UMMERAPOOR, a large city, and the present capital of the Birman empire. It stands on the banks of a romantic lake, seven miles long by one and a half broad, and at a short distance from the Irrawaddy river. When the lake is filled during the periodical rains, it leaves, with the river on the other side, a peninsula, on which the city is built. It is a place of great resort, and of extensive trade; and the lake during the highest floods, when it is covered with numerous boats of every description, presents, with the lofty hills in the neighbourhood, an extraordinary spectacle to a stranger. The town is regularly fortified, and is laid out in an exact square. The streets are wide, and intersect each other at right angles. There are four principal gates, one on each side of the square, and a smaller gate on each side of the great gate. At each angle of the fort there is a large quadrangular bastion, which projects considerably; and there are also eleven smaller bastions on each side, including those over the gateway. Between each of these bastions is a curtain, extending 200 yards in length. The ditch of the fort is wide, and faced with brick. The rampart, faced by a wall of brick, is about twenty feet high exclusively of the parapet, which has embrasures for cannon and apertures for musketry. Small demi-bastions project at regular intervals; and the gates
are massive, and guarded by cannon. The southern face of the fort is washed during the rainy season by the waters of the lake; and the houses of the city and suburbs extend along the bank as far as the extreme point of the land. The town is but meanly built. There are few houses of brick and mortar, and these belong to the members of the royal family. The houses of the chief persons are surrounded by a wooden enclosure; and all houses whatever are covered with tiles, and have on the ridge of the roof earthen pots filled with water, as a precaution against fires, which are here very frequent. When a fire takes place, they are immediately broken. In the centre of the town stands the royal palace, which consists of a number of wooden buildings of various forms, the domes of which, being covered with gilt copper, make a splendid appearance. The whole is surrounded with an enclosure of teak plants, having four gates, and may be half a mile in circumference. The splendour of the religious buildings is very striking, owing to their being entirely covered with gilding, the inside of the roofs as well as the outside. The gold leaf that is used, being exceedingly pure, bears exposure to the air for a long time without suffering injury. The royal library is situated at the north-west angle of the fort, in the centre of a court paved with broad flags. The books are kept in wooden chests curiously ornamented. The chests are about 100 in number, and well filled. The contents of each chest are inscribed in gold letters on the lid. The city is divided into four distinct quarters, each of which is governed by its own officer; and no town in Europe can boast of a better police. Ummerapoor was founded by the Birman monarch Minderajee Praw, so recently as 1783, about four miles east from old Ava, the ancient capital. Buildings in this part of India being mostly composed of wood, and the river presenting a convenient water-carriage, the present capital rose most rapidly, and became in a short time one of the most flourishing and well-built cities in the east. The population was estimated by Captain Cox at 175,000 persons, and the number of houses from 20,000 to 25,000. Long. 96. 7. E. Lat. 21. 55. N.