TO THE COURT OF AVA. 113 
might have been expected, would have been suf¬ 
ficient to have converted the Burmese into a 
maritime and commercial people; but the badness 
of their political institutions far more than out¬ 
weigh all these natural advantages. Of their ac¬ 
quaintance with foreign countries, an anecdote 
related by the late Major Canning will show the 
extent. This officer was deputed by the Govern¬ 
ment of Bengal, in 1812, to explain to the Court 
of Ava the nature of our system of blockade. In 
a conference which ensued, one of the Burman 
Ministers put the following question to the En¬ 
voy Supposing a Burman ship, in her voyage 
to China, should happen to be dismasted off the 
island of Mauritius, would she be allowed by the 
British blocking squadron, to enter that port ?” I 
have mentioned in my journal, that they possess 
rude maps of several portions of their own coun¬ 
try, the only favourable deduction to be made 
from which fact is, that they are not insensible to 
the utility of such documents. Notwithstanding 
this, however, we found the persons who nego¬ 
tiated with us, and they were undoubtedly among 
the most intelligent of the Burman courtiers, ex¬ 
tremely ignorant, even in regard to the topography 
of those portions of the country which became the 
immediate subjects of discussion, and concerning 
which it was their particular duty at the time to 
have informed themselves. 
VOL. II. i 
