by all who have feen them (and of the tract containing 10,990 acres, which I have been on myself, I can affert) that there is no richer, or more valuable land in all that region. They are conditionally fold for the fum mentioned in the schedule, that is 200,000 dollars, and if the terms of that fale are not complied with, they will command confiderably more. The tract, of which the 125 acres is a moiety, was taken up by General Andrew Lewis and myself, for, and on account of, a bitumenous fpring which it contains, of fo inflammable a nature, as to burn as freely as fpirits, and is as nearly difficult to ex tinguish.

7. I am but little acquainted with this land, although I have once been on it. It was received (many years fince) in difcharge of a debt due to me from Daniel Jenifer Adams, at the value annexed thereto, and must be worth more. It is very level lies near the River Potomak.

m. This tract lies about 30 miles above the City of Washington, not far from Kittoctan. It is good farm ing land, and, by thofe who are well acquainted with it, I am informed that it would fell at twelve or fifteen dollars per acre.

n. This land is valuable, on account of its local fituation and other properties. It affords an exceeding good ftand on Bradock's Road from Fort-Cumberland to Pittsburg; and, befides a fertile foil, poffeffes a large quantity of natural meadow, fit for the fcythe. It is diftinguished by the appellation of the Great Meadows, where the firft action with the French, in the year 1754, was fought.

9. This is the moiety of about 2000 acres, which remains unfold, of 6071 acres on the Mohawk Ri

r (Montgomery county) in a pa tent granted to Daniel Coxe, in the Township of Coxeborough and Caro"lan, as will appear by deed, from

Marinus Willet and wife, to George Clinton (late governor of New York) and myfelf. The latter fales have been at fix dollars an acre, and what remains unfold will fetch that or more.

p. The quality of thefe lands and their fituation, may be known by the Surveyor's Certificates, which are filed along with the patents.-They lay in the vicinity of Cincinnati ; one tract near the mouth of the Little Miami-another feven, and the third ten miles up the fame. I have been informed that they will readily command more than they are eftimated at.

q. For the defcription of thofe tracts in detail, fee General Spotfwood's letters, filed with the other papers relating to them. Besides the general good quality of the land, there is a valuable bank of iron ore thereon, which, when the settlement becomes more populous (and fettlers are moving that way very faft) will be found very valuable, as the Rough creck, a branch of Green River, affords ample water for furnaces and forges.

LOTS-VIZ.

City of Washington.

r. The two Lots near the Capitol, in Square 634, coft me 963 dols. only, but in this price I was favoured, on condition that I fhould build two brick houfes, three ftory high each; without this reduction the fetling prices of those lots would have cost me about 1358 dols. These lots, with the buildings thereon, when completed, will fand me in 15,000 dollars at leaft.

S. Lots No. 5, 12, 13 and 14, on the Eaftern Branch, are advantageoufly fituated on the water, and although many lots much lefs convenient have fold a great deal higher, I will rate thefe at 12 cents the fquare yot only.

preciated in that rate-Pand was fo fettled by public authority.

y. The value annexed to thefe fhares is what they have actually coft me, and is the price affixed by law; and although the prefent felling price is under par, my advice to the Legatees (for whofe benefit they are inford to lie out of the money) is that tended, especially thofe who can afeach fhould take and hold onethere being a moral certainty of a from them, in the courfe of a few great and increafing profit arifing

years.

2. It is fuppofed that the Shares in the James River Company must also be productive: but of this I can give no decided opinion, for want of more accurate information.

Thefe are the nominal prices of the fhares in the Banks of Alexandria and Columbia-the felling prices vary according to circumftances;but as the stock ufually divides from eight to ten per cent. per annum, they must be worth the former, at leaft, fo long as the Banks are con ceived to be fecure, although circumftances may fometimes make them below it.

The value of the live ftock depends more upon the quality than quantity of the different fpecies of it-and this again upon the demand and judgment, or fancy of purchasers. GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Mount Vernon, I 9th July, 1799, S

miths, who are all natives of Caffay, keep them in repair, but they are in general fo bad as to be out of the power of art to render them serviceable. I faw a tolerable good fowling piece, which they faid was entirely the work of a Caffay artificer; this, however, was allowed to be an extraordinary effort of genius; the perfon who thowed it to me, prefented me, at the fame time, with a bamboo, which threw out a fhort fpear of iron, by means of a spring; it was executed by the maker of the gun, and feemed to be formed after a model of an English walking-stick, that contained a concealed fpike; the imitation evinced much ingenuity, although the workmanship was coarfe, and the iron badly polished.

