ABSTRACT
As far as I know, Varthema’s is the first authentic account which we possess of the province o f Tenasserim, with the exception o f the follow ing brief notice by Conti about a .d . 1440 :— “ Leaving the island o f Taprobane [Sumatra], he arrived, after a stormy voyage o f seventeen days, at the city o f Ternassari, which is situated on the mouth o f a river of the same name. The land around abounds in elephants and produces much brazil-wood.” (Ramusio, vol. i, p. 339.) Barbosa, a few years after our traveller, gives us some additional particulars respecting its government, from which we learn that it was then a province o f Siam, but ruled by an almost independent viceroy :— “ Immediately on leaving the kingdom of Pegu, there is another called Ternassari, where are many Moorish and Gentile merchants, who trade in all kinds of wares. They have vessels with which they navigate towards Bengala, and Malaca, and other parts. Very excellent benzoin, which is the juice o f certain trees, is grown in the interior, and the Moors call it lubanidbi [lub&n Jdwi, Java frankincense ?]. In this port of Ternassari there are many Moors from different parts.” And in the Summary o f Kingdoms we read :— “ The Siamese trade on the Tenacerim side with Pacem, Pedir, Queda, Pegu, Bengala, and Guzerat. The king [o f Siam] is called Perckoara, which means the lord o f all. With the king is Aiam Campetit, who is viceroy on the side o f Pegu, and makes war with Brema [Burmah] and Iamgoma...The second, who is viceroy o f Longor, is called Peraia... The other is the Aia Chatoteri, who is the viceroy on the side of Queda and Tenacerin : he is a chief person, and has power over all. He is perpetual captain of Tenacerin, is lord over many people, and o f a coun try abounding in all kinds o f provisions.” (Ramusio, vol. i. p. 330.) Ralph Fitch, a .d . 1583-91, merely mentions that he passed by Tenasseri on his way from Pegu to Malacca. In 1600, Master John Davis touched at “ the city o f Tanassartn,” which he styles “ a place of great trade.” (Gbeene, vol. i. p. 261.) He was followed in 1612 by Captain John Floris, who states that it was then tributary to Pegu, (Id. p. 439,) by which power the province had been conquered in 1568, but was recovered by the black king o f Siam, aided by the Portuguese, in 1603. (Mod. Univ. History, vol. vi. p. 259.) Purchas records that “ in the year 1606 Bal thasar Sequerius, a Jesuit, landingat Tanassery, passed from thence,partly by good rivers, partly over cragged and rough hills and forests stored with rhinoceros, elephants, and tigers, into Odia” [the capital o f Siam.] (Vol. i. p. 491.) Master William Methold, about a .d . 1619, describes
is a Pagan, and is a very powerful lord. He is constantly fighting with the king of Narsinga and the king of Ban ghella. He has a hundred armed elephants, which are larger than any I ever saw. He always maintains 100,000 men for war, part infantry and part cavalry. Their arms consist of small swords and some sort o f shields, some of which are made of tortoise-shell, and some like those of Calicut; and they have a great quantity of bows, and lances of cane, and some also of wood. When they go to war they wear a dress stuffed very full of cotton. The houses of this city are well surrounded by walls. Its situation is extremely good, after the manner of Christians, and good grain and cotton also grow there. Silk is also made there in large quantities.1 A
the province as follows :— “ Tanassery lyeth next to Pegu, a small king dom and tributary to Syam, from which place this is but the port, and that only to the inhabitants o f this gu lf [B en gal;] for we find a way with our shipping into the river o f Syam.” ( Id. vol. v. p. 993.) Man delslo, twenty years later, reckons Tanacerim among the principal tributary cities o f Siam. ( Voyages, p. 334.) The English had a factory at Mergui on the Tenasserim river about this time, but in 1687 the settlers were nearly all massacred by the Siamese. (See P i n k e r t o n , vol. viii. p. 429-30.) Turpin describes the province in 1770 as producing “ an abundance o f rice and excellent fruits. It is in its safe and com modious port that vessels o f all nations arrive, and the people find more means o f subsisting there than in the other parts o f the kingdom.” {Id. vol. ix. p. 578.) From that period, however, Tenasserim appears to have declined in importance, chiefly by the removal o f its trade to Mergui. {Mod. Univ. Hist., vol. vi. p. 267.) In 1793 the entire province was ceded to Ava, and in 1826 it became a British possession by the Treaty o f Yandaboo. The old town is now a place of no importance, containing only one hundred houses and four hundred inhabitants. It is situate on the river of the same name, at the confluence o f the Little Tenasserim. The river is navigable up to the town for vessels o f one hundred and twenty tons burthen. The town was once surrounded by a brick wall, which is now so much in ruins that its remains can be traced only at intervals.” The trade o f the province is as yet comparatively insignificant, but the population, since the British domination, has increased from 90,000 to 191,476. See T h o r n t o n ’ s Gazetteer.
