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BlilMAH.
and the modern capitals are seated on its banks. It
is navigable by the native boats as high as Quantong,
on the frontiers of Yun-nan ; and it presents one of
the readiest means of opening a commercial intercourse
with the south-west dominions of China. Westward
of the Irrawaddy, and along the right bank of
its western branch, the Kiayn-duem, as high as lat. 24,
the Birmans possessed, prior to the conquest of Arracan,
a tract varying in breadth from ten to thirty miles,
and^ confined by a ridge of mountains inhabited by
a barbarous race called Kains, or Kiayns, who are for
the most part independent of the Birmans. Further
northward, the country is said to be mountainous or
desert ; so that, with the exception of the fertile plains
of Manchewban, or Monchaboo, lying between the
Kiayn-duem and the eastern or principal branch of
the Irrawaddy, and extending from lat. 22 to 24,
(which district is said to be the granary of Ava,)
there does not appear to be any part of their own
extensive territory northward of Prome, from which
the Birmans derive much advantage, except within
an average distance of fifteen miles from either bank
of the river. Below Prome, the frontier of Pegu, the
country is in general more level and susceptible of
cultivation, and, on the banks of the river, is as rich
a soil as any in the world. That of the upper provinces
is said to be a sandy loam on a bed of free-
stone or ferruginous rock : in the lower provinces,
there is a larger proportion of argillaceous earth and
vegetable matter.* To the south-east of Prome lies the
ancient kingdom of Tonghoo, or Taungu, said to be fer-
These particulars are derived chiefly from a tract drawn up by
Col. Francklin See Asiatic Journal, vol. xx. p. 4.
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