ent state a genuine people, but thought, with great
appearance of reason, to be a mixture of Battas and Malays, with chulias,
as they term the natives of the west of India, by whom their ports have
in all ages been frequented. In their dispositions they are more active
and industrious than some of their neighbours; they possess more
sagacity, have more knowledge of other countries, and as merchants they
deal upon a more extensive and liberal footing. But this last observation
applies rather to the traders at a distance from the capital and to their
transactions than to the conduct observed at Achin, which, according to
the temper and example of the reigning monarch, is often narrow,
extortionary, and oppressive. Their language is one of the general
dialects of the eastern islands, and its affinity to the Batta may be
observed in the comparative table; but they make use of the Malayan
character. In religion they are Mahometans, and having many priests, and
much intercourse with foreigners of the same faith, its forms and
ceremonies are observed with some strictness.

COMMERCE.

Although no longer the great mart of eastern commodities, Achin still
carries on a considerable trade, as well with private European merchants
as with the natives of that part of the coast of India called Telinga,
which is properly the country lying between the Kistna and Godavery
rivers; but the name, corrupted by the Malays to Kling, is commonly
applied to the whole coast of Coromandel. These supply it with salt,
cotton piece-goods, principally those called long-cloth white and blue,
and chintz with dark grounds; receiving in return gold-dust, raw silk of
inferior quality, betel-nut, patch-leaf (Melissa lotoria, called dilam by
the Malays) pepper, sulphur, camphor, and benzoin. The two latter are
carried thither from the river of Sungkel, where they are procured from
the country of the Battas, and the pepper from Pidir; but this article is
also exported from Susu to the amount of about two thousand tons
annually, where it sells at the rate of twelve dollars the pikul, chiefly
for gold and silver. The quality is not esteemed good, being gathered
before it is sufficiently ripe, and it is not cleaned like the Company's
pepper. The Americans have been of late years the chief purchasers. The
gold collected at Achin comes partly from the mountains in the
neighbourhood but chiefly from Nalabu and Susu. Its commerce,
independently of that of the out-po