"Silver must formerly have been found in much greater plenty than at present, as a large quantity of it was then exported from this country. The Japanese consider it as being more rare than gold, although the latter metal is dearer. They now likewise received in barter a considerable sum of Dutch Ducatoons from the Dutch company. It is said to be found in the province of Bingo; and in the more northerly parts towards Kattami, as I was informed, very rich silver mines are to be met with. Independently of these places, the two islands which are called the Gold and Silver isles, (Ginsima, Kinsima), are said to contain a great quantity of both of these precious metals. Silver is used for coining and for plating. "Copper is quite common in every part of the empire, and is richly impregnated with gold, constituting the main source of the wealth of many provinces. It was not only formerly exported in amazing quantities, but still continues to be exported both by the Dutch and Chinese merchants. The finest, and most malleable, is dug in Suruga, Atsingo, Kyno, Kuni. The last sort is esteemed to be the most malleable of any; whilst that from Suruga contains the greatest quantity of gold, A great number of copper mines are to be found in Satsuma, and at other places. Of this metal are made small pieces of money for change; it is used likewise for plating, for making utensils of Sowas, for pots, kettles, &c. "Iron seems to be scarcer than any other metal in this country. It is found, however, in the provinces of Mimasaka, Bitsju, and Bisen. This they are neither fond of importing, nor yet of exporting it for sale. Of it they manufacture scymitars, arms, scissors, knives, and various other implements of which they stand in need. "Of amber I had a present made me by my friends: they call it Nambu. It was of a dark, as well as of a light yellow colour, and likewise streaky. I was told also that it is found in this country. "Brimstone is found in great abundance in Japan, especially upon a certain island near Satsuma. Pit-coal, I wa3 informed, is likewise to be met with in the northern provinces. Red agate, with white veins, I saw several times made use of for the buttons, &c. of tobacco pouches, and medicine chests^ which agate was most frequently cut in the shape of a butterfly, or some other animal."* It may be added, from Kampfer, that brass is very rare, the calamine being brought from Tunquin; and beautiful tin is found in the province of Bungo, though, perhaps, this may be the white copper of the Chinese. Amber grease is now discharged from the list of mineral productions; but a reddish naphtha is sometimes found, and used in lumps. Neither antimony nor quicksilver have been discovered in Japan. Thunberg also enumerates asbestos, porcelain clay, beautiful flesh coloured stectite, pumice, and white marble.f There are several warm mineral waters, which the inhabitants use for various diseases; particularly those of Obamma, and those in the mountuin of Omfen. The natural curiosities of Japan have been * Thunberg, iv. 103. f Ib- iii. 203. Kimpfer, i. 1/6. little investigated, as Europeans have seldom visited the interior of the country. Isles. There are many small isles dependent on Japan, particularly in the S. and E. among which is Fatfisio, the place of exile for the grandees. This, and the other small isles, are scarcely known, except by name. THE BIRMAN EMPIRE. COMPRISING THE KINGDOMS OF AVA AND PEGU. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY. NAME.EXTENT. BOUNDARIES.ORIGINAL INHABITANTS.— PROGRESSIVE GEOGRAPHY. MODERN HISTORY. BEFORE the appearance of a recent interesting publication* little was known concerning this new empire; and geographers were constrained to detail the old accounts, which are little satisfactory. Name. The Birman empire derives its name from the Birmahs, who have been long known as a warlike nation in the region formerly styled Innia Beyonn The GANGES; the capital city of their kingdom being Ava. or Awa. Pegu is by the natives styled Bagoo;f being the country situated to the south of the former, and justly inferred to have been the Golden Chersonese of the ancients. Extent Ann Bounnaries. It is difficult to ascertain, with precision, the Ixundaries of the Birman empire. Mr. Symes informs us that "it appears to include the space between the ninth and twentysixth degree of north latitude; and between the ninety-second and 107th decrees of longitude east of Greenwich; about 1050 geographical miles in length, and 600 in breadth: these are the ascertainable limits, taken from the Birman accounts; but it is probable that their dominions stretch still further to the north. It should, however, be remarked, that the breadth often varies; and is in many places very inconsiderable on what is called the eastern peninsula." The geography of what is called India beyond the Ganges, a vqgue 'name for the wide and various regions between Hindustan and China, is Svmr's Account cf th* embassv to Ava. † Ib. i. 6. 