Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/450

422 ployed in digging for serpentine: they are Barmahs, Shans, Chinese-Shans, and Singphos. These people each pay a quarter of a tical a month, for being allowed to dig at the mines, and the produce of their labour is considered their own.

"The Chinese who come for the serpentine, on their arrival at Mogaung, each pay a tax of from 1½ to 2½ ticals of silver, for permission to proceed to the mines, and 1½ ticals a month during their stay there. Another duty is levied on the boats or ponies employed in carrying away the serpentine, but this tax varies according to circumstances; and on the return of the Chinese to Mogaung, the serpentine is appraised and a tax of 10 per cent, taken on its value. The last duty levied is a quarter of a tical from every individual, on his arrival at the village of Tapo, and there the Chinese deliver up all the certificates they have had, granting them permission to proceed to the mines."

On the 9th of April, no intelligence having been received of the messengers sent into Assam, Captain determined to return to Ava, and, embarking on a small boat, he reached Bamo in eight days, and arrived at Ava on the 1st of May. The time occupied in returning from Meingkhwon to Ava was only eighteen days, while the journey to that frontier post was not completed in less than forty-six of actual travelling,—a very striking proof of the extreme difficulty of estimating the distance between remote points, by the number of days occupied in passing from one to the other, unless the circumstances under which the journey was made are particularly described. That portion of the route between Meingkhwon and Beesa in Assam, which Captain was prevented visiting, will probably in a short time be as well known as the territory he has already so successfully explored, and the researches in which he is now engaged, extending from Beesa in Assam to Meingkhwon in the Hukong valley, will complete the examination of a line of country not surpassed in interest by any, which our existing relations with the empire of Ava have afforded us an opportunity of visiting. His labours have filled the void necessarily left in the researches of and, and have greatly contributed to dispel the doubt and uncertainty, which they had not the opportunity of removing. While the officers of the Bengal Presidency have been thus successfully engaged in geographical inquiries on the north of Ava, the south and western districts have been explored with equal zeal and intelligence by those of the Madras Presidency; and the spirit of honorable competition, which has already stimulated the researches