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BIRMAH. 201
country, whieh appeared to be exceeding unproductive
and barren.
" Returning by a different way, we walked through
an alley occupied by blacksmiths' shops, furnished
with bill-hooks, spike-nails, adzes, &c. A little fur-
ther on, we saw the ruins of a street that had been
consumed by fire only two days before : from seventy
to eighty houses were destroyed by the conflagration.
Passing through the suburbs, we came to a part where
the inhabitants were employed in expressing oil from
the sesauium seed : the grain is put into a deep,
wooden trough, in which it is pressed by an upright
timber fixed in a frame; the force is increased by a
long lever, on the extremity of which a man sits and
guides a bullock that moves in a circle, thus turning
and pressing the seed at the same time. The machine
was simple, and answered the purpose effectually.
There were not less than 200 of these mills within a
narrow compass. From the circumstance of the cattle
being in good order, we concluded that they were fed
on the seed after the oil was extracted. The land
about Pagahn scarcely yields sufficient vegetation to
nourish goats."
Neoundah is a place of considerable trade. Cotton,
japanned wares, and sesamum oil, are the principal
exports. On his return, Colonel Symes brought to
at night off this place, amid a fleet of not fewer than
two hundred large trading boats, moored at the bank,
in waiting for their lading. Here, in proceeding to
the capital, the envoy took formal possession of a
royal barge which had been sent down from Amarapura
for his personal accommodation, with two warboats
to row "
it. The platform contained space for
thirty-two rowers, sixteen on each side; but on this
occasion the oars were not fastened, as it was meant