Читать книгу Burmah and the Burmese онлайн

15 страница из 59

Notwithstanding that there is much silver elsewhere, the only mines worked are in Laos, and there even the mines are not wrought by the Burmese, but by natives of China and Laos, to the number of about a thousand. The estimated produce does not seem large, amounting annually to only one hundred thousand pounds, on which the contractors pay a tax of five thousand pounds.

The diamonds are all small, and emeralds are wanting. Rubies are found in great quantities, however, at about five days’ journey from Ava, near the villages of Mo-gout and Kyat-pyen. Malcom saw one for which the owner asked no less than four pounds of pure gold. The king is reported to have some which weigh from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty grains. Sapphires, too, abound. “Some have been obtained,” Malcom assures us, “weighing from three thousand to nearly four thousand grains.”[12] Many other precious stones are to be found in this wealthy country. Much amber is found round the Hu-kong valley, on the Assam frontier. Iron, tin, lead, and many of those staples of commerce which form the real wealth and resources of every country, abound, and coal is to be found in the inland provinces.[13] Marble, and of the finest, also exists in the land; better than which there would seem to be none in the world. What might such a country be in the hands of an energetic and intelligent people!