By far the most refpectable part of the Birman military force is their eftablishment of war-boats. Every town of note, in the vicinity of the river, is obliged to furnish a certain number of men, and one or more beats, in proportion to the magnitude of the place. I was informed that the king can command, at very short notice, five hundred of thefe veffels: they are conftructed out of the folid trunk of the teak tree, which is excavated partly by fire, and partly by cutting; the largest are from eighty to one hundred feet long, but the breadth feldom exceeds eight feet, and even this space is produced by artificially extending the fides after the trunk has been hollowed. They carry from fifty to fixty rowers, who ufe fhort oars that work on a spindle; the prow is folid, and has a flat furface, on which, when they go to war, a piece of ordnance is mounted, a fix, a nine, or even a twelve pounder; the gun carriage is fecured by lafhings to ftrong bolts on each side, and fwivels are frequently fixed on the curvature of the stern.

The rowers are feverally provided with a fword and a lance, which are placed by his fide whilft he plies the

oars. Befides the boat men, there are ufually thirty foldiers on board, who are armed with mufkets: thus prepared, they go in fleets to meet the foe, and, when in fight, draw up in a line, prefenting their prows to the enemy. Their attack is extremely impetuous; they advance with great rapidity, and fing a war-fong, at once to encourage their people, daunt their adverfaries, and regulate the ftrokes of their oars; they generally endeavour to grapple, and when that is effected, the action becomes very fevere, as thefe people are endued with great courage, strength, and activity. In times of peace they are fond of exercising in their boats, and I have often been entertained with the dexterity they display in the management of them. The veffels being low in the water, their greatest danger is that of being run down by a larger boat striking on their broadfide; a misfortune which the steersman is taught to dread, and to avoid above all others. It is furprifing to fee the facility with which they fteer, and elude each other in their mock combats. The rowers are alfo practifed to row backwards, and impel the veffel with the ftern foremost; this is the mode of retreat, by means of which the artillery ftill bears upon their opponent. The largest of the war-boats do not draw more than three feet water. When a person of rank is on board, there is a fort of moving tilt or canopy, for his parti cular accommodation, placed fometimes in the centre, and fometimes on the prow. The fides of the boat are either gilt as far as the water's edge, or plain, according to the rank of the perfon it carries, Gilded boats are only permitted to princes" of the blood, or to perfons holding the highest ftations, fuch as a Maywoon of a province, and a minifter of ftate.

known in India before its effects were discovered in the Weft; yet there is not any reafon to believe that the natives of Ava applied it to the purpose of mufketry, till Europeans instructed them in the art. According to Indian accounts, cannon were fabricated in the Eaft long before the era of European conqueft; their artillery, however, was not capable of being tranfported with facility, or at all used in the field: they were made of iron bars beaten into. a cylindrical form, rudely put together, but of great ftrength and enormous weight, from which, when raised on a rampart or tower, they threw huge ftones to annoy the enemy. The mufket was first introduced into the Pegue and Ava countries by the Portuguese, and is an implement of war which the inha bitants unwifely prefer to their own native weapons, the fpear and fabre; a partiality that is highly prejudicial to themselves, for nothing can be lefs formidable than fuch fire-arms as they poffefs, or have the means of procuring. The proper indigenous weapons of the country are the fpear, the javelin which is thrown from the hand, the cross-bow, and the fabre; the latter is used by the Birmans not only as an implement of war, but is likewife applied to various purposes as an inftrument of manual labour; with this the peasant fells trees, shapes timbers, cuts bamboos, or defends himself against an enemy and wild beafts; he never travels without it, and generally, when on a journey, carries a fhield his left arm: they encumber themselves with lefs baggage than perhaps any other people; and are fatisfied with a fcanty portion of the hardest fare.

