76 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
temples. From thence we passed over to Mau- 
lamyaing, on the left bank of the river ; the place 
first contemplated for the site of a new town, and 
where part of the ground was already cleared of 
forest for this purpose. Situated twenty-five miles 
from the sea, by an intricate navigation, and ac¬ 
cessible only to craft drawing ten feet water at the 
most, in point of convenience for a commercial es¬ 
tablishment, it seemed to bear no comparison with 
the situation which we had already examined at the 
mouth of the river. Maulamyaing had once been 
the site of a town and capital under the Hindoo 
name of Ramapura, or the city of Rama ; and the 
high earthen walls and ditch could still be easily 
traced. When the tide servecj at eleven o’clock, we 
ascended the Saluen in the steam-vessel, the first 
of her description that had ever entered its waters. 
When twelve miles above Martaban, the stream, 
hitherto disturbed and muddy, became as clear as 
crystal, and we had still three fathoms depth. 
About this place we passed the Kadachaong creek, 
which leads to Rangoon through the Setaang and 
Pegu rivers, and thence again through several 
cross channels to Bassein, a direct distance of 
more than two hundred miles. The internal na¬ 
vigation of Pegu appears to me to possess natural 
facilities far beyond any other Asiatic country, 
of which this is a fair specimen. At half-past 
two o’clock, the tide aiding us all the while, we 
