L u n d s e y .
C o a s t s .
I sles.
merce. Prone, once enclofed with fortifications) lies on the left
bank, and is one o f the principal trading towns on its courfe;
the environs are extremely fertile.
A t Lundfey, a town feated on the eaftern bank, in Latitude
i8°go, begins a rich, fat foil, ¡Formedby the mud brought down
by the great annual inundations which this river is fubjedt to,
like the Ganges. Lundfey is diftant a hundred and eighty miles
from the fea. The Delta o f the Ava begins in about Lat. 18,
and extends nearly a hundred and forty miles before it reaches
the fouthern extremity ; the bafe, or the lower part, facing the
fea, is about two hundred miles'; all the upper part of the Delta
is clear land ; the lower feems filled with wood, and divided by
a number of channels into iflands; like the Sunderbund of the
Ganges.- : iaraaft -¿ah- «S- ,1b. $hm otfl
C h e d u b a h I s l e .
Ptolemy calls th e r iv e r Ava, Sabaracus. T h a t a b le g e o g r a p h e r
D'Anville m ifta k e s it fo r th e Burrampooter, a n d a c c o rd in g ly w e
find it u n d e r th a t n am e in h is m ap s . T h e e r ro r is v e n ia l, to r h e
did n o t liv e to th e tim e o f o u r Rennel.
I s h a l l now refume the coafts from the borders of Cbitti-
gong. The country abounds with timber, and the woods with
all forts o f animals for food, fuch as buffaloes, deer, and wild
hogs-. Here and there a few ifles are difperfed along the ihore.;
fome in groups, others jingle, or few together. The ifles aie
St. Martin's, not far above, the mouth o f Aracan river; the,
Oyjler iflands nearly oppofite; and the Bolongo, a very littleto,
it’s fouth. Chedubah, a large illand in about Lat. 18“ 30 , is fup-
pofed to be the Bazacuta of Ptolemy, remarkable, fays he, for
the quantity of ihells; he adds, that the inhabitants were called
Agfnata,
Mgmatee, and that they went naked. The Sada Civitas is placed
on the coaft o f -Ava by M. D'Anville, in Lat. 18“. We are little
-acquainted with the country; but that able geographer difco-
vcrs it to have been a place ftill known by the name o f Sadoa.
Near it was the Sadus Fluvius. Berabonna was another town of
Ptolemy's, feated on the fame coaft, in Lat. 160 30', now called
Barabon; and at the extremity o f the fouthern fide o f Ava is
Cape Negrais, in about Lat. 16°, the antient Promontorium Le- C a p e N e g r a is . _
mula. From Mr. Baker's furvey, in Mr. Dalrymple's collection,
it appears to be lofty, and in part very precipitous. The ifle o f
Negrais and another, both off the mouth o f the river, form
within them a noble harbor, fecure from all winds. The En-
glifh, o f late years, wiihed to fix here a fettlement. The country
is incredibly fertile in rice, and might have proved a fine re-
fource to the Coromandel coaft, and even to Bengal, in times of
fcarcity, exclulive o f the advantages to be derived from the harbor
in time of war. As to rice, it is fold here at twelve pagodas
a garce; whereas in Coromandel it is generally above thirty, and
fometimes even eighty: a garce.
T h e kingdom o f Pegu begins at this cape; Mae coaft turns P b g o .
then fuddenly to the eaft, and extends above,, two hundred
miles, inclining, after fome way, flightly to the north, as far as
the river o f Martaban, the boundary between Pegu and the
.province o f Martaban, which adjoins to the kingdom of Siam.
Pegu is extremely narrow at the part next to Cape Negrais ; but it
widens quickly, fo as to take in the whole Delta of the Ava, and
ftretches north as high as Lat. 19°. In the maps the coaft o f Ava is
comprehended in the kingdom o f Pegu. We know fo little of thefe
Vo l . III. C countries,