Toungoo District, which is our frontier in the valley of the Sittang (also facing Upper Burma), has had its population augmented in the same period 115 per cent. The Myanoung District, which adjoins Prome to the south, shows an increase of 81 per cent. The Bassein District, which has drawn, as will be shown hereafter, from Arakan as well as Upper Burma, has raised its population by 113 per cent. While the Rangoon District, which is the most southerly and removed from our frontier, has increased by 70 per cent. in the same decade. 21. The population returns from the other two divisions extending over the same ten years, 1855-56 to 1865-66, fully support the conclusion that they formerly drew their additional population from Upper Burma, and from Pegu, so long as it was under Native rule, and that when the latter came under British Administration the transfer ceased. Thus intercommunication between Arakan and the Pegu Division is comparatively easy along their mutual boundary, but when we reach the Northern Frontier of the Pegu Division, running athwart the valley of the Irawadi, then the passage from Upper Burma (Native) above that line to the Arakan Division is one of considerable difficulty; in fact, the Aeng Pass is the only really feasible route leading through the broad range of mountains there separating Arakan from Burma Proper. We have shown that while Arakan under British Administration had to compete with Pegu under Native Rule, its population increased at an average of 50 per cent. each decade; but when it has Pegu under British management, as its neighbour, and physical obstacles prevent a supply being drawn from Burma, as has been the case from 1855-56 to 1865-66, we find the population has only increased from 366,310 to 414,640, or 13 per cent. We have already pointed out that the Bassein District of the Pegu Division, which immediately adjoins Arakan, has during this period increased 113 per cent., and this is probably in some degree due to the reflux of those who had, while Pegu was under Native Rule, moved into the Province of Arakan. Tenasserim, on the other hand, has many routes by which she can draw population from the Native States, and we find that in the period from 1855-56 to 1865-66, this Division has increased its population from 254,605 to 430,551, or 68 per cent., a decennial rate as high as any it had attained since its occupation. 22. The foregoing data seem to establish beyond any doubt that during the whole period of British Administration of the Provinces of Arakan, Tenasserim, and Pegu, they have, in addition to an allowed natural increase of population, far higher than we have any historical authority for supposing they ever reached under Native Rule, withdrawn and absorbed enormous numbers of people from the neighbouring Native States, which may be summarised as follows: 23. Now looking to specific marks of material progress, to see whether they support the conclusions we would wish to draw, we find that in the Pegu Division during the decade 1855-56 to 1865-66, the area of assessed cultivation has increased from 539,808 to 991,102 acres, or 83 per cent. Customs from £56,281 to £151,088. The total revenue from £297,753 to £646,462; while the entire trade rose from £2,143,100 to £7,300,224. These results fully bear out our argument that increased population and increased prosperity in a country situated and constituted as Burma is run hand in hand together. 24. Tenasserim also in the past decade has progressed satisfactorily, in accordance with the increase in its population. The assessed area has risen from 181, 681, to 273,289 acres, customs from £7,796 to 13,517. The total revenue from £106,609 to 193,566, while the entire trade has increased from £836,305 to £1,712,307. 25. Arakan, on the other hand, shows the effect on her prosperity of having a British instead of a Native Administration to contend with as a neighbour. It has been indicated already that physical obstacles stand between Arakan and Upper Burma, which do not, and did not, between it and Pegu. We have given the rapid increase in the population and prosperity of Arakan up to 1855, but in the decade to 1865 there is a marked falling off. Assessed lands increased from 353,885 to 377,012 acres, revenue from £127,429 to £190,032, while trade has fallen from £1,876,998 to £1,395,580. 26. We have hitherto been concerned only to show the undoubted fact, that the countries under British Administration have possessed advantages so manifest to the population of neighbouring Native States, that a steady emigration from them into our territories has continued ever since our Government was established among the Indo-Chinese nations, the original ratio of population to area being very low, while the life-supporting capacity of the soil is very high. This rapid increase of population has produced a remarkable progress in all the elements which go to make up the material prosperity of the country. 27. And when we look to those native powers which have been our competitors during this period the picture is reversed. In the dominions of the King of Burma, including the tributary Shan States, we find everywhere signs of progressive decay; a discontented people abandoning his territory; a decreasing revenue; the area of cultivation lessening yearly; and the weakness of the Government shown in the rebellions and outbreaks which so regularly occur. During this year (1867), had it not been for the rich granaries of Pegu that supplied Upper Burma with rice, a famine would have succeeded the Civil War which raged last year. The natives of Upper Burma themselves indicate truly the process now being undergone by the British and native dominions. "Here," they say, "in British Burma your villages are becoming towns, but with us in Upper Burma our towns are becoming villages." ALBERT FYTCHE, COLONEL, Chief Commissioner, British Burma; and BY COLONEL ALBERT FYTCHE, CHIEF COMMISSIONER BRITISH BURMA, AND AGENT TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. Dated Rangoon, July 15th, 1867. CONSIDERABLE difficulties exist in procuring correct intelligence of the Panthays, or Mahommedan population of Yunnan. In the first place, they are not inclined themselves to be communicative; but rather assume a studied ignorance of their own affairs Secondly, communication can only be ordinarily held with them through Chinese Merchants and Brokers, residents of Burma Proper, who speak the Burmese language; and who, in addition to their own private and self-interested motives, for preventing free intercourse, with traders from Yunnan, are moreover in the pay, or subject to the influence of the King of Burma. They well understand the Royal policy of exclusiveness, and have been made acquainted with the several indirect orders which have from time to time been issued by that Government, in order to restrict, as effectually as possible, every means of intercourse between Panthays and foreigners of all nations. The little information, therefore, which it has been possible to collect from the above sources furnished me by Captain Sladen, and also from a few Panthays who visited Moulmain with a Shan Caravan, when I was Commissioner of the Tenasserim and Martaban Provinces in 1861, is vague and meagre; but such as it is, I will now briefly record. A paper has been published in the Russian Military Journal for August, 1866, on the late rising of the Dungens, or Mussulman population in Western China. I am of opinion that no Political affinity exists between the Dungens of the North Western, and the Panthays of the South Western Provinces of China; or rather, that the present rising of the Dungens on the North, bears no relation to the former rebellion of the Panthays on the South; or to any subsequent movement of the Southern Mussulman populalation of Yunnan, to throw off the Chinese yoke; such movement having commenced as early as the year 1855. This opinion must be understood, however, to have reference only to the present attitude and circumstances of the Panthays in Yunnan; without any speculative allusion to causes, or the possibility of future combination, for the Panthays of Yunnan and the Dugens are, after all, of the same race and religion, and are merely divided from each other by the Province of Sechuen; and a general struggle for independence, if it really exists, and is able to make head against the Chinese Government, will certainly include, at no great distance of time, the whole of the Mahommedan population in China wherever found. The first sign of a combination between Panthays and Dungens will be manifested by the fall of Sechuen, and the news of such an event would soon reach this Province. The term Dungen or Turgen is not known or comprehended by either Panthays or Burmese. The Mahommedans of the North Western Provinces of China are known to the Panthays, by the same denomination as they call themselves, "Mooselin," and to the Burmese as "Tharet." The word Panthay, or as it is sometimes pronounced Panzee, is of Burmese origin, and is a mere corruption of the Burmese word "Puthee," which signifies, or |