_Maulmein, Ye, Tavoy, Tenasserim, and the Mergui Archipelago._--These constitute what are sometimes called the _ceded_, sometimes the _Tenasserim_ provinces. They came into possession of the British at the close of the Burmese war of 1825. Unlike our dependencies in Hindostan, they are cut off from connection with any of the great centres of British power in Asia--in which respect they agree with the smaller and still more isolated settlements of the Malaccan Peninsula. The power that ceded them was the Burmese, so that it is with the existing subjects of that empire that their present limits are in contact; though only for the northern part. To the south they abut upon Siam. The population throughout is monosyllabic; except so far as it is modified by foreign intermixture--of which by far the most important element is the Indian. Everything in the way of religious creed which is not native and pagan is Indian and Buddhist. The alphabets, too, of the lettered populations are Indian in origin. The population of the _continental_ part of these British dependencies is referable to four divisions--of unequal and imperfectly ascertained value. 1. The Môn. 2. The Siamese. 3. The Avans. 4. The Kariens. 1. _The Môn._--Môn is the native name of the indigenous population of Pegu, so that the Môn of Maulmein, or Amherst, the most northern of the provinces in question, on the left bank of the lower Salwín, are part and parcel of the present occupants of the delta of the Irawaddi, and the country about Cape Negrais. The Burmese call them _Talieng_, and under that designation they are described in Dr. Helfer's Report.[22] The Siamese appellation is _Ming-môn_; apparently the native name in a state of composition. In the early Portuguese notices a still more composite form appears--and we hear of the ancient empire of _Kalamenham_, supposed to have been founded by the _Pandalús_ of Môn or Pegu. None of the _lettered_ languages of the Indo-Chinese peninsula are less known than that of Pegu. At the same time its unequivocally monosyllabic character is beyond doubt. The alphabet is a slight variation of the Avan. The geographical position of the Môn at the extremity of a promontory, and on the delta of a river, taken along with their philological isolation, is remarkable. They have evidently been encroached upon by the Avans in latter times; whilst, at an earlier period, they themselves probably encroached upon others. Whether they are the oldest occupants of Maulmein is uncertain; it is only certain that they are older than their conquerors. To the Môn of Pegu the exchange of Avan for British rule, has been a great and an appreciated advantage. 2. _The Siamese._--The native name for the Siamese language is _Tha'y_, and _Tha'y_ is the national and indigenous denomination of the Siamese. It is the Avans who call them _Sian_ or _Shan_; from whence the European term has been derived through the Portuguese.