AKYAB  , a

city and district in the Arakan division of Burma . The city is situated at the confluence of the three large rivers Myu, Koladaing and Lemyu, and is the most flourishing city in the Arakan division . Originally it was a mere fishing village, but when the British government in 1826 removed the restrictions on trade imposed by the Burmese, Akyab quickly grew into an important seat of maritime commerce . After the cession of Arakan by the treaty of Yandaboo in that year the old capital of Myohaung was abandoned as the seat of government, and Akyab on the sea-coast selected instead . During the first forty years of British rule it increased from a village to a town of 15,536 inhabitants, and now it is the third port of Burma, with a population in 19o1 of 31,687 . It contains the usual public buildings and several large rice mills . The chief exports are rice and oil . The district lies along the north-eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal, with an area of 5136 sq. m. and a population in 1901 of 481,666 . It forms the northernmost district of Lower Burma, and consists of the level tract lying between the sea and the Arakan Yoma mountains, and of the broken country formed by a portion of their western spurs and valleys . The forests form a most important feature of Akyab district and contain a valuable supply of timber of many kinds . The central part of the district consists of three fertile valleys, watered by the Myu, Koladaing and Lemyu These rivers approach each other at their mouths, and form a vast network of tidal channels; creeks and islands . Their alluvial valleys yield inexhaustible supplies of rice, which the abundant water carriage brings down to the port of Akyab at a very cheap rate .

The four chief towns are Khumgchu in the extreme north-

east of the district; Koladaing in the centre; Arakan, farther down the rivers; and Akyab on the coast, where their mouths converge . This district passed into the hands of the British, together with the rest of Arakan division, at _ the close of the first Burmese war of 1825-1826 . Akyab was the metropolitan province of the native kingdom of Arakan, and the history of that country centres in it . In 1871 the frontier or hill tracts of the district were placed under a special administration, with a view to the better government of the wild tribes which inhabit them . (J . G .