252 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
hundred and forty visas, or fourteen thousand 
ticals, equal to about one thousand seven hundred 
and fifty pounds. But some revenue was also 
paid in kind; and there were, as elsewhere, cor- 
vees and military services. 
The Arracanese are essentially the same people 
as the Burmese, speaking, with a few verbal ex¬ 
ceptions, and with immaterial difference of pro¬ 
nunciation, the same language; having the same 
manners, the same institutions, and the same reli¬ 
gion. The Burmese themselves, indeed, trace 
their language and origin to Arracan, and often 
call it “ the old country.” At present, at least, 
they are a people of less intelligence and energy 
than the Burmese ; or, in other words, are con¬ 
siderably less civilized. The wretched condition 
of a long occupied country is best shown by the 
ratio of population to the extent of territory. Its 
area of sixteen thousand miles is reckoned, by a 
computation made by us since its conquest, to 
contain a population of no more than 120,000 
souls, or about seven inhabitants to the square 
mile. This population is said to consist of the 
following races, and in the following propor¬ 
tions : — Arracanese six-tenths ; Mohammedans 
from India, or their descendants, three-tenths; 
and Burmese, one-tenth. 
Our conquests from the Burmese to the east¬ 
ward and southward of Pegu are not only of 
greater extent, but promise to be more valuable 
