermas¬ 
ter-general’s department; the Rev. Mr. Judson, 
of the American Mission in Ava, and Mr. King, 
R. N. On the 31st of March, at half-past one 
o’clock in the afternoon, we left Rangoon in the 
steam-vessel Diana, and at ten in the forenoon of 
the following day reached the mouth of the 
Martaban river, distant from that of Rangoon 
about seventy miles. Its entrance is not less than 
seven miles broad. The mouth of this river, and 
indeed its whole course to the town of Martaban, 
is a somewhat difficult, and, in some seasons, a 
dangerous navigation: until our visit, the exist¬ 
ence of a tolerable harbour had not been suspected. 
The position of the cape of Kyaikami, the first 
high bold land to the south, after quitting the 
Delta of the Irawadi, as laid down in the chart of 
Mr. Abbot, led us to imagine it possible that shel¬ 
ter might be found behind it in the south-west 
monsoon; but we had proceeded in our course 
a considerable way up the river, and had a good 
view of the land behind us, before appearances 
rendered it probable that a harbour actually ex¬ 
isted. We fortunately determined to return, and, 
making for the land, anchored in quarter-less three 
