196 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
the Custom-house books at 264,176 rupees. Haw 
cotton is exported from Ava to Dacca, and is 
said, from its superior quality, to be used in 
the fabrication of the fine muslins of that place. 
The quantity annually sent was stated to me 
at 15,000 maunds, or 1,200,000 lbs., all in the 
seed. Gold and silver, although contraband, are 
exported in considerable quantity from the Bur- 
man dominions, and, as I understand, more espe¬ 
cially from Bassein, and overland by the route of 
Arracan. I have heard the value, exported in 
this manner, estimated at six and a half lacs of 
rupees, or about sixty-five thousand pounds ster- 
ling. 
The principal imports are as follow: cotton 
piece goods, British, Bengal, and Madras ; British 
woollens, iron, steel, quicksilver, copper, cordage, 
borax, sulphur, gunpowder, saltpetre, fire-arms, 
coarse porcelain, English glass ware, opium, to¬ 
bacco, cocoa and areca nuts, sugar and spirits. 
The Burmese have but few cotton manufactures 
of their own, and appear from very early times 
to have been furnished with the principal part 
of their consumption from the Coromandel coast. 
To these were afterwards added the cheaper 
fabricks of Bengal, and both are now in a great 
measure superseded by British manufactures. 
After cotton piece goods, the most important 
articles of importation into the Burman empire 
are areca and cocoa nuts. No part of the Bur- 
