The exports of Burmah are teak-wood, cotton, wax, cutch, sticklac, and ivory; also lead, copper, arsenic, tin, birds’ nests, amber, indigo, tobacco, honey, tamarinds, gnapee, or napé, gems, orpiment, &c. The most considerable article of commerce, however, is the teak-wood. “Indeed,” says Sangermano, “it is for this wood, more than for anything else, that vessels of every nation come to Pegu from all parts of India. It is found also in Bombay, but in small quantities, and is excessively dear; whereas in Pegu and Ava there are such immense forests of it that it can be sold to as many ships as arrive, at a moderate price. This wood, while it does not quickly decay, is very easily wrought, and very light. Cases have occurred of ships made of it, and laden with it, which have been filled with water, but yet did not sink. Hence, all the ships that come to Pegu return with cargoes of this wood, which is employed in common houses, but particularly in shipbuilding. Most of the ships that arrive in these ports are here careened and refitted; and there are, besides, two or three English and French shipbuilders established at Rangoon. One reason of this is the prohibition that exists of carrying the specie out of the empire. For, as merchants, after selling their cargo, and taking in another of teak-wood, generally have some money remaining in their hands, they are obliged to employ it in building a new ship. Though, perhaps, this is not the only motive for building vessels in Rangoon; but the quantity of teak and other kinds of wood with which the neighbouring forests abound, may also have a great influence in this way. If the port of Rangoon entices strangers to build ships there, it also obliges them to sail as soon as possible. For there is a species of worm bred in the waters of the river which penetrates into the interior of the wood, and eats it away in such a manner that the vessel is exposed to the greatest danger, since the holes formed by these worms being hidden, cannot easily be stopped up. They attack every species of wood except ebony and tamarind, which are so hard that they are used to make the mallets with which carpenters drive their chisels.” These facts, together with the difficulty of entering into the harbour, should be carefully considered by the rulers of the Company’s territories, and they must weigh the importance of the position against the fatal effects of the climate, and when they have the upper fertile territory of Ava almost within their grasp, they should not content themselves with the low flats of Pegu, as some of the public press have advised. Bassein, however, which has been lately captured, should be the principal port. That it is the better, is plainly to be seen from the fact of its having been so considered at an earlier period of the history of the country; and that the Company thought so, is plain from their first factories having been in that district.