BASSE IN RIVER. These
the cleaned rice from the mills. ports of Burma.
There
203
rice mills are a feature in the
nothing like them in continental India
is
(except at Port Canning, and there the mills are a failure), where the rice
is
husked
vator before cultivator
is
in the interior of the Districts
it
is
sent
by the family of the cultiIn Burma, the
the market for disposal.
to
too well-to-do to
care about undertaking the trouble of
by the European worked by powerful machinery moved by steam and the coal which is required by them forms the main article of import from foreign countries into Akyab and husking the
rice,
and he leaves that
purchaser at the port of shipment.
to
The
be done
mills are
Bassein, the
Bassein
latter
importing also a certain
port
supplied with
is
all
steamers, which ply twice a
of
quantity
her other imports from
week through the narrow
Rangoon
salt.
in river
tidal creeks, lined
with mangrove jungle, which form the Burmese Sundarbans between
Rangoon and Bassein. These steamers belong to the Irawadi Company, and are specially constructed for the service. Light are in draught, in the dry weather they often stick fast in the
The
hours together.
Flotilla
as they
mud
for
steamers do a very large trade in the carriage
of passengers and cargo between
Rangoon and
Bassein, but
no record
of the actual value of the trade has as yet been attempted.’
Within the
last
few years telegraphic communication has been estab-
and Rangoon, and it is proposed mouth of the river, where ships call for orders.
lished between Bassein line to the
the municipal revenue of the town w'as ;^i2,859.
to extend the
In 1881-82,
Bassein was utterly
depopulated in the time of Alaungpaya (Alompra), and no trustworthy records of
its early history exist. It is said to have been founded in by Umtmadani, a Talaing princess. From the natural advantages of its site, it has always been a harbour of considerable importance, and is alluded to as Cosmin’ by Ralph Fitch and other travellers, who found Rangoon a small village. Cosmin is a corruption of
1249
a.d.
‘
‘
Kusiinanagara.
The
’
place was an important seaport as early as the
During the first Burmese war, the occupation of the town by the British was unopposed, the Burmese governor having set fire to it and retreated to Le-myet-hna. The population gradually returned, and the place was not abandoned till the conclusion of war, when the troops were withdrawn. During the second Burmese war, Bassein was finally taken by assault. The town has a charitable dispensary and two hospitals, one for Europeans and one for natives. A new hospital was built a few years ago. The total number of patients treated in 1876 was 3461, of whom 264, including 10 Europeans, were 1
2th century.
in-patients.
— River
in Irawadi Division, British Burma the most main channels by which the Irawadi reaches the sea. northern entrance, about 9 miles above Henzada town, is in the dry
Bassein.
westerly of the Its
