88 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
trance of the Kalyen would render the harbour 
formed by this river equally secure. 
“ Upon the commercial advantages of the place 
it is scarcely necessary to insist. Ships, as alrea¬ 
dy said, may lie within fifty yards of the shore, 
and within seventy-five of the merchants 5 ware¬ 
houses. Sheltered by the cape, by the long reef 
of rocks to the north-west of the harbour, and by 
the innumerable sand-banks to the north of it, 
dry at low water, as well as by the great island 
of Balu, and the continent on the east bank of 
the Martaban river, ships will lie in smooth 
water, except perhaps for a moment in the wes¬ 
terly monsoon during high flood, and when the 
wind, as is not often the case, shifts to the west 
or north-west. In such an event, vessels with 
indifferent tackle, or in a disabled state, may 
slip with perfect facility into the Kalyen river, 
a short mile to the lee of the harbour, then 
accessible to merchant-vessels of the largest 
burthen. 
64 At half-past two o’clock on the afternoon of 
the 8th, we quitted the new harbour on our re¬ 
turn to Rangoon, taking, in going out, the chan¬ 
nel commonly frequented by native vessels. It 
was not above fifty yards broad. We went 
through it with the commencement of the ebb¬ 
tide, and had a deptli throughout of nothing 
less than five fathoms and a half. On the even¬ 
ing of the 9th, we made the entrance of the Ran- 
