TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
265 
from apprehended persecution in our portion of 
Martaban. The emigrants, on this occasion, were 
supposed to amount, in round numbers, to twenty 
thousand, making the whole population seventy 
thousand, or little more than two inhabitants to 
the square mile. Our portion of Martaban, the 
finest and most improveable part of our acquisi¬ 
tions, contains probably an area of about ten 
thousand square miles, while its population, in¬ 
cluding the recent accession, is but forty-four 
thousand, or scarcely four and a third inhabitants 
to the mile. 
In reality, the state of these provinces far more 
resembles the wilds of America than that of our 
old conquests in Hindustan. They are countries 
capable of colonization in the strictest sense of 
this term ; and, were the free settlement of Euro¬ 
peans, Chinese, and others permitted, under a 
liberal and economical administration, we should 
soon see them well-peopled, and be presented 
with an example of rapid improvement, agricul¬ 
tural and commercial, of which no other portion 
of our Indian dominions is, in my opinion s 
capable. 
The revenue for defraying the expenses of ad¬ 
ministration may, as I conceive, be raised from a 
small impost on the export and import trade, 
an excise on spirits and opium, and, eventually, 
by a tax on the rent of land. The duties on 
trade should be confined to the foreign com- 