on

In their food the Birmans, compared with the Indians, are gross and uncleanly. Although their religion forbids the flaughter of animals in general, yet they apply the interdic

tion only to thofe that are domefticated; all game is eagerly fought after, and in many places it is publicly fold; reptiles alfo, fuch as lizards, guanas, and fnakes, constitute a part of the fubfiftence of the lower claffes. During our voyage up the river, the boatmen, after we had brought to, ufed frequently to hunt for cameleons and lizards among the thickets. They are extremely fond of vegetables; at thofe places where garden-greens were not to be procured, they gathered wild forrel, and fometimes fubftituted the tender leaves of trees; thefe, boiled with rice, and moiftened with a little oil, or feafoned with gnapee, or pickled fprat, compofe a meal with which a Birman peafant or boatman is fatisfied; the higher ranks, however, live with more delicacy, although their fare is never very sumptuous.

The climate of every part of the Birman empire, which I have vifited, bore teftimony to its falubrity, by the beft poffible criterion, the appearance and vigour of the natives. The feafons are regular, and the extremes of heat and cold are feldom experienced; at leaft the duration of that intenfe heat, which immediately precedes the commencement of the rainy feafon, is fo fhort, that it incommodes but for a very little time. During our refidence in the country we lost only one man by difeafe;" another met an accidental death; in wandering through the woods he became the prey of a tiger.

influence over the minds of this extraordinary and more liberal people. Birman wives and daughters are not concealed from the fight of men, and are fuffered to have as free inter. course with each other as the rules of European fociety admit; but in other refpects women have just reafon to complain of their treatment; they are confidered as not belonging to the fame fcale of the creation as men, and even the law ftamps a degrading distinction between the fexes; the evidence of a woman is not received as of equal weight with that of a man, and a woman is not fuffered to afcend the steps of a court of juftice, but is obliged to deliver her teftimony on the outfide of the roof. The custom of felling their women to ftrangers, which has before been adverted to, is confined to the lowest claffes of fociety, and is perhaps oftener the confequence of heavy pecuniary embarraffment, than an act of inclination; it is not, however, confidered as shameful, nor is the female difhonoured: partly perhaps from this cause, and partly from their habits of education, women furrender themfelves the victims of this barbarous cuftom with apparent refignation. It is alfo faid that they are very feldom unfaithful to their foreign mafters; indeed they are often effentially useful, particularly those who trade, by keeping their accounts and tranfacting their business: but when a man departs from the country, he is not fuffered to carry his temporary wife along with him; on that point the law is exceedingly rigorous: every fhip, before the receives her clearance, is diligently fearched by the officers of the custom-houfe: even if their vigilance were to be eluded, the woman would be quickly miffed; and it would be foon difcovered in what veffel fhe had gone, nor could that ship ever return to a Birman port but under penalty of confifcation of the property, and the

infliction of a heavy fine and impris fonment on the mafter: female chil dren also, born of a Birman mother, are not suffered to be taken away. Men are permitted to emigrate; but they think that the expatriation of women would impoverish the state, by diminishing the fources of its population.

One vice is ufually the parent of another: the Birmans, being exempt from that of jealoufy, do not refort to the diabolical practice of emasculating the male children, to educate them as fpies over their women. Chaflity, they know, is more fafely guarded by principles of honour and attachment than by moats or caftles. When Arracan was conquered by the Birmans, feveral eunuchs were made prifoners, belonging to the prince of the country, who had adopted that degenerate cuftom of Mahomedan growth. Thefe people are maintained by the Birman monarch rather as memorials of his conqueft, than for any fervices they are required to perform. Infidelity is not a characteristic of Birman wives; in general they have too much employment to leave leifure for the corruption of their minds. A woman of the highest rank feldom fits in idlenefs at home; her female fervants, like thofe of Grecian dames of antiquity, ply the various labours of the loom' whilft the mistress fuperintends and directs their industry. On the occafion of a formal visit to the mother of the present queen, we obferved in one of the galleries of her palace, three or four looms at work, wrought by the damfels of her household. Weaving is chiefly a female occupation. Most Birman families make all the cotton and filk cloth that is required for their domestic confumption.

The Birmans, in fome points of their difpofition, difplay the ferocity of barbarians, and in others, all the humanity and tenderness of polished