Geographical perplexities were, however, cleared up, and errors, particularly with regard to the Great River Irrawaddy, removed by this expedition of M.S. For example, the river which connects Pegu with the ocean, was by former geographers continued from beyond Pegu, to the frontiers of China; whereas the main river, the mouth of which is Rangoon, passes through Prome to the capital, and to the borders of China. The Pegu river is relatively an unimportant stream, taking its rise a very little way above Pegu. By the assistance of Major Rennell and Mr. Dalrymple, the geography of Ava has now received great illustration; and jealous as that nation still continues to be, with respect to the admission of Europeans among them, political necessities, as well as the expediency of commercial interchange, will probably, in the progress of a few years, remove whatever obscurities may yet remain. With respect to the people themselves, of their manners and customs, the productions of their soil, their religion, and their learning, the European world was almost in entire ignorance. With the exception of a small volume, translated from the French, and entitled “A Relation of the Voyage to Siam, performed by Six Jesuits, sent by the French King to the Indies and China in 1685,” there was no book in the English language illustrative of the subject. No person was, in the opinion of the Sexagenarian, who has so expressed himself in our notes, better qualified in all respects for such an expedition than Major S—s. He combined the firmness of the soldier with the courteous manners of the gentleman, and he found the union of these qualities, of no small importance in the progress of his undertaking. He accordingly succeeded to the full extent of his views, and to the entire satisfaction of his employers. This latter circumstance is sufficiently attested by his being dispatched a second time to the same place, to explain some misconceptions which had taken place on the part of the Ava government. Of this second expedition, however, no public notice has been taken, nor did the traveller avail himself of the opportunity thus offered, to correct or enlarge what he had before written and published on the subject. It is rather remarkable, that so very little should have been previously known of an empire, second only in extent to that of China. The Sovereign considers himself as the greatest Potentate upon earth, and indeed nothing can be more ostentatiously splendid than the grandeur of his court. The East India Company thought so highly of the services rendered them by their agent, that they voted him a donation of twelve thousand Sicca rupees.