8vo. ciit. still defective. To the north the Birman empire is divided by mountains from Asam, a country little visited or known; and further to the east it borders on Tibet and China. On the west a range of mountains, and the tittle river Nuaf, divide the Birman possessions from the British dominions in Bengal; and the limit is continued by the sea. But the southern and eastern boundaries remain rather obscure. If extended to the ninth degree of latitude, it will include a considerable portion of the grand Malaian peninsula to the vicinity of Bangri, or in other words the province of Tanaserim and city of Mcrghi, formerly regarded as part of Siam. The eastern boundary is yet more vague: if extended to the 107th degree of longitude, it might be said to include almost the whole of what is called India beyond the Ganges, as far as the mouths of the Japanese river in Cambodia ; yet there seems no express evidence that Siam is regarded as a portion of the Birman empire; and if it were it would only extend to 103 degrees. Amidst this uncertainty it must suffice to observe that the Birman empire constitutes the fifth grand native power in Asia, since Hindostan and Persia have been divided, and may probably extend its authority over Laos and Cambodia, while it remains divided, by deserts and ranges of lofty mountains, from the united kingdoms of Cochin-China and Tunquin. Original Population. The original population of this region has been little illustrated. The alphabet, literature, and religion, are derived from those of the Hindoos; but the language, the grand criterion of national origins, has not been regularly collated with those of the adjacent countries*. Progressive Geograpry. The progressive geography of this territory becomes not a little interesting, as it has lately been shewn by M. Gossellin to constitute the utmost boundary of ancient knowledge in this quarter of the globef. He observes, that what chiefly characterises the Golden Chersonese of Ptolemy is tha mouth of a large river, which there divides itself into three branches before it join the sea. These channels appeared so considerable, that each of them bore the name of a river, the Chrysoana, the Palandas, and the Atlabas. It must be remarked that Ptolemy gives no name to this river above its division; and that he does not indicate its source as he does that of the others. It also appears that he knew nothing of the interior of this country, since he does not determine the position of any place. It was inhabited by a nation of robbers, whence the passage through it Was shunned, and the Indians, whom commerce led to the country of the Sine, followed a route to the north of this region. The other arguments of M. Gossellin, being founded on minute circumstances, shall be passed in silence; but* upon comparing Ptolemy's map with that of the country, there seems no manner of doubt that the Golden Chersonese is the southern part of the kingdom of Pegu, which may be considered as insulated by rivers. In the southern part of the Malaiaa peninsula, which has hitherto been regarded as the Golden Chersonese, the river Johr is so small a stream, that it could never have supplied the three important mouths noted by Ptolemy; and his delineation of the country of the Sins, stretching along a western sea, palpably cor * See vol. vi. of the Asiatic Researches. Geograph. des Grecs Analys. 139. responds with Tanaserim, while D'Anville's map so much contradict* that of Ptolemy, as to place the sea on the east of the Sinx, and proceeding to the northward, instead of the southward. In short, there is no doubt, that though our ingenious French geographer in a subsequent work too much limited the ancient knowledge of Africa*, yet, in describing its Asiatic limits, his proofs almost amount to mathematical demonstration. Additional advantages might indeed have been derived from that truly eminent geographer, Mr. Dalrymple's map of India beyond the Ganges, of which a sketch is published in Colonel Syme's work, and from the additional labours of Mr. Arrowsmith, which give a different aspect to the rivers in this quarter, from what they bore in maps in 1790, when Gossellin published his Analysis of Greek Geography. As the river Berhampoota was totally unknown to Ptolemy, his ignorance of the northern part of Bengal may easily be conceived by the omission of that important and striking feature. The rivers he lays down between the moHths of the Ganges, and the Delta of the Golden Chersonese, amount to five; of which three appear in our maps, but we are ignorant of the southern part of Aracan, which probably contains the two others. The three chief mouths of the Irrawaddy, in Mr. Dalrymple's map, faithfully correspond even in the form and manner of division, with those in the Golden Chersonese of Ptolemy; and the bay to the south of Dalla seems the Perimulicus Sinus of the Greek geographer, the small river to the east of which is that of Sirian, or Pegu. It will follow that the large river Daona is that of Sitang: and the other six rivers, great and small, might b» equally indicated down to the Coteiris of Ptolemy, that of Tanaserim in modern maps, which flowed to the south of the Sinx. It is also evident that the ancient geographer knew nothing of the strains pf Malacca, nor of the northern part of the great island of Sumatra; which must both have been well known, if the Mulaian peninsula had been the Golden Chersonese of the ancients. The isle of Iabadium, M. Gossellin supposes to be that called Dommel in modern maps; but, by D'Anville, in the Portuguese form, Ilha do Mel. A curious question remains, whether the people to the south of Martaban, along the shore towards Merghi, be noted in Hindoo tradition for such advantages as distinguished the Sinx of antiquity; while the city of Tanaserim (a word which means the tribe of Tana) corresponded with Thinx. The violence of oriental revolutions will speedily ruin even the remains of former opulence, as is exemplified in the present state of Pegu; but as even when D'Anville published his map of Asia, this country was called Lower Siam, it must have partaken in the advantages of that ancient and civilized kingdom, the inhabitants of which are justly concluded to have been the Sinx of antiquity. After this long discussion it may seem unnecessary to dwell on any faint and dubious hints to be found in Marco Polo, and other writers of the middle ages. The first precise ideas concerning this part of the Recherches sur la Geographic des Anciens, 2 vols. 4to. The volume! relative to the ancient knowledge of Europe, if they have appeared, have not yet reached England. |