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6 BIRMAH
tile, but thinly inhabited.* To the south and west of
Tonghoo, the country in general to the sea, including
the delta of the Irrawaddy and the low lands watered
by the Martaban river, in fact, the whole of what
may be termed Pegu Proper, has received from the
Birmans the name of Henzawuddy.-j-
The periodical inundation of the valleys and maritime
plains by the rising of the rivers, is a circum-
stance common to all this region, although they observe
different periods, which indicates that their sources
must be at unequal distances. The Mei-nam, or Siam
river, has the highest and most regular inundations,
on which account, it has been supposed to have its
sources in the most distant mountains of central
Tibet.J The more probable explanation is, that it
*
Beyond Tonghoo, CoL Francklin says, to the eastward and
southward, is the ancient kingdom of Sittong, now dependent on
Henzawuddy. This we apprehend to be the very nucleus of Pegu.
t Henza is the Birman name of a species of wild fowl called in
India the Brahminy goose, which is said to be the standard of the
Blnuans, as the eagle was of the Romans.
$ This river is supposed by Malte Brun (we incline to think,
erroneously) to be the Nu-kiang. It is the Yuthia of our older
maps. Yuthia or Yoodra is the name of the ancient Siamese
capital, mote properly See-y-thaa. Vincent Leblanc, of Marseilles,
who travelled in the seventeenth century, describes " the fair and
large river Mecan," on which the town of Siam stands, as springing
from a famous lake, 200 miles about, called the lake of Chiamay,
whence, he "
says, many great and famous rivers arise, as Ava,
Caypumo, Menan, Cosmin, and others. They overflow like the
Nilus. This lake is bounded eastward by vast forests and impassable
marshes and fens." He has mistaken the name of the Siam
river, the Mei-nam, and given it that of the Cambodia river, the
Mei-kong. Although this Traveller has hitherto been regarded as
a very doubtful authority, it is remarkable that several accounts
agree in stating that these two rivers communicate by a navigable
branch called the Anan-myeet; and it is by no means improbable,
therefore, that in the rainy season, the intervening country should