United States or Peru ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Were it not for the prodigious quantities of gold consumed in this manner, it would be very plentiful and cheap in Pegu. About two days journey from Pegu there is a varella or pagoda called dogonne, of wonderful bigness, gilded all over from top to bottom, to which the inhabitants of Pegu go in pilgrimage; and near it is a house where their talapoins or priests preach to the people.
The country abounds in pits, bearing marks of great age; and there are also remains of many furnaces, which are said to have been abandoned in the wars with Pegu. Mineral springs copious and, no doubt, valuable are numerous in some parts of the country. The exports of Siam are various and profitable; and of the raw materials, teak timber is entitled to the first consideration.
The voyages to many of these islands belong to the captain of Malacca, so that no one can go there without his licence, by which he draws large sums of money every year. The Portuguese at Malacca are often at war with the king of Acheen in the island of Sumatra; from whence comes great store of pepper and other spices yearly to Pegu, Mecca, and other places.
We had heard that a large number of troops, some said five thousand, were collected within the fortifications; and each of the boats which had been sent out reconnoitring brought word that, during the night and day, they had seen no end of war-boats, full of men, coming down the Pegu river, evidently to assist in the defence of the place.
Of the amber they holde diuers opinions; but most men say it commeth out of the sea, and that they finde it vpon the shores side. The rubies, saphires, and spinnelles are found in Pegu. The diamants are found in diuers places, as in Bisnagar, in Agra, in Delli, and in the Ilands of the Iauas.
They are civil, but very poor, their only employment being to collect tar, and to prepare a little oil from tortoises, both of which they export to Cochin-china. They offer their women to strangers for a small matter; a custom universal in Pegu, Siam, Cochin-China, Cambadia, Tonquin, and India, as also on the coast of Guinea.
Rubies, sapphires and spinels are found in Pegu. Diamonds are found in several places, as in Bisnagur, Agra, Delhi, and the Javan islands. The best pearls come from the isle of Bahrein in the gulf of Persia; and an inferior sort from the fisheries near Ceylon, and from Ainan, a large island off the southern coast of China.
This region comprehends Aracan, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tsiompa, and Cambodia. The south and east coasts of Arabia still require to be more minutely and accurately surveyed. In the eastern archipelago, Borneo, Celebes, and Papua, are scarcely known.
It occurs in alluvial soil, in the vicinity of rocks belonging to the secondary or floetz-trap formation, and imbedded in gneiss. It is found at Rodsedlitz and Treblitz in Bohemia, and Hohenstein in Saxony; Expailly in France; and particularly beautiful in the Capelau mountains, twelve days from Sirian, a city of Pegu. Next to diamond it is the most valuable of gems.
"Stretch imagination to its utmost limits, and you can conceive no exhibition more grand and imposing than when Rauchenara-Begum, mounted on a stupendous Pegu elephant and seated in a mikdember, blazing with gold and azure, is followed by five or six other elephants with mikdembers nearly as resplendent as her own, and filled with ladies attached to her household.
Word Of The Day