MOULMEIN (or MAULMEIN)  , the port and headquarters of Amherst district and Tenasserim division of Lower Burma . The population in 1901 was 58,346, and the increase in the last quarter of a century has been very slight . Ship-building, which formerly was an important industry, has now been given up, but there is still a considerable export of teak and rice, and there are several steam rice-and saw-mills . The total exports average more than a million sterling . Three steamers run weekly to Rangoon . Germany and Siam are represented by consuls; Persia, Denmark, and Norway and Sweden by vice-consuls; and Italy and the United States of America by consular agents . The garrison of Madras native infantry, formerly stationed in the town, was withdrawn in 1898 . The town, which has the appearance of being on a river, the Salween, is really on the sea, with the island of Bilugyun in front . It is one of the most picturesque ports in the East . There is a branch of the Bank of Bengal, and two newspapers are published—one in English and one in Burmese .